Easy Pumpkin Pie

Just in time for Thanksgiving! However, I definetly do not think pumpkin pie should only be researved for holidays! It's my very favorite pie, but somehow I got the impression that it would be really hard. Guess what... it isn't! In fact it's super easy!

(I got the recipe off of the Libby's pumpkin can)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

2 large eggs

1 can (15 oz.) Pure Pumpkin

1 can (12 fl. oz.) Evaporated Milk

1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell

Mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
Pour into pie shell.
Bake in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.

Dutchoven Peach Cobbler (a recipe that turned into a photo overload)

A few weekends ago, we went up to the mountain for the first overnighter of the summer! It was LONG overdue! Let me get something straight... we used to spend every weekend on Kolob mountain. I'm not exaturating. In fact, 4 days after I was released from the hospital, after an emergency c-section... guess where we ventured off to? You guessed it.

We love Kolob. If you can't tell.

But back to the subject...

After a long day of fishing

We sat down to an amazing dinner of pork chops, dutch oven potatoes and our favorite baked beans.

These guys are great cooks!

BUT.... thats not what this post was about either :)

It is about the cobbler. The hot, yummy, moist, sweet, peachy cobbler.

It was really that good. And super duper easy!

1 box Yellow Cake mix

2 cups Sprite (or any lemon lime soda)

2 big cans of canned peaches (you can drain the juice or not, if you do, your cobbler will be a little dryer)

1 stick cold margarine

Dump your peaches in the bottom of the dutch oven. Mix the sprite and cake mix together and pour on top of the peaches, spead it evenly. Dot the top with slices of butter.

Now the cooking part is a little forign to me still, the guys did that part.What they told me they did was placed the dutchoven on hot briquettes (about 15-20) and then added 12-15 briquettes to the lid. After 10 minutes the rotated the dutchoven about 1/3 turn and rearranged the top briquettes. Then cooked for another 20 minuted, checking often until cake was set.

Serve with ice cream, or whipped cream, or plain!

then have your husband do the clean up! Because he is sweet like that :)

Nothing hotter than a man doing the dishes! ;)

Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Mug!

I was CRAVING chocolate chip cookies last night! I mean, I needed one. But just one. I found this recipe and it was perfect! It was kind of more like a half baked cookie, but it tasted wonderful! This will definetly happen again!

Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Cup
created by Melissa at No. 2 Pencil

1 Tablespoon Butter (I used margarine)
1 Tablespoon Granulated White Sugar
1 Tablespoon of firmly packed Dark Brown Sugar
3 Drops of Vanilla Extract (or a lot more if you are clumsy like me!)
Small Pinch of Kosher Salt
1 Egg Yolk (discard the egg white) (or make an egg white omlet to justify having a cooking for dinner)
Scant 1/4 of All Purpose Flour
2 Tablespoons of Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips (I did't use that many)

Start by melting your butter in the microwave. Add sugars, vanilla and salt. Stir to combine. Separate your egg and add the yolk only to your cup. Stir to combine. Add flour, then stir again. Add the chocolate chips, and give a final stir. Cook in microwave 40-60 seconds, start checking for doneness at 40 seconds. Mine takes 50 (60) seconds.

Serve warm. With ice cream. :)

Raspberry Coconut Jello Cake

My sister in law introduced me to this cake when we were over there for Sunday dinner, and I fell in love! It is the perfect summertime dessert! She told me that it had been around for awhile, but I guess I missed the jello-cake-bandwagon! This cake can actually be made in any flavor combination, I made this one for my mom's birthday. You could do Lemon-Lime, Orange-Vanilla, Pineapple-Coconut... the options are really endless!

Raspberry Coconut Jello Cake

1 white cake mix (plus whatever it takes to make it)

1 tsp coconut extract

1 package raspberry jello

1 large container of cool whip

1 package coconut pudding mix

Prepare your cake mix according to package directions WITH the addition of the Coconut extract.

Bake cake and allow to cool completely.

Mix the jello with 2 cups of hot water (instead of 1 cup hot/1 cup cold like the box says) While the jello is still liquid, use a straw/skewer to poke holes all over the cake. And I mean ALL over. This would be a good kid job... or an angry momma. Pour the jello over the cake, concentrating on the holes. Refrigerate overnight or at least 4-5 hours.

A few hours before you plan to serve, mix together the cool whip and pudding mix. Frost the cold cake with that mixture. Refrigerate another 2-3 hours.

Slice and ENJOY!

Biscuit Doughnuts with Maple Glaze

Doughnuts are a weakness of mine! And these are so simple and yummy they should be illegal! We had them during the super bowl and my husband and I devoured them!

This is all you need...

1 can buttermilk biscuits

Vegtable Oil (enough to come up about 1/2 inch in your pan)

1 cup powdered sugar

2 TBS milk

Mapaline flavoring

Okay ready for this....

Cut out the center of the biscuit with a small cookie cutter.

Heat oil to med-high.

Fry the biscuits until golden.

Set on a paper towel to cool and drain.

Mix powdered sugar, milk and a few drops of the maple flavoring (optional).

Drizzle.

Easy enough right!?

(the doughnut holes will be a tad doughy... my hubby ate all those)

Pecan Pie

Pecan Pie

9inch Unbaked Pie crust

3 eggs

2/3 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup pecan halves and peices

Preheat oven to 375.

