I can’t believe how quickly Thanksgiving is approaching! I’m so excited to be hosting this year, and I’m always looking for creative ways to put a spin on food, especially desserts. Today I’m going to share how to take an ordinary pumpkin pie and turn it into what looks and tastes like a culinary masterpiece. You can do this with a homemade pie or store bought.
Here’s the secret, a biscuit cutter. Yep that’s all I used to cut these adorable pumpkin pie circles. Now, one thing I must warn you about is you need a biscuit or circle shaped cutter that’s deep enough for the pie. Also make sure there aren’t any kind of obstructions inside the cutter. I think this set I have from Amazon is perfect, it comes with a variety of shapes, and with prime shipping it will arrive quickly. I used the largest circle but I think smaller ones would be good too.
Make sure the pumpkin pie is COLD before you begin cutting.
Before you start cutting make sure you are just far enough into the pie to avoid the angled pie crust edge. After cutting, drizzle the pies with caramel topping, whipped cream, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. It was an incredible winning combination! I think you could get creative too, maybe butterscotch, chocolate, or how about a cranberry sauce drizzled on?
The kids were amazed at how pretty these looked and I think your guests will be impressed too. Below are the simple steps.
1. Place the biscuit cutter away from the pie edge and press down. Make sure you push all the way into the pie crust, to make sure you’ve done this rotate it a few times making sure you feel you’ve reached the pan.
2. With a gentle almost wiggle motion just lift the biscuit cutter up and place directly to a serving platter or plate.
3. It might feel like it’s stuck, don’t panic, it’s not. Take a small piece of wax paper and gently press around the sides of the cutter on top of the pie. It should slide out and then just peel the wax paper off. We sprayed the inside of one cutter with Pam cooking spray and it made no difference.
4. Rinse the biscuit cutter and dry with a paper towel each time you start a new circle.
5. On a serving platter or individual plate drizzle with caramel sauce.
6. Once ready to serve, top with whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon.
So are your wondering what do do with the pie scraps? Anything really, you can always snack on the leftover scraps, or get creative and make a pumpkin pie trifle or something. Wasn’t that simple? You’ll be looking like a gourmet kitchen star this Thanksgiving and it’s incredibly easy!
Who’s ready for a Christmas craft? I am! How about one that’s on trend and super affordable as well? Last year I admitted that I’m an early decorator when it comes to Christmas, but add in crafting projects and you’ve got to start even earlier to be ready. Today I’m sharing my budget miniature trees that I’m using from the Dollar Tree. We have a location really close to the house and I’m always stopping by for great finds… especially around the holidays.
I was absolutely thrilled to find these 18 inch trees for just $1! I started texting people, hurry and go buy these, haha!! I get really excited about great finds and these have so much potential. You can jazz up these adorable trees to give them a high dollar look for around $5 each – and maybe even less than that depending on what supplies you have on hand. You can create a grouping, or give them away as gifts – endless possibilities.
Most of the supplies I had on hand, or they came from the Dollar Tree… seriously I love that store this time of year! The trees are naturally green, I do think they look cute unflocked, but I’ve been a flocking maniac these last few days… A good size bag of flock can be around $20, but my bag has lasted me forever and I recommend every crafter have some on hand during the holidays. SnoFlock is a natural product and makes projects incredibly easy.
All you do is mist with water and sprinkle it on. You can use a mesh sifter or your hand for a heavier look. Large projects should be done outside, small ones you can do in your kitchen sink and rinse the mess down. I think all crafty gals need some SnoFlock on hand, it will last a long time, my bags been going strong since last year. This year I’ve flocked pinecones and so many other exciting things I’ll share soon.
If you don’t live near a Dollar Tree you might be able to find something near the same price at a dime store, you could also use a branch from an old fake Christmas tree. If your Dollar Tree is sold out then that means I’ve hit your town and bought them all. Just kidding… here’s a link to the trees on their website.
These trees have a bare look which I gives them that trendy farmhouse look. I actually love the bare minimal style of the tree. If you do want to thicken the trees up you can wrap a roll of evergreen garland around the trees, also from the Dollar Tree.
ALL THE SUPPLIES I USED TO MAKE BOTH TREES
Dollar Tree Christmas Trees
Dollar Tree bag of stones
Hot glue
Dollar Tree red mini ornaments
White fluffing from an old pillow or stuffed animal
Scrap burlap
Metal bucket or container (an old metal can could work)
I bought these metal buckets on sale at Hobby Lobby for under $2 each, but any container should work. A flower pot, mini basket… whatever. They were shiny metal so I just barely dabbed some old white paint with a dry paint brush and brushed it onto each bucket. You don’t need anything fancy, I actually used old Kilz primer. It dried fast and looks matte, perfect for a distressed finished.
