this dreamy apple pie which I plan to make this week for our Thanksgiving dessert. I don't get much out of the usual pumpkin, so when I saw this one, I jumped at the chance. Plus Hubby actually requested apple, so I say "win-win!" I probably won't be back again this week, so Happy Thanksgiving!
To life... full of so many things to be thankful for!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
FFF Recipe 10
Today we will consider that a picture is worth a thousand words. Mom picked PW's Caramel Apple Sticky Buns for this week-- and I'm glad she did!
My review + my friends' comments: Delicious! Wonderful! Amazing! Good! Everything works so well together! Eat them slightly warm (I put one in the microwave for 20 seconds this morning-perfect).
My conclusion? You should make them---today!
One last picture sequence... Dora turned 3 this week! Here's how much she appreciated her birthday bow(s):
To life... full of November birthdays and sticky buns!
My review + my friends' comments: Delicious! Wonderful! Amazing! Good! Everything works so well together! Eat them slightly warm (I put one in the microwave for 20 seconds this morning-perfect).
My conclusion? You should make them---today!
One last picture sequence... Dora turned 3 this week! Here's how much she appreciated her birthday bow(s):
To life... full of November birthdays and sticky buns!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Week 9: Pumpkin Pound Cupcakes
Last night was pretty crazy, I had a lot of "pots in the fire", isn't that the way the saying goes? Something like that. Let me just show you-- all of this was happening in my kitchen last night:
From L to R: Pumpkin Pound Cupcakes getting ready to be mixed for 20 min; Chicken Alfredo Pizza (with broccoli) that we had for supper; back burner- chicken being cooked in preparation for the Buffalo Chicken Dip I made for snack today; front burner- chocolate chip blondies waiting to cool before being topped with peanut butter frosting! That was just in my kitchen! Off to the side at my table, my friends made puppy chow and two key lime pies! Quite the evening!!
The recipe for this week was Pumpkin Pound Cupcakes and they were topped with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream. Sound delightful? You're right- they are great! Pretty easy to make with other stuff going on at the same time. You dump all the ingredients in the mixer bowl.
And then let 'em mix for 20 min. YES! TWENTY entire minutes! I was shocked as well.
I made a half batch, so it made 12 cupcakes. They're baked for about 20 min. These didn't rise much, but I think it's probably due to the fact that they are pound cupcakes. So naturally they're more dense. They weren't much to look at and most of them didn't even reach the top of the cupcake liner.
But then I made the frosting. Wow! It was delicious. I also halved that recipe and it was just enough to cover all the cupcakes nicely.
I just made some swirls with my largest round tip. I didn't use my 1M tip since I didn't think there would be enough frosting to make it across all of the cupcakes with it.
The results? Even though they weren't much to look at, I really enjoyed them! The density of the pound cake is great. It works with the pumpkin flavor well. I've already gotten a couple of reviews and people have said they're great, good, and amazing! Those are all things I like to hear. I think another thing going for them is that they are pretty small, so they are a nice snack size dessert! You get enough of your sweet tooth craving satisfied, but you're not overloaded. I really did love the frosting. The addition of brown sugar, cinnamon, and half and half just put them over the top for me. Probably a frosting I will use for other pumpkin and/or spice cake related baked goods. Try it out and see for yourself!
To life... full of thankfulness for my kitchen-aid mixer so I didn't have to mix by hand for 20 minutes!
From L to R: Pumpkin Pound Cupcakes getting ready to be mixed for 20 min; Chicken Alfredo Pizza (with broccoli) that we had for supper; back burner- chicken being cooked in preparation for the Buffalo Chicken Dip I made for snack today; front burner- chocolate chip blondies waiting to cool before being topped with peanut butter frosting! That was just in my kitchen! Off to the side at my table, my friends made puppy chow and two key lime pies! Quite the evening!!
