Movember

This month things got a little hairy around our household.
I blame Movember.

No, it's not a typo...I meant to say Movember.
According to urbandictionary.com:

"Movember (formerly known as November) is a month long fund raising event during which participants (almost always adult males) attempt to grow a luxuroious and stylish moustache throughout the month.  They also ask people to sponsor them for this event, and all monies raised go toward mens health issues and further research..."

There is an official Movember website where you can register a profile, update your mo status with pictures and/or videos and ask people to donate to your page.  Although Scott participated by growing a pretty intense mo this month, we didn't actually log onto the site until recently.

 *Next year we know to start raising awareness and gathering donations November 1st.

On the Movember site you get a custom URL and can view Scott's mo profile, but keep in mind he just started his membership.  Registering allows you to get involved by donating, connects you with your local mo community and events and even links you with your Facebook friends who have also registered on the site.

how Movember works:

Starting November 1st, men start out with a clean shave and progressively groom, shave and wax their way to their mustache of choice.  Mo Bros document their growth online by updating with pictures, interacting with other Mo Bros and Mo Sistas (female supporters of mo's) as well as providing information from their donated parties.

At then end of the month Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their success by either throwing a mo party of their own or attending one of the Gala Partes or Mo Parties held around the world by Movember, for Movember.

Scott found out about this from a friend of ours a few days into November and showed me about it that day.  As you might have recalled from our "Fear the Beard" video he is completely in favor of facial hair and the only way I'll agree to him growing it out is for a specific reason or cause. 

the Movember mission:

*pulled from their website.

"Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Through their actions and words they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health."

Movember has become a global movement and raises money for prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.  To read more about what Movember has done and it's affectiveness, check out their About page.

By the way, have you seen the Movember TOMS?!

Awesome.  I already have an obsession with TOMS + Comfy Shoes, but this makes me love the brand even more.

Although it's December already, we're looking forward to supporting Movember as an official Mo Bro & Mo Sista next year.

Don't you worry...I've already got the mo's ready:

Happy Movember!

Thankgiving & Our First Dance Song

What a great and extremely filling Thanksgiving!  Even though this year has been a challenging one, I have a lot of reasons to Give Thanks.

Yesterday, Scott and I got up early to finish off what we were bringing to my family's Thanksgiving Dinner.  Scott completely took over my housewife duties and put together two great dishes for the occasion.  I would love to take credit for the delicious sides you see below, but I just wouldn't feel right doing it.  While I was taking a pre-Thanksgiving nap --er, falling asleep on the couch at 8pm-- Scott was getting busy in the kitchen getting busy.

The destination was my Aunt Karen's house and she owns a beautiful ranch in St. Augustine with a gorgeous two-story country-chic house, a horse stable, tractors, a pond, a cook-out gazebo and about 10 acres of land.

Here you'll find little cell phone service, horses, cows, a donkey, dogs, catfish and good company.

*NOTE: Unfortunately, I forgot to put my memory card back into my camera, (oops) so instead I relied on the Instagr.am app on my phone to document the highlights of our Thanksgiving.

This year was different because we got to bring Roadie with us!  My cousins have little ones so there's always toddlers running about, but this holiday was the first time I was responsible for someone other than myself, well besides Scott <--- give the whoopie cushion a rest already will you?!

As soon as we arrived, Roadie couldn't wait to get out and explore everything:

I swear the little guy has no fear.  He walked right up to the horses, stuck his head INSIDE of the gates and barked at them.  Besides being amazed at the animals there, he had a hay (get it?) day rolling around in the grass and playing with the other dogs.

We planned to eat our traditional Thanksgiving meal around 1pm, since my cousins had in-laws to visit later on.  I'm glad we decided to eat that early because I'm not even exaggerating when I say I am still full from that meal.

I didn't get to take pictures of everything, but our meal included:

• Turkey and Ham - standards
• My Uncle Bucky's infamously sweet, Sweet Potatoes
• Stuffing
• Cranberries
• Macaroni & Cheese (the kind that's crunchy on top!)
• Green Beans & Potatoes
• Green Bean Casserole
• Rice and Gravy
• Dinner Rolls 
• My Mom's Cherry/Strawberry Jello-Salad
• My Aunt Sandy's Lime & Cottage Cheese Jello-Salad

and last but certainly not least, Scott's Cucumber & Tomato Salad with onions, feta cheese and mint tossed in a lime vinaigrette dressing:

We knew all of the traditional starches would be covered, so we opted to bring something different, and sneak in some veggies that weren't covered in bread crumbs.  Everyone seemed to like it, so I'm sure one of us will be making this and I'll post a recipe in the near future.

