The Pumpkin Patch

Having a kid means my husband and I have the perfect excuse to be kids ourselves. For example, when this movie trailer came out I am pretty sure we were both kicking ourselves, wishing that Lyla was a year older so that we could use her as our perfect excuse for two twenty-somethings to go to a children's movie.

But alas, we will just have to wait until it comes out on DVD and then as any reasonable adult would do, make it seem as if we are buying it for the little one. Seriously, who doesn't love Winnie the Pooh though?

Having a child of our own really does mean we get to to be kids again in a way. We get to relive all of our childhood memories with Lyla and watch her little face light up as she discovers the wonders of the world for herself. It tugs at my heart when I see her make a new discovery or realize something for the first time. She is so pleased with herself and her eyes fill with amazement. And yet I know, at 4 months old, she still has so much to learn and so much to discover.

Last weekend we drove out to Cedarburg to explore a pumpkin patch. We were all excited, especially the grown-up kids. I was a little nervous though, not sure if Lyla would have any idea of what was going on, afraid that she would be overwhelmed or bored and perhaps even decide that taking a nap would be the better option for her Sunday afternoon. But to my amazement she took it all in. She became alert as ever, looking around and reaching out to touch the pumpkins. I can only imagine that her little brain was rapidly firing off neurons trying desperately to figure it all out.

She smelled apples for the first time, although she was a little apprehensive.

She saw every sized pumpkin, both small and large, and was mesmerized by their bright orange appearance.

She made her way through the corn maze and didn't get lost, not even once.

She even flew through the sky.

After picking her pumpkin, stocking up on apples, visiting the little store at the far end of the patch and showing off her "Cutest in the Patch" pumpkin onesie, it was time to go. As we drove away, the car filled with freshly picked apples and the perfect carving pumpkins, Adam and I both agreed that the pumpkin patch seemed smaller then the ones we had been to as kids. We remembered fields beyond fields filled with bright orange pumpkins. Endless trees sagging from the weight of their fruit. Tractors and trailers and corn mazes that no one could find their way out of. And then mid-sentence we both realized it. This pumpkin patch was no smaller, we were just bigger. And I could only smile knowing that Lyla was creating her own memories, ones that included the world's largest and greatest pumpkin patch.

Dreaming of pumpkins.

Once we got home though, we had quite a few apples to work our way through. So When Lyla's Aunt Kathryn came to visit all the way from Minneapolis we thought what better to do than whip up some homemade applesauce and pumpkin cookies for our upcoming trip to Notre Dame.

We sliced and cored all the apples and placed them in a large pot with just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan.

We let the apples come to the slightest boil, before turing it down to simmer. We added just a touch of sugar and cinnamon before leaving the pot to work it's magic.

Every 30 minutes or so we would return, stir the apples, add a touch of cinnamon, brown sugar and white sugar, then cover it up again.

As the apples got softer, we began to mash them.

We then began our taste testing process. We would take a spoonful of the sauce and leave it on the counter to cool. This allowed the true taste to come through. Once we had tasted, we added cinnamon and sugar as needed.

Finally, after several hours of slow cooking, the applesauce was done! The only thing left to do was bake up a batch of pumpkin cookies with cinnamon chips and pack it all up for our trip to the Bend.

I am already looking forward to next fall, when we will take Lyla to pumpkin patch yet again. Hopefully by then she'll be running around or wobbling around herself and building on her memories of the world's biggest and greatest patch. And someday soon Lyla, you better believe, we will be watching Winnie the Pooh.

P.S. - Last night with the remaining apples, we made chili rubbed pork chops over cinnamon baked apples. If you'd like the recipe, just let me know!

It's All in the Chips

One of my favorite childhood memories is opening the garage door to my parent’s house after a long day of school and being met with the sweet aroma of cookies baking in the oven. My mother is a great baker. She can whip together a dessert in no time. My love for baking originated in her kitchen. I use to pull up a stool and stand next to her as she whisked together eggs and sugar. I loved when it was my turn to pour in the flour or if I was really lucky, to add in the vanilla. It was not unusual for my stories of playground happenings to be retold over a shared cookie and a glass of cold milk. I loved those days and I still love baking. Freshly baked chocolate chips cookies were a staple in my childhood and now with a kitchen of my own I love testing the limits on what truly makes homemade cookies the perfect dessert.

This past weekend, my younger sister Kathryn came to visit. Somewhere between shopping, sappy girl movies, pedicures, several wonderful meals and one sensational bottle of Chilean wine, baking was involved. Rather than go with a traditional recipes we decided to mix things up a bit with 2 variations of oatmeal cookies. I had on hand, milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, peanut butter and cinnamon chips as well as baking M&Ms (for a little color). We knew we wanted peanut butter chips in our cookies, but we were toying with the idea of cinnamon chips as well. 

Logically it did not seem likely that cinnamon and peanut butter would play nicely together in one cookie, but after a few taste tests by Kathryn and the memory of a childhood friend’s favorite snack – peanut butter, cinnamon and banana sandwiches – we had to find out for ourselves. Just in case our experiment did not work out, we split the oatmeal batter in half and made one batch with peanut butter and cinnamon chips and another with peanut butter chips and baking M&Ms. 

Both batches exceeded our expectations. The cookies with M&M’s gave the sense of home that all chocolate cookies require and the cinnamon chips gave an extra kick which played off of the touch of cinnamon in the batter. In fact, Kathryn and I both agreed that the cinnamon and peanut butter cookies outshone the others, especially in combination with the oatmeal. I do not think that we will settle for regular oatmeal cookies ever again. Now the only question is, what flavors should we experiment with next?

Oatmeal Cookie Dough (originated from Allysa Torey’s More from Magnolia):

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter

¾ cup light brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 ½ cups oats

Combine the butter and sugars until smooth. Mix in vanilla and egg. Add flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix all together then add the oats and 1 cup of peanut butter chips. Cut the dough in half and put one half in a separate bowl. Add ½ cup of cinnamon chips to one batter and ½ cup of M&M’s to the other. Bake cookies at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. Enjoy! What other cookie flavors have you experimented with?