The recipe for this week was Pumpkin Pound Cupcakes and they were topped with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Buttercream. Sound delightful? You're right- they are great! Pretty easy to make with other stuff going on at the same time. You dump all the ingredients in the mixer bowl.
And then let 'em mix for 20 min. YES! TWENTY entire minutes! I was shocked as well.
I made a half batch, so it made 12 cupcakes. They're baked for about 20 min. These didn't rise much, but I think it's probably due to the fact that they are pound cupcakes. So naturally they're more dense. They weren't much to look at and most of them didn't even reach the top of the cupcake liner.
But then I made the frosting. Wow! It was delicious. I also halved that recipe and it was just enough to cover all the cupcakes nicely.
I just made some swirls with my largest round tip. I didn't use my 1M tip since I didn't think there would be enough frosting to make it across all of the cupcakes with it.
The results? Even though they weren't much to look at, I really enjoyed them! The density of the pound cake is great. It works with the pumpkin flavor well. I've already gotten a couple of reviews and people have said they're great, good, and amazing! Those are all things I like to hear. I think another thing going for them is that they are pretty small, so they are a nice snack size dessert! You get enough of your sweet tooth craving satisfied, but you're not overloaded. I really did love the frosting. The addition of brown sugar, cinnamon, and half and half just put them over the top for me. Probably a frosting I will use for other pumpkin and/or spice cake related baked goods. Try it out and see for yourself!
To life... full of thankfulness for my kitchen-aid mixer so I didn't have to mix by hand for 20 minutes!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Fourteen For Fall : Week #9
CUPCAKES!
I'm excited to try these pumpkin cupcakes! I made some last year and the cupcake part was pretty good, but the icing was definitely not a winner. It looks like her review says that this is some pretty amazing frosting, though. So I'm excited to try them!
This week I have finally been motivated again to make good food decisions and I have had some good workouts with my friends, both Monday and Tuesday! I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is two weeks from tomorrow! How did that even happen? I'm trying to keep that in mind because I want to do well during the holidays this year. Most people gain a few pounds during the holidays, so I'm trying to stay motivated to keep working out and making good food choices during these next seven weeks. That way when January rolls around I won't feel like I'm under a mountain again... maybe just a little hill :o)
Not sure that I'll be able to put up my cupcake post tomorrow, but it should be here by Friday.
To life... full of motivation and healthy choices!
I'm excited to try these pumpkin cupcakes! I made some last year and the cupcake part was pretty good, but the icing was definitely not a winner. It looks like her review says that this is some pretty amazing frosting, though. So I'm excited to try them!
This week I have finally been motivated again to make good food decisions and I have had some good workouts with my friends, both Monday and Tuesday! I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is two weeks from tomorrow! How did that even happen? I'm trying to keep that in mind because I want to do well during the holidays this year. Most people gain a few pounds during the holidays, so I'm trying to stay motivated to keep working out and making good food choices during these next seven weeks. That way when January rolls around I won't feel like I'm under a mountain again... maybe just a little hill :o)
Not sure that I'll be able to put up my cupcake post tomorrow, but it should be here by Friday.
To life... full of motivation and healthy choices!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Problem solving...
