Trevor and I have a running joke called “not enough hours in the day” which can be applied to many, many things:

“You live in Toronto and you haven’t been to [blank]? You need to go!”

“I recently read [blank] and really enjoyed it. You should read it.”

“[Blank] is a really great TV show and you would definitely like it. It’s on Netflix and there are only 999,999,999 seasons, so it’s easy to catch up.”

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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).

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In early November, I started taking hot yoga classes at a studio near our condo. Nothing too crazy, just something to help me stretch and unwind a couple nights a week. It’s been especially good because my job is very sedentary and much of my morning and afternoon is spent sitting at a computer desk. The last time I did any hot yoga was a little over two years ago, so the first few classes were a little rough to say the least. However, it’s now been a little over a month and I’m amazed at how quickly I was able to gain back some flexibility. The human body is a pretty cool thing.

Besides flexibility, I’ve also had to deal with an increased need to eat ALL the food around me. Luckily it’s a pretty great time of year for food. Between holiday parties, cookie swaps, and baking up a storm on the weekends, my hungry yoga belly has never been happier.

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Even though Canadian Thanksgiving is over, pumpkin is still very much a big deal here. We’ve been eating leftover pumpkin pie tarts (made with coconut milk for Trevor), pumpkin gingerbread loaf and now I’m back to eating pumpkin for breakfast. It may seem like overkill right now, but soon we’ll be in the middle of the holiday season with gingerbread, peppermint and eggnog. The fall season is very, very short and I was nicely reminded of this the other day when I noticed some retail stores have already started to put out their upcoming holiday merchandise. I was so not ready to see that much red and green so soon after my long weekend.

I recently took on the challenge of roasting pumpkins to make my own puree, and wow, what a difference it was compared to the canned stuff. I’m all for using canned food when I’m in a pinch, but sometimes I forget the obvious of how much tastier (and cheaper!) it can be to go that extra mile. Of course, I forgot to document the process because taking apart a pumpkin, gutting it, cleaning, and trying to keep the seeds can be a messy job. Two small 3lb “pumpkin pie” pumpkins took me a little over an hour and that was before they were even placed in the oven. Luckily, I ended up with a sizable bowl full of pumpkin seeds to roast and over 4 cups of delicious pumpkin puree.

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I’ve been on an comfort food kick as of late, what with the weather turning colder and the days being shorter. Over the weekend, Trevor and I went to Nuit Blanche which is an all-night art event held in downtown Toronto and it was so cold that I was kicking myself for not bringing my mitts, toque and a scarf. The streets were literally packed with people, but that didn’t stop the wind from picking up at random intervals and making me a miserable, shivering person. The event was all-night, but we ended our evening early just before 11pm and made a stop over at the food trucks that were parked conventionally across the street from our condo. Street food, warm pjs and late night television. Call me Grandma Jessica, but it was the perfect end to our Saturday night.

My longing for comfort food continued into the next morning when I swear these pancakes were calling my name. Normally I can’t even function first thing in the morning without my coffee, but for some reason I knew I was going to make spiced pumpkin pancakes before I had even crawled out of bed. ‘Tis the season I guess, because if it isn’t apples, apples and more apples, it’s pumpkin. I’ll probably be sick of both by the end of the month, but for now I’m embrace it while it’s here. Fall is such a short season and the fall produce season is even shorter.

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I’m going to be honest with you all and admit that I have no idea what happened to summer. We didn’t get blasted by the snowfall that everyone in the prairies experienced (like most of Trevor’s family), but I’m still finding myself in denial about the chilly weather and don’t get me started on the lack of sunlight in the morning. We’re still trying to find our groove in our new place and now when my alarm goes off, I’m not only disoriented that our bed is facing a completely different way, but now the lack of natural light is throwing me off. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I walk into the wall or trip over the mountain of laundry I’ve managed to create in the past week.

I also haven’t been baking as much as I usually do because I’m still learning my way around my new(er) kitchen. The space is a little bit tighter and I’m still trying to figure out where I put everything in the haste that was unpacking everything and jumping on a plane to England. All in due time I suppose, but hopefully I’ll be able to find my groove by the end of this month as I have a few more recipes that I’ve been meaning to try out.

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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.

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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.

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Despite my running around and getting ready for my Japan trip next week (8 days), I knew I had to celebrate the first day of Fall yesterday with some delicious baking. This is my favourite time of the year (sweaters! boots! hot mugs of tea!) and I was a little sad to realize that as much as I love this season, I only have one other pumpkin recipe on She Bakes Here.

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I seriously wanted to wait until September to share this recipe. The heavenly taste of these spiced pumpkin cookies made me daydream about walking through colourful, crunchy leaves, feeling the cool fall breezes on my face and seeing cute kids in Halloween costumes. I realize that last one is more of an October event, but if this was autumn now, I would have wanted to get this recipe out as soon as possible.

Hence the fact that its only May and I’m sharing this recipe now with all of you.

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