OCTOBER DAYS | autumn bake-off & outdoor movie night! 🍂

This week, or the rest of the week I should say, I am determined to fill our days with some October activities, October coziness. So tonight is actually Brandon and I's date night, and I was thinking the weather has been truly glorious the past couple of days. Just really crisp, super comfortable, so I was thinking we could have ourselves a little alfresco date night, have a soup outside, make a little fire in our fire bowl, and watch something. So I'm gearing up to set everything up and I'm really looking forward to it. So I purchased a pumpkin and love to roast the pumpkin seeds, so I absolutely want to do that. And I'm thinking, there's soup on the menu for tonight, and what if we just put the soup in the pumpkin and that's how we served it. I think that would be really fun. Not very practical, but just doing it for the joy of it all. So I'm going to try to do that. I hope all of this isn't too ambitious for tonight, but we'll see how it goes. And then I really want to watch The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. That is just such a classic that I absolutely love. I love the music. It's just silly and cute. So see if we can find that and set that up. And yeah, just enjoy a night under the stars. And then later this week, we have the bake-off, the autumn bake-off. So that'll be a whole adventure in and of itself, but excited to spend time together. My practical side is coming out, and I'm thinking maybe I should just cook and serve the soup in this pumpkin because I actually have a pumpkin crockpot, which is special in and of itself. But I found such a nice pumpkin that I was thinking of using, but we could just do this another day. We could carve the pumpkin and roast the seeds some other time. But do you understand the vision, just kind of chopping this off and then serving it in the pumpkin? Okay, I love this idea. Feel free to use that idea. I think that's so fun, but I think we'll just use our crockpot tonight and then do something else fun with this. That's also probably smart just for the sake of time. It's already five o'clock, and by the time I set everything up, make the soup, all of that, we'll be hungry. So let's just be a little practical tonight. This was a very quick and easy soup to make, which I'm thankful for. I'll link the recipe. It did call for sausage, which I didn't do, so that did save me a little time, but I still think it would be quick either way. Our date night, it was short-lived outside because the mosquitoes. The mosquitoes came for us, but it was cozy while it lasted. It was nice. It was really cozy while it lasted, and then we came in. Very creative. Yeah, it was a fun little October evening, and then we came in, watched some Shark Tank, which is one of our favorite shows, so that was nice. And now it's bedtime, but I'll see you for our baking day, for the bake-off. Happy bake-off day. I've already started prepping certain things for our bake for the annual autumn bake-off. This is only our second year doing it, but it's so fun. It's such a fun tradition, and I've been looking forward to it, so thankful it's here. I am baking chocolate pecan pie, which is exactly what I baked last year. I just want to make it again. I really want to make it again, and I want to elevate it, so that's precisely what we're going to do. And I was surprised because I did win last year, and I wasn't expecting to because I just was coming in. It was my first time baking the chocolate pecan pie that day, and it was all ... The presentation was not that great, but I think it was just so decadent, so the judges enjoyed it. And personally, I'm just such a chocolate lover, so I will always go for the chocolate option, and that will always be my number one, is something chocolatey. So thankfully, the judges also agreed with that, but we'll see what happens tonight. We have other people coming, so it'll be a fresh group of bakers and judges, so we'll see. But it's so fun either way, and I'm personally excited to eat some pie. So what do we need to do next? I have the pie crust cooling in the fridge, already prepped that. Then I also, this morning, made chocolate leaves that I want to put on the top. So that's in the fridge or the freezer, I forget where I put it, but those are cooling and hardening, so they'll be nice and set, ready to go. And then after we make our pie, or while it's cooking, I want to make maple bourbon whipped cream. We already have maple. Let me show you. We have this syrup. It's already flavored. It's Organic Vermont Maple Syrup Bourbon Barrel Aged, so it already has that bourbon flavor, so I don't need to add extra bourbon. I'm just going to use this and the heavy whipping cream to make the whipped cream, and then we'll go from there. But I guess my next step is to roll out the crust, and I really want to try to work on making it a little more intentional this year. Sorry, my phone charger just fell. So