Hey… now I’m thinking you could do this with an old metal can? Now this project just got even cheaper!
I love getting bags of stones from the Dollar Tree. I was in the store with Brian the other day and he asked what do you use these for. The reply was what don’t I use them for? Serisouly you will find a million ways to use them. I use them to weigh things down a lot too.
To begin with, I had already flocked my trees and let them dry several hours. I left off the Christmas tree legs and simply added a large dab of hot glue to secure the tree to the container. You can just do that, or if you’re using a container you don’t want to glue, simply use the stones to secure the tree base. If you want your trees very sturdy then do both methods like I did for this tree.
Now I added old pillow fluff, which I always have on hand. The stuffing for an unwanted stuffed animal would work or you can buy snow fluff in the holiday aisle this time of year. I topped it off with a few mini red ornament balls from the Dollar Tree. Have I mentioned I love the Dollar Tree??
For the second tree look I didn’t use hot glue. I simply used stones to secure the tree in a regular juice glass. Any container will work as long as it’s sturdy and won’t tip over. Then I took some old burlap cut into a circle, wrapped it, and tied it with jute twine. It’s super easy but helps to have a third hand around while doing this.
If you don’t have old burlap in your craft closet you can buy burlap squares at Hobby Lobby or usually another craft store for .99 cents near where the bandanas are sold.
I hope you can get your hands on these little mini trees and create your own amazing versions!
I have a TON of budget friendly Christmas ideas I want to share and I will soon I promise. Sometimes I totally blow my budget… l fully admit but it’s also fun to save. The best of both worlds I say!
Several weeks ago Brian, Ashley, and I spent an entire weekend collecting pinecones. We call it pineconing. Like hey… should we go pineconing again today? It made for a really fun family day, finding them and collecting them. We had 3 huge boxes by the end of the weekend! Why pay for pinecones when they’re just on the ground somewhere?? I have a ton of craft projects I plan on doing with them, but the first thing I wanted to do is try bleaching them. This is not a new concept, but it’s new for me.
While researching how to bleach pinecones it didn’t take me long to get confused and overwhelmed. Everyone had different bleach ratios, how long they soaked the pinecones, and just all around different methods. So I decided to try all the different bleach ratios and different dry times and just basically experiment with them. So even though there are already instructions on the internet on how to bleach pinecones I’ve decided that this is the ultimate guide to bleaching pinecones because I did it all and I’m here to break it down. Easy peasy.
So if you did a Google search and you’re not sure where to start with bleaching pinecones, I’m here to help. I’ve broken down my method into 6 easy steps. But like me, you probably have a lot of questions, so just hang tight and I’ll get those answered below.
First off, why even bleach pinecones? Bleaching pinecones won’t turn them truly white, but they get a beautiful light, weathered look. They look great grouped together, or create great visual interest mixed in with the darker natural ones. It gives a fresh new look when decorating, and goes perfect with the ever so popular farmhouse decor look. Not only does bleach create a great look, it cleans them and kills mold and bugs lurking in the pinecones.
How much bleach do I need? This was so confusing, I read to use every ratio possible from a 25% bleach with 75% water ratio, a 50/50 blend, to 75% bleach with 25% water, I even saw someone say to use straight 100% bleach! I was so confused. I did not try straight bleach, that sounded crazy but I tried all 3 ratios. So if you’re confused too, I’m here to show you the results of all 3.
How long do they soak? Remember, pinecones close up when they’re wet, so don’t freak out. I read multiple soaking times, ranging from 24-36 hours. A few tutorials said if the pinecones sat longer than that they would fall apart and disintegrate. Hmm… so I tried different soaking times too.
The problems I experienced. The biggest issue I had with my small and big test batches was getting the pinecones fully submerged into the bleach water. Tutorials I looked at online just placed big stones or bricks on top. Ok, that’s a problem… the stones or bricks instantly sink without pushing the pinecones down. Brian laughed it wouldn’t work and I said yes, it should. Haha… he was right. Read on… he found a way to fix this.
MY RESULTS
Below is a photo of all 3 ratios. It was easier to see the results in person, but in a nutshell all 3 bleach/water ratios worked. But the 25% bleach 75% water, while it definitely worked, it was more uneven and had more of a rustic darker look. The 50/50 looked great and the 75% bleach was definitely the lightest but only slightly more than the 50/50. So for convenience I decided to go with the 50/50 ratio because it had nice results, and it’s a lot easier to measure out a 50/50 blend. Seriously, dump a container of bleach into a bucket and fill the container up with water – bingo!
