Fall fun - with two recipes

For the first time, as I understand anyway, Casper had a corn maze outside of town!

It's a great story...this farming family is involved in FFA (Future Farmers of America for those who may not know) and they decided to create a corn maze, not just for the community's enjoyment, but to raise funds for the local FFA Alumni chapter as well as the Natrona County ARC.

I have been dying to go!  Look how cool it is - designed with Wyoming's bucking horse and rider!

The Snyder family and I went last weekend (Todd went hunting) and we had a great time!  It wasn't fancy, just good ol' fashioned fall fun with a pumpkin patch, corn pit, farm animal petting barn and hayride.  Oh, and caramel apples which were quite tasty!

On our way in...

An idea of what we were getting ourselves into...

 The Snyder fam...

Samuel, their oldest boy, leading us through...

Hmmm...a fork in the road...

My twin in the corn maze...

The maze was not at all as scary as you would think from the picture above where it was green and HUGE looking.  It took us 36 minutes to make it through.

On our way to the petting barn...

I think some of these were baby turkeys.  Saved from Thanksgiving tables this year!

These chickens crack me up with their Tina Turner "hair"...

Hog heaven...

This little piggy was too cute.  Look at those ears! And that pink snout...

And we're pretty sure this rabbit thought it was a cat.  He was huge!  And so soft.  And he just let all the kids pet on him.  If he could purr I'm sure he would...

Green Acres corn maze is a lot of fun.  I think they've got one last weekend open - so get out there!

Ok, want a couple fall recipes?

I made these pumpkin cranberry muffins yesterday and are they good!  The candied pecans you could technically have any time of the year, but they seem especially fall-ish for salads.  Yum!

Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins
(Recipe says it makes 12, but I got about 20 out of it.)

These are awesome right out of the oven with a teeny bit of butter smeared on them.

2 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. allspice
1/3 c. vegetable or canola oil
1 large egg
3/4 c. canned unflavored pumpkin
2 c. chopped cranberries (fresh or frozen) I used fresh and gave them a whirl in my

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Beat oil, egg and pumpkin together until well blended.

Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture all at once.  Stir until moistened.

Fold in chopped cranberries.

Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups.  Bake 15-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Candied Pecans
These are SO easy to make and SO super tasty!

1 c. pecans (I prefer pecan halves, but you could use chopped)
1 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Bring all ingredients to a low boil in a small saucepan.

Add nuts and simmer 2 minutes.  Stirring until well coated.

Line a cookie sheet with a bit of foil and spritz with cooking spray.

Pour nuts onto sheet, drizzling with any remaining sauce from saucepan.

Bake about 10 minutes or until toasted.

Remove from oven and let cool.  The glaze will harden around the nuts.

Toss in a salad with sliced pear or apple and some blue cheese or goat cheese!

DELISH!

BEAR!

Until last October I'd never seen a bear in the wild.  After years of waiting, it finally happened as I was coming out of Yellowstone with my coworkers.  There, on the side of the road, was a mama and its cub.

Amazing!

I had a second siting last weekend in Teton National Forest as I was coming home after a weekend in Jackson, Wyo.  

A car was pulled off to the side of the road which generally means there's wildlife of some sorts about.  I noticed the guy had a video camera pointing across the road so I slowed down to take a look.

And there they were...another mama and her cub!

This was the distance they started out at, which looks farther than it really was...

They ate, the baby played, then dug, then played some more....

A pretty lil' picture of the mama foraging...

Eating and playing...

A bit of video I took on the fly...

Wyoming road warrior

I was gone all of last week on a work trip around the state.  I love that I get to travel around Wyoming for my job.

We talked to so many neat businesses and the weather was PERFECT for a fall trip.  Fall can be kind of iffy weather-wise in ol' Wyo.  You never know if you're going to have snow, but the week was absolutely gorgeous.

Here's a few photos from the trip.  I'll be spreading some of these over the course of the next few days!

In Rock Springs, Wyo., there is a brewery I've been wanting to try.  They've been around for a while and I have to say, it was pretty good!  They brew several types of beers, the Bob being their most popular...

