change

all this talk about change. all we want is change. something different. something better. but what good will changing the state of our country do us if we, ourselves, do not make any effort to change who we are as human beings? why does the change in our country have any effect on how we treat each other or talk to each other or act towards one another? i’m all for change – but i don’t think a change in America will really change who we are as Americans. if we want to change, we better start now. we should have started a long time ago.

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza

My Christmas cookies were successful! Well, for the most part. I wasn’t entirely happy with how the chocolate ones turned out, but hey, there were no complaints, so I’m happy:)

I took the day off work this past Monday so I could get all my baking done. I made two kinds of dough on Saturday, then two more on Sunday, so all I had to do was bake them on Monday.

I made four kinds of cookies this year:

Mini Snowball Chip Cookies (one of my favorites)

Oatmeal Toffee Cookies (usually everyone’s favorite)

Chocolate Reese’s Pieces Cookies (sorry, I didn’t get a picture of these)

Jam Thumbprint Cookies (my first time baking these – they were great! the icing was a great idea, which i found here, on sarah’s blog.)

Here are my little containers, all stuffed with cookies and ready to give as gifts at work! I loved these things – they are so festive, and cheap – only .99 at Michael’s.

So all in all, I think this year went well – I tried two new recipes I hadn’t tried before, and they turned out pretty decent. I think next year, I’ll try two more different ones. I think I’m going to keep the mini chip snowball and the oatmeal toffee as my traditional cookies, and then try two new recipes.

If anyone would like the recipes for the cookies above, just let me know!

Merry Christmas:)

Ohhhh, Christmas…

so, for the past two years, i have not been the biggest fan of christmas. not one bit. but this year, im turning over a new leaf, and am choosing to positively embrace the holiday season. this new attitude could be credited to the fact that i’ve already decorated our house and am about 75% finished my christmas shopping. but no matter what the reason, i realize that i do appreciate Christmas for the religious meaning it has for me, and that negativity towards the commercialization of the holiday really doesn’t make it go away. so here’s to Christmas – may it be joyful, peaceful, and of course, tasty:)

speaking of tasty, i am currently planning my christmas cookie menu. i gave out christmas cookie assortments as gifts last year to my coworkers, and they were a big hit. i have so many recipes i want to bake, however, and i’m having trouble narrowing it down.

meanwhile, i’ll try to post my favorite ones as i bake them – be patient with me, as my camera still is crappy, and i was using my boyfriend’s which is a nice one, but then i went ahead and lost it (whoops).
maybe i’ll get a new one for christmas! we’ll see…

ps – if you have any favorite christmas cookie recipes, let me know! i’d love to try them this year.

Recipe #10: Biscotti

Basic Biscotti
(from the Cookie Bible)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

So, this is the recipe that makes up basic biscotti – then, you are free to add whatever you’d like. My first biscotti recipe used cinnamon chips and white chocolate glaze, which was very good. Then, I made chocolate chip hazelnut biscotti, which was also a favorite. This recipe below uses mini chocolate chips and chopped hazelnut. I then melted some Nutella with about 2 tablespoons of shortening to make a yummy glaze to go on top. I dipped some in the glaze and sprinkled with the leftover hazelnuts. Overall, this is a great biscotti recipe, and a perfect breakfast food or dessert. Enjoy!

Recipe #9: You Can Never Have Enough Pumpkin

I bought a spice cake mix to use for this recipe, but I had no luck finding those pumpkin spice hershey kisses. So, I instead found a quick and easy recipe for pumpkin spice cupcakes, iced with store bought cream cheese frosting; I made these for a coworker’s birthday, and they were super tasty. I definitely recommend them for an easy fall pumpkin dessert.

Quick and Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes
(Cooks Recipes)

1 (18.25-ounce) package spice cake mix
1 (15-ounce) can LIBBY’S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
3 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
1 (16-ounce) container prepared cream cheese or vanilla frosting

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Paper-line or grease 24 muffin cups.
2. Blend cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and water in large mixer bowl until moistened. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups, filling 3/4 full.
3. Bake for 18 to 23 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Spread cupcakes with frosting. Decorate with assorted sprinkles, if desired.