The first batch I soaked 30-ish hours, then the next batch I forgot about and they soaked a tad over 48 hours. They did not fall apart and the results were awesome! I say go for 48 hours, a few hours past that shouldn’t give you any problems. I can’t vouch for anything longer than that, though. Below are my steps.
6 EASY STEPS TO BLEACHING PINECONES
1. Add the pinecones to a container, a 5-gallon bucket is ideal, but jars will work for smaller batches.
2. Add your bleach and water mixture to the container.
3. Pinecones float so you need to weigh them down. Add a cut or folded up piece of cardboard to the top of the bucket and weigh it down with a few large stones or bricks. It needs to be pretty thick cardboard (or several layers) because the water will weaken it as it soaks. Note for small batches in a jar you can just use stones (like from the dollar tree). A few might sink to the bottom but the others should hold the pinecones down.
4. Let the pinecones sit a minimum of 24 hours, but I found that up to 48 hours is ideal.
5. Drain the bleach in a safe place, I did this outside away from shrubs and trees. Then you need to rinse off your pinecones with a hose sprayer. Be sure to rinse off any cardboard that might be sticking to them.
6. Now dry the pinecones. After rinsing I placed my pinecones on an old drop cloth to dry and air out for a few days. The pinecones will be closed and will slowly open as they dry. The color will fluctuate a lot as they dry. For the pinecones to open again they need to be fully dry, so having them in the warm sun is ideal.
But what if you’re in a hurry to dry your pinecones or it’s cold out? Then you can easily dry them in the oven. I’ve dried countless batches in the oven, but you really do need let them air out a few days to eliminate the bleach smell. Place the pinecones on a cookie sheet, feel free to line with foil if you prefer, and place them in the oven at 200 degrees.
Can I dry them higher or lower than 200? Yes, you can go lower, I did some batches at 170 degrees without a problem. I did see a website that said to dry them at 300 degrees, DO NOT DO THAT! I could smell the pinecones burning at that temperature. I found 200 degrees to be perfect and slightly faster than 170 degrees. All ovens are different though.
Will my kitchen smell like bleach if I put the pinecones straight in the oven? YES, my test batch did. That’s why I recommend rinsing them and airing them out a few days first. Bleach is not flammable but I doubt it’s good for you to have a strong bleach smell coming from your oven. So air them out.
How long do you dry them? This depends on how long they aired outside, the size, and how many you have crammed in the oven. When I had the pinecones spaced farther apart they dried faster. For me this took about 4-6 hours. Some pinecones opened faster, so I would remove them and keep the others in longer. If I was drying pinecones in the evening I would just turn the oven off and resume the drying process in the morning.
Do they still smell like bleach? It’s been almost a week since since my pinecones have been fully dried and when I put them up to my nose I can smell the faintest scent of bleach. I expect this smell to completely go away with time though. No, the pinecones are not making my house smell like bleach.
MORE TIPS
Wear old clothes when working with bleach, you think you won’t splash but you probably will! Also work in a ventilated area.
Pinecones are known to release sap so I would NOT recommend a sink or bathtub, you could have sticky residue or bleach damage.
While sorting our boxed pinecones days later I found a black widow spider lurking in ours. I have no idea if it crawled in the box from our garage or it was inside a pinecone we picked up. Wear gloves while collecting and sorting pinecones, things live inside them! You can also use metal tongs while sorting.
Any other questions? Leave them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them. Happy crafting!
Okay, the day has finally come for the last Europe travel post. You may or may not have read yesterday, but I explained how I thought the blog was becoming stale and lacking variety with such a heavy focus on travel. I wanted a break from exclusively talking about it, but I probably did delay it a bit too long. So let’s talk about our stay in Edinburgh, Scotland!
Let’s start with some photos of the gorgeous architecture of the city!
We stayed at the Radisson Collection Hotel, Royal Mile and the location was perfect! Close to so many attractions and restaurants, and walking distance to the Edinburgh Castle, which you can just barely see in the background. Because of the natural terrain some areas had cross streets that were maybe 50 feet higher or so, creating upper and lower sidewalks, it was really cool. You can see an example of that below.
The weather in Scotland is crazy. It can literally be warm, then suddenly cold. The skies can be blue and within minutes heavy storm clouds can roll in, a lot of days the skies just went back and forth from blue to gray.
It never poured rain on us in Edinburgh but we did have lots of mist. It wasn’t enough to really justify an umbrella but was enough to keep my hair in full frizz and highly poofed. Hence no photos of us. Plus I was really tired from traveling and just not having it.
