Happy Day After! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Is anyone alive on this Black Friday?

I hope I am! We were at the Ravens game on Thursday night, so hopefully I made it home alive and happy with a win! (It’s currently Tuesday, I haven’t entered some wierd space-time continuum on Friday where I don’t actually know what is going on!) But where ever you are on this day after Thanksgiving (I hope you all had a great one!) I bet you have leftovers. A TON OF THEM.

So this is an idea for using some of those leftovers that are hanging around–mainly the bread and that open can of pumpkin puree you have–to make something completely different. And I know you’re thinking “pumpkin?” after eating all of that pie yesterday, but really, the pumpkin here lends creaminess, not so much taste, to this fun twist on french toast! And it’s worth making on a regular fall or winter morning too!

And if you’re thinking that panko + french toast is weird, well, stop thinking that! Because it gives this french toast a delightful crunch that takes it to a whole new level! So break it out and add a bit of cinnamon sugar!

Panko Crusted Pumpkin French Toast
Adapted From Recipe Girl

The recipe below will make enough egg mixture for about 6 slices of regular bread, or 8 slices of french bread. It’s easily doubled to feed a crowd! The panko amount is just a guess, so you may not want to measure it out, rather just add it with a biof cinnamon sugar as you go along!

Ingredients:

2 large eggs
1/4 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
1/2 half and half
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of cloves
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3-4 cups panko
8 (3/4-inch thick) slices of day-old French bread

Directions:

In a flat bottomed bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin, half and half, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In another bowl, mix together the panko, sugar, and second measure of cinnamon. Add enough of the panko mixture to another flat bottomed bowl to cover the bottom.

Heat skillet or griddle to medium-heat, brush with butter. Quickly dip bread on both sides into the egg mixture, then place into panko mixture, flipping over to coat both sides. Place in hot skillet, and cook 2-3 minutes on each side, until lightly browned. Repeat with remaining bread. Replenish the panko mixture between each slice of bread, or as needed.

Serve immediately with maple syrup.

Happy National Bundt Day! The one day each year when we celebrate the beauty that is the bundt cake–a classic, simple form that’s so pretty it doesn’t even need icing!

Since I’m not the biggest icing fan in the world (I know, I know, I love to make big fancy cakes, but I don’t always love eating them), I’ve always been a fan of the minimalist bundt. Because it plays up the best aspect of cake–the cake!

Mary, The Food Librarian, also LOVES the bundt! So much in fact, that this is the THIRD year that she’s celebrated National Bundt Day with a Bundt Marathon–30 bundts in 30 days–to celebrate the day! Mary is pretty much amazing for keeping this feat up! This is also the third year I’ve baked along with Mary, see my previous contributions here, here, and here.

So enjoy the beautiful bundt footage here and pop over to Mary’s site to see her cakes! They’re amazing!

Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt
Adapted from Eating Well

This cake is a super moist chocolate cake with just a hint of pumpkin flavor underneath. Don’t let the flavor combination scare you off, it’s really delicious!

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 cup all-purpose, flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, (not Dutch-process)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 15-ounce can unsweetened pumpkin puree
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg white, at room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Glaze & Garnish:
1/2 cup packed confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon nonfat milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray. Make sure it’s well coated!

Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a medium bowl.

Whisk 1 cup buttermilk, pumpkin puree and brown sugar in a large bowl. Beat in whole egg and egg white. Stir in oil, corn syrup and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Bake the cake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 60 to 75 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on the rack, about 2 hours.

To glaze and garnish cake: Combine confectioners’ sugar and 1 tablespoon milk in a small bowl, stirring until completely smooth. Place the cake on a serving plate and drizzle the glaze over the top.

I have a tendency to latch onto baking and cooking ideas. And once I’m latched, it’s only a matter of time before I make the item. Because I just can’t get things out of my head! I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s just so true!

(please bear with the pictures from this post. I’m trying to take the training wheels off my camera. See #27 on the list. And I really wanted you all to have this recipe before Thanksgiving, because you need these at Thanksgiving dinner. And for Turkey sandwich leftovers!)

