A Frosty Hodepodge Wednesday

 It's Wednesday and I'm back for the second week in a row to join in with Joyce's Hodgepodge Wednesday.

1. What most recently gave you goose bumps? Well, it has been in the upper 20's and into the 30's when I wake up in the morning with frost covering everything so the weather is quite literally giving me goosebumps in the morning. 

2. What does Halloween look like in your home and/or neighborhood these days? Do you participate? Halloween does not exist in our home or neighborhood these days. We live on a dead end street with mostly older people so no one decorates, no one trick or treats, it's just another day. 

3. Pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, poppy, chia...your favorite seed on the list? What's something you like to make/eat that calls for one of these seeds in the recipe? I eat all these seeds as well as flaxseeds, basil seeds, & hemp seeds. Mostly I just sprinkle seeds on my fruit & yogurt (usually with flaked coconut) or my salad or whatever I'm eating. 

The only recipe I use that I put lots of seeds into is my homemade granola (full recipe here)

Ingredients:

4 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup slivered almonds

1 cup pecans pieces

2 Tablespoons each: pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and flax seeds

1 cup coconut flakes (unsweetened)

1 cup tahini

1 cup pure maple syrup 

2 Tablespoons cinnamon

5 Tablespoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4. What's the most (or one of the most) 'fall photos' you've ever taken? Share it here. Just one. Just one?! Joyce you're killing me!...  Fall is my favorite time to take photos. It's just so pretty here in New England and often I don't even have to leave home to find some inspiration.

taken on my walk to the mailbox a couple years ago

5. Somehow we're rolling in to November next week. If your October were a chapter in a book, what would the title of this chapter be? The Calm After the Storm

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Since everyone seemed so interested in my food truck fact this week I decided to expand on that idea just a bit. The first American diners were fashioned after Walter Scott's lunch wagon and the oldest, continuously run diner in the United States is Casey's diner in Natick, Massachusetts. It has been in operation for over 120 years since 1890! It too began as a horse drawn wagon but has been operating out of it's traditional railcar building since 1922 (so 104 years old). There is an even older mobile diner still operating in Providence called the Haven Brother's Diner but, again, that one is not stationary so is not what most of us picture when we hear diner. 

I haven't eaten at any of these (since I'm not usually a diner fan at all) but we did stumble upon, what we had no idea was, the fourth oldest diner in the United States when we went to Biddeford, Maine to tour a college with Evan. We had breakfast at the Palace Diner and oh my goodness, it was so tiny inside. And yet? The food was incredible. I still think it is the best piece of French toast I ever ate in my life. And sadly I have zero pictures of any of it! Evan and I were both remarking the whole time we ate it that it was the largest slice of French toast ever and it had a sweet almost citrus taste to it. I highly recommend if you're ever in the are to try it out.