Here is a statue of a very important man with a bird on his head. If you read my summer travel posts you know we get a kick out of birds. I mean you remember birdhenge right??
The crowds were heavy in our area due to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Everyday you could see local street performers performing various things and they were so extremely talented!
If you’re wondering what to buy while visiting Scotland, that would be cashmere. You can find cashmere shops everywhere with just about every shade of tartan you can imagine.
I remember it was quite chilly walking up the long hill to Edinburgh Castle, and this was in August! It was misty and the skies were gray but the views from the top were incredible! There are many things to see and nooks to explore on the castle grounds as well as a restaurant overlooking the city. Below are some of our views from the castle.
Can we talk about all the amazing food we had? The Gardener’s Cottage was certainly a favorite. It’s away from tourist attractions an in a quieter area, with incredible food, perfectly paired wine and lush gardens to explore.
We also took a few day trips from Edinburgh, so if you haven’t read up on our trip to Inveraray Castle and the Scottish Highlands be sure to do so. I can’t believe it’s November tomorrow, Happy Halloween! I’ve got some exciting projects, tips, and outfits to share soon.
As promised I’m finally getting our Scotland trip up on the blog.I’ve talked about everything else about our Europe summer vacation but what many of you probably don’t know is it all started with Scotland.
We’ve traveled to France, England, and Ireland, but Scotland has always been on my list.Our anniversary is in August, not a good month for living in Texas, so every summer we’re always talking about places to visit to get a break from the heat.So in honor of our 19th anniversary we picked Scotland!
It started out as a simple 8 day trip,we bought the airfare and that was that for months.Then we were invited to a music festival in Milan in early July that we really wanted to go to. We ended up moving our original airfare departure date nearly 5 weeks, we paid a change fee but it was a lot cheaper than 2 people flying round trip twice over the summer. And so our 6 week European vacation was born.
While visiting Scotland we stayed in Edinburgh, and the next and last Europe blog post will be some highlights while staying in the city. A while back I did blog post about our experience at Inveraray Castle so if you’re curious be sure and read up on that. The castle is in my husband’s family, although according to our DNA tests I’m more Scottish than him, so where’s my castle?
I had so many photos from Scotland so I’ve decided to split this into 2 sections, first the Scottish Highlands and then I’ll talk about our experience in Edinburgh, and that will officially be the end of my talking about Europe for 2018!
For convenience we took a Viator tour out to the highlands. Ideally you’d want to spend a lot more than a day here… it’s beyond gorgeous. I think the next time we visit Scotland we’ll stay just in the Highlands, hike, relax, and just explore the area more. When we travel to new places we almost always want to go back and visit the little places, places that we had just gotten a glimpse of and places that we’d never even heard of, like Vezelay in France for example.
The drive through the Highlands is absolutely gorgeous, we stopped at lots of scenic places, and after lunch we took a boat ride on the Loch Ness. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Loch Ness Monster, or Nessie as she’s known as in the area, anyone who can catch a photo is looking at lots of money and publicity… but sadly she didn’t surface.
This glacier formed lake goes as deep as 745 feet, so there’s definitely room to swim around and hide! The water is a very dark brown due to high amount of peat that washes down the hills, so that also helps Nessie stay hidden.
The mountainous area is so lush and green, with tiny streams running down them, pink and yellow wildflowers grow everywhere too. Even though we visited in August during the Europe 2018 heatwave the air was still nice and cool.
The Scottish Highlands were so picturesque and beautiful, whether you go for a day trip or you stay for a week you will thoroughly enjoy the time you spend there. It was certainly the highlight of our 19th anniversary trip even though I win as being more Scottish than Brian. The question is where will we go for our 20th?
I’m ready to share our spice cabinet organization project with you! At first I titled the blog post a $10 spice cabinet organization, then I changed it to $20, then I just took the dollar amount because we actually had most of the supplies except for a few small pieces of wood. So I really can’t tell you exactly what it costs, but it was definitely budget friendly.
Alright… let me say these aren’t good photos. The skies have been grey out, which means bad indoor lighting and I just took phone photos. I tried to brighten them but editing can’t fix bad photos. I almost deleted the post because of the photo quality but decided it’s probably of some value, so it is what it is.
So back to our spice cabinet, due to low storage space in our kitchen and our overwhelming collection of spices, this cabinet has been a train wreck for a long time. Ok, if you’re familiar with my blog you know we like nice things, we decorate, we travel… yada yada yada, but we don’t blow money either. We’re firm believers in balance and I find it really fun doing things on a budget, and then I get to justify nice shoes – haha.
So we do thrifty things like save a lot of jars for example. Haley hates jelly but Ashley usually eats a PBJ sandwich every day. We buy the Cascadian Farm organic jelly and these jars have always been exceptionally slender and cute. I also try to buy spices on sale or in the bulk section to save as much money as possible.
I love to bake and cook, but spices are so incredibly expensive! It kills me to pay $6-$8 for a small spice jar I’ll quickly go through. One trick I’ve learned, besides buy generic, is buy bagged spices, they’re usually just past the jars near the Mexican spices. That will definitely save you a few bucks, but my favorite is buying from the bulk jars at Sprouts. If you don’t have a Sprouts Grocery just check around your grocery stores in bulk foods and see if you can find them.
I also hit a spice sale at Sprouts recently and I was able to replenish about 16 jars of our spices for under $10. Not kidding.. and these are double or triple the sizes of those little grocery store spice jars.
I had enough of this crazy cabinet, and had accumulated a lot of extra jelly jars, I also had these avery oval labels already on hand, so I decided to toss my hand written dirty labels and clean out all the jars. I tossed big jars and unnecessary items like taco seasoning… I don’t have the space and I can blend that as I need it.
But it didn’t solve the problem that due to my large spice collection I couldn’t find what I needed. I would have to pull everything out just to look for stuff. It was a huge hassle.
Brian being an engineer decided to build a stair step out of inexpensive wood so I could see and easily find everything. He built 2 stair step risers under 2 of the shelves. Then all I did was caulk and paint.
He was careful to measure the height so that I would have enough room to easily lift and pull out the back row of jars. In fact that’s why the second and third shelves are so high.
Luckily I’m tall so this isn’t an issue for me, but still I can’t reach some of the ones at the top. What I’ve done to solve this is to put my most commonly used spices towards the bottom, and I keep a small step stool in the kitchen so I can reach the high stuff when needed. It’s a vast improvement.
I ended up putting clear labels over the white oval ones because our last labels became so dirty. It looked prettier without the clear labels, but having things stay clean is also nice.
Another crazy thing about this narrow cabinet is the door used to open on the other side and I was so frustrated Brian reversed it. Seriously was that a cabinet mistake or what?? Why have a narrow cabinet door open towards the refrigerator wall?
I hope you found some DIY, thrifty, organization inspo from this! Anyone curious about the cabinet color it’s Benjamin Moore White Chocolate. If you have any favorite ways you like to recycle and save money leave it in the comments!
I should have had this post up a few months ago… SHAME but better late than never I always say. The Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paris was my favorite thing about or last trip to Paris. Also known and commonly referred to the Sacre Coeur, it sits up on a hill in the highest point in Paris in the area of Montparnasse. I’ve always admired it in the distance while walking the streets of Paris, it’s always looked like a beautiful tired wedding cake while the domed tops and the gorgeous architecture. They say 24 hrs a day every day of the year, every year, someone is here in prayer.
I didn’t quite have the same overwhelming spiritual moment I had at the Milan Duomo Cathedral, but it was still an incredible experience. Being a sunday morning the crowds were thick from mass, and although it was early in the morning it still made the wait to the top of the tower a little longer. So be sure to take that into consideration when planning your trip there.
The stairs were a killer for me. I’m normally in great shape but that was when I started to get really sick on our 6 week Europe trip. Brian had been in and out of pharmacies a few times trying to find different medicines to make me feel better, and this was during the heatwave. We actually visited here the last day early in the morning before departing on our train.
I felt so bad, between the heat, the meds and the stairs I actually ended up collapsing in the Charles du Nord train station that afternoon. Staff members rushed me through security to let me lie down on the sofa in the first class air conditioned lounge, while I sipped water, which helped. It was definitely an adventure! I eventually got a little better but never fully got well until 2 weeks later at home.
As bad as I felt I really enjoyed walking around the beautiful church, l did take a photo inside but wanted to be respectful of the service. There was the main worship area and them several smaller worship areas around the main area forming a circle, it was stunning.
Outside to the left you can go up the stairs to the top, it’s a long spiral staircase that seems to go on forever with a few angles and turns. It was hard on me but I still wouldn’t trade the experience for anything!
Here’s the narrow viewing area at the top, it circles all the way around and the views are amazing! I really think these are some of the best views in Paris, yeah… even better than the top of the Eiffel Tower. Other people were up here with us but it never felt all that crowded, it was mostly just peaceful. I could just stare at the views for hours looking at all the architecture.