Not that I’m particularly prompt in executing these ideas, but they’re like little seeds that are planted in my brain and eventually they bloom. Sometime, somehow!

This particular seed was planted earlier this fall. At the beginning of pumpkin season, I was looking for more savory pumpkin recipes to feed my undying love, and I knew that the idea of a yeasted pumpkin bread was very appealing. I looked at pumpkin bagels, tried pumpkin waffles and yeasted waffles, but nothing stuck. Then when I was at a friend’s house for the AC Marathon, she had a yeasted pumpkin bread, so I knew it could be done. But I still wasn’t sure quite how.

Then last Sunday, after I opened a can of pumpkin to make baked pumpkin oatmeal and I was looking for a way to use the rest of it, I was poking around the King Arthur Website. And I found it. A yeasted, slightly sweet pumpkin bread recipe from one of their old Baking Sheet newsletters. And it had a ton of favorable reviews. So I went for it. And the rolls that came out were amazing–like the best potato roll I had ever had with just a hint of fall spiciness. Basically fall bread nirvana. We ate them with chicken salad, apple butter, egg sandwiches, and just plain with a bit of butter. All wonderful. So please try this now!

Pumpkin Yeast Bread
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

I contemplated making this dough by hand, but since I made these on a busy baking day, I decided to go with a bread machine method for dough making instead. This will only work in a machine if you have a large one, preferably with double paddles. No bread machine? Try the instructions at the King Arthur website.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water
2 packages (2 tablespoons) active dry yeast
2/3 cup warm milk
2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups puréed pumpkin, either fresh or canned
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, more for dusting
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

The bowl of your bread machine, combine all ingredients in your normal method (by normal method, I mean however your machine takes ingredients. Mine likes liquids on the bottom, dry stuff on the top, with yeast on the very top!). Set the machine for the dough setting and start. Keep an eye on the machine as it starts to knead the dough, if after about a minute it doesn’t seem to be mixing, use a spoon to manually combine the ingredients a bit. Six cups is A LOT of flour for most bread machines. Close the lid after you mix and allow cycle to complete

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a well floured surface. The dough will be sticky, so well floured is important here. Deflate the dough, then cut into your desired number of pieces–2 for loaves, 14 for large rolls, or 20 for smaller dinner sized rolls. Shape into the desired shape (I made rolls) and place on a parchment lined baking sheet or in a loaf pan. Cover with a towel and allow to rise for about one hour, or until doubled in size.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven. Loaves bake about 30 minutes, rolls about 20. Rolls should be golden brown on top when they’re done. Immediately remove bread or rolls from pans and cool on a wire rack to prevent crust from becoming soggy.

On the night of our apple picking adventure, I decided on something unconventional for dinner. In short, it was breakfast for dinner time!

When I was a kid we ate breakfast for dinner ALL.THE.TIME. Oh those bowls of Lucky Charms (as an aside, is it weird that I can remember Lucky Charms fondly, but now the thought of actually eating them makes my stomach turn a bit?). But Noel didn’t really grow up with the breakfast for dinner so he’s never been a big fan. And since he does most of our dinner cooking, we end up eating what he’s making. But the night of apple picking dinner was my job and there was an open can of pumpkin in the fridge…so you can see where this is heading!

I thought these were perfect as breakfast for dinner…mainly because they’re not very sweet. They’re almost a savory cake with the traditional pumpkin spices. Top it with an egg or some bacon and you’re totally going in the savory direction. The dark pumpkin beer we enjoyed with them also threw them firmly into the “dinner” category. Win.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk (I used skim milk + 1 tablespoon of vinegar)
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin puree
2 eggs
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl (through the nutmeg). In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients (stop with the vanilla), mixing to make sure that the eggs are broken up. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, then add the brown sugar. Stir until just combined. This mixture will be thick, but that’s okay.

Use an ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measure to spoon batter onto hot griddle, spreading the batter slightly with the scoop as you drop it on. Cook about 3-4 minutes on a side, or until pancakes are golden brown. It’s important to cook these pancakes on MEDIUM heat, so that they have enough time on a side to cook all the way through.

