surprises!

Friday night I didn't have Bible Study with the Anchoring kids, so I could finally bring something to "Friday Night Dinner". I "brewed"(?) apple cider and made a yummy pumpkin bread pudding recipe that I found on Smitten Kitchen. It was basically baked pumpkin french toast. I went to Martha Green's and bought some yummy cinnamon swirl bread for it - delicious and so easy!!

As the evening started to wrap up, I tried to leave, but Merrilee insisted on showing me picture after picture of friends of hers on FB. Then, around 11:30, Tyler walked in! He had driven down from PUC to surprise me!

Sabbath, we went to lunch with our grandparents, aunt, and cousin. After lunch, Tyler and I went with our aunt & cousin back to our grandparents' property and hung out up there the rest of the day/night. It had been a very long time since I have laughed that much and that hard. It definitely felt like our childhood. After posting about adulthood, a good friend, Monika reminded me to play. Unadulterated play - tag, jumping, running, frisbee, act like a kid again, eat pizza and rootbeer floats....And that's kinda what I did this weekend. With Kinsey (4yrs), we built forts out of pillows, ate marshmallows, and danced around to our favorite songs. And we laughed. A lot.

I was really glad to have my brother around this weekend. We have become so much closer in the past 6 months. I felt honored that he chose to spend this weekend with me.

Happy New Week!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, October 2007

I made a few of my own adaptations to this, using only milk and no cream (to me, it makes no difference to me in dishes like this, so I figure I’ll give my arteries a break), and doubling almost all of the spices. Oh, and I added bourbon, but you probably anticipated that.

1 1/2 cups whole milk (Or 1 cup heavy cream plus 1/2 cup whole milk)
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
2 tablespoons bourbon (optional)
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Gourmet’s Instructions: Whisk together pumpkin, cream, milk, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, spices and bourbon, if using, in a bowl.

Toss bread cubes with butter in another bowl, then add pumpkin mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes.