Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Prepare yourself...

Fall is honestly my favorite season. It's the time of the year where it is getting chilly outside, we get to watch or play football on Saturdays, Halloween costumes get picked out, scarves illuminate our wardrobes, time to  ponder on all of our blessings and amazing family and friends, Salted Caramel Mocha Caps or Fraps arrive at Starbucks, Oktoberfest beers show up in the grocery store, warm ciders need to be consumed, thus pumpkin crumble bars need to enter your life!! 

This is by far my favorite, favorite, FAVORITE thing of Fall. It's simply the best dessert too.

First you start with a box of yellow or butter cake mix and take out two cups and crumble it with 3 TB chilled butter



Then place this mixture into the bottom of a 9X13 pan. Preheat oven to 350 too!



This dessert really is the spice of my life....so go ahead....add 'em to a bowl



I will copy the link below so you will have all the measurements and be able to bake this tonight ;)


Also add a can of pumpkin, condensed sweetened milk, and 2 eggs to the bowl of spices




Stir away!!!

Pour on top of cake mix and butter in pan



Best part ahead.... pour the rest of the cake mix on top of the pumpkin mixture. On top of this you melt 7-8TB or more and pour it OVER the cake mix. Sprinkle pecans and cinnamon. This really is magical.



Put in the oven and wait anxiously. It will be the longest 40 minutes ever!!

Out comes heaven!


Yes, you are correct... I did eat some before I could take picture of freshly baked product but you will understand me when you make this! Promise!

Here's the recipe:


Enjoy! 



Thursday, October 6, 2011

Meet the NEWEST addition to the Scott Family!

Meet our new child, Bristol  :)


She has been such a sweet, sweet, sweeeeeeet, precious baby.

Zoe loves her too :)


Monday, October 3, 2011

Sunday Funday!

I had a really fun Sunday lately where I just decided to go a little bizerk and cook a buttermilk frenzy!!

Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake.



As this blogger indicates throw some flour on the blueberries! They don't look too hurt by this...

I added some lemon juice and used this AWESOME juicer from Williams Sonoma that we recieved as a wedding gift....so easy it makes you want to juice everything!!



Simplicity at it's best!

Next cream the butter and sugar.



Really... you think this would be my pitfall here in completing the recipe as any butter and sugar combo top notch.

Once you mix all the ingredients defined in the recipe place in a dish for the baking. 


I did add something extra special on top...sugar. = )

Final Product:



Oh   D-E-L-I-S-H.



So beautiful I might shed a tear! ; )




 

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

It's getting hot in herre'

I found my old CDs from high school and have been somewhat on a Nelly kick. I love the memories it brings back of all the fun we had "back in the day"

Seasons are about to change (THANK you God!!) I love Summer....but I don't know if I really love Summer in the South due to the pyscho humidity. It's just hard to even walk outside...and the hair part... I seriously might as well have put my hair in a pony-tail every day instead of looking like afroman.

Summer's heat did bring me some beautiful jalapenos that I actually grew in my backyard!! I decided it was time to pick a few and make something hot and spicy... homemade hot and spicy ranch? Perfect addition to pretty much anything. I promise. Try it. Anytime. Always a charm.



Since this was my first time to grow them and as you can notice I don't have a green thumb (literally), they were a bit smaller than the ones you get in the grocery. However they were just as delicious and more fresh of course  : )



Here is a picture of a nifty tool I got from one of my high school friends, Mimi Duffee. Instead of having to prep yourself before removing the seeds of a pepper, you can just simply use this tool to remove the seeds and membrane. WOW. Yes, really.

Pepper Corer

Ahhh the memories...again. I remember having to "get ready for bed" so I wouldn't have to touch my eyes or face and then if I was lucky enough to have a pair of gloves around to wear while touching jalapenos....kinda embarressing story but one time I cut up a jalapeno to put in my egg and SOMEHOW touched my eye..... well I looked like a pirate the rest of the night and ate with just one eye open : /

As much as I am a fan of spicy and sweets...I've tried jalapeno chocolate before and I think it's just best to keep them separate....as in bacon wrapped jalapenos!!! Try this recipe below and you'll have enough heat to last you through Winter!!

Recipe: Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies

(Pioneer Woman's recipe)

 |   |   | 

Ingredients

  • 20 whole Fresh Jalapenos, 2-3 Inches In Size
  • 2 cubes Cream Cheese, softened
  • 1 pound Thin(regular) Bacon, Sliced Into Thirds

Preparation Instructions

If you have them, slip on some latex gloves for the pepper prep or just buy a jalapeno corer and this will be much more fun ;) ... Cut jalapenos in half, length-wise. With a spoon, remove the seeds and white membrane (the source of the heat; leave a little if you like things HOT). Smear softened cream cheese into each jalapeno half. Wrap jalapeno with bacon pieces (1/3 slice). Secure by sticking toothpick through the middle.
Bake on a pan with a rack in a 375-degree oven for 20-25 minutes. You don’t want the bacon to shrink so much it starts to the squeeze the jalapeno. If, after 20 minutes, the bacon doesn’t look brown enough, just turn on the broiler for a couple of minutes to finish it off. These are best when the jalapeno still has a bit of bite to it.
Serve immediately

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Warning! Warning!

