The Great Pumpkin Craving And A Favorite Muffin Recipe!

I go through it every year, that seasonal addiction that has me obsessing over pumpkins. Don't you?

Bet you can't eat just one!

The origin of the original recipe is unknown, I tore it from a magazine long ago. Over the years I've  made changes here and there until it had that perfect combo of spice and moist richness. It's a holiday staple in our house and a family favorite. This is my first time sharing it...with anyone!

Rebecca's Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12 count muffin pan with very soft butter using the butter wrapper or parchment paper.

In a medium bowl combine and set aside:
3 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1tsp salt
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves


In a large bowl, beat until creamy:
1 stick unsalted butter-softened
2 cups sugar

Then add:
1tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 C. applesauce
1 C. canned pumpkin

Plus:
2/3 C. apple cider*

Begin mixing in dry ingredients, alternating with the apple cider*.  Stir in nuts and raisins last.

And:
Add 1 1/2 C. golden raisins (regular can be substituted)
Add 1/2 cup chopped pecans (if you're a nut lover)

Bake 18-20 minutes.

Sweet Twist:
Skip the nuts & raisins and top with your favorite cream cheese icing and turn it into a cupcake! Or mix softened butter with a bit of maple syrup and spread on warm muffins. Serve with hot cider for the perfect treat sitting by a roaring fire!

From McCartney To The Mundane, It Was A Sensational Summer!

Old Town Alexandria, Virginia

Although autumn arrived a few days ago, my mind still lingers on summer.  It was all the things summer is suppose to be- lazy, crazy and full of wonderful memories.  And though I did intend to take a break from blogging  for a month or so,  somehow it turned into the whole summer. It went by in a blink.

It has also been an adjustment period with many changes occurring in a very short period of time for all members of the household. But  most significantly, this was the first time, in years, our family has had this amount of consecutive time together.  So other than attending to my design work,  my only focus was to savor every single day, every single minute possible with the ones I love.


Scenes from our summer, from the mundane to the magical...

Spectacular giant urns and...

and  Limelight hydrangea have been on my wish list for some time. Lunch on the patio of 
The Red Fox Tavern in Middleburg, Virginia.

So inspired by the above, we added a new little garden of our own with Limelight's this year.

It wouldn't be summer without my blue hydrangea, and shrimp tossed with fresh garden herbs.

Summer is always a great time to catch up on your reading, especially for those attention mongers.

A stop in a favorite local flower shop to visit,  which just happens to be just a few doors away from a favorite French bistro.

As I reviewed my photos, I couldn't help but notice, this breakfast from one of our trips 
shares the same colors as the flowers above.
 I swear I didn't use all that butter!

At a little European inn we visited in June.

And  a visit here....

And a few steps away here. 

Then in July...This was my birthday present!!!!

It was an amazing performance and exciting show. Sir Paul's voice sounded remarkably the same as I remember back in his Wings days. A truly memorable evening, put it on your bucket list!

Like these people did! Nationals Park, Washington D.C.

Which usually looks like this.  GO NATS!

Later in the summer we headed up the east coast to swim with the sharks. Kidding, the fin on the left belonged to a beautiful, friendly dolphin in a school swimming within feet of my husband.

A spectacular spot to enjoy ocean breezes,  watch passersby and....

indulge in a frozen coke and hotdog with cranberry slaw!

Benches everywhere to enjoy the beautiful gardens and pool views.

As well as stylish, comfy chairs to sit and have a cocktail before dinner.

Some meals were a bit more refined: scallops, lobster tail and fresh produce.

While others were not!!!
This was waiting for us in our room upon arrival. Very convenient to toss in one's beach bag! 

After sun, sand and surf, we collapsed here. 

A view from our seats at the Kennedy Center before the crowds piled in for The Book Of Mormon
in August. It was  a great show, very funny!

I am going to miss the intoxicating scent of my Gardenia topiaries, but am looking forward to the fall season and spending time with my blog friends and readers once again.
Hello again, how was your summer?

The Nightmare Before Halloween

Also known as Sandy! Well after taking an unintentional month's break from blogging, I certainly could not have anticipated my first post back would be about  my random thoughts and the unthinkable devastation that we are all seeing on the news. 

Walking in the neighborhood. The beautiful calm before the storm


Although for the last decade we have made the southern coastline our beach destination, the New Jersey shore was the vacation destination of my husband's family since the 1920's. Cape May, New Jersey was the first beach my own children ever experienced.  This area, along with many I was not familiar until Sandy, seem to be all but wiped out by water, sand or fires. It's hard not to get emotional over the images I've seen, though I don't know a single person living in these areas.

I took this photo from the French doors in our kitchen just before it got too dark and the storm really ramped up.
 And, in case I never saw these majestic trees again! The tree to the left soars high above all the roof lines
 and is the tallest and widest tree in the neighborhood.
 Not comforting during storms!

That left me wondering how you all fared? We were beyond lucky. We had power outages for just a brief time, and though the winds howled and the rain was relentless, not a single tree came down. Just two are leaning over. We braced for the worse and stayed in the basement, but compared to the damage of the Derecho storm this summer, Hurricane Irene, and the Blizzard of 2009/2010 we got off with barely a scratch.

Our backyard.
Irregular flagstone path just after installation. The very next day, the ground was covered again in leaves.
The little rock wall with 2 Hosta (the only plants in this bed still living!) I built years ago and our landscaper said it could stay :)


Ironically, we had just installed the new landscape plan for the backyard including the installation of an in-ground sprinkler system and flagstone path. The ground is so unsteady between the work and all the rain, I'm afraid to even walk on it. Just from the deck, I can see things have sunk and shifted and though I am concerned what will survive and/or need to be re-done, I feel so incredibly lucky that our house didn't flood and the 2 tallest trees in the neighborhood, located in our backyard, did not fall onto our house or our neighbors.

