Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

Wait a second, where did my easy week go?! I went from nothing (well, almost nothing) on the agenda to supplying all of the food for Stephen's class Halloween party and a very specific cutesy treat for Joe's party, chili for the trunk-or-treat tonight, check-up for Bracken, carpet cleaning, and a few other odds and ends. This was supposed to be the week of relaxing and doing nothing! Besides baking a cheesecake. Which I am very excited about. Trick-or-treating tomorrow, Happy Almost-Halloween! 

Weekly Menu October 27

Source: Pinterest

This week we have:

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

Vegetable Cheese Chowder

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

For today, Oct 27...

Perfect Apple Crisp

Today I thought I'd give you a short picture visit to the most adorable apple orchard, and one of my new favorite Colorado finds!

 It has kind of a funny name, but Ya Ya Farm and Orchard is as pretty as can be! They grow heirloom apples, which are being revived from an orchard that was planted in the late 1800's, and adding lots of newer varieties, including Honeycrisps, my Mom's favorite, and Ginger Golds, my new favorite.

 Isn't their farm store adorable?? Lots of yummy apple treats and honey from their hives, delicious apple cider, cider muffins,and bushels of already-picked apples. If you want to pick your own apples, especially the heirloom varieties, you have to make a reservation. In January. You better believe I'll be on that list!!

 Plus they have mini cows!! I did not know such a thing existed!!! They're so cuuuuute! 

 But, of course, the baby Percheron was my favorite part. He's taller than ME! He liked nibbling on Joe's shoes. 

 Oh, and apples. Of course. Apples everywhere! I came home with ten pounds of Ginger Golds and this crisp was the first item on my apple treat list. Enjoy!!

Apple Pudding Cake with Toffee Sauce

My pumpkin-loving birthday boy

Time flies when you're REALLY BUSY!!! I can't believe it's Saturday already, where did my week go?? Today we went to the pumpkin patch, which turned out to be the BEST patch EVER!!!

Reasons why:

Dogs allowed, so Bracken got more exercise today than she has in months and made friends with a cow and every little girl under the age of 3

100 acres of pumpkins. That's a LOT of pumpkins, people!

No admission fee

Flat rate, six bucks per pumpkin, no matter how big, so of course my Dad left with half a dozen

Free kid activities

Huge, gorgeous corn maze

Mountain range in the background

Then it was a sprint back home so I could whip up some mac & cheese for the block party and get started on Joe's pumpkin cake. I was going all out, double bundt pumpkin spice pumpkin-shaped cake, inspired by Pinterest (of course):

Source: Country Living

But I only have one properly shaped bundt pan, so I dumped the first layer out before it was cooled, and it collapsed a bit, and by the time it should have been assembled, after hours of a very successful block party (yay neighbors!!) I just didn't care anymore. Slapped some frosting on and called it good. Maybe next year.

By the way, I made my own pumpkin puree this week, and used it in one of the two bundt cakes. The one I chose to frost, actually. We all agreed that the canned pumpkin was significantly tastier. More pumpkin-y, less squash-y. Who knows how those canned pumpkin people do it, but hey! At least I tried it once, right? We ended up scraping the frosting off the first layer and smearing it on the second layer. Much yummier. :)

Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls

I love baking. A LOT. After the PTA welcome meeting where they tried their darnedest to get us to join up and participate and make our kids' lives better by helping with everything, I was a little swayed. But, being the semi-antisocial introvert that I am, that little kernel of motivation manifested as signing up for every possible PTA opportunity that involved food. Because I may be awkward around a bunch of parents I don't know, but by golly I can bake! Sometimes I get a little carried away, and everything has to be creative, everything has to be for the blog, everything has to be photographed, or perfect, or lit correctly, or new... I forget all of my favorites, the things I baked all the time before the blog was born. Yesterday, as I mused about what to bake while writing up my daybook, I decided to make scones, just cuz, just for me, no pictures, and yum. And they were! It was very satisfying. Now I need to freeze half of them so I don't eat all of them, all by myself. Oh, and by the way, the recipe for those spontaneous scones, my absolute favorite Ginger Chocolate Chip scones, is already on here. Lucky you!

Weekly Menu Oct 20

Source: pumpkin-k1sses

This week we have:
Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls
Apple Pudding Cake with Toffee Sauce

Perfect Apple Crisp

For today, October 20...