Alright, I'm warning you beforehand....but I just finished making chocolate cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting last night....which means this post is coming up so if you don't want to become hypnotized into going into a chocolate overdose coma then you'll need to skip this post!!

Don't worry....I even added more chocolate chips than the recipe called for too

Ok first, here is the picture of this divine recipe (Sorry for the lack of picture quality...I use my iphone)




What's a great combination with chocolate?? CHERRY! So what did I sip on while baking away? Kasteel Rouge (cherry beer)




I realize it's kinda weird for a beer to be in a champagne glass but Todd and I have millions of glasses that we all love so I like to have fun and use random glasses for my brews

This was a very VERY odd recipe. The batter was extremely liquidy (even after I added the chocolate chips) and I was scared they wouldn't turn out right.

TA-DA.



Wait....wait.....



Wait for it......
LEGEND....DARY (for those of you who watch "How I Met Your Mother")
*side bar* So happy all the shows are about to start back up!




Pictures and writing do not do this cupcake justice!! It really is phenomenal. Trust me. Delicious. One of the Best. Chocolate.Chocolate. and Chocolate. Feeling hypnotized yet? Seriously, go try this now. 




Sunday, September 4, 2011

Yahoo- one month!

Ok, if you can't tell I'm being facetious in the title of this post.... wow, can't believe I haven't updated this blog in a month!! Isn't the point of a blog to actually post items? Ok, now that my sarcasm is out, I'll try to update what I can in the past month!!

The birthdays continued in August!! We celebrated the love of my life, Todd's 29th birthday on August 15th. On his birthday weekend, we went white water rafting and zip lining where Todd got to act like a kid again since this is his LAST twentieth birthday!! (BIG 3-0 next year). We also had my family over to celebrate where I made Todd's famous birthday burger.... I say "famous" because he requests it all the time but I really only make it once year. I think the burger is overall pretty normal but I do stuff the inside with gorgonzola cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. I made Todd a chocolate chip cookie cake with peanut butter frosting.... YES. once again. chocolate chips. cookie. and peanut butter FROSTING. Well....no pics because it was all gone by the time I finished. literally. However I do have a picture from the weekend before where we celebrated Todd, Charles and Aimee's birthday by tubing down a river!! = )



Next birthday up, Emma, David, and Ethan. My precious, beautiful, sweet sister's children.



Emma had an "under the sea" party and recieved loads of gifts and had an amazing cake my sis made. It was in the shape of a fish!!!


Of course my sis gave Emma such a wonderful party!!






Such a great party!! Todd and I gave her a guitar (and cinderella doll).... I think she's already a pro = )



David and Ethan's party was this past weekend and I dont' have any pictures of it yet but it's so good to see them any chance I get. It's been such a whirlwind since last year and our family couldn't be more happier that God has blessed us all to have them with happy and healthy!


Well I think I've covered the August birthday celebrations... hopefully next time will be soon and it will be another delightful SWEET. Even though birthdays contain lots of cake...I can't go too long without having sweet withdrawls ; )

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Birthday Cakes Fiasco!!

I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to post but birthday season came up (pun intended to wedding season)

July 27th is an infamous day because three VERY important people were all born on this day. Family and Friends. The first lovely lady is my sweet mother. She is seriously one of the sweetest ladies and has been such an amazing mom for myself and my sister. The second precious gal is one of my best friends from childhood, Leslie. She is honestly one of the most caring ladies I know and I am extremely grateful to have in my life. The third adorable girl is also one of my best friends from college, Aimee. This girl and I refer to each other as Soul and I cannot explain the authenticity of this true friendship and I love her to death. I really love all these beautiful women to death truthfully though.

Ok, so since all of these people are so important in my life, I went a little overboard on the birthday treats...

First stop...didn't even make it to the recipients!! I mean, the recipe said it would make 24 cupcakes and I promise it wasn't even close (I think... I hope...)

I originally made the Birthday Cupcake from the dreamcakes cookbook.

Step 1. Make delicious butter cake batter


Step 2. Step up the game and add chocolate chips
(I'm sure butter cake is fine by itself but adding chocolate chips can never hurt anything!)


 Step 3. Use a cookie or ice cream scoop to keep the happiness level up
(Cupcakes do equal happiness but using a regular spoon to move the batter to a pan can painfully decrease the level of happiness)



Step 4. Time to bake the cake!



Step 5. Cool the cake but keep the momentum going by making fudgy chocolate frosting



YES. This is the GOOD STUFF. No lie. Serious. Try to put this on the cupcakes ASAP before you eat it ALL.

And....ta-da........





Give them away NOW. Don't make the same mistake Todd and I did!!

Ok, now back to actually making a cake and giving it to one of the birthday ladies.

Blackberry cake.
Yum.

Ok, at this point I was in a rush since I inadvertantly didn't have enough "birthday cupcakes" for my mom's dinner so I have only the final product.




Yum. Yum. Yum. YUM.

Simple butter cake and blackberry frosting.



I think some people are kinda happy about the cake..



Happy Birthday Mom!!!!!

Once again, all the cake was gone and my real job got in the way of baking another one for Leslie's birthday dinner. BUT I do think the company was of course the best subsitute for any dessert!! :)


Happy Birthday Les!!!

We're visiting Aimee this weekend so I will be sure to add a picture of this birthday girl too = )