MY FAKE FALL PUMPKIN PATCH

It finally came -- that longed for day when the sky clouded up, temps dropped into the 80s, we had a nice breeze out on the porch, and we even got a bit of rain. Why, it felt like fall! So, of course I had to start pulling out a few of my fallish decorations, right?

By the time I had finished I was feeling so festive, I couldn't resist whipping up a batch of my Peanut Butter Cocoa Krispie Treats -- the ones I used to make for my kiddos around this time each year. Only this time they were for a special grandson, so I had grabbed a bag of Brach's Halloween treats to scatter on top, for a bit of added color...

and they ended up looking just like a Pumpkin Patch!

But then I glanced out the window and realized the sun had come out, chasing all the clouds away, and the temperature had crept back up into the 90's. Ah well, such is life in Texas. I just cranked the AC up a bit more, and spent the next hour trying to scrape up and consume every last morsel of cocoa-caramelly goodness outta that mixing bowl!

PEANUT BUTTER KRISPIE TREATS

1 c. light corn syrup

1 c. sugar

1 c. smooth peanut butter

6 c. regular or cocoa rice krispies

Combine syrup and sugar in a large pot. Cook on medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar dissolves and mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter. Add Rice Krispies and stir until well coated. Press mixture into Pam-coated 9 x 13" pan.

WHEN IT PAYS TO KNOW THE RIGHT PEOPLE

One of the three couples in our Tiny Dinner Club has this thing they do. Every year our town's civic club hosts a Spring Fling, where lots of different people volunteer to host a party or a game day or teach a class, at their own expense. Hoards of people sign up online and pay to take part in these activities, then all that money goes to different charitable causes right here in our community. Four years ago our friends Ken and Sherri decided to host a dinner -- an epic, tapas style dinner with five or six courses and wine pairings -- and it was such a huge hit that they've continued doing it, with different menus, each year since. We don't always manage to get a place at the table for that event, since word has spread and the limited seats sell out fast. But, as I said, it pays to know the right people!

Ken, Sherri and daughter Bella do all the cooking, while Sherri's mama hosts the official event at her home, where there is more table space, china and crystal!

Fortunately for us, they like to do a test run and get some feedback before the big event, and the members of our little dinner club get to be the guinea pigs. The theme? A Taste of Texas! Below you see the full lineup, minus the "amuse bouche" starter that I jumped in and wolfed down before I remembered to take a photo. It was a plate with chips, homemade guacamole and a cup of the most amazing queso with shredded beef.

(please forgive me, Ken and Sherri, for not remembering the proper names and ingredients of each course, being too busy wolfing, as mentioned above)

Next came these little risotto-like patties made from grits, topped with grilled and glazed shrimp wrapped in bacon...

followed by all of this!

Daughter Bella's Tomato Basil Soup

A Pheasant Taco that I can't even begin to describe, and the best slaw I ever ate!

A Grilled Pork Thingy And Caramelized Scalloped Potatoes With A Hint Of Fruit Somewhere

Last but certainly not least was a bread pudding that my bread-pudding-hater-husband actually devoured! Why? Because it started with a scratch-made biscuit, so you had a mix of creamy and crunchy, instead of the usual gelatinous gooiness.

We feel certain the "official" meal will be a roaring success, as we could not find a single thing to suggest or change this time. Well, other than maybe just giving them a dab of that queso on the very first course, instead of a cupful, which no one could seem to stop eating, even though we knew we still had five courses to go! Maybe that way they won't have to roll them all out to their cars, as they did us.

HELLO OLD FRIEND, AND A GIVEAWAY!

It seems like I've spent most of my life as a Weight Watchers follower. It started in my teens when Mom decided to join and, as we all know, if mama is on WW, everyone is on WW. I got interested again when Hubby and I moved back from our honeymoon years in Indonesia and Bahrain. We may have gone just a tad crazy with the plethora of food choices we suddenly had available to us, after three years of nothing but the basics. WW was also responsible for helping me to lose all of my "baby fat" after each pregnancy, and for helping me get everything under control when I hit menopause and things went a bit haywire. I transferred my membership here to Wimberley when I moved here ahead of my hubby, but within a month or two our franchise got shut down, and I've been winging it on my own ever since.

