and you thought the pumpkin fixation was bad

Before I found the mini pumpkins yesterday, I found a bin of dried decorative corn cobs. At first I thought they were kinda boring, but then I spotted some more interesting colours and naturally, I couldn't resist. Especially when I thought (at that time) I'd never find a single mini pumpkin. So I ended up with six corn cobs for not such a bad price (let's not beat around the bush. They were firstly interesting because of their price. I likes the cheap stuffs).

I got home, took eleventybillion pictures of them, and then I thought, now what?

There's one thing I failed to realize about pretty dried corn cobs. How the heck does one decorate with them?

I put the lot of them on a platter on the coffee table. Nope.

I kinda placed them around the house randomly. Extra nope.

In all this moving, I decided the tops of them were just as pretty as the bottoms and stopped to take more pictures (I have a problem, I'm aware).

As I gathered them up, I thought they looked an awful lot like a bunch of flowers.

And so my solution was to stick 'em in a vase. Instant modern corn display. No country corns around here.

I quite like it.

Not that I'm planning a big to-do for Thanksgiving, but I still wanted to spruce the place up for it, you know? This'll make the perfect centerpiece. Along with my mini pumpkins, of course.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

the elusive mini pumpkin

I found them! Simply by chance, mind you. It was one of those, 'OMG! Is that a bin of pumpkins?! Stop the car!' moments. Check out the Meadows location of this store if you're looking for some. I love them so much, I now have a boatload of mini pumpkin pictures. So... 

On with the mini pumpkin fest!

lost and found

I found this picture in a parking lot this morning. I wonder if someone accidentally dropped it or purposely threw it away because it turned out blurry. I actually really love it. Blur and all. I think I'm even going to find a frame for it despite its bumps and bruises.

I also spotted a bin full of beautiful mini pumpkins of various proportions. Just what I've been looking for! Then I got closer, and discovered they had silly faces painted on them. The paint scratched off, but I didn't really want to pay $3 per tiny pumpkin while simultaneously encouraging retailers to think that people actually want ugly silly faced pumpkins. Gross.

carrot pudding

We don't eat a lot of carrots. Or at least, we didn't until I started peeling, washing, and cutting up bags of carrots into bite-sized carrot sticks. Now we go through a small bag every two weeks.

This week, I decided to take the plunge and buy a five pound bag. We'd normally never get around to eating all of that. There's no way. I would have had to make a huge batch of carrot soup -- my usual go-to meal after I notice my bag of carrots have gone limp and rooty in the bottom of the vegetable drawer.

So I got this five pound bag and diligently peeled and cut roughly about half of it into carrot sticks. I left a few of the larger carrots because I would like to make some soup eventually. It is fall afterall.

Having carrot sticks around has actually been really handy. We've not only been eating them raw, but it's made adding them into other meals super easy and super fast. Just last week, I took the handful or two that was left in the bag, blanched them, and sauted them with some maple syrup, ginger, garlic, and butter. They were so delicious, I wanted them all in a bowl just for me. Idle Husband could eat the meatloaf himself. Surely.

This week, I decided to try a recipe I found ages ago for carrot pudding. It was kind of a stretch for both of us. I'm not that keen on carrot salads involving cinnamon or raisins. There's just something wrong with that. Like sweet potatoes and marshmallows. I've never had it, but it really makes me cringe. And Idle Husband only likes to eat carrots for the crunch not the taste. Oh well. You only live once, right?

Be forewarned, this took forever to cook. I didn't have the patience to stand and stir the pot every few minutes, so I went back and forth to the kitchen every 10 minutes for an hour. Yes, an hour. It took a long time for anything to reduce and even after the hour, it wasn't really that reduced. Maybe it's because, as usual, I used powdered milk (like I do in all recipes requiring milk, unless it's intrinsically the base flavour), I don't know. The good thing? It firmed right up after sitting in the fridge for the afternoon.

I omitted the saffron threads. I'm sure they're good. Honestly, I've never had them. I've heard they're expensive, so I've never even bothered to look for them. I'm too cheap. Finally, I used my hand blender and gave this a small blend once it was done cooking. Not too much, but I started to worry my carrot shreds were a little too large. My food processor tends to produce a larger grate than a box grater. The sprinkle of pistachios (pistachi-yums, ammiright?) were good, though it didn't need it. I couldn't imagine having it with vanilla ice cream as suggested. It's perfect just the way it is.

And surprisingly delicious. Even Idle Husband liked it, and he knew it was all carrot going into it. I found it very sweet so having a smaller portion is quite enough (mine made four servings, but two of them were a little on the tiny side). And since I haven't actually had real sugar for almost a month, I totally had a sugar high, giggle-fest about an hour later. Sugar gets me like that sometimes.

Friday fixations

I improvised this delicious dinner last night based on this recipe here. I've been wanting to make it forever but I just wasn't finding pork chops cheap enough (for me). Anyway, I only pan fried these since my pork chops were of the quick cook skinny variety and skipped the oven step which made this a super quick meal. I also swapped the cider vinegar for balsamic (because there are only so many vinegars I can purchase), the shallot for a small onion, the thyme for simple salt and pepper, and the pure maple syrup for the, uh, Aunt Jemima variety. So yum, I'll probably improvise it again in the future.

Oh, quick tip I picked up in a comment section somewhere: brush your meat with oil and then sear in a dry pan. I tried it out on the pork chops and I thought it was much better than coating the whole pan in oil. I used the oil only where I needed it which reduced the amount of smoking and reduced the amount of oil I used without sacrificing any flavour.

Current fixations:

{rock yards} As seen on a lazy Saturday afternoon of driving around, snooping at yards. The only thing I would do differently is that I would NOT use varying junipers or juniper-esque plants (surprised? And just as an aside, after painting the house trim behind the junipers, my legs look like someone beat me with a bag of oranges. I still have to do a second coat, but my bruises hurt so much I've been putting it off all week). So I think this would look much more modern with a variety of interesting prairie grasses, bamboos, succulents, and leafy perennials.

{nail polish} Joe's fall colours, to be precise. I spotted them on the website a while ago, but only found them in the store yesterday. I bought Fog and Storm, but I wish they would have also had the Orchid colour left because I really like that shade, too. I've been looking for a nice grey nail polish forever so it was so great to find one that's not only really pretty but also affordable.

{skinny jeans} No; I still haven't found a pair, but I'm trying them on like a madwoman. Mom came for a visit on Wednesday, and without planning it, we found ourselves at the Bay. I tried on a few pairs and again there seems to be an issue between waist size and hip size. I really want to find the new improved Levi's jeans, Curve ID. I hear they've discovered that women aren't built like a brick house from their hips up and we actually curve in at the waist (whoa! revolutionary breakthrough for jean manufacturers). I thought they had them at the Bay but apparently not at the Southgate store. One good thing that came out of it was that everything I tried on was slightly too large which was a huge boost to the ego.

{socks and sandals} I used to think this was so dumb, but now I'm really loving the idea (when done the right way). It's kind of the perfect thing for this weather. Especially if you're like me and freeze to death whenever your feet are unsocked.

{the pumpkin pie blizzard} This is the only time -- the ONLY time -- I'd break my rule and go to Dairy Queen. The pumpkin pie blizzard is the most fantastic blizzard they sell and it's only available for a limited time. That's probably a good thing, actually, and thank god for the new mini size.

{plants vs zombies} for the XBox. I know, I know. I totally played the hell out of this for the PC, but when it came out on the console, we couldn't help ourselves and bought it again. The best part? We can play cooperatively or against each other which is the number one thing I look for in a game. The only other thing I wish it had is more achievements. I'm not necessarily an achievement whore, but it gives you something hard to work at. The most I'm working at now is my endless score (if only my PC flag count of 92 could transfer over) and figuring out how to beat Idle Husband since he always kicks my ass no matter if he's a zombie or a plant.

{black purple} Mom sent me this picture of her black chokecherry tree against her yellow crabapple tree and I just can't get enough of it. I wish it were my picture, actually. Those black leaves against that yellow?! Gorgeous! I was really smitten with the bright reds and yellows of the season, but now I can't get enough black purple. This is definitely a potential new backyard tree.








{do-it-yourself handwriting} When I saw this post recently, I loved it so much that I honestly want to write over all of my pictures now. I don't know whether it's their actual handwriting or a font made to look like awkward handwriting, but I don't think it matters. It looks so much more personal and makes me feel like I'm being transported back to the days of receiving pretty letters in the mail. A personal touch is so important, and I'm really loving the blogs who get that.

{miniature pumpkins and squashes} When are the mini pumpkins coming out?! When?! Someone tell me! I want to buy them and have a nice little tabletop display. Yes; in previous years, I thought they were pretty useless, but this year I want them piled in a bowl on my table. I managed to get a miniature butternut squash and an acorn squash, but I was literally picking from the bottom of the barrel. Where have all the pumpkins gone?! (Gross. I just sang that to the tune of this.)