This year I went with the less traditional autumn meals.

During October I made the Pumpkin and Feta flatbread. It was good considering I am not a fan of flatbread. I prefer a more “doughy” base. But the toppings were good with the caramelized onions and feta/pumpkin flavor.

The other meal I made in October was on Halloween night. I made nachos with orange and black chips. There was enough toppings on the chips to consider this a meal. Meat, refried beans, jalapeños, cheese sauce and shredded cheese, sour cream, olives and avocados. This year I only had 5 kids show up at the house. Way too much candy. Some years I have had 100 kids so it was hard to guess the number of potential trick or treaters.

My other autumn themed meal was a medley of butternut squash, cranberries and onions with slices of feta and apple sausages. A warm meals with a burst of autumn flavor.

My other meal was a breakfast. I saw a recipe for cinnamon rolls from the tube but with brown sugar, butter, cranberries and pecans. Very tasty for a breakfast. Fast and easy.

I also made a taco soup that was more like a chili. Warm and comforting.

And finally as a bonus I had my traditional Aldi Jack O’Lantern pizza. I did add some additional toppings to make it tastier.

Not very traditional this year but nevertheless the feel of autumn foods prevailed.

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I always enjoy the annual Hallmark Autumn Movie release. This years theme is Fall in Love. There are seven new releases that tie into the autumn season (kinda).

Love in the Great Smoky Mountains was a nice little movie about two estranged exes who end up together on the archeological dig in the Smokey Mountain. Of course they make up and come to an understanding while searching for a treasure.

I did not feel any chemistry so I will give it 🎃🎃.

Fourth Down and Love is about two ex lovers who are thrown together on her daughter’s football game, he, an injured pro footballer, she who resists his charms as they come together to spite themselves.

This one was cute so I would give it 🎃🎃🎃 rating.

Notes of Autumn is about two people who are two longtime bffs who live in different cities. Both feeling “stuck,” they decide to switch places and live each other’s lives for fun. Doing so has them both finding unexpected love!

I like Ashley Williams so I enjoyed this one. 🎃🎃🎃

Retreat to You is about 2 friends who are holding onto past grudges. So when the two once-best friends find themselves at a retreat hosted by one of their mutual friends, their feud is reignited. Let’s see if that grudge can turn into romance.

🎃🎃 rating

A Very Venice Romance is about an executive who pursues a chef in Italy and falls in love. The food looked great and he was easy on the eyes. Not sure what this had to do with Autumn.

🎃🎃 rating

3 Bed, 2 Bath, 1 Ghost is about a ghost who is stuck in a mansion that the heroine is determined to sell. She runs into her ex boyfriend and the ghost decides to play match maker.

At first I was bored but it picked up the pace. That character did not grab me so I am giving it a 🎃🎃1/2 rating.

Field Day is about three women who are stuck doing the worst event on the PTA, “Field Day”, a grueling physical event that challenges everyone. The heroine is a recently widowed Mom who is struggling to make a new life.

I liked this one. I like both lead characters. 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Overall these movies had nothing to do with Autumn. I think Hallmark dropped the ball on this one. Give me pumpkins, a hay ride, trees of glorious gold and red. Maybe some pumpkin spice. Generally overall I was bored with these movies and was really disappointed. I hope next year they go back to those tradition Autumn/Halloween vibe films.

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I must say my cooking skills have deteriorated over time. Since I only cook for myself I rarely make a new recipe. So this did not go well…or at a minimum it did not go as planned. Not a disaster but more of a “Oops, not what I expected”. This is my story and I am sticking to it.

I wanted to make an autumn themed meal by making Crockpot Cheesy Potatoes and Kielbasa. As you can see from the picture below it should be a nice meal with potatoes.

Crockpot Cheesy Potatoes and Kielbasa

Prep Time 10minutes minutes

Cook Time 3hours hours

Total Time 3hours hours 10minutes minutes

Servings 8

Calories 

Ingredients

• 12 oz Kielbasa I used Beef Kielbasa, sliced into bite-size (about ½ inch thick)
• 2 tablespoons melted butter I used salted butter, but unsalted will work perfectly
• 3 cans 14.5 oz. diced potatoes, drained (I used Del Monte Fresh Cut Diced New potatoes)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon minced onion
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ½ cup chopped onions I used sweet onions, but you can use white onions or red onions
• 3 cups fresh shredded cheese I used 1 ½ cups Colby Jack and 1 ½ cups mild Cheddar. You may need more if you want to top each serving with cheese approx ½ cup.
• 1 can 10.5 oz. cheddar cream soup
• ½ cup milk (I used 2% milk you could use whole milk but would not recommend heavy cream)

Instructions

• Spray the slow cooker liner with non-stick spray.
• Add melted butter. Pour the potatoes and the spices. Mix to coat.
• Add the sliced Kielbasa, chopped onions, and cheese. Mix well.
• Add the cheddar cream soup and the milk and mix until all ingredients are well blended together.
• Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 5-6 hours until the potatoes are nice and soft.
• Serve and enjoy with your favorite toppings!