The grassy hill along the stairs is a terrific spot to rest, relax, or picnic. I love the French carousel at the bottom of the hill, it’s so charming! There are lots of great restaurants in the area, avoid the ones right across but walk a bit farther down the hill and you’ll find some great options, and Christophe Roussel a great macaron shop nearby.
You can plan your visit and find out a little more information at this website HERE. Next week I’ll be writing about the final part of our European trip about Scotland, it may need to be separated into 2 posts, and then I am DONE!! Enjoy the weekend!
Today I want to share one of our favorite fall breakfasts, my pumpkin spice oatmeal with cranberries and pepitas. Not only is it very easy to make, it’s incredibly satisfying! Oatmeal is always a great breakfast staple and great on a chilly fall or winter day, but this jazzed up fall harvest version will make your heart sing.
Every fall like clock work my 17 year old daughter demands everything be pumpkin flavored. You might say she’s a tad obsessed but who can blame her? This recipe is definitely a winner and has always gotten her seal of approval!
It’s certainly easy enough to make on a weekday morning, but we love to save this recipe for cozy weekend mornings. It’s full of flavor without being overly sweet, the entire family adores it. The oatmeal thickens up nicely on the stove, then to serve you drizzle it with milk and add the toppings and it’s just so good. I like to curl up on the sofa with a blanket and snack on any leftovers when possible!
I usually keep dried cranberries in the pantry for making salads, they also make a perfect addition to this oatmeal. The cranberries get nice and soft and add just a little bit of extra tang and sweetness. We used course brown sugar as well, it gives a fun crunch but any brown sugar will do.
Can we also talk about how much I love pepitas? I snack on them all day, they’re so addicting and super healthy too! If you haven’t tried them you need to! I get them in the bulk foods section at Sprouts, and just like the dried cranberries they make great salad additions too.
So grab that can of pumpkin in the back of your pantry that you forgot about and make this delicious yet simple fall breakfast!
1/2cuppepitas (toasted pumpkin seeds), for garnishing
Instructions
Whisk the pumpkin puree, milk, 2 1/2 cups of water, the dried cranberries, brown sugar, pumpkin spice, vanilla, and a pinch of salt together in a medium saucepan.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, then add the oats and reduce the heat to medium-low. Gently simmer, stirring frequently, until the oats are tender and the oatmeal thickens to the consistency you like, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Spoon the oatmeal into bowls, drizzle individually with milk, then sprinkle with pepitas, a little extra brown sugar, and cranberries.
Enjoy the recipe, and on Friday I’ll be sharing an amazing place we explored while in Paris over the summer. It’s a long overdue blog post!
APPLE & BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP WITH ROSEMARY CROUTONS
We eat a lot of soup in our household, and lately with the cool rainy weather it seems I’ve been making even more. I mentioned in a previous blog post a while back about the butternut squash growing in our garden, it’s been crazy, but that’s ok… butternut squash is one of my most favorite vegetables ever! Every time I make this soup I’m amazed at how delicious it is… it’s weird, it’s like I forget how good it is!
Full disclosure, this isn’t the soup to make when you’re short on time, it does take a lot of prep work so plan ahead, but it’s worth it I promise! One thing you can do, and I do this a lot when cooking, is you can prep all your ingredients earlier in the day. Dice up all the veggies and refrigerate, bake the croutons, and the bacon you can easily prepare in the oven while the soup is simmering. That should cut down the preparation time when you’re in a hurry.
I don’t know… sometimes I enjoy long prep and cooking sessions in the kitchen. I have couples-cook dates with Brian in the kitchen and it’s so fun, we crank up Frank Sinatra and open wine, I give him a few jobs to do while I’m working. But I also have my moments where I think ugh… I just want this over with.
The easiest way to get the proper amount of butternut squash is just to weigh one at the store and to try to get around 2 1/2 pounds, it’s not the end of the world if it’s a little over or under, or you can use a kitchen scale like I do. I have a few more tips on this recipe so read on and remember it’s worth it!
I use homemade broth…at least once a week in the fall and winter I have a big batch of broth going. It’s thrifty, healthy, and delicious! Using canned broth is fine too, but just be sure and adjust the salt to your taste.
For the croutons I tear up about half a loaf of french bread. I used to cube the bread but it’s quicker to tear it, and I prefer the rustic uneven texture. You’ll get crispy and chewy pieces and some crumbs… I love that!
