Last year I enjoyed making Halloween nachos using Target’s orange and black corn chips. I decided to try them again as they were a nice change from my regular dinner.

I used both nacho cheese in a jar and shredded cheese. I like a good cheesy nacho with a little kick.

When shopping at Walmart and other stores, I picked up Halloween party paper plates and napkins. Easy to use and very festive. Minimal clean up and fun! Kinda hard to tell but it says Happy Halloween and has some pumpkins.

Chances are I will make them again next year. I learned from last year to pile the goodies like avocado and sour cream on my plate and not on the sheet of baked nachos. This way I can reheat the nachos the next day without it being soggy.

This is easy to do and helps bring in the Halloween sprit.

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Just on the heels of the summer bucket list (summer be gone) I am rolling out the Autumn/Halloween bucket list. Autumn time is my favorite season. Chilly night, leaves falling, a nice windy breeze, pumpkins on porches, scary shows on Netflix, hot soup and warm tea at night. Ohhhhh my favorite time of the year.

I keep seeing all these cute pictures on Pinterest.

Amen.

But onto the bucket list.

There are a few new items on the list and a few favorites. More crafts this year and less cooking. But that is fine. Gotta mix it up. I will joyfully celebrate the season. I may do things not on the list. Let’s see where this takes us.

Let the leaves fall and the winds kick up and start the bucket list.

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I noticed on Amazon that The Republic of Tea has some Ice Tea with some yummy flavors. I decided to buy a few and taste test them.

The five flavors that I tested are as follows:

• Blueberry Lavender
• Strawberry Basil
• Blueberry Hibiscus
• Pineapple Orange Guava
• Hibiscus Sangria

In order of least to most favorite

#5 Strawberry Basil

I found the flavor was weak. Perhaps it did not brew as long as it should. The instructions on the canister said 2 minutes, whereas the others said 7 minutes. Perhaps I should try again. It lacked any flavor and basically tasted like water.

#4 Blueberry Hibiscus

I was expected a real punch on this one and it just wasn’t there. I enjoyed the tea but it was not great. I could taste the flavor but no wow favor. Good ice tea should have a refreshing quality, this was sorely lacking that component.

#3 Hibiscus Sangria

This had a lot more flavor and was refreshing. Definitely would buy again. Had a burst of flavor that was nice. Not sure what to expect from this flavor but would make a great tea on a hot day by the pool.

#2 Pineapple Orange Guava

#1 Blueberry Lavender

This was my favorite out of the five. It is very flavorful and refreshing. I remember the first time I tasted it, I thought “dang this is good”. The beautiful blue/purple color made it enchanting. I should try some lavender syrup with it next time. I have made this a few times and it still remains my favorite. Highly recommend.

I tend to romanticize tea as there are so many flavors that hot water brings to life. Of course there are more tea makers out there than I can taste. I ordered a few new brands to try out. I had seen several advertisements on Instagram and decided to take the plunge.

Snarky Tea – so many ads with unusual tempting flavors. I got the three month subscription and the first package came. It appears that the blackberry raspberry is very popular on their website but I am planning on making the clementine flavor first. This was the ice tea collection. There are many samplers packages and some with “snarky” themes. I hope it is enjoyable.

The next tea I bought is from a company called Magic Hour. These are expensive teas that are prepared to order. The packages are gorgeous and the themes are wonderful. Watching the short videos from the owner, I get the feeling she is a self proclaimed witch (in a good way) She does a lot of healing tea. I bought the ice tea sampler and the tea names and flavors combinations sound amazing.

