Sillhouettes

Gettin my art face on ;)

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.

Our little corner of the world

    Alright, here we go again-update number two! Our trip back to Chicago after our summer-long stay in Pennsylvania, was a lovely and relaxing little trip. Steven and I rode with his parents in their cute little hatch back car stuffed with all of our darling little trinkets and toys collected over the summer. Er...make that some of our darling little trinkets (my parents drove behind us in a mini van packed Tetris style with our things, like we were newly weds moving into our first home). I may have gone on a shopping spree for foods and household goods almost everyday, but hey, the expensiveness of all these fancy designer stores and what-not  here in Chicago was seriously cramping my thrifty style!
    Anyway, I basically redecorated the place and stocked my cupboards fuller than they have ever been before-come on blizzard or famine, I'm ready for you...well maybe not, unless I plan to eat copious amounts of crackers with BBQ sauce for a long time (they were cheap). Anywho,  I'm sure this has been a bunch of incoherent nothingness to all of you so I will cease my ramblings and give you something a little more interesting: Pictures!

These are the glasses I used to make some delicious homemade butter.
However, the red trying pad underneath the drying rack is what I'm trying
to show off, but doing a fairly poor job. It livens up my counter space.

Fresh tomatoes just purchased from the farmers market. They are
sitting in a basket from the salvation army (my favorite place), next to
a whole grain baguette that doesn't have to do with anything, but just in-case you were wondering.
Oh, and all of these items are sitting upon my wonderful convention oven.

Some yummy herbs sitting on my kitchen windowsill. They are
planted inside some pots that I painted to match my kitchen.

My kitchen is now Asian themed-hence the adorable Asian tea set and chopsticks.
I also have the red bamboo place mats to add a bit of color.

Tea set on top of a lazy-Susan 

My lovely little table

I bought this at the Hobby Lobby in the clearance section. I wasn't sure at first
what I was going to do with, but I thought hey, I hate having to drape towels and wash
clothes over the sink-why not hang them up? 

A few of my prettier cooking ingredients

These were originally plain old paint lids, but with a bit of work,
they have turned into wonderful accents to my kitchen.
I painted them black and white and though you can't see it in this picture they have
the fruits of the spirit written on them in Chinese.

You can kind of see the figures in this picture

On to the living room! The pillows are kind of hard to see, but
I made them. Found some great fabrics and wala!

More pillows and little black rug purchased from the dollar general
(yay for back to school sales and college dorm supplies!)

I love sitting down in a dimply lit room with candles, a good record and a
cup of coffee.

Another candle and a plant

My favorite part of this picture is the divider next to the stand.
I also got this at the Hobby Lobby on sale for $28 down from $135

Our poor book shelf has been through so much in the past couple years. It has been
stuffed beyond what it can bear. I have decided this year to free up some space for his new books he will be
getting, so I decorated with them. I set them on the top of this stand and put some pictures in front of them and
some dried flowers. It has a great vintage kind of feel. The tree on the wall I made out of  about 22 twigs I found out side. I just nailed them individually to the wall to form a tree.

Our entryway. I finally got a coat rack! 

Just a few things I wasn't really sure what to do with so
I set them up on top of my dresser-they also look kind of vintage.

Candle, jars, and paper flowers.

Happy Belated Easter!

    Despite the fact that Easter was two weeks ago, I say it's better late than never, and I am going to go ahead and write about my Easter. Our weekend celebration started off by celebrating Passover with some friends. No, we aren't Jewish, but you certainly don't have to be Jewish to remember and celebrate what God has done. I spent my entire Saturday bustling around the kitchen in preparation for our delicious meal, consisting of: Turkey, rosemary roasted potatoes, Mediterranean seasoned green beans, Chicken soup with matzo balls, applesauce, and for desert I made some chocolate filled macaroons. While in the kitchen that day I also made some baseball sized peanut butter eggs (which I have neglected to take pictures of) and some Easter Bread for Sunday morning.
    Of course no Easter celebration is complete without some egg decorating! Steven and I spent a lovely couple of hours decorating our 14 little eggs.

Here's a few of our eggs inserted into the Easter Bread.

My cute little grasshopper egg.

Winking eye

On the reversed side is the open eye.

Our lovely colors.

Strawberry! Yum!

Cracked egg.

Pikachu!

Reversed side: Pikachu tail!

Steven admiring our handiwork.

Steven's masterpieces.

     Easter day we celebrated our risen savior at Emanuel Bible church, we gobbled up our Easter bread and feasted on Passover leftovers.

                              Happy Easter Everyone!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin