I love my husband!

I sent Nick a quick message about the paper that i stressed about and posted on Sunday, This is what my teacher wrote "Graded  99%     Brittany, you did an outstanding job on this paper. Your length was good at 2463 words; you answered the questions well; I could find no typos; and you cited three good outside sources. Well done!"  I was thankful because it was a really hard paper to write, and this is my "stickler" teacher.  We are docked down for every typo in any conversation during the class.  This is what my awesome hubby wrote. "That is what I'm talking about! I really am so proud of you!
I love being married to you. I love that you are so intelligent. ...and hot."  

He makes me happy!

Fall time at the Cooley household.

I LOVE the beautiful apples this time of year!  MMM..mmm... good.  Plus i am catching wafts of our Apple cinnamon candle and it is just setting the mood for my fun fall day.

What are you going to do with all of your beautiful apples you may ask?  Why, I would love to tell you.

I am making Carmel apples of course.  With Cinnamon sticks as their stem, and dipping them in M&M's once they are covered.  I am also making some mauled spiced cider with fresh pink ladies each with 10 cloves to bring a lovely aroma to the household and then to my tummy.  Last but not least we will be bobbing for apples at our party, to bring our childhood fun back to life.

We went over to our Landlord's house for dinner on Sunday (DELICIOUS), and her friend made her this cake, and she gave us some to take home.  Isn't it beautiful!  Just an FYI, German baked goods are not as sweet as American ones.  No death by chocolate here, it was good though.

For dinner they made a turkey they said they used apples and oranges, it was so good!  They also made red kraut out of apples, so good, and knudel which is potato and bread mixed?  It looked like a dumpling, smashed like potatoes and tasted like goodness with a hint of mint.

One of my favorite fall dishes to make is a vegetable pasta bake.  In spain i had manicotti stuffed with fall vegetables and tried to make it as soon as we got home.  I just made mine a bake because the cheese baked on top is the best part, why not have more of that?

I sauteed the zucchini and yellow squash in just salt and pepper.

The Eggplant was sauteed in cinnamon and nutmeg.

I sauteed Mushrooms in chili flakes, and then threw all of the veggies into a large bowl and added gorgonzola sauce.  Tomato sauce that is orange, due to the high volume of cheese!  :)

Now pop this sucker into the oven until the cheese bubbles and is beautiful!

Ta da!

Then i made Bruschetta to go with...

Just chop Basil very thin... very, very thin.  Add olive oil and parmesan cheese.  Then chop up the tomatoes, i take the goop out.  Ick.  Place on a baguette.  Voila!

Oh and no, the tomatoes on the pasta bake didn't move in the oven, i made two.  My friend Kari just had her baby, and Nick and i tried to provide some lovin' with a vegetarian dish.

Pumpkin Butter!

I had never made it before, and if you want the truth, i only tried it because i thought it would be a cute wife thing to do... but it was good!  :)  Now i want pancakes with this smothered on top!

So easy too!  I just threw the whole 29 oz can of pumpkin into my pot, added 2 cups of apple juice, about 1 Tbsp. of ginger, cinnamon and freshly ground nutmeg.  1 tsp. of cloves and 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Set on low for about half an hour.  It smells so good simmering...

I just bottled it up in my jars and popped it in the fridge, now it is ready anytime we need some!

I also made booscotti, owls, and pumpkin cheesecake!  I can't wait for our party!

Then, when Nick got home we carved pumpkins!

My party cooler pumpkin!

Our pumpkins

Mine is lame.  The whole time i am thinking to myself "I am sooo... good at this, i made two pumpkins and baked the seeds with time to spare in the time Nick made his one pumpkin.  Now i know why, his kicks butt.

Mine doesn't even show up in the dark.  LAME!  It was an owl...

Cakes

Okay, to follow up my "I am quitting the cake business" post.  I was.  Temporarily at least.  Then this week came, i was asked by 3 people to make different cakes and being me, i said okay.  Now, let this be a lesson to me, i was stressed, wasn't that the whole point of quitting this year.  To focus on my school work?  How is your 10 page paper due Sunday going Brittany?  ... not well.

This is how to make Fondant

First, Crisco each bowl that you are using.  You need a microwavable one like shown above, and your mixer.  (You can do this all by hand, but BE PREPARED FOR A MESS!)  Pour your bag of mini marshmallows (9 cups) into your pre-greased micro bowl and zap for 1 minute.  In the meantime you can pour one of your boxes of powdered sugar into your mixer (or counter).  Stir the marshmallows, then zap at 30 sec. intervals until you have a nice marshmallow cream, shown above.  Add 1 Tbsp. water and 1 tsp. vanilla to the marshmallow cream and pour into your stand mixer (or onto your counter... mess!).  Add the second box of powdered sugar.

Now turn the mixer on low, or start using your hands to mix.

 If the mixture gets too crumbly add more water, this should turn into a stiff looking frosting, and continue getting more stiff.

