Alphabet Soup

I've been making the littles some apple muffins lately, which they love, but I've been wanting to make something with pumpkin instead.  However, I've been stuck in a rut and just haven't found a recipe that I've wanted to try.  Sure, I have my stand-by recipes, but I wanted something new.  I can't believe I hadn't checked one of my favorite baking books ( Baking From My Home to Yours , by Dorie Greenspan ) before now.  A quick look at the index, and I found what I was looking for, All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake.  It really does have it all:  pumpkin, apples, fresh cranberries, and pecans.  Perfect!  I even had all the ingredients, since I had picked up some cranberries on a whim at the grocery store this week.  I decided to let all the kiddos help me, and they were excited to.  Let me warn you though, I would prep the pecans, cranberries, and apples ahead of time if you're going to be making this with kids, especially young ones....

Several years ago, my mom gave me an old cookbook, it was hers but I'm not sure she ever used it, Favorite Recipes from Southern Kitchens:  Desserts .  I love this cookbook!  I thought it would be great to go through it and pick a recipe or two to use for this year's 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats series.  For this week, I chose a super easy one, Hello Dolly Cookies.  I have absolutely no idea where the name came from.  I'm really not sure I've ever eaten one before, though the ladies I shared the finished product with knew about them!  I did an internet search too, and it seems they go by a lot of names, including Magic Layer Bars.  Honestly, they are so easy to make.  There's no mixing required.  Kids could absolutely help with these.  The cookies smelled divine while they were baking, and I barely waited for them to cool before trying one. At first I thought "these taste almost like German chocolate cake", then "or d...

Let's take a moment to look at the calendar, shall we?  Let's see, yep, it's still September.  I tried buying some Halloween baking products today, but the stores were already sold out and replacing them with Christmas items.  And I complained about that on Facebook.  Yet, here I am, talking about Christmas treats.  According to the countdown on my phone, there are 89 days left until Christmas day.  So, in that spirit, I've joined Brenda of Meal Planning Magic again on her Twelve Weeks of Christmas Treats blog hop.  That's right, me, the Queen of Procrastinationland.  ;) This week, I made a pretty easy treat:  Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Bites.  I found the recipe through Pinterest (where else these days, right?) and thought they would be a great treat to make! Instead of using the individual caramels, I decided to try the caramel apple wraps found near the apples in the produce section of the grocery store.  They made...

Hello, hello, hello!  I could babble on about what's been going on lately, or you could just go here and read , so I won't.  ;) Anyway, it's that time of year again, if you can believe it, to start the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies , being hosted this year by Brenda of Meal Planning Magic .  Now, we just got running water back temporarily last night, and for real this afternoon, so suffice it to say I haven't exactly had time to whip up a batch of something yummy, take pics and write up a blog post about it, so I'm going to go back in time to last year and remind everyone about one of my favorite holiday cookies, the Chewy Ginger Snaps .  I've already got a list of goodies I want to make for this year's blog hop, and in the meantime enjoy what everyone else has been working hard on!

Can you believe that in one week, it will be Christmas?  Yeah, me either.  So not ready.  :) The other thing I can't believe is that it's the last week for the 12 Weeks of Christmas cookies.  It has been a lot of fun.  I'm very glad to have participated, and would like to thank April for putting this all together. My contribution this week is to put the spotlight on a post from last year about peanut brittle.  It's just not Christmas without peanut brittle, in my opinion, and it's perfect for sharing!  Click here for the link. Enjoy, and I hope everyone has a great weekend, and a wonderful holiday!  :)

It's Friday?  Again?  I think we have the same conversation every week.  Sorry about that.  If you'll remember, last week I talked about a cookie exchange that I was co-hosting.  It wound up being a small group of people, but it was a lot of fun.  I really should dedicate a post just to the cookie exchange, and the baked brie that fought back! This week's recipe for Mocha Nut Cookies was one of the two recipes that I made for the exchange.  It was a new one for me, and with some modifications I think I like it.  The original recipe said that it would make balls, but mine spread a little more during baking, losing their rounded shape somewhat.  I'll be honest, my notes trail off about halfway through the recipe, so I'm not 100% sure what I did!  I guess that means I need to make the recipe again to double check things.  This cookie seemed to be a hit at the exchange, so I'll take that as a good sign.  I replaced the instant...

I'm participating in (okay, co-hosting) a cookie exchange tomorrow.  When I got up this morning, I had two double batches of cookie dough in the refrigerator to bake.  I'm currently halfway through the baking process.  This is one of the recipes that I decided to try.  Yep...I tried not one, but two new recipes for a cookie exchange.  Eek!  I know there have already been a ton of molasses and/or ginger spice cookies made for the 12 weeks of Christmas cookies...but hey, why not another?  :) If you like molasses, then these are a cookie for you.  If not?  Then walk on by.  You can most definitely tell they have molasses in them.  Which is not bad.  Unless you don't like molasses.  I happen to love the stuff, so I'm good to go.  They spread a bit more than I expected, and are actually crispier than I thought they would be.  These cookies are good though!  And my little cookie monster approved of them...

Wait, it's Friday?  How did that happen?  Well, I guess since yesterday was Thanksgiving, that would make today Friday.  In light of this revelation, I will be revisiting another past favorite for this week's addition to the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies:  Double Shot Mocha Chunks .  They were good.  Very good.  Sorry for the short post.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Enjoy!  :)

It's almost Thanksgiving.  Can you believe it?  I thought I'd share what's on our menu this year, and see what everyone else is cooking up.  :) We are having a hard time deciding what to serve as the main dish this year.  Munchkin is convinced that it's not Thanksgiving if we don't have turkey "it's tradition!"  Actually, tradition around here is to serve something non -traditional.  I'm thinking pork loin.  We shall see. Here's what else we have cooking up: Cornbread dressing (family recipe) Bacon Wrapped Green Beans by Our Best Bites Sweet Potatoes from Pioneer Woman Mashed Potatoes also from PW Cranberry Sauce ...ummmm, also from PW Corn on the Cob (self-explanatory) Yeast Rolls Pecan Pie from Southern Plate Sweet Potato Pie (my recipe) Chocolate Cupcakes from Martha Stewart and I'm debating Banana Pudding (my recipe) That's what we've got so far.  We always make enough to feed an army, I swear.  What...

