Turkey Day Round-up

Y'all! Thanksgiving is a week away. It's time to finalize menus, figure out who's making what, and pick out your outfit. You do that, too, right? I'm going to share some of my tips and recipes for a super-fattening scrumptious Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Spice Affogato

I've had this in my head for a couple of weeks. How to make a pumpkin spice latte seem...fresh. The obvious answer is ice cream.

Pumpkin ice cream is where it's at. I admit my first taste of pumpkin ice cream came at the verrry beginning of the season. Like September 1st or 2nd. It was at Scoops by Holden Beach, where we held a bachelorette party for my dear friend, Shana. The store sells Blue Bell ice cream, and they'd just started selling Pumpkin Praline. It was heaven.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

It was...a heckuva a week. In between Halloween, a family emergency (don't worry, everything's fine), and just general stuff, I was a leetle busy. Also, I met my future self at Fresh Market's Thanksgiving sampling event.

Okay, so I know there are 1,284,792 "recipes" for pumpkin pie spice floating on the interwebz. This is my personal version. It's heavy on the cinnamon with a floral finish from cardamom.

You'll need: freshly grated nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger.

Pumpkin-Yogurt Bread

Pumpkin bread might be my favorite of the quick breads. Or maybe that's just the fall-euphoria talking. Oh who am I kidding, I've never turned down a piece of bread in my life. But! This bread is not so bad for you, seeing as it only has half a stick of butter and is mostly non-fat Greek yogurt and pumpkin. It's practically healthy. Except for maybe the powdered sugar I sprinkled on top.

Pumpkin Scones

Have you ever imagined having a conversation with someone but then it doesn't turn out at all how you pictured it? Yeah that actually didn't happen to me the other day. See, I bought a Reese's cup shaped like a pumpkin because you know the seasonal Reese's are the best and are never weird and powdery because they can't sit on the shelf that long. Will and I have talked about this before (probably because we're both weird), so I thought he'd appreciate that there's a seasonal Reese's cup out. I also knew that when I mentioned that it was pumpkin-shaped he'd think it actually had pumpkin in it. And let's just say pumpkin does not top his list of favorite foods.

Quick Pumpkin Custard with Maple Walnut Topping

I feel like I've been in a whirlwind of activity. I made this carrot cake into cupcakes for my grandmother's birthday, cut my hair supershort, had my favorite Mellow Mushroom pizza to date (Holy Shiitake pie omgggg), tailgated and watched my Gamecocks whup Missouri, and spent a day on the lake with wonderful friends. Phew. I wouldn't trade it for anything, but it definitely makes a girl guzzle pumpkin spice coffee.

I used to say I only liked pumpkin pie once a year, and that was on Thanksgiving. Um, things change. I'm the only one in my house that actually likes pumpkin pie, though, so what's a girl to do? Solution: Leave out the crust, make individual servings, and top with mapled walnuts. P.S. The compu-dictionary says mapled isn't a word. I say false. 

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

It's gourd season, y'all. It's a beautiful coincidence that the time for all things pumpkin intersects with the time for all things football. I think that's sort of how my life works. Everything happens at once. My birthday is Christmas Eve, so I get birthday and Christmas all at once. And now it's not just football and pumpkins in the fall. It's also Grady-time. He turned 11 months old yesterday, and I'm absolutely floored at how he's gone from wee (although his hands and feet were never wee) and utterly helpless to large and in charge. He wants to feed himself, he can drink out of a sippy cup, and he's SO close to walking. Oh mercy, I didn't mean to get all sentimental.

I have to say I'm really excited for Grady's first birthday. My sister has a wonderful day in mind, and let's be honest, the party is really for the adults. I just know Grady will go to town on the smash cake we make him, but it's not like he'll remember any of this. All that said, let's get down to cookie business.

Molasses Spice Cookies and Pumpkin Dip

Confession:  I probably most likely definitely watch too much TV.  No, it doesn't keep me from exercising or doing other things.  But I keep it on constantly as background noise, and I have about 1,000 shows I watch regularly.  Sundays are a big night.  Once Upon A Time, The Walking Dead, Pan Am, and I catch The Good Wife on Hulu the next day.  The Walking Dead is by far my favorite.  I'm way into creepy shows (American Horror Story anyone?!), and zombies totally freak me out.  And last night had potentially the grossest zombie kill of the season.  Gah.  I'm also into Glee and I die for Modern Family.  Modern Family might be my favorite show out of all of them.  We're pretty sure Phil is Will in 10 years.

I feel like I have to say that I like to read, too.  When I read a book, I tend to read it all at once.  I might not finish it in a day, depending on how long it it and what else I have to do, but I'll read for hours at a time.  I think I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in less than 36 hours.  I'm sure other people finished it a lot sooner than I did, but I was in grad school at the time.  Will's mom likes to read too, and there's always a book here that I pick up and read.

Don't Mind Me. It's the Benadryl Talking.

I've been in a Benadryl haze for two days now.  It knocks me out, makes me have crazy dreams, and makes me feel like a crazy person.  Cray-cray.  This always happens with the change in seasons.  My allergies go nutso and I have a few days of sore throats and congestion.  It doesn't surprise me, but it does throw me for a loop.

The only thing making me feel like a real person right now is this pumpkin bread:

Pumpkin Bread, Y'all!

Fact:  I was bitten in the face by a bug.  In my sleep.  I'd like to thank the good sweet Lord that it wasn't poisonous and that it's in a relatively inconspicuous spot on my jawbone.  Small favors.

In lighter, brighter news, I made my first pumpkin bread of the season!  This is easily one of the best I've made, especially because of the glaze I came up with.  It's stupendously moist, even after sitting out a few days.  In fact, we were going to share it at the tailgate Saturday, but my sister decided that she wanted to eat it more than she wanted to share it.  And well, I'm not gonna argue with the pregnant lady about food.