One crazy day in the kitchen

 Most Thursday nights Grant and I sit down and discuss the upcoming weekend.  By that time we've both had time to check out the paper, the local sites (love OaklandCountyMoms.com!) and our family calendar to see what we might be interested in checking out.  Up until Thursday it looked fairly certain that we were going to take the kiddos to Ann Arbor to the arboretum today as not only the Michigan game away, but kick-off wasn't until 4pm.  But with the weather looking a little sketchy, that turned out to be a no go.

So while we had some for sure plans (fire truck building at Home Depot this morning!  It has all Noah has been talking about for the past few weeks.  And of course the Michigan game.  And the Tiger game, too!) the majority of today was fairly open.  Then Grant asked the most dangerous question:

What would you like to do?

He's been married to me for 6 1/2 years now, you think he'd know better than to leave the choice up to me.  There is only one thing I love more than Wolverine football on a fall Saturday and that is having almost a full day to play in my kitchen.  As I mentioned last week I had a whole bunch of apples from our picking that have been calling my name.  Plus some leftover pumpkin, especially considering our foray to the pumpkin patch brought two more pie pumpkins that are cozily nestled in my pantry waiting for me to get to them.

So I did what I always do - I made a list!  I had a whole bunch of ideas bubbling around that I've been wanting to try out but I just had to figure out what was most pressing.  And I will admit that I might have gotten a tad bit carried away today.

But I had so much fun!  And my freezer is so happy now that it is full.  Grant claims that it's not happy, it's terrified of the thought of me making anything else :-p  Had to share some pics of today's creations.  The Wolverines whipped Perdue, the Tigers took the first game over Oakland; both of which I got to watch with my kiddos and Grant.  Plus I got to cook and bake all day.  I'm thinking this might be the perfect Saturday.  Now if Nebraska can just finish off Ohio State I'll KNOW it was perfect :)

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  Hands down the favorite new creation of the day.  Noah ate four of them after lunch!  Grant says he's never had such a soft chocolate chip cookie before.  I only baked up 10 of them and froze the rest of the dough, but all 10 cookies are gone already and Noah's begging for more tomorrow

 Cheese and chive Pirogi and cheese ravioli mid-creation.  Grant went to order our coffee this week (from nuts.com - check it out, our favorite site!) and mentioned that they also have semolina flour (the kind I use in my pasta dough) and did I want him to order me some.  I took this as Grant's subtle way of asking for pirogi ;)

 Pumpkin pecan bread.  We're going to turn one loaf of it into french toast in the morning, we'll see  how it is

 English muffins, some of which got turned into mini pizzas for dinner while we watched the games

 Homemade tortilla chips which became nachos and cheese for game time :)

 Spiced apple sauce from the crock pot.  The kids LOVED it.  Mikayla had three helpings

 Pumpkin muffins

Apple muffins (I froze the muffins so Grant can take them to work with him in the morning)

 Apple pie filling!  (Mom, if you try this recipe I cut it from 10 cups of water to 6 cups.  Turned out perfectly, probably enough for 4+ pies)

Okay, now I just need to figure out how to get it all in the freezer...