Christmas is what you make of it

Happy Holidays from Team Smelkins!

We don't have a kitty, but we put a stocking up for the kitty
we hope to have some day in the future!

Is it Christmas already?! The holidays don't feel as if they even began because they weren't ushered in by the intense amount of family togetherness that I am used to being surrounded by this time of year. Ignoring my opinion on the subject, decorations and presents found their way to the Pacific Northwest and the holiday cheer snuck into our apartment. Honestly, I'm grateful for the care packages that ninja-ed their way into our apartment because it eases the strange heartache I feel about not spending Christmas engulfed by my insane family traditions.

The sight that greets you when you walk in our front door!

Cinnamon scented pine cones! Cinnamon is the best scent of the holidays season.

Reindeer towels & oven mitts (not pictured)

Jingly snow man door hanger

Our Christmas-tree-shaped rosemary plant sunning itself on the window sill!

Christmas presents! Hooray!!!

Christmas presents under our rosemary tree!

Tomorrow (Christmas day) Matt and I will open the presents we've received. Afterwards we're going to watch Home Alone and bake homemade pizza with sausage and zucchini.  For desert we will gorge ourselves on ice cream and the chocolate pumpkin spice cake I baked recently.

Thanks google images

Our plans are no more complicated than that. In the evening, I might wrap the presents we bought for our friends and family just because it seems like such a strange thing to do on Christmas day!

I am excited to start new traditions during our first married Christmas season and to make relaxation & togetherness our #1 priority. This year has been such an incredible and eventful year for us and I am happy to entertain an uneventful holiday season. 

Christmas is what you make of it and this year, it's all about the low key love.

The following is a reading from a small group I participate in that I would like to share with you.

 "Sometimes it's hard to know what to make of Christmas. It seems to have such a multitude of meanings.

Is it only a punctuation mark in the change of the season and the turning of the years?

Or is it only a chance to discover amidst the frenzied, frantic busyness of our lives, a time of stillness and quiet and rest?

Or is it only an excuse to celebrate a little, to indulge ourselves a little, in the abundance of the season -- food and drink and music and gifts shared with family and friends?

Or is it only an evil plot by corporations to keep us forever trapped in a vicious cycle of getting and spending on things we neither truly need nor want?

Or is it only a time to carry on family traditions, whether those traditions still mean much to us or not, because they reconnect us with our childhoods, our families, and all those who have come before us?

Or is it only a time, when the world around us seems cold and barren, to celebrate what is best within the human spirit -- our capacity for love, concern and generosity, not only for friends and family, but for all humankind, especially those who may not share in our abundance?

Or is it only a time when we affirm, that as the sun just began its return on the longest, darkest nights of the year, that there is hope for our own lives and our world even during the darkest times of our lives, a time when we remind ourselves of this hope by decorating everything around us with light, a time when we affirm with our effort that perhaps one day there will be peace on earth and goodwill toward all?

Or is it only a time when we celebrate in story and song the birth of a child born as a savior to his people, a child not born to royalty, but to humble parents in humble beginnings, reminding us in a different way that salvation comes unexpectedly in the unlikeliest of times and in the unlikeliest of places and that love must become incarnate to become real?

Or is it something completely else?"

-- Reverend James Kubal-Komoto, Saltwater Church

Wednesday Wise Up: Farewell Food Funk

I think I am finally out of my food funk. For a while, Matt and I have been subsisting mainly on homemade burritos, fish sticks and ragu spaghetti sauce for dinner. I just haven't been inspired to work in the kitchen and create tasty dinner dishes. 

Monday marked a changed cook in the kitchen. I made poppy seed rolls at lunchtime to eat with sandwich fixings. For dinner, I made a creamy garlic & spinach sauce to go on top of fusilli pasta. Afterwards, I fixed up a chai spice concentrate to put in my tea. On Tuesday, we enjoyed a late lunch of sage-rubbed chicken with roasted butternut squash & pecans. That night we enjoyed hot buttered rum while I tried my hand at making yogurt.

