Labor Day has always been a special time for me--when summer is winding down and fall hints at us in the early morning. My birthday is in a few days and I always feel as though I get to start over in some way, especially this year with boxes still waiting to be unpacked and so many new things from our wedding registry that were waiting patiently for this move before they could finally be opened and used.

This summer was a good one, and while I find myself already missing Minneapolis, I'm so looking forward to this autumn in Charlotte--our first fall as a married couple, sleeping in on chilly weekends and drinking hot coffee and joking incessantly about an upcoming winter that won't be nearly as cold and long as the last, even if I know I'm going to miss all of that snow.

Wishing you a wonderful Labor Day, friends.

I drove from Charlotte to Roanoke and back last week, and the way the late summer haze weighed on the mountains in the distance made me yearn for fall the way almost-August always does.

If I'm being totally honest, once the fourth of July passes by, I'm pretty much ready for autumn. I start thinking about hot cups of coffee and knitted hats and jeans. There's something so magical about the change in seasons that I start to imagine it well before any of it actually happens.

One chilly morning on the lake. One cool haze hanging in the distance. I think about autumns past, and living on the east coast once again for autumns to come. Will things be the same? Will they feel different? Will I? It's just so hard to know. 

There are weeks before we move, and even longer before those first leaves start to change their color back east, so until either one, I will do my best to take in the last of this Minnesota summer. Sometimes it's hard to remember, but there is not much to gain by wishing away the present.

Fall is coming to an close and I think we're finally entering the end of Pumpkin Everything Season--to me, Christmas and New Year's Eve feel more like chocolate and caramel things. But I didn't want to let it go without one more festive pumpkin recipe! And when Lavazza sent me some coffee to try out and challenged me to create a complimentary recipe, I knew these little pumpkin custards would be just perfect.

Ingredients:

One cup of canned pumpkin

One teaspoon vanilla extract

One teaspoon cinnamon

Four eggs

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

One cup of canned coconut milk

1/4 cup maple syrup

Pinch of salt

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Boil some water.

2. Mix the pumpkin and the spices into one bowl. In another, lightly beat eggs and add maple syrup, vanilla, and coconut milk.

3. Slowly add egg mixture into pumpkin mixture and combine well.

4. Pour the mixture into half-cup ramekins. Put the ramekins in a baking pan and carefully add boiling water to the dish so that it surrounds them. Don't spill water into the custard! Not that I did that or anything (I totally did).

5. Gently place the pan into the oven and bake for 30 minutes (this will totally depend on your oven--mine were totally done after half an hour, but I've read other custard recipes that call for an hour of baking time. They'll be done when you put a knife into the center and it comes out clean).

6. Serve with coffee!