Pumpkin Quotes,Pictures,Recipes and Rambles

    One of my favorite things about fall is pumpkins-I know i'm certainly not the only one with this love because as soon as the leaves start changing and the air gets chilly I can immediately hop on Pinterest or Facebook and find recipes, pictures, quotes, and some rants and rambles all about pumpkins and how wonderful they are. I can say that I have already done my rant,ramble and recipe, but have yet to do my part in sharing pictures and quotes, so here it goes:

Quote:
Linus: He'll come here because I have the most sincere pumpkin patch and he respects sincerity. 
Sally Brown: Do you really think he will come? 
Linus: Tonight the Great Pumpkin will rise out of the pumpkin patch. He flies through the air and brings toys to all the children of the world. 
Sally Brown: That's a good story. 
Linus: You don't believe the story of the Great Pumpkin? I thought little girls always believed everything that was told to them. I thought little girls were innocent and trusting. 
Sally Brown: Welcome to the 20th century!

(gotta love charlie brown...)

Pictures:
Yesterday Steven and I took the train out to Highwood for Highwood Pumpkin Festival -the goal of this ginormous fall gathering was to beat their pumpkin carving record of last year in hopes of making it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most carved and lit jack-o-lanterns. This year their goal was 32000 pumpkins! Steven and I proudly contributed a whole ten pumpkins...aren't we helpful? Anyway, enjoy our masterful creations:

     As if this post isn't already long enough, I have another recipe to share as well! This weekend I was reading through a couple different blogs and one blog led to another blog and so on until finally I came across SproutedKitchen and found a recipe for Almond Date Truffles then shortly after I stumbled upon Anja's Food 4 Thought and she had a recipe for Coconut-Kissed Almond Date Truffles. I always get a little over excited when I find recipes that are dairy free/gluten free, are really healthy for you, and taste great. Anyway, with these delicious looking inspirations I set out to make my own version with a pumpkin twist. They turned out magnificently!

Ingredients:

1 cup of Dates

1/4 cup of shredded sweet coconut 2 tbs for coating

1/2 cup of pumpkin

1 tbs maple syrup (the real stuff)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1 dash of salt

1/4 tsp ginger

2 tbs cocoa powder

1 tsp chia seeds

In a blender combine pumpkin and dates

add in the 1/4 cup of coconut

then add ginger, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon

while you are blending, on a plate or bowl combine cocoa powder, remaining coconut
and chia seeds. When everything is well combined in the blender (still a little chunky), form into balls
and roll in the cocoa/coconut mixture

It may look a bit like an alien with chia seed eyes and coconut tentacles, but
let me assure you they are very tasty little aliens.

They made a very tasty dessert at the end of our meal of chicken puttanesca, olive oil and rosemary bread
and a glass of key lime seltzer water.