Doodlehead

Hey Everyone, Happy Weekend!

I already feel like a bad blogger.  I am behind on sharing things with you.  This post will mostly be about a few recipes that I tried this week, and a little teaser to get you excited for next week.

First up, some guac.  I made fresh guacamole for the first time this week.  I sort of followed an Alton Brown recipe and sort of just threw a bunch of stuff in a bowl.  I have this weird relationship with guac.  I do not like raw tomatoes, raw onions or raw garlic, but they all go into fresh guacamole.  Somehow it works and I like it; but I just could not bring myself to put it all in my guac, at least not in the amount/form suggested in most recipes.

Here is what I mixed up:

3 avocados [chopped]
1 (small) clove of garlic [minced]
1 green onion [minced]
1 (small) vine-ripened tomato (juices/seeds squeezed out) [chopped]
1 lime
some cumin
some salt
some pepper
some cayenne pepper
splash of Franks

It turned out pretty well.  We both liked it.  I think the key is to just keep trying it until you get the flavor you like.

I made guacamole because I was making (Vegetarian) Tortilla Soup.  I halved the recipe and it still made way too much soup for Devin and me.  I could only find fire roasted tomatoes with green chiles, so that is what I used.  If anything, it added more flavor.  We topped the soup with homemade tortilla strips, (slice up corn tortillas into thin strips and fry in veggie oil for about 45 sec) cheddar cheese, and Franks (of course).  Once the soup cooled down a bit, it was very tasty; not blow you away good, but a really nice soup for a chilly day.

I am definitely going to need to get some fancy soup bowls if I am going to keep taking pictures for this blog.

The next day I made some BBQ Seitan Tacos.  This is one of my recipes so I will make a separate post for it when I finish this up.

PUMPKIN OBSESSION CONTINUED....

On Friday I was looking at my food blogs when I saw a recipe for Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes from A Cozy Kitchen.  I exclaimed "Yep!" These were on deck for Saturday morning breakfast.   When telling Devin the story he said I should have gone "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep" like Dave Hester from Storage Wars; then he called me a Pumpkin Slut.

Today is Saturday and this morning I made these pancakes.  They were so yummy, especially with some maple syrup.   Devin really liked them, even though he told me last week that he wasn't going to eat anything more with pumpkin in it (hopefully he changes his mind for when I make the carrot/pumpkin cupcakes later this week). My pancakes didn't seem as fluffy as the pancakes in the pictures on the blog, I think maybe I didn't shake the buttermilk enough.  Also, I didn't have cloves and ginger, so I used a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice in place of those and the nutmeg.  I would definitely make these again!  I even have a few left in the fridge for tomorrow.

If I am a pumpkin slut, Devin is a coffee slut.  We only go to a few coffee places around Pittsburgh that are known as 3rd wave coffee shops.  I will tell you more about this another time.  Anyways, we went to Voluto this morning for coffee.  I love the homemade syrups that Voluto makes.  Their vanilla lattes are to die for, the cinnamon ones are pretty great too!  Today, I was so anxious to finally try their pumpkin latte.

It was very good, but not really "pumpkiny" enough for me.  By the way, I had my last pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks yesterday.  It was just as good as the first four, but I did not feel so great after this one.  Needless to say, I am done with those.  I hear that Dunkin' Donuts has a pretty good one.  I may try that next.


So, I have naturally wavy hair that is pretty wild and unmanageable on good days.  I am told that I am very lucky to have wavy hair.  I would agree on most days.  I can just spray a little gel in it and I'm done.  No blow dryer, no curling iron, no straightener.  It saves a lot of precious time and energy, especially in the morning.  I used to go through all of this from about 6th grade - 10th grade.  All those years I just thought I had ugly frizzy hair.  I would get up at 5:30 to shower, blow dry my hair and curl it.  It was awful.  Then one day, I discovered that if I just sprayed some stuff in it, it would wave up on its own a pretty good amount.  I haven't straightened my hair since (except on a few Halloweens if the costume called for it...Hulk Hogan).

My hair has pretty much always been some long length between shoulder and lower back.  This past July, I was so sick of it that I cut it all off.  Not all of it, but like at least a foot.  Now I have cute, short, wavy hair that I love!!  Unfortunately, when I shower in the evenings, even if it is at like 5:00, I have this problem when I sleep where the hair on the very top of my head goes crazy all over.  Devin has nicknamed this "Doodlehead."  Yesterday I was Doodlehead.  Have a look:

Kind of scary.  I just go with it.  Even when I run errands all day.

Next Tuesday is my amazing coffee slut husband's 28th birthday.  He decided that he wanted fried chicken and an apple pie.  I have never made either.  In fact, I have never made a pie.  For how much I bake, it is hard to believe that I have never made a pie, but its the truth!  I am a little scared/nervous, but very excited for the challenge.  So tune in next week to find out how the chicken was and take part in the adventures of Abby's first pie.

Last but not least, some more pictures of our beautiful girls:

Deeley -

Janey -

Have a superb weekend!

So Long!