The chipotle chili pepper is slightly confusing so let me clear that up. I use canned chipotle chili peppers in adobe sauce, it’s sold in most grocery stores. USE JUST ONE PEPPER FROM THE CAN. If you use the entire can you’ll hate me. Adding one chopped pepper gives the soup just a hint of heat, it won’t be too spicy hot I promise, and it adds a nice smokey depth to the soup. Save the chilis for another use or freeze them individually like I do.
Once the soup is done simmering I puree it with an immersion blender, it’s the safest easiest mess free way to blend the soup. However, if you don’t have one you can use a regular blender, it’s more labor intensive and you must let the soup cool and vent the lid or the steam will blow the blender top off… just get an immersion blender they’re awesome! Mine was $25 from Amazon and you can even find some lower priced ones.
I found small packages of smoked gouda at the grocery store over by the deli and I shred them myself using my salad shooter. We shred all our own cheese because it tastes so much better.
Apple & Butternut Squash Soup with Rosemary Croutons
Ingredients
Ingredients for the soup:
3tbsbutter
1yellow onion, chopped
1large carrot, chopped
1stalk of celery, chopped
4-5cloves of garlic minced
2large apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
6cupschicken broth or stock
1cupapple juice or cider
1chipotle pepper from a can of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce, chopped -USE JUST 1 PEPPER!
1/2 cup sour cream
6ozsmoked gouda, shredded
1pkgbacon cooked and crumbled
Ingredients for the croutons:
4cupscubed or torn french bread
3tbsolive oil
3tbschopped fresh rosemary
1/2tspsalt
Instructions
Instructions for the soup:
In a dutch oven melt butter over medium-high heat. Add butternut squash, onion, carrot, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently 10 minutes or until vegetables are slightly softened. Add apples, broth, cider, and pepper.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and cover. Simmer 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender. While the soup is simmering prepare the croutons.
Remove from heat and with an immersion blender blend until smooth. Ladle into bowls and top with rosemary croutons, bacon, and cheese.
Instructions for the croutons:
Tear or cube 4 cups of french bread and place into a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and mix well with your hands, sprinkle with rosemary, salt and mix again.
Place the mixture on a baking sheet and bake at 400 for 10 minutes.
Oh, this soup freezes well too, but if you’re like us you probably won’t have much leftover.
Hello Monday… another fresh new week is here! I’m taking it easy this week blog wise, I need a lazy week. I’ve had a lot of high stress moments last week, not blog related, life related. I’ve decided this week I’m going to have some fun cooking and read a book. It sounds a little boring… but mostly awesome. Even though this week is chill I wanted to share my pillow trick.
I love the look of outdoor pillows but I can’t tell you how many times I come home and see my pillows looking like this! And this is on a good day, sometimes when it’s windy I’ll even have one blow way out into the grass. I found a simple way to keep them in place, and it just takes a few minutes!
You just need a few simple supplies… ribbon, scissors, a needle, and thread. That’s it!
Since I can see the back of the bench in my office and the sides of the bench are really visible from the porch I went with black so it would blend in with the bench. I cut 2 sections of ribbon, one for each pillow, and I made sure they were long enough so they would easily tie into a bow.
Center the ribbon over the back of the pillow, taking the needle and thread stitch it into place until it feels secure.
This should be the last time you see this bubble gum pink grown out gel manicure… I see a future nail salon trip happening very soon!
Feel free to make the stitches as ugly as possible, use the above photo for inspiration.
Now just tie them up and you’re good to go!
Are those pillows going to blow around anymore?? I don’t think so! It’s a nice clean look from the back and the sides too. With my bench design it was obviously easy to tie the ribbon, but I think with even smaller openings like wicker or adirondack chairs it’s still possible. It may just take a bit more patience to tie them up.
Sunbrella makes terrific outdoor pillows by the way, this pattern is from Ballard but you can find Sunbrella at other places too. They are machine washable, stain resistant, and dry very quickly after a rain. Direct heat is bad for them from an iron or dryer but they do just fine in the hot sun.
Happy Friday! I’ve finally finished up getting photos for our living room fall tour. I’ve got to vent though because it seems like getting photos has been ridiculously hard lately! It started with the porch, it hardly rains in Texas yet as soon as I’m ready to take outdoor photos it rains for a week. The rain was awesome, so it was hard to be upset about that, but still. Then because of the dark gloomy weather it made indoor photos very difficult. At least the high heat is gone, so I’ll take that.
I mentioned in the fall dining room tour a few days ago how I really love decorating with natural items, it gives our home such an organic homey feeling. Plus I get the option to throw everything away and free up storage space. I always keep pine cones though… I can never have enough. I need even more for some upcoming crafty stuff so this weekend I think Brian and I are going hunting for pine cones. We don’t have any in our neighborhood but I’ll find some for free… who wants to buy pine cones when somewhere they’re just all over the ground??
