Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars

The days are getting shorter and the leaves are starting to fall from the trees... that can only mean one thing: it's PUMPKIN time! Saying that, though, I can have pumpkin year round, as it's my favorite food. If a dish on a menu says it has pumpkin in it, it's almost guaranteed that I'll order it. In fact, after seeing a couple customers go through my till with pumpkin ravioli and pumpkin falafel, I knew what I had to buy the next time I did my grocery shopping. Not only are pumpkins delicious in any form - soup, roasted, part of a dish or in a dessert - but they are absolutely adorable... so round, squatty and, well, orange. I have yet to pick out this year's pumpkin, but I will when we return from Colombia, and then it will sit on the short brick wall by the front door.

To keep my weekly baking resolution, today I baked Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars (recipe from allrecipes.com) - the first of numerous pumpkin desserts I plan to make over the next couple of months... I still have 7 cans of pumpkin left!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips*
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Mix in the pumpkin then beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cut into bars and serve warm or cooled.

*Jeff and I found this to be too much, believe it or not, so I'd recommend only doing a cup of chocolate chips, or even a cup and a half.

Ripe, juicy blackberries I picked in the rain this morning in a field near our house.

Blackberry Pie

Now that I am working part-time, I have much more time to spend at home. I decided that I am tired of just looking at recipes and hoping that I will one day make them, so I will bake at least one baked good a week... sweet or savory. To begin this new resolution, I baked a blackberry pie using the blackberries Jeff and I picked back in July. In addition, this is the first time I have used my beautiful KitchenAid mixer from my mom.
Single Pie Crust (from allrecipes.com)
1/2 cup (100g) vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups (190g) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp (3g) salt
1/2 cups (120 ml) cold water

Directions

1. Mix shortening, flour, and salt together with a fork or a pastry blender until very crumbly. Add as much water as needed to hold together, and mix lightly with a fork.
2. Roll gently on a floured pastry cloth to about an inch larger than pie plate. Fold carefully in half, lift to pie plate, and unfold. Press into pan. For a single-crust pie, trim with a small knife to about 1/2 inch beyond rim. Fold up, and pinch so edge of pie is raised from rim.

** to make a lattice top, I doubled the recipe, but found I was left with plenty of dough, so next time I'll just make 1 1/2 recipes.

Pie Filling (from allrecipes.com)
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups fresh blackberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. Mix together 2 cups flour and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Make a well in the center, pour in the oil and water and stir together.
3. Separate the dough into two balls, using 3/4 of the dough for the first ball and 1/4 of the dough for the second. Place a sheet of wax paper over the bigger ball of dough, and roll it out; the dough can be crumbly, and the wax paper will help keep the dough in one large piece. Line an 8 inch pie pan with dough. Roll out the small ball of dough similarly, and set aside.
4. In a small bowl, mix together sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and cinnamon. Place berries in a large bowl, and sprinkle sugar mixture over the berries. Gently stir to coat. Spread filling into the dough lined pie pan. Cover with top crust, and pinch the crusts together. Poke holes in the top to allow steam to escape during baking. Line the edges of the crust with tin foil to prevent burning.
5. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, or until crust is lightly browned and filling is hot and bubbly.
   

Introducing BeeBee

We have now "officially" announced to our family and friends that I am pregnant with BeeBee (Baby Bolton). On Tuesday, August 2nd I decided to take a pregnancy test after contemplating it for around 4 weeks, telling my friend Sara that I had baby on the brain (which I hadn't had in a very long time) and feeling increasingly tired during the day. The test was the digital kind, not a 1- or 2- blue line kind, so I was expecting "not pregnant" to show up. After about 30 seconds, "pregnant" appeared on the screen and I was just waiting for the "not" to show up, which it never did.

I sat in utter disbelief for about an hour on the recliner with the pregnancy test in my hand. Even though I was extremely excited, I wanted to wait until Friday when Jeff came home from Telford to tell him... telling him our news over the phone would not do!

