Whoosh

That's the sound I hear as the weekend flies by. Actually this entire week was a whoosh. Tuesday night was knitting, Wednesday night was the Neko Case concert with friends, Thursday night was volunteering, Friday night was spent having dinner and catching up with old friends at Pearl's Oyster House downtown. We had dessert at the Kooky Canuck, mainly because of the skillet cookie and the table top s'mores. We like fire.Saturday I ran errands and make a dinner for pledge drive volunteers at WEVL. I made Emeril's Mushroom & Spinach Lasagna (recipe here), salad, cheese toast and Cran-Apple Crisp (Tuesday's TWD recipe). Saturday night we went to the wedding of friends, it was masquerade-themed and the couple was gorgeous and deliriously happy. I bought cheapie masks from Michael's, Doug spray painted his silver and I stuck some Martha Stewart butterfly stickers, also from Michael's on mine. I had hoped to have time to make something more impressive but that didn't work out.Sunday I made pumpkin pancakes (recipe here), we watched The Maltese Falcon, one of the movies on our 85-Movies-in-85-Weeks list, I knit, visited a friend in the hospital, played catch up with laundry and other mundane household tasks, made biscotti and went to bed early. Hope you had an eventful (or relaxing) weekend!

It's fall y'all

I spent a great weekend with friends and that sweet man I'm married to. The weather was cool and crisp, even downright cold at night, which gave me the opportunity to dig out all of my hand-knitted hats, scarves and cowls!

Friday night we picked up sandwiches from Soul Fish and headed down to the Levitt Shell to meet up with our friends and watch the Elvis '68 Special and The Big Lebowski, which was part of the Indie Memphis film fest this year. It was so much fun and I loved being out in the cold weather (even though I couldn't feel my toes by the end of the night).

Saturday we had breakfast at Republic Coffee (stuffed french toast is heaven), did some thrifting at the Junior League Repeat Boutique (I found a copy of Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa at Home for cheap, cheap!), got coffee at Otherlands in Cooper-Young, drove downtown to see the Elizabeth Brim exhibit at the Metal Museum, drove back to Cooper-Young to have lunch at Central BBQ, and ended the night at our friend's 10th annual pumpkin carving party.

The Metal Museum is a small but nice little place to visit if you're ever in the city. The current exhibit features a metal-smith who makes ruffles and bows and pillows out of metal, amazing work, her pieces look like fabric. I had to resist the urge to reach out and touch it. Plus the gates of the museum have different mini-metal pieces all over it. The tea cup is one of my favorites. There are also some nice views of the Mississippi River but they were setting up for a wedding and we didn't want to get in the way so no pictures of that.

The pumpkin carving party is something we've been going to since we started dating. We've never missed a party since we started dating 8 years ago and it's where I met my sweet friend Stacey. We never win the carving contest but it's still fun. This year I came up with the idea Saturday afternoon before we left and Doug replicated it. He did let me scoop out the pumpkin guts though. (notice two hand knit items at once and they don't match)Here's our non-winning pumpkin and then all the other pumpkins lined up at the end of the night. Stacey and her husband won first place, because their pumpkin was fantastic, as always.

Sunday I had pumpkin on the brain and after making this week's TWD selection, I made the Sour Cream-Pumpkin Pie in Dorie's book that no one has chosen yet. It was good, but I didn't make my own crust I used a refrigerated one. I think it would have been better if I hadn't have run out of ginger. But I'll make it again for sure.Have a great Monday!

Movie #1

So we watched our first 85-Movie-in-85-Weeks film on Friday night, I had gotten "Yankee Doodle Dandy" from Netflix and since it's the last (#100 on the AFI list) movie on the list we watched it first. After this I doubt we'll go in order though. Yankee Doodle Dandy is a picture based on the life of George M. Cohan with James Cagney playing Cohan. Neither one of us knew who George Cohan was so it was a little bit like a entertainment history lesson. Cohan penned numerous songs most well known to me were "Give My Regards to Broadway", "You're a Grand Old Flag" and the World War I anthem "Over There". The movie was black and white, a little over 2 hours and had lots of singing and dancing. We liked it AND I managed to sit through the entire thing without getting too antsy. Yay me.

I was really busy this weekend but I did find time to bake up my first loaf of pumpkin bread of the year (it still is nowhere near feeling like fall here) and I made homemade pimento and cheese. For the pumpkin bread I used this recipe, it's my favorite pumpkin bread recipe, although I ran out of powdered ginger and had to use the last of my crystallized ginger. I really enjoy mixing in toasted pumpkin seeds with the batter too but I didn't have any on hand so it was bare. I made one loaf of bread and then used the remaining batter for muffins.

Pimento cheese is a Southern thing, I don't think other regions eat it, although I might be wrong. I grew up eating pimento cheese sandwiches, my Nannie has toasted hers before and that makes them even better. It's just shredded sharp cheese + mayo + pimento peppers + salt/pepper. The end. I have two pimento plants in the garden and one of them finally produced some lovely ripe, red peppers last week. I seized the opportunity to make homemade pimento cheese. I used half regular sharp cheddar and half sharp white cheddar and a sprinkle of Emeril's Essence seasoning, plus the mayo and diced pepper. Then I promptly ate a sandwich on Bunny Bread, the only bread to eat pimento cheese on.