Today I've got a special guest blogger taking over my Five on Friday! One of my friends and faithful blog followers asked if she could guest post today to share her favorite fall things and I was so excited to let her take over for me :) She's been thinking of starting a blog and I'd say, she's well on her way and should definitely start one to document her upcoming marriage! ;)
Say hello to Madison!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One
Hi! I’ll give you a little info about me first.
I’m a senior Industrial Engineering student at the University of Central
Florida. It’s been nice having Ashley a few years ahead of me to give advice!
I’m an intern at Siemens, and I’ll be starting there full-time in January. I’m
engaged to Alec, and we’ll be getting married in the historic, Spanish town of
St. Augustine, FL in March. We have two puppies, Alice and Belle, and (if you
couldn’t tell from the puppy names) we are huge Disney fans! This is my first
blog post, so here we go!
Two
My favorite season is fall, which is a little
ironic since we don’t even have “real” fall in Florida. I do, however, enjoy
all things pumpkin/maroon/etc. I’ll be sharing some of my fall favorites today,
and I’ll start with a yummy fall recipe. I feel like a lot of foods associated
with fall involve pumpkin, but I came across this recipe on Pinterest for One Pan Autumn Chicken Dinner and thought it looked
very yummy, easy, healthy, and fall-ish! Win win win win. Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
4 - 5 (6 - 7 oz) bone-in, skin on chicken thighs
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp each minced fresh thyme, sage and rosemary, plus more
for serving
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large sweet potato (peeled if desired), chopped into
3/4-inch cubes
1 lb Brussels sprouts, sliced into halves
2 fuji apples, cored and sliced into half moons about
3/4-inch thick
2 shallot bulbs, peeled and sliced about 1/4-inch thick
4 slices hickory smoked bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Pour 2 Tbsp olive oil, red wine
vinegar, garlic and herbs into a gallon size resealable bag, add chicken,
season with salt and pepper then seal bag and massage mixture over chicken
while working to evenly distribute herbs. Set aside and let rest while chopping
veggies.
Place sweet potato, Brussels sprouts, apples and shallot on
a large rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil then toss
to evenly coat and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread into an even
layer then set chicken over veggie/fruit mixture. Sprinkle bacon (separate any
pieces that stick together) evenly over veggie/fruit mixture. Roast in
preheated oven until chicken and veggies are golden brown, about 30 minutes
(chicken should register 165 in center). Broil during last few minutes for a
more golden skin on chicken if desired. Sprinkle with more herbs and serve
immediately.
I made this the other night, and it was yummy!
It made my apartment smell sooo good.
Since it has everything all in one dish, I didn’t do a side, but I think next
time, I will use butternut squash in the dish instead of sweet potatoes and
serve with mashed potatoes on the side. I think I’ll also add a little bit of
cinnamon for next time. Definitely a keeper fall recipe!
Three
Another fall favorite is pretending to dress
like it’s getting cold! While it’s still in the 80s here in Florida, it’s still
fun to wear boots and scarves and maroon sweaters and pretend like we’re in
somewhere with real fall! For this part, I enlisted my little sister, Natalie,
as a model. This is an outfit we put together for a Florida “fall” transition
outfit:
Her suede tank is from Burlington, the blanket
fringe skirt is from LOFT, the booties are from TJMaxx. Unfortunately, none of
the exact items are available anymore, but you can find links for similar items
below! Her lipstick is called “Persistence” from MAC, and the sunglasses are
RayBan (exact item links above as well).
Four
While we’re talking about my sister, she helped
me decorate for fall the other day! I have a small apartment, so I don’t have a
ton of room to decorate. BUT, she helped me make it look very cozy and festive
with some good finds at Goodwill, TJMaxx, Target, and Ross! My favorite part is
this “accent” table:
She suggested changing it up every season and
making this little table a décor focal point, which works well with limited
space.
Five
For my last fall favorite, I’ll share some
non-traditional ways to “carve” pumpkins! I’ve seen a lot lately where people
are not actually carving pumpkins, just decorating the outsides. This is good
for when you don’t have a good place to make a big mess! Some of my favorites
are the donut pumpkins and the emoji pumpkins!
I also think these succulent pumpkin and firefly
pumpkin ideas are fun and unusual, and they still require minimum pumpkin guts!
And finally, here’s a little something for
Ashley, I heard she is obsessed with likes pineapples….
Thanks for reading my first blog post!
-Madison
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A big thank you to Madison for sharing all things fall today! Y'all know I love that carved pineapple ;)
