Muffins and Tea

Muffins are pretty good right? I like a nice lemon poppy seed or chocolate walnut as much as the next gal, but I never truly loved a muffin until now. Enter the rosemary strawberry buttermilk muffin from Local Milk!

Potato Leek Soup And Go Mighty Goals

My cooking soup obsession continues.

This time as promised, my version of the Potato Leek Soup Vanessa posted about over at A Fanciful Twist.

It is my version because although my soup was inspired by hers, I sort of did a few things differently. First off, I was pretty lazy and wanted to make everything in one pan instead of two, so out came my trusty dutch oven. (Also, to be honest, the kitchen was already pretty messy so I wanted to add to the mess as little as possible).

My version also differs in that it has bacon! Why not add bacon I say?

What Have I Been Up To?

This:

This:

And a lot of this:

Oh and pumpkins!

There has also been much decorating for Halloween (even though it is so warm here you wouldn't know it was fall), so pictures of that soon!

Soup, Bread, And An Etsy Sale

Things I accomplished today:
-wrote a paper
-took down Halloween decorations
-made a delicious loaf of bread
-made the most cobbled together soup ever

I am actually pretty proud of my soup. I had two little sugar pumpkins hanging out. I had one red onion. I roasted them and then added them to some garlic sauteed in butter. I didn't have any plain chicken broth, but I did have a can of chicken and vegetable soup, so that went in the pot. A little, milk, salt, and pepper. A few wazzes with the immersion blender (my first time ever using it, yay!). And viola, one yummy, albeit random, pumpkin soup!

All in all it was a very pro active day!

So I am totally tired of my blog's look. I want it to be prettier with a cute header or background or something. I know you can download free ones, but I want something simple, but personalized to my blog. I have neither the time nor skills to do this so I am asking for help. I know a lot of you out there have cute blog stuff that you made yourself and I would be willing to trade art and or tea stuff for some assistance! If you are interested please let me know.

Also, everything from the buried series in my Etsy shop has been marked down ten dollars! and on top of that, if you use the coupon code PIRATES you will get free shipping on anything! Seriously, I just want to get some of that stuff out of there.

Tea Party And Oktoberfest

Well as usual I slacked off and didn't get a post up before I went on my trip this last weekend and then when I got back I got sick and so have been out for a few days. Anyhoo, here is some stuff that I wanted to post before I left. I don't have many pictures of the trip, they are mostly of the concert, but I can post some of those later if anyone is interested.

Fall inspired food and a mini fall tea party are delightful this time of year.

Oktoberfest on Mt. Lemmon.

New canisters from Goodwill, baking, and a furry who can't have any cookies.

Bread And Basil

I decided to make bread! I have made bread using a bread machine before, but never by hand. It was quite exciting.

Waiting for it to rise....

eating it fresh from the oven....

I had some yummy tomatoes so I made a dish from my Jamie at Home cook book to go with my bread.

I don't really make lots of dinners at home, but it is so satisfying.

The tomatoes came from Trader Joe's. What is it about Trader Joe's? I cannot go in there without ending up with a ton of stuff. I don't know if it is the packaging or what, but I am willing to spend more money on something at Trader Joe's than I would at the regular grocery store. I guess I am just a sucker for their vibe. Anyway sometimes things are actually a better deal. Like these awesome tomatoes.

They were the same price as a container of cherry tomatoes at my grocery store, but that container was bigger and the tomatoes were prettier and yummier!

I guess that is just my little love letter to Trader Joe's. I wish I could shop there more, but I spend too much money.

Here is the first dinner I had after I got the tomatoes. I also got an actual basil plant there, so I wouldn't have to keep buying little amounts of basil.

Delicious.