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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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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I decided to try to make pumpkin donuts for the season which is on my Autumn bucket list. Since I was running out of time I decided to make them while visiting my sister in Arizona for Thanksgiving.

I saw this Youtube video and the lady made the donuts look so easy. Using a spice cake mix and some pumpkin purée to make the donuts. What could be easier.

It was easy, but the hardest part was the squeezing the mix out of the ziplock bag into the donut pans.

I was joking with my sister that the donuts looked a little like dog doo doo. Yuck!

I wanted the maple frosting on the donut. Using a cream cheese frosting add some maple syrup to give it a nice maple flavor but boy it was rich.

I could not dip the donuts because I was afraid they would crumble so I slattered it on top and threw on some nuts. Overall they were good but very sweet and rich.

Getting to the end of my bucket list. 😀

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I am a big fan of KDramas and surprised that I don’t know more of the Korean language at this point. Every day I watch an episode of whatever drama I am currently watching. I am not surprised of the explosion of KDramas on all the streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. I understand it has become big business and I am loving it. I have watched some mediocre shows and some really good shows. I thought that perhaps they had some scary/spooky ones for the season. I was not disappointed.

I have narrowed down my watch list down to three shows.

Synopsis from Asian Wiki: When the door to another world opens, demons exists there. Gu San-Yeong (Kim Tae-Ri), is possessed by one of those demon. Yeom Hae-Sang (Oh Jung-Se) can see the demon which has possessed Gu San-Yeong. They try to figure out the truth behind the mysterious deaths related to the five sacred objects.

Gu San-Yeong is busy working part-time during the day and studying to become a low ranking public officer at night. One day, she receives some articles left behind by her late father. Since then, mysterious deaths take place around her. She also finds herself slowly changing.

Yeom Hae-Sang comes from a rich background. He teaches Korean folklore at a university. Since he was a child, he has had the special ability to see demons in this world. He even saw his mother killed by a demon in front of him when he was young. Yeom Hae-Sang meets Gu San-Yeong and he faces the demon which killed his mother.

Lee Hong-Sae (Hong Kyung) is a lieutenant in the violent crimes investigation team. He only cares about advancing his career in the police department. Due to Gu San-Yeong and Yeom Hae-Sang, he gets involved in mysterious cases.

I would rate it a 🎃🎃🎃🎃 out of 5

The second one I watched was a Korean movie called The 8th Night

With prayer beads in one hand and an ax in the other, a monk hunts down a millennia-old spirit that’s possessing humans and unleashing hell on Earth.

It moved fast and did not have the depth that 16 episodes KDramas normally have since it was a movie. I was confused on some parts and they did not explore the characters in much detail. This would probably been better served as a series so they could deepen up the plot

I would rate this a 🎃🎃 out of 5 pumpkins

The current one that I am watching is called The Guest. It is a very dark series with demons and possession. Not a light subject matter at all.

Yoon Hwa Pyung, a young psychic born into a shaman family, learns about the powerful demon called “Son” (Guest). The demon has the power to control other demons and allows them to possess weak people. The possessed people then go mad, kill their families, and stab themselves in the eye. Fatefully, Hwa Pyung, Choi Yoon; a young boy born in a religious Catholic family, and Kang Kil Yeong; the daughter of a detective, meet when their families are killed by a demon. Twenty years later, the demon killings started again. Hwa Pyung is now a taxi driver who uses his power to seek out possessed people in order to help them, while Yoon is a Catholic priest who is talented in exorcism, and Kil Yeong is a detective who doesn’t believe in ghosts. The trio meets again and tries to work together to defeat “Son”.

In some of the episodes this just dragged on and on, and others it held my interest. It wasn’t bad, but would go have been better at 12 episodes instead of 16.

I would rate this a 🎃🎃🎃 out of five pumpkins.

At a last minute addition, I added the movie Train to Busan. It had that adorable Dong Yoo which I could watch forever. I am not into zombies but this was a good fast paced film. I was sitting on the edge of my seat.

A divorced father decides to take his daughter on the train to Busan to see her mother for her birthday. In the meantime zombies have taken over the city and one gets on the train. Before you know it, more train riders are attacked and it becomes life or death trying to outwit the zombies. The little girl who plays the daughter does an awesome job. Also in the film was Ma Dong-seok who is the strong tough guy who does whatever it takes to protect his wife from the zombies

I would give 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 out of five pumpkins as I would definitely watch again.

