A Perfect Fall Weekend

What a weekend! We were blessed with phenomenal weather in Chicago this weekend and I managed to talk my parents and sister into driving up here Friday for a rather spontaneous visit filled with food and fun.

After a delicious dinner on Friday at Piazza Bella on Roscoe, we decided to head north to Lake Geneva, WI Saturday morning. The Brat Stop is right there off route 50, so of course I had to take them to this classic where we all enjoyed fried cheese curds, brats, hot dogs and German potato salad. Next we stopped at the Apple Holler (thank you Libby for the recommendation!) where we picked our own 1/2-bushel of apples from the acres and acres of orchards they had. We carefully followed our apple picking map and wandered until we found Cortland, Macoun, Fuji and Golden Delicious apples to pick. The next question is, what on earth am I going to do with all these apples?

We spent the night at a resort called The Abbey and ate seafood at local favorite Popeye's. It was on the drive back this morning that we found the real highlight of the trip: an enormous pumpkin patch that had just opened for picking! It wasn't all that crowded and all you do is you drive your car up the hill through the patch, stop on the side of the path, then go in the field and gather all the pumpkins and gourds your car can hold. It's only $60 for a whole car full! Had we known this we surely would have brought a bigger car.

This was seriously fun. Check us out!














Caution: do not attempt to pick pumpkins in a skirt and flip flops. The patches are full of prickles and bugs.

We had such a great time. This place even offered raspberry picking across the street, but our car was a little full for that by the time we had shifted around every piece of luggage to accommodate the pumpkins.

I loved having my family here and I'm sad they've now headed back to Cincy. But luckily I have a little creature to keep me company...if Peter were in town he would kill me. Doesn't little Hammy look adorable?

Pumpkin Bar Goodness

The plethora of fun Halloween stuff that's appeared at Target really got me in a fall mood this past weekend and inspired me to make a pumpkin dessert. Oh, and the fact that we had accumulated so many heavy cans in our cabinet's lazy susan that it actually cracked in half and we're now trying to eat all the soup, salsa, chili and other miscellaneous canned goods we can.

Anyway, this dessert isn't fancy, but it was scrumptious. The frosting, with a combination of butter and cream cheese, was the perfect balance with the moist cake. I added far more spice than the recipe called for to kick it up a notch. My version of the recipe is below.

Cake Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-oz can pumpkin
2 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Icing Ingredients:
8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (8 Tb) butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sifted powdered sugar, sifted (one of the few times it's critical to sift)
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Add all dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread batter into a greased 13" x 10" baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled bars. Cut into individual servings.

Yield: about 20 squares

Adventures in Smoking

We have literally used our smoker one time. It was back in Cincinnati and the voltage required to keep the thing on blew a fuse in my 125-year old house. It's sat idle for several years, but for some reason Peter was inspired to do Texas barbecue brisket this weekend. Here's the start of the adventure.