it's beginning to look and smell and taste like fall....

as much as i LOVE LOVE LOVE summer and i mourn through the month of september that the days are getting shorter and the pool time is over....i do begin to embrace and welcome fall once october hits!  we've been getting in the fall mood around here:

a beautiful tree on our chilly walk

we've been doing a lot of "fall" baking too:

pumpkin cranberry granola bars 

you can find the recipe here on kate's blog.  (all of her recipes are great!)

 pumpkin muffins

(the reason these look cute and packaged is because we took them as gifts to my cousin who had a baby and my brother/ sis-in-law) i'll try to remember to post the pumpkin muffin/ bread recipe later. it is easy and oh soooo delicious!!

 individual apple pies  

i saw this on pinterest and had to try it.  it was fun!  you can find the recipe here with more step by step and pics.  

i just bought a pie crust mix since i wasn't sure how long it would take me but the recipe gives you one if you want to make your own.  

crock pot applesauce

you can find recipe here but these are our quick pics of the process

it made our house smell so good and i loved to eat it hot!

one thing i might add about our batch:  we used all granny smith and it turned out a little sour...we added more brown sugar but it might be nice to use a combo of apples so you get a more sweeter flavor without having to use sugar

another sign of fall...chilly mornings at the soccer fields:

oh and making fires in the fireplace...this is one of our favorite fall/winter things- there is just something cozy and sentimental and homey about a fire in the fireplace..it barely has to get below 60 for me to want to make a fire....the boys LOVE it too

we even roasted marshmallows and this is now a favorite of samuel's

and just one more fall pic:  sweet brothers at church on a fall morning

yummy dip (chuy's creamy jalapeno dip)

my friend elicia makes this amazing dip! so on our visit to see the hull's we decided to try it. i didn't do step by step pics but you'll get the idea. i'll include the recipe at the bottom. and it makes a TON!

and it tastes sooooo unbelievably good with these yummy tortillas from FRESH:

Chuy's Creamy Jalapeno Dip

1 quart mayonnaise

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup jalapenos (canned) and a little juice

1 cup green tomatillos (canned)

1/2 bunch cilantro

3 packs Original Hidden Valley Ranch Mix

*drain jalapenos and tomatillos really well

*mix ranch mix and buttermilk together first

*put all ingredients in the blender or food processor and mix

ENJOY!

typical evening

while i make this...

samuel ties things with a rope in his new cars pj's that he wanted to try on (thanks mimi!)...

and benjamin crawls around and plays with his bottle and gets into things....

easy bar-b-que chicken pizza:

make the dough or buy a ready- made pizza crust

spread your favorite bar-b-que sauce

pull apart a bar-b-que flavored rotisserie chicken

spread on top of pizza

add shredded mozzarella cheese & red onion (you could add jalapenos like schlotzsky's)

bake 475 for 8 minutes or until cheese is melted

enjoy!

ps i learned this recipe years ago from leigh vickery :)

coffee pound cake

so it's monday afternoon around 4 and i am CRAVING something baked! i had no box cakes or cookie mixes and not enough chocolate chips to whip up some from scratch cookies. so i started flipping through a cookbook and got the idea of making a pound cake (since i had all of the ingredients) and i ALWAYS want something coffee flavored. side note: i think i am slightly obsessed/ addicted to coffee and coffee flavored things. anyway, i did a web search and found this recipe. i made the pound cake and it is good! how bad could it be with FOUR sticks of butter?! i cooked it a little too long for my taste but overall i would make it again.

my tips: i cooked it at 340* instead of 350* and i only cooked it for 75 min instead of 90 min. next time i will only cook it 60 min. it would be great served with raspberries or strawberries and even some homemade whipping cream. and of course a cup of decaf coffee would really round it off!

and just for fun...a little treat for samuel's teachers: just cut two generous pieces, stick them in a bag and tie off with some string. (the cake makes so much it's fun to give some away!)

easy chicken-n-dumplings

my sister shared this recipe for chicken-n-dumplings that she learned from her mother-in-law. i make it a lot during cold weather and it is super easy, filling, makes a ton and is only 3 ingredients.

first create a stock with chicken. you could boil a whole chicken and create your own stock but i use 4 bouillon cubes and 8-10 frozen all natural chicken tenderloins added to a large pot of water. i find the tenderloins are easy, we always have them and they cook quickly. so bring your pot of water, the bouillon cubes and tenderloins to a boil...cook until chicken is cooked through. i think this takes 15-20 minutes-ish. i usually turn the heat to medium. you don't really need to rapidly boil your chicken or i think it gets chewy.

then remove the chicken and set aside.

now begins the only labor-intensive part of the whole thing...pinching off little bits of dough and adding it to the stock. for a large pot of water i use 4 cans of biscuit dough. (you could make your own dough if you wanted a more natural/ homemade dough.) it seems like a ton but it works!

pinch tiny little balls off and add directly to the stock. i keep the stock on medium this whole time stirring the dough balls often so that they all get rotated into the hot water.

after you pinch all the dough off, your chicken has probably cooled enough to handle. i just shred the chicken but you could chop it into bite-sized pieces. add it back to the pot. add salt and pepper to taste. now turn the heat to med/low. just let it thicken.

i find it takes about 30 minutes to thicken up. somehow the biscuit dough makes the whole pot creamy. (the next day after it's refrigerated it is very very thick..it thins a little after it's heated)

and that's it! enjoy! the picture below is only after about 30 minutes of thickening...it will get thicker.

ps my friend, kate, tried this recipe with crescent rolls and it didn't work out. :)