It's hard to believe yet another weekend has come and gone so quickly - the days/weeks have just been flying by since we've been up here. We managed to keep busy again the last few days. Alex worked both Saturday and Sunday; they're finishing up on the exams on all the soldiers that just got back and it was the last weekend he has to work. So to occupy my time, I tried yet another pumpkin recipe (surprise, surprise!) and tackled painting another room. I was tired of looking at the pink and yellow walls in my office every day so I painted it a grayish blue. It completely changes the look of the room and looks great against the dark furniture!
I ventured away from muffins and tried
Pumpkin Pie Granola. It's a nice alternative to my regular cereal in the morning and I don't think I'll find anything with pumpkin that I don't enjoy. At least I haven't so far... :) I probably should have been more patient and baked it a little longer since I didn't have it spread out very well; it was slightly chewy but still tasty and something I'll try again.
Yesterday afternoon when Alex got home from work he decided it was too nice outside and we should take advantage of the sunny skies and relatively warm weather (low 30s.) We've heard Bird Ridge is a great hike and only 20 minutes from Anchorage so we gave it a try. We knew it was 2.5 miles each way and had a steep incline (elevation gain of 3400 feet) but felt like we were up for the challenge. And it was definitely a challenge! We can proudly say we conquered the mountain but it wasn't without any pain... Alex pushed me to keep going to the top and the setting sun was my motivation for coming back down (we really didn't plan the timing very well!) It was a fantastic workout but I think I'll be feeling it in my legs and feet for the next week. The view from the top was well worth it though - it follows the ridge line and overlooks Turnagain Arm and the Kenai Mountains.
For those of you that were having issues, I think I fixed the comment problem so anyone should be able to leave comments now!
this looks awesome! i have a {real} stupid question: when it calls for pumpkin, is that, take out the guts and cut up real, raw pumpkin? or pureé? and {stupid} question #2: what sugar did you use?
ReplyDeleteI was slightly disappointed with the granola but I think that was due to my own stupidity of not thoroughly baking it... It's pumpkin puree (I've never been daring enough to use real pumpkin) I only had granulated sugar on hand so I used 1 cup of that. Good luck!
Deletei just made it! it's really good - i like that it's not too sweet. but... holy he!! i had to bake it for a long time & it's still not 'typical granola crunchy.' but it definitely gets the job done!
DeleteGlad to hear it! I'll have to give it a whirl again when I'm feeling more patient to allow it to bake longer :)
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