Pumpkin Recipes!

Someone shared these recipes on facebook the other day and I was having trouble finding them again amidst all the "Stuff" on there. So, when I found them again I decided to go ahead and post them on here so I was sure to not lose them. Also... someone else wanted the recipes and was going to get them from here also...
Here are two pumpkin recipes that sound awesome!

Pumpkin Fluff Dip:
(can you believe I found that photo?!?!)
1 16 oz cool whip,
1 5oz pkg of instant vanilla pudding,
1 -15 oz can of solid pack pumpkin,
1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice
In a large bowl, mix the pudding, the pumpkin, and the spice together. Fold in the Cool Whip. Chill in the frig..until serving.... Serve with Graham Crackers or wafers.


Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies:
(I have actually made these before, but it has been years!)
1 sm can of pumpkin,
2 tsp baking soda,
4 tsp baking powder,
1 tsp salt,... Read More
2 tsp cinnamon,
4 cups of flour,
2 cups of sugar,
2 eggs beaten,
1 tbsp milk,
1 cup of oil,
2 tsp. vanilla,
6 oz of real choco. chips,
1 cup of nuts (chopped optional).

Combine all ingredients. Mix well. Drop by the tsp fulls onto un-greased sheet Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes. Watch carefully; when bottoms are well browned remove and then transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

If you make them, let me know what you think!

Laughing at myself!

Tomorrow is Katie's turn to take snack for her Daisy Troop Meeting. Since it is her birthday month we volunteered to do this week so we could share a birthday celebration snack.

I had high hopes! I even picked up some various sized pumpkin cookie cutters for the occasion! Well...... The cookie cutters and I were not friends today. A total mess.
So, I decided to just make balls and create a pumpkin out of the circle cookies.
The dough really is a very nice shade of orange, it just doesn't look like it here.

I was SO very proud of myself when I thought of using candy corns to make a stem for the pumpkin by inserting them into the cookies sideways like so.... I was very excited about what they were going to look like in the end!

As I started decorating the results were not what I had in mind.
The pumpkin lines were looking more like spider legs. So I experimented with faces instead.
The faces did NOT make me very happy. ha ha. You will see...
I gave it time thinking that when I added the "leaves" at the top it would just complete the look and they would be adorable! HAHA HAHA HAHAHAHA!

The pumpkins aren't THAT bad. They really look better on here than they do in person!
I wasn't able to get everything quite as "orange" as I would have liked.
I didn't have orange food coloring and was adding a good bit of red and yellow. I really don't like to use dye at all, so when I got to a color that would pass for orange I decided to let it be.

And here is why I am laughing at myself.
Doesn't the one in the middle look like an orange Pillsbury doughboy with a party hat?
HA HA HA HA!
I guess great cookie decorating only came around once in a lifetime for me!
Check out those fuzzy green eyebrows!
Oh well...
they taste good!

My Rainy Day Helpers

This morning I baked a beautiful and yummy homemade from scratch Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake. Mmmmmm.......
I baked it for our Bible Study that was supposed to start tonight, but within a couple of hours of it being frosted, it was decided that with the flood warnings and road closures that we should postpone until next week.
What to do with that fresh chocolate cake?
Well..... Katie and Noah were a big help by unloading the dishwasher for me, working together to do so. I decided we should ALL enjoy a piece of the delicious cake since I wouldn't be taking it anywhere tonight.
After having such a sweet reward for helping me out, Katie and Noah got inspired..... and then loaded the dishwasher for me as well (while I called and emailed and facebooked people about the class cancellation).
Here they are....even "pre-washing" the dishes in the sink....

This is what a dishwasher might look like if loaded by a 5 and 6 year old...
completely unassisted.... :)

Proudly even drying off the dishes before placing them in the dishwasher...

Washing out the mixing bowl before loading in the dishwasher

I guess we might need a lesson in how to load the dishwasher,
but THIS way kills SO much more time! ha ha!
Especially on a rainy RAINY day!

