Pumpkindoodles

This is just a twist on the classic Snickerdoodle cookie. Use orange sprinkles instead of the cinnamon sugar and push in a candy pumpkin right when you pull them out of the oven.

Have kids? Grab them and make these cookies together this week. My kids loved helping rolls the dough balls in sugar!

Pumpkindoodles
(Snickerdoodles)
Makes 24-36

1/2 cup margarine (soft)
1.5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cream of tarter

Orange sprinkles or sugar (mix a drop or two of food coloring with a fes TBS sugar)
Candy Pumpkins

Snickerdoodles - use 2TBS sugar & 1 tsp cinnamon

1. Mix soft maragrine in bowl for 30 seconds.
2. Add the remaining ingredients.
3. Cover bowl and cill about 1 hour.
4. Roll dough into 1 inch balls.
5. Roll in sugar or sprinkles.
6. Bake in 375 degree oven for 9-11 minutes.
7. Gently push a candy pumpkin into the top of each cookie after removing from oven.

Enjoy!

Someone decided to help me with the picture taking!! I let her suck on that pumpkin for bit before taking it away.

It was much too big for her little mouth, but who can resist a candy pumpkin?!


Question: Which do you like more, candy corn or the pumpkins?

They've got to have almost identical ingredients of sugar, sugar, and more sugar, but I LOVE the pumpkins!

What gets your vote?! Pumpkins or Candy Corn?

I thought these Halloween cards would be fun to send to your grandkids, neices, nephews or cousins!

Mini Candy Bar Peanut Butter Blossoms

We have a few minutes between the kids soccer games right now so I wanted to share with you a variation to the classic Peanut Butter Blossom cookie with the chocolate kisses (you know the ones I'm talking about right?!)

Now these cookies are delicious just the way they are, but to mix things up a bit (and because the candy aisle is over flowing this time of year and was calling my name) I used mini candy bars and whoppers instead of kisses.

I mean what candy bar and peanut butter combination wouldn't be good?!  Umm, they are all amazing!

This recipe makes a ton - perfect for a football or Halloween party (or send them to work with your husband like I did)!

Enjoy.

Peanut Butter Blossoms - Betty Crocker
Makes 7 dozen

1/2	cup granulated sugar
1	cup packed brown sugar
1	cup creamy peanut butter
1	cup butter or margarine, softened
2	eggs
3	cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 1/2	teaspoons baking soda
1	teaspoon baking powder
	Additional granulated sugar (about 2 tablespoons)
	About 7 dozen chocolate candies Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, beat 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, baking soda and baking powder. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in additional granulated sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light brown. Immediately press 1 chocolate candy in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Swedish Meatballs

My little family LOVES Swedish Meatballs. We are having our first "fall-ish" type of weather this week, so this is going on the menu for sure!

These meatballs are a creation of my own after pouring through various meatball recipes. They are pretty darn good if I say so myself. My kids stay true to their carnivorous habits and devour these delicious balls of meat incredibly fast. Try them for yourself and I'm sure you'll agree.

Swedish Meatballs

Meatballs:

1 pound ground sausage (low-fat version works great too)

1 pound ground hamburger

2 eggs

1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 TBSP dried minced onion

1 tsp all-spice

A few dashes of salt and pepper

Gently mix all the ingredients with your hands in a bowl. Form 1 -1.5 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. (I was able to fit 30 larger balls on one cookie sheet.) Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, until no longer pink in the middle.

The Sauce:

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2  cup sour cream

1/2 cup water

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

A few dashes pepper

Heat ingredients in a small sauce pan until combined and warm.

Serve the meatballs and sauce over a bed of noddles or mashed potatoes. The meatballs are also great served as an appetizer. Just make the balls smaller and serve them covered in the sauce.

Creamy Peach Pie

This recipe is my aunt Mary's and it is amazing. It's fresh, it's tart, it's sweet, it's creamy! I could easily eat a whole pie by myself.

Nothing says 'end of summer, beginning of fall' like peach pie.

Creamy Peach Pie
-Make 2 pies-

12-14 peaches
1.5 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1 small package lemon jello (not the pudding)
8 oz cream cheese
8-12oz cool whip
1/2 cup powdered sugar

2- Cooked Pie Crusts

1. Puree 2-3 peaches in blender until it equals about about 1.5 cups
2. Bring puree and and sugar to a boil in pot on stove. Mix cornstarch and water - stir into puree mixture unil thickened. Mix in the jello powder until disolved.
3. Set aside to cool.
4. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cool whip.
5. Divide and layer into the bottom of the prepared pie shells.
6. Slice remaining peaches and layer on top of cream mixture.
7. Pour puree over top of peaches.
8. Cool and top with cool whip.
9. Enjoy!!

Crispy Tostadas

This delish dish is the perfect quick and easy meal for all your busy nights that are filled with school activities and sports practices. These crispy tostadas are healthy too!

