All Whisked Up - November

It's the November edition of the Wisconsin Whisk All Whisked Up Challenge! How this works is that Members of the Wisconsin Whisk group are blindly sent a blogger by the organizers and sent their info via email. We are to wander through their blog, learn about them, and cook one of their recipes.

This month, I was given YummySprout as my blind blog. Tara, from the Madison area, creates her own recipes, with the occasional inspiration from other recipes she finds online. She also teaches cooking classes at Whole Foods in Madison for children and adults. I love that she is getting the kiddos active in cooking at such a young age. This really instills great food choices at a young age.

Tara and her girls have some food allergies and intolerances that put them on a stricter diet -- soy-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Tara's blog is filled with amazing recipes that don't lack flavor or fun even with these restrictions.

Because I am a lover of all things pumpkin, when I came across her recipe for Pumpkin Honey Cake. I don't have a gluten intolerance so I used regular all-purpose flour in my recipe but that was my only edit to keep it as true to the original as possible.

The other great thing about this recipe is that I had all the ingredients in my house. My guy just moved in with me on Halloween weekend and that meant an influx of food items. I was very happy to make this cake to help empty my pantry.

I mixed all the wet ingredients together in my "new" bowls. My guy had some really wonderful bowls so I gladly donated my college-era bowls to Goodwill and used these wonderful ceramic bowls.

Cooking with pumpkin makes such a beautiful colored batter, don't you agree?

Something new that I have never done with a recipe before but might do this from here forward, putting some butter in the pan and place the pan in the oven while it preheats. This allows the butter to melt and coat the pan.

I couldn't help but watch this cake rise while baking in the oven. There was no need to burn my pumpkin candles while this was in the oven. My house smelt like absolute heaven!

I pulled it out at exactly 40 minutes and my toothpicks came out clean. The cracks on the top also let me know it was done.

I let it cool just a bit on the stove before sneaking a piece. I drizzled some honey over and dug in. This was excellent. It wasn't as sweet as a typical cake, but I didn't mind. The honey added extra sweetness to it.

My guy and the girls had a piece before school this morning and they too liked it. My guy told me it was more of a savory and not overly sweet treat but he liked it. I liked that there wasn't processed white sugar and instead used honey for sweetness. We did think that cream cheese frosting or a powder sugar drizzle would be awesome on top of this cake. This will definitely go on my list of fall treats!

I love being paired up with other Wisconsin blogs. It opens my eyes and belly to other's cooking styles and let's my kitchen adventures continue. So far, I am two for two on recipes that were enjoyable. Last month's Loaded Cauliflower Casserole will be added to the Thanksgiving table this year!

An InLinkz Link-up

100 Happy Days: Week 4 & 5

I got a little behind on posting so I did two weeks+ at one time to get you all caught up in my happiness. I hope maybe this has influenced you to at least look for the happinesses in every day life. I am really focusing on those and not the negative things. What good is it to dwell on that when you can smile and be happy?!

Here are Weeks 1, 2 & 3. 

Day 23:

Running has been going well for me lately. A little nagging knee thing is happening so I am taking more days off but my time/mile is getting closer to where I want to be!

Day 24:

Here is where my geeky side comes out because I completely and totally loved the #PRSMS at Marquette. Learning that the Brewers use one gal to run multiple social media sites for the team really surprised me but made me happy too! One gal can do it all!

Day 25: 

Eat all the pumpking things! I love pumpkin and the all of these rock. Ok the Reese's is just thrown in for it's shape but you can't beat sweet & salty at the same time! :)

Day 26: 

Again I went to Lapham with a friend and did some pretty hardcore running. My knee definitely felt it after this one. But seeing these beautiful deer that didn't spook too much when we were near was really awesome! I hope to make it to Lapham this week and get some great pics of the fall leaves!

Day 27: 

 My friend Caroline invited my mom and I and another friend and her mom to her church's annual Mother/Daughter Banquet. It was a wonderful time where the men of the church waited on us for dinner. Many laughs were shared and we all really enjoyed ourselves.

Day 28: 

I forgot to post yesterday's happy. Spending time with friends new and old and celebrating birthdays!!! ‪#‎100happydays‬ ‪#‎day28‬

Bonus photo - I didn't post a picture of the day but found this after the fact. Beers were large, lines were long, but we all had fun. 

