Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

{photo via A Night Owl Blog}

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope you get to spend the day with your family

and enjoy some delicious foods! 

Sweet Potato Soufflé

 

This recipe is one my mom made for Thanksgiving last year. I am actually not really able to eat sweet potatoes on account that they make me really sick, but I did try a few bites of this because it looked SO good! And it was a really tasty dish too! So if you’re looking for a really delicious and different recipe to use for your sweet potatoes this year this one is for you!

Ingredients

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes

½ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/3 stick butter, melted

½ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Shake of cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped nuts (we used pecans)

1/3 cup white flour

1/3 stick butter

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a bowl mix together the sweet potatoes, white sugar, salt, eggs, first butter amount, milk, vanilla, and a shake of cinnamon.

3. In a separate bowl mix together the brown sugar, chopped nuts, flour, and remaining butter.

4. In an 8x8 glass pan layer the first bowl of ingredients and top with the second bowl of ingredients.

5. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes and serve warm.

Notes

*You can mix everything together, layer it and refrigerate the day before if you want to make it up ahead of time.

Fall Bucket List 2013 | Attend A Bonfire

This fire was about 3 men tall!

In October I was able to check off yet another item from my Fall Bucket List: attend a bonfire! The bonfire took place on a pretty cold fall evening at my grandma’s house. She had invited pretty much all the family and relatives out for the event.

Food for the bonfire event included hot dogs, smores, potato chips, Sweet Southern Tea (which Hubby made), white chocolate chip snickerdoodles (which I made) and more! Hubby roasted my hot dogs for me…somehow I ended up with one that was cooked well and one that was just warm but not browned.

This one was taller than one man for sure,
but not as big as the one pictured above.

My uncle was ‘fire master’ and built a wonderful fire for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. Later, when everyone was finished cooking things, he put a bunch of cedar branches on the fire and man did it get really big! From where I was sitting it looked like the flames were two or three men tall depending on how many branches he put on at a time. I have to say that it was really, really hot though. I had to move my chair back several times and I wasn't even close to the fire pit! (See the first pic on this post.)

The cedar put out a lot of ash so that's whats all over my sweater & skirt...
 in case you're wondering.

My Grandma has a lot of dogs…four of which are lap dogs…and they ALL wanted on my lap! I only really had room for two at a time so Poncho sat in my lap, while Taco sat on my baby belly, and Penny sat beside me. Lefty decided he would rather run around and check out everything vs. sitting by me since he couldn't sit ‘on’ me. It was quite hilarious! Hubby tried to get a pic of it all, but it didn't turn out as good as I had hoped.

I wasn't having a good pregnancy day that day so we didn't stay at the party too long. I did enjoy sitting by the fire and spending time with Hubby though. :)

Fall Bucket List | Try Pumpkin Spice Latte

October was a busy month for checking things off my Fall Bucket List! For the first time ever I finally tried a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I originally thought I’d make one at home, but hadn't been in the baking mood and didn't want to open a can of pumpkin just for two tablespoonful’s full for the recipe I had. I decided to try the Pumpkin Spice Latte from McDonald’s instead. I must say that it wasn't my favorite and it certainly wasn't sweet enough for me. I think it’s a drink I could like if I made it myself, but not something I’d purposely hunt down during the fall season.

Have you tried a Pumpkin Spice Latte?

Miniature Apple Pies

A few weeks ago I had my grandparents out for lunch. I had made some really tasty chicken vegetable soup, a loaf of white bread and for dessert I wanted to use some of the apple pie filling I had canned back in September. I thought mini pies would be a lot better than making a whole pie since I didn't really want a bunch of leftovers in the fridge. I used the recipe from Grandma Karon's Apple Pie to make the crust (that’s also the recipe I used earlier this year to can apple pie filling). This isn't a recipe, it’s an idea I wanted to share since Thanksgiving is coming up soon and you might want to try something new and fun. My grandma was quite surprised that I was making mini pies in a muffin tin. She thought it was a really good idea and something she wanted to start doing for them vs. making a whole pie since the two of them could rarely finish a full pie by themselves.

When you get your crust made up divide it into even sections for each of the muffin tins you want to fill. I think the amount of dough I used was a little bit bigger than the size of a golf ball. Flour your surface and roll out each bit of dough out into a circle. Don’t roll it too thin or the finished pie won’t come out of the muffin tins in one piece. Place the over-sized circle of dough into a greased muffin tin. Make sure to press it down to fill out the full bottom of the tin. Repeat this for each muffin cup until all the ones you need are full. Fill each crusted cup with pie filling and then pinch the leftover dough from the crust together on the top. You can get really fancy with this idea, but I’m just telling you the plain and simple one. Bake the mini pies in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the crusts are golden.

