Another October is Done

November blahs? Nah - Does November fly by for anyone else now?

As a kid - November seemed to drag on! - Christmas was such an anticipation! The first day to open your advent calendar seemed so far away on November 1st.

November for me is a great month - Remembrance day for one - and the cool crisp days - (hopefully not so wet as last month). And all the planning for the Christmas Season - yes I said Christmas Planning.

I totally saw a Pot of Gold Christmas (a.k.a 'Holiday') commercial on October 29th.

(We will never refer to it as the "Holiday Season" - It's Christmas - always has been and always will be. Period.)

Moving on....

We've survived Halloween - a better turnout of 'trick or treaters' than predicted that's for sure!

The Pumpkin carving was a success - however the attention span was minimal - and I was left to conquer it myself.... pretty sure I re-aggravated my 'tennis elbow symptoms'.

So Our little 'goblins' were Dressed as:

Raphael (TMNT)

Bumble Bee

Cute as a button! Mr. O was SO excited to have his face painted green. 

Missy Z was very warm and cosy in her bee costume - and LOVED standing at every door and meeting flirting (batting her eyes and giving the 'infectious' giggle/grin combo) with all the neighbours.

The bubble bath post 'trick or treating' was a welcomed event, let me tell you..... that's after we scraped them of the ceiling......

Is it bad that I loving taking the kids around - because I then reap the benefits of their 'Treats'?

I do try to buy candy that I wont necessarily enjoy (I try to pass along to others November 1st)-

But when the kids buckets are filled with crispy crunch, heresy, jersey milk, butter finger ....

mmmmmm....

SO GOOD.......

who says staring your day with a butter finger is bad?
They're SO tiny now!!.... (internal justification)


To pay homage to the Harvest Season that is wrapping up - I have a cookie recipe that was well received:

Pumpkin Ginger Quinoa Cookies

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup fancy molasses

1cup pumpkin puree

1 cup quinoa flour

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/4 c white sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350
In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Beat in egg and molasses. Fold in pumpkin puree. Set aside.

Mix flour, baking soda, salt, spices in a bowl - blend well, set aside.

Add wet and dry ingredients together - mix until dough is smooth.

Roll dough in to 1 1/2" balls.

Put the white sugar into a small bowl - roll each dough ball in the sugar.

Place the balls 2" apart on a baking sheet. Bake on the center oven rack for 8-10* minutes.

*Cookies will be soft - but harden as they cool. If you want then a bit more crispy, bake a few minutes longer.

Let them cool for 1 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

This Recipe was modified slightly and the original one can be found in "Quinoa 365 - the Every Day Superfood" cookbook.