Today, I haven't the time to create anything special but I am plotting deliciousness in the near future - chocolate pumpkin spice cake with caramel sauce and spiced wine. Oh how I love food! Just in case you want to cook and bake along with me, I have the recipes and links I used listed below.

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Poppy Seed Rolls from French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano

Makes 12

1 egg

1 tbsp water

1 1/3 cups plain yogurt

4 tbsps olive oil

2 1/2 cups unsifted flour

2 tbsps sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together egg and water. Reserve. Whip the yogurt and olive oil to a smooth consistency. Sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Make a well and pour the yogurt-oil mixture into the center. Using your fingertips, mix into a smooth dough. Make 12 round rolls and place on baking sheet. Brush with egg/water mixture and top with a sprinkle of poppy seeds. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the rolls are golden.

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Creamy Garlic & Spinach Sauce

Makes about 3 cups sauce, good for 1 lb of pasta

3 tbsp olive oil

4 - 5 cloves garlic

1 bunch spinach or about 2 big handfuls

1/4 - 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (or more to taste)

1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt (or more to taste)

pinch of crushed red pepper (or more to taste)

1 cup heavy cream

1 1/4 cup milk

3 tbsp flour

1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus more to top the pasta

Saute the garlic in the olive oil. Add the spinach one handful at a time and cook until just wilted, seasoning with the pepper, salt and crushed red pepper. Then add the heavy cream and 1 cup of the milk to the pan and heat until boiling. While that heats, whisk together the flour and remaining milk then slowly add it to the sauce, mixing all the while. Reduce heat to a simmer and let thicken, stirring occasionally. Once thick, add the parmesan cheese and stir until it is a homogeneous mixture. Serve over pasta with extra parmesan cheese on top as desired!

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Chai Spice Concentrate

Makes about 28 cups of Chai

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

pinch freshly ground black pepper (optional, but I prefer the concentrate with this additional)


Empty the condensed milk into a jar or plastic container with a tight-fitting lid that you will want to keep the concentrate in. Stir in the sugar, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and pepper. Store in the refrigerator. Mix 2 - 3 tbsp into 1 cup of black tea (preferably Assam or Darjeeling tea). Sip and Enjoy!

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Rubbed Sage Marinade (a recipe from the McCormick Rubbed Sage bottle)

Enough for about 2 or 3 lbs of chicken

3 - 4 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp rubbed sage seasoning

1 1/2 tsp seasoned salt

1/2 tsp garlic pepper

Mix all the ingredients and spread over the entire surface of the chicken pieces, including under the skin. Cook chicken as desired.

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Butternut Squash with Pecans and Blue Cheese by Nigella Lawson
Serves 8 as a side dish


4 1/2 lbs butternut squash
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 stalks fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup pecans
1 cup crumbled Roquefort or other blue cheese
Salt and pepper to taste


Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Halve the squash, leaving the skin on, and scoop out the seeds, then cut into 1 inch cubes; you don't need to be precise, just keep the pieces uniformly small. Put the squash into a roasting tin with the oil. Strip the leaves from 4 stalks of thyme, and sprinkle over the butternut squash. (If you can't get fresh thyme, use dried.) Roast in the oven for about 30-45 minutes or until tender. Once out of the oven, remove the squash to a bowl and scatter the pecans and crumble the cheese over it, then toss everything together gently. Check seasoning and add the last of the thyme, torn into small sprigs to decorate.
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Hot Buttered Rum from Full Circle's Holiday Recipe eBook
Makes about 8 drinks


1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
pinch salt
24 oz dark rum
boiling water

In a bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Refrigerate until almost firm. Spoon about 2 tbsp of the butter mixture into a small mug. Pour about 3 oz of rum into the mug and then top with boiling water.
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Homemade Yogurt

This recipe is a little lengthy, so I will just link the post at The Frugal Girl blog whose recipe I followed exactly. The jar of yogurt I opened this morning was perfectly set and tasty! I can't believe I have let big companies make my yogurt for so long when it is so easy.
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Saturday Share: Thanksgiving come and gone, Wedding!, and Making Friends is Hard To Do

I've been a little neglectful of you, blog world. But my real life has felt super crazy as of late. Do not fear!, I have plenty to update you on but don't expect much insightful commentary. I just don't know if I have it in me tonight. 