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It is usually hard for me to find a book that has an Autumn theme. I want the feel of crisp leaves, pumpkins, chilled autumn mornings when I read the story. Sadly most books tend to be set in Autumn but rarely mention it except maybe a Halloween party or wearing a wool sweater

This book followed the norm. It was a cute little romance book, the beautiful girl crushed by a prior love, a small town, hot, sexy man who usually had a few brothers that just as tall and strong as the man character. Thrown together they fell in love. You could have slapped a Hallmark seal of approval on it.

A coffee shop owner, a professor and the upcoming Boo Bash event are the formula for this book. Cute, predictable but a nice quick read.

🎃🎃🎃 three out of five pumpkins rating for this little book.

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I have been watching several movies to enjoy the Halloween season. Some I have seen before, others are new to me.

I am rating these films with the 1-5 Jack O’lantern scoring system

🎃 just awful

🎃🎃 not the best, may never watch again but with some redeeming qualities

🎃🎃🎃 good and may be worth a watch every few years

🎃🎃🎃🎃 very good movie or series, really enjoyed

🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 excellent, worth to watch every year. One of my favorites

Practical Magic 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

One of my favorites to watch every year. Love the scenery, the spells and the family love. I just got the book so I hope it is a good read.

The Popes Exorcist 🎃🎃 (new)

I was hesitant to watch this as this sort of thing does not set well with me. But actually I was kinda bored with the movie.

The Mummy (1959) 🎃🎃🎃

A classic oldie but goodie. I used to watch all these old movies growing up. Well technically they were new movies when I was young. It probably is really a two pumpkin film, but the nostalgia bumps it up one pumpkin. Kinda goofy but you gotta love it.

Dracula Great Love (1971) 🎃 (new)

This movie was part of an Elvira movie series. I thought it might be good, but oh my gosh, this was soooo bad. Unless you like women’s breasts, bad acting, and stupid plots. Lol

Signs 🎃🎃🎃🎃

I like this film and watch it at least once a year. One of my favorite scenes is where they are are sitting with tin foil hats on their heads. You know, you don’t want them to read your thoughts. Lol

Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

I love this film. Of all of the Hitchcock films this is my favorite. Tippi Hendren is so glamorous and the dialog and cinematography is awesome. One year for Halloween I dressed up as Tippi Hendren, had a blue suit with birds 🦅 tied to it. When I flailed my arms the bird flew around. We won 1st place at the Halloween costume contest at work that year. My secretary Connie came as Reagan from the Exorcist with split pea soup down the front of her nightgown. My boss came as Carrie – prom dress, tiara and blood everywhere. We were the damsels in distress Halloween version. I don’t remember what we won but it was more the prestige of it all.

Stephen King’s Rose Red 🎃 (new)

This was sooooo bad. The movie and I assume the book is a mix of Hill House and Winchester Mystery House. The acting was bad. The effects were bad. Everything was predicable and boring. If I could give zero pumpkins I would.

Halloweentown 🎃🎃🎃 (new)

This was a cute little Halloween film and worthy to watch on Halloween. I understand this has a cult following. Good clean fun. The kids were irritating but I expected they would be.

Arsenic and Old Lace 🎃🎃🎃🎃

A classic oldie but goodie. This is a Frank Capra film (you know, It’s a wonderful Life Frank Capra). A bit silly but I love the characters, the old maid aunts, the graveyard by the house, the casual attitude to poisoning gentlemen visitors. LOL. Not to mention Cary Grant. He is so yummy.

Mad Monster Party 🎃🎃🎃🎃

I love this little movie using the same stop motion technology as Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. I use to watch this as a child and loved Phyllis Diller character. This is good for the kiddos to watch

Winchester 🎃🎃

I love going to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. This house is very interesting with all its beautiful architecture. Helen Mirren did a good job but otherwise this was a weird movie. I did not like the male lead. Although scary with special effects, I think this would have been better served exploring Sara Winchester instead of trying to scare us.

American Horror Story – Cult 🎃 (new)

I have always enjoyed the American Horror Stories series but this one was so bad. I almost had flashbacks to the Clinton/Trump election.

Trilogy of Terror 🎃🎃🎃

This one is a throw back to my youth. 2 of the stories are ok, but the one with Karen Black and that dang voodoo doll. Dolls freaks me out a bit so I was not keen on the little guy in the first place.

Bell, Book and Candle 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Who could not love a Jimmy Stewart movie. A classic from the past of a beautiful witch falling in love with a mortal. This was before Bewitched.

Beetlejuice 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Michael Keaton at his best. Fun to watch and enjoy the handbook for the recently deceased. Not to mention the Calypso dance.

And finally

Hocus Pocus

🎃🎃🎃🎃

I love the witches. Bette Midler is a hoot. I like the story line. Good acting and great effects. No wonder people love it

Thanks for hanging out with me on the Halloween season.