Recently I've been frustrated with my baking. Even embarrased at times... I've thought, "Am I losing my touch?" or "Am I not paying attention?" "What the heck is going on?" You see, everything I've been making the past couple of weeks has been gooey yet brown and that's just not my style. I mean, I feel like I've been getting to know my oven pretty well-- we're tight, we're buds -- I know he runs a bit on the warm side, he blows extremely hot air on my face if I'm too close when I open the oven door, and it really doesn't take long to preheat. But recently, he's been playing tricks. And I thought it was just me. You know, I try so many new recipes that I think, "Well maybe that's just how it's supposed to turn out." Several recent examples: I made cornbread for a friend. It was supposed to be made in a skillet (I don't have one), so when the bottom was still gooey I thought, oh, well maybe the point of the skillet is to get the bottom firmed up first then into the oven-- seems possible, right? Apple dumplings for my party-- another new recipe-- I thought, oh I guess I forgot it in the oven, and the bottom seemed runny but I didn't know if it was because of something I did wrong or just the 12 oz. of Mountain Dew the recipe called for. The recipe for this week -- review to come below-- was GOOEY brownies. So I, once again, thought, well maybe it's just the recipe, I mean they are supposed to be gooey, but I kept questioning, surely not THAT gooey?!?! Then last night, I made blondies. Now these I had made before. The top was a golden brown, so I let them cool because I was supposed to put frosting on top. When I cut into one to get one out for a friend-- more gooey dough! I turned the oven back on, waited, checked it, then it finally clicked: I haven't noticed the bottom heating element turn orange for a couple of weeks!!! I felt near the bottom and no heat was coming from it. Only from the top part of the oven. Crazy! So for the past couple weeks my things have not turned out right at all, I blamed them on the newness of recipes and myself-- but it's been my oven all along. Part of me says, a good baker would have noticed this much sooner. But what can I say? I finally found the problem. Fortunately, hubby has reported that the maintenance man has already come to fix the oven at home! So hopefully I can count on my oven again to turn out some good products after a couple weeks of being slightly disappointed about everything.
Whew! Well I didn't intend for this post to be long because I've been very busy at work. So the review will be many pictures with a few comments.
Put foil in your pan and grease it:
Mix up your ingredients in a bowl:
Add in the good stuff:
Some (shadowed) pumpkin...
Mix it all up then pour half of the brownie batter in the pan, followed by half a cup of the butterscotch ice cream topping:
Top with the remaining batter and bake for 50-60 min. Mine came out looking like this, much to my chagrin:
And was extremely gooey in the middle! I attributed it to the fact of the ice cream topping in the middle, but now I'm not entirely sure how gooey it was supposed to be **as noted from the first part of this post**. Regardless, my review: Once again, I will state, I'm not entirely sure how they would taste if baked correctly. But they were pretty good. Yes, you read that right. I was SO excited about these, but maybe I set my expectations too high? I don't think I used the entire amount of pumpkin, and I still felt like it was a little too much. Jeremiah said that there were too many flavors going on for just one brownie and --shockingly!-- I agreed. I think chocolate and butterscotch would be good, but adding in pumpkin as well as the cinnamon was a bit too much. I did get good reviews from work though. They seemed to really enjoy my extremely gooey brownies. One person ate 3 of them! They liked the combo of chocolate, pumpkin, and butterscotch. For that I was grateful because I had really started to get down on myself for all my 'weird' baking recently. I might make them again, but one of my favorite things about brownies is eating them warm. Sadly, when I ate these warm I really didn't like them. Even less than at room temperature! So, I might try them again with my correctly working oven. That might give me a better experience. I'll be very interested to hear mom and sister's review this time because hopefully they'll have a more 'accurate' experience!
To life... full of problem solving!
Whew! Well I didn't intend for this post to be long because I've been very busy at work. So the review will be many pictures with a few comments.
Put foil in your pan and grease it:
Mix up your ingredients in a bowl:
Add in the good stuff:
Some (shadowed) pumpkin...
