With all the pumpkin I’ve been eating this month, it’s a miracle my head hasn’t turned into one. I’m yet to make a pumpkin pie, but I’ve been making lots of pumpkin pie oatmeal for chilly morning breakfast (recipe here) and we finished off the pumpkin cake a couple weeks ago. As I type this, I have another little guy sitting on my desk that will likely be roasted and baked into something delicious. It may seem like I’m eating a lot of pumpkins now, but I know I’m really going to miss squash season once we’re knee deep in gingerbread and peppermint season.
These cookies are not made with pumpkin per say, but they have all the lovely spices that remind me of pumpkin pie and I couldn’t resist the chance to break into my food colouring and use my little pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter. My sister was visiting over the weekend and she kept commenting on how great the condo smelled every time we opened the oven door. I cheated and used a container of pumpkin pie spice, but you can use a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice if you don’t have any on hand.
Living in a large highrise building means that there are lots of people moving in and out on a regular basis. In the 14 months since we moved in, we’ve watched lots of moving trucks come and go. Having moved many, many times, I understand the stress of packing up your personal belongings and entrusting movers (or close friends) to take care of your things as you move your life from Point A to Point B.
Besides packing for a move, you have to make the conscious decision of what to keep verses what to throw out, give away or donate. Is it really worth it to move our 7-year old broken couch when we plan on purchasing a new one in the near future? Do we even have room for this extra bookshelf? These were definitely things I had to keep in mind when we moved downtown since we were swapping a larger living space for a shorter commute (still one of the best decisions we’ve made).
I’m always completely giddy this time of year. It probably has to do with wearing sweaters and boots all the time, walking through parks that are sprinkled with colourful, falling leaves and eating lots of apples, squash, and pumpkins. This season is so short (at least in my opinion), so I try to make the most of it and soak up everything all at once.
Trevor and I have a real addiction for peanut butter. We make our own on a semi-regular basis and if you check out my blog archives, you may notice that I have over a dozen peanut butter recipes. There wasn’t a lot of PB goodness in the kitchen when I was a growing up, so I’d like to think that this is just me making up for lost time. So when Food Blogger’s of Canada and Hershey’s Canada were looking for bloggers to take part in the #DoYouSpoon campaign promoting Reese Chocolate Spread, I jumped at the chance. Peanut butter and chocolate? Count me in!
Normally after baking and shooting a recipe, I have to restrain myself from sharing it right away. I tend to bake things in batches, so sometimes I’ll be sitting on two or three draft posts before I hit publish. I don’t recommend working this way, though, unless you like driving yourself crazy trying to edit photos without any leftovers to snack on.
I made these sea salt milk chocolate chip pecan cookies earlier this month when I helped my parents move my sister into her college residence (yes, she’s in the big city now). My mom always comes prepared on road trips, so while our hotel room was filled snacks, I still wanted to pitch in and share some baking. Especially because my parents live so far away and while they do follow this blog (hi Mom, hi Dad!) the only real time I get to bake for them is when I’m home for the holidays. Well, it’s safe so that despite all the snacks we had on hand, these cookies were a huge hit and didn’t survive two days in our hotel room. Even my Dad couldn’t stop raving about them. He jokingly called them “breakfast cookies” because he would sneak a few early in the morning while having his morning coffee.
Canadian food blogger, baking and eating her way through life. Musical theatre fanatic. Personal finance nerd. Sometimes runner/yogi. Green smoothies are pretty amazing.
