The Pumpkin Patch!!

On Saturday, Matt and I went to the pumpkin patch with our friends, Chris and Danielle. At first, we wanted to go to the one in Encinitas, but upon further discussion, we settled on going to one in Carmel Valley. Chris has this awesome amazing beautiful camera, the T2i (which I know matt is hoping to get for christmas!) which we brought along for the trip. When we arrived at the pumpkin patch, we found out it was cash only...and since none of us had cash, we had to drive around until we found an ATM. Finally, cash in hand, we went into the pumpkin patch...only to realize that a mediocre mini pumpkin was almost 10 bucks! We discussed whether we wanted to buy one pumpkin, because they had free face painting, but we couldn't figure out where the face painter was, so we decided to skip out....but only after taking some AWESOME pictures! I definitely would recommend going to the pumpkin patch...if you can afford, but seeing as how we are broke college students, we decided to head to Vons to buy our pumpkins instead. The pumpkins were only 6-7 bucks here, and they were HUMONGOUS!!! It's amazing how much of a difference in size and price these pumpkins were. Overall, I think we got the best of both worlds :)

this is charlie the pumpkin!

Well of course, all that effort and time spent choosing pumpkins left us starving, so we decided to hit up one of our San Diego favorites, Bristol Farms. Did I mention that it was already almost 1 and we were going to Bristol Farms for breakfast? We love Bristol Farms breakfast because it is only 4 bucks...for eggs, bacon, toast, potatoes, and coffee. I think it's one of the best deals around...the only downside is the wait for food. Sometimes it can take up to almost half an hour to 45 minutes to get your food once you've ordered it. Maybe not the best decision if you're starving, but sometimes it's worth the wait. It was actually kind of fun waiting this time since Chris was busy shooting portraits of everyone. I don't mean this lightly when I say I think that Matt is in love....with the T2i. It's definitely a beautiful piece of equipment and I know that Matt (and his architectural work) could really benefit from it. Check out the awesome shots Chris got of the crew below. Of course, since we were carving pumpkins later, we decided to make it a pumpkin party and picked up some pumpkin ale....very fitting :)

Well, our adventure was pretty much over at this point, since Danielle had work and Chris had to go to school to do work, so Matt and I headed back to the house for our pumpkin carving. I had already decided to carve the chesire cat, since our costumes were themed Alice in Wonderland (I was Alice and Matt was the Mad Hatter). Matt's pumpkin, in honor of the Giants, would pay tribute to the closer, Brian Wilson. His didn't turn out exactly how we hoped it would, but it was a great attempt. So while watching the Giants game, we went to work on our pumpkins. We plucked out all the seeds, and tossed them with salt and butter and put them in the oven to make roasted pumpkin seeds. I accidentally burned them a little bit because I left them in for too long at too high of a temperature, but the guys (well Bryan and Matt at least) said that they were still good. I think the pumpkins and I are becoming much better friends, and that my pumpkin project is doing splendidly.

Later that night, Matt, Chris and I met up with my old roommates, Meghan and Vinitha, and some of our other friends to hit up the bars in Pacific Beach. It was a busy night for the bars, with some places charging almost 20 bucks for cover (Typhoon's). Needless to say, we did not get to venture into that bar. But we did hit a few of our favorites, like Johnny V's and Plum Crazy. I think this was one of my favorite bar trips out in San Diego, especially since we hung out with Meghan most of the night (whom I haven't seen in a while...if you don't count the weekend before. Overall, this was a splendid day (and night) in San Diego and it was good to see so many of my favorite people :)

meghan was katy perry

chris = rufio from hook

laszlo friend!!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Hallow's Eve!

Halloween Weekend!

Soooo I landed in San Diego yesterday around 3:15. You're probably wondering how I have time to blog right now, seeing as how I probably should be spending all my time seeing friends, hanging out with Matt, and doing San Diego-y things. Well....let's start from the beginning.

