Pumpkin Doughnuts with Maple-Cinnamon Glaze

Every year we celebrate Halloween with doughnuts, spiced cider, and a viewing of the Disney classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (as narrated by Bing Crosby).  Due to Jeffrey's hectic schedule, we decided to celebrate over the weekend and I baked up these tasty doughnuts to enjoy.  I love baking doughnuts.  There's no icky frying oil spell permeating the house and stinking up my clothes, there's so little mess (especially when you pipe the batter into the pan!), and who doesn't love a cake doughnut every now and then?

These doughnuts, mmmMmmm, were delicious. Even my self-proclaimed pumpkin hater -ahem, Jeffrey-gobbled them down alongside me with an exclamation of, "these are hardly even pumpkin-y!" which was his form of a complement.  I made one adjustment which accounted for the less pumpkin-ness: I used canned pumkpin pie filling, not canned pumpkin puree plus all the spices, since the pie filling is less "spicy".  I had a hunch that anti-pumpkin man was really anti-the-usual-pumpkin-spices man, and my gut didn't lie. Thank goodness. Now mine isn't the only gut filled with doughnut deliciousness.

Sawyrannosaurus Rex

  

A family of dinosaurs, dressed up and ready for our Halloween practice run at our church's trunk or treat.

Weekend Mirths

Come one, come all! See Sawyer Stand! See Sawyer Step!

This weekend was a big milestone for us; not-so-little Sawyer baby demonstrated his standing and stepping skills.  We've suspected for some time that he's been able to do this, he just prefers the more laid back route of allowing others to hold him up and walk him around. Of course, it goes without saying that we were delighted (just look at Jeff's face! Pure father pride), but somewhere deep inside me my mama heart was crying.  My little baby is just getting so big. He's growing so much.  Someday, who knows how soon, he won't want me to cuddle him at night and he won't cough for my attention and he won't want me to hold his hand everywhere and he won't open up his mouth and eat my face in a glorious baby kiss.  I love watching him grow, but I make a conscious effort to never let any moment or day or chance to bask in his babyness pass by me unnoticed.  All I know is, if he never grows out of these sweet loving things, I'll be one very happy mama.

How to Stiffen Felt

For our Halloween costumes this year, I needed pieces of felt to stand up, not be soft and floppy.  I knew there had to be several ways to do this (hairspray, starch....) but the method I found best was to use a glue and water mix.

Here's how:

1 part glue to 1 part water. I used one cup of Elmer's school glue and one cup warm water

Dip both sides of felt into the glue slurry, then gently "squigee" the excess glue from the felt.

Lay to dry.  I started the drying process on a piece of film, then moved them to a cooling rack placed over a cookie sheet so air could circulate all sides, and if glue dripped, it dripped in the sheet, not on my counter. i also moved the "drying rack" around to sunny spots to speed up the drying process, but it still took about 12 hours to fully dry in my 70 degree apartment.

Stay tuned for next week to see how I used these pieces for our first family Halloween!

The Return of the Sexy Leg

Remember the sexy leg trick? We still see it all the time- in his crib, in his stroller, while he lies on the floor waving kitchen utensils above his head- but I never thought I'd see it here:

Obviously, someone forgot to buckle the safety straps. And obviously, those things have serve a very useful  safety purpose.

 I never forget to strap him in his seat now.

Pork Dumpling Soup

This was, quite possibly, not only the tastiest lunch I've had in a looooong time, but also the tastiest recipe I've invented to use up leftovers in an even loooooonger time.  I originally bought wonton wrappers to make egg rolls, and once that was done I was left with half a package of wrappers and no idea how to use them.  This always happens to me, and usually I'll just forget about them until they grow mold in the back of the fridge, but this time I was determined not to forget about them. And to really top this recipe story off with a giant cherry, nearly every ingredient I used was lurking in the almost-forgotten badlands of the fridge. This amazing soup brought them of of their obscurity and saved them from a moldy death.

Pork Dumpling Soup
For the Broth:
1 potato
2 carrots, peeled and cut in half
1 small onion, skin on and cut in half
1 celery heart (you know, the inside small, really green stems that no one likes to eat)
8 cups water
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2-1 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce

For the Dumplings:
8 wonton wrappers
1 1/2 cups minced pork loin (or you could use ground pork if you don't have pork loin leftovers)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp black bean garlic sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand)
salt

Method:
Combine vegetables, pepper, and salt in stockpot and simmer until broth color is deep and veggies are soft (about 30 minutes).

While broth simmers, assemble the dumplings.  Mix all the filling ingredients together well, then put a rounded tablespoon or so in the center of wonton wrapper.  Rub water along all edges of the wrappers, then pull each edge in towards the the middle to make a pyramid. Pinch each side to make a good seal.

When the broth is done, strain it into a bowl through a fine mesh sieve, return it to the stockpot, add soy sauce, and return to a simmer. Gently drop in dumplings and cook until warmed through, 3-4 minutes.

Ladle broth and dumplings into a bowl and serve with rice, if you'd like.
Devour and enjoy.

You're on Candid Camera!

Caughtcha!
Have I mentioned that he is interested in getting his hands on everything?

I can hardly keep up.

Weekend Pumpkin Mirths

We took our little pumpkin to our favorite patch to pick his first pumpkin. He was very interested in digging through the straw and observing every nook and cranny of the bulbous orange and green and yellow things.  Together we all explored the hay and patted the pumpkins, then loaded up a wagon with our favorites and headed home.

Mad Hatters

  

I read recently that the expression "mad as a hatter" is a reference to the old practice of using mercury in hat making, and since overexposure can lead to insanity, hatters were sometimes quite literally mad.

I'm not saying that's what's going on here...rather a little afternoon hat party was just the cure for our daily "madness".

Stadium Farmer's Market

BYU stages a farmer's market that Sawyer and I ventured a visit to the other week.  It was a smallish affair, with under 15 booths, but we both enjoyed exploring the various produce and preserves and handcrafts.

Sawyer was especially intrigued with the beauty and flavor of the leaves.

He's into Everything at 9 months

He's 9 months old and he loves chewing socks.
And knocking over towers.
And ransacking the shoe bin.

He's also still a 90th percentile-all-around babe, weighing in at 23.6 lbs, topping out at 31 in long, and possessing a head of grand size (98%ile, unfortunately for his shirts).

He can't hold still long enough for me to snap a picture, he'd rather be investigating the camera, or anything really. He is quite the inquisitor.
He bites.
He walks the furniture, he runs with his walker, he begs to be walked around the house all day long.  I'm starting to hope he'll walk on his own soon.
He waves, and sometimes, he waves with both hands!
He clicks his tongue and bites his gums.
He's getting his top two toofers!
He loves his mama, and while playing will crawl over onto my lap to "check in," get a hug, and then gets back to work.
He loves his daddy, and waves goodbye from the window in the mornings and motors to the door whenever  he hears the key in the latch at night.
He's started throwing fits and will drop limp on the floor on his face and knees and commence whining.
He gives us big, open-mouthed kisses on our cheeks.
He throws food.
He babbles the day away and has recently begun "singing" while at play.
He's wearing 18-month sized clothes, and growing faster than we can keep up with.
He's an observer.
He's a problem solver.
He's a determined, never-quitter.

He's our lucky boy, growing strong.