Black Oak Art Opening

This weekend we are hosting a Christmas Open House for Black Oak Art. We are taking advantage of this season to start our little business. My husband Jonathan is an artist. He is a potter and a painter and a teacher.

We are opening the doors of our 2 bedroom back house as studio space to be rented out to local artist.

We want to be a community of local artist. A place where artist can create, meet together and feed off of the life that comes from doing things in community, where non-artist or aspiring artist of all ages can take classes and learn and grow, and a place that sells quality, unique, beautiful handmade art.

If you are in the area tomorrow, feel free to come by and check us out and have a cup of coffee.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Denver with Jonathan's family. Jack had so much fun, we've spent today detoxing from all the excitement. He loved playing with his three cousins and time with grandma, grandpa, and great grandma.

Claire and Grandma

Jack loves icing--just like me!

My handsome boy blowing a whistle


There was some left over snow for us to play in

Claire and Jack loving an early Christmas

Last Monday Pumpkin recipe

I have two last pumpkin recipes that have been a hit this Fall, a pumpkin bread and the classic pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The cookies I've been making for years and are a favorite and the bread is a new recipe I found this year and it was a huge hit! It makes enough for two loafs which is nice to have some at home and some to share.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Original Recipe Yield 2 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Pumpkin Bread

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs, lightly bean
• 16 ounces canned unsweetened pumpkin
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 2/3 cup water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 9 by 5 loaf pans. Stir together sugar and oil. Stir in eggs and pumpkin. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. Blend dry ingredients and water into wet mixture, alternating. Divide batter between two loaf pans. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool.

Pumpkin Enchiladas...a day late

Sorry I didn't make it to blogging yesterday, however, I am here now and with the promised pumpkin recipe of the week.

This is one of our families favorite fall and winter meals, from one of my favorite cookbooks, Every Day Food Fast, I think it could be a good use for some left over turkey too. The pumpkin in the sauce blends in well and you are left with a yummy sauce, that isn't too pumpkiny.

Spicy Enchiladas with Pumpkin Sauce

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1/2 rotisseri chicken skin removed, meat shredded
• 6 scallions, thinly sliced
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 jalapeno chile, quartered (remove ribs and seeds for less heat, if desired)
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 8 corn tortillas (6-inch)
• 1 1/2 cups grated sharp white cheddar cheese (6 ounces)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine chicken and scallions. Season generously with salt and pepper; set aside.
2. In a blender, puree pumpkin, garlic, jalapeno, chili powder, 2 1/2 cups water, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper until smooth (hold top firmly as blender will be quite full). Pour 1 cup of sauce in the bottom of an 8-inch square (or other shallow 2-quart) baking dish.
3. Lay tortillas on work surface; mound chicken mixture on half of each tortilla, dividing evenly. Roll up tortillas; place, seam side down, in baking dish.
4. Pour remaining sauce on top; sprinkle with cheese. Place dish on a baking sheet; bake until cheese is golden and sauce is bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Pumpkin Scones

One of my favorite pumpkin treats in the fall are pumpkin scones from Starbucks. I found this recipe online and was so excited when they were easy to make and delicious (I actually like them better than the ones from Starbucks!) When I made these I only made the white powder sugar glaze and drizzled it on--for a less sweet version, however, I think if you use the icings like she suggest, they would probably be even more like the Starbucks ones.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Scones

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 7 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 6 tablespoons cold butter
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tablespoons half-and-half
• 1 large egg

Powderered Sugar Glazze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole milk

Spiced Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch ginger
• 1 pinch ground cloves

1. TO MAKE THE SCONES:.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
3. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife, fork, or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball.
5. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet.
6. Bake for 14–16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.
7. TO MAKE THE PLAIN GLAZE:.
8. Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk together until smooth.
9. When scones are cool, use a brush to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone.
10. AS THAT WHITE GLAZE FIRMS UP, MAKE THE SPICED ICING:.
11. Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

30 min | 15 min prep

6 scones

Pumpkin Monday

For the month of November I am going to post a different pumpkin recipe every Monday. I love pumpkin (oddly enough, pumpkin pie isn't one of my favorites, but everything else I love!) and in my quest to cook with pumpkin as much as I can in the fall, I have collected a few recipes that my family really likes, so I thought I would share them. I am going to try to stick with some that are more unusual, but I may sneak in a few classics.
My personal goal, besides sharing these recipes with you, is to try as many new pumpkin things as I can over the next month or so.