Enjoy, possibly with a side of blurry pumpkin beer:

A few weekends ago, after a few hours of biking followed by some quality time at the Dogfish Head brewery, we decided to stop at one of our favorite shore adult beverage store, Atlantic Liquors. Atlantic is basically a big warehouse on Route 1 between Rehoboth and Lewes, with the standard big warehouse signs for not so great beverages on the outside. But once you get inside, it’s like a treasure cave of great wines and beers. At REALLY good prices.

So when I stepped into the beer section at Atlantic and right into a HUGE display of pumpkin beers, the Great Pumpkin Beer Taste off was born. My love of pumpkin is no secret, and I adore spicy pumpkin ales, so why not take the opportunity to branch out and see which ones we liked best? I had six willing adults and about a dozen varieties of pumpkin beers to choose from. I selected seven and the taste off was ON!

Our contenders were: Blue Point Pumpkin, Wolavers Organic Pumpkin Ale, Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale, Saranac Pumpkin, Dogfish Punkin, and Heavy Seas Imperial Pumpkin. We sampled in this order, which was our guess of lightest to heaviest beers. After each beer, we talked briefly about the tasting notes and our thoughts on the beer. Our beers broke nicely into two categories: beers that tasted more like pumpkin, and beers that were serious beers with pumpkin and spice notes.

Beers that Tasted More Like Pumpkin (or nothing at all):
Three of our beers fell into this category–Bluepoint, Schlafly, and Wolavers. These were beers that may appeal more to someone who isn’t such a fan of beer, but wants a pumpkin beverage. The Blue Point (which to be fair, was labeled as a malt beverage and not a beer) was thin, with very little beer taste and just a hint of spice on the after taste. The Schlafly was deemed a “girly beer” with it’s sweet, molasses taste and nutty cinnamon aftertaste. The Wolavers had the strongest straight up pumpkin taste of all of the beers that we sampled–not a lot of spice, but just a strong pumpkin flavor all the way through.

Serious Beers with Pumpkin and Spice Notes:
Four of our beers fell into this category–Smuttynose, Saranac, Dogfish, and Heavy Seas. Noel tried to make an argument that Heavy Seas should have it’s own category as an Imperial beer, but for my purposes, it’s staying here, despite the fact that it was thicker, darker, and heavier than any of the others. All of the beers in this category are a good fit for a lover of craft beers who wants something with a fall twist. Smuttynose was basically a pale ale with a bit of spice on the back end. Saranac had a distinct pumpkin pie taste with notes of ginger that balanced out it’s pale ale taste. Dogfish was a characteristic hoppy beer in their usual style, with a nice spicy finish. And the Heavy Seas was a pretty strong Imperial IPA with a pumpkin twist–like many of these types of beers it had a sweet start with a bitter spicy finish.

So which beer won our taste test? Saranac, hands down, with Dogfish Head as a close second. I think Saranac was an all around crowd pleaser–everyone agreed this was a very drinkable beer. I think these results really surprised us, but by the time we got to the end, everyone was happy enough just to drink whichever beer and to be in the fall spirit!

Do you have a favorite pumpkin beer you would like to share?

How are all of you this fine holiday monday? Yes, I’m lucky enough to have Columbus Day off. Thank you Mr. Columbus for not actually discovering America! I really needed the extra day this weekend, since I was feeling seriously under the weather Saturday and then running/painting wiped me out yesterday! The good news is the painting is almost done, and hopefully there will be a big reveal soon!

Luckily for me (and Noel and Carlos) I wasn’t too tired Saturday morning to make this baked oatmeal, which has been making it’s way around these interwebs.

One of the things I’ve always liked about blogging and the blogging community is how things can take on a life of their own and just buzz right around the internet. Like this pumpkin baked oatmeal. When I saw it pop up on Biz‘s blog last week, I knew I had seen it somewhere. Turns out it was originally from Jen‘s blog, another one of my favorites. It’s been back and making the rounds with a vengeance this fall season!

