An Anderson Thanksgiving Celebration

Thanksgiving Dinner was great!  Unfortunately, I left the pumpkin rolls I carefully made and froze in the freezer at home. (Not going to lie; I almost cried when I realized that – we were already in Birmingham.)  The fried apple pies + ice cream and the 7 flavor pound cake were wonderful, though!  Everything was good!

We had a special guest at dinner this year!  Actually, two.  This was Brian’s first Christmas with the Andersons and Halie also came to enjoy dinner with us.

Saturday was also a great day.  Brent spend the day with his parents & I spend the day with mine.  We started like this (midmorning nap):

Enjoyed some of this:

carrot cake roll & Cheddar’s!

And then hit up a few of these: 

When we got back home, we began on the fruitcake cookies.  I will make a separate post with the recipe.

On Sunday, we headed home relatively early, taking the scenic route across Lookout Mountain (well, we tried to).  We drove through Cloudland Canyon on the way & vowed to come back soon for some hiking.

All in all, a very nice Thanksgiving!  We are so blessed!

Hiking Journal: Charlie’s Bunion

On Black Friday, the day when most people head out early in the morning to fight the crowds at the malls & major retail outlets, Brent and I got up early and headed to the trailhead at Newfound Gap.  It was cold and we were bundled up in coats, hats & gloves.  We planned to follow the Appalachian Trail out to Charlie’s Bunion, about 8 miles round-trip.

While we knew that the Smokies got a good bit of snow from Superstorm Sandy, we didn’t expect that there would be any leftover for our trip…but there was!! It was actually quite icy in places, but there was also plenty of looser snow for the occasional snowball.

At the top of the mountain, the trail narrows and you feel like you are walking on the “spine” of the mountain. It is so quite and serene up here!

And then we were there!  Charlie’s Bunion is like a rocky outcropping from the mountain.  On the internet, I read that it is a fairly popular hike and it is difficult to get good pictures due to the crowds who climb out on the rocks for a picnic.  We were very lucky – the only ones out there this morning!

The hike back was not too bad….the last bit of the hike is downhill, so going back is uphill, which I really hate.  But the uphill part was over quickly and it was pretty cool out.  It was nowhere near as steep as the Alum Cave trail up to LeConte.

After we got back up to the parking lot, we headed to the Anderson household for some more Thanksgiving celebration.  We drove home through Townsend and stopped at a cute little country store for some fried apple pies and a grocery store for some vanilla ice cream.  We TOTALLY missed the crowds and avoided Black Friday retail chaos!

Thanksgiving Day 2012

We had a great Thanksgiving this year.  We got to do some hiking, spend time with family, and eat lots of great food. 

We spent Thanksgiving day at the Freeman’s.  Thanksgiving morning, Hayden & Halie came over to play.  We had fun watching TV, looking at the Black Friday sale papers, and taking pictures.

Silly girls!  After that, we got ready for Thanksgiving Dinner at Brent’s grandmother’s house.  This included putting on makeup “that doesn’t show up so my mama won’t be mad.”  Ha!

After the wonderful dinner, Brent and I headed to Gatlinburg for one last hike of the year and a visit to see the Christmas lights.  We ate dinner at The Best Italian Restaurant, which has become one of our favorite places.  The garlic knots (below) are phenomenal and the pizza is wonderful also.

We left and headed back to the hotel stuffed and happy!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Recipe Files: Pumpkin Donuts with Cinnamon Butter Glaze

Fall/holiday baking is one of my very favorite pastimes.  A few weeks ago I found a recipe on the Roost blog for pumpkin spice donuts.  The recipe called for almond flour instead of regular, so I knew I would like it.  I am a huge fan of almond flour – although it does change the texture of baked goods, it gives them a richer, deeper, more substantial taste.  I use the Honeyville Farms brand of almond flour and it worked very well in this recipe.  Here is the original: Pumpkin Spice Donuts with Cinnamon Butter Glaze.

For my first attempt, I halved the recipe and pretty much followed it exactly as written, substituting pumpkin pie spice for the spices listed.  The donuts turned out great and were very, very moist.  For my second attempt, I changed the recipe (yes, I made them twice is less than one week and both times they were gone in less than 2 days): alterations are listed below for future reference:

Pumpkin Spice Donuts

• 1 cup + 3 tbsp almond flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 TBSP cinnamon
• 1 TBSP pumpkin pie spice
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 c pumpkin puree
• 1/4 c honey
• 1/4 c coconut oil

For the glaze, the second time I used peanut butter instead of almond butter.  Both times the glaze was heavenly, but I might have liked it slightly better the second time.

I made mini donuts instead of full size.

Can you believe this is the only photo I took?!

I believe Brent liked the first batch best and I like the second batch best….especially heated for a few seconds in the microwave.  I will definitely be making this again, and cannot wait to try some different variations.  Hopefully I can get a better picture next time!  They really are so cute!

Fall is definitely in the air!  I can’t believe this week is already Thanksgiving!

Fall Favorites

We are now in my favorite time of the year.  The leaves are turning colors and falling off the trees, there is a chill in the air, pumpkin-flavored goodies are in abundance, and the holidays are close enough for anticipation, but not close enough to induce anxiety or cause crowds at the major retailers.  All of that is coming, though.

My least favorite things about this time of year are daylight savings time and the needless stress that is associated with procrastinating on Christmas shopping. The carb-induced coma that stretches from Halloween through New Year’s Day (actually March if we’re being honest) is not very pleasant either, but we are doing our best to avoid that this year.

Thankfully, these things are easily outweighed by my favorite things about autumn: sweatshirts, candles, sleeping in socks, baking (and eating!) seasonal treats, hot chocolate before bed, and the warmth that greets you when you walk in the toasty house from a chilly evening.

And the leaves!  The leaves are my very favorite part of the season and this is because every single year I seem to forget how beautiful they were the year before.  Sometimes when I am driving down Fairmont Drive on my way to or from work, I just can’t believe my good fortune of being born and living my life in a region where the leaves change color every fall. 

One of my good friends from pharmacy school grew up in South Alabama, near the coast, and had never seen fall leaves until our first year of pharmacy school.  I remember riding in the back seat of some one else’s car with her while she stared out the window, not saying anything, as we drove down the street.   When some one asked her why she was being so quiet, she told us that she had never seen colorful fall leaves in real life and couldn’t believe how beautiful they were.  She was absolutely mesmerized and I have seen them differently ever since.

Last weekend we went to the arboretum to do some walking and see the changing leaves.  It was beautiful, even though the sky was a bit overcast.

You can’t really tell from the pictures, but the tree I took pictures of from underneath was the most vibrant-colored tree I have seen.  It was a reddish-orange and looked almost neon from a distance.  I do wish we could prolong this season for much, much longer!