I also mentioned in October Loves how I’ve been painting and white washing pumpkins. There they are! Aren’t they so cute sitting on my candle holders? Those candle holders are a mix I’ve collected over the years, 3 are from our trip to Northern Ireland a few years ago, one is from my husband’s grandmother and another from Pier 1,
Anyone remember finger knitting as a kid? I had the urge to do it, and found some leftover yarn, it was really fun. I stitched 2 long chains together to create a fall scarf for my painted deer head, Goldie Fawn.
Yeah… I know that doesn’t make sense but I’m a huge Goldie Hawn fan, I’ve seen Overboard and Housesitter 1,832,483 times.
If you’re curious about gel stain you can read my old blog post HERE. I love the richness it added to the room, it takes a few days to really dry but other than that it’s pretty easy to do.
One of my favorite candles!
I get a lot of traffic with my Pottery Barn Sofa Review and it’s been a great purchase. The fabric is incredibly stain resistant and it looks incredibly clean. I’ve gotten ink pen out, red lipstick, lots of coffee spills, and an entire glass of red wine, ok that one was my fault… oops!
Did anyone else anyone else watch the show Revenge? I was obsessed with Victoria Grayson’s chair, I was able to get the Thurston Wing Chair in the same french script pattern. Sometimes I like to sit in it and play Victoria.
I had to throw in my kitchen table top, it’s not the living or family area but hey… I had to get in my pretty table top flowers somehow. If you read my fall dining room decor post you know I found some great table runners from Amazon, and this striped one is awesome! I’m always on the lookout for either stripes or leopard things. This striped runner comes in lots of sizes and has matching placemats too.
Wishing you a terrific pumpkin filled weekend! If you’re looking for an easy fall weekend recipe try my Slow cooker sweet potato turkey chili, I have it in the crock pot right now for tonight, it’s Paleo friendly and yummy!
Happy October again… I know I said that yesterday but I can’t help it! I’m so excited to finally get my fall home tour out, although I decided to split them up into 2 different blog posts. I just had so many dining room photos, but I’ll get the rest out by the end of the week.
I’ve been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately and I’ve been going nuts saving tablescape ideas, yep I have a entire board dedicated to them! I’ll let you in on a little secret, although I feel confident in my decorating abilities I’ve never felt that I really excelled in tablescapes. So I’m conquering my fear and I’m on a mission to do them more on my blog. I redid the dining room table so many times that it was hard deciding which one to feature on the blog, but this one was the winner. Maybe for Christmas I’ll do several just for fun.
I’m not big on Halloween decor, it’s ok… the kids like it though, so a few days before I’ll throw up a few fake spiders and jack-o-lanterns but that’s really it, I’m just simply a fall girl. I don’t go overboard in my fall decorating like I do for Christmas but I still enjoy it. Because of lack of storage (my storage unit is all full of Christmas stuff- haha) I decorate mostly with natural items so I can just throw them away after the season.
I’m also big on branches and pine cones. When I was putting our decor together I texted Brian and said “hey on the off chance you see any pine cones while your out on a job site please bring me some home”. He responded a few minutes later saying, “Are you kidding me? I’m on a property covered with pine cones.” I love it when we’re in sync like that… he even bought me home a branch with pinecones (see above photo)! #winning
I’m still in love with these leopard dishes, they work with every single season! Our table was custom made, I was able to get a perfect sized table built for the room and it was a fraction off what similar tables were costing at furniture stores. It’s been the best table, but since I picked my own odd measurements I can’t really find a table cloth that fits well. So I’m queen of table runners. Lately I’ve found some really great ones on Amazon, this one is the 108″ long one in natural, they have 6 other lengths and have matching placemats too – they’re all inexpensive which I love!
I did finally splurge on some glimmer lights at Pier 1. I use their LED candles and I can use the same remote to set a timer and control everything. It’s a fun toy. The water glasses are from the Dollar Tree, I bought them a while back, but still you can’t tell they cost $1.
I say put pumpkins everywhere… yep even on a cake plate.
So here’s your fall dining decor and tablescape inspo and it’s so simple! To get the look you just need a table runner, glimmer lights, pine cones, different colored pumpkins, and add in a few patterns with napkins or accent plates and you’re good to go! We actually do use our dining room, although I want to start using it even more and I can’t wait for some fall family dinners. Cheers to pumpkins and wine!
You’ll be seeing more pumpkins on the blog this week, and don’t forget to check out my Simple Fall Front Porch. Take care!