INGREDIENTS

Dragonfruit Lychee: Organic Sencha Green Tea, Lychee Flavor Extract, Freeze Dried Dragonfruit, Organic Monk Fruit

Blueberry Cheesecake Oolong: Organic Sencha Green Tea, Organic Ti Quan Yin Oolong, Organic Blueberries, Butterfly Pea Flower, Organic Madagascar Vanilla Beans, Natural Blueberry Extract, Natural Flavors

Butterfly Blue Coconut Cream: Organic White Tea, Organic Desiccated Coconut, Organic Butterfly Pea Flower, Freeze Dried Bananas, Organic Vanilla Powder, Natural Flavor Extracts

Vanilla Lavender: Organic Assam Black Tea, Organic French Lavender, Organic Vanilla Extract, Lavender Essential Oil, Organic Calendula

Lemon Meringue Puerh: Organic Puerh Black Tea, Organic Lemon Peel, Organic Lemon Myrtle, Organic Calendula Flowers, Natural Essential Oil of Lemon, Natural Flavor Extracts

Watermelon Mint: Organic Peppermint, Organic Hibiscus, Watermelon Juice Powder, Watermelon Fruit Extract

Passionfruit Green with Roses: Organic Green Tea, Organic Rose Petals, Blueberries, Organic Goji Berries, Natural Flavors

Guava Pomegranate: Organic Black Tea, Freeze Dried Pomegranate Juice Powder, Organic Roses, Guava and Pomegranate Flavor Extracts

I also got the September birth month tea since it is my birthday month. This tea sounds amazing. It is starting to get a bit chilly at night so I think I will have a cup tonight. Let’s hope it has true magic.

FLAVOR NOTES

• Sweet Apple
• Uplifting Orange
• Warming Cinnamon
• Spiced Plum

WELLNESS BENEFITS

• Antioxidant rich
• Reduces stress (cortisol)
• Anti-inflammatory
• Boosts collagen production

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I saw a short on YouTube on a beautiful violet color lemonade tea drink called Lavender Butterfly Pea Lemonade. It looks so beautiful to drink and admire.

I have never heard of Butterfly Pea tea. When I made it, it was such a vivid blue color. It almost felt fake because it was so intense like a beautiful lake high in the mountains.

But what makes this tea so interesting is once you add lemon, it changes from blue to violet. If you add the lemonade slowly you can have a two color look to your drink.

To make it more special I added the lavender syrup and edible glitter. A sprig of lavender and you have a refreshing and colorful drink for the summer. I did add the lemonade too quickly and it mixed it too much, but it was still a pretty drink.

The recipe was easy

1. Steep a cup of Butterfly Pea tea, let cool
2. Add ice into a pretty glass
3. Add the tea into the glass and slowly add in lemonade making sure you do it slowly so there are two colors
4. Add a teaspoon of Lavender Syrup (you can add the syrup to the tea before adding in lemonade if you really want to separate the colors)
5. Sprinkle the glitter into the glass and garnish with a lavender sprig

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I fondly recall going on a wine trip with my sister and her husband where one of the wineries had a grove of peach trees. They recently harvested the trees and we bought some white peaches. I have never tasted anything so wonderful, juicy and perfect as those peaches. Since then, I have craved those peaches.

I recently bought a box of white peaches from Sam’s Club and have enjoyed eating a bowl of peaches for breakfast during the week. I am not sure why white peaches taste better than yellow. Maybe it is tied to my memory of that wine trip.

I wanted to make a peach dessert using peaches. I ended up eating a lot of those peaches from Sam’s club so I had to use can peaches for the dessert.

I made a Peach Crisp that I found on Instagram.

It was a pretty easy recipe. We decided to have ice cream with yummy warm peach crisp.

Ingredients

• 45 oz canned peaches, drained (about 4 cups sliced peaches)
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup rolled oats
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup unbleached all purpose flour
• ¼ cup salted butter, softened

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Drain the peaches and place them in a 8×8 baking dish.
• In small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle it evenly over the peaches.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the rolled oats, brown sugar and flour. Mix it together well.
• Add the soft butter and cut into the oat mix with a pastry blenderor your fingers until it resembles course crumbs.
• Evenly sprinkle the streusel topping over the peaches.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and bubbly.
• Let cool for 15 minutes and serve warm with ice cream.

Recipe from Heathers Homemade Kitchen blog. Thanks Heather!

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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 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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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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