Mums, pumpkins, and more

 Just a few photos of the lovely outdoor fall decorations here at The Wilds of New England.  Above, one of the main buildings has a couple of porches.  The steps of this one boast mums and a pumpkin.  Below, the steps at the main entrance.  Love the look of the  bricks with the flowers and pumpkin.

On the steps to the Sweet Shoppe

More on the front porch steps

The gazebo in mellow morning light

The girls on the fall staff have been cleaning up the plantings in anticipation of frost.  One of them brought me this sweet bouquet.

And that's it for today! 🍁🍂

Two fabulous pancake recipes that must be shared

 

I find myself giving out these recipes all the time, so it really is high time I linked to them on my blog for everyone to enjoy.  I found these at Sue Moran's site The View from Great Island.

Interestingly, I had not visited Sue's site prior to seeing some of her recipes on Instagram.  Once I did, I went to The View from Great Island and immediately signed up to get her emails.  I've tried a number of Sue's recipes and all have been fantastic; she just seems to have a knack for developing excellent recipes.  But the pumpkin pancake recipe is simply amazing.

These two recipes are such an easy way to make pancakes for the family!  We have made the pumpkin ones at least a half dozen times and they are so easy and delicious.

I had passed these recipes on to my friend Jennifer and she has made the plain ones several times and is thrilled with how easy and good they are.

Hope your families enjoy them, too!

I'm writing the pumpkin one out, since we have changed the topping amounts a bit.  But if you prefer a link, here it is: Pumpkin Crunch Sheet Pan Pancakes.

PUMPKIN CRUNCH SHEET PAN PANCAKES

For the topping

    2 tablespoons sugar
    1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
    1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
    1/2 cup (or less) chopped pecans

For the pancakes

    6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
    2 cups milk, or buttermilk
    1 large egg
    3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
    5 tsp baking powder
    3/4 tsp salt
    1/4 cup sugar
    2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Instructions

    Preheat oven to 400º and butter or spray a large sheet pan.
    Make the topping first by mixing together the 2 Tblsp. sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chopped pecans. Set aside.
    Whisk together the melted butter, milk, egg, and pumpkin puree until smooth.
    Sift together the baking powder, salt, sugar, and flour.
    Mix until well combined, but don't overmix.
    Pour the batter into the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle the cinnamon/pecan topping evenly over it.
    Bake for 20-22 minutes until slightly risen and fully cooked in the center.
    Remove from the oven and allow to cool just slightly before slicing and serving.
    Serve with butter and maple syrup, or other topping of your choice.

And here is the link to the regular sheet pan pancakes, to which you may add berries, etc.

Sheet Pan Pancakes

 We are  having friends in for breakfast on Monday and plan to bake a pan of pumpkin pancakes and a pan of regular ones.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Fall follies

 

 Just a random potpourri post of a few fall things.   We'll start with fall cleaning, which I seldom do, preferring to work on cleaning projects all year round, but ...

🍁  As mentioned earlier, I've been so inspired by Becki and her 30 Days to Less over at Field Lilies.  The idea is to get rid of 1 item on Oct. 1, 2 items on Oct. 2, and so on.  One ends up with quite an impressive total if the plan is followed.  Even though I'm not actively participating in the challenge (and will be out of town part of October), I've been decluttering daily and keeping track of items I'm getting rid of.  Here are the stats as of October 17:

Oct. 1 — popsicle stick picture frame
Oct. 2 — bag of clothing left  with us for my daughter’s family (probably 8 or so items in the bag); an extra dictionary taken to our cottage
Oct. 3 — items for thrift store: 1 shirt; 1 pair overalls; 1 denim jacket; 1 dress; 1 jumper; 1 box dryer sheets
Oct. 4 — 6 vintage magazine pages (I brought these home to scan and they’ve been in a pile on my desk.  There are more …); 1 ceramic shade and plate to use with a jar candle — thrift store.
Oct 5 — 6 colorful bandannas I never wear or use; a slip; a couple of detachable lace collars — all these will go to the thrift store.  3 vintage kids’ books on rocks, etc. — took these to our cottage; if kids don’t read them there I will sell on Etsy.)
Oct. 6 — 32 catalogs tossed out; 1 wood burned plaque someone gifted to my hubby (it’ll go to the cottage where it will fit right in with the eclectic camp decor)
Oct.7 — 1 large round basket to the trash, along with maybe 15 or so old, tired kids’ books and a tiny pitcher with no handle.  2 kids’ books and a tiny owl pitcher will be given away.  6 kids’ books will be sold on Etsy, and 5 will go to the cottage.  1 miniature ginger jar and 10 kids’ books are on their way to the thrift store.  

Headed for the cottage ...