  

Sprinkle/pour powdered sugar onto your work surface and then pour this mixture out on top (or if it is already there... keep going :) ).  Knead this until it becomes a firm dough.

Next you can use this, you can saran a wrap and place in the fridge for later use or you can color it.

I tear off a little strip of the fondant and submerge it into the color.  Then place it back in the middle of the fondant, roll up like a taco and start kneading.

Keep going....

Now make some fun things...

Cherries for my ....

Banana split cake

God is good... All the time.

Do you know how you can sometimes tell when things aren't going to be going your way?  Well that happened to me this week.  First i received a lovely letter from my sister in law Linda, it was super sweet and wonderful and made me feel fantastic.  (Thank you Linda).  Then... the next day i received a handmade card in the mail from my dear friend Andrea, again super sweet and wonderful.  ( I started to say... okay God what are you building me up for?) ... THEN the world came crashing down the next day.  Of course!  At least to sensitive old me.  I was TORE UP, trying to keep my composure.  Later that day before i left work, my friend Sharee handed me a "Happy Bosses Day" card... this cannot be good right?  I know God always helps you to get through things so it is scary when you start to see the help because you know the situation is going to get worse before it gets better!  Anywho... the day ended with me sitting in my car, fatty burger in hand listening to Michael Buble sing "Georgia" (Sharee made a CD to put in my card), it was raining outside... AND I WAS BALLING!  haha!  The card was so nice, and had such an applicable verse, and i was just so thankful that God DOES SEND HELP!  I can feel so cruddy, like i am helpless, and God sends little notes from loved ones that help pull me out of my rut and get back on my feet.  Thank you Jesus, and thank you girls!  I love you all.

I am a happy Pumpkin now.

"The Righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles."

Psalm 34:17

(Not that i think i am righteous, i am just thankful that God loves me.)

How to make a fabric or ribbon rose

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSafZ2Se6bM&feature=fvw

My newest edition to the Etsy collection... shoes to come!

Brother's Quilt... finally on it's way!

Wishlist... One can dream can't she?

Shh... don't tell Nick that I want more shoes... but I do!

A cake Embroidery kit... does this have me written all over it?

Turkeys!  My favorite.  Be nice... they are CUTE animals!

My love... owls!

I WANT THIS SO BAD!

CUTE!

For your wedding!  :)

So cute, activities for the first year!  Like a baby yearbook!

I would wear this in my hair, yes.

For shoes?  PLUS we love the name Harrison!

(We also like Hank, Levi Danger, Jack Thunder or Jackson, Adeline, Addison, Madeline & Brynn)

The baby not the beanie... just kidding :)

A little hoot

... and some pinking shears

AND... I want to learn to screen print... is that too much to ask?

An Outing for Two

We had the best weekend.  A lazy one.  We had no plans for the whole three days!  Saturday I woke up early (stupid body clock!) and had a message from my brother, he sent me The Office season 6 episode 1!  AHH!  I woke Nick up from my laughter, we started the whole episode over again and laughed the entire time.  Nick schooled me at the game mom sent, which was quite upsetting because i KNOW i used to kill that game at Grandma and Grandpa's house!  Grandpa Shine taught me how to win!

We then proceeded to take a nap.  When we woke back up at NOON, we went for a drive... I asked him to please pull over to this beautiful field of yellow flowers (weeds) because i have been wanting to run through it for weeks!  We did, i was bitten on the food and my shoes needed a good washing but we did it, and i am so happy we did!

This was my artsy atempt.  The sky looked SO cool!  Then... on the way home Nick pulled out his mad skills and took this picture, which i love!

Sunday after Church we went to the Pumpkin Patch!  We left at 1:30... we arrived at 6:30! NO JOKE!  Our directions were AWFUL!  "Take the exit"... what does that mean google maps?
The pumpkins were beautiful and we had fun in the end.  We got some pumpkins that i had never seen before except in the Martha magazine last year, that was fun!  I am now in love with them and don't want to carve them.  Next week carving... and babysitting the cutest little boy!  I think we will make pumpkin seeds and pumpkin butter!

Every year since i don't know when, we have gone to Shultz Farms in Auburn, picked our pumpkins and taken our picture by the "How Tall this Fall sign.  Now that we live in Germany, this is a little difficult... this year we painted a "How Tall this Fall" sign for mommy, tradition will now be carried on! Why do i look like i am either going to fly a plane, or ride a horse???

This weekend we also...

Made fall tortilla chips

Banana Bread Pudding (for Nick)

Mozzarella, Basil & Peppered Salami skewers

(Thanks Mom, they were DELISH!)

To finish off our kid friendly day of playing in the leaves and hay... Chicken fingers and Honey mustard.

and Weight Watchers Crab Cakes

(I wasn't impressed)

I think to make them less fat and calories they took out most of the "glue"... making the cake not hold together too well.  Hmm...