Last night I was at a party. Another girl and I were talking about how we loved fall, and I mentioned that I was afraid I would miss it. I’d just be too busy to enjoy it, and soon it would be over without me realizing. It happened last year. I had a long term substitute position as an English teacher, and I was taking nine graduate-level credits. So even though I wanted to do fun things like bake with my surplus of canned pumpkin and go for hayrides and have bonfires, I was too exhausted to do any of these things.
This year, I’m going to actively try not to miss it.
My efforts began this weekend.
I’ve gotten excited for mum season for the past several years. In State College, it meant the energy and excitement of fall downtown, with tons of people (which I didn’t really enjoy) coming to town. It was the perfect excuse to escape to Talleyrand Park in Bellefonte and sit in the gazebo and interact with some ducks.
This is the first year that I have my own outdoor space to put some potted mums. We took an hour or so yesterday to sweep the porch, tidy things up, and put together a mum corner.
Then I came inside and made pumpkin spice syrup. Pumpkin Spice Latte season can be a bit of a burden on our bank account. And, dare I say, the latte I made myself this morning with this homemade syrup was more delicious than everyone’s favorite coffee chain’s.
I found the recipe here. It’s super simple. I added more pumpkin because all I could smell while it cooked was the spices. The extra pumpkin made straining the syrup more difficult, but the leftover sweet and spiced pumpkin puree that doesn’t drain through could be used as some ridiculous ice cream topping. I didn’t manage to salvage mine in this way, but I bet it’d be delicious.
It only requires 3 tablespoons of pumpkin puree, which is a problem if you need to use up the whole can. I made a loaf of pumpkin bread, but I still have a bit of pumpkin left. Suggestions?
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