Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cake

Oh yeah.

Chocolate!

Pumpkin!

Cake!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Bring it.

Fall is on the horizon and my tail is wagging. I love fall. I love the smells, the colors, the decorations, my Yankee Candle Boney Bunch collection, and most of all, the food. OMG the food.

This recipe doesn't start from a box. It's all from scratch which is what appealed to me because I really had no idea what to expect. As I was throwing everything together and getting big, fat whiffs, I was in heaven. There was children's laughter filling the air (then fighting, crying and pushing over toys), The Lion King was on, girl talk was in full force, and I was using my kitchenaid mixer. Things were perfect.

I put the mixture into the bundt pan and popped it in and waited the obligatory hour. When done, it slipped right out of the pan and was just glowing with deliciousness. I didn't have forever to wait for it to cool to put the powdered sugar on so I just put it on. I learned two things this day.

#1- It is really fun when you put the powdered sugar in a strainer and sprinkle it. It remind me of Flowers in the Attic :/

#2- If you put powdered sugar on a hot cake, it immediately turns nasty yellow. I suppose it would work in this instance because it's a fall cake and yellow is a fall color. So sure. I guess it's ok.

The verdict? Pretty darn good. There might have been a bit too much spice added but overall, the more I ate (and the more and more and more I ate), the better it tasted so...

MAKE THIS CAKE!!!

Mmmmmmm
http://chocolatechocolateandmore.com/2012/10/chocolate-pumpkin-spice-cake/

Cinnamon Bun Cheesecake

Sooooooooo, it's been a while. OOPS!!

School started and so it's back to only having time to cook and chill with the fam when I get home. Anything else is too much work. Yet I made time to update. So enjoy.

I decided to try another cheesecake recipe since my other experience was so tasty. I read the ingredient list but for some reason, SOME REASON, I didn't read the directions before I started. I for real have no idea why I continue to skip that step when I've learned it's important.

What did I learn WHILE making this? That I needed a springform pan. Did I have one? No. So I was forced to compromise and this is what happened...

Just a wee bit of an overflow.

Not a problem though! After cutting off (and eating) all the excess stuff hanging over. the cheesecake fell right out of the pan.

Now since I didn't have the correct pan and I had lots of batter, I guess I overdid the crust a little bit. That might be an understatement.

Look at the clump of cinnamon!! Yummy!!! So I mainly tasted bread but I can only imagine how amazing this would be with the correct proportions.

Unfortunately, I'm freaking tired and have no more energy to say anything else or elaborate at all about my experience with this recipe. Bye.
http://asweetbaker.com/cinnamon-bun-cheesecake/

(Give me a couple of weeks to get back into the swing of things!!)

Sour Cream Cinnamon Roll Pancakes With Maple Coffee Glaze

What a delicious sounding title!! I love...

Sour cream- check
Cinnamon- check
Pancakes- check
Maple syrup- check
Coffee- double check

Although the pictures show that this might be easy to make, I had an awful experience that I am going to show in a series of pictures. I am going to show what each step SHOULD have looked like, and what mine looked like. I will be telling my wonderful story along the way. I hope you halfway enjoy.

I mixed the ingredients for the pancake batter in my mixer. It was thick BUT...

"The pancake batter will be nice and thick, this is good."

If you say so! Here we go.

Her pancakes are all smooth and pretty on the griddle after the batter is dropped on. Mine were big clumps that didn't spread out because the batter was so thick, so I tried to flatten them and spread them out with my spatula but the batter just stuck to it. It was messy from the get go. Then it was time to pour the cinnamon mixture onto the pancakes. I got a little excited and I guess made the hole in the bag too big :)

Yikes!!

Totally not pretty. At all. I let them cook the amount they needed and then I flipped them and THAT was not pretty either. Let me show you...

I have no explanation as to how they got this way. They just exploded!! Husband told me to trim the excess off, so I did and that salvaged the look a little bit. Upon turning them over, I was expecting to see the semi descent cinnamon "clumps" (so much for swirls). Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. This is what I got...

Impressive

I was so sad that her pancakes looked a million times better than mine. I stood there and thought of ways that I could fix this for round 2.

1- Try a little bit smaller scoop of batter
2- Cut a much smaller hole in the cinnamon bag
3- Pray for a miracle

I will let you be the judge for round 2...