Also, just to let you all know, Matthew and I lost the charger for our camera battery. So all the pictures in this post are from our camera phones. Not the most spectacular pictures, but at least they're somethin'!

Okay. So let me start with what has kept me away from you all for so long:

The enchanting wedding of Mr. & Mrs. E (officially!). This wonderful couple was married the Friday after Thanksgiving which made the holiday super hectic and extremely memorable. I felt so special and blessed to be able to share this day with my friends because it had been too long since I had seen the lovely pair AND now we we have newly wed friends! I was so excited to be in their wedding party (my very first time!) and I even did a reading during the ceremony (such a beautiful reading - click here to read). 

During my reading in the ceremony, I proceed to blush violently all over my chest, neck and face (which I didn't notice but is pretty typical for me). After the departing processional, the wedding coordinator hunted me down and gave me cortisone cream because she thought I was breaking out in hives (I'm sure most of the crowd thought so too)! But really, the wedding was amazing and I loved all the Persian dancing. What great memories for everyone to look back on!

While in Houston for the wedding, some of my family was able to drive in to visit which eased the sting of spending my first Thanksgiving away from them. I have been very diligent in requiring my thoughts to not linger on the strangeness of spending holidays without my family of origin (and I know Matt feels similarly). I am so thankful to my mom and grama for coordinating the trip and bringing along my favorite niece!

There were only two major downsides to this trip. Matthew wasn't able to come with me to see our friends and family. Obviously, getting Black Friday as your day off is impossible in the retail world. This also meant the poor boy had to spend thanksgiving by himself (playing video games and eating burritos). The second major pitfall was that there was not enough down time amidst the madness to get in as much super quality friend time that I wanted. Le sigh. You can't win 'em all, eh?

Travelling over the Thanksgiving holiday wasn't as awful as I thought it might be. However, my flight to Houston left 30 minutes later than scheduled so I nearly missed my connecting flight in DFW. I must say, I love running through airports at top speed. My flight back to Seattle was uneventful except for the fact that I forgot how long it takes to wait in line to check a bag - I almost missed this flight altogether because I didn't allot enough time before take off to get myself checked in (I was the last person to board the plane).

On the flight back, there were clear blue skies until we hit the Washington state border (I swear!). Then all I could see from my window seat was clouds and fog. Before we landed, the pilot was giving us an update on the local time and weather and said it was a "nice day" in Seattle with overcast skies and 50 degree weather!

Now it is back to work making money AND friends! Matt and I are both trying really hard to cultivate new friendships to help make us feel more at home in WA. It's not easy when all I can think about is how awesome my friends down South are. In the past, I wasn't so intensely aware of how hard it is to form friendships because school was always the perfect venue to create bonds with other people my age. But now that we have both graduated, we are having to seek other ways of building a support system.

In an attempt to follow through on this notion, we were brave little socialites last night. We were invited to a karaoke bar with a few of my co-workers from Olga's and decided to tag along. At first, things felt a little awkward but the night ended up being a lot of fun for both of us. Karaoke may not be soul searching conversation, but it was a step in the right direction.

Yesterday, I got off work annoyingly early so I had 3 hours to kill before picking Matt up from work. So I drove down to a nearby park to hike around and enjoy the partly sunny day! Here are a few pictures from my trip:

Oh the views from the Seattle Coast!

Such a pretty area!

Wild mushrooms I saw - Anyone know if they're edible?

Fern plants growing from the tree. Strange!

