pumpkin spice and everything nice: an ice cream recipe

It's almost my favorite time of year: autumn!

The recent typhoons have brought cooler weather and our thoughts are on what comes next: leaves falling, sweater weather, and pumpkin spice everything!

I've been experimenting with ice cream flavors and decided to try out a pumpkin spice. It's like autumn in a bowl!

Ingredients:

-1 can full fat coconut milk (I prefer Native Forest - it makes the creamiest ice cream out of all the kinds I've tried.)

-2 T. raw cacao powder

-1/4 cup agave nectar, coconut nectar, 100% maple syrup, or even pure honey (I only use 1 tablespoon, but I don't like my ice cream very sweet)

-2 T. pumpkin spice blend**

Whisk until blended and then pour into an ice cream maker. **If you don't have one you can put in the freezer for six hours, stirring every hour.**

If you are looking for some crunch, I sometimes add a few Enjoy Life crunchy cookies after pouring the mix into the ice cream maker. Crumble 'em up and toss 'em on in!

**Pumpkin Spice: I make my pumpkin spice blend in bulk but you can put less of each in the batch if you don't use it often:

-1/3 cup ground cinnamon

-1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

-1 tablespoon ground ginger

-1-1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

-1-1/2 teaspoons ground allspice

what i'm loving wednesday

I've got so much to say and so very little time to get it onto the blog! With report cards and parent teacher conferences, buying a car, making and changing vacation plans, and way too many family emergencies, it seems like there just hasn't been time to step away and breathe!

So here's a quick "What I'm Loving Wednesday" post to sum up the past few weeks:

I'm loving the beginning of the holiday season and all the traditions that go with it! Halloween parties, eggies in a basket and V for Guy Fawkes Day, plans for Thanksgiving...

I'm loving Jules Gluten Free flour, which has now changed my outlook (most days) on having to live gluten free. I actually MADE PIZZA! Those of you know have followed this journey know that my mission in life for the past few months has been to make a pizza. Not just something edible, but something that I'd feed to my non-celiac friends. And, my friends, it IS possible! 

I'm loving my new (well, new-to-me) car! Just about everything in this car is efficient, and it just suits my personality to a tee.

I'm loving iMessage. The fact that so many of our family members now have iMessage is SO wonderful. Knowing I can text family and friends, despite being in a different country, is such a blessing.

And last for today, I'm loving fall. *Sigh.* The leaves and trees are so dreamy and surreal. I can't get enough of them!

blue ridge

When we moved to the south, we decided to make a sort-of bucket list of the things we wanted to see and do before moving on to our next destination. We figured places like New York City and Disneyworld would be places we'd visit eventually, no matter our location, so we chose places of interest that we probably wouldn't get a chance to visit after we move. In our first year in North Carolina, we had crossed off most of those places. We drove the Outer Banks, we toured DC, we went to several beaches, explored Charleston and Savannah (twice, even!), so the only place left on the list was the Blue Ridge Parkway. I've always wanted to see it, and seeing as how the majority of the Parkway is within hours from where we live, we figured we definitely needed to take a long weekend and make the drive.

What we saw was even more amazing that what we expected. We drove up to Roanoke, Virginia, close to the beginning of the Parkway, and were immediately surrounded by...autumn at its best. Golden yellows and oranges, bright reds, and shades of bright brown and cinnamon we had never seen before greeted us on our journey. In the 270 miles we traveled through the Parkway over the weekend, we saw amazing mills, mountain views, waterfalls, trails, and the cutest little towns you could imagine. Here are a few photos from our trip:

fall has come again

Yes, I know, two blogs in one day, what was I thinking? But I discovered something important, so, here we go.

So it’s ALMOST apparently, officially, fall. It happens next week, though I wasn’t aware of it until today. I have been awaiting fall for so long, and wondering why it hasn’t yet come (summer decided to drag on FOREVER this year) so I went on a search to figure out when it was supposed to come.

It makes sense that it really is coming though, and making quite the debut at that. I meant to write about it when it happened, but, alas, the ever-busy weekdays strike, and I only seem to find the time to write on the weekends. On Wednesday, I awoke to find clouds in the sky. Yes, clouds. A phenomenon I don’t believe we’ve seen since last winter. I shook off the excitement, figuring that, as has happened many a time before, the clouds would leave and the hot summer sun would reappear later that day. The sky was smiling down on me, though, and it actually stayed around 75 degrees ALL DAY. It was the most heavenly day I’ve experienced in a while.

I love fall. It’s the perfect season. The leaves become the most beautiful colors you’ve ever seen. You can wear a jackets and hats, and won’t look silly, yet you can still wear summery clothes and not freeze. AND, now I get to pull out all my fall clothes. You know, the earth tone-ish outfits and the tall, leather boots you can’t get away with wearing any other time of the year. With fall clothing being the best clothing, one can only wish it would be fall for a greater time of the year.

I know I do.

Bring it on.