As you can see, I started giving up towards the end

Another fail

Sad day. My hopes for this recipe came crashing down into a huge ball of cinnamon fury. I told Husband that I might have to cook another breakfast Pinterest recipe. He said "Let's just try them." so I piled them on a plate, added the maple glaze and we dug in.

SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!

I may have butchered the way it was supposed to look but holy lord they tasted delicious!! After about 10 minutes, I got a pretty bad tummy ache though. I'm sure it was because of all the sugar. But it was worth it. The batter recipe is to die for so I will be making these again. Better luck next time.

Check it out for yourself...

http://www.number-2-pencil.com/2012/06/25/sour-cream-cinnamon-roll-pancakes-with/

Pumpkin Cupcakes With Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Alas!! The day came where I finally decided that I would put all my cooking experience to the test and create my own recipe.

Of course I chose a dessert. Who wouldn't.

I have baked A LOT of cupcakes, cakes and cookies over the years. I thought I had an idea of what it would take to create a cupcake of my own. I pulled some ingredients I knew would be necessary.

Without going into great detail, I'll just mention what I used

3 c. flour
1 package vanilla pudding mix (I had it, why not try it?)
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. cinnamon (oh yeah)
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

This mixture looked sufficient and smelled delicious so I was satisfied. On to the wet ingredients...

1 c. butter
3/4 c. honey (I decided to use this instead of sugar, read it was a great alternative)
1 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. pumpkin puree

I started with the wet ingredients in my handy dandy mixer (that I LOOOOOVE, thanks mom!). After mixing a while, the contents looked like puke. Much like the pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies I made. I slowly added the dry ingredients and the smell was just uuuuuuuh-mazing. The mixture looked to be the perfect consistency and I was getting extremely proud of myself. I poured the mixture into the cupcake pan and baked them at 350 for 25 minutes.

In the meantime, I made the frosting. I decided to go with cream cheese frosting.

4 oz. cream cheese
4 oz. butter
2 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. cinnamon (oh yeah)

The frosting was the bomb before it even went on the cupcakes. I would have eaten it all with a spoon.

NOW FOR THE VERDICT (dun, dun, dun...)

Not bad!!! The cupcakes had KIND OF a weird density, I can't really place why. The taste was 95% delicious, there was just a tiny bitter taste afterwards. Again, don't know why. But the frosting, oh muh guw, sooooo good.

I plan on making these again but I am going to change a few things. I am going to add 1 more c. of flour, 1/2 tbsp. less of cinnamon (dang), only do 1/2 c. honey and add 1/4 c. sugar.

Hopefully that will get me the perfect cupcake but I have no clue if it really will. If you have any suggestions, please share them!

Chicken Taco Casserole

I made this soooooooo long ago so I don't know why it's taken me so long to get around to blogging about it.

I really don't remember if I screwed anything up with this one. Yet I do remember that it was very good and is a keeper in my recipe book.

So I do recommend this if you are in a mexican food kind of mood!

http://www.bhg.com/recipe/chicken-taco-casserole/

Cheesy Potato Gratin

Let me start with something that really chapped my hiney with this recipe...

I spent $10 on the fancy cheese!! $10 on cheese alone. I'm thinking "this better be the best freaking potato recipe in the history of potato recipe making." At the same time, I thought that since this is a Williams Sonoma recipe, then of COURSE it's going to be good.

Shall I start at the beginning?

So I was following directions (for a change) and was doing just fine. I got the butter in, the shallot, flour, chicken stock, cream and now it was time for the cheese.

Expensive cheese #1- Gruyere, imported from Italy (ooooooooooooh)

I started grating it with my awesome saladmaster grater and as I was going along, I grabbed a chunk to throw in my mouth, out of habit. You know in the movies when the wife is all cute in her apron, dancing, looking all suave while cooking dinner and putting this and that in her mouth? I was going for that effect (minus the apron, dancing and looking suave). Regardless, I popped some cheese in my mouth and immediately paused where I was.

What      


the      


crap    


 is      


that        


taste?!??!

I literally tasted the smell of dirty feet. I pulled the cheese out of my mouth, swished the taste around and again and confirmed that this cheese tasted like smelly feet. I took a big whiff and about gagged at the rancidity of the smell. This was supposed to be FANCY cheese?! Gag. But I continued, just without any more taste tests.

I continued following directions and then added the second fancy cheese, which wasn't as rancid as the first, but wasn't amazing. I had a nightmare experience with this cheese before so I bought pre-shredded.

