It's Fall Y'all

Fall officially began last Friday and I could not be more excited. Along with the cooler weather, fall also includes great clothes and boots which I am so excited about because of all the wonderful textures and layering. I also love everything else that fall brings with it, the leaves changing colors, pumpkin patches, football, apple picking, and homemade soup. Here are some of my favorite elements that come along with fall...

Pretty outerwear, like this camel cape.

Light scarves! I'm loving the mix of 

plaid and leopard print on this scarf.

The perfect pumpkin wreath

Stunning.

A gorgeous fall flower arrangement

Pretty mercury glass pumpkins

Yay! Time for pumpkin muffins!

Cute little pumpkin salt & pepper cellars

Soup - even better if it's served directly out of a pumpkin 

that has been transformed into an adorable bowl.

Sparkly glass acorn vase fillers

Pretty porch displays

Simple rattan pumpkins

Happy Fall!

oxox,
lauren

*Camel cape, plaid + leopard print scarf, pumpkin wreath, fall flower arrangement, mercury glass pumpkins, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin salt and pepper cellars, acorn vase fillers, rattan pumpkins. All other images courtesy of Google, Country Living, and Tumblr.

Better than your average apple a day

One of my bff's, Catie, sent me a sweet and thoughtful "bag of random" (that's what we call it because it's a bunch of random little goodies) a couple of weeks ago! Catie is such a dear friend of mine and we always have the best time together! Well, in this particular "bag of random" she included this super delicious recipe for Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread!

Ummm. hello. YUM. :)

This recipe rocks! I made it two weekends ago and Matt went through that loaf of bread so quickly it seemed as if he was scared a "bread thief" was going to break into our home in the middle of the night to steal the bread away from him! He absolutely loved it, and so did I! This bread is great for the Holidays, would make a wonderful hostess gift and is perfect to whip up when expecting company!

So, imagine my sweet hubby's delight when he gets home today and opens the door to the amazing smell (this bread smells sooooo scrumptious, but Warning: it will make you hungry!) of this yummy bread baking in the oven...he is going to be one happy man!

The prepared batter almost ready for the oven

But first, a sprinkling of cinnamon/sugar and oats on top

Ta-da!

Mmmm...soooo good!

Here is the recipe for Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread if you would like to bake some up yourself...

Equipment needed:
Stand mixer with paddle attachment
9x5 loaf pan, lightly coated with cooking spray
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 ounce quick oats (about 1/3 cup) *plus more for sprinkling on top
2 eggs
1/2 granny smith apple (cut into small chunks)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (bleached or unbleached)
1/2 cup raisins, or nuts (or both if you prefer)
cinnamon/sugar mixture to sprinkle on top
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In the bowl of the stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light & fluffy
Mix in the applesauce, cinnamon & oats
Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well each time
Stir in the apple chunks
Fold in the baking soda and flour just until the dry ingredients are incorporated
Add the raisins and nuts, folding gently
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and sprinkle cinnamon/sugar and oats on top
Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean
Remove from loaf pan & cool on wire rack
Enjoy!

*I chose to add both the raisins and the nuts (my go-to is pecans) in mine and it's delicious!

Thanks again for this tasty recipe Catie...i have a feeling this one is going to become requested pretty frequently around here! Love you dear and I can't wait to see you soon!!! :)

oxox,
lauren

Sprinkling in Some Glam: Measuring up

I love to bake. Some days I feel like I could spend endless hours in our kitchen baking all sorts of things. I made some peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from scratch last weekend and they were delicious! I think cooking and baking is a lot of fun, especially when having great utensils, and I really enjoy both. My measuring cups work wonderfully and I love them...

These are ours, they're really great...we received them as a wedding gift and use them all the time!

But look at these, they are all so happy and fun...

I really love these!

So pretty

Really cute and whimsical

These remind me of home

How adorable!

Snails!...i think these are great for when little ones are helping in the kitchen!

These look like Mrs. Deen's...i have always thought hers are so pretty when I see them while watching her show.

Fun play on measuring CUPS!

So darn precious...i love these as well!

On another note, this recent article written by David Jones from the Patriot-News that I read earlier this week makes me smile. I am proud to be a Bama fan, so I thought I would share this really nice write-up about Alabama's southern hospitality.

oxox,
lauren

*Classic silver cups, silver heart & arrow spoons, delicate bloom cups, silver fleur de lis spoons, little shell spoons, pewter fish spoons, red & pink heart cups, silver dining spoons, fun snail cups, pretty hanging silver cups, stacked colorful cups, silver bird spoons

Yumm...cheesecake!

About two and a half months ago I baked my first cheesecake. I baked the marvelous Barefoot Contessa's (I just love her!) Raspberry Cheesecake and I used her Raspberry Sauce recipe to top off each slice. I was intimidated by this at first, but it actually turned out really well! I made the cheesecake the day before Katie came up to visit back in June so that Matt and I could share with someone! Kidding, I really made it for Katie! The cheesecake itself is plain, but the recipe calls for one tablespoon of freshly grated lemon zest which makes it a little lemony and different! I used Mrs. Ina's raspberry sauce recipe (if you watch her show she makes this sauce all the time) which the cheesecake recipe did not include, it included another kind of raspberry sauce. Katie, Matt and I really enjoyed the cheesecake...it was a big hit!

Here is the finished crust

2 1/2 pounds of softened cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups of sugar

The creamed, light and fluffy cream cheese and sugar

After all the other ingredients have been mixed in

The finished cheesecake

The beginning of the raspberry sauce

The sauce, after being cooked down

Smoothing the sauce out in the food processor

This sauce is soooo good!

The finished product

I garnished the cheesecake with fresh raspberries and grated dark chocolate...mmmmm!

If you would like to make one here is the link to the cheesecake recipe and here's the link for the raspberry sauce. Try it...it's delicious! And surprisingly easy to make!

P.S. Well, as you may know, I am a southern girl and in the south we love our college football! Needless to say, Matt and I are soooo excited for the kickoff of college football this weekend (actually it kicks off on Thursday, but our teams (Alabama- me and Georgia Tech- him) don't play until Saturday!)) Yay! We are so ready for this long and fun-filled weekend!

oxox,
lauren