So when Jeff came home, I had been sitting in the garden (patch of grass behind our house) on a blanket. I met him at the car, told him to leave his things and come with me. Then I said he should sit down (on the blanket), then after a brief hesitation, I said, "You're a daddy." He looked at me like as if I had told him what we were having for supper, but I knew he wouldn't react any differently. He said he knew what I had to tell him when I asked him to sit down. Of course, he was as stunned, yet excited as I was... am!

We told our parents and my grandma that evening (it was my dad's birthday) and told a few more people the following day. We wanted to keep my pregnancy quiet until I at least had had the first scan.

My first scan was on Tuesday, August 30th, the day after we returned from Northern Ireland, at Gloucester Royal Hospital. I was more nervous than on our wedding day! Didn't help that I was extremely uncomfortable with a full bladder (required for the first scan). But when the technician lady put the ultrasound scope up to my belly and we saw BeeBee for the first time, that nervousness turned into utter joy and wonder. It appeared as though BeeBee was waving, "hello Mommy and Daddy" to us. Then he/she turned over and waved again. Seriously amazing. We could see his/her heart beating away, too. BeeBee's wee hand and fingers are just visible in the picture. Seeing the baby on the screen was especially important for Jeff since he could only believe me and the pregnancy test... his body isn't changing (no kidding).

The technician lady told us that I was 11 weeks, 4 days due to the size of the baby, which means that I am 13 weeks tomorrow. She set the due date for March 16th, 2012.

Oh, yeah... and we moved house this week, too. We will miss our church and friends in Gloucester, but know that God has us here for a reason.

M&M Bolton Wedding

Last week Jeff and I attended his cousin's, Mark, wedding in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. I got to meet some of Jeff's cousins who I've never met, and he hasn't seen in... well... we had to ask Jeff's sister, Sharon, who some of the relatives were! Although Mark and Martine live in London, Martine is originally from Australia, so McDonell family members flew around the world for the occasion.

Mark and Martine just finished signing the register. The bride's sister is standing behind her and the Best Man is a friend of Mark.

Mark and Martine

Robert and Beverly (Jeff's parents)

Jeff's cousin, Jeff and Gordon (Jeff's brother... no kidding.)

Cousin Luke and Aunt Marian McKinley (Robert's sister)

Gordon, Sharon, Jeff, Beverly and Robert

The reception took place at the Royal Court Hotel near Port Rush.

The view from the reception site.

Us.

"Top hats", shortbread biscuits and oat biscuits upon arrival. Beverly baked these shortbread biscuits, which she also baked for our wedding, too!

View just after the rain.

The wedding "cake" topped by a bouquet of crimson calla lillies
Calla lily-topped cupcakes

Cutting the cupcakes (?!)

M&Ms (for Mark and Martine) as our favors

A double rainbow over the ocean

View as the sun sets

Loads of Friends

If I could sum up the past couple of weeks, it would be friends, friends and more friends... and it's great!

Two weeks ago Bron, Kari and Inna (friends from Munich) came to stay with me for a couple of nights. Though I had to work, we still got to see each other and catch up in the evenings.

Last weekend, we drove over to Buckinghamshire to attend the Colborne-Baber children's, Christening. Steve and Caroline are friends of Jeff's from university. Their children, Oliver and Amy, are 2 and 10 weeks, respectively. Additionally Rob Gooch (another friend from university) and his daughter, Lucy, were also at the Christening. Steve and Caroline have invited us to stay with them whenever we want, so we may just take them up on the offer in the autumn!

Sunday evening, James Hyslop, a Munich friend who now lives in Atlanta, emailed to see if he could stay with us on Thursday evening... of course! So I picked him up at the train station Thursday afternoon, and after Jeff got home, we went to the Bumble Bee pub for supper. James caught the train the next morning to head down to Cardiff, but it was nice to see him, even if it was for a short time.