If you’re using a regular pie filling recipe you’ll need 9 or 10 muffin cups with pie crust. For half a recipe you’ll need 4-5 cups.

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Happy Halloween

{photo via The Petersen Post}

I don't know if you celebrate Halloween or not, but we do enjoy taking kids to trick or treat, decorating pumpkins and eating candy corn!

Happy Halloween!

Fall In Oklahoma

This past week I was going through a bunch of old photos on my external hard drive. I was looking for photos I’d taken for blog posts but never ended up writing. Turns out there were TONS! Among the blog post photos were lots of photos of my friends from Oklahoma. I really miss them! I thought I’d share a pic of a fall scene from Oklahoma on Highway 9 with you because I miss my home town and friends.

Prego With Style | 5 Sources for Cute Fall Maternity Style

Today I thought I would do something a little different: share inspiration for fall maternity style. I never thought it would be so hard to 'dress the bump', but honestly you don't think about clothing when you first find out you're pregnant because your body hasn't changed that much. Now that I'm in the third trimester I'm finding it more and more difficult to keep 'the bump' covered. Thanks to Pinterest I was able to find a lot of really cute ideas. I've pinned a lot to my board Pregnancy. I've shared some of the Fall style ideas here.

{photo Still Being Molly}

I love this outfit because it looks totally comfortable and really do-able. I'm guessing it's a maxi skirt, with layered maternity shirts and, of course, a cute denim jacket to top it off! I LOVE it! Molly has some really awesome (and SUPER CUTE) maternity outfits for the second trimester which you can find here. Also check out the label Maternity Style on her blog for even more fun pics and ideas.

{photo via My Chic Bump}

I really love this combo of cotton dress & cute sleeveless cardigan with boots. It looks nice, but comfortable as well! Be sure to check out the Lookbook for other clothing ideas for multiple seasons.

{photo via Along Abbey Road}

This is another fine example of a cotton dress as a fall outfit. Love her accessories of scarf and ankle boots! Abbey has a lot of other cute ideas using fun colors and styles for both summer & fall months, be sure to check those out here.

{photo via Sparkling Footsteps}

I love how Lynzy has paired her floral print dress with a leather jacket and fringe boots! The boots aren't really my style, but they look super cute with this outfit. I think in later fall months an outfit like this would have to be worn with tights or leggings so my legs wouldn't freeze!

{photo via The Freckled Fox}

Lately stripes are a huge thing I just want really bad...maybe cuz they look cute on pregnant women? Who knows... either way, I like striped things and I think this shirt is adorable! There's lots of outfit potential with something like that in your maternity collection. Check out Emily's Maternity Series for more cute outfit ideas!

Well there you have five new places to look for inspiration in the maternity style department. I'm always looking for inspiration even though I rarely go out. It's always fun to see how other people are 'dressing their bump'. Check out my few outfit posts in the maternity department here.

Do you have fall maternity style ideas?

DIY "I'm Thankful" Jar

Last Fall I put together a Fall Bucket List and item #22 was "Start an 'I'm Thankful' Jar to read on Thanksgiving Day." I was guest posting on Blissful & Domestic Blog in November and ended up sharing today's tutorial over there, but this is a new year so I thought I'd share it hear this time because the idea was so well liked at our house. As I did with many of the completed items from my Fall Bucket List I wrote a post about The Thankful Jar and shared some of the things people wrote that they were thankful for.

What You Need

A quart-size mason jar

Fun piece of paper for front of jar

5-8 pieces of copy paper for the 'thankful' notes

A sharpie or other marker

Masking tape

Scissors or paper cutter

A pen for people to write the notes with

Directions

1. Make sure the jar is clean! Mine was washed a few days before I started the project so it was ready to use.

2. Cut out your fun piece of paper for the front of the jar. I did a 3 inch by 2 1/2 inch wide piece for my jar. Write the words "I'm Thankful' on the front of the paper. I used a fun paper punch to add some 'spice' to the corners. This project is totally customize-able so have fun with it! Use masking tape to secure the paper onto one side of the jar.

3. Next cut the copy paper into square like shapes for people/your children/family to write what they are most thankful for. I did squares that were 3 inches by 3 inches or close to that. Mine are nowhere near perfect since I just eyeballed it with the paper cutter. After all, you're only writing on the paper, reading it in a few weeks and later throwing them away so it wont matter if it's a perfect square or not.

4. If you want you could write "I'm thankful for..." as a prompt on the pieces of paper. I did this for one and left the rest blank and it worked fine just like that.

