Just-because bundt cake

You know how you buy produce with good intentions but it doesn't always work out? Like say you buy some pears thinking "those will be great for a snack" and instead you eat candy or pickles or anything other than those pears? Then those lovely bright green pears start to get a little less bright and a little mooshy? That's pretty much how baking this cake happened. This is Pear & Almond Spice Cake from The Pastry Affair. I made this cake forever ago (October) and took half to my grandmother and aunt and kept the other half for Doug and I. It was very good, chocolatey with crunchy almonds pieces and sweet little bursts of ripe pear. My only modification was that I used apple cider in place of pear cider for the glaze (where does one even find pear cider around here?)

Tuesdays with Dorie: Honey Nut Scones & Arborio Rice Pudding

Oh hey I have a blog! Sorry about that, other bits of life have gotten in the way. Anyway, here's a TWD two-fer. These are Honey Nut Scones from the week of November 1, chosen by Jeannette of  The Whimsical Cupcake. I made these smaller than called for and froze most of them for when I'm craving a scone but feeling lazy.

The second thing is this week's Rewind recipe, any previous recipe we wanted. I picked Arborio Rice Pudding. I've made this recipe a lot. It's so good and easily adapted to be vanilla or chocolate or another flavor. This time I made mine chocolate. It's difficult to get a nice shot of rice pudding, especially on a rainy, overcast day but trust me, it tasted very good.

Cookies & pie for fall

I made these Fall-ish cookies a few weeks ago to help me get in the 'spirit'. First up was Pumpkin Gingersnaps from Two Peas and Their Pod. Doug loves gingersnaps and I love pumpkin so I hoped we'd both like these. I made them mainly for Doug's game night on Thursday but kept some for us too. They seemed to be a success, I liked how cakey they were but I might have kicked up the spice a tiny bit.

Second, was Iced Oatmeal-Applesauce cookies, which I do not have a picture of. Sorrys! This recipe was from the Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: the New Classics but I found it online here. As silly as this sounds, I don't pick up this cookbook too often because there are almost no pictures. I know, I'm ridiculous. Anyway, I felt like it was rather neglected so I scanned through the pages, found the recipe and found that I had all the ingredients for them. I did make mine bigger than the recipe called for but I really love the flavor of these.

Now the pie is a magnificent creation, found at Ezra Pound Cake. I made it for Sunday night dinner dessert and it was a little involved, but completely and utterly worth the effort. Graham cracker crust with a layer of caramel and pecans, a layer apple slices cooked with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, cream cheese layer and topped with homemade whipped cream and more caramel and pecans. It was too dark to take a photo that night so these are from the next day so it's a little less impressive but it still tasted very, very good, even the next day.

Sweaters for fall

Well, technically I finished this sweater before fall started, but whatever. It's the knit-a-long sweater from my knitting group's summer knit-a-long. The Narragansett pattern from Thea Colman (aka Babycocktails). One of my sleeves is a little longer than the other and the neck is a little wide but overall it was a really good pattern to knit. I like the uniqueness of the cable detail. (also the weird middle stripe is because it's been folded for weeks!)

The second sweater is really a shell/t-shirt and I've been knitting it since August (while knitting other things too). It's the Imogene pattern from Carrie Bostick Hodge at Quince & Co. and the yarn is Tern (75% wool, 25% silk) also from Quince & Co. There's side shaping and I love how the lace pattern looks really complicated but it's not. The sweater is a little wrinkly in these pictures and the garter edging on the sleeves doesn't want to stay down but can be fixed with some more blocking/steaming. There's a whole set of Imogene patterns, a baby shell, a cowl and a blanket too.

I cast on for this sweater in Madelinetosh Merino Light in Mineral. The short rows in the round seem a little complicated to me but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

I've also finished two hats and another baby stash item but they need to be blocked, hopefully I'll have pictures next week.