The First Day of Fall

The J-Ms had themselves a thoroughly entertaining time this past weekend! (and we hope you did too!)

Paul took Friday off for Gus's procedure at the vet

 (we made an appointment with a rabbit specialist, so we have to drive out of town, which basically becomes a day-long affair.) but since the vet was sick we ended up with an unexpected 3 day weekend!

We got some things done (including finally planting the mums i bought last week 

and filling up some holes around the house that we're terrified mice will consider welcomes signs 

once the weather cools down), but we also had a great time 

hitting up our favorite second-hand stores (I bought some sweaters and pants to be turned into

 delightful new stockings this Christmas) and taking an epically long hike.

Ok, the hike wasn't supposed to be epically long, but due to some misunderstandings, it became so.

After hour 3 it also became my nemesis as I realized that I hadn't used any 

sunscreen and there is no way one can hike the prairie for 3+ hours without getting mega-burnt. 

(The irony of getting the worst burn of my summer on the first day of fall did not evade me.)

We then followed up our epic hike with some (veggie) burgers and

 (drumroll if you please) 

pumpkin ice cream!

I didn't take a picture of my ice cream, but it basically looked like this. mmmmm....

Actually, until Saturday the only ice cream I had ever made was 

Mark's Award Winning Strawberry Ice Cream (the recipe is in my first ever post) 

and I've been kicking myself for literally years, because when I asked for an ice cream maker

I pictured myself making pumpkin, and cheesecake, and apple cider, 

and flavors-yet-to-be-invented ice cream. I was therefore all the prouder of myself for finally getting my tush in gear and making something fantastic (and fall-flavored!)

Here's the recipe I used. The ingredients were basically what I expected

 (and I love that they include the recipe for a "sweet cream base." I see this coming in handy) except for the eggs. I didn't even think about it, but then Paul asked if there were raw eggs in it and I realized, why yes there are. So far no salmonella here, but that does seem odd.

 Is this normal for an ice cream recipe?

Well, that was (roughly) Friday and Saturday in Emporia. What were you up to this weekend? Did you enjoy the fall weather? Or get the worst sunburn ever?

Hope you're having a great start to your week!

-Mia