Oct. 11 — a favorite calendar page I often used as wall art.  Somehow it got damaged by moisture.  It was in a folder with other printed art that I rotate in and out of frames seasonally.  Others are damaged also but I haven’t yet been able to bring myself to look closely and throw out more.
Oct. 12 — a tired kitchen towel with a strawberry design; 2 pieces of mail I’ve been putting off dealing with and now they’re outdated; a package of construction paper (taking it to the cottage).
Oct. 13 — a book that belongs to someone else to be returned to the owner; a bunch of old sentimental papers from 2010 and earlier — tossed; several catalogs tossed; an old songbook and a Christmas carol book to be sold on Etsy; two old hymnbooks and a school music book to the trash; a nonfiction book headed to the thrift store.
Oct. 15 — To the trash: a broken comb, 3 manuals for hair dryers I no longer own, 2 hairbrushes, 8 worn-out hair elastics, a beaded sun catcher that’s seen better days, a protective quilted sleeve for a curling iron, 2 shower caps with worn out elastic, a plastic barrette, part of a brush, a magnetic bobby pin holder, some sort of oversized white shoelace, a fine-tooth comb, a bundle of hairpins, 1 bottle dried-out nail polish.  To sell on Etsy: 2 vintage Rexall lipsticks, a silver trimmed brush and comb set.
Oct. 16 — to the trash: 2 "home fragrance sachets" that have lost their fragrance, 3 native American dolls (part of my daughter’s childhood doll collection) that had seen far better days; 2 handmade paper tepees, likewise.
Oct. 17 — 13 floppy disks (haven’t had a computer that used them in [gulp!] well over a decade; a Tracfone User Guide, a bunch of defunct computer information; 2 ultra thin business-card size calculators that don’t work.

I had to say goodbye to this beautiful calendar page.  It was stored in a folder but somehow got damaged.  The tag, made by a friend, was safe since it was on my wall.

 More to come!  I'm thinking I might just keep this up every month!

🍁  All manner of leafy fall fun has been happening over at our little camp.  Josiah and Arielle came over and raked leaves into huge heaps.  The first day, this happened:

The next day, they raked an even bigger pile of leaves, with the idea that Grampa could jump in it.  Those of you who follow @lifeonabackroad on Instagram know that he did! 😁

 In the process of raking that pile, Josiah found a frog!  As you can see (maybe!) this frog had the perfect camouflage for hiding in a pile of leaves, but Josiah managed to coax him out so he wouldn't get jumped on. [Hint: the frog is about in the middle of the photo, just above that sort of orangey leaf.]

🍁 Pumpkin spice and all things nice!  This was the theme when our granddaughter Julia's orchestra group did a concert atop a mountain.  This also involved a gondola ride to the summit.  I'll share more of our pictures later, but here are a few for now.

This last one was taken from the gondola on the way down the mountain.

 

This photo of Julia (left) and her friend Jen was taken by Jen's mom after the concert.

 The parents brought pumpkin treats to share after the concert.  Julia's mom , our daughter Carrie, made pumpkin whoopie pies which disappeared almost instantly.  They were scrumptious!  I asked about Carrie's recipe, and she said she uses this one: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies from Annie's Eats.

Photo from Annie's Eats

And also in the pumpkin spice category,  my hubby found a great deal on New England Coffee at a local supermarket and brought home three of these:

Photo from New England Coffee

Oh, so good.  We always enjoy this in autumn, and we hadn't found any at a reasonable price this fall.  Now we have!  He'll get more if he can find it.

And just one more photo, snagged from Carrie's Instagram:

Rainy days can happen in autumn, and we were thankful for a good day of rain last Friday.  Still, we went to the camp in the late afternoon, and a game of Scrabble ensued.

Oh, and I just have to include these scans of the front and back of a very intriguing oak leaf:

Front of leaf

Back of leaf

Doesn't it look like it is edged in jumbo rickrack?  You can see why it caught my eye.

Pumpkin Snack Cake with Praline Frosting

Photo from The View from Great Island

Another gloomy rainy day here in New Hampshire!  If you feel like doing a little fall baking to lift your spirits, I highly recommend this Pecan Praline Pumpkin Snack Cake!

This past weekend,  I was in the mood to bake.   And we were planning on having a guest, maybe several, over for supper on Friday evening.   I had seen this Pumpkin Snack Cake with Praline Frosting on the Instagram feed of The View from Great Island, one of my favorite recipe blogs.  It looked so scrumptious that I went to the blog at once and pinned the recipe to my Perfectly Pumpkin Pinterest board.

The only change I made in the recipe was to use the Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour, rather than regular all-purpose flour.   This baking flour is such a blessing because one can make regular recipes gluten free very easily by using it cup for cup in place of regular flour.

One thing that was not addressed in the recipe was how long to let the cake cool before topping it with the warm icing.  As I looked through the comments, I saw that someone else had asked that question, and Sue replied she had allowed the cake to cool about 30 minutes before adding the icing.  I added the frosting very, very slowly, spreading it as I went.  It came out perfectly.