5. Set your decorated jar, the pieces of paper, and a pen in an easy to get to place. Explain to everyone the purpose of the jar (to share things you are currently thankful for) and make sure everyone gets a turn to put at least one thing they're thankful for in the jar by the time Thanksgiving comes around! You can have them write their names too or you can all try to guess who wrote what things when you read them on Thanksgiving day.

  

To see some examples of things our family wrote on papers for our Thankful Jar last year check out this post.

Canning Apple Pie Filling

This year, since moving, I have been able to home can several different things. Not all of those experiences haven’t been fantastic, but some have been really great! So far I've made strawberry jam, blueberry syrup (it was supposed to be jam, but it didn't set...read about the explosion incident here), homemade salsa, and now I'm canning apple pie filling!

One batch of pie filling cooking on the stove!

Because I'm super partial to my own apple pie recipe I went with that vs. one of the recipes which came with the apple pie canning recipes I looked up. This only allowed me to make enough to fill 2 quart size jars or 4 pint size jars at one time though so that was kind of a pain…but I think it’ll be worth it. I processed each jar of apple pie filling for 30 minutes in boiling water, set them on the counter to cool & seal, and then labeled them with the date before storing them in my pantry. I’m really excited about having the pie filling on my shelves!

One really big thing you’ll want to note before canning apple pie filling is that you do want to leave a good bit of space at the top of the jars you fill so that once the hot water bath process is completed and the jars are out on the counter they will seal. If you fill them too full the liquid mixture will overflow and cause the jars to not seal. If/when this happens you have to re-clean off the edges of the jars, wash the lids and re-process in a hot water bath...all of which can be quite a pain!

First Apple Pie of 2013!

I did end up baking an Apple Pie earlier this apple season and it was to die for! I've started using all brown sugar in my recipe instead of white sugar. This gives a caramel like taste to the pies and I LOVE it! Last year I shared the Grandma Karon's Apple Pie recipe...it's basically the same thing as in the photo above except now I like to use 1/2 cup of brown sugar instead of the 1/2 cup of white sugar on the ingredients list.

I gave away two jars of the pie filling. One went to my grandparents. My Papa asked me where I learned how to make such yummy pie filling and my Great Mary told me the apples tasted great on homemade biscuits too! This is definitely something I will be doing again next year as I am a huge fan of apple pie filling!

I've added this post to my Real Food Journey label since the apples came off the tree in my back yard and I used regular ingredients to make the pie filling. Home canning is a great way to preserve real foods.

Fall Bucket List 2013

{photo is a view of sunset past my back yard}

Last year I had a Fall Bucket List and it was the first time I'd ever done a season themed bucket list. It was SO much fun and I got to do a lot of the things on the list that I wanted to...but some things on that list didn't end up happening and I thought it would be fun to try and do some of those this year. Of course I've added a few of the things that were completed too since I want to do those again this year, but for the most part I want to focus on doing the things I didn't last year.

As I fill in or check off items for this list I will add links to posts where I share the different fun experiences and of course I'll be including photos here as well, much like I did on last year's list. I'll leave this linked on the main page of my blog so you can check back to see how things are progressing over the next few months!

2013 Fall Bucket List

1. See "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".

Pumpkin carving in the making! More photos to come!

2. Carve a pumpkin.

3. Make roasted pumpkin seeds!

4. Stargaze while wrapped up in blankets & drinking hot chocolate.

5. Create a Countdown To Thanksgiving calendar.

6. Make homemade popcorn balls!

7. Go on a final camping trip.

8. Start making Christmas gifts.

9. Attend a bonfire party. Read the post: Fall Bucket List 2013 | Attend A Bonfire.

10. Visit a Corn Maze.

Tried a DIY Caramel Apple Cider recipe...pretty good! Will be sharing on the blog soon!

11. Drink Apple Cider!

Pumpkin Spice Latte from McDonalds...it wasn't my favorite.

12. Try a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Read the post: Fall Bucket List 2013 | Try Pumpkin Spice Latte.

13. Start an "I'm Thankful Jar" to read on Thanksgiving Day.

14. Bake Cinnamon Rolls for Thanksgiving Morning (tradition in my family!).

15. Make a Pumpkin Pie!

16. Go to a High School football game.

Fall Festival @ Liberty Blueberry Farms in Missouri.

17. Attend a Fall Festival.

Do you have plans for this Fall?

Hot Cranberry Tea

Back in January I had to have cranberry juice...A LOT. And that stuff is GROSS! And the kind I had to drink had NO sugar in it...After a day or two I started getting creative and this is one of the things I tried & actually liked. I thought this hot tea idea would be appropriate to share with you all today since it's officially the first day of Fall. Is it just me or has this year flown by? Anyway, on to the recipe.

