The sun rise this morning was at 8:10am. 8:10! Before this summer, the farthest north I’ve ever lived is Arizona. The 10pm sunsets during the summer blew my mind and these dark mornings are throwing me for a loop now too. Considering that I wake up at 4:30am, the first four hours of my day are spent without daylight.

Once the sun was finally up on Sunday, we drove out to Eagle, Idaho to hike some of the foothills. We walked Seagman’s Gulch, a hilly loop with a full view of Eagle and the fall colored trees.

I also found some bike paths, an outdoor public sports complex and another loop that looked like perfect future running routes. On the way back, we stopped at a local Eagle coffee shop Perks of Life. I couldn’t resist ordering from their seasonal menu and sipped my Maple Spice americano on the drive home.

Speaking of festive flavors – we are officially one week out until Halloween! Our pumpkins are picked, my costume is set, and tomorrow night we are braving a haunted corn field.

My work takes holidays very seriously so we’ve had Halloween shenanigans all month. This week, each department is assigned a day to host a trick-or-treating event for the rest of the office. We tend to be somewhat competitive with our originality so there will be no bowls of Twix and Snickers.

Instead, my department is hosting a Hot Chocolate Bar for Tuesday’s trick-or-treating station! Along with cups of hot chocolate, we’ll have a table full of marshmallows, whip cream, sprinkles, crushed candy cane, caramel, chocolate spoons, coconut flakes, shaved chocolate curls, and these adorable pie crust cut-outs for a crunchy topping.

“Eat, Drink, and Be Scary!”

I saw this idea on Pinterest (where else) and picked up a couple mini cookie cutters at the grocery store along with a pre-made pie crust. It was the simplest “recipe” ever.

Just unroll the pie crust, create the shapes with your cookie cutters, place on a lined cookie sheet, and bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes. The smaller your shapes, the less cooking time.

Stars, hearts, or letters could easily be substituted if you’re using this for a different time of year. Pie crust dough doesn’t expand or change shape in the oven, and I used a little knife to carve indentations into the dough to give the shapes some texture.

Obviously I had to test them out at home before I brought them into work! Which is just a fancy excuse to brew a Keurig cappuccino, add some Cool Whip and pumpkin pie spice, and top with a pie crust pumpkin. :)

Perfect sweet treat! Hot Chocolate and all those extra toppings are so sweet, so the savory pie crust is a good contrast. Pie crust doesn’t have any sweetness to its flavor, but if you like to spice it up a bit then you can toss some cinnamon & sugar on the dough before placing in the oven.

Thank goodness I’m able to work out again right? ;) After 7 full days of complete rest after my wisdom tooth surgery, I’ve started back with some light cardio and weight-lifting circuits. Just in time for trick-or-treating.

Cheers!