Stolen Recipes: Pumpkin Bread & Crock Pot Chicken

I've been a bad blogger.  Not with my amount of posting, not with my quality of posting.  Actually, it has nothing to do with what I have going on here.

It has everything to do with what is going on out there.

Being a part of the blog community is something you can only understand if you are a blogger or a heavily-invested reader.  This little community (or rather, this large community, as it spans the globe) is like any other community: you make friends, you find people who annoy you, and you learn to balance that all with kindness and respect.  Or, at least most people do... but there are some people. Hmph.  Those people. 

Like I said, it is like any other community.

And like any other community, you are expected to give and receive.  Isn't that what relationships are all about?  Sometimes it is your turn, sometimes it is the other person's turn.  And we are expected to respect that, support that.

This is where I have been a bad blogger.  In the midst of running to and fro, from the West Coast to the East Coast and back, in the midst of having a house FULL this summer, in the midst of a new school year starting, and then trying to balance many different tasks at the same time, I have neglected my friends in this community.  I still wrote on my blog (albeit, rarely), but I just didn't get around to reading other blogs. It's not that I didn't want to, it's that I just didn't have the time to, and then I got out of the habit.

And that is where I went wrong.  I got out of the habit of supporting, listening, receiving.  This is something that may have been justified for awhile, but one can only make excuses for so long.  So I have made a point this past week to read, listen, and receive from others bloggers.  And I realized miss them -- I missed the posts, I missed the writers behind the posts.  And I missed the incredibly great ideas that you all have coming out of your kitchens!

Right now, as I am typing this, I have the amazing smells of a whole chicken, cooking in the crock pot (don't you love the crock pot and its simplicity, yet hate the fact that you are tormented by amazing smells for hours at a time?!), recipe compliments of Amy at Fearless Homemaker.  Oh my word.  I cannot wait for tonight so I can enjoy this... *wiping drool from my chin*

(expect to see more of this later...)

Along with those smells showing me what is to come, I have delicious pumpkin bread waiting for dessert, straight from Val over at Val SoCal.  I made half the muffiins her recipe called for and turned the rest of the batter into a loaf of pumpkin bread, simply by increasing the baking time to 30 minutes.  The muffins were killer... 12 of them were gone in 24 hours.  I am pretty sure the bread, with a simple swipe of butter on it, will be devoured just as quickly.

Though this, I have realized something.  By me not reading other blogs, it wasn't those bloggers that were missing out; it was I who lost something.  I am happy to be back.  I've missed you guys, and I can't wait to catch up on what's been going on, both in your kitchens and in your lives.

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To get these fabulous recipes for yourself, click on the links below to be taken there.  

PUMPKIN BREAD RECIPE, by Val SoCal

SLOW COOKER ROAST CHICKEN, by Fearless Homemaker