All bundled up in my winter coat and gloves, I hiked around the few miles of trails for about 2 hours. I enjoyed the quiet, the fall leaves under my feet, and the way the trail meandered the small plot of forest in the middle of a city. I was looking forward to stopping by the beach at the end of my hike to watch the sunset over the Puget Sound. I could already tell it was going to be a gorgeous sunset by the orange colored forest floor I was walking on.

As I got nearer to the beach, I saw a park ranger truck slowly driving around and then heard him calling into his megaphone, "Will the owner of the white Toyota please report back to their vehicle. The park is now closed and your vehicle will be locked inside." Eeeek! I panicked, flagged down the ranger, and ran back to the parking lot to collect my car. Apparently the park closed at 4pm and he had already been waiting 15 minutes for me. 

Unfortunately, in my rush to leave and not be locked inside the state park, I completely missed the sunset. I was really bummed about missing out but eagerly anticipate other trail rambling adventures (that will include better park sign reading).

Also, since I am posting pictures, here is one from a few weeks ago when we were experiencing relentless rain. The ground was so saturated that the water started to flood our back sidewalk and courtyard area.

 Another older picture we took on a walk around a nearby neighborhood. I love this mailbox made in the shape of an airplane! Too cute!

Well, I'm sorry this post wasn't more coherent or inclusive. I feel as if so much has happened in the past two weeks. I will be better in the future about updating more often, promise. I have three days off in a row next week, so expect some introspection then.

What we're into this week:

• Matt is playing Skyrim (still) and Saints Row: The Third, which I think is an absolutely ridiculous game but he is really enjoying.
• I'm reading Stephen King's The Eyes of the Dragon. This is my first time reading a Stephen King novel (not counting Duma Key that Matt and I listened to on our insanely long drive to WA) and I am enjoying the experience. King has a unique writing style.
• Here is a quote that has been roaming around in my thoughts lately, "A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting." From the show Doctor Who, stated by the Third Doctor.

Our Six Month Wedding Anniversary

Six months ago on this day, I slept in late and ate cereal for breakfast. Matt and I browsed the internet together and watched a show on netflix. He drove me to a hair appointment at the mall and we picked up Taco Bell for lunch. We stopped by the florist to grab some flowers on the way to visit his parents. It was a seemingly mundane day, but I had a strange feeling that I was going to be married very, very soon.

Late on this breezy Sunday afternoon, Matthew and I found ourselves standing on a porch in the Texas country side surrounded by family and friends. We were anxiously awaiting the words that would release us from the spotlight and into the rest of our lives.

"You may now kiss the bride."

A few nights ago, I was given the opportunity to reflect on this momentous occasion when I was lucky enough to snag some girl time with a friend. When I told B, the soon (as in 10 days) to be Mrs. E, that Matt and I's six month wedding anniversary was coming up she asked, "So what does it feel like to be married for six months?" After a short pause, I responded*:

"I'm married?"

She laughed and seemed surprised. So I back tracked and tried to think of better words for my feelings.

"Ummm, well....how about - 'Who knew marriage was this easy?'"

The feeling I am trying to convey is that life with Matt now doesn't feel any more wonderful or difficult than before. We have always had a terrific, committed relationship and I am pleased that marriage hasn't messed that up! I respect and admire Matt for the things he excels at and I am smitten by the things he really sucks at.

It's not that we don't fight or stumble upon issues, but I feel that we have never been at a loss for compromise or otherwise finding common ground to stand upon together. I expect that our relationship will not always be so amiable, but I know we will always be able to work through life as a team.

This morning I asked Matt what it felt like to him to be married for six months. His first response was "I am the Dragonborn!" (Skyrim reference), which makes me think he doesn't enjoy being put on the spot for this blog. After a few nudges, Matt wrinkled his brow, frowned and said, "What's supposed to be so different from before?" And seeing how my answer wasn't any more inspired, I couldn't argue.

Matt's response might be interpreted for a variety of meanings but (I think) it boils down to the sentiment that life is good now and was good before too and there aren't any foreseen disruptions of the goodness so no worries.

I like it. I like us. Cheers to another happy six months!



