I got the baking itch the other day. I saw these german chocolate pecan pie bars on pinterest. I thought: I like german chocolate cake. I almost like pecan pie. I like desserts cut in bars. Might as well give them a try.
1. I have never toasted pecans before. Yay me. 2. Is that enough butter?
These bars are super rich. Yummy, but they will definitely kill you. I cut mine into tiny pieces, because I don’t want all my friends to get fat.
We decided to toast up some pumpkin seeds the other day as a snack.
The first kind we made was sweet and spicy from this recipe here. We left out the extra sugar at the end, and just sprinkled them with a little salt, and scout’s honor, they tasted just like kettle corn. It was like pumpkin seed crack.
The second kind was just the classic: little oil, salt, and pepper. Simple goodness.
Naked seeds get some sugar or salt clothes.
Thanksgiving means more pumpkins, and that means more pumpkin seeds that will need to be eaten. Oh darn.
“Tweet tweet”- bird
I have a thing for maps recently. Maybe because I have the travel bug. But they really are beautiful, and make me appreciate that we are a small part of a big world. We finally decided to decorate our big wall, and hung a vintage style map right next to the tv.
Here are some other fun maps:
I have had a mild, if not severe, donut infatuation for a while now. I have played with some of the baked kinds, but really, the money is in the actual fried in oil kind. We bought a huge jug of oil several months ago, but I have been scared to try it. Because according to all moms on earth, oil is hot and it will burn me.
But guess what? It really wasn’t that bad. I prepared this recipe here (but I think we will try a different recipe next time). I am guessing that unless you burn them, bits of fried dough dipped in cinnamon sugar are by definition delicious.
It said not to crowd them in the oil, so we gave them plenty of space. They don’t like friends, since they know they are going to be eaten very quickly.
I actually made the dough twice because I thought I messed the first batch up, which I didn’t, so we ended up with 5,000 donuts. Towards the end of our double batch of dough, we got a little creative with our shapes. The snail shell one turned out the best.
Last week, my bff and I went to First Thursday on South Congress. We couldn’t decide if it was too soon to start buying gifts, so we quit shopping early and ate crepes instead. We probably would have went to Hopdoddy for a burger too, if our tummies weren’t full of crepes.
Its almost time to start thinking of holidays, but not quite yet. I am a firm believer that Christmas starts after Thanksgiving.
These salt dough ornaments are a good intro into holiday time. They don’t scream Christmas, but they probably wouldn’t kick Christmas out of bed for eating crackers either.
I used this recipe here. On the stamped ornaments, I rubbed a little gold ink on the raised parts. Very classy. I also made animal shapes. Because elephants are cute.
Listening to the newest indie tunes. (new in the Little Amaryllis shop)
One of my most favorite movies ever is Newsies. I would watch it over and over again when I was younger, and I would probably do the same as an adult. I don’t know why I have never thought to be a Newsie for Halloween before. It seems like an obvious choice. Probably the hat was holding me back.
Here is a video of me attempting to throw newspapers in the air, a la a dance number. It is for my ma.
(Disclaimer: This is the first video I have ever attempted to make that isn’t photos, and I got really frustrated with it, so please forgive the extreme blurriness and overall poor quality.)
Also on Halloween, I made a pumpkin pie. With a real crust. Not the store bought kind.
Here is what newsie Chelsea thinks of pumpkin pie:
guy and his girl 