Which really makes me question, if this cheese is not that great, WHY is it so expensive?

ANYWAY, the potatoes got cooked according to the directions. And you know the verdict? Not that fancy. Husband said "I don't see what the big deal is" and I agreed. They tasted like potatoes. Totally not worth $10 worth of cheese.

Especially not worth the shock of putting dirty feet in my mouth. Not at all.

Ew
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/cheesy-potato-gratin.html

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Husband had been demanding some kind of mexican casserole for a while so I caved and decided to make this one.

A quote from this chef: "Sometimes the dinners I make aren't really pretty but taste really good."

Also: "It's not the prettiest dinner you'll ever eat, but it sure it tasty."

Two ways of saying something that is so true. This dinner was very tasty but as soon as I dipped the spatula in to get a piece, everything just disintegrated into a pile of mush. So we had very good mush for dinner.

Normally, I don't like cooked avocados but they added a nice flavor kick. Would I recommend this one? YOU BET!!

http://www.iwashyoudry.com/2012/08/01/chicken-enchilada-casserole-recipe/

Taking Suggestions

Are there any Pinterest recipes you would like me to try out for you so you don't have to do the dirty work?

If you want me to do a test run, just comment with the link to the recipe!! This could be fun :)

Sweet & Spicy Grilled Chicken Wings

This was a yummy spin on one of our favorite dinners!!

Here is what I use for my chicken wings:
-salt
-pepper
-chili powder

For the sauce, I use:
-butter
-lime juice
-Frank's red hot original hot sauce

I spread them out on a big pizza sheet, sprinkle one side with the dry mixture, turn them over and do the other side. Then I bake them at 400 for about 20 minutes. After they are done baking, I put the liquids in a skillet and toss the wings until they're nice and crisp, usually about 10-15 minutes.

This recipe says to put the wings on a grill and baste but I did it my way and they turned out just fine and very flavorful. While cooking, the vinegar smell was quite intense but the taste was so delicious! Husband devoured them.

Super easy and super worth a shot.

Try 'em
http://shewearsmanyhats.com/2012/05/sweet-and-spicy-chicken-wings/

Mexican Tilapia

The day had come for me to do my grocery shopping. I slacked off all day and got to the store around 4:00 and it was so busy that I walked right back out. So nothing for dinner.

We had tilapia in the freezer. Husband said "NOT AGAIN!! WE HAD TILAPIA TWICE THIS WEEK!!" and I looked at him and said "Uhhhhhhhhh, do YOU want to cook dinner?"

Tilapia it was. He said he wanted to eat the mexican rice with it. Really honey? Mexican rice and tilapia?! So I got on Pinterest and typed in "mexican tilapia", laughing the whole time because that combination seemed to be non existent. A ton of recipes popped up. Oh.

I looked at the picture for this recipe and thought "I have that! I also have that! OOOh, and that too!! I can make this honey, I have everything we need!!" so we got really excited and I started pulling everything out.

I started with the tilapia, got it out.

The the salt, pepper, butter, lime juice, garlic, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and then red onion. Oh wait. I don't have a red onion. I have a white onion! That will work!

Then I went for the corn. Oops! Sorry honey, don't have corn!!

Then I went for the green onions. Crap honey, I don't have those either.

It was time for the cilantro. Chirp, chirp, chirp...

HEY!! I HAVE FOIL!!

Now, I was in a hurry so I didn't REALLY  read the directions. The big part I missed was to only have three chipotle peppers and more importantly, to have them seeded. I just threw what was in the can into the food processor and off I went.

I only realized the extend of my mistake when I took the first bite of the dinner I thought I had everything for. You know that scene in Jurassic Park when Lexi has the green jello on her spoon and she just stared straight ahead and started shaking? That was me. Intense.

Despite the epic fail, it was really good, even without all the ingredients so I'm sure that with ALL the ingredients it would be ten times better. I totally recommend this only I strongly recommend you seed the peppers.

Add it!
http://cookininheels.blogspot.com/2013/01/mexican-baked-tilapia.html

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

I'm back on the cooking wagon. I fell off there for a little bit but now I'm back with a barrage of recipes to share. I'll start with this tasty sounding treat.

AS USUAL, I was excited to get with this recipe because it involved cookies. We were craving something sweet so I knew it was time.

