Thanksgiving Prep Time! and Harry Potter 5 Faves

Hi Hello! It's Friday....and next week is Thanksgiving....and the week after that? December!

Holy moly I just can't get over how quickly the Holidays have shown up this year. We once again have the honor of hosting, this time with the Socie side as our guests. That means that this weekend will be full of lots of prep. My strategy for a low-stress Thanksgiving meal: make ahead AMAP (as much as possible). 

Here's a look at our weekend to do's:

Grocery Trip: Round 2

Mike and I already brought home most of the goods last weekend, but there were a few pesky items that require trips to specific shops, in this case Trader Joe's. On the top of our TJ list: crescent roll, pumpkin puree, and surprise, surprise Cowboy Cavier.

Make Ahead AMAP (as much as possible)

My two main targets for making ahead are the mashed potatoes and the layers for our Pumpkin Tiramisu dessert. 

Source

Doesn't that dessert look divine?? We got a trifle dish as a wedding gift that I've been anxious to use. Bonus points for make ahead, no heat up required, AND fancy pantsy presentation :)

Cleaning and Sprucing Around the House

We've already done some serious fallifying around the house. Last weekend I added even more:

We ended up with extra watercolor leaves that I'm not sure what to do with. Mike seems to think we are toeing the line of going decoration overboard. He has no idea what I'm capable of. Muahahaha.

HARRY POTTER

Don't worry, our plans aren't all work. We've got a HP marathon to finish up, starting with movie 6 tonight. In honor of the marathon I bring you my Harry Potter 5 Faves from around the web:

Click on the title links to be taken to the sources.

Favorite Apparel: Whorecrux Tee from Screened Lolz. Also love this tee that I gifted to my bestie Bee.

Favorite Experience: Warner Bros. Studio Tour - Holy dream vacay!! 

Favorite Stuck in Your Head for Daaaaaays: Potter Puppet Pals: The Mysterious Ticking Noise

Favorite LOL: Literal Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer Parody HD

Favorite Quote: 

Happy Friday! Have a magical weekend!

Sweater Weather!!!

Brrrrrrrrrr....We're freezing down here.

BTW freezing in the ATL means I had to wear gloves during the first 10 minutes of my drive so as to not freeze my fingers to the steering wheel. Rough life. Are heated steering wheels a thing? Maybe only in Cadillacs.

Anyway, winter is upon us and all things Christmas are anxiously waiting their turn in the limelight. Patience,  my loves. We'll get there. In the meantime, we've done some fallifying at our place. It may be too early to put up the green and red, but that doesn't mean we can't do any decorating. Let's take a look around.

Leaves in the living room.

Marvin the moose, looking really festive.

Leaves in the kitchen.

Turkey on the closet.

The picture on the right is from a street artist in Madison made on our wedding day and purchased by  my dad. The frame was used for the sign our flower girl carried down the aisle made by my sis-in-law and read "Uncle Mike, here comes your girl"

Gourds on the bookcase.

The picture on the right is of Mike and I at my undergrad graduation, drinking pitchers on Memorial Terrace.

Well that turned into a nice little mini apartment tour didn't it? Oh and the leaf garland still to be hung...I'll get there.

Tis' the Season

Today I'll be using my lunch break to run to a store for gifts for my sis-in-law. We've done pretty impressive job of getting the Christmas shopping done early, which was mostly due to the other sis-in-law sending out her list in October.

While at the store I'm going to do a little self giving and pick up a few things at Lush, a place I have recently been obsessing over thanks to Louise and Zoe. Hopefully I can show a smidge more restraint and not come home with one of everything. We'll see. If you're interested in seeing a haul/review of what I end up picking out, let me know in the comments below!

Happiest of Hump Days to You! Go put on a sweater!

November Already??

Hola! Welcome to November! That's crazy.

Does time always go faster as you get older? Does it keep getting faster and faster? Someday when I have kids and they are on a school year schedule will it slow back down or does the preciousness of each milestone make the moments seem to slip away even quicker? 