We ended up not having company that night, so I shared a tin full of the cake with my uncle and aunt.  They really enjoyed it and commented especially on the delectable moistness of this pumpkin cake.  That, and especially the praline frosting, are what makes this cake so outstandingly delicious.

If your family enjoys pumpkin recipes, I'm sure you'd love this cake.  We certainly did!

Friday five (fall baking edition)

I didn't intend for this Friday five to be all about fall baking, but it sort of turned out that way, so ... here we go.

1.  First, let me say how thankful I am for last weekend's couples' retreat at The Wilds of New England!  My hubby and I just never want to miss this time.  It's like a yearly reset for our marriage; edifying Bible teaching for couples along with great food, fellowship, music, campfires, coffee, hayrides, ice cream and so much more.  All this in a glorious setting of New England fall foliage.  Yes, there is a baking connection here:  Friday night's dessert was homemade pumpkin whoopie pies with a delicious spiced filling.  Mm-mmm!

2.  A working oven.  Last Thursday we had guests for brunch and then a guest at supper.  My oven was going a good bit of the day.  That evening, I turned the oven on again to a low temperature, to dry out a metal pan.  There was a strong smell of gas and I remembered that my hubby had been saying he needed to order a delivery of propane, so we both assumed we might be running out.  But the burner flames looked fine.  Still, I turned the oven off immediately.
     When he called the next day to order the propane, he unthinkingly mentioned the strong gas odor, and was told they needed to send a technician out to look over the tank and stove.  In our state, maybe others, this is required by law if a customer mentions a strong propane smell.  He did come, everything is fine with both stove and tank and our tank is now full (we were not running out, as we thought, but it was time for a delivery to get us through winter).    So thankful for a working oven, as I've been baking a lot the past couple of days -- it's my turn to bring snacks for Sunday's coffee break at church.

3.  Aprons.  The older I get, the more necessary I find it to wear an apron when I cook, just like my mother and grandmother always did.  Thankful for cute aprons!

An apron I made for my granddaughter Sarah one Christmas

4.   Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour.  I like to use this for cookies, cakes, muffins, and biscuits because it means I can just use my old favorite recipes, substituting this cup-for-cup for regular flour.  (Don't try to use it for pizza or yeast breads, though, because it won't work.)  I absolutely love being able to use some of my old recipes again!

5.  Recipes.  As I was baking in my kitchen this morning I was thinking about how thankful I am for recipes old and new, but especially those that have been handed down from loved ones.   I guess this came to mind because I was making a Cranberry Coffee Cake.  This recipe got its start with one from my mother's good friend Evelyn, a fabulous cook and a faithful sharer of good recipes, so that's probably why it came to mind.

That, and all of the clearing out I've been doing at my childhood home, has really got me thinking about the importance of recipe boxes and notebooks.  This deserves a post all its own, so watch for it -- hopefully soon!

In the meantime, why not do some fall baking of your own?  You can check out some of my favorites here -- Some of my favorite apple recipes, pumpkin and squash recipes (this post also contains some main dish recipes) or just click "pumpkin" or "apples" in the label cloud.  Happy baking!

Wednesday Medley

Gorgeous vintage fall floral from Little Birdie Blessings

 I hadn't found the time to participate in Terri's Wednesday Medley previously, but thought I would jump in when I noticed this week's questions.

Here's the Medley:

1.  The Circleville, Ohio, Pumpkin Festival starts today.  All things pumpkin are everywhere. What is your one very favorite pumpkin flavored food or drink?  Do you wish it was available all year or do you only want it in the Fall?

Oh, this is a really difficult question.  My friend Gina makes a pumpkin roll that I have always loved, but I also have a recipe for pumpkin streusel coffeecake that's a real favorite.  Oh, and I can't forget these wonderful gluten free pumpkin chocolate chip doughnuts.  Really, I just love pumpkin treats and would be hard pressed to pick just one favorite.  Why not click "pumpkin" in the label cloud and try one of my recipes?  I think I really do prefer pumpkin treats in the fall.  It's nice to keep some things special for the season, don't you think? 

2.  What product would you seriously stockpile if you found out they weren't going to sell it anymore? 

If I had known, some years ago, that Celestial Seasonings was going to discontinue their Canadian Maple tea, I would have stockpiled it!   If they ever discontinue Candy Cane Lane, I might have to stockpile that.

Anyone else remember this?

3.  What is the most interesting thing you have seen online this week?

Now, that is a good question.   I'm currently enjoying the 12 days of Annestagram on Instagram, where folks are posting autumn related photos with an Anne of Green Gables theme.  The hashtag is #12daysofannestagram, should you be interested in checking it out.  The photo below is from my daughter Carrie's Instagram.