I started with #1 on the directions. With my kitchenaid mixer, stuff like this is just more fun. I put the butter in, whipped it a bit, added this ingredient, that ingredient and step #1 was finished.

By this point, the batter looked suspiciously like vomit. Ew. On to step #2...

I whisked the dry ingredients together and made a mess trying to get it into the mixing bowl without having to turn it off to prevent my hand from being yanked off. That was a fun clean up so probably only 3/4 of that mixture made it into the bowl. On to step #3...

WHAT?!?! CHILL FOR AN HOUR?!?! Dang. Not reading everything in advance seriously comes around to bite me in the butt way too much. So I waited...and waited...and waited...boring. Lost the thrill of baking these cookies.

1 hour later...

I started following directions for step #4 and step #5. Fairly simple but so important. Last sentence for step #5..."Use a glass with a nice, flat bottom to dip in sugar and flatten the balls." Excuse me lady, I've baked enough cookies to know that I don't need to flatten S---! Cookies always spread out. Derr.

Oh. Or not.

I had cake balls everybody!! Guess I should have followed directions. These balls were very cakey, less cookie and didn't have as much flavor as you would think. You know how I know that? I ate about 5 of them.

In the meantime, it's pushing 8:30 at night I realized I hadn't worked out yet. You see, I'm doing the Insanity workout program and it really, really sucks. But you know what doesn't suck? The results. So after letting these sit for a bit, I went and put my workout clothes on and rolled the balls for batch 2. I got my flat bottomed glass and mooshed the cookies down. I put them in the oven and started working out. When the time went off, I paused (was grateful for the break) and took the cookies out.

Even though I mashed them, they still came out super thick and cakey. You know how I know that? I ate about 5 of them.

On to batch 3!!! I rolled the balls and took that glass and smashed those stupid balls to within an inch of their life. These stupid cookies were getting the best of me. In the oven and back to the workout.

Too thin and crunchy. For real. You know how I know that? I ate about 5 of them. So much for working out.

http://www.recipegirl.com/2007/11/05/pumpkin-snickerdoodles/

And another...

Another classroom Pinterest post.

Pinterest Classroom Post

I haven't made any new recipes this past week but I will get on that with my grocery list for this week! Yippee!

I do have a Pinterest inspired post on my other blog. I made a new bulletin board for my classroom with an idea I got on Pinterest.

Check it out!

Creamy Chicken Piccata

I am so tired right now I almost have no energy to type words. We attempted to switch baby to a toddler bed and it hasn't gone so well. I got roughly 3 hours of sleep last night and about 4 the night before. This is making his chances of being an only child really really good.


So I don't even remember when I made this. It's on my "Tried it, keeper" board on Pinterest so apparently it was good. That's all I've got.

Mine looks like crap.

It's a pioneer woman recipe.
http://www.plainchicken.com/2010/08/creamy-grilled-chicken-piccata.html

Whew!

I'm back! Had to take a little hiatus to travel for the birth of my newest nephew :) I'm up to 6 nephews and 1 niece. Busy little family we have...

Cucumber Salad

I love cucumbers dipped in ranch!! They are so good, especially when you pile pepper on them before dipping.

This picture drew me in because it looked super juicy and flavorful and like you could just eat this salad by the handful.

I made the salad with exact ingredient amounts that it said. As I was mixing, it didn't seem to be that much.

Upon mixing everything together, I took my first taste. It tasted like cucumbers with a hint of something else. A very SMALL hint. It looked and tasted nothing like the picture.

Upon closer examination, I realized the picture had ranch in it and there was no ranch in the recipe. So I guess the ranch helped add to the juicy look. And I fell for it. Completely disappointed with this one. I didn't go back and add ranch. That might have made a difference.

Deceived. Once again.

Booooo!!
http://kelsies-kitchen.blogspot.com/2009/07/cucumber-salad.html

Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies

I attempted the impossible today! Yep, I attempted these pinwheel Dr. Suess cookies and they were impossible.

Literally.

Impossible.

Let me start with the best part. Baby was napping so Husband decided to help out (all he really did was lick the bowl but it was fun anyway).

The directions were very clear, very easy to understand and read.

Step 1- mix the ingredients according to the package. So I did.

Step 2- divide the batter into 5 different bowls and add the food coloring. So I did. Have you read that article about food coloring being cancerous?? I never want to eat anything in America again. Read the article here.

