Photo a Day in July #14

14.  Building

I told you guys I'm such a nerd.  We finally got a bookshelf for my Harry Potter LEGO sets.  I've built Hogwarts, the Burrow, and the Freeing Dobby set, which still resides in the library because I'm too lazy to move it.  I still have Hagrid's Hut, the Knight Bus, a Quidditch match, and I don't know what else to build and get on this shelf.  :)

I just love Harry Potter.  I can't believe it's been a year since the last movie was a released.  :(  BUT Harry's birthday is coming up.  (Hey, it helps that he shares a birthday with my brother, y'all.)  I'm waiting to get the deluxe editions of all the movies someday; I want to buy the whole set together.  (I have a few of them here and there--I mostly relied on ABC Family for rewatching, but now that we don't have cable...)

I really liked how this photo turned out.  It was blurry because my hand moved, and the flash made it look funny, but after running it through Instagram, it looks like it was supposed to look like this.  I love making my mistakes look like "character."  *haha*

Sorry for the random thoughts--we just got done with our fondue party.  It's the first, full-fledged party we've thrown at The Owlery, and we had been planning it for weeks, if not months, and the past two days have been CRAZY between work and party-planning.  :)

Photo a Day in July #4

4.  Fun

I warned y'all I'm a nerd.  I'm sure I did at some point.   :)  Since we couldn't drive the four hours to and from Hot Springs in a day without spending most of the holiday on the road, we spent Independence Day at home.  We ended up sleeping in quite late because Hobie (our older cat) is not happy with his new food and kept demanding we feed him something else.  How does he demand anything?  He knocks things off shelves, chews on everything, comes and sits on my chest and stares at me, and nibbles at my arms, the last always being a signal that he is hungry.  He did this for a few hours before we were set to wake up, so we didn't get quality sleep last night.  :(

After breakfast, we lazed around the house before heading to Walmart and Braum's to pick up something to celebrate the day.  Let me tell ya--Braum's burgers are not good.  *bleh*  I literally had one bite of mine and couldn't eat anymore.  It's amazing because their ice cream is sooo good.  I tried really hard to get my husband to grill, but he didn't want to do it.  Maybe one day this summer we can scribble that off our Summer Pail List...

We took a nap in the afternoon; when I got up, I finished my curtain for the bathroom and then finished my Hogwarts castle!  Both of these things (sewing and anything Harry Potter-related) is fun for me.  :)  I thought about posting a picture of the curtain I made to cover the over-the-toilet shelf with all our magazines and paper products, but I didn't think a curtain would be as fun as Hogwarts.  Do you?  ;)  I have been working on the castle for a few weeks now, completing a few bags at a time, and today I knocked out the last two.  Zach and I have gotten me all of the Harry Potter LEGO sets except for Diagon Alley because it's expensive.  This is the first big HP set I've put together, not to mention it is the largest set I have ever assembled.  Can you believe I knew nothing about LEGO four years ago?

We had oatmeal and smoothies for dinner--I know, I know, that meal really says the Fourth of July, doesn't it?  *lol*  Then we went to see the fireworks in town, and now we are settling in for bed.  Hopefully, next year we will be able to go home and celebrate poolside in style (I didn't get to make my cobbler this year : ( ), but we did have a little fun on this patriotic holiday.

Menu Monday: HOGWARTS' PUMPKIN BREAD

In case you didn't know, I'm a little obsessed with Harry Potter:

The Elephant House: one of the local establishments in Edinburgh where Rowling penned the first HP

my seventeenth birthday cake

my husband as The Boy Who Lived

One of the Gryffindor scarves I made :)

Next on the list: a Gryffindor beanie.

Monica and me at the midnight release party of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Zach got me a Dobby minifig for Christmas 2010

Magical and Muggle at the showing of Part 1 of Deathly Hallows

my collection of HP books along with my Freeing Dobby Lego set & the Harry Potter Sorting Hat charm holder Sara got me for my birthday once upon a time

(We recently got rid of all our paperback Harry Potter books.)

with Harry

I recently had a $10 Amazon voucher from Coinstar I needed to use, so I consulted my Wish List. And what did I find I really, really, really wanted? This. :)

The week when it arrived we had tried to bake PUMPKIN BREAD in our bread machine. It did NOT turn out. The recipe called for canned pumpkin, but all I had on hand was pumpkin pie mix. It was my understanding that you could substitute the pumpkin pie mix for the canned pumpkin as long as you omitted the seasonings and (part of) the sweetener because these are already included in the mix. The first loaf we tried did not have nearly enough pumpkin for our tastes. It did not have that dense, rich texture either. So we tried to double up on the pumpkin pie mix. Well...the bread machine rebelled and did not mix the dough enough, so it did not rise. Alas, alack, we decided to discard that recipe.

When we had all but given up hope, luckily this gem came in with a pumpkin bread recipe. Even though it wasn't a bread machine recipe, I baked it up. It turned out beautifully! :) The following recipe is based on the one in the cookbook:

HOGWARTS' PUMPKIN BREAD

1 1/2 c. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

a sprinkle of each of the following: cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground cloves

1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter or margarine at room temperature

1/2 c. sugar

2 large eggs

3/4 c. pumpkin pie filling

1/3 c. whole milk

powdered sugar, for dusting

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.* Grease and flour a loaf pan. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and seasonings.

-In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about four minutes. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the milk and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in thirds and mix on the lowest speed until combined. Scrape and fold with a rubber spatula to finish.

-Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until the top is golden and the loaf is well risen and feels firm when pressed lightly in the center. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan. To serve, remove the loaf from the pan and dust with powdered sugar.

[Makes 1 loaf]

*If you are using a glass or dark metal pan, reduce baking temperature by 25 degrees to prevent overbaking.