This Sunday is our 3 month-a-versary. Here's where time really gets all messy in my brain. How can something feel like it was soooooo long ago but not at all that long ago at the same time. Here's another milestone for you: I've been eating vegan for 7 months now. No cheese for 7 months, guys! When did this all happen?? Is 7 months a long time? Is that not a long time? I don't know anymore, but here's what I'm thinking...

When you start collecting long-term constants in your life, i.e. a husband, a job, a house, a baby (choose those that apply), time becomes this weird nebulous of lots of amazing moments that are at the same time part of the  mundane day-to-day of a bigger life story. And that's really what this blog is about, telling the story.

Deep thoughts to start your Friday, but here's my biggest question: How the heck is it already November??? I think Halloween helps to make November extra sneaky with its arrival.

Halloween Festivities

I have a love/hate relationship with the fall down here. September is horrible. All I want to do is book a one-way ticket back home to the Midwest. I HATE that I have to wait till the end of October for the temps to dip and for fall colors emerge. But then when we finally get there, and it's 75 on Halloween night, it kind of rocks.

Since we don't have any chilis of our own to dress up, we have to rely on the cuteness of other people's. With that goal in mind we went for a lovely fall stroll last night.

Dress Code: Fall colored long-sleeve t's

Right away we saw an all white cat...on Halloween...that has to be super good luck right?? 

That large black spider at the top moved its head from side to side...spoooky.

Best house decoration award goes to the house above. Rats on the fountain...Mike hated it hahaha.

Beautiful weather meant that we extended the walk into the park. Lovely.

Piedmont Park

The walk ended with pizza on the patio of Mellow Mushroom. Luca did a better than expected job chilling on the other side of the fence whiled we nom nom nom-ed.

We got home and watched Halloween episodes of Modern Fam and Big Bang, then as the finale: The Great Pumpkin.

Charlie Brown was cracking me up. Poor guy.

It was great :)

Oh and the plumpykins...not carved. They are part of our autumn decor now. 

Happy Friday! Hope you have an awesome weekend!

Weekend Recap: Buzzy Rain

Hello Folks! Who else wishes it was any day but Monday?

Welcome back to the week! It's getting seriously fall-ish here. Downright chilly. I hesitate saying anything down here is cold after growing up in Wisconsin. Quick weather.com check....feels like 48...yup that qualifies as chilly. Maybe I'll let myself wear my fleece in tomorrow. 

Back home I had a rule that I would not wear my winter coat til after Thanksgiving. Really it's a rule out of necessity. Once you break out the winter coat, there's nothing left to turn to when January comes around with its -35 windchill. Brrrr. I'm getting cold just thinking about it.

As I have yet to wear my winter coat down here, my fleece has become my new winter coat...so I'm really really trying to hold out til Thanksgiving. Luckily Mike is equally stubborn about giving into coldness. Also he's usually the only one ready in time to walk Luca in the morning (these lashes won't curl themselves, dang) so he is my expert advice when it comes to bundling up for the day.

To sum it all up, I was extra thankful for heated seats this morning :)

Now for the recap:

We finally made it the entire one black walk to Cruzado. 

My drink was called the Lolita, and I didn't realize til I took my first sip that it had jalapeno tequilla in it. Probably won't be getting that one again.

At first I was disappointed by the lack of veg options on the menu, but then our waitress told us about there vegaterian dish where I could pick any 3 sides for $10. Niiiiicce. And maduros were an option. Win!

Saturday was game day. We met up with some peeps and tailgated beer pong and flip cup style. This is one area where GA Tech gameday wins over Badger gameday: you can drink all the way up to the gate! We seriously set up a table in one of the campus commons and played drinking games. Last year Mike and I did a serious double take when we saw people just walking around with beers all over the campus.

At the last minute Mike decided to leave his jacket in the car. We have some serious weather delusions in our house. 

