Blog Surfing

Here is a cute idea for Halloween. The kids will definitely like these cute Oreo Pumpkin Pops. From Megan's Cookin'.

These Cinnamon Roll Bites from Tablspoon take 20 minutes from start to finish and it makes 32 bite size rolls.


Taste of Home has a reworked breakfast strata that is lower in fat to get your day started right. You can see that recipe here. They have also given Pumpkin Spice Bread a makeover and you will find that recipe here.

It's almost pumpkin season. Here is a recipe for Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream. From David Lebovitz.


I don't see recipes for chocolate sugar cookies very often but here is one from Joy of Baking. Another recipe for Pumpkin Cake with Chocolate Glaze. 

Love and Homemade has three fall centerpieces. You can find them here.

Country magazine is featuring a Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie.


Wives with Knives has a great looking Plum Torte. She has a beautiful Roasted Poblano Pizza you should check out too!


Joy of Baking has a French Apple Tart that is beautiful! It  is on my "to do" list this fall. 


We eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast and we are always looking for ways to change it so that it doesn't become boring. This recipe for Nutty Banana Oatmeal sounds like something we would like. You can see this recipe from Food.com here .

Cookstr has a group of 10 Terrific Muffins that you can find here.



Christmas in October? The Cooking Channel is looking for our original holiday cookies that could be featured on the Cooking Channel. If you are up for the challenge, you will find all of the details here.

Mommy's Kitchen has a group of favorite fall recipes that are worth checking out. They include crockpot apple butter and sweet potato pie and you can see all of them here.


I hate to do this to you, but, Brown Eyed Baker has an "Ode to Chocolate and Peanut Butter" and it looks delicious! If you must know, there are 12 of them. You will find all of them right here. It doesn't end there. You will also find a recipe for Dutch Apple Pie. You will also find her recipe for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

I was happy to see that there is a natural alternative fabric dye. Shelterrific considers it foolproof. Toss iDye into your washer with hot water with vinegar or salt and it will dye up to 2-3 pounds of fabric.


I love this! Living in the pacific northwest again and facing a wet fall and winter, I think that this hooded scarf is such a great idea. You can buy the pattern and make it yourself.


If you enjoy knitting, you should check out Betz White: Funky Chunky. There are some amazingly creative knit things that I couldn't believe. Rugs, throws and footstools to name a few, made from Big Fat Yarn. You should take a peek!


How does creamy tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons sounds? Crepes of Wrath has a great recipe that starts with roasting your garlic, shallots and tomatoes! It looks really good and you will find the recipe here .

Joy the Baker has "Five Ways to Bake Like A Grown-up." I like that recipes that she chose. You can see all five of them here .


The holidays are just around the corner which usually means extra cooking and baking. It is always frustrating to start a baking project and find that you have overlooked an ingredient that you need. You can download Simple Bites "Ultimate Holiday Baking Pantry Checklist" for free right here. She even has instructions on how to use this list.


I have found that most recipes for croisssants have unending paragraphs of detailed instructions and it looks like too much time and work. The following recipe from Taste of Home has very brief instructions for Buttery Croissants and they look amazing. I look forward to giving this recipe a try and then I will be able to say that I actually made croissants!


These Pumpkin Butterscotch Blondies from Tasty Kitchen look good and easy which always catches my eye. These Neopolitan Rice Crispy Treats also caught my eye.




Lori's Lipsmacking Goodness has a recipe for Gourmet Spiced Ketchup that looks like it has a good combination of spices and heat. Her recipe makes approximately four quarts. She also has a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan and Pasta e Fagoli and Tuscan Seasoning mix. 


Une-deux Senses has a post with Best Ever Soft Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies. Who could resist checking that recipe out! 


This Roasted Vegetable Minestrone from The Pioneer Woman Cooks looks like it would have great flavor. There is lots of chopping and roasting involved but should be worth all that effort.




My Baking Addiction has a recipe for Cinnamon Browned Butter Frosting that would be great on these pumpkin spice cupcakes. 

These Caramel Apple Scones sound great for a fall brunch. They are from Taste of Home and you can see the picture and recipe here.
 
EnviroMom has an interesting blog about raising healthy green kids and adults in Portland, Oregon. You can check out her blog here.


Fix-it and Forget-it has four recipes you might enjoy this fall; a chowder, a salad, a bread and a dessert. You can see them here.

This Homemade Pumpkin Spice Mix from Kittencal's Kitchen looks like a good mix of spices. All of her spice mixes that I have tried have been great.

Deep Dark Chocolate Brownies

Happy October! We are having great weather here in Oregon and I hope it stays around. It would be nice to have an Indian Summer but I know I can't count on that happening!