Turns out, I didn't really miss it when I was here alone. What with all the exploring and walking I was doing, fixing up the house, planting the garden, getting to know all our local growers and producers while helping to launch The Bountiful Sprout, and learning to cook simple meals with what was in season and locally grown, I lost about 15 pounds without even trying!

Then Hubby finally retired and joined me here, and going out to restaurants was a lot more fun with him along. Plus, I went back to cooking more elaborate, meat-centered meals. Then the kids were all in Austin, and there were weddings and a grandkid, and I turned 65, and for the first time ever, I never got around to lose my "Christmas 5" last year, and then there was another 5 this Christmas, and, well...

But, then a miraculous bit of synchronicity occurred. First, I heard that WW had finally reopened here in Wimberley. Then, I discovered that my beloved Blue Apron meal delivery service had teamed up with WW, and we now had the option of receiving meals that fit in with all the WW Freestyle program guidelines, with all the points and nutritional information included. Woohoo!

Well, if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that when synchronicity comes a-knockin', you really oughtta let her in!

P.S. If any of you are doing WW, and would like to give the Blue Apron Freestyle meals a try for free, I have 5 free box deliveries that I'm allowed to award to anyone who has never received one or been a member of Blue Apron before. Each box contains everything you need for three complete meals, and is worth up to $72! So, first 5 of you who send your name and email to me at btlane53@gmail.com will get signed up to receive one. 

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

Bounty From The Bountiful Sprout, A Local Food Co-Op I Helped Launch After Reading This Book

Many moons ago I read an amazing book that answered so many questions about what we eat and why, so I decided to share it as part of my "Year of Reading Dangerously" give-away back in '09.

 WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?

ADDED INCENTIVE

AND THE WINNER IS...

Happy Reading, and EATING!
  

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: CREATING A SENSE OF PLACE WITH FOOD

Today I present to you the first book I gave away in my Year of Reading Dangerously, back in my early days of blogging. I must warn you though. Prepare to be longing, not just for taste, but also for a sense of place. 

FLASHBACK

TINY DINNER CLUB GOES CUBAN

I may have mentioned before that the more fun I am having, the less photos I take? Well, that holds doubly true when the event is at my own house. Which is why I have so little to show for the latest meet-up of our Tiny Dinner Club. Since I chose a restaurant on my last turn, it was my time to cook, so I chose to do a Kinda Cuban But Not Really dinner.

If only I hadn't been so busy cooking, I might have remembered to snap a photo of Hubby's little Cuban cigar/rum station he had set up, complete with the cedar strips they taught us to use for the proper lighting of a cigar. Or I might have remembered to snap one of his mojito prep area, or of us all enjoying them out on the balcony with my brother and sister-in-law's Cuban dip, while listening to Alexa's Cuban Jazz lineup.

The main course consisted of Cuban Rice, which has a couple of cloves of smashed garlic added to the cooking water; Cuban Sleeping Beans, which are black beans with lots of veggies and spices that must be cooked the day before and allowed to sleep in the fridge overnight in order for the flavors to meld, then finished off with a dash of vinegar and a bit of sugar; and my not so Cuban but oh-so-good-at-Thanksgiving Spicy Pork Tenderloins With Orange-Cranberry Sauce. For dessert I pulled out an old recipe for Hubby's favorite birthday cake -- a French Vanilla Cake with sort of a Praline Frosting, which I didn't think to photograph until it was half gone!

My favorite part of the whole dinner? Hubby's spec-TAC-ular mojitos. How spectacular were they? Well, as most of you know, I'm not really a drinker -- especially anything with hard liquor in it -- and I finished off one whole mojito. He had never made them before so he started googling for recipes, and we were lucky enough to find one for the Hotel Nacional Mojito -- the one our tour guide claimed to be the best mojito in all the world. I think he just might be right about that! Here is the recipe -- you can thank me later.

PRAY-LINE VS. PRAH-LINE

Although my sister-in-law Priscilla and I may never agree on the correct pronunciation of this delicacy, we do agree on one thing. This miracle microwave recipe for making them, which her Cajun mama Alma shared with us many moons ago, is da bomb! She found it in a microwave cookbook from back in the 70s or 80s, called Tout de Suite. I was making a batch the other day for good buddy Toad's birthday, when I realized it had been years and years since I shared it here on the blog. What with the holidays coming up and all, I thought it might be worth sharing again. Hoo-aah! They'll be the hit of your holiday celebration, I gar-on-tee!

