Delicious Autumn

Delicious autumn!

My very soul is wedded to it,

and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

~George Eliot~

While pregnant with Alaine, I imagined her to be my little pumpkin.  She was due in September, after all, and with temperatures soaring into the hundreds all. summer. long...well, September and autumn and sweaters and pumpkins just seemed so appealing and wonderful!  Of course, Alaine decided to come a little early, and though she was born in September (just barely), the day she was born was a steamy 95 degrees and hardly a day for pumpkins. 

Still, September means pumpkins for me, so on the first day of fall, I gave myself permission to begin baking with pumpkin.  We started with pumpkin cookies.  One day during nap time, I mixed and rolled and baked and tasted.  Even my picky Owen devoured the (slightly healthy) cookies!  So what was I (I, who between teaching and diaper changing and nursing and vacuuming have very little free time) to bake next to fill the air with pumpkin goodness? 

Enter Amanda and her offer to allow me to do a review of her Wildtree products for my blog.  Wildtree products have no additives, preservatives, MSG, or food dyes so when I gathered everyone (including our extra house guest) to the dining room table for a cooking session, I felt good with the day's plan to move beyond our standard from-scratch goodies and out of the cabinet came a box of pumpkin bread mix.

When we finished off the loaf (less than 24 hours later), Gavin said, "Oh no.  There is not a crumb left.  Not even half of a crumb.  Not even a crumb of a crumb." 

Fast forward four days.  Alaine was still in bed... and the older kids were eating breakfast... and I needed to come up with a dessert to bring to Sunday dinner.  Out came the Wildtree again!  With my helpers otherwise engaged, this time I worked alone and used the pumpkin pie cheesecake blend to whip up a pie quickly before Alaine awoke for the day and needed my attention. Many hours and many nursing sessions and diaper changes later, we sat down to the dessert I had made in the morning.   I was a little disappointed that the flavor and color were not more "pumpkin-y", but we dubbed it autumn spice pie instead, ate it off of pumpkin-orange plates and enjoyed it anyway!