Day 29:

Spent the afternoon with my mom watching the Packers win, hemming up some of my pants and making Banana Blueberry bread. We each got a loaf and it was so tasty!

Day 30: 

Started a new book - a recommendation from Lauren Conrad (she knows what I like to read and we never even met). So far this one is pretty good. An almost 20-year-old finds out she has a decade left of site and decides to change her life plan to do all she can while she can still see. 

Day 31: 

Fall is here and I made my favorite fall soup - Butternut Squash/Apple soup. Sooooo good! 

Day 32 & 33:

I didn't post yesterday, but this is what made my last two days happy. Meeting up with friends and trying new places! ‪#‎100happydays‬ ‪#‎day32‬ &‪#‎day33‬ 😀

 Day 34: 

I love pumpkin beer. I bought so much last year that I actually had some leftover to drink again at the start of this year's season. I can't drink them in the summer because they are too heavy but it's all I want to drink from September to March :)  This was an excellent one and I may need to find more of it. Woodman's has had the best selection so far. 

Day 35: 

Saturday was a bummer weather day and so I decided to spend it cleaning and cooking. I made a broccoli cheese soup (with Gouda!), Roasted squash and sweet potato soup, gryo meat in the crockpot and pasta with pesto sauce. I have a fridge full of food now so I don't have to worry about what to make this week for meals. 

Day 36:

 My niece & nephew are my world and I got to spend a lot of the day with them. Alex is growing into such a smart little man asking all sorts of questions and helping me back cookies by counting out the Reese's for on top. We might have eaten a few. And Maddie is my little sweetheart sharing big smiles and belly laughs with me all afternoon. 

#100HappyDays

Phone Dump Vol. 3

My weeks are getting crazy busy but I wanted to show you what I have been up to - so here's another phone dump for your enjoyment. Some of these will spawn into blog posts soon - I promise!

 

Homemade Beef Enchiladas - soooo good!

Beautiful sunrise while heading to work!

And a beautiful sunset on my first 4-mile run in months!

And the awesome screw that I found in my tire on Sunday - a patch is working so far - fingers crossed!

Ate at Christina's on Sunday afternoon and the chicken was good - the sides could use some work.

My nephews awesome iPhone skills - he took 7 selfies in like 2 seconds!

Jumbo pretzel with zesty dipping cheese from Cleveland Pub

Hammerschlocken from Oktoberfest in Milwaukee. I almost took out someone's eye but the event was a blast.

Pumpkin bar from the Milwaukee Public Market - not really my type of bar - too much crust

Broadway Cafe opening soon!

My favorite job that I ever held has been closed for 3 years, yet the registers and mops are still where we left them.

Yay for falling leaves on my walk!

One machine was writing on a board while the other machine moved that board! WMTS in Milwaukee

New running shoes and shoes for my leap back into running!

My awesome nephew again on his 2nd birthday!

And finally another gorgeous Fall sky on my run to end the post!

Happy Fall - It's Pumpkin Time 2

So now that we are officially in October, I am finding so many more pumpkin items out there. There are so many, that if I would buy them all, I would need a second source of income and a storage locker to house it all. I have found yogurt, bagels, butter, cream cheese, English muffins, granola bars, pancake mix, soup, M&Ms....the list goes on and on. I couldn't buy all of those, but I did get some to try and so far I have been pleasantly surprised.

Pumpkin Pie flavored lip balm. I found this in Spring at Good Harvest Market and it's getting to the end, but I use it right before bed. It's like my form of calming lavender scent that some people use to fall asleep :)

A former co-worker turned me onto this Lean Cuisine meal and started my obsession with butternut squash. The hint of sweet in the meal is perfect to balance the veggies and cream sauce.

I was hoping to find a single container of pumpkin yogurt, but found a 4-pack of mini yogurts. I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor. Start with a vanilla yogurt and add just a hint of pumpkin to it - very delicious and almost could be a dessert! And just 60 calories in 4 oz.