Makes 24 servings.

Recipe #7 and #8: It’s Pumpkin Season!

I love pumpkin. Love, love, love, LOVE pumpkin. It’s one of my favorites things about fall, and this year, I decided to experiment with as many pumpkin recipes as possible. I’ve only done three so far, but here are two that I made in the last two weeks.

The first is a pumpkin brownie – at the request of my boyfriend, I decided to find a good recipe for these, and found one for pumpkin cheesecake brownies. I made these with gluten free flour so my friend Lisa could enjoy them (and she did), but I personally didn’t think they tasted so great. So, I decided to find another recipe, and came across the one below. I thought they tasted much better, and everyone else who tried them seemed to enjoy them as well.

Pumpkin Brownie Bars
(from Cooks.com)

22 1/2 oz. pkg. Pillsbury family size deluxe fudge brownie mix
1/2 c. very hot water
1/2 c. oil
2 eggs

FILLING:

2/3 c. evaporated milk
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. cloves
16 oz. can pumpkin
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of 13 x 9 inch pan. In large bowl, combine brownie mix, water, oil, and eggs. Beat 50 strokes with spoon. In medium bowl, combine all filling ingredients; mix well. Fold 1 cup filling mixture into brownie base. Pour into prepared pan. Carefully pour remaining filling over batter in pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes or until center is firm to the touch. Cool completely. Cut into bars; store, covered, in refrigerator. Makes 36 bars.

This next recipe is by far, one of my all-time favorites, especially among fall recipes. What’s better than pumpkin bread? Pumpkin bread with chocolate chips. And this bread totally proves that – it’s so fabulously delicious. The key is to not underbake or overbake the bread (as with any bread); I did pretty well, but when I went to cut the middle, I realized it was a little underdone. So, just be careful about that. But I highly recommend you make this bread sometime – it’s definitely worth it!

Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Loaf Cake
(from Epicurious)

1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup canned pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup whole milk
3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (i used regular size)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 9×5x2 1/2-inch metal loaf pan. Sift first 5 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Gradually beat in sugar, then beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in pumpkin and vanilla. Beat dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture alternately with milk. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Transfer batter to prepared pan.Bake loaf cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack; cool completely. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Wrap in plastic; store at room temperature.)

For my next pumpkin recipe, I am on a quest to make these, but for the life of me, I can’t manage to find Pumpkin Spice Hershey Kisses anywhere! I’ve heard they are at Target, but I couldn’t find them – has anyone seen these anywhere?

Recipe #6: Clean Out the Cupboard Cake

About a week and a half ago, I became aware of the abundance of baking products in our house – this is largely because I buy extra ingredients that I am unaware we already have in the cupboards. We also have, from time to time, the random ingredient that was used for something else, but probably won’t be used again for sometime (ie: marshmallows).

So, I used a recipe I found in a Betty Crocker recipe keeper cookbook that my friend bought me for Christmas last year. I added a few of my own additions, in my quest to use up as many ingredients as possible, and it turned out pretty well. I definitely enjoyed the ability to be creative with this, but there are also some modifications I would make next time.

For example – instead of using chocolate fudge cake mix , I used devil’s food cake mix, since that’s what we had in the house. This made the cake a bit less moist, and even though the recipe is considered “bars” it was definitely more like a cake to me. Although it could have been eaten without a fork, it may have been a bit messy. Next time, I would probably try it with chocolate fudge instead.

I used almonds for my chopped nuts, and I didn’t use chocolate frosting. I did however use tons of marshmallows, which I then proceeded to top with leftover Nutella, peanut butter chips, and chocolate chips. With these additions, I think the chocolate icing might have been a bit much.

