last sunday, we took a trip to catoctin mountain orchard, because I was in search of a real pumpkin patch (like, “pick your own” style)… it was about an hour away, and sadly they didnt really have a patch, but it was still way worth the trip. I had a lot of fun. We got a few big pumpkins, 4 smaller ones, and about 8 little gourds to decorate our dinner table with. they also had fresh apples, and something that i’d never heard of… pear cider! the apples were SO delicious, it almost makes me not want to buy them from the grocery store anymore. haha.
on the way home, we saw another place that looked a bit more promising as to what i was originally looking for (crumland), but it was too late to stop by that day. maybe another trip is in order. :) and last, but not least, here is the final product:

sadly, they molded over about two days later… resulting in flies in our kitchen… so we had to chunk them in the trash. :( atleast it was fun carving them!

About two days ago, I decided to give melisser’s recipe for Vegan Candy Corn a try… the first time i tried it, the dough turned out too firm and crumbly. after about ten minutes of letting the dough cool, i knew it went wrong, and ended up throwing it away. the second time, I decreased the powdered soy a bit, and boiled it over low heat (instead of medium), and it turned out great! They still didnt firm up as much as store bought candy corn, but it was pretty good. and everyone who ate them commented that they were actually better tasting than regular candy corn. It was very time consuming to make these (about two hours), and you don’t get much in return (about 80-100 pieces) for your labor… but it’s pretty cool to say you made homemade candy corn (and vegan, at that!). besides, it’s not like I needed a million candy corns laying around the house… i generally can only eat about five before i feel like i’m going to hurl. HALLOWEEN RULES!! ;)

if you’re curious, here’s the recipe:

1 cup sugar
2/3 cup corn syrup (preferably organic, avoid high fructose corn syrup!)
5 tablespoons Earth Balance (or other vegan margarine)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup powdered soy milk
a pinch of sea salt
Red & yellow food coloring

Instructions:
In a large saucepan, bring the sugar, corn syrup, Earth Balance, & vanilla to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium (i did low heat here) & boil the mixture for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 5 minutes, remove from heat. Sift the powdered sugar, powdered soy milk, & salt into medium bowl Add the powdered sugar mixture to pan & stir to combine. Let the mixture stand until slightly warm to touch, about 20 minutes. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Consider putting on rubber gloves, so you don’t stain your hands. Add several drops of yellow food coloring to one piece of dough & knead food coloring into the dough until smooth and color is even. Repeat using red & yellow food coloring (for orange) with the second piece & leave the last piece white, but knead it until smooth. This isn’t an easy task & could take up to 15 minutes! Roll each piece into ropes of equal length (don’t roll too thin or the dough will break) and push the three ropes together to form a long rectangle. Using sharp knife, cut the ropes into triangles. Some will be white tipped & some will be yellow tipped

oh my, I’ve been so busy this week! I had knitting class last night, and I learned how to purl this time. it’s a bit harder, but I think i have it down. my problem now is that my stitches arent tight enough yet. hrmm. I did find a pair of the more adorable (kid’s..heh) knitting needles the other day at the craft store.

aww, look at the little faces! :) the picture on the right is the new stitch I learned. I’m working on a bookmark currently, with knit 2 purl 1 right now. Nerdy, I know… but I need practice on something that’s not a huge intimidating project.

My friend Tom Kenney (married to Heidi, from mypapercrane) did a painting for me yesterday that i requested to use for a logo for my craft/ DIY business. It’s so much better than i imagined it in my head, and to thank him, I made him a batch of those vegan pumpkin cupcakes I just blogged about.