Here's what you need:

Small Corn Tortillas
Cooked Ground Beef
Taco Seasoning
Refried Beans
Fat Free Cooking Spray

All your favorite taco toppings. Here are our favorites:
Cheese
Sour cream
Lettuce
Cilantro
Tomato
Green Onion
Avocado

How to Make:
 * Lightly spray both sides of the tortillas with cooking spray. Place tortillas directly on rack in a pre-heated 400 degree oven. Set timer for 4 minutes. Turn tortillas and bake for another 4 minutes until light brown and crisp. (Be sure to check on them so they don't burn. These times work great for my oven but yours might cook faster).

* Cook the ground beef and mix in the taco seasoning as directed on the package. Prepare your toppings.

* Put together your tostada with all your favorites and enjoy!

Chocolate Zucchini Cookies

I love zucchini! It grew in my garden as a kid and I can't wait to grow with my kids one day. In the meantime I've been purchasing it in mass quantities and enjoying every bit of it.

If you have zucchini growing like weeds in your garden or have been picking it up from the farmers market stand and want a new dish to use it in I've got the perfect recipe for you . . . Chocolate Zucchini Cookies.

I've just altered the cake mix recipe that I love. These are so easy! They passed the taste test by my husband and 4 year old son too.  They are moist, delicious and healthy (for a cookie that is)!

Chocolate Zucchini Cookies

1 box chocolate cake

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup vegetable/canola oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1-1.5 cups shredded zucchini

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Drop by the spoonful onto a cookie sheet and bake them at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. That's it. Easy huh?!

Watermelon Cake

My baby had her first birthday this weekend. When I saw this watermelon cake on Betty Crocker I knew it was the one. Simple, colorful and cute!

Watermelon Cake
adapted from Betty Crocker

1 strawberry cake mix - eggs, water and oil as called for on box
2 cubes butter - room temperature
2 lbs powdered sugar
1tsp vanilla
1 tbsp - milk
Food coloring (gel food coloring will make dark and bold colors)
1.5 cups miniature chocolate chips

Cake:
1. Make cake as directed on the box. Add a few drops of red food coloring to make the batter darker.
2. Add 1 cup mini chocolate chips to batter.
3. Pour batter evenly into 2 round cake pans.
4. Bake as directed on the box.
5. Let cakes cool before assembling and frosting.

Frost and Decorate:

1. Make butter cream frosting by mixing the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Add milk to get desired consistency. For pictures and further instructions on making butter cream frosting click HERE.
2. Divide frosting into 2 bowls  - about 2/3 in one bowl and 1/3 in the other.
3. Add red food coloring to the larger bowl and green to the smaller. Mix thoroughly.

I don't have a cake stand so I just turned over a large plate as my makeshift stand. Put a dab of frosting on the plate to keep the cake from slipping off. Place 1 cake on the plate. If if has a rounded top take a serrated knife and gently level it off.

Cover the cake with a thin layer of red frosting on the top top surface. Place the second cake on top.  Use the remaining red frosting to cover just the top portion of the cake.. Go slow and try not to drag crumbs. (Freezing your cake a few hours before you frost it will help keep the crumbs under control.) 

Use the green frosting to frost along the edge of the cake. Add mini chocolate chips to the top of the cake! (To give the cake even more texture you could press green jelly beans into the green frosting.)

Here's the birthday girl enjoying her cake. No messy face or hands here. She'd only poke her fingers in it. 

I linked to Today's Creative Blog.

Butterscotch Banana Muffins!

I was washing the dishes last night when my husband exclaimed "What did you do . . . (long pause  -while I panicked thinking of what I might have done wrong) to those muffins?!"

I just started to laugh and said "I know, they are so good huh?!" I might have already eaten three even though I'm trying to cut out sugar - oops. Well worth it!

My husband isn't usually a fan of muffins, but he said he couldn't finish it fast enough. Amazing and ridiculous was how he described them! I couldn't have said it better myself.

I never realized that adding butterscotch chips (and chocolate chips too is you'd like) to my mom's banana bread recipe would create such a mouthwatering muffin! It is really the most delicious combination I've had in a very very long time. Butterscotch and bananas - who knew?!

Once you take a bite of these babies you'll never go back to plain banana bread again! Guaranteed.

May I present you with the most amazing and ridiculous Butterscotch Banana Muffins ever made!

Butterscotch Banana Muffins

4 mashed bananas

1/2 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

4 cups flour

2 - 3 cups butterscotch chips

1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Bake @ 350 - 16-18 minutes

Makes 36 muffins or 2 loaves

Directions: 

1. Mash bananas.

2. Cream butter and sugar.

3. Beat in eggs.

4. Add baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla.

5. Add 1 cup flour. Mix.
6. Add 1/4 of mashed bananas. Mix.
7. Alternate mixing in flour and bananas until you've added it all.
8. Mix in butterscotch and chocolate chips.
9. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full.
10. Bake @ 350 for 16-18 minutes.
11. Enjoy the most amazing muffins around!

