2014 Halloween

This Halloween was one for the books!

As soon as we got home from work we got Caroline dressed in her baby golfer outfit, packed up some beer and walked down to our neighborhood block party. We had so much fun with all of our friends and their cute kiddos.

Once it started to get dark we returned home and passed out candy to loads of trick-or-treaters. It was the perfect night and definitely our favorite Halloween yet!

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Five on Friday {Our Years in Pumpkins}

Happy Halloween!

In honor of this spooky holiday I'm going to put a festive twist on my usual five and take a stroll down memory lane. This year marks the sixth Halloween that Matt and I have shared together, so today I am going to recap our past five Halloween's - in pumpkins!

2009: Our very first Halloween together Matt and I had been dating for less than a month. This was the first time I visited his smelly house, met his precious dog (Charlie!!!!), he cooked me a spaghetti dinner and we carved pumpkins.

2010: See, this is exactly why I blog. If I had a blog back in 2010 I would have remembered carving a sloppy scary face into a pumpkin on our living room floor. Instead, I had to ask Matt to jog my memory. Apparently our carving skills that year didn't warrant a photo. Since then we've explored alternative ways to decorate pumpkins that don't involve knives.

2011: Hooray! I had just started writing my blog earlier in 2011 and documented our engaged Halloween together in our old house. We were just weeks away from being married when we painted this pumpkin. Full post here.

 2012: Exactly one year later we had just closed on our new home together and celebrated our first married Halloween. Broke from purchasing a house, furniture, etc., we decorated our porch with a reusable plastic pumpkin that I painted. Full post here.

2013: Of course, one of my favorite years of pumpkins was when we announced our pregnancy with a pumpkin! Full post here.

2014: Busy being a mom, I went the laziest route yet and dropped these pumpkins straight into a pair of fishnet stockings. Full post here.

And there you have it, our pumpkin history!

Crockpot Brown Sugar Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin

When I first met Matt he was strongly opposed to the crockpot. He is paranoid that our house will burn down if one appliance is left plugged in {even if it's not turned on} when we're at work. To this day he will triple check to make sure I've turned off and unplugged my curling iron before we leave in the mornings. I can understand the curling iron, but the coffee pot? Do you know how annoying it is to reprogram the clock and timer every day? He finally got past the coffeemaker being plugged in but it took the longest time to convince him that the slow cooker was created to be left on all day! Anyway, we've come a long way and now he's cool with it which means we can enjoy really delicious meals when we walk in the door after work like this one...

Crockpot Brown Sugar Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin. It's super tender, juicy and requires pretty much no effort on my part which makes this recipe a winner!

 You should make this...as soon as possible.

Crockpot Brown Sugar Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Adapted from Big Oven  and Laura's Sweet Spot

Ingredients

2 pounds Pork tenderloin
1 teaspoon Rosemary

½ teaspoon Salt
¼ teaspoon Pepper
1 clove Garlic; crushed
½ cup Water
½ cup Brown sugar
1 tablespoon Cornstarch
¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar
½ cup Water
2 tablespoons Soy sauce

Instructions

1. In a small bowl combine rosemary, salt, pepper and garlic.
2. Rub over tenderloin. Place in slow cooker with ½ cup water.
3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
4. About an hour before the roast is done, mix together the ingredients for the glaze in a small sauce pan (brown sugar, cornstarch, balsamic vinegar, water, soy sauce).
5. Heat over medium and stir until mixture thickens, about 4 minutes.
6. Brush roast with glaze 2 or 3 times during the last hour of cooking. (For a more caramelized crust remove from crockpot and place on aluminum lined sheet pan, glaze, and set under broiler for 1-2 minutes until bubbly and caramelized. Repeat 2 to 3 more times until desired crust is achieved.)
7. Serve with remaining glaze on the side.