Together We Are Giant

/
Together We Are Giant

Hope you had a great weekend.  Ours was busy, as we hopped from one youngling party to the next. Yesterday we hosted our annual pumpkin carving party here in Petaluma. Picture a packed house full of screaming little children smuggling cookies with some pumpkin carving on the side. We capped it all off with a party of 3 in my family room, which ended in a fit of excitement when our San Francisco Giants won the World Series.  Jasper has become quite the baseball nut, and we let him stay up well past his bedtime to watch what we all suspected would be the final game of the long season.  He got the go ahead to throw a cauldron of popcorn in the air to celebrate.  It was better than champagne.

Read More

DIY Friday: Black Sea Salt Caramel Apples

/
DIY Friday: Black Sea Salt Caramel Apples

I'm about to make about 40 or so of these as a favor for our pumpkin party.  I found course black sea salt at Whole Foods to make this irresistible sweet and salty combination; using extra small Fuji apples keeps them crisp and slightly tart.  For 10 apples melt one 11oz package of caramel with 2 tbsp of water. Insert small craft sticks into washed apples (you can also use cake pop sticks) and dredge them in the caramel.  Sprinkle with sea salt and allow to set in the refrigerator for 1 hour.  Have a spooky weekend!

Read More

DIY FRIDAY: Pumpkin Recipes

/
DIY FRIDAY: Pumpkin Recipes

This weekend I turn the big 35 and my parents are coming to celebrate their accomplishment by watching my children so I can dig in at Central Market and spend Sunday wine tasting. To make it easy on them, I created two new dishes to feed the kids while we're gone.  For breakfast they'll have a pumpkin spiced granola made from oats, pepitas and shaved almonds.  For lunch they'll have macaroni and cheese made with goat cheese and pumpkin puree (a cow milk free recipe). Using pumpkin puree adds sweetness and color without a distinct flavor, and softens the bite of the goat cheese, while adding vitamin A and iron.  My little helper Wylie tried both dishes today and they got two tiny thumbs up. Recipes below.  Have a happy weekend!

Read More

Sweet For You

/
Sweet For You

This will mark the 200th post on Poppy Haus. Today I want to thank you so much for reading.  It's just nuts that I've had that much to share in a little over a year.  I'm proud that I've amassed a small collection of recipes, projects, and musings, and I've had the chance to flex my creative muscle and started writing with regularity. Here's a little treat for today.  It's a ginger-molasses cookie bowl with a scoop of pumpkin ice cream.  Made from a new prepared cookie dough* from Trader Joes, they take minutes to craft and can be assembled ahead of time and frozen, making for an easy treat for a pumpkin carving party or Thanksgiving dessert.

Read More

Talk Soup

/
Talk Soup

Last Halloweentime we hosted a little pumpkin carving party at our house and made a pumpkin soup that knocked everyone's sock off (perhaps it was the truffle oil floated on each serving).  We're reprising the soup this year for our new school friends and their families, which might have me chopping up 25 pumpkins to feed everyone. That's a lot of pumpkins.

Read More