Soft French Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are some delicious cookies I baked this afternoon. The recipe was part of my Christmas baking last year and I like them even more now that I have tried them with whole wheat flour!

I have made a discovery about whole wheat flour.... you get what you pay for! I will only buy King Arthur Whole Wheat flour now! Instead of making things taste just "heavy" it really makes them taste "hearty" instead and really flavorful!!! I also used a different sugar for part of the white sugar portion, but I probably won't do that again because it made these turn out flatter than usual....but they were still tasty! The aroma of the french vanilla pudding makes the kitchen smell like a coffee shop and the flavor is just SO perfect! Give them a try! Oh, I also used regular sized chocolate chips this time, but it didn't turn out as well either...mini is the way to go! (or mini M&Ms like I used at Christmas!)

Recipe:
2 1/4 cups flour
(I use 1 cup King Arthur Whole Wheat and 1 1/4 cups white all purpose)
1 t. baking soda
2 C butter, softened
3/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C white sugar
1 regular size box french vanilla instant pudding mix
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 bag of mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flours and baking soda. Cream butter and sugars in mixer. Beat in vanilla pudding mix. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop by a teaspoon onto baking sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes, cool about 5 minutes on baking sheet. Transfer to rack for remainder of cooling time.

Beth's Texas Sheetcake

I am 28 years old and I just baked my first cake that I made completely from scratch! I found this recipe on the Living Proof Ministries blog and was inspired because I already had all the ingredients! That rarely happens with me and a "scratch" recipe, especially for something baked, usually it needs something that I don't happen to have on hand.

I gave it a try today and the results were WONDERFUL! This is truly a delicious cake recipe! So delicious that Corey actually had TWO pieces, and he never goes nuts over baked goods! His favorite treat is ice-cream, so when he went back for a second helping I knew it was a wonderful recipe! As much as I bake, I have never really been able to impress him until today I think! :) The cake is so moist and the flavor is rich (but not too rich, just right) and has a hint of cinnamon flavor which I really did not think I would like but WOW it goes perfectly with cocoa! We served it up tonight for friends, with a scoop or two of frozen yogurt which made a great companion since the yogurt isn't overly sweet either. Chocolate Texas Sheetcake PERFECTION!

Anyway, like I said, I got this recipe from the Beth Moore blog, hence the title of the recipe.

CLICK HERE for the recipe.

Mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies

Did you know that you can make your own brown sugar at home??? I read this in Alton Brown's cookbook yesterday. You mix 1/2 tablespoon of molasses with 1 cup of white sugar. That is the way they actually make most brown sugar these days anyway. So...yeah, interesting. Then, today I wanted to make some cookies and the only supplies we had on hand would have to be for sugar cookies, so I went looking for a recipe online. I found a great one right away that actually uses 100% whole wheat flour..not even mixing it with regular white flour!

I start to gather my ingredients and low and behold...I am OUT of brown sugar. The Christmas stock up finally ran out! What to do!!!! Hey...I still do have some molasses from my Christmas baking...so...

I gave it a try. It actually tasted great and was great in the recipe also! Who knew!? It takes a good bit of mashing/mixing/blending to get the molasses incorporated all in the white sugar, but it is so neat to try. I want to try the recipe now with "real" brown sugar to see how it compares...

Anyway, on to the recipe. It really turned out great. They taste a little more along the lines of a gingersnap even though they don't have ginger in them. Not sure why..they do have nutmeg. It isn't overly spicy tasting though, very mellow actually. Delicious! I am not going to list the specifics because if you have ever made cookies a few times then you should know how this all comes together. It's the "cream" method if you happen to have read Alton Brown's cookbooks. I love love LOVE this cookbook. It really teaches you how the different reactions in baking happen and why...in an easy way. I have learned so much from this cookbook about baking and actually chemistry too!

