Fashion Friday

Thank goodness it's finally Friday. I've been sick most of the week, so I didn't have a ton of motivation for a Fashion Friday post. I'm surprised I was able even get dressed for work this week. Luckily, I'm really diggin' grey sweatshirts this fall, not only are they cute, but even when you're sick, you can still feel comfy rocking them.

Here are a few of my favourites...

On days that you're feeling good, you could pair it with a button-down, skinnies and some cute sneakers.

xx E.

Ps. Although I may have styled them nicely here, this week, I'm wearing my sweatshirt with baggy grey sweatpants. Cute. Reeeeal cute.

[Root] Beer Tasting

For my dad's birthday, my mom came up with a little activity for us all to do. When I found out it involved rootbeer, I decided to opt-out of the tasting. I finally tasted rootbeer for the first time this year, after the Tough Mudder event, and I decided that I hadn't been missing anything, and that rootbeer is gross.

After much input from my dad, it went from being a low key rootbeer tasting to a full blown blind study, with the rootbeer being served by yours truly, and each person ranking each sample.


the line up



the study participants; the rootbeer samples


The winner turned out to be Stewarts, which was funny because everyone thought they had chosen Dad's as the winner. So, fair play to my dad, his study design worked.


the winner. i tasted it...still gross


All the cred goes to my mom for this cute idea.

xx E.

Ps. Here's a close up of that gorgeous chocolate cake in the second picture. Credit to my mom on that one, too.

3 x the Pumpkin

I knew the weekend would be cloudy/rainy, so I figured it would be a good time to try out a new recipe. Since I'm dog sitting for my parents, I've got two pups to please, so I decided to bake something just for them.

In honour of the first day of fall, I decided on Pumpkin Doggy Treats.


simple ingredients: pumpkin, eggs, salt, flour, powdered milk (not shown)

I used this recipe. They were super simple to make. I didn't have sea salt, so I opted for regular salt (honestly, how will the dogs know?) And I ran out of rice flour, so I subbed in regular all-purpose flour at the end. The nice thing about the recipe is that they are supposed to be dry and crisp, so you don't have to work about over working the dough.

there is so much flour in the dough, it has to be super dry in order to bake into crisp treats

 

i used a small cookie cutter, but you could just as easily cut them into squares;
they get baked for 20 mins on one side, then 20 on the other



the result - they look like ritz crackers for dogs

 

rocky, giving me a paw to get a bite of the treat


After I finished, I still had a lot of pumpkin left in the can (could they please sell smaller cans of the stuff?!). Anyway, I decided to make a human treat, so I made Pumpkin Blondies.

It's really more like Pumpkin spice cake because it's fluffy, not chewy like a brownie/blondie. Either way, it was yummy!

mixing the blondie batter; the finished cake


After that, there was still SO MUCH pumpkin left in that can. So I made some curried pumpkin soup.

creamy, spicy and perfrect for a fall day

After that, believe it or not, there was STILL pumpkin in that damn can. I'd been cooking/baking all afternoon, so I did what any normal person would do. I threw the rest in the green bin.

xx E.

Ps. I don't have an actual recipe for the curried pumpkin soup...just made it up on the spot. If you want the basic method, just ask :)