Favorite Fall Foods

I If you haven't noticed, I love Fall themed foods...
Below are some of my favorites from this Fall. If you want a recipe, let me know!!

Cran-Apple Oatmeal Bake

Recipe adapted from Mrs. Meeker! Thanks for sharing this awesome dish! I've changed a few things and even added pears one time...very tasty!

Maple Roasted Butternut Squash

Delicious and so easy! Just toss the chopped squash with maple syrup and bake at 400 until tender.

Corn Chowder (or as Jake calls it - Fire Soup)

It took me 3 attempts at making this chowder to perfect the recipe! The first 2 times, it was extremely spicy! The first time I made it I added 2 T. cayenne pepper and the last time I made it, I only added 1/4 t. of cayenne! I usually make a pot of this on Sunday night and take it to work for my lunches all week since Jake isn't a fan of the cayenne - but he did like it the 3rd time I made it!

Homemade Applesauce

Hand-picked organic apples...so good!  Of course I tried the hot applesauce on top of vanilla ice cream with cinnamon and oats!

Fall Is Here!

One reason why I love Fall so much is because it is so festive! I absolutely love Fall foods - carmel apples, soups, squash, pumpkin, and all the other seasonal treats. To bring in the Fall season, Jake and I went to the Organic Apple Festival on Saturday and we had a blast. 

The festival was at the Rodale Institute which is a farm just down the road from our place. We took a wagon ride tour of the farm and I really enjoyed learning about all of the history - the farm originally belonged to William Penn. The farm is devoted to researching best practices in organic agriculture and they currently have the longest-running agriculture research study in the US. The study compares conventional chemical agriculture to organic methods. I think it is interesting that what they have found so far is that organic yields equally match conventional yields and it outperforms conventional in drought and environmental distress. I'm sure I'll be visiting this farm again!

In addition to the wagon ride, we enjoyed apple cider floats and other fall foods from organic vendors. We also picked 16 pounds of apples! I already made applesauce with all the apples...it freezes well and I love heating it up and enjoying hot homemade applesauce (loaded with cinnamon) in the fall and winter.

Apple Picking!

After church on Sunday, we went to a local farmers market and then enjoyed a long afternoon picnic at the Lehigh Parkway. I love the multiple farmers markets in our area. It is so nice to buy local meats, eggs, and veggies!

Jake and Tyler walking in the creek...

Love the really old covered bridge at the park. It was built in the 1800's.

As I am finishing up this post, I just want to say that I am already enjoying my hot applesauce on top of ice cream with cinnamon and oats. yum!

PS - SO excited to say that Jake and I have a new niece today! Congrats to Zach and Catherine on the birth of Mallory Kate! We can't wait to meet her!!

Life Updates

I meant to post this on Sunday evening, but we didn't have power!

I realize it has been a while since I have shared news about what has been going on with Jake and I lately. Here it goes:

In June, I posted about how we had an offer on our house in Nebraska...well we officially sold the house and closed on the offer at the end of July. The buyer was a little difficult and tried to take as much out of the deal as possible. We felt like we got walked on, but when it was all said and done we were happy to have sold the house.

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I got a job! I am working at Lehigh University as an Event Coordinator. Last week was my first week and I am really excited about this new opportunity. It seems like it is right up my alley because I will be doing some event planning, college recruiting, marketing, and other fun things. I will never forget my first day of work because we felt the earthquake that started in Virginia! Feeling the building move was the strangest feeling. We all had to evacuate until it was safe to go back in. Lehigh is a gorgeous campus with  old buildings. I can’t wait to bust out my camera when the leaves start changing this fall! The campus is set on a mountain so everything is either up or down hill. I definitely wore the wrong shoes the first day of work...I wasn’t prepared for the hiking!

This is the admissions building...its a gorgeous campus!

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I have really enjoyed berry picking and the local farmers markets this summer. There are so many places to buy produce and eggs from local farms. I picked lots of raspberries and blackberries and canned raspberry jam and made a few blackberry pies. Here is a picture of my most recent farmers market finds:

I had never had eggplant before, but I decided to try it out. I made eggplant parmesan and I absolutely loved it. I have been finding more ways to prepare it and I can't wait to get another one soon! The peppers have been a great addition to my salads for lunch.

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My 23rd birthday was on Friday. I couldn't make up my mind about where I wanted to go for my birthday dinner, but I finally decided on Chick-fil-a. I was originally thinking we would get dressed up and do something fancy, but I really just wanted Chick-fil-a, so that's what we did! It was delicious, as always! After dinner, we went to the Lehigh Valley Velodrome with some friends to watch some bicycle racing. I had never been to a velodrome before (it's a bicycle race track)...and it was SO fun! The race we went to was the season finale of the World Series of Bicycling. It's a pretty amazing sport to watch.

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The effects of Hurricane Irene have been seen in our area. As I am typing (I'm offline), I am sitting by a candle with no electricity. Church was canceled this morning because of the high winds and flooding. We have also had some flooding in the area. My heart goes out to all of the people that were closer to the hurricane and experienced severe weather...hopefully the damage isn't too bad. Since the power is out, I haven't watched the news to hear how bad it has been. Our townhouse has a gas stove, so I was still able to make dinner. Before we lost the sunlight, Jake and I played a competitive game of scrabble...I lost by 3 points!

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Caleb got moved in at Tennessee Tech last weekend! I can't believe he is in college already! I am so happy for him as he starts this exciting chapter of life. 

Jake and I are looking forward to going to Knoxville this weekend! I hope we have good weather so we can enjoy the lake! I am sure there have been other exciting things going on in our lives, but that is all I have for now!

Make Your Own Mayo

I've never liked mayonnaise...never will. But, I am married to a man that eats it on his sandwiches! I decided that since I already have all of the ingredients for homemade mayo in my kitchen, why not try to whip up a batch for him! I can't tell you if this recipe is good or not since I don't like mayo, but Jake seems to like it.

Ingredients:
2 Egg Yolks
1 T Apple Cider Vinegar
1 t Dry Mustard
1/2 t Salt
1 1/4 c Olive Oil

Directions:
Using a whisk, mix yolks, vinegar, mustard, and salt. Add olive oil drop by drop at first and then graduating into a thin stream.

To Do List of Things I've Never Done Before!

There are so many things that I want to try!

ð        Start my garden (herbs, tomatoes, beans, peppers, garlic, etc)

ð        Make homemade, organic and all-natural plant food

ð        Grow sunflowers and wildflowers

ð        Make homemade Mayo (I think Mayo is disgusting, but Jake puts it on sandwiches)

ð        Make homemade Ketchup (Another staple of Jake's)

ð        Make homemade deodorant

ð        Make homemade face wash

ð        Make homemade oven cleaner

ð        Sew curtains

ð        Sew pillow covers

ð        Make and can homemade tomato sauce

ð        Make and can homemade applesauce

ð        Make and can homemade apple butter

ð        Make homemade Worcestershire sauce

ð        Make homemade hummus

ð        Make homemade butter

ð        Grow sprouts

ð        Make homemade bug spray

ð        Start composting

I'm sure there are several other things, but I'm out of ideas at the moment. Can't wait to start crossing some of these things off my list!