Hello everyone, happy evening! This is officially my first time writing to the Moments audience as a twenty four year old (and for a later-in-the-day post)!! It doesn’t feel all that different being twenty four, but I think that’s a good thing. Going into my birthday this year, it was my mom and I’s mission to recreate what we had done for my 23rd birthday at home in quarantine. At the time, we had planned and executed a full *fall extravaganza weekend* and it was the most amazing thing ever. We decorated the house early for Halloween since I’m a spooky-fanatic (call me crazy, but I think Halloween deserves more than just the month of October), went in search for decorative pumpkins, made pizza, drank red wine, and watched Halloweentown, Monster House, and Nightmare Before Christmas.
The best part about it, though, was that it was so laid back and relaxed! We really just enjoyed every single moment of it – from laughing about the fact that we bought out half of our local farm’s supply of pumpkins, to cheers-ing with our new skeleton-hand glasses.
This year, how could we say no to doing the exact same thing?
Come join us for this rundown of my 24th Birthday Weekend – complete with wickedly delicious recipes and terrifyingly exciting ideas for your spooky-season to come (and no, your Halloween celebrations don’t have to start in September…we’ll remind you of this post later – haha)!!
Friday
On Friday, we kicked off our Halloween/Birthday extravaganza with our usual Friday night routine – pizza and red wine! We began decorating the house as soon as I got off of work and listened to our favorite playlists as we went along (click here to check out our go-to Autumn playlists!). The pizza was about as fall as you can get. It had burrata, prosciutto, fresh apples, and of course, butternut squash. If you’re hesitant to give it a try…don’t knock it just yet! The flavors were unbeatable. The sweet of the apples and the salty prosciutto (mixed with the savory squash) was an indescribable mix.
Here’s the recipe!
(and here’s the homemade pizza dough recipe…if you want to make your own)
Roasted Butternut Squash Apple Burrata Pizza
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 cups cubed butternut squash
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp chili powder divided
- 1/2 lb pizza dough (linked above)
- 2 tbsp fig preserves
- 1 honey crisp apple, thinly sliced
- 8 oz burrata cheese
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 3 oz thinly sliced prosciutto, torn
- 1 large handful baby kale or arugula
- crispy sage leaves for topping
- toasted pumpkin seeds for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- Spread the butternut squash out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil, honey, chili powder salt and pepper, toss well to coat. Roast until butternut squash is tender, 20 to 25 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking. Remove and set aside.
- Grease a large baking sheet with olive oil. On a lightly floured surface, push/roll the pizza dough out until until it is pretty thin (about a 10-12 inch circle, or sheet pan, if using). Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet. Spread the dough with fig preserves (if using) and layer on the apple slices. Break the burrata cheese over the apples and divide evenly among the pizza. Evenly sprinkle on the roasted butternut squash and then add the parmesan. Next add the prosciutto. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Place in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the crust is golden, the cheese has melted, and the prosciutto has crisped. Remove from the oven and top with a handful of baby kale, sage and toasted pumpkin seeds. Slice and eat!
Saturday
For Saturday, we planned on popping out to our favorite seasonal restaurant (Moose Head in Olmstead Falls) and grab some pumpkins to further decorate our space with. As you can see from the pictures below…we went a little overboard. But hey! It really threw the house into full-Halloween-gear!
From there, we enjoyed a skeleton glass of celebratory champagne alongside Gigi Hadid’s Spicy Pasta Alla Vodka (recipe linked here). Afterward, we watched more halloween movies and lit up our fireplace and spooky lights outside!
Oh…and check out those cupcakes!! The little candy decor pieces on top are from Target and Michael’s!
Sunday
Sunday was less of a spooky event and more of a closing to a beautiful weekend (i actually forgot my real birthday was still coming up today – that’s how much fun we all had!!). On Sunday we just watched the Formula One race in Monza, make a great cheese board (that post will be coming soon), and relaxed for the rest of the day!
Congrats to Daniel Ricciardo!
And that was our weekend! Tonight we kicked our feet up and watched two episodes of Friends…we deserved it! After all of that merry-making, we had to relax and prepare for what’s on the horizon…NYC!
Stay turned for our itinerary posts, restaurant reviews, and everything in between. If you thought this was busy and exciting…wait till you see what’s coming up!
xoxo, Your *official* 24 year-old Moments Co-Owner, Tess!
I love reading your posts, Tess. And cannot wait to try the pizza recipe. ?