Uncle JT's Farm

A couple weekends ago I took Roman to my brother JT's house in western Kentucky. My brother lives on some land and has a farm as well. His home is a child's playground. He has gymnastics equipment plus a climbing wall in his barn. He has chickens, rabbits, dogs and a horse as well.  The entire weekend was a blast.

 

 

Roman's favorite area is my niece's loft in her room. It's a pretty fun little area for kids to play!

 

 

 

On Friday, JT had a Halloween party with some friends at his barn. I made several treats, including Nutterbutter ghost cookies and chewy M&M bars. The kids gathered eggs from the chickens, painted pumpkins, and went on a hay ride.

One of the chicken's pecked Roman on the finger, so that was the end of his time in the chicken coop.

 

On Saturday, we drove to JT's farm.

 

Roman and Rye had a blast playing in the river and mud.

 



 

Friday Favorites: Outerwear

The temps finally dropped and unfortunately for Indianapolis, we went from summer straight to winter. What happened to fall? I need to replace my winter coat so I've been looking around at options. I bought a coat from J.Crew factory 2 years ago during the black Friday sales and it started pilling the first season. I begrudgingly wore it again last year but I won't buy a wool coat from there again as only 2 years later I have to replace it.

I've posted this camel one from Mango before and I still haven't bought it. I really want the belted style, but am not familiar with Mango's quality.

 

Mango // Forever 21

J.Crew // Nordstrom

I would also really like a casual jacket that's warm too. I like the quilted field jacket look, but don't know if I want to go the J.Crew factory route again.

J.Crew Factory // LL Bean

Sherpa and the teddy bear cozy style is very popular, but I think that's a style you may want to go for a cheaper option on as it probably won't be trendy for many years.

J.Crew // J.Crew

 I am traveling for work in DC and I can't even count how many women I have seen wearing capes and poncho's. I have this cape from Red Dress Boutique. It's back in stock this year!

Red Dress Boutique

White Chocolate Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies

We had 2 family get-togethers this past weekend so I made a double batch of these cookies. I am so glad I made 2 batches, because they were amazing! The consensus between the families was that the pumpkin flavor is not too prominent, but they are very chewy and soft. If you like snicker doodles, you will love these! I got this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, via Pinterest. She has some helpful hints on her site.

 

 

 

 

White Chocolate Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies

Recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 Tablespoons pumpkin puree
• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips or chunks

Directions

1. Melt the butter in the microwave. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the vanilla and pumpkin until smooth. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, toss together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft. Fold in white chocolate chips. They may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to have them evenly dispersed in the dough. Cover the dough and chill for 30 minutes, or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory.
3. Take the dough out of the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
4. Roll the dough into balls, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each. Mix together the remaining 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Roll each of the dough balls generously in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and arrange on 2 baking sheets. Slightly flatten the dough balls because the cookies will only slightly spread in the oven.
5. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and under baked. Keeping them in the oven for longer may dry them out.  Remove from the oven and press a few more white chocolate chips onto the tops, if desired. If you find that your cookies didn't spread much at all, flatten them out when you take them out of the oven.
6. Allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes on the cookie sheets before transferring to a wire rack. The longer the cookies cool, the chewier they will be. I let them sit out for at least 1 hour before enjoying. I find that their chewiness and pumpkin flavor is more prominent on day 2.

 

 

Fall festivities

A few weeks ago we took Roman to 100 Acres at Newfields at the IMA. It was a really fun afternoon and I wish we would have allotted more time to hang out there. We got beers at the beer garden and then walked around to the fiberglass sculpture skeleton. Roman loved jumping from bone to bone on the large skeleton. We are looking forward to going back again this fall. I know it will be beautiful with the fall foliage.

Dan took some great pictures!

 

We also took Roman apple picking at Pleasant View Orchard. We have gone there the last few years and have always enjoyed it. This year, Roman was mostly interested in the playground so we didn't get to spend much time doing anything else.