Kat with a K

Halloween Week Breakfast

One nice thing about my insistence on getting up inexplicably early is that if I decide I want a fresh muffin for breakfast, well, I have time to make that happen:

These are Smitten Kitchen's Pumpkin Muffins. I followed the recipe almost exactly: I didn't have pumpkin pie spice blend, so I used my own mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves. The recipe was great, and hit that rare level of being easy and quick to accomplish but still producing that "Wow, look what I just made FROM SCRATCH" feeling. They're delicious as is but I might try adding walnuts next time.

And now I'm out of sugar, eggs, and muffin tin liners all at the same time. Odd. But I DO have 3/4 cup of pumpkin left, so if anyone has any suggestions for that, let me know. Why can't they just make the cans of pumpkin hold two cups instead of 1.75?? Yes, I know, it's so next time I need a cup I have to buy another whole can. Bah. Also, I have to say that my coworkers seem to appreciate my early morning baking fits. (Because really, what am I going to do with a dozen muffins?)

So, who wants to come over for breakfast?

Update: Yeah, so much for following the recipe. I left out the baking soda! Oops. They rose plenty and taste fine anyway...

Magical Socks!

Harry Potter socks:

I got the yarn at the Wool Arts Tour last year, and I was determined to finish the socks to wear to the tour this year. And I did! Ravelry page.

It's snowing!!!!

Really! It's been snowing steadily at least since it was light enough for me to see out the window this morning! Now I don't feel so bad about giving in and turning on the heat last night. I figured out how to change the programming on the thermostat. (My landlord had set it up last year, but he likes the house MUCH warmer than I do.) I feel accomplished.

According to family rules, the snow ALSO means that it is now acceptable to listen to Christmas music. I put a bunch of holiday stuff on my iPod this morning, and I think I'm going to break out the Christmas tea as well. Maybe I'll watch White Christmas this weekend. Eee! This is so exciting!

Trip Pictures Part 1: Adare

So, I went to Ireland! And Wales! And then took a ridiculously long time to start uploading my pictures! But here we go. We stayed in a pretty little town called Adare the first day/night, to give ourselves some time to wander around and rest and get acclimated. Here is the first of many, many pictures of gravestones I took on this trip:

See the rest of my pictures from Adare here.