The middle of the week......

Hello lovely readers, how are you? I'm a little distracted this week....since the season's changing, I need to organize our fall/winter wardrobes and have gone into full-on nesting mode. That means every spare minute of the day I'm either tyding up or sorting through the clothes/bedding, picking through the remains of my garden, making checklists of things that need to be done before winter gets here...... There are tasks that I still need to tackle from the summer (the weather's still perfect for outdoor stuff, there's a chill in the air, but not enough to freeze those ears!!) I'm still getting used to the weather and its vagaries in this neck of the woods---it seems that fall isn't going to be as pretty here (surprise , surprise) since the heat this summer essentially fried (or roasted if you want to get technical on me!!) all those beautiful green maple leaves outside my window. How sad, I was hoping to wake up to orange /red vistas--I have some crusty brown leaves instead! This weekend, I plan on picking up some mums and pumpkins, its finally cooled off enough that the pumpkins won't rot before their time. I'm thinking purple mums and orange pumpkins this year--I usually do the obvious colors, but I'm really feeling like adding a jolt of unexpected color!!  Here's my inspiration:

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I've also been sprucing up my desktop, compressing older files I don't use, but might need and getting rid of stuff that I'm done with. (Be prepared for several posts from my inspiration folders; the only thing preventing me from using those is the lack of source info.) I came across a post I had drafted a couple of weeks back but never got round to posting, so this one's for all you lovely readers, enjoy!

It's been birthday season at P&P central: and that means cakes! presents!...we celebrate two birthdays in fall--the kid's in August and hubby's in September. This year we went with a pokemon theme for my son's sixth birthday --I don't seem to have any pictures worth posting up here, but the cake was something else altogether!!! This was the perfect party cake, perfect in texture and flavor, and appearance too-albeit with a huge pikachu face staring up (which means yellow-tinted frosting, and I used two oreos dipped in red-tinted white chocolate to make the cheeks--again, sadly I don't have pictures to share of the cake in toto, but I do have pictures of the leftover cake (I made a huge cake!), which we enjoyed for a couple of days after the party as well!

Playing with the filters!

The recipe was courtesy of the lovely and extremely talented Joyti who blogs over at "Darjeeling Dreams". Have you discovered her absolutely delectable blog yet? If not, go now! (Warning: go on a full tummy because I promise she will have you salivating over her luscious treats!! Each of her recipes is a delight to read and her pictures are to die for!).

Joyti, thanks for the recipe and all your help!(Dear readers, if I were you, I'd bookmark the recipe and use it for the next party that comes my way. Nothing needs to be changed, its perfect, as-is! I used her recipe for the frosting as well).

The other birthday was a grown-up's birthday: we had a quiet family celebration, replete with home made cards and gifts (did you know that you can buy paint pens for permanent, heat-setting ceramic paints and use them to customize plain ceramic mugs? The instructions are included on the packaging and you can always google it!-- I made one for my sweetheart. Can't share the contents due to copyright issues! ;) --I've bought a few paint-pots as well and a nice white ceramic dish...I'll post pictures once I'm done with it. But seriously, isn't that a really neat idea for a birthday gift? And the paint is dishwasher/microwave safe....tried and tested by moi.). On to the food! I'm posting pictures and the link to the original recipe. This cake didn't make it through the night, it was that good...yes, two adults and a six-year old went through it with an appetite to challenge the very hungry caterpillar! Delish.

Pistachio cake, adapted from here. I used regular canola oil instead of olive oil because I wasn't too sure of whether I'd like the flavor of canola oil in a dessert, and I omitted the fig compote, because no one in our family is too fond of figs (to put it mildly! :) ). The cake was moist (and rich!), but oh-so-good. I'll be making this one often! It's perfect for the approaching months of cooler weather. I don't like my desserts too sweet and this one was just right. (Note to self: pick up some pistachios on the next round of grocery shopping!)

Cream cheese-frosting + playing with the filters. :)

A closer look at the texture!

I hope I've given you some eye-candy to drool over and hopefully try out as well! There are a few more posts where I need to pass on some "thank you"s to my wonderful blogger friends. I hope to take a few pictures to share with you. Also, if you haven't weighed in on the Chicago post yet, please don't hold back---this blog is a more wonderful place because of you, my dear readers!! And I also have a fun announcement to make....It's going to be giveaway time at P&P soon, so stay tuned!! Till the next post, be good and don't do anything I wouldn't do (!!) 

;)