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Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies

This recipe brings back a lot of happy childhood memories, probably because we made and ate these brownies a lot! Typically we didn't make them with coconut, but this time I did. I think I prefer them without. I'll let you decide.

If you notice in the picture these brownies have three yummy layers. The bottom is dense and cakey, the middle is fudgy from the frosting, and the top is gooey and crispy. Combine all three and you have one delicious brownie!

Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies

Brownie:

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cubes margarine

1/2 cup cocoa

1 1/2 cup flour

1 bag mini marshmallows

1 cup coconut (optional)

1.5 tsp coconut extract (optional)

1 bag mini marshmallows

1cup toasted coconut (optional)

Icing:

1 cube margarine

1/4 cup cocoa

1/3 cup milk

1lb powdered sugar

1tsp vanilla

Cream together sugar, eggs, vanilla and margarine.

Add cocoa and flour. Mix well. Pour into a greased 9X13 pan (lined with foiled and sprayed makes it very easy).

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Don't over cook!

When brownies are done, immediately pour mini marshmallows ( and toasted coconut - optional) on top until evenly covered. Put the pan back in the oven to let the mallows puff – takes only a few minutes so keep an eye on it.

While waiting for the puffing to happen, make up your icing.

In a sauce pan bring to a boil – 1 cube butter, 1/4 cup cocoa and 1/3 cup milk 

Once boiling add 1 lb powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.

Turn off the heat and pour over the brownies once the mallows are nice and puffy – spread gently if needed.

Let cool and then cut with a plastic knife! 

Puffy marshmallows- I could have let them puff longer, but was getting impatient.

The icing is amazing. Once it cools it hardens and makes a nice crunchy top surface.

I lined my pan with foil (spray it well) so I could lift the brownies right out of the pan. Makes is much easier to cut and serve.

Always cut your brownies with a plastic knife, especially if they are warm. Notice that the plastic knife has no brownie remnants attached, only the marshmallows and icing. If you use a plastic knife you will have clean cut brownies- no more chunks of brownie coming off on the knife and messing them up!! It works every time, I promise!

One delicious chocolate marshmallow brownie. Want a bite?!

American Girl Cupcakes

Our oldest daughter turned 7 recently and she LOVES the American Girl book series. She and I have been reading them together for over a year and now she can read them on her own (love that)! She reads them every night.

A few weeks before her birthday she was looking around americangirl.com and came across a  quick video of bakers making American Girl cupcakes (I can no longer find the video). She was immediately sold on these cupcakes being served for her birthday.

So the day before her birthday we made some of our own American Girl cupcakes and some resembling each of our family members. We had a lot of fun creating the girls and referencing the books to see what they look like.

If you have a daughter who loves American Girls or just want to make people cupcakes here is what you'll need.

You Need:
Cooked and Cooled Cupcakes
Butter Cream Frosting (recipe below)
Small tubes of writing icing (optional)
Cocoa - for dark skin and brown hair
Food Coloring - gel colors will give you more bold and true colors, like the red hair
Candy (think ahead of who you are creating so you will have appropriate eyes color, hair etc)

       - we used licorice, sixlets (for some of the eyes), piky stix/ cool aid (rosy cheeks) etc. . . .
       - Fruit leather would also work great for the hair
Ribbons or other accessories
Icing bag or plastic sandwich baggies

While you are baking your cupcakes you'll need to make yourself some butter cream frosting. I think store bought might be a little too soft for piping through a bag for hair and homemade is better anyway.

Here is my mom's recipe for butter cream frosting that we've been using forever! It's so good!

Butter Cream Frosting
2 sticks of butter - soft/room temperature
2 lbs powdered sugar
1.5 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1-2 TBS of milk- as needed

Beat the sugar, butter, and vanilla together. Add 1TBS of milk and mix. The texture should be soft, yet hold together well, not runny. Only add more milk if needed.

Color the Frosting

Divide the frosting in separate bowls so you can make different colors. We kept most of it white for the faces, but also made red, yellow and brown. Make brown by adding some cocoa - just add it little by little to get the taste you like.

Frost & Decorate

*To make the frosting smooth for the faces just dip your knife in a cup of water ad smooth it over the already spread frosting.

*To pipe on strands of hair, lips, and glasses we put the frosting in the corner of a baggie and just cut off a tiny tip. Always test how thick the line is by piping it out on paper first.

*Use candies for eyes and hair. We used small ribbon to add embellishments to make the cupcakes look like the American Girls. 

* Sprinkle on a tad bit of red pixy stix sugar to make rosy cheeks.

Samantha, Kirsten, Addy, Kit, Molly, Kaya, and Felicity

Here's our little family!

Have fun making, creating and eating your cupcakes!