So here's to pumpkin!

Cheese Ravioli with Pumpkin Sage Sauce

1/3 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup shallots*
10 oz Alfredo Sauce
1/2 cup canned 100% Pumpkin
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage or 1 teaspoon ground sage
18-20 oz Four Cheese ravioli**
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
*in a pinch onion works great
**I use the Hillcountry Fare frozen four cheese ravioli (from HEB) but any brand frozen will do, or the Buitoni refrigerated kind

Cook wine and shallots in medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced to about 1 tablespoon. Stir in sauce, pumpkin, and sage. Cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Prepare pasta according to package directions; drain, reserving 1/4 cup cooking water. Stir reserved water into sauce; toss with pasta. Sprinkle with green onion and season with ground black pepper.
Makes 4 servings.

Fall Happenings

This beautiful young lady has made this a wonderful Fall.

Claire Elizabeth 2 1/2 months

One of the best parts about living in Waco is getting to participate in all the Baylor stuff. Homecoming was a couple of weeks ago and we took the kids out to the parade with our dear friends the Walkers. Here are the boys giving a big "Sic Em Bears" with their dads.

We are so blessed to live in between two wonderful families that both have boys around Jack's age. When its pretty outside the boys like to play out front in our yard when the dads all come home from work. This is Jack learning about being tackled.

We went to a turkery shirt painting party--Claire was a champ to let me paint her palm!

Halloween

We went to Houston to visit my mom for a week and spent Halloween with them as well. Jack had so much fun! Their neighborhood has a little party, complete with bouncy slide, hot dogs, a firetruck and a parade! It was literally everything Jack loves! Jack was a bear as you can see, and Claire was our little ballerina. I think they were the youngest trick or treaters and they were a hit! It brought back such great memories for me as a kid and was great making new memories with our family.

Life with Two

I have literally been trying to write this post for a month( in fact I still didn't get this post out until three days after I wrote it). Of course, now it is a completely different post then it would have been then, but it is at least a post and hopefully a catch up.

That is how its been --wonderful, busy, exciting, overwhelming, constant, unending, and better and harder than I could have imagined!

I love Claire, she is a really great baby. She has easily fallen into a schedule that works for our family--not quite as structured as we were with Jack, but still at least regular and somewhat predictable. She sleeps well--especially at night and that is a blessing. We are down to just one early morning feeding and that means one stretch of 5-6 hours of uninterupted sleep for me, so that is nice (oh, how your standards change for good sleep). She likes to be held and doesn't love to be left alone really, so that is the biggest challenge, learning how to take care of myself and Jack with a baby in my arms. She is beautiful and we love gazing at her, in those few still moments when we have time to gaze!

Jack is on the go! He is full of energy and learning so rapidly that I can't keep up with him. He is definately two and is pushing all boundaries, but he is also learning those boundaries really well-considering he is two! I am being challenged in my patience every moment, and hopefully, by God's grace, I am learning to be more patient and wise as we train and raise these amazing children God has put in our care.

Here are a couple of pics of our life lately. I would promise to write again soon, as I fully intend to and have about three posts written out in my head right now, but I also know that probably won't happen. So thanks for being patient with me as I am learning to juggle all the things I have to do and all the things I want to do each week. Keep checking in on us, we will post again--and not too long from now, and I will get more regular.

My Dad came in town a few weeks ago to meet Claire and spent time with us.


This was one of my favorite two children moments. I knew Jack was playing with his cars by Claire--just didn't know that he was playing cars "with" Claire--she was perfectly happy and he was being very gentle as he carefully piled all of his cars around and on her!


One of my favorite parts of having a girl--all the fun stuff I get to dress her in. These are currently my favorite thing of hers.