After linner (somewhere between lunch + dinner), we were all stuffed like turkeys and took a minute to breathe before digging into dessert.  Well, maybe not all of us...by the time I made it over to the dessert table Scott's Pumpkin Roll was almost gone!

Quickly, I gathered a plate with a slice of the roll (which by the way was his best one yet), home-made buttermilk Pound Cake & a slice of Pumpkin Pie:

I'm not kidding when I tell you the Pumpkin Roll was almost gone within 10 minutes after dinner.  I got a few scraps together to form a slice for myself, but it should have really looked like this:

Y-U-M.  My family loved it, and we were excited to contribute things worth raving about! :)  I guess you could say our first Thanksgiving as a married couple was a S-U-C-C-E-S-S, Yes.

After a few hours of visiting with the family and laughing at the dogs playing, it was time to head home.  Scott and I rode back to Orlando with my dad and grandma and talked about exciting things coming up for us the entire ride home.

When we got to the Daytona area, we stopped mid-conversation when we realized a special song was playing on the radio.  Scott and I had a hard time deciding what Our First Dance together as a married couple would be on our Wedding Day, and 2 days before the wedding at the last minute changed it to "Hold Us Together" by Matt Maher.

To get you up to speed: 3 weeks before the wedding Scott lost his job.  On top of the stresses of planning a wedding we were now in the mind frame of Where are we going to go and what are we going to do?  We had a different First Dance Song picked out, but when we heard this one two days before the wedding it seemed to be playing just for us...so we changed it right then.

My favorite part is at the 2:10 mark:



Hearing that song put a huge smile on my face.  What a great reminder...everything is going to be just fine.
And for that, I am so thankful.

Happy Turkey Day, Turkeys! :)

Chili Cook-off

Scott has been meeting with a group of guys every week or two from his church drama group for years.  They have "guys night" and it's usually spent eating dinners centered around meat: steaks, ribs, wings, burgers...you name it.  Eventually, they coined the term Men's Meat Night and still meat meet to this day.

This year, spouses have gotten an invite to Meat Night every now and then.  The first one I got asked to vote for a restaurant I suggested Italian and almost got blacklisted...oops.  We settled on Giordano's, split a variety of loaded meat and veggie (for me) pizzas and at the next gathering decided to have a Chili Cook-off!

Back in August, Scott tried a new chili recipe that made my entire family sweat - literally - this stuff was scorching!  He wanted to try something different so he looked for award winning recipes, tweaked it a little and created the best homemade chili recipe I've ever tasted!

Friday night was the night of the big Chili Cook-off at the Pumpkin House.  You may have seen their name on the Pumpkin Spice Coffee Giveaway, as Mallori "Pumpkin" won the decaf coffee.  Here we are enjoying the infamous Pumpkin Spice coffee...thanks for sharing MP! :)

Each Meat Night member brought their favorite chili recipe and we had a big (and full bellied) task of tasting all of them.
There were 6 different chilis: all great, unique recipes.

1. Pumpkin and Buffalo Chili:

paired with some yummy sweet and jalapeno corn bread muffins:

2. Scott's Spicy Brisket Chili:

served with fresh cilantro, jalapenos, and lettuce
(to cleanse the palate):

 
3. Beer Chili:

 accompanied by some really good beer bread:

4. Venison and Bacon Chili - a clear MEAT night inspiration:

5. Chicken and White Bean Chili:

and last but not least,
6. Traditional Chili

served atop macaroni noodles, just like the chili I grew up on:

Does anyone else do this? Besides the couple that brought them everyone else thought we were crazy.

After a tasting each chili, everyone had the impossible task of picking their favorite.  I genuinely liked ALL of them because each one was very different from the others.  But, a decision needed to be made and I'll give you one guess on which one I chose:

Yup, you're probably right...

The PUMPKIN and Buffalo Chili, obviously.  If you know me at all you know I'm a sucker for pumpkin anything!
Great job "Pumpkins":

Voting took place by writing your favorite down and placing it into the Goblet of Fire:

Scott and I were nervous about what everyone thought of his our chili because it was built up to be amazing.  The votes were in and it was time to announce the winner...

Drumroll please....
The winner of the $25 Chili's <--- how appropriate gift card:

is...
Scott and his Spicy Brisket Chili!

