Punkin'

 Happy Halloween Punkin’!

All the rage this season is pumpkin, and I jumped on the band wagon. With the help of pinterest (where most or all of my ideas stem from) my most recent dessert adventures have all included pumpkin. One of my favorites has been the dump, stir, and bake cake. Adding a can of pumpkin to a boxed cake mix and baking can't get much easier. My first attempt at this was good, but the second was exceptional. The second time I added the can of pumpkin to a Krusteaz Coffee Cake mix. Incredible. Danny and I couldn't get enough. A friend of mine described it as a fall festival in her mouth. This has nothing to do with my baking skills, just the pure genius and simplicity of the recipe.

No need to add anything else to the mix except the pumpkin. Bake as directed on Krusteaz box. Enjoy!

What else can you do with pumpkin? My next try was a Pumpkin Pie Crumble. Borrowed from "Annie Oakley's Kitchen" it is my contribution to a Saturday afternoon football watching party. What better way to spend a fall afternoon than watching football, eating chili, and sharing pumpkin dessert?

Of course we continued our Halloween tradition of carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds. I tried a few new recipes to roast the seeds, but I can honestly say that the extra effort involved in the new recipes was not worth it. My simple way of spraying the seeds with some cooking spray and sprinkling with salt or cinnamon/sugar and roasting in the oven is just as good as the other more complicated ways.
Next year I will for sure return to my easy way.

Salted Seeds

Cinnamon & Sugar Seeds

Danny decided to go with the more complicated, ambitious pumpkin carving design. I went for the straight forward, simple, get it done design. Sounds like our personalities showed in even our carving choices. Both turned out great and added some Halloween cheer to our deck.

 Check out the detail on that Aubie the Tiger pumpkin! Obviously we miss our Auburn Tigers! War Eagle!

Of course Thach joined in on the celebrating!

Happy Halloween to you all! Enjoy some pumpkin treats for us!!

MF

Blessings

After missing our first week in quite awhile of church, I almost let laziness keep me from getting right back in the habit. It wasn't that I wasn't awake this morning. The exact opposite actually. I am completely off of the college schedule and officially an adult. I "slept late" this morning. 7:00. It was great. Thirty extra minutes.

With some internal convincing, I got myself ready for church and woke up the sleeping bear. On our way to church, I admitted my plan of skipping big church but making it for Sunday school. I had even planned to tell him it was because he overslept. He told me to think about that while we were in church. The absence of napping, watching numerous hours of TV, and eating out every meal (the college life) is really turning me into a different person...

Once at church, we were greeted by the news of a true miracle and blessing. Initially both Danny and I were just thrilled by the fact that the main pastor had returned from sabbatical and would be preaching. As Pastor Mike introduced the new sermon series and prepared for the time of offering, he touched on a meeting he had with the trustees of the church. When he was asked to present his hopes and goals for the church at a trustees meeting, Pastor Mike told them he wanted to be debt free in the next 5 years and plant 10 new churches. As a church with around 8,000 members, a huge building built in 2002, and continued additions to the campus, the debt free idea just didn't seem plausible. As of this summer, the church was 11 million dollars in debt.

As of today, the debt owed by the church is 1 million dollars. 10 million dollars was donated this past month during an economic and political "crisis". God is mighty. God is good. God is bigger than our economy and our government.

I have never felt such intense chill bumps. If giving continues as normal, the church will be completely debt free by December 31, 2011. Only a few short months away. I am excited to see what all this church family can do with no debt to attend.

While we ourselves have not received a 10 million dollar donation recently, we have endless blessings to reflect on. We continue to love Nashville more each day. The incredible weather and brilliantly colored trees doesn't hurt. Thach is loving his "spacious" deck but is confused as to why I felt it was necessary to plant pansies in his rain catching water pot. Hopefully he doesn't decide to remove the plants while we are at work...

Of course fall brings football. We have had some ups and downs already this season, but regardless we are enjoying Saturdays. We spend ALL day watching football. It starts with gameday and continues with every major game until bedtime. Doesn't get much better. Needless to say, I am not accomplishing all the creative things I expected. After all, I don't have any free time, let alone the abundance I was hoping for. However, I have snuck a few things in during halftimes or on sunday afternoons. 

Thanks to my wonderful sister's donation, our collection of coffee mugs (continuously used/dirty due to the law school demands) has expanded. Using the special paint pin for ceramic, I added a special touch to each mug. I decided on an idea for each one and traced on the lettering/picture using graphite paper. Surprisingly hard to find in the craft store but well worth it for a perfect result.

To add a little fall cheer, I went with another easy "craft" that didn't take much of my time, attention, or funds. I saw this one on pinterest, where I gain most or all of my inspiration. It was as easy as cutting out the leaf shapes, threading a needle with some yarn, and stringing the leaves on. Danny is still deciding what he thinks of the fall addition, but it will do until Christmas comes around.

I will attempt to post more frequently to avoid long-winded explosions on information like this post. Until then, blessings...

MF