Here is the original recipe. To truly make it your own, scour your cupboards for all that extra stuff you’ve been looking to use for a long time, and get creative! I definitely enjoyed the combination of the Nutella and the peanut butter.

Rocky Road Bars
(Betty Crocker)

1    box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® chocolate fudge (i used devil’s food mix)
1/2    cup butter or margarine, melted
1/3    cup water
1/4    cup packed brown sugar
2    eggs
1    cup chopped nuts (i used almonds)
3    cups miniature marshmallows (i used a bit more than 3 cups)
1/3    cup Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy chocolate frosting (i omitted)

*I added: Nutella and peanut butter and chocolate chips to top the marshmallows.
1.    Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Grease or lightly spray 13×9-inch pan.
2.    In large bowl, stir together half of the dry cake mix, the melted butter, water, brown sugar and eggs until smooth. Stir in remaining cake mix and the nuts. Spread in pan. Bake 20 minutes (25 minutes for dark or nonstick pan); sprinkle with marshmallows.
3.    Bake 10 to 15 minutes longer (14 to 18 minutes for dark or nonstick pan) or until marshmallows are puffed and golden. In microwavable bowl, microwave frosting uncovered on High 15 seconds. Drizzle over bars. Cool completely, about 1 hour. For easier cutting, use plastic knife dipped in hot water. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store covered.

Before adding the rest of the toppings:

Taste Test #1: Fiber One Toaster Pastries

I had never seen these before, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found them at Target the other day. Could it be? A HEALTHY pop tart? I of course bought a box, and brought them with me to work. I was very excited to try them the next morning – and thankfully, they did not disappoint! The pastry itself is a little more grainy tasting than the white pastry of the original Kelloggs Pop Tart – this is because the pastries for Fiber One pastries are made with whole grain. I guess these would taste somewhat similar to whole grain Pop Tarts, which I have never tried. Anyway, other than the pastry itself tasting different, the rest of this lovely breakfast treat is delicious! The icing and the inside of the pastry all taste just like a regular brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tart. The upside is that you get more fiber, and we could all use more of that in our diets! This flavor was the only one they had at Target, but I hope they make other varieties as well; I’d love to try them all!

Here is the nutritional information breakdown, so you can see the comparison:

Kelloggs PopTarts
(serving size: 1 pastry)
Calories: 210
Calories from Fat: 72
Fat: 8g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 190mg
Carbs: 33g
Sugars: 13g
Dietary Fiber: 1g
Protein: 2g

Fiber One Toaster Pastry
(serving size: 1 pastry)
Calories: 190
Calories from Fat: 35
Fat: 4g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 140mg
Carbs: 36g
Sugars: 16g
Dietary Fiber: 5g
Protein: 5g

Recipe #5: No-Bake Goodness

This recipe contains many lovely aspects: chocolate, peanut butter, and no baking! I chose this recipe because it looked really good and really easy – and those are two characteristics for my kind of recipe.

They literally take less than 15 minutes to prepare, and you can vary them according to your preferences. For example, the recipe I found used a mixture of semisweet and milk choc chips. You could also add white chocolate if that’s your thing. At a suggestion from the original blogger from whom I took this recipe, I added peanut butter chips to the top of the chocolate before adding the rest of the oats. This was definitely a good idea.

Overall, I would highly recommend these if you’re looking for a simple and easy snack to whip up one day.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Oat Bars

(from Baking Blonde)

You can find the recipe here.

if you feel lost…

Shine Your Light on Us
Robbie Seay Band

Oh, my God
Shine Your light on us
That we might live
Oh, my God
Shine Your light on us
That we might live

I’ve been holding on
I’ve been holding on
All that is inside me
Screams to come back home

If you feel lost
If you feel lost
Sing along
If you feel tired
If you feel tired
Sing along
If you feel lost and tired
This is your song

I’ve been broken down
I’ve been broken down
I ain’t giving up
Love will come back around

Shine Your light
Shine it down
Let Your rescue come for us, we long to love