Here's the list of ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 c. butter
1 egg
2 T. milk
1/4 t. vanilla
2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 T orange peel (I did not have oranges today, so I didn't use this, I did throw in a SMIDGE of almond extract just because I figured it needed some kind of flavor or something, I bet it would be good though!)
1/4 t. nutmeg

Prepare dough. Roll balls in granulated sugar before placing on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 9-10 min.

YUMMY!!!

Baking Banana Bread

We baked some delicious banana bread today! Katie and Noah each made a recipe of it, so one was made into bread and one was made into muffins. (I like making muffins from my bread because you get to eat it SOONER! ha!)
Here is the recipe we used:

Banana Bread
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 C buttermilk
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 C mashed bananas
1 1/2 C sugar
1 3/4 C all-purpose flour (1 C whole wheat, 3/4 C white)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
(I always put a smidge less of both of those because I despise overly salty baked goods)
1/2 C chopped pecans (we used walnuts)

Basically you just mix the flour and soda and salt together well in a bowl. Then mix all the "wet" stuff together in a separate bowl (eggs first, then oil, milk, sugar, bananas), then add the dry to the wet and then mix in the walnuts. Pour into greased pans of your choice. Bake at 325 degrees until done, about 20 minutes for the muffins.
OH YEAH, about that topping! I made that up myself because I love a good topping on a muffin! I mixed up "some walnuts, some brown sugar, some oatmeal, and some wheat germ for extra nutrition." I did not measure the amounts at all, just made it how I thought it looked good. I put it on the muffins after about 12 minutes of baking and on the bread after about 30 minutes of baking though I think it was too soon for the bread. I think it would have been better to add it to the bread about 40 minutes to 45 minutes in. It took about an hour and a half for the bread to finish baking. You just have to watch it though, so many things influence how long it will take. And, it does continue to bake a little after you take it out, so keep that in mind as well. Hope you enjoy!

BANNED!

(sorry for the bad photo, the only one I could find online)

If I could, I would instate a ban on this item from being placed in my grocery cart. It is lethal! It is dangerous! It has made me feel sick once again as I abandon all self-control and consume a truly sinful amount of its delicious product! Hot, gooey, straight from the oven, with a glass of milk. No work required, no huge time commitment, just almost instant, too quick, delectable sweetness! Cooked just *under* done, almost needing a fork but not quite. Mmmmmmmmmm......until about 20 minutes later when I am saying UUUUgggghhhhh,

I ate HOW many?!

Who Knew?!

Katie recently read this book. She pretty much just picks out what she wants to read and we do "stuff" with it for her lessons. She amazes me with her reading ability!

So, ever since we read it, Katie has been bugging asking me to make lemon meringue pie. Apparently the only thing Amelia Bedelia can do correctly is make a Lemon Meringue Pie. I had picked up the ingredients I thought I needed, only to find out that I did not have one of the things I thought I already had, so I found an easier recipe online tonight. I have never EVER baked anything with meringue topping and after reading some of the reviews of the recipes and hearing horror stories I was honestly quite nervous about it. I read all kinds of tips about making sure there were no yolks in the eggs whites, having them at room temperature. etc,.... Well, I failed at all of those and just decided to go with it and see what happened.
WHO KNEW!?
I was kind of a success with meringue on my first attempt! It could just be beginner's luck, but hey, I was pretty proud and Katie LOVED the pie. The filling hadn't really set up well enough yet when we ate a piece it was still really runny, but I think it will be better tomorrow. I took a photo before I put it under the broiler just in case something catastrophic happened in there...but it browned nicely and was quite tasty! (The "after" picture is not very good at all, not sure what was up with that.)

Not a coffee cake....