This entire meal is brought to you from O What a Day Cafe. The cubano wrap was heavenly and the fresh fruit was oh so tart. The roasted sweet potato soup (sure it's not pumpkin, but it's fall flavored) was amazing. I added the apple pieces to it, but not the bacon. I didn't want to lose the flavor of the sweet potato and sometimes bacon can do that. I wish I would have gone back and ordered more to take home, yep that good! On a side note, the cafe is moving in 2014 and I'm just hope it doesn't move too far. I don't go here often, but after having amazing soup here now twice and great wraps, it is on my radar. So please don't move far!!!!

This is the muffin from the first post on pumpkin that I did. I don't recommend these. This was my first true disappointment in a pumpkin product. The muffins taste more spiced than actually pumpkin and they are really dry! And they are tiny!!!! For the fat and calorie content, I would chose something better.

Like these!!! The crunchy granola top, paired with the creamy pumpkin frosted bottom makes an excellent snack. Sure they aren't too good for you, but one as a snack will really hit the spot. (2 point plus on WW, as I found on this blog.)

So that is a bit more pumpkin - hope to try a few more things this week and weekend and report back more on my findings. Oh and the beer - well my cousin is having her annual Fall Fest beer tasting at the end of the month, so I think I might save these and buy a few more to take up by her for just that occasion!

Happy Fall - It's Pumpkin Time

Fall has officially begun! It's my favorite season of the year. Sure Summer is warm and such, but because my skin is not friends with the sun, I love Fall - warm days, cool nights and nature's colors are truly fabulous.

And the best part......Pumpkin spiced everything!!!!!

I love that pumpkin is mostly limited to the Fall season for products as I would hate to overwhelm my buds and potentially dislike the flavor. I really, really enjoy it!

I am on the hunt for Pumpkin and Squash flavored items and hope to share with you my opinions of what I have found. Please let me know if you have spotted items at stores and restaurants for me to try.

Here is what I have tried so far:

Iced Chai Tea Latte from Cafe de Arts in Waukesha - Sure this is available year round, but the flavor reminds me of Thanksgiving and pumpkin spice. I will soon transition to hot Chai, but for now - this hits the spot.

I swung through the drive thru at McDonald's to get myself a sausage biscuit for breakfast and saw they have Pumpkin Spice Lattes, so I decided to give it a chance. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, (unless you count gas station cappuccino) but I figured with the pumpkin flavoring, it couldn't be too bad, right? WRONG!!!! It was a sweet pumpkin syrup that was dripping all over the outside of my cup and then the texture was just wrong. For saying that coffee even has texture, you know something is awry. It coated my tongue like liquid cough syrup. I had to dump it. Maybe I'm not ready for lattes, or maybe this one was just bad.

 

Kashi Pumpkin Spice Flax Granola Bars - They come two to a pack and are absolutely pumpkin-licious. They are crumbly and make a mess if you aren't careful, the but the cinnamon flavor comes through nicely. I am a big fan. 

 Next up are items that I'm going to be trying soon.

Found this granola at Woodman's

 Wasn't brave enough to buy this yet unless someone can tell me what I would use this for, for $9.99?

 Wasn't brave enough to buy this either - I am hoping for a smaller container to become available. Has anyone had pumpkin ice cream before to tell me if this is worth it or not?

My pumpkin beer tasting will hopefully ensue in the beginning of October. I am too pressed for time before my trip to Vegas this weekend to sit down and enjoy more than one and I want to have some friends try these with me. And I am trying to really watch calories before Vegas and work out more so that I feel good when I'm on vacation.

 Butternut Squash soup is one of my favorite types of soup and I bought two to see if they compare to this one or this one I made last year. And I hope that O' What A Day Cafe in Waukesha brings this one back again this year.

And pumpkin muffins, although they say they are made with sustainably grown Oregon pumpkin, I see a lot of other ingredients I can't read. Not to mention the fat content is a bit high. I'm sure they will taste great, but definitely not good for me. 

My friend Shauna raves about this tea, so I will take this to work to try tomorrow, and this Pumpkin Bar mix was on sale, so I snatched it up.

My friend posted a picture of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies she just made. I think I will have to try the recipe soon.

Do you love PUMPKIN (and squash) as much as me or am I crazy? Do you know of other unique pumpkin items that I should try in the next few months? I'm definitely up to try anything so please share :)