My friend David dropped me off at the airport yesterday around 12:30, where I soon found out that my flight was delayed 20 minutes. It would seem that 20 minutes isn't that big of a deal...but yesterday, it was a HUGE deal. Matt was supposed to pick me up at 2:45 and we were going to rush to his 3:00 class. However, the delay from my flight meant that I wouldn't arrive in San Diego until closer to 3:05 or 3:10. Of course, when I find out about my flight, Matt is working...and he didn't get off until after my flight took off at 1:50. So after contemplating in my head for 10 minutes whether or not it was okay to call him at work, I finally dialed Old Navy on my phone and asked for Matt. We discussed what we should do and I told him I would call around and see if anyone could pick me up. I called my friend, Jessica, who happened to be free and she told me she would pick me up :) This was an excellent plan, because when she picked me up, Jessica and I decided to go to our favorite wine bar in San Diego, called Wetstone (where they have a killer white sangria). It was only a few minutes from the airport, but when we got there, we realized that it was closed. I googled it and found out that happy hour wasn't until 5...so we sat in her car for a couple minutes looking up other places to go (thank God for smartphones...). She found a place called Cafe Chloe...where happy hour started at 4, so we decided to give it a shot. Cafe Chloe is ADORABLE...it's on 9th and G St. (I think) and it is a wine bar/tea room/cute restaurant. It turned out to be this really chic, cute French cafe with outdoor seating, so we took the opportunity to enjoy the nice weather. When we got there, the restaurant was essentially empty, but as happy hour continued, other patrons came in. Since I'm not a huge wine person, I told Jess to order her wine and let me try it. She ordered a white wine, which I soon followed suit in doing as well. Since we were both hungry, we decided on the pommes frites (better known to the regular world as french fries) and the macaroni and pancetta gratin. The food was really cute...the fries came in a cone basket with 3 dipping sauces (some type of ketchup, a watercress sauce and a mayo sauce (which of course I wasn't much of a fan of) and the macaroni was delicious. I can't remember which of the white wines we got but that was also bearable for me. I'd definitely go for Wetstone's Sangria, but the wine was still yummy. I'm actually kind of glad my flight got delayed because I got to have this cute date with Miss Jessica. Plus, if you're a wino (which I'm not) you would love this cute little cafe/wine bar....Jessica did!

Big Glass of Wine!

AWESOME FOOD!

Matt ended up calling me around 4:30 and told me that he was done with class, so he came to Cafe Chloe and picked me up. We had originally planned for me to do homework while he went to class and then we were going to go to the Yardhouse (remember...largest draft selection in the world? We went in Los Angeles with my friend Andrew). I said good bye to Jess (after making her promise to come out with us on Saturday night) and Matt and I drove over to the Yardhouse. We found parking a few blocks away at a meter (where we only had to pay for an hour). The Yardhouse wasn't super packed when we got there and we found a seat at the bar easily. I think we ended up missing the first pitch, but we only missed a few minutes (you know how Matt gets about the Giants). Since Matt hadn't eaten, we ordered a BBQ chicken pizza (during happy hour, pizza and appetizers are half offf....great deal!!) and we each got a beer. He tried the Ballast Point Porter and I got a beer blend called the Rose Gaarden (which was a blend of two beers, the Hoegaarden White and Lindeman's Framboise). To tell you the truth, I kind of wish I had stuck with the Black Velvet (Pear Cider and Guinness) blend I got last time, because the Rose Gaarden was a little sweet for my taste. It almost kind of resembled strawberry soda. The bartender poured a little more of the Hoegaarden White into my beer, so it was less sweet and it ended up being a lot better. If you ever get it, I would recommend asking for a little more Hoegaarden...because it is delicious, but runs a little sweet. Well, if any of you saw that Giants game yesterday (which I'm sure you did), it was magnificent....completely non-torturous. Actually, in my opinion, it was actually quite the torture for the Rangers....whose bullpen apparently has never heard of the strike zone (what an 8th inning for the Giants). We had called my friend Laszlo to come meet us, and of course, he showed up 2 hours later, during the 8th inning. By that point, Matt had already ordered another beer and we had ordered some chinese garlic noodles (these are amazing...I need to figure out how to make them. Also, their BBQ chicken pizza was delicious too). Las showed up with his little bro, Anthony, and Whitney. They ordered a round of beers and cheered on the Giants with us.

When the game ended, we left to hunt down some costume shops. We found a small one in the heart of the Gaslamp and tried on some funny masks and costumes. But to tell you the truth, as much as I love halloween, I really just don't like Halloween stores. They are terrifying...the scary little monsters that pop out at you, the creepy sounds, the eery fog machines. It's ironic how much I dislike those stores...because I ended up going to 3 of them today. But anyways, after our costume shopping, Anthony wanted to get some food...so we ended up at Hooters (which was the first time ever for Matt, Whitney, and me). I learned that Hooters was named family restaurant of the year (I think in 2003) which is a laughing matter in my opinion. But I have to admit, they have AWESOME chicken wings. And there was also live music that night, a guy on his guitar...playing his own songs as well as some from John Mayer, Brett Dennan, and Jack Johnson. It was a really lively atmosphere, especially since people were lined up outside to go to the Haunted Hotel next door. We found out that on Mondays and Tuesdays, you can do all-you-can-eat chicken wings for 13 bucks. We may just have to try it some time. Anyways, Anthony ran to the bathroom, which is when Laszlo decided to tell the waitress that it was Anthony's birthday. When he got back, the waitress walked up with an entourage of girls clad in orange shorts and Hooters shirts and put a Hooters bow tie around Anthony's neck. They then proceeded to sing (at the top of their lungs) happy birthday to him. Of course, it only hits Anthony after the bow tie is around his neck that they are singing to him (since it obviously wasn't his birthday). After the birthday song, we decided to call it a night. But considering the fact that I landed at 3:15, and it was already 10:30 at that point, I realized how eventful my day was. It just makes me appreciate San Diego so much more...especially my wonderful boyfriend, my awesome friends, and all the fun places we were able to explore! I think this was a very successful first night back in San Diego.