SUCCESS! First runner up was #4. Chicken and White Bean Chili.  Thanks for voting for us!

After a lot of convincing, Scott has agreed for me to share his award winning Chili Cook-off recipe with you all, so keep an eye out for it coming very soon.

Questions:

• Which chili do you think would be your favorite?
• Have you ever eaten chili on top of noodles, or is there just a select few of us out there?

Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt

Unless this is the very first post you're reading on my blog, you know that I have a little bit of a slight love affair with pumpkin, especially in the Fall.

A few weeks ago I was talking to my friend Amanda - who inspired me to make my All-Natural Pumpkin Peanut Butter. We fell onto the topic of how GOOD pumpkin fro-yo is, (shocker) and agreed that the best pumpkin flavored frozen yogurt out there is from Yogurtland.  It has the most natural tasting pumpkin flavor, like you are eating a can of frozen pumpkin right there in middle of a frozen yogurt shop - only BETTER!

*TIP: If you ever go to YL this time of year, swirl the Pumpkin + Oatmeal Raisin Cookie flavors together and top it with just a little bit of graham cracker crumbles.  Your love for frozen yogurt will grow and you will start to crave yogurt without all of the crazy toppings!

Inspired by our recent trip to Yogurtland, Amanda gave me an idea to make my own pumpkin fro-yo at home.  What could taste more natural and "pumpkiny" that that?

Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt

16 oz. (2 cups) low-fat vanilla yogurt
15 oz. can of pure pumpkin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

prep time: 10 minutes
ready to serve in: 2 hours 10 minutes

I used Stoneyfield Organic Low-fat Vanilla, but you can use Greek Yogurt, Activia or Dannon Light & Fit if you prefer. 

You can use either Pumpkin Pie Mix or just regular Pumpkin.  It's really a personal preference and the main difference is taste: Pumpkin tastes like pumpkin only, while Pumpkin Pie Mix has some added spices.

I use regular Pumpkin for my fro-yo so it tastes as natural as possible.  To make pumpkin frozen yogurt: In a large bowl, mix pumpkin and yogurt together.

Add in cinnamon and vanilla extract.

 Mix until smooth.

I got excited and ended up making a double batch, which called for an extra empty yogurt tub for back-up yogurt storage.
*Oops, guess I really wanted some fro-yo in the house! ;)

Refrigerate mixture until it's thoroughly chilled.  Move yogurt into freezer for about an hour or two and serve!

*TIP: For best results, serve fro-yo immediately after freezing.  Don't be afraid if your yogurt looks like this right out of the freezer:

It's completely normal to have an ice-chip type of texture when you're making any kind of homemade frozen yogurt or ice cream.  Get a spoon and mix it up as much as you can before serving.

If desired, use an ice-cream scooper to create a scoop shape and Enjoy!

*TIP: For those who have an ice cream maker, you can certainly try the Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt recipe out on that.  For all of you who prefer to go au-naturale, use your best judgment about fridge and freezer time to get the fro-yo texture you desire.

Questions:

• Have you ever tried to make homemade frozen yogurt or ice cream? How did it go?!
• What's your favorite fro-yo flavors?

Pumpkin Spice Coffee GIVEAWAY WINNERS

Good Morning and Happy Friday!

A BIG THANK YOU shout out to all who entered my giveaway, became a follower and "liked" my Facebook Fan page! Looks like we have some Pumpkin Spice Coffee fans out there and I would love to give my 2 bags a home.

Since this was my first giveaway, not everyone was exactly clear on how to leave a comment on my blog page, so I accepted some through Facbook.

To be fair and to explain how I'm selecting, I assigned everyone who entered a number:

1. Ali Lowry
2. Becky Richardson
3. Ariel Whittington
4. Brooke Phillips
5. Amanda Cox
6. Chris "Pumpkin" Rossing
7. April Shippy
8. Mallori "Pumpkin" Rossing
9. LaTriece Lee

To pick the winners, I went to Random.org and let them randomly select my winning numbers:

First Winner:

CONGRATS Mallori "Pumpkin"!  Here is what she said:

"We love everything pumpkin (of course), but my favorite Fall treat is Pumpkin/Nutella muffins! :)
We usually do decaff (even though I consider that cheating) because Chris has gout and caffeine is like crack to me.
LOVE the blog!"

You will be receiving the Decaffinated bag!

Second Winner:

CONGRATS Becky! Here is what she said:

"I Love all things pumpkin!! Especially pumpkin roll, and bread...Yum! As for coffee......I need caffiene! I love your blog and enjoy seeing all you are doing"

You will be receiving the Caffinated bag!

Please e-mail me your addresses so I can get the Pumpkin Spice Coffee your way! :)

Again, THANK YOU to all who entered and to everyone who continues to follow my blog!  You all are what inspire me to post, so look out for more giveaways coming your way...

Now, time for my morning cup of Pumpkin Spice Coffee!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Pumpkin Roll

Last time this year, Scott learned how obsessed with any sort of food (especially baked good) having to do with pumpkin.  Everything was pumpkin this, pumpkin spice that, I really do think I have a slight love affair with it.  Knowing this, he became eager to try out his step mom's Pumpkin Roll recipe and knew I would be right on board.

First, let me say...it was a a bit of effort to get a decent looking roll.  The first time we tried to make made a Pumpkin Roll, we didn't do everything exactly right and the poor roll crumbled in our hands.  Boo! We still ate it though, (and it was still very tasty) but didn't take any pictures of the Pumpkin Roll casualty...although that might have been entertaining. ;)

The other day I was at the grocery store and I was determined to even out this Pumpkin Roll 1 - Hesington 0 score, so I picked up the necessary ingredients to try it again.  When I left for work on Sunday I causally mentioned to Scott that we had everything needed for the roll again and before I knew it I had a REALLY exciting surprise waiting for me when I got home that night: a non-crumbled oooey-gooey finished and successfully rolled Pumpkin Roll.

*DISCLAIMER:  Since Scott re-tried the recipe when I wasn't around, I only have pictures from the first time we made it.  I've added all the photos that apply to the recipe listed, but not each step is pictured, like usual.

Pumpkin Roll:

I took this pic using Instagr.am.  Check out my gallery.

*NOTE: There are several different versions of the pumpkin roll out there, and you can get creative by adding things like raisins, walnuts or cloves.  For this purpose, I will be using the recipe Scott's step-mom, Kay gave us:

3/4 cup sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs (beaten)
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup quality canned pumpkin
1 cup chopped walnuts (we didn't add this)
cream cheese filling (recipe below)

Cream Cheese filling:
6 tbsp softened butter
8 oz. (1 package) softened cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

To make Pumpkin Bread to roll: Grease a 10x15 inch baking pan and line with parchment paper.  Grease and flour the paper.

Beat eggs for about 5 minutes until they are thick and fluffy.

*NOTE: I used eggbeaters to substitute the real eggs (pictured), but Scott used real eggs for the second one.  I recommend sticking with the real things on this one.

Beat in sugar and pumpkin.

SLOWLY!

*TIP: Try pouring slowly while mixing on low.

*NOTE: It's really important to gradually add the pumpkin in to the batter.  If added to quickly, it might result in a crumbled bread (our first mistake).

Add flour, cinnamon and baking powder.

*NOTE: Pictured above is Baking soda.  One recipe called for soda, another called for half and half soda/powder while Kay's called for baking powder only.  Any combination of those will work.

Mix into pumpkin batter until blended.

Spread evenly onto paper...easy does it.

Sprinkle with walnuts (we did not use nuts). Scott Somebody doesn't like them. :(

The first time we added raisins instead (pictured above).  The second time we didn't (below).

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.
Loosen cake around edges.
Invert onto clean damp towel dusted with powdered sugar.

*NOTE: You can also opt to use parchment paper, instead of the towel.
Peel off paper.  Trim 1/2 inch off all sides of cake. (Trimming will make more of a squared shape).  Roll up towel and cake together.

Cool seam-side down on wire rack. Make sure it cools completely.  While cake is cooling, make your cream cheese filling.

To make cream cheese filling: cream together the softened butter and cream cheese.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla.

Mix until smooth.

Carefully unroll the cake and spread cream cheese filling to within 1 inch of edges.

Re-roll (this time without the paper or towel) and refrigerate.

When you're ready to serve, dust with confectioner's sugar, if desired.  Cut into slices & Enjoy!

Oh, I almost forgot the last step: get your favorite helper to be in charge of clean-up! ;)

I hope you enjoy your pumpkin roll as much as we do did (That sucker's long gone now).  If you make one, feel free to share any success stories (or failed attempts like my first one) below in the comments section.

*Don't forget to enter in my Pumpkin Spice Coffee Giveaway: contest closes this Friday, Nov. 4th!

Happy Rolling!