Maddie's High Chair

It's been sitting in my basement for 

YEARS.

I garbage picked it. 

It was brown. 

I knew it didn't want to be.

I had started to help it but ran out of steam.

I guess it just needed a reason to be.

Maddie is it.

Now she has a chair at Grandma's house.

If she could only get enough muscle coordination

to hold her head up.

Pumpkin Donuts

The fried kind.

And yes, that's a bottle of wine in  the background.

Lynne and I consider donut making a social event.

Lynne loves all things pumpkin and just for her

I have created a board on Pintrest titled,

Can I Call You Pumpkin?

These are on it.

Along with a recipe for "baked" donuts.

But to my way of thinking once you bake that dough

it no longer qualifies as a donut.

It becomes a round cupcake with a hole in the middle.

Fry those babies!

I have a link to the recipe we used.

It was a good one but reading over the comments

gave me a couple of hints and I have a couple of my own.

Here you have them;

1) The dough is very wet , as are most donut recipes we have tried,

turn the dough out onto a floured cookie sheet.

2) Put said cookie sheet of dough in the fridge for about 1/2 hour.

3) Be sure you get the oil up to temp, I went just a tad over 350.

4) Try some of the pumpkin pie spice in the glaze.

5) Try shaking some of the donuts in a paper bag with the 

pumpkin pie spice mixed with sugar.

And just so you don't think it's always roses here:

Those are last years red velvet donuts.

http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2010/10/28/pumpkin-donuts-theyre-arent-good-for-you-but-gosh-theyre-good/

PSA

Do you have one of these 

beverage dispensers?

I am here to solve a multitude of

issues you may have with them. 

Or at least three.

1) How to get it up off the table so you 

can actually get a glass under the

spigot and not have it drip all over your floor.

2) What to do with them when the summer is over

and you don't have a good place to store it.

3) Your spigot doesn't seem to work?

The beverage just trickles out?

1) A sturdy cake pedestal will raise it up.

2) Fill it with season appropriate tchockies.

3) The real reason for this post.

At coffee this afternoon some friends

(whom shall remain nameless)

complained that their decanters don't 

seem to dispense liquids properly.

Just a trickle if you will. 

You have to take the lid off. 

No air creates a vacuum. 

The liquid won't flow.

It's rocket science. 

Well, science at the least.

You are welcome.

The Jellies

A little eye candy.

Mike and I went to The Shedd Aquarium in August.
We bit the bullet and paid the 32 dollars
APIECE
to see The Jellies.

They were really pretty.
Still not sure about that price.

But here's the fun story.
The other night at dinner Mike, Ava and I
 were discussing
our summer field trips.
We are planning on going back to the city
over the holidays
to look at the windows and do
Christkindlmarket.
(had to GTS)

I asked Ava if there were some other trips she'd
like to do.
She sad she would really like to
see The Jellies,
but man,
$32 each is so expensive.
But, NO!, WAIT!
Not The Jellies,
she'd like to go to
Disney World!

Yeah, not the same Ava.

Stuffed Green Peppers

This was another case of cooking by committee.

My friend, Carol, had gifted me a

 bunch of green peppers.

I posed the question on Facebook,

what to do with them?

Stuff them was the unanimous response

but I really didn't want to go the traditional

ground beef/rice route.

Someone suggested a vegetarian twist with black beans.

Hm, Aggie (of Aggie's Kitchen fame)

has a black bean burrito recipe that

I thought I could use as a jumping off point.

http://aggieskitchen.com/2009/01/20/skillet-grilled-burritos/

Here's what I did;

I  roasted

an onion

a few cloves of garlic 

 a diced butternut squash

a diced sweet potato

and some zucchini.

Combined that with 

a can of rinsed and drained black beans,

some leftover quinoa

and some shredded cheddar cheese.

I covered them with foil to bake.

I wanted the steam from cooking to soften the 

peppers a bit. 

I took the foil off the last 10 minutes or so.

Some red pepper flakes would have been good in there

but I wanted to send some home with Carol

and she's not quite into the heat

to the extent I am. 

They say your sense of taste 

dulls a bit as you get older.

As does your sense of smell.

And hearing.

And sight.

Excuse me, I need to go cry in my beer.

Or margarita.

Chai Pumpkin Spice Thumbprints

There was a double draw to these for me.

First the flavors sounded good but

perhaps more intriguing was the thrill of the hunt.

Could I really find 

Pumpkin Spice Kisses?

Why, yes I could, and true to the advice from the 

recipe author, I found them at Target.

Back by the Halloween candy.

I will link the recipe for these 

but let me say this about that;

The Kisses themselves are very sweet.

The *sprinkling* of chai spice on top is rather sporadic.

I would suggest adding sugar to the spices

and rolling the tops of the cookies in that.

And lastly;

the Kisses are far too flesh toned for my comfort.

Two of those cookies together look like a body

part to me. 

If you know what I mean.

http://passthesushi.com/chai-pumpkin-spice-thumbprints/

September 19th

Is

International Speak Like A Pirate Day.

INTERNATIONAL people!!

One I gave birth to.

One was a willing participant.

One has many fun years to look forward to.

Mini Carmel Apples

NOT

In theory a great idea.

You use a mellon baller to cut 

balls of apple, 

dip them in carmel, 

roll in goodies like mini M&Ms

and 

WALA

bite size carmel apples.

NOT.

Pintrest ya done me wrong.

Baby Pictures

Coconut Zucchini Bread

I found a recipe for this on 

Pintrest.

But it called for whole wheat flour.

#1 I don't have whole wheat flour sitting around.

#2 If I did have whole wheat flour 

sitting around it would be stale.

Happened once.

#3 I really didn't feel this needed to be a 

*health* food.

So I improvised.

In addition to the coconut idea

I also *stole* the idea of putting 

yogurt in the mix.

And since I didn't have a full 1/2 cup 

of plain greek yogurt, I supplemented with

some sour cream.

Generally speaking I am not

inclined to mess with a baking recipe.

I am of the opinion they are more

 *formulas* 

as opposed

to other recipes that I take as

*suggestions*.

But this time I made out OK.

Here you have it:

Combine dry ingredients:

1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. each baking powder,and salt

1/2 tsp each baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg

1 cup coconut

Combine wet ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp almond extract

Add

 3/4 cup sugar

1 cup grated zucchini

and then mix in dry ingredients just to combine.

Spread in greased loaf pan 

bake 350 degrees

60 minutes.

Tomato-Yogurt Chicken Curry

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy Aarti of

Aarti Party?

Well, I do. 

Never mind they canceled her 

Food Network show.

Lucky for me she's still part of the *firm*

so I can find her recipes in the 

Food Network magazine.

That is where this one comes from.

It was pretty and it was good,

but it was only

pretty good.

I won't put it in my rotation

but I also won't give up on Aarti. 

After all, she's where I got my 

Beef Vindaloo recipe.
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1236062992601183973#editor/target=post;postID=929610443067522416
And that was better than
pretty good.