Sunday 24 November 2013

A FAREWELL TO AUTUMN

Butter squash muffins




for the muffins:
(18 pc)

4 large eggs
200 g light brown sugar
100 g custard sugar
210 g corn oil
400 g all purpose flour
2 g baking soda
4 g baking powder
3 g cinnamon
65 g walnuts crushed
340 g grated butter squash

In days like these, when Autumn rushes towards her home, leaving us wondering how we will adjust to the white of the winter after the colourful presence of hers, I want to seal our warm memories. I used ingredients with earth colours and combined them in a soft recipe for some Autumn celebration muffins - my farewell to Autumn.



In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and the cinnamon. Beat the eggs with the brown and white sugar until doubles in volume. Add the oil. Add the dry ingredients, followed by the butter-squash and the walnuts. Fold just until combined.







You can substitute the grated butter-squash with the same quantity of grated apples or carrots. With the apples, the texture of the final product would be slightly moister and the taste will very much depend on the type of apples used for the recipe. Sweet apples as Gala and Honey crisp would present their sweetness and moister to the muffins, and Granny Smith will surprise with a nice sour accent. I wouldn't change the quantity of the sugar in neither if the suggested substitute products. The final sweetness wouldn't matter - it is just the flavour that would be differently enhanced.

Distribute the batter in a lined with paper cups cupcake tin and bake at 180C for about 40 min. After the muffins are completely cold, sift some powder sugar on top, decorate and serve.


These muffins are very much like small breads and are great for an afternoon tea party with friends. They are my way of waving "good buy" to this year's autumn.



November Night

Adelaide Crapsey


Listen ...
With faint dry sound
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees
And fall.










Friday 22 November 2013

AUTUMN

What a blessing is the season!




Autumn makes me sad and happy. I took a huge turn - She inspired me a lot. I have some cross stitched designs done that matched my autumn mood. It was a harvest celebration, it was a colours celebration and a nostalgic preparation for a long winter dream.

It is admirable how the trees never bend - with their stoic posture, always standing against the winter storms and icy hugs, they remind me why it is worth living.


The leaves ...
The drops ...
The wind ...



The leaves go away, but the trees hold the hope. Abandoned nests in the naked branches just remind us for what it was singing with the birds.




Elongated shadows, spooky spots under a leave pile, running squirrels, collecting the acorns, shorter days and weaker sun - we are all blessed with this rushed season.



The sadness ...
The hope ...
The desire ...


It is time to forgive
And time to believe.
The Earth is alive.



Autumn

Julie L.O'Connor

There's a crispness in the air that greets the morning sun,
A feeling of anticipation, a new day has begun.
Harvest days are ending, winter is drawing near,
Yet in between is surely the most special time of year.
They call it Indian Summer, and seems to fit the bill,
For it's as the Lord took a feathered brush and painted all the hills.
...

So I say that the eyes are a window, beauty is found within the soul,
And upon the hills of Autumn, that are strewn with red and gold.