Runs on Coffee and Cream

Before winter is 'officially' here and we get caught up in Christmas, I thought I'd share a bit about our fall. It was a whirlwind full of colds, adjusting to a school routine, a wedding and all things pumpkin!

The weather changed very quickly here. One day it was summer and the next day we had to dig out our pants because the weather had turned cool. I'm not going to lie, I'm loving it. September is the beginning of my favourite seasons - fall through Christmas. 

The evenings and nights are quite cold already. I'm finding myself pulling out hoodies to wear on the couch and warmer flannel pajamas for bedtime. With cool evenings comes hot drinks while I watch TV or work on the computer. Since I'm no longer pregnant and avoiding herbal teas, I've been drinking through my tea collection. I thought I'd share my favourite hot teas to drink during the cooler months.

Have you ever had banana pancakes? A few friends kept making them and posting them on their Instagram so I finally asked for the recipe and it seems everyone makes them slightly different. Most people try to avoid adding too many grains to them or they try to make them Keto-friendly. But I wasn't necessarily interested in these pancakes to avoid too many carbs, but for something different for breakfast. Especially because at this point Emma was eating finger foods and I thought she'd like these.

Happy fall! Well, it was yesterday but still, it's officially fall!

Want to make a delicious, chewy pumpkin cookie for fall? Check out this easy recipe!


As usual, I used a recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. Seriously, her recipes are amazing and I know I can trust that they'll work out.


Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 heaping teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (see my previous post for the breakdown of pumpkin pie spice)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup butter - melted (I used 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, 1/2 cup butter)
1/4 cup dark molasses
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups add-ins (chocolate chips, dried cranberries, nuts, etc.)

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease baking sheets.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together. Fold in oats.
3. Melt butter in medium size bowl and mix in molasses, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Once combined, mix in egg. Add pumpkin and vanilla and mix until just combined.
4. Pour wet mix into dry ingredients and mix. The dough will be quite thick. Once combined, fold in your add-ins. I used mini chocolate chips.
5. Scoop cookie dough onto baking sheets. I used a heaping tablespoon for each cookie.
6. Bake for 13-15 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet or you will end up ripping the cookies apart when trying to move them to a wire rack.


These cookies are super yummy! Very pumpkin-y and the bit of chocolate just adds to it. It's a nice combination.

I'm lucky because Adam's not a huge fan of pumpkin. He eats it and he'll pretty much eat any cookie in front of him. But he doesn't LOVE pumpkin. So he's been leaving these cookies for me and just having the odd one. That's definitely a sign of love! So all the pumpkin for me... or at least most of it!


Definitely give this recipe a try! I love that you can change up the mix-ins too. Dried cranberries and white chocolate chips would be a nice add-in.

I'm now off to enjoy this cool, rainy fall day!

xo Jen

It's bake all the pumpkin things season! The cans of pumpkin puree sold here are gigantic so I always have to be prepared to make a bunch of different recipes once I open a can.

The can I opened made:
- 4 pumpkin flavoured overnight oats
- 3 pumpkin greek yogurts
- batch of pumpkin spice muffins
- batch of pumpkin cookies
- approx. 1/2 cup leftover to make my own pumpkin spice lattes

I bought another can of pumpkin puree the other day so I'll be making more pumpkin recipes over the next couple of weeks including pumpkin biscotti.


Today I'm sharing the pumpkin spice muffins recipe I made. I found it on Pinterest via Princess Pinky Girl. They turned out amazing! Needless to say I froze half the batch and the other half disappeared in a few days between Adam and myself. They were perfect to pair with a coffee in the morning.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used unsweetened applesauce)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree

Topping:
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter - melted


Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl mix together applesauce (or oil), sugars, eggs, vanilla extract, and pumpkin puree.
4. Mix the flour mixture into pumpkin mixture until there's no lumps.
5. Spoon the batter into the muffin liners. The batter made 12 muffins.
6. Bake in oven for 17-22 minutes (mine took 20 minutes) or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.
7. For the topping, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
8. Dip the top of each muffin into melted butter and then dip into the cinnamon sugar bowl. Shake off excess.
9. Place on plate. Enjoy while butter is still warm and sticky or let them cool and dry.


So pumpkin pie spice... I know it's not available everywhere. I don't always have it on hand. I tend to run out so I make my own.

Pumpkin Pie Spice:
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves


These muffins are the perfect amount of sweetness. The muffin part itself isn't overly sweet, just a nice blend of pumpkin spice so the sugar-cinnamon topping is a perfect bit of sweetness to the muffin.

I'll share my pumpkin cookies recipe next and then I'll be trying out pumpkin biscotti for the first time!

xo Jen

• candy melts in any flavour
• silicone mold

Pumpkin Spice and English Toffee Candy Melts

Silicone Mold

Directions:
1. Place mold on a baking sheet that will fit inside your refrigerator.
2. Pour approximately half of the bag of candy melts in a microwave safe bowl and follow the directions on the package to melt. I melted them in 20 second intervals on the defrost setting, stirring in between each interval.
3. Once melted, spoon into the mold. This proved to be messier than expected.
4. Using a toothpick make sure the melted candy is in all the crevices of the mold and to somewhat flatten out the candy melts.
5. Put tray in the refrigerator to let the candy harden. I left it overnight.
6. Pop out chocolates and enjoy!

I ended up with a few air bubbles but overall they turned out great.

I loved how these turned out, though I didn't expect them to be so messy. I'll definitely make more in other colours and flavours for upcoming baking projects.

Have you used silicone molds before?
xo Jen

September flew by but I'm doing everything I can to enjoy this season. I'm eating all things pumpkin, baking, burning fall scented candles, and snuggling on the couch with kitties.

Sunset down at Pier 4 in Hamilton.

A Pumpkin Spice cupcake to start the day!

I'm so happy I found these chocolates. They were delicious and now they're gone from stores. I can't find them again!

Another little pumpkin for my collection.

I forgot I bought these last year during a sale. The vanilla pumpkin marshmallow candle is easily one of my favourite scents.

New fabric for upcoming shows.

Some easy and delicious cookies.

Getting fancy for a wedding.

How cute is this tiny personal-sized wine bottle?!

September was a great month. Now to see what October holds!

xo Jen

We had a gorgeous drive one day that we went out of town. The sun was out and the sky was so blue. I've learnt to love these giant rock walls that are everywhere here. Ignore the inside of the car reflections in these pictures...



On a different drive we encountered the most incredible sky at sunset. I really wish we could have stopped to take more photos. The sky was insane.


How's October been treating you? We still have a few more things planned for this month that I'm looking forward to.

xo Jen

Tomorrow is September and that means Fall is around the corner! Eeee!

I've tried to hold off as long as possible since there's still a week left of August, but I just can't hold my excitement in anymore. Fall is around the corner!! Fall starts early where I live and once we get back from Fan Expo Canada I'm going to be in full Fall-mode!

I'm excited for pumpkin flavoured things, dresses with tights, boots, knee high socks, and lots of layers!





Who's with me?!
xo Jen