Ingredients

2 cups No Sugar Added Cranberry Juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1-2 Tablespoons of honey

Directions

1. Pour everything into a tall coffee mug & microwave for about 2 minutes.

2. Stir it up and enjoy!

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Fall Bucket List | Crochet Purple Popcorn Scarf

This scarf is one I finished up last week one day while I was laying in bed. I found it almost finished in the bottom of my yarn box and was quite pleased it was so close to being finihsed! It is made of beautifully soft yarn which is a deep purple color. I am seriously in love with it and am so glad to have it finished!

For this scarf I did the basic chain stitch to get the row started and then I did double crochet with the popcorn stitch every two rows. I think it turned out very nice and would definitely use this 'pattern' (if you could call it that lol) again!!

I really couldn't say how long it took me to make this, but I'm sure you could whip one up in about three days if you worked on it consistently. I purchased the yarn from WalMart. I do believe it is the Simply Soft brand, but I don't have any of the papers that come around the yarn right now so that's just my best guess. That is a wonderful brand for making scarves or baby items!

When I had this scarf on without wrapping it around my neck it reached the waistband of my skirt on both sides of the scarf...so one roll of yarn went a really long way! I think I did 20 double crochet stitches so that would be 21 chain stitches to get you started. To make the popcorn stitch you would do 5 double crochet stitches into the same hole. Then take your needle out of the hoop from the last double crochet and put it back into the top part of the first double crochet in the same hole. Pull the hoop through that and then continue to double crochet until you come to the next place where a popcorn stitch is needed! It's a super easy scarf and I would definitely say one worth giving as a Christmas gift too!

Related Posts: My Fall Bucket List.

Fall Bucket List | Photos of Trees, Leaves, & Hay

Item #11 on My Fall Bucket List: Go on a nature walk and take the camera. I actually went on several walks, but most of the time I would either forget the camera or I would bring it but only remember it after we were almost done. I only got a few photos throughout the fall, but here they are at last!

 

 

This beautiful leaf was photographed during the photo session of Day 1 with my sister Val. Check those photos out over at Angel Light Photography by Helen's blog!

 

 

This is the neighbors' tree and the photo I used to create the My Fall Bucket List image!

 

 

A tree at a park Autry & I visited when we went on a picnic.

 

 

I love this color! This bush was actually in our yard and stayed this color for almost two months before the leaves fell off overnight. Now it looks like an ugly bush, but I do miss the bright cheeriness of the leaves!!

 

 

Although this photo is blurred I just love it because it reminds me of back home where I am used to seeing lots of field full of hay bales all sitting in their random places waiting to be picked up later on. This photo was taken while driving down the road, but I still think it looks cool!

 

These are the few photos I collected from my fall adventures. Did you collect any photographs of yours?

Goodbye November

Throughout the past two months I've collected some beautiful photos via Pinterest which were mostly fall related and I never really got around to sharing them. I thought the last day of November would be a perfect day for them since, at least here, most of our leaves are gone and I do miss their colored beauty! Enjoy!

All photos were found via Pinterest, original sources are listed below individual photos.



(photo via Pinterest)

Smuggler's Notch State Park, Vermont.
(photo via Pinterest)



(photo via Very Bored)



(photo via 500px)



(photo via Flickr)

(photo via Pinterest)




(photo via Blue Eyed Beauty on Tumblr)

There you have my small, but beautiful collection of fall photos! :)

Fall Bucket List | Bonfire!

November has been such a busy month and I've been able to get so many things from My Fall Bucket List done, but not blogged and now I find myself at the end of November with most of the posts left to publish...Not a good thing!

Anyway, Autry and I were able to go to my Grandma Karon's awhile back for a Bonfire, hot dogs, and smores! Not only that but in all our country-ness we brought out the guns and shot off a few rounds too!

Here are a few photos from the day:

The fire. It was nice and warm!



Autry shooting an 8mm Mauser.



Autry & Grandma Karon shooting off guns.

I laughed when I said he was gonna lay down and shoot the gun.
I'd never seen anyone do that in real life.

This is the first garget we had set up. It was about 75 yards away from where he was shooting.
The one off the center was the very first shot, after that he hit centers the rest of the time.

My ears were starting to ring from all the shots that were being fired. I was told that sticking the empty shells in your ears worked about as good as earplugs, it's true! They worked like a charm! And I didn't care that everyone said I looked silly lol.

 

The other plate which was used as a target once the bucket was worn out.

 

Autry & I together by the fire. :)

That was our day! :) It was wonderful! I worked on some crochet and visited with my little cousin who is adorable and silly all at the same time. Autry fell asleep next to the fire later on and I woke him up and said we should go so his back wouldn't hurt from laying on the cold ground and sleeping. It was a lovely fall evening and I'm so glad I live near my grandma!