I made these brownies a couple of weeks ago. We were staying at my sisters house (I have four sisters) with two of her kids. One of the nights we were there, I made a marinara sauce to pour over cheese ravioli. We were sitting down to eat and I took my first bite. Within five seconds or less I started feeling a burning sensation in the back of my mouth and throat. I had put in way too much cayenne pepper! It was in the type of spice bottle that has the large holes in it, and I shook it out. Not a good idea. I realized at the time that it was more than I expected but, I never expected that! It was not good. I told everyone I was so sorry, don't eat it, it is way too hot! 

Dear hubby said, "It's not that bad." That's a great hubby!

Nat just smiled her beautiful smile but you can see it is still sitting on her plate!

Grant said it was good. He is a very polite young man!

You can see what Wiley though about it

Dear hubby cleaned his plate. He must have been very hungry!

 It was time to pull out leftover pizza from the day before. At least I redeemed myself after dinner. I made my own version of Deep Dark Chocolate Brownies and were they very good!

Super moist

Great texture and flavor

This is my version adapted from Gourmet. 

 Enjoy!

Another Look at the Farm

The Garden

I hope the tomatoes ripen before the rain starts

Five varieties of table grapes

These are delicious

A view of the garden

Pumpkin Patch

Another view of the garden

More garden

 

The Fields

Clover

Harvested field

Hazelnut trees

Hazelnuts bursting out of their husks

Hazelnuts that have emerged and ready to be harvested

Future hazelnut trees

Harvested field with Christmas trees in the background

Gravel road from house 1.7 miles to main road

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

 
I have made a lot of cookies during the past few weeks. This is the first of several cookie recipes that I will be posting in the future. I have enjoyed making them for family and friends. Nothing smells quite as good as a fresh batch of warm cookies! Even after they cooled down, they have flown off of their plate!


I recently tried a new recipe that I found on Cheeky Kitchen. It was for chewy chocolate chip cookies that are made with coconut oil in place of butter. They still have a lot of calories, especially when you make them as big as I did!


I made these for a small meeting at the house. I mixed them together earlier than needed and popped them in the oven at just the right time. Of course It was my plan to have the house smelling of warm chocolate cookies as the meeting began. I'm convinced that everyone works better and happier when they are surrounded with the smell of just baked cookies is in the air! They were very good and were enjoyed by everyone that tried to eat just one!

These are so fresh from the oven, you can see the shiny, liquid chocolate chips

Enjoy!

Yes, I Have Had a Facelift

That's right, it was time for a face-lift! This old face needed some changes! I'm liking the new look for now, but you can expect that there will be more face-lifts in my future! 

Of course I'm talking about this blog, silly! I just wasn't feeling the inspiration when I dropped by here every once in a while. We have moved to Oregon and are no longer living in our home in Los Angeles. We have opted for the Oregon country life, which is completely different from our California urban oasis life that we have left behind. I just wasn't feeling the inspiration when I checked in here and saw my old blog layout. Now that I have a new look that better represents my new life, I'm starting to feel the inspiration coming back!

The past six weeks have been surreal, to say the least! Our lives have taken about as close to a 360 has it comes. I have been in "survival" mode for most of it, but I feel like I am slowly coming out of that mode and am now in "coping" mode, but getting ready to push into "living" mode again.

Sometimes it takes a while to find what your new "living" mode is when your life has been completely changed. For me, looking back over the past 6 weeks and seeing what I have been doing and how I have been living each day has shown me what my new "living" mode has become. I think the older we get, the more set in our ways (patterns) we get, and it is harder to adjust, especially when you leave one lifestyle and step into another that is totally different in every way possible.

Don't misunderstand and read this as a negative thing, because it is all positive! I have had a few twinges of nostalgia for what we have left in California, but they have been brief moments. We have gained so much. My dear hubby and I, our son, daughter and grandkids all live not only in the same state again, but within 30 minutes of each other! That is a first in over 15 years! As a mom, it is such a great feeling as I lay my head on my pillow at night after all those years of being separated by many miles. We are also very near the majority of our extended families which is another bonus. The fact that my dear hubby and our kids were born and raised in the Portland area really means that they are back home again. I lived most of my life in Portland even though I wasn't born in Oregon, so I'm back home too!

Now as I see my extended family or friends, the realization has sunk in that we aren't here just visiting, we aren't leaving town soon to head south like it has been in the past. We are really back -- and here to stay! 

Here are some of the views we enjoy everyday in the country.

Red Delicious Apple Trees

Golden Delicious Apple Trees

A Fig tree loaded with figs

A Chestnut Grove

A closer look 

I will post more pictures on Thursday.


P.S. Many thanks to my amazing son, Alan, for using his magic on this face-lift.