Sometimes it takes the little things in life to get through the bigger ones.

Spooky Cat Cookies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place spooky cookie of choice on baking sheet, being sure to space each cookie two inches apart.

Bake 8-10 minutes, and allow to cool on baking sheet for one minute before removing to cool completely.

Share with your roommate, and enjoy.

This past week I was reminded that the days of potato salad and grilled corn will soon be far behind us. In the same way that this realization is frightening, it also welcomes the arrival of my favorite time of year: autumn. I like to think that the start of every season is my favorite. There’s nothing like the first blossoming of tulips in spring, warm muggy nights of summer, and that first snowfall that leaves you craving Christmas trees – hypnotized into forgetting winter does, indeed, last for months. But the first cold nights, the nights when you leave the windows open, the air conditioning off, and a heavier blanket wrapped around you and someone you love, are most certainly my favorite.

Mom's Pumpkin Bread (yields two loaves)

Although I'm sure my mom would insist that this recipe is nothing special, I know to my sisters and I that autumn is nothing special without it. Technically this is a cranberry pumpkin bread, and while you could substitute chocolate chips for the cranberries, or omit them entirely, they really help in making the bread more moist especially if using fresh cranberries.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups flour
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1-15 oz. can pure pumpkin
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup frozen, fresh, or dried cranberries

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 9 x 5 loaf pans and set aside.

In a small bowl combine the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin and mix until well blended.

In another bowl combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, and salt and mix until well blended as well.

Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. Be careful not to over-mix. Fold in the cranberries.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-60 minutes or until fully cooked when a tester is inserted and comes out clean. Allow to cool, slice, and enjoy.

I have been lagging on my end of the deal, haven’t I? Promising you funnies and food, and so far I have been busy feeding jokes to the masses instead of my favorite recipes. Without further ado, I introduce the newest cookbook to my collection. My roommate, Molly, surprised me with a copy of The Farm: Rustic Recipes for a Year of Incredible Food written by Ian Knauer for my birthday and I couldn’t wait to share it with all of you. One of the wonderful things about this cookbook is not only how beautiful the pictures are, but also that the recipes are categorized according to the different seasons and when ingredients are at their peak. It’s laden with soups and stews that I’m dying to make, soon no doubt, when autumn makes its entrance. But when I should have been finishing my statistics homework last Sunday I decided to enjoy one of summer’s last treats: blueberries. This Blueberry Crumble was incredibly easy and not surprisingly it didn’t last more than a few days on our counter.

There is no way to make the final product look neat, but my two loves didn't seem to mind at all.

Blueberry Belle Crunch (serves 6 to 8)

For the berries:

12 ounces fresh blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

For the crunch:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, with a rack in the middle. Generously butter a 9-inch pie plate

Make the berries: Toss the blueberries with the sugar, flour, lemon juice, and salt. Transfer the berries to the pie plate.

Make the crunch: Stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt. Blend in the butter with your hands until well combined. Crumble the topping over the berries in large clumps.

Bake the crunch until the berries are bubbling and the crunch is set and browned in places, 25 to 35 minutes.

Let the crunch cool slightly before serving. Serve with ice cream, or whipped cream as we did.

It’s like someone knew that this family full of sisters needed a little brother, and that’s exactly what they gave us. Two years and exactly one week after I made my arrival, this sweet boy made his.

I feel so proud to be a big sister. I have always wanted to mentor and support someone in the ways that my older sisters have done for me and I hope I have been successful in fulfilling that silent promise to myself.

Mike is so talented in everything he puts his heart into. For the friends and family who haven’t had the chance to meet or time to get to know Mike, he is brilliant. When it comes to anything that he loves to do, he excels. Whether it was spelling as a boy, skate boarding as a teen, or diving into film making and technology as a young man, you can see the almost maniacal look that comes across him as he devotes himself to something.

Mike was the first batman. Before there was Christian Bale, or George Clooney (sigh), there was Batman Mike and his sidekick boy wonder, Robin (when the batman costume needed to be washed, someone had to fill in to save the world). Some of my fondest memories and funniest stories come from him sitting at the kitchen table finishing coloring book after coloring book in his costume-of-the-day.

Or watching Big Daddy, over and over, for years until each of us knew the lines perfectly.

Or reading Pippy Longstocking to him before bed, before it wasn’t cool to hang out with your big sister.

Happy 20th birthday, Mikey. I’m so proud to be your big sister.

I’d like you all to know that tonight I am posting straight from my head. Ordinarily, I have pre-crafted funny paragraphs floating around whenever the time strikes me, I write them up, and save them for later when inspiration is at an all time low and my archives are the only interesting things I can offer up. Weeks ago, I crafted a blog post dedicated to the best day or, arguably, week of the year: my birthday. It was stuffed to the brim with tasty stories of me as a child, and pictures for reinforcement. I realized though into my second paragraph that my birthday wasn't really about me, or only in the literal sense, without my wonderful friends and family that made September the Fourth so wonderful. Author’s note: capitalization for effect. So today’s post is for you, as a thank you to everyone in my life that made Tuesday such a wonderful day to wake up and celebrate me; those that I came home to, and the ones far and near that I wish I could, and to those who took time to make sure my birthday was memorable. This is for you, thank you.

My incredible roommate Molly crafted these cupcake-cone cakes for me, just like the ones my mom made for me to share the first week of school, up until the e-coli outbreak banned birthday treats from classrooms everywhere. One kid gets diarrhea and it's prepackaged Little Debbies for everyone. I might also add, these delicious cakes are perched upon a wonderful pillow I call the Sunday Times, a treat that Molly sister brought to me Sunday morning.

Aside from celebrations, my senior year has commenced! I will be officially graduating in spring with a double major in biological aspects of conservation and environmental studies. Classes are going very well so far, or as well as I can tell in four days. Of my five classes, two are being taught by Karen Strier, an expert in the field of primatology, who is doing research on the muriqui monkeys of Brazil.

Needless to say, I am very excited to see how my Primate Behavioral Ecology and Primate Conservation classes progress! Due to necessity and nothing else, I’ll also be taking an introduction to statistics this semester, as well as an environmental ethics course that is focused on climate change and ethics around the food industry and consumerism. Some of the best people I know are vegetarians, and I understand and respect different opinions around consuming meat. But that won’t stop me from sharing arguable the best beef bourguignon recipe out there. Don’t worry, more to come on that. And finally, I’ll once again be taking orchestra this semester! Nothing fancy, no auditions, but another semester to keep playing, keep the brain ripe, and reduce some stress.

I’ll leave you at that; much more to come once things settle down and the hot muggy nights fade into something much more enjoyable.