Fabulous Fall

We seem to have skipped early fall and have jumped into the final days of fall when you are freezing... or is it just me? Last Monday it was 90 degrees and I used my air conditioner. When I woke up on Thursday, I was freezing and had to turn on the heater. So much for the lax months where the heater and gas bill both are under $20. Such is life.

With the season change, I have embraced the cold weather and have started baking like crazy. This is where the pounds of pregnancy will start catching up to me! I made some fantastic Taco Soup yesterday, the prob with me is that I will throw things together but not write down what I did... so I actually paid attention yesterday to my process/ ingredients. I am writing this here more for me, but anyone who is wanting a hearty yummy dish, here you go:

* I may not have exact amounts of things, because I go more by taste

TACO SOUP

In large pot, ground 1 lb of ground beef, season as you would tacos

* you can use taco seasoning packets, but with my allergies I have to use another route... The Taco seasoning in the jumbo jar at Costco is MSG free and it is fantastic. I add this with some season salt and a titch of pepper. I season the meat really well here, because I HATE it when the meat is not seasoned.... just my preference!

Add 1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, then fill with water and add to pot

1 15 oz can of black beans

1 15 oz can of kidney beans

1 2.25 oz can of sliced black olives

15 green olives sliced (why 15? because that is how many I had left in

the jar...add as many as you like...)

1/2 cup of frozen corn (add more if you are a fan... this is my tolerance

level of corn...)

From here I just let the ingredients mix and simmer a bit and let the flavors mix etc.. then went back about 1/2 hour later and added more taco seasoning and seasoned salt to taste. I like my stuff very flavorful, so do as you like. If you feel you want more water, I usually add water from the cans of ingredients so the water has some flavor. As for yield, thus far it has provided 4 children servings, 2 Hollie Servings and 2 **Preston servings (this may be equal to a small family size...) :) And still have some left. It is great frozen (not really, more it keeps well frozen and it is good when it is reheated). We usually put a bit of cheese on top and eat with tortilla chips.

Then I decided to do dessert. Lately when I make cookies, I freeze 1/2 the dough (this is more to control my consumption). We made some Pumpkin Spice Sugar cookies that I found here: http://www.recipezaar.com/Pumpkin-Spice-Sugar-Cookies-133186Preston really liked the recipe, but I think next time I will just use the trusted Nana Hammond sugar cookie recipe and add pumpkin spice to that. We originally ate them with a powdered sugar and milk glaze. Well, yesterday I decided to be daring. I used the rest of the dough and put it on my pizza pan and baked it like a giant cookie/ dessert pizza. I made a cream cheese frosting with cream cheese, sugar and almond favoring (I was out of vanilla) which was soooo yummy! I sauteed some apple slices in butter, cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg and then added to the top. Yeah, it was fantastic! See:

!

We ate well.

Now, for my final thingy.... You know how each spring you plant a seed, or buy a plant and plant that and look on happily as you watch it grow, and then come Fall, you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor? Well, what happens when you suck as a Gardner and you kill your Azalea plant? Don't be embarrassed, embrace what you have done and tell people you did it on purpose. Dead plants make fantastic haunted tree's for your Halloween decor. See:

That is all for today.

Happy Fall Everyone.