TOUT de SUITE PRALINES

(makes 3-5 dozen, depending on size)

3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
2 cups pecan halves
1/8 tsp. salt
2 T. butter
1 tsp. baking soda

1. Stir together buttermilk, sugar, pecans, salt and butter in a 4 or 5 quart glass or ceramic dish. Cook in microwave on high for 12 minutes, stirring at 4 minute intervals. (Note: microwaves vary, and you may have to tweak the setting to match your oven. Mine cooks a bit high, so I make these using power level 7, or 70%)

You need the giant bowl because of the next step.

2. Stir in baking soda until foamy.

Cook on high for one minute. (This last step gives the pralines a caramel color.)

Now here is the only tricky part: Beat mixture by hand until "tacky" (about one minute). Drop by teaspoonful on a sheet of foil.

The first ones you take out will be more glossy, smooth and thin.

As the mixture cools, they become thicker, with less sheen.

I experimented with things other than foil this time. Silicone mat worked great. Regular plastic mat, not so much.

So, how do you know when you've reached "tacky"? Well, it took me a few tries when I first made them, but you eventually learn to notice when the mixture starts to lose some of it's gloss and your spoon starts to feel more resistance. I count one-and-two-and... as I stir, and usually by the time I get to 145 or 150, I know it's time to get them out of the bowl fast. If you wait too long, they may harden right there in the bowl. Take them out too soon, they won't ever harden. The good news is, the over- hardened ones make great crumbles to serve over ice cream. The under-stirred ones can go back in the bowl and get stirred some more. Also, I wouldn't recommend making them on a rainy/super humid day.

So, there you have it! You can thank me later. Better yet, thank dear Alma -- the most amazing Cajun cook ever -- for letting us know it's OK to use shortcuts, if the result is just as good as the original!

DEAR AUTUMN...

So glad you finally made it here to Texas! At last the highs are down in the 70's, and we've even had a couple of nights where it dipped into the high 40's. Heavenly!

I don't know about you, but fall weather always makes me want to bake something yummy and aromatic. I'm thinkin' it just might have to be this mixed berry crisp that Junelle's sister Rhetta shared with us in project #3 of her Heartwarming Workshop. She added crumbled gingersnaps to her crisp's topping for a special seasonal touch.

I can almost taste it!

'TIS THE SEASON

Finally managed to harvest a handful of good tomatoes from the two plants we have growing in a single container on our balcony. The question is, since there aren't likely to be many more, how best to use them? Caprese salad? Greek salad? Old fashioned tomato sandwiches? Or, what about that luscious tomato pesto tart?

As if that wasn't enough to mull over, we went and stopped at one of those stands selling Fredericksburg peaches that pop up everywhere this time of year. A few had to be eaten straight out of hand, leaning over the porch rail.

If you could smell my house right now, you'd be drooling too!

KNOWING THE RIGHT PEOPLE

Outdoor Woman And Their Newest Fuzzball, Gus

When you live in a small town, you tend to have friends or groups of friends that overlap with one another in several different ways. My friend Outdoor Woman knows pretty much everyone in town since she is not only a Muse and one of my Wino buddies, but also a member of just about every group in Wimberley. Which is why, when you consider everyone she is friends with and could have invited over, Hubby and I feel kinda like we won the lottery this week!

Their patio overlooks Lone Man Creek, where we might have gone for a float had it not been unusually chilly and drizzly.

It all started when she posted a picture of her kitchen counter absolutely covered in the fresh produce that her hubby had harvested from their backyard garden that very morning, and which it was now up to her to use or loose. I was thinking to myself "I'd be happy to help you with that!" but didn't actually say anything. Another of our Wino buddies, however, was not so timid, and immediately left a comment saying "Looks to me like you need some dinner guests!" Which is how we ended up falling into this!

A bit of color-mad coordination I just couldn't resist snapping a photo of.

The beans on the small plate are the purple kind which, sadly, turn green once they are cooked.

Deviled Eggs, Straight From The Hen House

Zucchini Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting and Fresh Mango

YUMMMMM!

And, believe it or not, she still had this left on her counter...

and more in the garden, just waiting to be harvested.

Like I always say, it pays to know the right people -- people with chickens and veggie gardens!