Step 3- roll each color dough into grape size balls.

Or not.

This is where I encounter problem #1. As you can see, rolling isn't happening. There were no directions about chilling the dough (which would have made sense) or slathering my hands in butter so it wouldn't stick. Nope. Just good old fashioned rolling. BUT....I rolled with it and added my other colors.

Step 4? 5?- Roll the ball between your hand and the counter until you have a cylinder about 12" long.

Nailed it!

I was then supposed to roll that cylinder of dough into a coil. Um, impossible. Quite literally impossible. BUT...I kept on.

I made the cookie, and I dipped the edge in the sprinkles, exactly like the recipe said to do. Verbatim.

Yep. Followed directions.

I sure did plop that thing on the cookie sheet. As distraught as I was that my pinwheels were very obviously not going to happen, I wasn't going to let the cookie dough go to waste. So Husband gave me the great idea of just joining all the colors together again and having multicolored cookies. At least they would be pretty. So I did.

Upon getting the cookie on the cookie sheet, I figured that since I already dipped cookie dough in the sprinkles that I should use them ALL. I looked Husband straight in the face, paused, and uttered my final cookie words.

"YOLO."

He said that was dumb.

Those stupid little things are all over my kitchen. Bad call on my part.

Unfortunately, the sprinkles didn't stay as condensed as I would have liked when they were done. And the cookies looked half horrible.

Soooooooooo would I recommend you make these? No. But in the comment section of this link, there are people that are all like "Oh! Mine turned out great!". Whatever.

Oh well!
http://www.soudersstudios.com/recipes/rainbow-pinwheel-cookies.php

Father's Day

I got creative this year and made coupons for Husband for Father's Day. He is unfortunately using the crap out of them. He used three yesterday alone.

Genius, huh?

Cinnamon Zucchini Bread

I am famous for two things:

1. My pumpkin cinnamon chocolate chip cookies

2. My cinnamon zucchini bread

I do not give out the recipe for my cookies because I can almost guarantee I am the only person in Texas with this recipe considering I got it from an old friend from California's mom. Every time I make these for an event, I get assaulted for the recipe so therefore, I am famous for the cookies.

But my zucchini bread, I am willing to share this recipe because it's just that good. I get asked for this recipe a LOT so I will share with everyone and now YOU will be the one that's popular. You'll be "the bread lady".

So enjoy and you're welcome :)

Ingredients:
3 cups shredded zucchini
1 2/3 c. sugar
2/3 c. vegetable oil (you can use canola if you want)
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon (now if you're a cinnamon freak like me, use 3)
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Topping:
3 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. butter

Spray 2 8x4 pans. In bowl, mix zucchini, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs. Add remaining bread ingredients. Divide batter evenly.

Mix topping and spread over loaves.

Cook for 50-60 minutes at 350.

Here is what I've learned over the years. Spray the pans GOOD so the bread doesn't break up when you turn it over to get it out. Also, for the topping, make sure you do NOT melt the butter to make the topping. It can be kind of hard to spread on the loaves but if you melt it, the top of the bread will come out soggy instead of crispy. And trust me, that cinnamon crunch on the top is to die for.

Chicken & Asparagus Stir Fry

I could very easily make a pro/con list for this recipe.

Pro:
- I was able to use leftover rice from the nasty Santa Fe Chicken recipe.

Cons:
- Everything else.

This was an absolute warfare attack on my taste buds. I guess I could equate it to bird poop landing in your mouth. This was SO SO SO nasty that I took about 3 bites and starved to death that night. I love Husband because he will eat anything I cook, just because I cooked it. But he struggled with this one. He deserves a fist bump and a beer.

My first problem is the so called marinade. 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of honey to marinate TWO chicken breasts? Please.

And the scallions? I get shallots, scallions and scallops confused. You probably do too. So instead of scallions, I accidentally used shallots. I'm sure it would have been extra nasty had I used scallops. But I REALLY don't think that was the problem!! Plus I would prefer that the entire world just use the words "chives" instead of green onions/scallions. Perhaps it's a Texas thing.

So I think the big, huge, GIGANTIC turn off was the sesame oil. I mean, holy crap. It was awful.

There, you have my review of this recipe. I hope you weren't super excited to try this one because I know that I totally just burst your bubble.

I DARE you to try this and tell me you liked it!!
http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/chicken-and-asparagus-stir-fry/