For this week's recipe, I am revisiting a cookie from early 2009 -- the Chocolate Fudge Cookie with Toffee and Dried Cherries .  It's a recipe that I received while participating in the Cookie Carnival (it is being hosted by someone different now, but still going on!).  Anyway, this week has been just too crazy for me to get any baking done, so I thought I'd pull out an old recipe to share.  It was a really good one, and I may be baking it again for a cookie exchange that I'm co-hosting in a couple of weeks (eek!).  When I first got the recipe, I wasn't sure how they were going to turn out, but I liked them a lot!  I hope everyone has a great weekend! Enjoy!  :)

This week's recipe comes straight from Betty Crocker herself.   Er, well, the Betty Crocker website anyway!  On a side note, I almost thought about trying to be Betty Crocker for Halloween, but ran out of time and didn't.  Maybe next year... These bars are super rich!  They have a great chocolate flavor though, and the toffee bits blend in nicely.  Don't try one if you have a loose filling though.  Can you say sticky and chewy?  I would suggest cutting them into bite size pieces, especially for gift giving or treat platters. I sent about half of them to work with D and apparently they disappeared quickly, with lots of requests for the recipe coming soon after! The original recipe can be found here .  It is quite quick and easy to whip together, since it starts with a packaged sugar cookie mix.  Now, I admit that I don't usually like using mixes, but they can definitely be nice to have on hand, especially when you need to get s...

Homemade graham crackers.  That's what I've decided to share with you for my 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies post this week.  I thought it would be a fun change of pace!  However, I also have to share that this post contains a major planning #fail.  As in, it sure would have been nice to take pictures of the finished product before we ate them all!   Oh well, at least that shows that they were good! I've actually tried several recipes for graham crackers lately, but this one has been the favorite at our house.  It's from Smitten Kitchen, and the recipe can be found here .  If you use a food processor, the dough comes together very quickly and easily.  It is definitely a sticky dough, so make sure you chill the dough, and use plenty of flour when you're rolling it out.  This is a fun one to have the kids help with too.  I found an adorable mini cookie cutter set at Michael's a few weeks ago, and thought it would be perfect for these....

Hey everyone!  Well, my back is feeling better.  I want to thank everyone for the well wishes!  I'm still exhausted and behind on everything, but isn't that always true? Just as promised, I have two recipes to share this week.  One is a new one for me, and one is a long-time favorite. The new recipe is Cranberry Almond Biscotti.  This is only the second time I've ever made biscotti, and the first time I've made it from scratch.  After reading the recipe, I thought to myself "I can mix this by hand; no need to get out the mixer!"  Well...yes and no. It came together, although for a minute I thought it wasn't going to.  But next time, I'll just use the mixer.  The recipe came from an old Taste of Home book. I've read, though I honestly can't remember where and can't attest to either my memory or the accuracy of the following statement, that traditional biscotti is made with no fat other than eggs, and that biscotti wi...

Confession time. I'm totally ripping myself off for this week's 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies post. Starting a couple of days ago, my back became very unhappy with me. I'm not sure why, but it's just not happy.  I know I shouldn't complain, but I am decidedly a wimp. Complicating matters is the fact that my oldest is out of school for fall break, and we had already promised him a day trip today (Friday) and another on Saturday. So, I decided to give my back a break yesterday and not do any baking. I thought it would be better today. Not so much. As a matter of fact, I'm sitting here in the recliner, with a heating pad and my laptop typing. We had a fun day, but I'm done! D told me just to skip this week, that everyone would understand. I can't do it. Can't just skip the post this week! So...I'm pulling out a recipe that was one of the first ones I posted after starting my blog. I was such a newbie, in fact, that I didn't manage to take...

Sit down.  No really, I mean it.  There are 12 weeks until Christmas.  Seriously.  Get out your calendar and count if you don't believe me!  Do you know how I know this?  Because I'm participating in the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies this year.  It's hosted by April of Abby Sweets .  And there's a linky thing to all the other cookie posts  down at the bottom of this post.  Or at least there's supposed to be.  ;) Aside from being horrible at time management and also being a huge procrastinator, want to know what my biggest problem has been?  Narrowing down what cookies I'm going to make!  There are just so many choices out there.  I decided to start with this recipe for Chewy Ginger Snaps. I got this recipe many years ago off an online parenting message board, and I've made it several times since then and adjusted the recipe slightly.  I'm sure there are several recipes out there, and I'm just not ...

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone has a great day today! The Munchkin's class party was Friday, and I got a wild hair to make Rice Krispie treats on a stick...dipped in chocolate with Valentine sprinkles. Yeah, blame hormones or something. :) I actually saw something similar at the grocery store a while back, and they were something like $2 each ! I thought to myself "I can do that!" It wasn't really that hard, just a little time consuming. I started with just the regular Rice Krispie treat recipe, you know the one on the back of the cereal box. Since I needed to make 20 of them, I had to make two batches of the recipe. After letting them cool, I cut them into squares. Then I inserted a cookie stick onto each one, used a spoon to coat it with some melted candy coating (which I had let cool a bit so it wouldn't melt the treats) and then added some sprinkles. I let them cool on some wax paper, then put them in some clear treat bags and tied with ribbon...