IT’S TIME. BRING OUT THE PUMPKIN.
Okay, it’s still a little warm outside here (try 90 degrees every single day, and more humidity than the flippin’ OCEAN), but I heard that Starbucks brought back the Pumpkin Spice Latte and at least two of my friends have already started decorating for Halloween. So I’d say I’m safe. Here are 15 easy fall recipes to start your fall off right:
1. BROWN BUTTER PECAN GOOEY BUTTER CAKE WITH SPIKED WHIPPED CREAM.
Banana Nut Crunch Smoothie Recipe
Thanks so much to Blendtec for providing me with the BlendTec Designer 725 Blender and Twister Jar — and for providing one for a lucky reader to win! All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.
I’ve been drinking this banana nut smoothie from a little restaurant here in Raleigh like it’s going out of style, but I think I like the idea of it more than I like the taste. Honestly, my reaction when I took my first sip was, “Eh. I could do better.” It tasted like banana, but when I think of “banana nut,” I think of the deep, rich flavor of banana nut bread — not the sweet, raw flavor of fresh bananas.
Fast forward to me lying in bed with a fiery porcupine of a tonsil in my throat, unable to swallow, much less speak. I’ve battled my ornery tonsils (especially the left one, that jerk) for decades. Whenever my left tonsil swells up to the size of a small vehicle, I know I’m in for a solid week of unsolid foods.
Check out Apps to Get Your Om On: The Best Loved Meditation Apps
by Julie Ruble at Mode
Thanks so much to Mode Media for sponsoring this post!
Roasted Peach Skillet Cake Recipe
In a few short hours I’m packing up and heading off to Maine for a trip with my tiny 9th grade class. We’ll paddle for hours to reach a remote island where we’ll set up camp. We’ll have transformative conversations (and roasted marshmallows) around a campfire. What we won’t have are computers.
Easy Chicken Shawarma
Wait wait wait. Just take a second to make sure you read that title right. This post is not about why you should not foster a rescue dog. It’s about why you should not not foster a rescue dog.
You’re probably thinking that I could’ve made things easier and just called it, “Why You Should Foster a Rescue Dog,” but that’s not quite right. What kept me from fostering for a long time isn’t that I needed reasons to do it. Instead, I needed someone to tell me why all my worries about fostering were silly. In other words, I needed reasons that I should not not do it.
So what is fostering a rescue dog, anyway? Fostering isn’t just a nice way to give a dog some time in a home before he’s adopted — it literally saves lives. Many animal rescues don’t have a central facility where dogs are kept, or if they do, it gets full very quickly. This means they can’t rescue dogs from animal shelters (where they’re at risk of being euthanized) unless people volunteer to foster them. Fostering is caring for a dog or cat in your home. You take it to vet visits, play with it, feed it, do basic training. All of this is paid for by the rescue. All that’s required of you is your time and attention. The reasons to become a foster parent are obvious: you save an animal’s life, you get kitty or pup snuggles, and it’s all for free!
But I can hear the objections popping up in your head. They popped up in my head, too. So here’s why you should not not foster a dog:
Coconut Cream Snack Cake
Sitting in Chick-fil-a right now on a wobbly booth seat. Equipped with large Coke Zero and free Wi-Fi. Ready to write.
A plump-faced child in the booth in front of me is throwing straws at his grandmother. Another kid is standing on her booth seat to grab forks and ketchup from over the divider. They are all screaming. Every single child is screaming. From the sound of it, there are 8,000 of them. One little angel is loudly petitioning for cherry ice cream. She has repeated her request approximately 8,000 times. Her father is pretending not to hear her.
SOMEONE GIVE THAT KID A CHERRY ICE CREAM.