And oh holy yum, after making this I know WHY it’s making the rounds. IT’S AMAZING. Like, I wanted to eat the whole pan myself amazing. Good thing Carlos was willing to come over and safe me from myself eat some too. This will definitely become a weekend staple in our house–it’s too easy not to make a return appearance!

Baked Pumpkin Apple Oatmeal
Adapted from My Kitchen Addiction

2 cups old fashioned oats
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 medium apples chopped with skins on

Preheat oven to 375 and spray and 8 by 8 pan with cooking spray. Mix dry ingredients (through the baking powder) in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients. Combine wet and dry ingredients, then stir in apples. Spread in the prepared baking pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until middle is set and top is golden brown. Serve hot.

My quest to work through more than my fair share of pumpkin continues.

Did you know there’s a pumpkin shortage AGAIN this year? One more thing to thank all that rain for. I feel like I never really notice when there is a shortage or not because I typically shop at Whole Foods, where they stock pumpkin all year every year. But when the folks at work were talking about it this week I started to get SUPER nervous and I considered buying a whole case of pumpkin on Amazon. And then I stepped back from the edge. At least I know that’s an option, but hopefully one I don’t have to take right away!

I was so excited when I came across this recipe. I love pumpkin everything, but the perfect pumpkin cookie has eluded me. Typically they’re just a bit too cakey for me. These cookies are chewey, but the oatmeal makes it a good, hearty chewey, cutting down on the cake. I took these to the same event where the pie played a staring role and these were a close runner up. So add these to your fall baking lists!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from Picky Cook

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/3 cups old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter – softened
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a bowl.

Cream butter, honey and sugars using a stand mixer until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla – mix well. The mixture will be a bit chunky at this point, but it will smooth out once you add the dry ingredients.

Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined. Chill dough for 30 minutes or overnight.

Use a small cookie scoop to place rounded balls of dough on a cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until cookies are light golden brown. Allow to rest on cookie sheet for two minutes after removing from oven, then remove to a cooling rack. Store cookies in an airtight container.

Fall is in the air!!

This past weekend was glorious–temps in the low 80s with NO RAIN!! And the rumor on the weather blogs is that the weather is going to get even nicer–highs in the 60s with lows in the 40s over the weekend! I LOVE cooler weather (even if I have come to love the summer and my beach bum lifestyle this past year) so I’m am psyched! Especially since the arrival of the cooler weather coincides with my second first big race of the fall season, Rock n’ Roll Philly on Sunday, a race I was CERTAIN was going to be blistering hot and miserable when I signed up for it way back last winter!

Of course as soon as I saw those nighttime temps sneak into the 50s, my brain immediately started going for fall foods. And as a self confessed pumpkin lover, it should be no surprise to anyone what my first fall craving was for. Something pumpkiny. And I must have still had those overnight yeasted waffles on the brain too, because my brain immediately jumped from pumpkin to pumpkin + waffles = AWESOME!!

I recruited the usuals to be pumpkin guinea pigs (it sounds like it’s horrible and I FORCE food on them all the time, but I can tell you, no one is complaining!) At the last second we ended up with some extra breakfast guests since Noel bumped into my Dad and his neighbor, Ruth, at the farmer’s market. So we were a merry crowd with a very festive fall breakfast. Dad has already requested it for Thanksgiving weekend!

[please note, I made so much waffle batter I needed TWO irons to cook it all up! Yes it was overkill, but it was delicious overkill]

Pumpkin Waffles
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I added this to up the kick!)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
4 large eggs, separated
2 cups well-shaken buttermilk (or milk with 2 tablespoons vinegar)
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil for brushing waffle iron or cooking spray

Mix together flour, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices. Whisk egg yolks in a large bowl with buttermilk, pumpkin, and butter until smooth. Whisk in dry ingredients just until combined.

In a mixing bowl with a whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Fold them gently into the waffle batter, until just combined.

Spray waffle iron with cooking spray and then fill with batter (according to the instructions of your iron). Cook according to manufacturer’s instructions.

This is going to be quick because it’s late. Way too late to start a blog post but I have a good excuse! I’ve been stranded hanging out in a tiny town in West Virginia this week and I just wrapped up a busy night of running, eating, researching and packing! phew!