Yesterday, Ally, Paul and 6-month old Charis stopped by on their way up to Manchester. We haven't seen them since late February when Charis was only a week old. She is such a sweetie-pie. Since they live down in Bristol and we'll be moving up to Shrewsbury in a couple of weeks, we don't know the next time we'll see them, but we'll have to make the effort to do so.
On Wednesday, Jeff and I are flying up to Belfast to spend 5 days in Garvagh. Jeff's cousin, Mark, is getting married on Thursday. We plan to see more friends, including our "Belfast friends" when we're there, since we didn't have a chance to see them in October. More friends!

Blackberry Heaven

Just before Jeff and I walked out the door to take a walk, I asked Jeff whether I should bring a container with us "just in case"... meaning in case we came across any blackberries. We drove to a car park in Quedgeley just along the canal, pulled in and saw a bush of blackberries right in front of the car. So we picked some and were quite excited by our findings. We strolled along the canal path being ever vigilant for any deep purple berries, but most were still green and young... I'll have to come back in a few days.

But then we turned off the path into a field and just as we were about to turn right to walk along the field, I took a look to the left and... drum roll... saw a hedge FILLED with HUGE beautifully dark-purple blackberries... jackpot! We were giggling with complete delight at finding such a berry-loaded spot. We filled the container to almost overflowing then filled our bellies. It was worth every prick of the thorns and each scratch of the thistles. With berry-stained fingers and a bowl full of free fruit, we walked back to the car. Now... should I make a blackberry pie or blackberry cobbler... what a tough decision!

Lessons learnt:
#1: Whenever taking a leisurely stroll in the countryside, take along a BUCKET, not a small container.
#2: Carry along a ladder or step stool to reach the fruit that's out of reach from ground level.
#3: Don't tell ANYONE where you find your treasures... okay, that's being slightly selfish... perhaps.

Weekend with Bron

Bron came to visit over the weekend! She arrived Thursday late afternoon on a bus from London. We just hung out and caught up that evening... since we haven't seen each other since October, there was plenty to talk about... and we practically didn't stop talking the whole weekend!

On Friday, after a lazy morning, we drove up to Hereford, about 33 miles northwest of Gloucester. Hereford is a cathedral city that lies on the banks of the Wye River in the county of Herefordshire. We started out our visit at The Antique Tea Room for lunch... very us!
Then we walked down to the cathedral that dates from the 1079AD.
Then we strolled along the banks of the Wye River overlooking the cityscape.
We crossed back over the Wye River on the pedestrian-only Victoria Bridge, built in 1989.We only spent a few hours in all in Hereford, since I wanted to get home before Jeff arrived home, but it was still a fun day out.

On Saturday, the three of us drove up to our favourite village in the Cotswolds, Stow-on-the-Wold. The day was filled with browsing in boutiques... luckily we didn't do too much damage on our wallets. We also ate lunch at The Old Bakery Tea Room ran by a Christian couple.
We then spent an hour in Bourton-on-the-Water.

On Sunday we went to the Gloucester Food Show... not to eat or buy food... but to feast my eyes on the gorgeous James Martin. He is a (gorgeous) professional chef and host of Saturday Morning Kitchen, which airs live for an hour and a half on Saturday mornings. (Yes, Jeff is very aware of my crush.) Get this! Just as we walked in and turned into a row of stalls, James and his entourage were headed our direction. I couldn't believe it. Our eyes met.... twice!... and my knees melted! I seriously became dizzy and needed to brace myself against Bronnie... she says I was being dramatic... whatever. We had tickets to see gorgeous James in the kitchen theatre where he cooked for about 45 minutes. He is so much more relaxed and funny in person than on Saturday Morning Kitchen.
These are the different foods he cooked: fish goujons, fish rarebit, a soft-boiled egg on something (I forget... guess I wasn't concentrating too hard on the food this time), medium-cooked beef tenderloin and a quick summer pudding topped with a sugar nest.

Giving James a quick peck... hey, at least I can pretend!

Le Creuset... a must have in any kitchen... yet to buy mine, but I will... as soon as I finally decide which colour to buy!

Sadly, Bronnie's visit quickly came to an end. We took her to the bus station to catch the 13:00 bus back to London. However, I'll probably get to see her again in a few weeks... along with two other Munich friends, Kari and Inna.