It started innocently enough. Back in August, I was given a few vanilla beans by a good friend (and awesome cook) and I felt so intimidated that I didn’t look at them for two months. The beans lived in their little glass vial in the back of my spice cupboard and became a precious commodity in my kitchen. Every time I opened the cupboard door I would see the vial and it would taunt me and mock me for not thinking of a worthy recipe to use them in.
A couple days ago, my Dad sent me an email appropriately titled “Its here!!!!!” with two photos of my parents’ front deck covered in between 2-3 feet of snow. As much as living and working in Toronto can sometimes drive me crazy, I will take the winter here any day. I’m yet to see a flake of snow this season (knock on wood), but that’s not to say that it hasn’t been cold. There were a couple evenings where we slept with an extra blanket on our bed and when it hasn’t been raining (I know, sorry), the wind has been so strong that I thought my feet were going to be lifted off the sidewalk.
In preparation of this snow that is most likely coming our way (thanks for the warning, Dad!), my winter jacket, scarf and mitts have all been pulled out and I purchased a new pair of waterproof winter boots to make waiting for the bus seem a little warmer. I’ve already made use of my winter jacket and mitts, but I’m holding out on the first snowfall to really break in the boots properly.
A couple days ago while making supper, I found myself trapped in a Google-searching hole (similar to getting lost on IMDB or Wikipedia) and I searched “baking with tea.” As a self-proclaimed tea lover/hoarder with an overflowing section of our kitchen cupboard dedicated to tea and coffee, I’m surprised I haven’t considered adding tea to my baking sooner. Now that the weather is cooler, I’ve re-introduced the daily ritual of a hot mug of tea and paired with a warm blanket and a good ebook, I can’t think of a better nightly ritual.
Is it just me, or does anyone else get super bummed out after daylight savings ends and we are forced to set our clocks back another hour? I know it’s only one hour and in the grand scheme of things, I really needed that extra hour of sleep on Sunday, but now that the sun is setting earlier, the days are feeling really short. I’m finding myself rushing to get home after work just so I can enjoy the precious 20 minutes or so of light I get in my kitchen before night sets in. And taking food photos after work? Not going to happen anymore. When we lived in central time zone Saskatchewan, we didn’t have to change our clocks, so even after 3 years this time change is still throwing me off.
Luckily we’re still yet to get all the snow my prairie friends have been dealing with, so I’ll take a little time change over having to pull out my winter boots any day. As a kid, I remember trick-or-treating in the country with my winter jacket under my costume and this year’s Halloween was pouring rain. These city kids don’t know how good they have it. Winter is definitely looming and the one thing I’m not looking forward to the first city snow fall. So in an attempt to hold onto the goodness of fall for just a little bit longer, I’m bringing you another pumpkin recipe. An actual pumpkin recipe.
I’m pretty sure I’ve filled my apple baking quota for the year. Of course, we still have a fridge half full of apples, but now I’m setting my sights on my other favourite fall flavour – pumpkin. I only have two other pumpkin recipes on the blog and one of them wasn’t even posted during the fall season. So for the remainder of fall (or at least until it turns bitterly cold), I’m going to attempt some more pumpkin recipes.
I realize now that in saying this, I’m actually cheating a bit on this first recipe. There is no actual pumpkin in these cookies because I wasn’t sure how to combine egg whites and pureed pumpkin and come out with a meringue cookie that was still light, airy and look appealing enough to eat. Instead I made meringue cookies by replacing the white sugar with brown sugar and adding some pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg). Originally, I was a little worried that the egg whites wouldn’t peak properly because of the higher moisture content in brown sugar verses white sugar, but I was pleasantly surprised when these cookies came together. While they were baking, the kitchen was wafted in a nice pumpkin pie smell and once they cooled, the first bite was sweet and chewy with a crisp outer shell. Perfection.
Canadian food blogger, baking and eating her way through life. Musical theatre fanatic. Personal finance nerd. Sometimes runner/yogi. Green smoothies are pretty amazing.
