In the Beginning of October

I took so many photos of flowers this summer that I think I kind of burned myself out a bit.   I just looked at my folder of September photos and I have 3 photos of my kids total and almost everything else is flowers.  Which is fun, of course, but I've been feeling inspired to be able to focus on some other stuff finally.  I decided to attempt some photos of the great fall colors in all of the fruit that's available right now just to practice a bit, except that all of the fruit monsters in our house ate the fruit before I could take any more photos.  Whoops.  Same goes for the apple pies, two that I've made in the past week in the name of finally learning how to make a pie crust.  This has been my favorite recipe, in case you're looking. It has come out flaky without being too dry every time I've made it so far, so I'm sticking with it.  

If you're pie hunting and maybe not the greatest baker ever, like me, and make a crust only to realize that you needed to actually double the recipe to have enough crust for the top and bottom of the pie, do yourself a favor and skip the top crust and try this salted pecan crumble topping.  You're welcome ahead of time! 

Day 24: In the Kitchen

I thought this post would go in a different direction with me talking about meal planning and what's on the menu this week, but it just feels boring right now.  And honestly? I'm getting a little bit burnt out on the daily posts.  This is where it's hard.  I had meals planned this week, but it's turned into one of those weeks where I'm been inadvertently going non-stop for a few days now and the meals are lazy.  John had meeting late tonight and while I planned to be lazy and make some mac and cheese for the kids, I couldn't even muster the energy for that and we just went out for sandwiches.

On the flip side of the eating out coin, though, is that I experimented during this two-week part of our budget with trying to use up what we have at home and in the freezer.  We (I) have wound up eating out more, but I've definitely spent less on food overall.  I still made trips to the store, but for milk and eggs and produce and other stuff I tried to make homemade, like popcorn for snacks and tortillas over the weekend and those little corn cakes last night when we had tacos and I will definitely be making all of the above again.

So, I guess all of that to say that I planned to talk about what's happening in our kitchen, but there's not much of any excitement happening, other than the fact that I'm trying to use up what we already have and actually accomplishing that (which feels good.) But not much worth sharing.  What's happening in your kitchen? Anything worth sharing?  I'm always amazed by what can be thrown together out of necessity or the laziness of just not feeling like going to the grocery store because you know you'll wind up dropping $50 when all you needed was milk.  

I'm spending 31 days writing and sharing a series about Documenting Your Everyday this month.

 Click here to see all of the posts as they're added and follow along.