Who takes whipped cream on their pumpkin pie? Everyone in the whole world should be jumping up and down and shouting "I do! I do!" because thats just how pumpkin pie is made. Yup it is basically a scientific fact that every slice of pumpkin pie is naturally grown with whipped cream on top, and apparently pies grown closer local college towns carry a bit of a kick. Okay, so maybe that last part is simply on our "to do some day" list, just for fun =P. With whipped cream being such a staple of the good old American pumpkin pie, imagine everyones shock when we put away the can and poured on a sauce! There were horrified glances around the table, whimpers of fear and the occasional look of sheer terror from our guests that night. What was this strange sauce? How dare they not have any cans of whipped cream

It dawned on Eric yesterday that November is here and that means Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Yup, it took him until the 20th to figure that out. A month of 70 - 80 degree days here in the Bay Area can do that to you but this past weekend November came back with a vengeance. Cold, blustery and full of rain it was the perfect kind of weather to build a nice big fire (in the fireplace of course!) and cook up some warm filling food. From the looks of things, this is going to be a trend for the next few months as winter rolls in. So we spent the day doing projects and getting ready to fire up something that could keep us warm even when Eric refuses to turn on the heat. What better to keep you full and warm than a big savory bread pudding

We were in Costco the other day and ran across a display of all the cartoons we grew up with, packaged in wonderful DVD boxed sets. Helloooo Loony Toons, good bye paycheck. We hit that point where we've started talking about getting some offspring and what we want them to watch on TV comes up every now and again, especially when channel surfing lands us on some kids network. Every conversation tends to center around how much better TV was when we were kids (the answer is "much") and how awful kids TV is now. So coming across these boxed sets really made our day and restored hope in the future of humanity or something like that. What does this have to do with our post? Absolution nothing, but it must have been pretty funny to see grown adults getting excited over kids shows in the middle of Costco. This post more

It was a cold November night, fall was all around. Halloween was placed in boxes and gently packed away awaiting next October's frights while Thanksgiving was peaking out its head. The splendor of orange and yellow and rustic red around the house mirrored the blasts of color and heat cast out from the fireplace. The leaves outside the big picture window had started to change with bright bursts of color being whipped around by the cold November wind. And Charisse was snuggled up on the couch straining to hear her favorite Seinfeld show over the banging and cursing and carrying on that was Eric on his own in the kitchen. Yup, things were pretty much normal. You see Charisse actually had a touch of a cold, so Eric decided to whip up some hot mulled apple cider which would fit the night. Unfortunately, Eric decided to do it his way and in the

Sometimes its possible to have too much of a good thing. You'll know you've reached that point when theres none left. Thats how it is around here every fall; pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin. Charisse is actually quite mad for pumpkin and looks forward to this time of year all summer (at least when she's not trying to get away with humming Christmas carols in July). We generally stock up on enough canned pumpkin products to last us through the summer. In reality they last until about May. We're especially fond of our friend Jen when she whips up her famous pumpkin pie bars while we watch the Sharks. Maybe if everyone asks, she'll share her recipe with you all this year, its probably the best thing you can serve in a baking pan. This post though is the story of our pumpkin cake which we made for the Halloween dinner party at Charisse's parents house. Every

So we spent last weekend in San Francisco attending the Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival, 3 days of eating, drinking, meeting fellow food bloggers and eating. It was downright exhausting but definitely worth going. For those readers unfamiliar with foodbuzz or the festival, you can check out the info page here. We got there on Friday afternoon and after checking into a hotel a few blocks from our old apartment we headed into Union Square to catch the festival buses heading to Fort Mason for the first event, the Street Food Fare. This event was in a giant warehouse and consisted of some of the better street foods of the city along with a handful of other select vendors. We fell in love with Mission Minis and got to talk to the owner Brandon who's got some sort of show coming up that they were filming for. Yay for TV time! We're not sure it when

We're not huge fans of Chicago style deep dish pizza. The belief is strong in our family that pizza is something that should be eaten with your hands. Actually thats a lie, we like any pizza that tastes good. The biggest issue we have with the Chicago style is having the sauce on top, its just messy and you loose so much of its flavor. We decided to bury the sauce in a few places under some cheese which kept the slice together better. Still needed a knife and fork though. We had Jen of "Dan and Jen" helping out this time around and are looking forward to having them over to make Christmas Candy in a few short weeks. In case you haven't noticed we see a lot of each other on the weekends, especially when its cooking time which stems from Eric and Dan living next door to

Charisse's Arkansas trip worked out really well for the holiday season because she came back with this idea for a sweet potato pie. Sweet potato? In a pie? Eric was skeptical, especially when it the bag of marshmallows came out for the topping. Eric was wrong to be skeptical, very wrong. As it turned out, in addition to all the yummy fried food and other interesting dishes they have in Arkansas (we'll have to do Arkansas Sloppy Joes one  day...) they also have pie. Wonderful glorious pie. Charisse thinks they should change their slogan from "The Natural State" to "The Pie State". She had pie of every kind imaginable; apple pie, pumpkin pie, Frito pie. Frito pie? Yup. Pie made with all natural organic Fritos. Okay, so maybe we're exaggerating, Fritos are not organic nor are they all natural but hey, close enough for government work. Anyways, Charisse put this pie together based on her