4.  Is it better to be a "big fish in a small pond" or a "small fish in a big pond"?

Oh, I definitely prefer being a small fish in a big pond.

5.  My Joe has become obsessed with playing chess on the computer.  Do you play chess?  Are you good at it?

I don't play chess and am pretty sure I would be terrible at it.  I don't do well with any games that require strategy.  My hubby enjoys chess but seldom plays it.

I would rather bake, like this Pumpkin Dutch Apple Pie.

6.  Tell us something random about your week.

The weather is certainly random these days!  We've had quite a bit of rain and wind, also some gorgeous sunny days and a mixture of all three.  Cooler temps too, which is nice.   Snow in the mountains...

So ends my first Wednesday Medley!  It's been fun.

From the October archives, part 2

This delightful free image is from Little Birdie Blessings

Here we go with a few more links to posts in the October archives!  I had so much fun browsing the archives to decide what to share.  I hope you'll take a look through the archives for yourselves.  After 12 years, there is a lot here!

Ham and Bean Chowder is a recipe I've had for some time and finally tried it one fall.  It's deliciously hearty and very warming.  Next time you have a ham bone to use, give it a try.

Photo from Taste of Home

From 2013, this grocery shopping perk is a great reminder of the little blessings that come our way when we're simply going about our everyday tasks.

Two nice fall recipes, from 2014, shares a main dish and a side dish filled with wonderful fall flavors.  You'll want to try one or both of these!

Speaking of which, if you enjoy the fall flavors of pumpkin and apples, you really must bake a Pumpkin Dutch Apple Pie!  It's a favorite Thanksgiving pie for us and perfect for any fall event.

And lastly, Autumn in the Air is a nostalgic read about a 2001 visit to Cracker Barrel and how God used it to encourage us on a stormy night.

Hope you've enjoyed this browse through the Kitchen Table archives as much as I have!

Five things I love about fall

Inspired by this post: 5 More Things I Love about Fall at Creekside Cottage, I decided to answer her question here on my blog.

1. Gorgeous colors in fall foliage.  The photo at top was taken at my husband's job site (he works all over the state; never know where he'll be next!) last fall.  I also love looking at individual leaves; they vary so.

2. All things apple.  Cider, apples, apple crisp, apple pie, apple crisp pizza, pretty much anything apple.  Click "apples" in the sidebar label cloud for some good ideas.

3.  All things pumpkin.  Pumpkin desserts, pumpkin muffins, doughnuts, and coffeecakes, pumpkin spice coffee ... Again, click "pumpkin" in the label cloud to see some good recipes.

4.  Cooler temperatures.  I simply love the crisp, cool, brilliant sunny days of fall.  It's the nicest time of year here in New Hampshire.

5.  Fall retreats!  I've saved my favorite for last.  There is just nothing like a fall retreat.  I've been to 2 ladies' retreats this fall and am headed off to a couples' retreat soon.  The glorious scenery, the great fellowship and food, the encouragement from God's Word, the relaxed time to focus on God and on one another ... well, let's just say my hubby and I never want to miss a retreat.  We are so incredibly blessed to have The Wilds of New England here in our state!

And there you have my five favorite things about fall.  What would yours be?

Glorious gourds

Photo from Pixabay

Okay, first the definition of a gourd:

This came from the New Oxford American Dictionary as available on my computer.

My original intent was to write a post of just pumpkin or just squash recipes, although I've shared some of both already this fall.  In thinking it through,  however, I've decided to feature both members of the Family Cucurbitaceae.  I've linked to a few of these already this month, but just in case you missed them ...

Pumpkin Coffeecake

Photo from Taste of Home

Gluten Free Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

From Faithfully Gluten Free

 Savory Stuffed Pumpkin

Photo from Taste of Home

Gluten Free Pumpkin Scones

Candied Pumpkin Spice Pecans

Photo from Taste of Home

You will find some great pie recipes using pumpkin here:
Favorite Thanksgiving Pie Recipes.

And last but not least, my recipe for

 PUMPKIN PIE SPICE

1/2 cup cinnamon
1/4 cup ground ginger
2 Tblsp. nutmeg
2 Tblsp. ground cloves

Blend ingredients. Store in a tightly covered container; again, I use an old International Coffee® tin. Use as your recipe directs; in pumpkin pie, use 3 1/4 tsp. per can of pumpkin. Again, many other recipes for cookies or desserts may call for pumpkin pie spice, so it’s a useful spice to keep on hand.


And now for a few squash recipes. 

Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta

Hearty Butternut Squash Soup

Photo from Taste of Home

Stuffed Squash for Two

Roasted Squash Medley

Photo from Taste of Home

 Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

Photo from Kelly's Ambitious Kitchen

Hope you'll find some recipes here that you'll want to try this fall!   These are all recipes I have tried and that have been enjoyed, but I'm always trying more.