New sod...approved!


Oddly, this was the first year ever, I did not purchase a single pumpkin, mum, cabbage or put out a single Halloween decoration inside the house and though it was an incredible busy month with wrapping up our house hunting, overseeing the landscaping installation and trying to finish up my final client projects of the year, I'm not sure it really had anything to do with any of these things. Last year, I only did pumpkins. Could that have been the forecast of things to come? If not for the calender, I would not even know it was Halloween. Scary.

Autumn Leaves

On this third day of autumn, I woke up to a very chilly house and would have loved to spend another hour in bed:


I love the cozy, yet elegant feel of this room. Anyone know who designed it?


But....

certain members of the houshold were having none of that!

Happy Autumn!

Dear Summer,

Goodbye. Yes, it may be your unofficial end, but I think it's reason enough for celebration. You behaved badly this year. You were too hot, too dry, too buggy, too muggy -just too long. I hope the garden gate hits you hard on the way out. Please go away, as fast as you can. I'm waiting for autumn, with open arms.

So pretty, I love a charming garden gate!



An amazing backyard fountain from a recent house tour!

I can't remember a single summer in my life that I was more ready to see end. Maybe it was the temperatures, maybe it was the lack of time spent having fun, maybe it was work, the lack of blogging? Or maybe, it was the house hunting? We started the search in early spring, just dipped a toe in. We jumped in with both feet this summer. Do you know how hard it is to find a great house, in a city that you love, that has everything on your wish list and will likely be the last house you ever buy? Crazy hard...and exhausting!

The View From Here

I do not consider myself a gardener, I only buy and plant what I am confident I cannot kill. Other than the boxwoods that line the bluestone walkway and the topiaries that flank the steps, the A&A landscape is totally maintenance free. But that doesn't mean I don't spend more than I should on annuals every year and go outside to cut the perennials every chance I get. It keeps me sane. The last 3 weeks my pruning sheers have been getting a serious work-out.  Sanity can never be overrated. Neither can flowers.

Purple Hydrangea in a pewter champagne bucket on top of a secretary in the living room.

I realized after I downloaded the photos that the blooms echo the intricate details of this church ceiling!

Clipped from here. My only bush of this type. These blooms grow on existing wood and the leaves and stems are very stiff as opposed to some varieties that grow on new wood.



French Hydrangea. This says summer to me.
 These bushes also yield the most blooms, so be warned, I  go a little nuts with my cutting and arranging!

French hydrangea, in an antique French flower basket on an antique French chest.
 Who cares if the scale is off with flowers this pretty-right!?

One of my favorite containers from a trip to Charleston, SC. several years ago.
The basket above is also from there and was purchased from an antiques shop called Alexandra AD for all you francophiles who want to see (or buy) some absolutely beautiful pieces.

Can you have too many hydrangea in one room?

Probably, but they sure do make the blue ceiling stand out! The blue tapers were a gift from a friend.

And...blue is so calming.

We live on the deck in the summer. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's nothing special and could certainly use a major overhaul (tear down), but it's comfortable and a great spot to relax. All the trees keep the temperature about 10 degrees cooler than the front of the house and because it's 8 feet off the ground, there is usually a breeze. This year I purchased 2 new rugs. The last time I showed you the dining side was here. The French doors swing out right off the kitchen for plenty of al fresco dining. I love how the rugs really give the feeling of a room. Not to mention, they are soft underfoot when you have an old deck!  The little herb pots next to the hydrangea bouquet are from my kitchen window-getting a little fresh air.

Impatiens, vinca vine and now I can't remember the name of the plants with the purple leaves? I love these wooden planter boxes. They're 18 years old and have seen countless varieties of annuals over the years.

I bought yellow Hibiscus to flank the front steps. A first ever for me. I usually choose pink!

Lemon yellow, so fresh!

 But I still love pink flowers.

Double impatiens. They look like miniature roses without all the work!

 So how's the view from your house? What did you plant, what are you cutting this year?

All photos courtesy of A&A

Men In Trees, Falling Leaves and...

A new fence! 

Complete with new gates that actually close.
 The old gates were so rotten and off kilter, we had to use a bungee cord to keep them closed!


Anyone who has owned a home for a long period of time or lives in an old house is very familiar with the expression "It's always something". Our house turned 18 last month. There are days when I feel like my title should be The Domestic Slave and the Chronic List Maker.


One of the best parts of our backyard is all the beautiful old trees. Last month, we took care of pruning
 many large limbs that were damaged or too close to the roof and eliminated some to let in light below.
The last time we did this was in 2006. It's always amazing to watch these guys work.
First they climb a roof height ladder as far as they can, then orchestrate the limb cutting with start a series of
 ropes and pulleys that they are hooked up to as well as use to lower each large limb safely to the ground.
Talk about hard work and dangerous!

This is what's on the To-Do list for fall 2011:

• Trim backyard trees branches away from house.
• Remove 2 trees in backyard to allow more sunlight and allow the ground to dry out faster.
• Remove 1 tree from front yard due to storm damage.
• Install new fence.
• Get quotes for a new deck!
• Mulch front beds.
• Clean out gutters.
• Rake leaves, twice!




And the down side to having lots of trees...lots of raking!


• Power wash house
• Paint house trim
• Paint front porch columns
• Paint front door
• Clean outside windows




The help around here is prone to taking extra breaks...

And, that's just the outside. We won't get it all done. Bet you know what happens next? Yep, it ends up on the Spring 2012 to-do list!