*This conversation is remembered to the best of my ability, but I am sure my interpretations and memories aren't exact representations of our exchange.

Saturday Share - Why does the sun hide from me? And other life updates

I have never been more aware of the sad, sad fact that it gets dark early in the North. Last weekend was day light savings which is a time change that never much mattered to me in Texas! In Washington, the sun starts it's rise about 5:30 - 6:00am. Around 2:30pm there are looong shadows on the ground. By 3:30 the sun has officially set. By 5:00pm it is as dark as night time in the city gets which completely messes with my sense of time. And this awful scenario is a day with sunshine!

If it is cloudy all day, then the sunrise is grey, day time is light grey, and night time is extra dark because the clouds block out the moon & stars! I could have been told every single day of my childhood that this is what it was going to be like to live in WA and I never would have been able to wrap my mind around this experience without living it. Why does the sun hide from me? Is this a punishment!?

For many people, the weather directly affects their mood but when you live in a cloudy place like Seattle, you just can't be that type of person. Luckily, I don't think the weather heavily influences my moods (although the lack of sun does make me feel a little extra crazy) but I am positive that it influences my cooking and baking.

Now that the temperature is pretty regularly in the 40's I find myself craving hot foods and beverages more often that not. Baked sweets are making regular appearances in my kitchen crazes - homemade cinnamon rolls, baked apples, sweet potato muffins, banana bread. I am unsure if I am baking to warm the apartment or so that I can eat comfort foods because I am secretly upset about the lack of sunshine, but either way, it is delicious and Matt has requested that it continues!

Today at the store I bought anjou pears, pomegranates, gala apples and Wisconsin cranberries and it felt so nice to be buying seasonal produce. Hopefully we will soon become a part of the community supported agriculture movement here in the area. Maybe we could visit local farms and have farm fresh produce delivered to us! This a hope for the near future so I should probably do more research...

Anyway, work has been very work-like for both of us. We had a Veteran's Day special yesterday at Olga's so we were busy and things were hectic on my 2nd first day waiting tables. I forgot how exhausting it is to run around a restaurant but I am happy to be working! Matt's company is preparing for the Black Friday crush of patrons. Oh consumerist culture, how I dislike you yet desperately need you for my family's livelihood.

Since we only have one car for the two of us, I created a car sharing calendar to keep us organized that we have posted on our cork board wall. We both have varying weekly schedules, so I make it at the beginning of each week and plan out with Matt how to share the car. Neither of our work places are far from where we live - both are between 3 & 5 miles. The difference lies in the fact that there is a bus route directly from our apartment complex to Matt's work. Unfortunately, there isn't a bus route to my work - I would have to catch a second bus and still walk 1/2 a mile to the building.

Fairly often, I am able to drop Matt off and pick him up from work after my shift ends. Sometimes our schedules don't mix and he has to take the bus to or from work (which isn't a very cheap option - it's $2.25 a ride on the route Matt takes). Sometimes I feel guilty because I am sure one or both of us could ride our bikes to work and that would be more eco-friendly than car sharing. Call me a pansy if you like, but it is freaking cold and wet outside. I might try my bike it if it was only one or the other of those ugly weather conditions but together they make riding a no go. So far, we haven't had any glitches with this system of sharing and I hope it stays that way!
 

What we're into this week:

• Matt is playing Skyrim and enjoying most every second.
• I'm reading Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb the second in a series called the Rain Wild Chronicles. It's a pretty decent fantasy novel. Nothing to make my inner fangirl squee but I look forward to the sequel, City of Dragons, which doesn't come out until February 2012.

Well, that's what I have to share today. Keep your eyes peeled for a post celebrating our 6 month wedding anniversary soon! Much love to you all.