The other night I really really really wanted something sweet, you know, one of those times (girls) when if you don't eat something sweet within the next hour you may just literally DIE!!!!!???
Well, I had some yellow cake mix in the cabinet, but I didn't want cake cookies. I know, for someone so desperate to be so picky...well...anyway. I got out my cake mix doctor cook book and started browsing. I thought the only thing I might have the "extra" ingredients for was a simple coffee cake. No such luck. It called for buttermilk and other random things like pudding mix. I got online, the only recipes still called for pudding mix. I finally found one that I had the ingredients for....but then I started making it and I was STILL missing one thing...I can't remember what it was.
SO, I just improvised and make something up, which I find now is a pretty common "recipe" for a coffee cake, but it really wasn't a coffee cake in my opinion. I just used one recipe of yellow cake mix, mixed up like the box said....then mixed up some chopped pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I layered these in the pan before I baked it. It smelled SO good while it was baking and tasted SO good! I considered making a glaze for it, but after eating a *couple* of pieces of it I decided it wasn't necessary (so you KNOW it had to be good!)
Here is a picture of the "not" a coffee cake. I didn't know it was going to be so good when it first came out and it basically just looks like a plain yellow cake, but believe me there is some YUMMY cinnamon sugar and pecans in that cake and it is DE-LI-CIOUS! (I didn't put any of the mixture on top because I was afraid it would burn before the cake was done)So, unlike recipes where they "say" you should "have all these ingredients on hand" (who already has stuff like almond paste on hand? Sometimes I wonder which pantry they are talking about here, a regular one or a "chef's" pantry?!) I can GUARANTEE that as long as you have the cake mix, you WILL have all these ingredients on hand!!!!

Once in a lifetime!

I finally got around to baking yesterday. I actually started on Saturday, just making a few of each kind to take to Corey's grandparent's house because I just did not have the time to do everything I wanted to do before we saw them.
Yesterday, as soon as we got home from eating after church, I started and FINISHED my baking. Well, I finished at about 1:30am. Corey's estimate was that we baked about a million dozen cookies! ha ha. Actually, it was probably close to....30 dozen. My oven was on all day, and it was smelling GREAT in our house! I am so thankful that Corey stayed up with me and helped with the bagging and cleaning. It would have been very sad to have to get up this morning and face the "aftermath" ha ha.
So, we made: Santa Cutouts, Peanut Butter Munchies, Giant Ginger Cookies, French Vanilla M&M Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Tea Cookies. The French Vanilla M&M cookies are a combination recipe. I found a recipe for an "award winning soft chocolate chip cookie" and instead of plain vanilla pudding I used "french" vanilla, and instead of chocolate chips, well...you can guess. So, they taste SO good! The french vanilla pudding really made the kitchen smell like a coffee shop! Mmmmm.
I only took pictures of the Santa ones really, because I was so very proud of the way they turned out. My roly poly Santas fell apart, and I just didn't have it in me to try and repair them. These Santa Cutouts are a ONCE IN A LIFETIME opportunity family and friends! Limited Edition...never to be repeated! ha ha! It was a lot of fun decorating and seeing them come together, but the cleanup just about did me in! Anyway, next year is "dipped in chocolate" year...I am DONE with cookies for a while! ha! (This pic wasn't rotated, oh well.)

Here is a photo collage of the Santa cookies, some of the cookies in baggies ready for the boxes, my favorite diamond Santa (which we kept for the kids :), and the packed and ready boxes. Corey is off work today so we are going to be out and about delivering our goodies! It is only supposed to get up to 49 or so today, so it will truly feel like Christmas!

Cookie Queen: Concluded....

Here are pictures of the goodies I won at the cookie swap last weekend: the cookie jar prize and the cookie queen tray that will be passed on next year (maybe! ha ha)

Baking, and more baking!

UPDATE:

Two discoveries:

It is imperative that you use a brand name peanut butter when making peanut butter munchies, and I think that White Lily flour makes them better as well. Other peanut butter will result in a dry, rather than moist and chewy, center.

Other news: My giant ginger cookies won for best cookie at last night's scrapbook cookie swap! Woo hoo! They were a "big" hit...ha ha, sorry for the joke.

I just got through baking cookies for another cookie swap tomorrow night. I decided to make Giant Ginger Cookies. All the recipes I have been using recently have been from this magazine that I bought several years ago. Apparently they print it every year because I saw it on the rack at Hobby Lobby today. I plan to make the cute Santa ones you can see on the front as gifts this year.