The weather left something to be desired. It was chilly and grey all day and started sprinkling right before kick-off. Luckily the Yellow Jackets trounced Syracuse, and our entire group was in agreement to leave early. Last stop: Taco Mac.

Sunday Mike had to tutor first thing in the morning. I got up in time to make these babies:

Definitely a repeat. They disappeared way too quickly.

I think I'll be sharing that recipe with you soon.

After Mike left I went on a serious cleaning binge. It was much needed. I scrubbed the heck out of the bathroom. It's sparkling now. Lovely. I also tried out some stove-top potpourri from my friend H's blog.

Smelling very H-y in here :)

So while I was scrubbing away, this bad boy was filling our house with the delicious smells of fall. When Mike got home he wanted to drink it. I wish I had gotten a picture of his face as I explained that it was just for smelling, not for eating. Poor guy.

We also made it to TJ's to pick up some pumpkins. I have it set in my mind that we will carve them outside, so until it warms up this is the state the pumpkins will be in:

Our pre-Jacks

Monday night means Moe's for us!! Yay. Today was one of the Monday mornings that I needed an end of day treat to look forward to.

Happy Moe Monday to you too!

Let the Pumpkin-ing Begin!

Source

I don't care if the highs are still in 90's. September means fall. Bring on the pumpkin!

Luckily the hubster had no issues with this so Saturday night became night one of Pumpkin Fest 2013.

Pumpkin Mac n Cheeze

 sauce recipe adapted from The Veganomicon

What You'll Need:
1 c. penne noodles
5 strips of Lightlife Smart Bacon, crumbled
1 Tbs. olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 c. pumpkin puree
1 c. almond pulp
1 c. water
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. turmeric
3/4 c. nutritional yeast
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. yellow mustard
1/4 c. fried onion pieces
Vegan Parmezano sprinkles (optional)
Sprinkle of nutmeg.

Ready to become delicious.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Begin boiling your noodles to al dente. While noodles are cooking, crisp up your bacon. Crumble the bacon into bite size pieces once cooked. Drain the pasta and layer with the bacon crumbles in an oven ready casserole dish.

Now it's time to make the sauce. In a small sauce pan heat the oil over medium heat then add the garlic and cook for a few minutes. Instead of spending the time mincing my garlic with a knife, I've found that grating it with our zester works great. Just make sure you clean it really well after :)

Grate, grate, grate...grate, grate, grate...grate your garlic! (in the tune of shake your booty)

Add the pumpkin, water, and 1/2 c. of almond pulp to your saucepan and mix to combine. I tossed the pulp in a frying pan to help dry it out a bit, but you could skip that step. The almond pulp I'm using comes from my Homemade Almond Milk recipe.  If you don't have almond pulp on hand, you can substitute 2 Tbs. of cornstarch in the sauce and 1/2 c. of bread crumbs in the topping. Or you could just omit it all together. The pumpkin alone should make your sauce pretty thick, and the fried onion will make a great topping on its own.

After 2-3 minutes add the salt, turmeric, and nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast (nooch) is a vegan go-to for a cheese substitute. You can find it in the bulk section of your local health food store. It's kind of mustard yellow color with the texture of fish food flakes. Nooch is high in B vitamins among other things and is a great pantry additions for non-vegans too! Try it sprinkled over popcorn :)

Over the next 2-3 minutes your sauce should cook down and thicken a bit. Next you add the lemon juice and mustard and stir to combine. And you're done. Your sauce is complete!

Pour and spread

Pour the sauce over the noodles and bacon. Spread it with a spoon to distribute evenly. Top with the remaining almond pulp, fried onions, and a sprinkle of parmezano and nutmeg.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Scoop into bowls. I topped my *cough* second bowl *cough cough* with some sriracha for an extra kick. Enjoy!

And don't forget dessert! Homemade pumpkin bread. Delish!

Happy Wednesday and welcome to Fall!