I just spent a glooorious hour at Iron Kettle Pumpkin Farm, only the best and weirdest pumpkin farm in upstate NY.
We checked out the pumpkin displays..
Harry Potter, Harry Potter. Harry Potter, Harry Potter. Ron, Ron, Ron, Ron WEASLEY.
Then we visited the animals.
Took the obligatory face-in-hole photo.
And picked out some pumpkins to take home!
I can’t WAIT to carve mine!
Hi friends! I am so very happy to be sitting on my couch at *home* in good old Endicott, NY. I am currently on a three-day mission to combine as many fall festivities with time spent relaxing/lazing/sleeping as humanly possible. So far we are off to a great start, with a morning spent at Fly Creek Cider Mill, a nice little afternoon nap, and a trip to Target to buy out the halloween section. Here are some pictures from Fall Fest 2010:
Today was the perfect fall day. Sunshine, cool breezes, foliage. Did I say foliage? Just you wait till next week’s Wildlife Wednesday 🙂
Tomorrow = pumpkin farm. Ooooh baby.
*PS – I am not even going to try to take credit for these photos. They were taken by my fab sister Emily on her absolutely FAB camera. Jealous, jealous, jealous.
On Sunday, Mike and I were greeted by the smell of freshly-baked toasted coconut scones.
They were the softest, moistest, most delicious scones my taste buds had ever encountered. Usually I don’t like scones because they are too dry/ing, but these Nantucket-innkeeper-scones were the opposite of that. Skye the innkeeper – saint that she is -provided me with the recipe! You can imagine my excitement.
Obviously I baked them within 3 days and obviously I added pumpkin.
The secret? Copious amounts of heavy cream.
Heavy cream + pumpkin. Mmmmmm.
I also got to use my vintage (ahem..found for 3 dollars at a flea market) pastry cutter.
Here’s the recipe. Thanks, Skye!
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, very cold
1 cup heavy cream
*For my version, I substituted 1/2 cup heavy cream for 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, and added some nutmeg and cinnamon as well)
Instructions
Mix together the dry ingredients, then add the butter using a pastry cutter (or, grate the butter in a box grater and toss it in) until it is in pea-sized crumbs. Fold in the heavy cream using a spatula until just combined. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes in a round cake pan, then cut in diagonals to serve.
Or… use a biscuit cutter (also vintage = flea market find)
Pumpkin scuffins!
Today is one of my favorite days, the first official day of fall! I have been waiting oh so patiently for this day so that I could begin my journey into all things pumpkin. You see, I’m the type of person that gets SUPER excited/obsessed about something, overdoes that thing, gets sick of it 2 days later and vows never to listen/watch/eat/do it again. This includes favorite songs, favorite books, favorite movies, favorite friends (true), favorite foods, favorite drinks, and favorite times of year. In order to avoid the obsession sickness around the holidays, I have instituted two rules beginning Sept 1st.
1. No pumpkin things until the first day of fall. This also includes no autumn-colored M&Ms and certainly no pumpkin farm visits.
2. No Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving. No decorations, Christmas baking, or red and green M&Ms either. This has become quite difficult as radio stations now play Christmas tunes starting sometime around Easter.
In this way I give myself a limited amount of time to enjoy pumpkins and/or the Christmas spirit, and therefore do not overdo it or, even worse, get sick of it! *Pat on the back*
I should also mention that my obsession with all things pumpkin started last fall and was, in fact, the inspiration to start this blog. That being said, my list of pumpkin things I need to make has been growing for about a year now and I’m beyond excited to get baking. First on my list is pumpkin whoopie pies, but because I’ll be out of town this weekend I might have to start with something a little easier instead. Perhaps a loaf of pumpkin bread.
Happy Fall!
The Sweet Life 