The Giant Ginger Cookies are turning out GREAT! I have never been a huge ginger cookie fan, but the magazine said that when they first featured the cookies on the front of the magazine in 1998 that they got tons of calls saying they were the best ginger cookies ever, so I decided to give them a try. They really are good. You can click on the link HERE to see the recipe.

Here are some photos of the cookies during and after baking. See how big they are??? Mmmmmm...they are so chewy!

I have just discovered, while typing this blog, that I under-baked most of the cookies. I was sitting here waiting for the timer to beep and it was taking a long time, so I went to check and saw that I had forgotten to set a timer. I rushed to get the cookies out, only to discover that they were even bigger and looked even better than all the others I had made! Argh! We will see after they cool, but I don't think I baked the rest long enough. I think they taste great, they aren't doughy or anything, but that extra 3-4 minutes really made them "bloom" into true ginger-snap look-alikes. It could be that they turn into a crunchy mess, who knows...these pictures are of the "correct" cookies, as I took new photos and replaces the underdone photos! ha ha.

We were supposed to make 6 dozen cookies for the cookie swap, but needless to say I did not make that many! I think these cookies should count as at LEAST two each! (maybe three!) I used the same amount of dough that most recipes use, but it just called for you to make huge cookies. Even the first batches were huge, now these bigger ones probably could count as 4 cookies!

Now, I am sure I could have tried making smaller cookies, but I didn't want to mess with it this time since it was my first attempt. Maybe next time I will play around with the cooking times and try something smaller. I am hoping I can make smaller ones work because I think I want to do these for next year's "competition" cookie swap at church ha ha!

Speaking of baking, the kids and I have also been working on some Christmas baking projects. My mother-in-law gave us a Christmas Countdown book. Each day has a Bible verse and "word of the day" in a countdown till Christmas (of course)! Anyway, Saturdays have a family activity and this week's was to make salt-dough ornaments. We did it this week while Kaitlyn was here as a school project. The recipe is extremely simple (flour, salt, water), but I added some cinnamon and cloves to make it smell good and the house really did smell WONDERFUL while the ornaments baked. Our camera is still out, but I did get to borrow one so I could take pictures today of the three painting their ornaments. Here they are, and some pictures of Katie's and Noah's trees in their rooms, displaying their homemade ornaments.

There is Mod Podge on these, painted on to "seal" the paint and to preserve the cookie from falling apart or whatever. It dries clear.

Katie's white tree in her princess room. We now have a white/silver material covering the stand.Noah's tree. They decorated all by themselves.
Noah has a cookie print material covering the stand on his tree now.

Cookie Queen 2008!

Graceland had its first ever ladies cookie swap today! 25 girls from church baked 6 1/2 dozen cookies to share and swap. We all tasted ALL those different kinds of cookies and voted for: prettiest, tastiest, and best over all "cookie queen."

I WON the Cookie Queen title! Woo hoo!!!! My prize was a really really cute cookie jar, and a gingerbread platter that has "Graceland Cookie Queen 2008" on it. I keep the cookie jar, but return the platter next year. My name will be on the botton with the year I won and we will pass it to each year's winner. Here is a photo of my cookie jar. I don't have a photo of the platter because they didn't have the right marker for writing my name on the back so they are going to do that and give it to me later.
correction/update: I do not have a picture of the cookie jar. It appears that our camera has "passed on." We are going to try one more set of batteries, but it looks as though we are camera-less now! AGH!

I am very proud because I worked long and hard on my cookies! It is a recipe I found in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine called "100 Best Cookies." Here is a picture from the website of the cookies and a link to the recipe in case you want to try them! They are very yummy!

Peanut Butter Munchies: (click on the name for link)

They taste even better than they look!

Anyway, that was my fun day! And now I have tons of yummy cookies that I brought home to munch on for the next week or so...and another cookie swap Friday! I think I am making Chocolate Dipped Coconut Shortbread for that one. This one is just a swap, no prizes.