To Decorate or Not Decorate for Halloween in September

Recently a friend posted a status question on Facebook regarding decorating or not decorating for Halloween in September.  I was surprised by the overwhelming and resounding answer of, "YES!"  Traditionally I have broke out our Halloween decorations the first day of October, but this year I have decided to change this practice.  It seems like as soon as you put up your decorations, you are taking them down.  So this year I am going to start layering decorations that will lend for an easier transition between holidays from Halloween to Christmas.  Now, nooooo groaning because I mentioned the "C" Word! I swear you will not find Santa displayed with a witch's hat on the mantle!  My idea is to bring out pumpkins and trees that can be decorated for any season.  This way as Halloween ends and Thanksgiving begins  I will have the pumpkins in place for pilgrim decorations to take place of all my ghosts, goblins and witches, etc, etc.  What are your thoughts on Holiday decorating?  What traditions do you and your family have for the fall season?

Pumpkin Season

Waking up to the golden sun, dew drops on the grass and cool crisp air just pulls my soul closer to the pumpkin patch.  As I walked onto my front porch this morning reminded me of everything I love about the fall season.  Dew laden spider webs that look crystallized in the early morning sun and the rich colors of the mums as they begin to bloom.  To me this is the start of pulling out all the recipes that contain pumpkin and acorn squash sprinkled with toasted walnuts and pecans.  So I decided that today I would post a Recipe of the Day to get everyone started on the yummy pumpkin patch path!

Caramel and Pumpkin Pull Aparts

1pkg frozen white dinner rolls
2 pkgs instant pumpkin spice pudding
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 small jar of caramel ice cream topping
1/2 cup chopped and toasted pecans or walnuts

This is an overnight recipe.

Prepare a Bundt pan with baking spray or Crisco, sprinkle bottom with toasted nuts then layer frozen rolls on top.  Take care to not to overfill the pan with rolls.  Mix sugar and pudding together and sprinkle over the rolls.  Dot with butter tabs then cover with a towel or plastic wrap, place in your overnight.  In the morning remove the pan, uncover,  preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Pour caramel topping over rolls just prior to placing in the oven.  Bake 30-45mins.  Let cool for 5-10mins and flip pan onto a large serving plate and serve.  All that yummy goodness will drizzle down the rolls!  Depending on size of rolls will make a dozen to a dozen and a half of breakfast rolls.

Crazy Crops and creative cooking

So I know most everyone has had challenges with their garden due to the crazy weather we all have been experiencing.  This year for some reason, I have battled my soil.  Yes, me and Mother Earth have not been able to strike a balance this year.  My normal overload of zucchini was a small crop with very few to share.  My cucumbers were prolific and I have pickle relish in four different varieties.  You might say, "hey that's really not that bad.", but let's discuss my tomatoes.  This is why I am "Not Quite The Farmer's Daughter".  New soil and lot's of early season rain left me with late planting and a huge amount of yellow tomatoes.  So me being the determined cook that I am, I refuse to not make pasta sauce, red, yellow or otherwise.  Now let's face it Gordon Ramsey would probably scream at me to get out of his kitchen, but I am not up for Hell's Kitchen or attempting Master Chef.  Paula Deen would probably embrace the yellow tomato challenge...afterall, everything is better butter!  So I went to work and created a wonderful pasta sauce, that smells like red marinara, tastes like red marinara, but yep, you guessed it, it's YELLOW!

Yesterday was the second round of yellow tomato harvest, however, I noticed that they are starting to turn a darker yellow now and I actually had a couple red tomatoes.  I have debated pouring vinegar water through the garden to try to up the acid in the soil, but have been a little chicken.  So I have continued forward on my yellow tomatoe adventure.  Yesterday as I was stirring this beautiful pumpkin orange sauce I started thinking about what I could do to kick it up a notch and make a play on the color.  I think it's time to experiment....pumpkin pasta sauce!!!!!  Mmmmmm! What wonderful sauce for roasted pork stuffed ravioli with a little sauteed sage on top.  Now the kicker.....will my family eat it or will it be too crazy of a creation?  What would you do?