Amazing Chocolate-Coconut Pudding

This recipe is absolutely amazing!   It's good enough to serve after a holiday meal and easy enough to make on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

1 cup unsweetened light coconut milk
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup packed brown sugar (replace with honey or maple syrup for a healthier version)
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips or block chopped
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut toasted

1) In a bowl whisk together coconut milk, cocoa powder, cornstarch and salt - set aside

2) In a medium saucepan combine almond milk, brown sugar and granulated sugar.  Cook and stir over medium heat just until boiling.  Add coconut milk mixture from step 1.  Cook and stir just until the mixture returns to boiling.  Immeditely redcue heat to low; cook and stir for 2 minutes more.  Remove from heat.  Add chocolate, let stand for 30 seconds.  Add cocounut extract and stir until smooth.

Serve warm or chilled and top with toasted coconut.

I also topped mine off with a little extra coconut milk.  It made it a little runny, but it was absolutely delicious.  

Acorn Cookies

I saw these little Acorn cookies somewhere online and had to make some for our Thanksgiving gathering.  Aren't they adorable?

I'm happy to say that they are so simple!  All you need is miniature Nutter Butter cookies, Hershey's kisses, butterscotch chips and peanut butter (creamy) to glue them together.  Delicious!

Be Thankful

We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house for our friends that don't have family in the area.  It's turning out to be quite a big group!  Last year we had about 8 and this year we are up to 12.  I've been working on a few Thanksgiving crafts over the last few days.  My first project was to make a sign for the Fireplace.  I considered the phrase "give thanks" but decided I liked "be thankful" better.  It serves as a reminder to all of us to BE THANKFUL not just this week, but every single day!!

I decided on the size I wanted my letters (400pt) and printed them off on my home computer.  I cut them out and planned to use them, but decided I wanted thicker paper, so these letters ended up being used as stencils.

Here are the letters before adding the finishing touches...

 

Here is the finished project.  I'm happy with the results!

And here is our Thanksgiving table setting.  I'm thankful for warm food and good friends!

Pumpkin Patch

We got together with some friends and headed out for the pumpkin patch.  It was quite rainy, but i have to say the mud added to the fun.  After picking the perfect pumpkin, we headed back to our friends place for some great food, company and carving.

Pretty Pictures

Our DIY Wedding

We decided on August 31st because it was a Blue Moon.  I found out after the wedding that most people thought the moon was actually going to be blue....While that kind of Blue Moon exists, the moon on August 31st was named blue because it was the second full moon in one month.  It was beautiful! Picture is courtesy of Brud Giles Photography

The sky was crystal clear (and chances are more likely that you'll have a clear night on a full moon evening for unknown reasons) It was perfect for our Star Gazing area in our front yard.  I found a beautiful hand knit king size blanket at Goodwill that we used as the blanket.   This picture doesn't do a very good job of catching the detail.  People used this space all night long.  If I could go back, I probably would have added some small side tables (maybe tree stumps?) 

  Here is the cover of the itinerary that we handed out at our rehearsal dinner.  We had the stamp made and used it on our envelopes for our invitations as well. 

It wouldn't be a wedding without beer mugs!  We purchased these online in bulk for MUCH cheaper than it would have cost to rent them.  Plus we kept several for future gatherings..

 I collected vintage plates from different Goodwills/vintage stores all over Portland for months before the wedding.  It was really fun picking them out! The catering was all done by Phresh Catering- Their food is local and organic.  They did a great job!

We picked up some paper mache letters from Michaels and I covered them in Moss for the back fence.  I was really happy with the result.  However, I wasn't happy with the flowers.  It was my fault because I wanted the most fragrant flowers possible and that was pretty much my only request.  I did explain the somewhat vintage theme and that I wanted greens...and I thought I said gold, but I ended up with yellow.  I think some gold flowers would have looked much better.  I specifically asked for lilies, but I wasn't happy with the yellow lilies.  I think I would have preferred more pods and berries.

We brought out a couch and some side tables.  It was the most popular space of the evening.  

Dancing under the blue moon.

This was a sign that guests saw as they were arriving.  I made it with a little chalkboard paint

and felt stickers.  Photo courtesy of Jeanine Thurston Photography.

Photo courtesy of Jeanine Thurston Photography

I ordered the glasses online in bulk.  It ended up costing a little over $1.00 each.  I ordered the chalk stickers online as well.  It made the project very easy!   Photo courtesy of Jeanine Thurston Photography.

We had a great little sitting area on our front porch.  

Photo courtesy of Jeanine Thurston Photography

 

Our dining room was one of the food station areas.  It was especially beautiful 

when the sun went down. Photo courtesy of Jeanine Thurston.

A few of the little details.  We made hanging mason jars for around the yard.  They were really beautiful.  I got the idea off of Etsy and my husband suggested we make them ourselves.  We added green mung beans to the jars and got a couple of dozen battery operated candles from Pier One.  This photo is also courtesy of Jeanine Thurston photography.

My husband and his niece (our flower girl).  This is one of my favorite pictures.  Thank you Jeanine!

Dining Chairs

It's taken me six months to find chairs for our dining room.  I loved the beautiful green on these chairs, but unfortunately it didn't go with our dining room.  Paint is a magical thing!