I usually just roll it out and just try to crimp it as I see fit, but let's see if there's any tips on how to do it more intentionally. Okay, here's our crimped pie crust. It's pretty good. The video was so incredibly helpful just with various different tips, so I'll put it in the description. It's from the King Arthur YouTube channel, but there are lots of great tips to help me transfer my pie crust with confidence. While our pie crust is chilling and the oven is preheating, I went ahead and added some bows to our apron because it's cute. Also, I'm going to wear the apron to the bake-off later. It just feels right. I feel like I need to dress the part. Also, I need to turn on the Great British Baking Show. I feel like that'll provide some great inspiration while we bake, but also I don't want to be distracted because there is room for error, so we'll see, we'll see. I think we could turn it on for a little bit, and we'll see how it goes. But I need to go ahead and toast the pecans or just prep them, and then I think I'm going to go ahead and prep the filling now, too, because you're supposed to let it chill before adding it into the pie crust. So we need to melt our chocolate and then add in our syrup and all of that good stuff. So let's go ahead and get a head start on that. Last year, I was much more frazzled, and I wasn't thinking when I went to go grab the pie and put it in the oven. I just quickly grabbed it, and the filling just splattered over the side of the pie crust because it's very liquidy right now. So I am not going to do that again. I'm going to very gracefully and gently place this in the oven. Uh-oh, I need my oven mitts, though. Now we wait. I just spilled my pie beads everywhere, including the garbage disposal, so I guess I'm sticking my hands in here. And here she is. Smells really good. Here's hoping it tastes really good. Here's Miss Host setting everything up. Hey! Looks amazing. Very, very cute. Like, super cute. Grace, go relax here. He actually, like, how much did I need to behave when I said I was going to follow his lead with my team, you know? That's right. Like, yeah. Yeah. I'm sure that's what I did. Don't. So, starting with number one, these are pumpkin coffee cupcakes. Number two, apple cider donuts. That does need two. What did you bake, Brenna? This is a cookie butter pumpkin cake. Yum! This is so good. Absolutely. They're so cute! Just remember, you really only need five, because, like, the boys can share with their total. She's crunching the numbers. Tallying the votes. Start with number one. So, winner is... For taste or presentation... Are you going to go, like... I'm going to say overall first, and then I'll say taste or presentation. Going from the top? You're going to do, like, three, two, one or something? Third, second, first. I just feel like it's too much to just go straight to number one. Yeah, I agree. I'm going to build up. Oh, no, I meant, like... Wait, no! Brenna won! The cake! She had 14 taste and presentation. Out of how many points? 60? No, that was combining taste and presentation. Who needs the data? Number five is 36.5 points. Wait, what was that one? Bake number five. Oh, the pie. And then, third place was bake number one. Are we giving names? Oh! Yay! Wait, why are we saying who it was? Yeah, names. Tess is bake number one. Brenna is bake number 10. That is talent. And then, number three is... Wait, I thought it was number four. Who got second? Allison. The pie. Tess got third. And then, who got fourth? I got fourth. Donuts. Woo! Hello from a few days later. I never finish this vlog after the bake off. I was just all baked out, ready for bed. But it was a fun night. It really is such a fun tradition. I think next year... Oh, did I tell you? Okay, so Brenna won. She took the cake, literally. And I got second place overall. And something was wrong with my crust. Something went wrong. It was just too tough. It wasn't... I always say this every time I make this vlog. I always say this every time I make this pie. Because I have a favorite pie crust recipe that I absolutely love. And I use all the time for quiches and whatnot. But this recipe, it has its own pie crust recipe. So I was nervous to use my personal own pie crust recipe. So when I make it again, I'm just going to use my own. Because the crust is never as good as my go-to one. But anyways, I think next year I'll need to switch it up. And try to think of another idea. But we'll see. We'll brainstorm when the time comes. Maybe we'll even do a Christmas one. I feel like there's a lot of opportunity in flavors that we could work with. But regardless, bake off or not, you know we won't be baking a lot ourselves. But I hope you enjoyed this vlog. I still haven't carved that pumpkin I showed you at the beginning. I still haven't roasted the pumpkin seeds. But we'll definitely have to do that this weekend. But I hope you enjoyed the last few days of October. And I'm excited to see you next. Bye!