Here's their beer list...

And here's a sampler.  I like getting samplers because you can have a little taste of everything!

From Rock Springs we made our way to the western part of the state - basically to Idaho.  It was breathtaking there!  The mountains were beautiful with fall colors, the communities were so cute...  It was a nice place to be.  From a scenic overlook...

And another...

After stopping in Thanye, Wyo., we continued north into Jackson.  One of our office's board members owns the Antler Inn in downtown Jackson which is where we always stay for a good rate.

The next morning, we ate at a very popular restaurant called The Bunnery.  I wish I owned a place like it.  Super cute and super yummy... (Photo courtesy their website)

On the way out of Jackson we went through Teton National Forest.  Again, it was awesome.  The colors were beautiful and there were hardly any people in the park since it's after peak season.  It made for a very nice trip!  Here are the tetons...  Notice the perfect reflection in that lake?  It was really pretty.

You can't tell as well as I'd like, but this photo was of all brown and gold - Wyoming's colors...

More brown and gold...

Ok, this will take some explaining: Yellowstone is full of geysers or thermal areas.  This is what's called the Fishing Cone or Chowda Pot.  To prove the Internet has everything on anything I actually found a site devoted to it: http://www.fishingcone.com/ So, mountain men, Native Americans, etc., would stand on this hot cone and fish and and just dangle their catch in the boiling thermal water to cook it up right on the spot.  It's right on the shore of Yellowstone Lake...

A hot pool...

Get a load of the water bubbling on the edge of this pool...

Here's a closer shot.  I can see how something would cook pretty quickly!  Maybe throw some veggies in and make a nice stew...

If you don't understand how hot those pools are maybe this illustration from an informational board will clear it up.  Don't mind that the woman's arm looks like it's on fire.  That's nothin' compared to the boy about to be boiled!  But maybe none of this is something to worry about.  That other man is pretty unconcerned so why should we be?

Old Tardy... I believe he is Old Faithful's arch enemy.  Or maybe what Old Faithful aspires to be?  It's got to be tiring going off like clockwork for so many years!  I mean, maybe Old Faithful would like to be Old Tardy just once...

O.F. was still at it when we were there though.  My coworkers and I joked how the staff at the Old Faithful Inn probably sneak out each morning to sprinkle some Metamucil in the old guy.  I mean, how else can you be that regular?

Something really cool?  The Brink of the Lower Falls on the Yellowstone River.  You walk down a winding path that drops about 650 feet to right where the river is about to go over...

Whoosh!

And away it goes...

There are a couple viewing areas right over the water.  It's very cool!  But be prepared for a hike back up the hill.  Good workout...

I just thought this was pretty...

And this too.  One of our last Yellowstone photos on the way out of the park...

This was only half of our trip.  It was a long Wyoming road home!

Wyoming wear

This just made my day!

My ol' friend Mike and his son sporting some Wyoming wear I sent them.  They live on the East Coast and have never visited the Cowboy State.  

They love their Wyoming gear though, just like all us Wyoming folks do here.

Oh, man...the bucking horse and rider!!

Tree-lite!

Every year in D.C., there is a big Capitol Christmas tree lighting event. The tree is decorated with ornaments from kids around one state (next year it's Wyoming!).

It gets less traffic than the White House tree, but the White House tree has nothing on the Capitol tree!

I love that tree.

I was clearly going to miss seeing last year's Capitol tree, and I missed seeing the Wyoming tree too. This year, I wasn't about to miss our state one.

Todd, Nancy and I went to the Capitol on Christmas Eve day to see the tree and show Nancy the Capitol building...


Here's the state tree right when you walk through the Capitol doors...


An aerial view...


Todd for governor!


I can't help myself anytime I'm around large stuffed, sculpted, kitschy animals/characters. I love them! They crack me up! I will share a photo montage of me and overly huge animals in a future post. This particular buffalo is in the basement of the Capitol...


We were looking at all the Legislature photos around the building when I spied this honorable legislator's name...You think he got made fun of in school??