Mix it all up then pour half of the brownie batter in the pan, followed by half a cup of the butterscotch ice cream topping:
Top with the remaining batter and bake for 50-60 min. Mine came out looking like this, much to my chagrin:
And was extremely gooey in the middle! I attributed it to the fact of the ice cream topping in the middle, but now I'm not entirely sure how gooey it was supposed to be **as noted from the first part of this post**. Regardless, my review: Once again, I will state, I'm not entirely sure how they would taste if baked correctly. But they were pretty good. Yes, you read that right. I was SO excited about these, but maybe I set my expectations too high? I don't think I used the entire amount of pumpkin, and I still felt like it was a little too much. Jeremiah said that there were too many flavors going on for just one brownie and --shockingly!-- I agreed. I think chocolate and butterscotch would be good, but adding in pumpkin as well as the cinnamon was a bit too much. I did get good reviews from work though. They seemed to really enjoy my extremely gooey brownies. One person ate 3 of them! They liked the combo of chocolate, pumpkin, and butterscotch. For that I was grateful because I had really started to get down on myself for all my 'weird' baking recently. I might make them again, but one of my favorite things about brownies is eating them warm. Sadly, when I ate these warm I really didn't like them. Even less than at room temperature! So, I might try them again with my correctly working oven. That might give me a better experience. I'll be very interested to hear mom and sister's review this time because hopefully they'll have a more 'accurate' experience!
To life... full of problem solving!
Monday, November 1, 2010
An Early Morning Run
Friday night I was hosting a Caramel Apple Party at my house, so I was trying to figure out when to fit in my run for the day. I knew I needed to do it-- the whole week had been messed up and I had not gotten one in. So much to my dismay, I decided the only solution would be to wake up early and do it before work. Boo! I asked hubby to join me and --thankfully!-- he agreed. I rolled out of bed in the wee hours of the morning (aka 6:10 AM), drank some juice, and stepped outside. My first thought being, "You have got to be kidding me!!" It was SO cold. Yes, my family and friends from up 'north', it was cold, to me. It was only 43 degrees. So I went back in and put on my fleece vest and then we headed out. By the time we made it to our apartment's main gate, I was thinking, "What the heck?!? How do my sister and brother-in-law do this on a regular basis? I just want to go back to bed!" --Can you tell I'm a gem in the mornings?!? We turned down the street and had to run through some sprinklers --awesome-- and continued on in the dark. How can it be so dark at 6:15 AM?!? We ran for about 25 min., my mind focusing on one thing: finishing. It was difficult, but necessary, and in the end I was glad I had pushed myself to do it. Not every run is going to be one you enjoy. Sometimes they are just dreadful, but pushing through to the finish makes you feel better about yourself. You add points to your self-discpline and self-esteem meters. Sometimes Nike has it right, "Just do it!" And there was definitely no time the rest of the day to do it. I ended up getting several compliments on my hair throughout the day though. That was nice, until it crossed my mind that I guess I need to care a little bit more? Wake up early, shower, and do nice things to my hair? Is that what people are telling me? Regardless, we are one run closer to our Warrior Dash coming up in just 20 days now!!
A few pictures from our caramel apple party:
On Saturday night we went to a costume party and I took these:
Aren't they super cute??
Last, but not least, here's the recipe I picked for this week. Gooey Pumpkin Butterscotch Brownies! I think they look wonderful! I picked these for several reasons: 1) I am learning I have quite a love for butterscotch! 2) I love brownies 3) I have pumpkin leftover from last week's recipe 4) I love brownies! 5) I have some of the ingredients on hand. 6) I LOVE brownies! 7) Ever since I saw this recipe on-line, I have thought about it every day and finally, I don't think I've mentioned yet 8) I LOVE BROWNIES! See you again later this week with a review!
To life... full of early morning runs and Halloween weekend sugar comas!
A few pictures from our caramel apple party:
On Saturday night we went to a costume party and I took these:
Aren't they super cute??
Last, but not least, here's the recipe I picked for this week. Gooey Pumpkin Butterscotch Brownies! I think they look wonderful! I picked these for several reasons: 1) I am learning I have quite a love for butterscotch! 2) I love brownies 3) I have pumpkin leftover from last week's recipe 4) I love brownies! 5) I have some of the ingredients on hand. 6) I LOVE brownies! 7) Ever since I saw this recipe on-line, I have thought about it every day and finally, I don't think I've mentioned yet 8) I LOVE BROWNIES! See you again later this week with a review!
To life... full of early morning runs and Halloween weekend sugar comas!
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