But this recipe is a good way to use that leftover can of pumpkin you have lurking in your pantry. You know it’s in there–if you’re like me you freaked out after last year’s pumpkin shortage and you overbought this year. You don’t really want it to take up pantry space until NEXT year, so pull it out and make these!

I made these for Noel’s work Thanksgiving two weeks ago, and they were a huge hit. And who doesn’t love chocolate + cheesecake? I certainly love it enough to eat some more pumpkin.

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake
Adapted from Everyday Food

I love the technique used to make these bars–no making two batters–just make the pumpkin batter, then stir in melted chocolate chips. The end result is a nice blend of pumpkin and chocolate, a combination that works wonderfully in cheesecake form!

Ingredients:

FOR THE CRUST

20 chocolate wafer cookies
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

FOR THE FILLING

2 8oz packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 can solid-pack pumpkin puree
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, blend cookies with sugar until finely ground (you should have about 1 cup crumbs); add butter, and pulse until moistened. Transfer crumb mixture to a buttered pan, and press gently into bottom. Bake until fragrant and slightly firm, 12 to 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Place cream cheese in bowl of a stand mixer; blend until smooth. Add sugar, pumpkin puree, eggs, flour, pumpkin-pie spice, and salt; mix until combined. Set aside.

Place chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave in 30-second increments, stirring between each, until melted. Add 1 cup pumpkin mixture; stir to combine. Set aside.

Pour remaining pumpkin mixture into prepared pan. Drop dollops of chocolate mixture onto pumpkin mixture; swirl. Bake until cheesecake is set but jiggles slightly when gently shaken, 40 to 50 minutes.

Cool in pan. Cover; chill until firm, at least 2 hours (and up to 2 days).

When does pumpkin season peak in your mind?

Is it before Halloween, or do you think it’s properly drawn out until after Thanksgiving? I’ll be honest, I’m on the fence about this one. There is such an onslaught of pumpkin in the food world leading up to Halloween, that I was nervous about sharing this recipe with you all because I was worried you would all be “pumpkined-out”. But I hope you’re not, and that you’re willing to give pumpkin at least one more shot before you ready yourself for the big pumpkin pie finale two weeks from now, because this recipe is worth it.

This is another “ripped from the KAF catalogue” recipe–man do they put some good stuff in that monthly freebie! I had wanted to make whoopie pies for a LONG time, but Noel was pretty anti-whoopie, thanks to childhood experiences with overly sweet pies bought at roadside stands and filled with Crisco icing. But once I said cream cheese and candied ginger, he was on board. I made these for the folks that came to our house for Sunday night football Halloween night–and boy were they ever a hit! No one thought we had reached the pumpkin max!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Adapted from the King Arthur Catalogue

I’ll admit to not typically being a fan of molasses. I think my childhood has something to do with it. My grandmother used to tell people they were “slower than iced molasses” and it wasn’t a good thing!! So I may have grown up biased. But it ROCKED in these cookies! So maybe I’m warming up to it a bit. I hear warm molasses moves faster!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2 large eggs
1 15 oz can pumpkin
2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour

For the icing:

8 ounce package of cream cheese, soft
4 tablespoons butter, soft
2 cups (or less to taste) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup diced crystallized ginger

Preheat the oven to 375. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

Beat together the butter, oil, sugar, molasses, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure they are well combined and scrapping the sides. Stir in the pumpkin. Add the flour in two additions, mixing well after each.

Use a 2 tablespoon, tablespoon, or muffin (if you want really big pies) sized scoop (yes I have all three–don’t judge!) to drop the batter onto the baking sheets. Bake cookies until they feel firm–anywhere from 12-18 minutes depending on size. Cool cookies on the sheet 5 minutes, then move to a rack to cool completely.

For icing: Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the powdered sugar until fluffy, then add the vanilla and beat 2-3 minutes more. Stir in the ginger.

To assemble: Sandwich each cookie around 1-2 tablespoons of icing. To store, wrap each pie individually in plastic wrap.

These were definitely friend and husband approved!