O...and don't think I forgot. Here I am blogging about my entire night...and the reason for this is because Matt had to work today....from 10:15-3:00. Unfortunately, our pumpkin patch adventure was postponed, but I managed to get a little shopping done while he is working. I got a black bow for my hair and a very cute ring and have already been to 3 Halloween stores searching for a blue bow tie for Matt. I'm still not telling you what we are going to be, but I'm pretty sure you have already guessed Matt's costume. But I think I should get to studying for my California Family Law exam on Tuesday...which I should have been doing this whole time. However, I thought I would blog about my great night, so maybe it's a win-win because I still have an hour and a half til Matt is done.

I'm currently sitting in Borders sipping on a Seattle's Best Pumpkin Creme latte....it's yummy. In honor of my pumpkin project, I'm going to rate my favorite pumpkin lattes for you.

1. Starbucks (of course!!!!!)
2. Seattle's Best
3. Peet's Coffee

When I try more, I will re-rate my lists for you :) Anyways, have a great halloween weekend everyone!!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins

Dear Pumpkins,

This is the year that you and I are going to be friends! I've decided to no longer glare at you with distaste every time fall rolls around.... In honor of my very good friends (Amber and Meghan) and their blatantly obnoxious (in a good way) love for pumpkin, I decided that this year, I would love pumpkin things. Pumpkin is the perfect complement to the fall, and I love the fall, especially now since I'm not in San Diego anymore...where nothing changes color. Whenever I drive around here, there are orange trees and piles of leaves. So as a tribute to one of my favorite seasons, I want to like pumpkin. However, as a warning: beware pumpkin pie, you and i are forever sworn to be enemies....too much pumpkin overload in that case. But anything else that is pumpkin, I'm ready to try! I am starting my pumpkin project and trying my best to love pumpkins like everyone else does. Today, I even bought cute mini pumpkins. So pumpkins, I hope we can be friends....

Love, Margaret

♥♥♥♥♥

Well, let me tell you about my pumpkin adventures. I started off slow. I saw this Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer (for coffee) at Target by International Delight, so I rolled with it and bought it. Little did I know it would wipe vanilla off my radar for good. This pumpkin creamer and I are having an awesome love affair. It is the perfect start to a blustering, cold morning because it gives you the perfect dose of a Autumn in a cup. I've forgotten how bone-chillingly cold it is in Northern California during the fall and this cup of joe helps me get through each and every morning. However, I ran out yesterday (hence the picture from google) and am already going through withdrawals. Pumpkin spice creamer...please come back into my life soon. Speaking of Autumn, if you're looking for a good song to "fall" into...I recommend Taylor Swift's "The Best Day."

via http://www.internationaldelight.com/

In honor of my love for this creamer, I have started to order pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks! This is a HUGE step for me :) Except I'm not really taking a huge leap. I order my pumpkin latte in a special way: half pumpkin, half vanilla. So if I get a grande pumpkin spice latte, it goes something like this...."Can I get a pumpkin spice latte, with 2 pumps of pumpkin and 2 pumps of sugar free vanilla, with nonfat milk and no whip? Thank you." (make sure to always say thank you at starbucks, they appreciate that there). I know, I'm being a little bit of a pumpkin rebel....but that's just the way it is. Baby steps. But if you're looking for an awesome way to order a pumpkin spice latte without the pumpkin (and calorie) overload, try it my way :)

via http://www.starbucks.com

Well I decided to take it one step further. With a little push from my friend Meghan, I ventured into Trader Joe's and found the pumpkin butter. Let me tell you, I just don't LOVE it. I definitely like it and I recommend that you try it with my favorite snack from TJ's, Honey Wheat Pretzel Sticks! My mom loves pumpkin, so she definitely makes up for my pumpkin slack a little bit.

But I decided to write this letter today because I am making pumpkin cookies today (orange cookies for the orange October for the Giants!) Well...here's the key to these awesome cookies. There's only 3 ingredients!!!!! I borrowed this recipe from a blog called Tasty Happiness and I went to work on them. Three ingredients...spice cake mix, pumpkin puree, and chocolate chips. I was a little skeptical at first...how good can cookies be without butter? But THEY ARE AMAZING!!!!! I made them in the mini oven today and used a mini muffin pan...so they're shaped like mini muffins...but they taste yummy still. I'm pretty impressed with myself...even though all I did was mix the dry cake mix with the pumpkin puree and then add chocolate chips. It still makes life a little more fun to create this perfect pumpkin deliciousness.

The ingredients (plus a cute pumpkin)

The finished product :)

Anyways, stay tuned to see how my adventures with pumpkin go. I am officially deeming this The Pumpkin Project and will continue to try to bring you good pumpkin products and yumminess. Stay tuned!!