midnight prepping

I went crazy at Sprouts today. I bought a whole bunch of spices and nuts I probably won't need anytime soon, but I was just so happy to see them--sale or not--so I went ahead and got them :) 

Today's haul:

- star anise
- whole black peppercorns
- whole nutmegs
- bay leaves
- arrowroot powder
- poppy seeds
- chia seeds
- raw cashews
- raw hazelnuts
- more raw almonds
- brown sugar
- zucchini, eggplant, yellow squash, red bell pepper, tomato puree (guess what I'm going to make! :) Hint: tiny chef because the animal would make it too easy)
- chicken breasts, lemons, parsley


I was debating getting ground nutmeg or whole but I read on some blog that it's SO MUCH more worth it freshly grating the nutmeg yourself, so I ended up getting whole nutmegs. They're so fragrant! Nutmeg kind of has the spicy cinnamon aroma, a bit more toned down and sweeter I suppose. I love when my house starts smelling like a little coffee shop :)

I'm eating cashews as I type. Still have dishes to do but I'm also baking. I made a sad looking mini crustless kabocha squash pie that tastes really good. Yes kabocha is replacing pumpkin in our household. But anyways, I guess quartering the recipe was too much so the pie turned out really puny. I baked it in a small paper baking mold from Sur la Table, and the pie covered about 1/5 of the height...which isn't much...

So to make up for that I'm baking a mini kabocha squash cheesecake! And I made small cheesecake bites on the side cause the batter I made overflowed the small paper mold. No pictures yet since 1) too lazy right now to take pictures of my food haul 2) maybe I'll take them in the morning 3) Thanksgiving feast pictures soon

I should really go do dishes now. OH and I finally got measuring spoons today! It's pretty sad considering how much I bake and cook I don't even have legit measuring spoons...well I did but they're lost somewhere in the house...

But anyways I have them now and they're stainless steel with green handles and pretty! Yay! Okay goodnight guys and happy early Thanksgiving :)