when fall comes

The weather has been very mild so far this season. As a matter of fact summer didn't seem to have ended in Salt Lake City.

But I know fall is indeed here when I look around our house...





Acorns start to fall.

california strawberries

I was surprised and happy to still find strawberries this time of year! They are not super sweet, but they are still strawberries.


Stawberries and Mexican condensed milk.

And you know it, I've been having strawberry desserts.

Thank goodness for California!

Oh, and I found these strawberries at Smith's.

mini pumpkin pies/tarts

I made four little pumpkin pies/tarts with the leftover pumpkin cake ingredients, and shortened the baking time (on convection) from 35 minutes to 30 minutes. They turned out pretty good!



These are so tasty and cute, and are a good way to "portion-control." hehehe.

thanksgiving dinner at jimmy and joanne's

Jimmy and Joanne just moved into their new house early October, and they invited us and a few other friends over for Thanksgiving dinner!


Yummy food!

I was in charge of the sweet potatoes, which I kept simple: sweet potatoes, butter, brown sugar, and marshmallows. I also made a pumpkin cake and brought some Ceylon to go with it.


The dinnger table. Very Thanksgiving-y!


Host Jimmy carved the turkey.


It was a wonderful dinner.

We also had a lot of wine. Nothing beats good friends and wine!

We played games and talked, and made room for my pumpkin cake and Ceylon.

It was a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks to Jimmy and Joanne for inviting us!

i did some baking

Last night I did some baking.


Pumpkin cake.

We all know it, pumpkin cake is John's favorite. I'm going to make one to bring to Joanne's Thanksgiving dinner, so I figured I'd practice making one. I used regular milk instead of evaporated milk this time. It was delish. Yay!


Creamy chicken and biscuits.

This was for dinner. I was already in the baking mode so I started making this before John got home last night. I liked the milk biscuits.

Ooooo I think I'm going to do a lot of baking this Thanksgiving weekend!

first snow of the season

First snow storm of the season!


Looking out the window.


Big snow flakes.


Snowy days always seem art-sy.

Time to have a delicious chai.

snow

We got our first notable snow shower yesterday. It was never snowing big, but the little flakes just kept coming down all afternoon.


Nobody was sitting out on the patio.


Not even under the patio umbrella.

It stopped snowing last night and the sun came out this morning. It's getting cold! I wonder if we're going to have a short fall and head stright toward winter weather right away.

halloween chocolate

Godiva has this Halloween collection that's really cute... I received this little Halloween chocolate pouch where there are 7 solid foil-wrapped milk chocolate medallions inside. I don't eat much Godiva, but I surely love the embroidered black cat on the orange pouch!



Happy Halloween!

autumn leaves

It seems to have been a lot warmer this fall here in Salt Lake City, and the tree leaves have just been slowly turning color.

When we visited Hogle Zee we still saw beautiful green leaves everywhere... but then I notice these beautiful red leaves:


These leaves really stood out among the rest of green ones in the area.

There were also other colors on the trees:


I saw these pretty retro-yellow leaves and then a giant hornet nest! I snap a quick picture and ran!

Fall has definitely come.

mini pine cones

I was away from my laptop for a little bit and came back to these tiny little pine cones. Apparently John and the dogs found them in the yard for me. They are so small and cute!


John said he saw them in the yard, and thought I could make some earrings with these. Maybe.

With the many pine trees we have in the backyard, I will have plenty of pine cones to work with.

the fall is here

It seems like everywhere you look, you can tell the fall is here...


These vines are on the fence in front of our front yard. I could swear they were green yesterday.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

It snowed a LOT yesterday and it was the first time (that I know of) when the University of Utah declared a snow day. The school never closed for anything during my undergrad and grad school days.

And the snow is starting to fall really big again now!