Duffy Brown's Blog: New Cozy Series - Posts Tagged "fall"

Fourteen Reasons to be Excited for Fall...

I am such a summer girl!! I love summer! The sun, the heat, the humidity, the grilling, even cutting grass and I really love my garden. But summer 2015 is over much too fast and that’s downright depressing.

So to cheer myself up I came up with 14 reasons to get jazzed over fall.

First there’s pumpkin pie to look forward to. We even have pumpkin spice ice cream here in Cincy and it’s terrific and you can only get it in the fall.

And it’s now officially candy apple season. Yummm...
Then there’s hot chocolate with marshmallows, gotta have the marshmallows. Okay, you can have hot chocolate anytime but you have to admit it tastes best when there’s a nip in the air and nothing gets you warm like a cup of hc.

Halloween is just around the corner with all the decorations and kids begging for candy. Who doesn’t love sneaking a piece?

And then there’s the clothes. Jackets, sweaters, scarves, new jeans and boots! Boots are fantastic and a change of season is a great reason to shop.

Thanksgiving is the best holiday of all. The family gets together and it’s the perfect kickoff to the holiday season. And the food!!! Lord have mercy nothing beats Thanksgiving food.

And it’s back to hot coffee instead of cold coffee, fires in the fire pit and in the hearth, and the beginning of all the new shows on TV. That is for sure a great reason to embrace fall.

So what about you? Are you a summer gal/guy? Looking forward to fall? What are you looking forward to most?

On Friday I’ll give away an adorable pink Braking For Bodies mirror compact from the answers.

Auntie KiKi here and the weather’s changing here in Savannah and I got to tell you I am so ready for it. August around here is the pits, the weather so hot and humid it melts the white clean off the rice. So to celebrate last night I decided to pour myself a martini...then again I’m always pouring a martini for one reason on another...and bake up a fine pie. I never met a situation that a two-olive martini or a fine pie didn’t make better.
Fact is that’s how Reagan and I figure out a lot of whodunit situations. We sit on Reagan’s front porch pour out a martini and talk things over. Most of the time we have BW...that’s Reagan’s pup Bruce Willis...right there between us taking a nice snooze or begging for a nibble of pie that I just might bring along to share.
And I’m sharing my pie recipe and martini recipe with you.
Auntie KiKi’s Praline Pumpkin Pie
Crust
1 unbaked 9” pie shell
1/3 cup ground pecans
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons of butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C, Gas Mark 8). Combine the pecans, brown sugar, and butter. Press into a pie shell. Bake for ten minutes.

Filling
3 eggs beaten
1 cup canned pumpkin
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup evaporated milk

Mix all the filling ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Add the filling to the partially baked pie crust (you can add a few of those pecans on top if you have a mind to) and bake at 325°F (170°C, Gas Mark 3) for another 40 minutes.

Yield: Makes one 9-inch pie

Sweaters and Scarves Martini
2 oz Grey Goose Vodka

1 pinch of Fresh Ginger

1 Fresh Green Apple

1 T Lime Juice


Muddle ginger and two apple slices. Add to vodka and lime juice. Pour over ice, shake, strain and pour into a glass. Top it up with dash of ginger ale and apple slice.


You all have a nice September now, you hear.
Hugs, your favorite auntie KiKi

Duffy Brown
Consignment Shop Mysteries

Okay, I get the Christmas decoration thing but what about the rest of the time? Do you decorate your house for the season? My good buddy Tonya Kappes has a tree in her house and decorates it for the time. Easter gets adorable eggs, 4th of July gets little flags, Thanksgiving gets turkeys...you get the picture.

I don’t have an all season tree but I do decorate for the occasion. I have kitchen towels that I bring out for Easter and Thanksgiving and the like. On the 4th of July my house looks like America on steroids. I really love the flag and the RWandB theme. I tell you that Betsy Ross gal did a great design job for the country and for all of us looking for color themes.

Christmas is a given...Christmas lights outside, tree inside along with a bunch of candles and holly and fir sprigs. I never put up Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving because I totally LOVE Thanksgiving. It’s the best holiday with fam all around and there isn’t the present thing to drive me nuts.

Right now I’ve got pumpkins and leaves and black cats and ghosts with candles in my house. I’m putting up the orange lights outside with the pumpkin lights on the bushes out front and cutting jack-o-lanterns into small paper bags to use as luminaries to line the sidewalk on trick-or-treat night. I torch up the fire pit and have cider for the adults that come with their kids to join in the fun.

So why do all this you ask? I mean who really sees it? I’m a woman alone, no kids at home and they and the grandkids come on weekends but that’s it. So why bother? Well, it keeps me young and to tell you the truth I feel more a part of life and what’s going on. I don’t feel so much like I’ve got far less years in front of me than behind me. I engage and it works for me and puts a little spring in my step.

So what about you? Do you decorate for the seasons and holidays? Do you have a tree for all occasions? Stuff you drag out year after year and love seeing it all again?

Tell me about your fall decorations and I’ll give away a Lethal In Old Lace tote from the answers.