Shopping Today, Baking Yesterday (and the day before)

Ok, it's seriously SERIOUSLY been wayyyyyy tooo long since I have blogged!  I know that I keep getting way behind in our other ministry blog and I figured it was pretty bad for this one, but almost 2 whole months have gone by!  That is SERIOUSLY out of control!  But, here I am!  We are venturing out today to do our pre-Christmas shopping... meaning, scout out what in the world's out there!  Being in a new country, we are going to have to put out our feelers.  Not only for where and what to buy, but looking for the cheapest prices...  It really does feel like the start of the Christmas season, which I know seems a bit early to be starting in October, but I think the coldness of the season here plus all the rain makes it seem a whole lot closer to Christmas.  Although, I was reminded yesterday that yes, there are only 2 months left!  Every time I think of counting down the days, I am reminded of that scene from the Grinch in the beginning where the Whos down in Whoville are Christmas shopping and it is the most chaotic thing EVER!  And, there is someone always shouting out how many hours are left to buy all those gifts :)  Funny!

To kick of this season, I start getting in that mood of wanting to BAKE!  Tuesday night, I busted out all the ingredients to make my apple pie!  Now, seeing that they don't have crisco here, I had to ask for a pie crust recipe without crisco.  I got one, but then I perfected it to my liking.  And now, I couldn't be happier!  I experimented with Bromley apples, since I know have access to them living here in the UK, and seriously liked them!  YUM!  Different than those granny smith in the way that they cook and their flavour is just a tad different, but YUM.  I think next time, I am going to experiment with putting different spices into the crumble topping.

My next baking adventure was last night.  I made pumpkin bread.  And seriously?? I LOVE all things pumpkin!  Just a couple weeks ago I made pumpkin cream sandwiches!  Deeeeellliiiisssshhhh!  The bread was a mix from Trader Joes that one of our friends brought us from the states.  It was suggested to make a streusel topping which I played around with and decided it was exactly what they bread needed for the topping!  That, drizzled with a bit of icing and it made the bread!  Everyone in the house LOVED it! So much so, that there is hardly anything left of it!   I have a tin of pumpkin in my cupboard that I am saving for something really great... apple pumpkin butter.  Once I make it, I will let you know how it turned out.... if anyone really reads this thing :)

That's all I can think of for now!  Happy baking!

Seriously? Seriously!
Trista