My thanksgiving contribution

So, every year I go to a good friend's fabulous thanksgiving meal and this year was no different. And I have to admit that every year I feel the ever so slightest bit of competitive feeling regarding who brings the best dish to share. It isn't really a competition, and thank goodness it isn't because I deeply dislike any outright, verbally verified competition, but this year, if there had been a competition for cutest contribution, my friend Cat and I would have won. We copied a recipe off of Pinterest for rice Krispy hedgehogs. These were outrageously easy and just crazily cute. I would totally make these again.

These little cuties are made  by shaping classic rice Krispy treats into tear drop shapes and then spooning melted chocolate over the top, leaving the small point of the tear drop clean for the face. Chocolate jimmies give the prickly look of a hedge hog and the face is just black and red gel frosting. 

The little flower was a last minute emergency situation. The original directions call for fondant flowers. I, personally, hate fondant and never use it for anything. Besides, this was supposed to be fun and easy, not annoying and frustrating, so I just went to the local candy store, bought some brightly colored, fruit flavored licorice and sliced them into pieces. It was perfect and made the project extra adorable without any extra work, like hand shaping fondant flowers would have done. Blech. No fondant for me! :)

 

The distractions of a beautiful autumn

Even though I've been extremely distracted for the past couple of months, I haven't stopped eating all sorts of delicious things, so here is a quick post of all the delicious things I've been munching on since I last posted. And a few of the lovely places I've been. 

One of the most impressively filling but also delicious tasting salads I've eaten. This is from our stop at the Wild Carvery in Burbank, CA. We made a quick stop for lunch on our drive home to Oregon in mid September. 

Last of the sunflowers from my mother in law's garden. 

A stunning example of my mother in law's beautiful front yard.

The first of the fall leaves. We went home for a little fall color but were just a week or two early.

A super adorable, super poisonous mushroom we saw during a little hike in the woods. I was truly shocked that a tiny gnome or fairy didn't peek it's head from underneath this darling little mushroom. Such a perfect little scene it was. 

Matthew's delicious cooking. This was one of the tastiest sandwiches I've eaten in recent memory.  

And finally, my birthday cupcake. From baby cakes, this was a pumpkin spice cupcake. Absolutely delicious! And so fun to eat :)