Wednesday Wise Up - Work & Weather

With no real topic in mind to write about this week, I have only to update y'all on the basic going-ons of life here. The Halloween holiday came and went without making much of a blip on our radar. We went out the weekend prior to a Halloween party where we dressed up as ninjas and attempted chainsaw pumpkin carving (forgot to take pictures, sorry!). On Halloween, we were planning to attend a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show but I ended up being too sick this entire weekend to go anywhere. Instead Matt stole treats for us from the bowl of untouched candy the neighbors put outside their door and we watched movies.

What we're into this week:

• Matt is playing Dungeon Defenders on his pc and reading Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien in his spare time.
• I'm reading two books
•  The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman in an attempt to keep my career-type knowledge and skills from rusting.
• Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love by Betsy Prioleau which is mostly an anthology of mini-biographies of interesting women such as Mae West, Veronica Franco, Wallis Simpson and Catherine the Great. Very fun read!

This week I started my first of six days of training to become a server at a nearby restaurant called Olga's. Olga's isn't the establishments true name but that is how I want to refer to my place of employment on this blog in the interest of not getting fired for writing unseemly things about the patrons, my fellow team members, or the company (not that I anticipate doing so). 

Olga's is a full service restaurant (not just a bar or buffet) so tipping is the normal 15% - 18% of which I am expected to tip out 3% - 5% to bussers and bartenders. This is all very typical and similar to working in a restaurant in Texas except for the fact that even with the tips I take home, I am paid $8.67 per hour (WA minimum wage) instead of $2.15 per hour (TX minimum wage for servers). I am very pleased by this change in server minimum wage though it comes at the higher cost of living here in WA.

At present, my search for a meaningful job opportunity has halted. I have decided to take a few weeks to adjust and become excellent at the job I do have before I begin searching for a second job. This will also give Matt and I the opportunity to enjoy the downtown Seattle scene more without worrying about our dwindling savings account or the school loans I am obligated to begin repaying in December. 

As for Matt, I believe he is enjoying working full time as a geek. He has risen to an unofficial second in command role in his division which increases the stress level of his job, but will hopefully lead to advancement opportunities in the future! Matt and three of his co-workers were selected to attend a series of "Pre-Leadership" meetings with the management team that he has been enjoying and will hopefully give him an extra boost.

In other news, the weather has turned interesting here. Yesterday morning our car windows were covered in a layer of ice and today there was so much fog Matt could hardly see the road. The mornings are chilly (in the 30's) and the afternoons warm up a bit (to the 50's). This morning, we turned on our apartment heater for the first time to warm our Texan fingers and toes. My mother will be so pleased!

That's life!

Trip to Mount Rainier

Today the weather was forecast as mostly sunny, so we decided visit to Mount Rainier! After a two hour road trip, we were excited to hike around for a bit. Nevermind that we completely spaced on wearing more appropriate clothing for 40 degree weather (like gloves and thick socks). Because of this, we didn't hike up anywhere near the snow but it was beautiful down in the meadow. 

Preview of the pictures to come...!

Our first peek of Mount Rainier on the drive up the mountain.

Despite the fact that it was a Tuesday, there were many visitors taking
advantage of the (mostly) sunny weather.

A nice lady offered to take our picture for us!

Appropriate quote for this beautiful mountain meadow.

Matt with an awesome view of the other mountains surrounding Mt. Rainier.

Waterfall that is 1/2 icicle.

Evergreen decorated by nature with icicles and tiny snow pats.

Almost a clear view of Mount Rainier. Darn those stray whispy clouds!

Just a pretty picture of a beautiful area.

An ice cold tributary flowing down the mountain.

Black tailed deer! We saw bunches of these awesome creatures.

"When James Longmire's daughter-in-law, Martha, first saw this site, she
exclaimed, 'Oh, what a paradise!'" - I concur.

Up close of the meadow foliage. The meadow smelled like huckleberry!
I wish I could bottle that scent and take it home.

A delightful blue/purple flower growing in the meadow.

Saying goodbye to glacial Mount Rainier on the way down.

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed the trip! Maybe one day you can come visit us and see for yourself the beauty of the outdoors that a camera cannot quite capture.

Autumnal Bliss

Gingerbread man tree stump!!

As you may have noticed by my last post, I am very excited to experience the autumnal bliss of living in the North. I am busy planning day trips we may (or may not) be able to take in the coming weeks to see the foliage. You see, Matt's work schedule varies from week to week which makes it difficult to plan anything in advance. And as I will soon join the workforce as well (with a truly unremarkable job as a waitress to fill my time and buffer my bank account until I manage to finagle a career out of this economy), our ability to venture out into the Washington wilderness will be severely limited. On the other hand, it is going to continue to get colder as the season progresses so I probably won't want to be outside that much anyway.


One thing that I do have planned is filling my kitchen with fall food goodies! Apples, squash, pomegranates, and cranberries. Salted Caramel Mochas, Peppermint hot chocolate and Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Ahhhhh, seasonal treats! The other day, I added a new recipe to my autumn arsenal - Sweet Potato Muffins. A few leftover sweet potatoes had me searching the internet for ideas, until I ran across a muffin recipe and smushed a few versions together into the following recipe.

Sweet Potato Muffins

12 muffins 

Ingredients:
1 1/2 - 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
2 eggs

1 cup white sugar (or brown sugar if you have it, which I didn't)
1/2 cup oil
3 tbsp milk
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg (or to taste)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
1/4 tsp ginger (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grab your 12 muffin tin and line it with muffin wrappers or lightly grease the tin. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. In a smaller bowl, gently beat the eggs then add the sugar, oil and milk. Mix wet ingredients to combine then add the mashed sweet potatoes and continue mixing to combine. Finally, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter should be pretty thick and with some lumps. Pour into muffin tin and bake for about 35 minutes.


Just as an aside, Matt ate three of these muffins in quick succession right after they came out of the oven because he loved them so much. We quickly polished off the batch by the third day of our muffin's short lives. When I first made this, it was late at night and I was on a baking frenzy. I just hope I managed to give you all the right recipe notes...I'm making these again tomorrow so I can verify everything (Oh, darn!). If you make a similar dish or have any good ideas about this one I would love to hear about them! I read a suggestion to use 1/2 pumpkin puree and 1/2 sweet potato =D

Anyway, Matt and I still regularly venture out into the state park wilderness in the immediate area. Here are a few pictures from our last trip:

Coastal beach on the Puget Sound.

A sad beached jellyfish the size of my shoe. I (gently) kicked him back to the water.

A random treehouse built into the shoreline trees on a public beach.

And of course, I had to venture up! Neat place, but it
didn't improve the already awesome view.

The forest side of the shore was a wall of some clay-like substance. It
appears to be the preferred place for adolescents to graffiti.

The trail we took leading from the beach into the forest.

And here I am on the trail reppin' UTD Soccer!

A mushroom colony that gives me the urge to hunt for smurfs.

And here is the Matt man in all his goofy glory!

Watching the leaves change

Goodbye Summer. Hello Autumn! 

I have always wanted to witness the leaves turn colors from green to yellow and red; however, in Texas, Autumn means the leaves turn from green to dead without a spectacular show of color. Fortunately, here in our corner of Washington state, I have already seen oodles of yellow, orange, and red leaves. Moving here has finally allowed me to watch the leaves change first hand and I am uber excited!

I've been scouting around for the best color changing trees in our neighborhood over the past week and here are a few I have managed to snap pictures of. I wish I had a fancier camera to take more impressive pictures, but maybe this will encourage you all to come visit us to see the trees in person instead.

Starting to change from green to yellow!

Turning from green straight to red!

Close up of the leaves.

It almost looks like the leaves are smoldering in a fire with those colors.

  

Tiny maple tree but it is turning a beautiful orange/red color

Up close picture of the maple tree's leaves

The colors don't stop at the trees. There are tons of bushes putting
out beautiful red berries! I don't believe they are edible though. 

A gorgeous rose bush I found hiding in the back of the apt complex
with just a few buds and blooms left.

And of course, the evergreens are as green as ever and laden with pine cones!