But what I got instead was cheesy potato soup with kielbasa. Lol. It was not bad at all, just not what I was expecting. So this autumn meal became my Autumn Bucket List for soup. Wha-la!

So at least I don’t need to make another soup.

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I have given my Autumn Bucket list a deadline of November 30th to complete. I still have a few things left to do. Oh the pressure. When Thanksgiving is over I feel it is Christmas time so it feels weird but I will call this last week a “grace period” for the slacker in me.

Since I got up early this morning I thought I would tackle the pumpkin bread since it takes a long time to bake. Normally on the weekend I finally get moving around 10-11ish. But today was 5:30am. Very odd for me but it makes sense because I went to bed early last night due to traveling most of yesterday.

Every time I make pumpkin bread I think of when I forgot to add the pumpkin purée to the mix. Sadly it was the day after my Mom passed away and was making some breakfast for my sister and brother in law. To say the least I was distracted.

The Libby brand of pumpkin bread always makes two loaves. My sister told me that she slices up the second one and wraps individual slices in press and seal and freeze for another day. A good idea that I will try.

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Well nothing like hanging the towels at the very last moment. I just could not get my act together to do this early enough. I hang the towels to give off that autumn vibe which obviously I missed the goal here but heck, we are not done with the season yet.

I generally hang the towels from both the stove and the dish washer.

Although a simple task, it does make the season enter the kitchen in a simple way.

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This year I spent Thanksgiving with my sister and her husband. My brother came out with me and was the designated driver. We put his large dog in the front seat and I sat in the back with my two little dogs.

Penny was a dream and sat staring at me for an hour or two.

We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and stuffing. Everything was so yummy. Scott and his girlfriend Nicole came out to celebrate the day with us. But they had to leave the next day for work.

We have a running joke about Thanksgiving about my brother in law Barry wearing a ratty T-shirt as his Thanksgiving attire. The very first time I met him was Thanksgiving at his house. He answered the door in a ratty T-shirt and I thought, Wow! My sister hooked up with a white trash kind of guy. About 3 hours in he looked down and saw his shirt and said, Oh my gosh, I forgot to get dressed. I said Thank God, I was worried about you. So every year I tease him and ask about his attire for the day.

Chances are we won’t get together for Thanksgiving until I retire in 2025. This was a nice treat and I really enjoyed myself relaxing and talking.

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Since I am up at my sister’s house we decided to make Christmas cookies/candies. Every year we used to get together and make treats for our co-workers and family. Since I work from home I would have too many goodies that I would throw away. Covid prevented people from taking the treats so we stopped. As my brother lives with me now and we can consume the treats without guilt. At least the guilt of throwing away food, not the guilt of eating too many treats.

This year we are making the following:

Peanut Blossom Cookies
Nut Clusters
Fudge

We were going to make Snowballs but we are old and tired and opted out.

I made the fudge without the candy thermometer and basically f*cked it up. The five minute method did not work. Grrrr.

I will do a redo at a later date.

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All thru October and November I have been drinking fall themed coffee and tea. I purchased the Harvest flavored coffee pods from Aldi.

I have never been a fan of Hazelnut flavor but I suffered thru it. LOL. Wasn’t that thrilled with the chocolate fudge flavored but enjoyed most of them. Just a hint of flavor that helped bring in Autumn.

I toyed with getting some other flavors from Amazon but convinced myself that I met my goal.

I did buy the Christmas advent coffee calendar for December so I will be happy with that providing there are no weird flavors.

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While my brother and I were visiting my sister and brother-in-law we went out to dinner. We went to a really good Restaurant called El Gato Azul. It is a really cute little hole in the wall in the downtown area of Prescott.

It is very small place but very busy because it is so good. They have a full menu but we focused on the Tapas.

For round one we had the Crab Cakes, the Beef and Bleu Tacos and the Green Chile Wontons.

For round two we had Fried Artichokes, Sticky Chicken and Chorizo Meatballs.

I think I liked the beef tacos, crab cakes and wontons best all.

Then for dessert we had the Fig and Goat Cheese and the Pecan and Goat Cheese.

Everything was so good. No wonder it is a popular restaurant. If you go to Prescott, make sure to visit, but make a reservation.

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Today is Thanksgiving and time for the Black Friday sales. As expected I am adding to my Lenox collection. They seem to have less and less special hostess gifts to buy each year. Not sure if I have bought it all or they are just limiting their new releases. But I was able to find 2 pieces to add.

I got the new annual snowman figurine. So now I have 3 to my collection. I have always been a fan of Lenox figurines and have quite a few pieces. That cute round face is adorable.

The second piece goes with my dining/entertainment pieces. It is a salt and pepper shaker set.

I probably would just put them on the table individually versus the tray during the actual meal. I think I have another salt and pepper set but not 100% sure. I really need to go and take an inventory of my pieces.

Until next year. Thanks for checking out my blog.