Beat eggs, sugar, salt, butter and corn syrup with beaters until well mixed. Stir in pecans. Pour into Pie Crust. Wrap edges with foil.

Bake 40-50 minutes until pie is only slightly jiggly in the center. Remove foil the last 15-20 min.

Allow to cool.

Cookie Dough Cheese Ball

Cookie Dough Cheese Ball

You need:

8 Oz pkg- Cream Cheese Softened

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/4 t. vanilla extract

1/2 c. powdered sugar

3 T. brown sugar, packed

1 c. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c. pecans, finely chopped

Cookies of any kind, graham crackers, vanilla wafers.

Blend the first 3 ingredients until creamy, add powdered sugar and brown sugar, blending well. Fold in chocolate chips, cover and refrigerate 3 to 4 hours.

Shape dough into a ball; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. Roll in pecans before serving. Makes about 3 cups.

When serving, have some of your favorite cookies to dip in the cookie dough cheese ball. 

This is SOOO yummy, I  made it for a little jewlery party that I had at my house, and the ladies LOVED it!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Swiss Meringue White Chocolate Frosting...with fresh Raspberries.

A cake with a name like that has to be good. 
and it's even better...


Found the Original Recipe HERE.


I modified mine a little, to make it faster and easier. 


Cake:
-2 boxes of cake mix, one yellow cake and one lemon cake, just mix together in a big bowl.
-follow each recipe on the back of the box for eggs, water, and oil. 
-3 teaspoons of poppy seeds


mix and put into cake pans. I used 4 square 8x8 pans and filled them all half way. 
bake 2 at a time for 25 minutes. perfect, yummy, delicious smelling, cake is ready!
let it cool while you make this uber intense frosting....but it's totally worth it!




Swiss Meringue White Chocolate Frosting:

-5 Egg Whites

-1 cup Sugar

-Pinch of Salt

-2 cups (4 sticks) Unsalted Butter, Softened

-1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

-8 oz. Good Quality White Chocolate, chopped

**noticed that I split the recipe in half. and it was more than enough frosting to cover all the cakes.

While the cakes are cooling, make the swiss meringue buttercream frosting. 

Place the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water. Melt the chocolate until completely smooth.  Take the bowl off the heat and let sit on the counter until completely cooled. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg whites, sugar, and salt.  Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water.  Whisk constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture reaches about 150 degrees F.

Take the bowl and attach it your mixture, fitted with the whisk attachment.  Whisk the egg white mixture until it reaches room temperature and stiff peaks have formed, about 5-10 minutes.  At this point the mixture will be thickened and white.  With the mixer on low speed, add the butter, 2 tablespoon as a time.  Once all the butter is added, raise the speed to medium high and mix until the mixture starts to come together.  Remove the whisk attachment and replace with the beater attachment.  Beat until the buttercream comes together fully and is smooth.  This will take time, about 5 minutes.  So don’t worry if you think you did something wrong, it will come together and create a smooth and creamy buttercream.

Once finished, mix in the vanilla.  Gradually add in the melted and cooled white chocolate.  Be careful to not let it touch the sides of the bowl because you don’t want it to harden.  Beat until the frosting is smooth.  You can also color your buttercream at this point if desired.  If the buttercream is too soft, you can place it in the freezer for about 5 minutes to let it slightly harden.  Then beat the frosting again to smooth it out and get it to the right consistency. 

**I put mine in the freezer for 5 minutes and then whipped with a whisk to get it fluffier. 

Assembling the cakes. 

I layered 2 cakes on top of each other, putting a little frosting with whole raspberries in between each cake. You then cover the cake with frosting and top it off with fresh raspberries. 

IT'S AMAZING!

they don't look perfect or pretty, by any means. but we were to much in a hurry to eat them...they are soooo yummy!

Freezer Chocolate Chip Cookies

I really love homemade cookies, but I don't love the cleanup that comes after... and I REALLY don't love eating the whole batch in 2 days because they are sitting there! So I decided to try freezing the cookie dough, and it works! It was so nice to have fresh baked cookies without all the mess! I got the recipe here (my changes are in red) and then right after I rolled the cookies, instead of baking them, I placed them on a baking sheet (making sure they weren't touching) and stuck them in the freezer for a few hours until they were frozen solid. Then I tossed them all in a gallon ziploc and threw them in the freezer! When I was ready to bake them here's what I did...

With the oven OFF, arrange how ever many cookies you want on the cookie sheet and place in the cold oven. Turn the oven onto 400 degrees and set the timer for 10 minutes. The cookies will thaw while the oven preheats, and then watch them after the 10 min. is up. Mine took about 12-14 min one time, and then the next time they took about 16 min. So just watch them for the last few minutes. Let them cool, and enjoy the yummy cookies and your CLEAN kitchen! :)

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm (I use 6 tbs butter and 6 tbs vegetable shortening so that your cookies dont end up too flat)

1 cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk (I just used 2 eggs)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I didn't add that many)

Directions:

Adjust oven racks to upper and lower-middle positions.  Preheat oven 325°.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl; set aside.  With electric mixer, or by hand, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined.  Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low-speed just until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Roll a scant half-cup of dough into a ball.  Holding dough ball in fingertips of both hands, pull apart into two equal halves.  Rotate halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, place formed dough onto cookie sheet, leaving ample room between each ball.  Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy (approximately 11-14 minutes).  Do not overbake.

Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

 

Nectarine Shortcakes

I walked by the produce isle while I was grocery shopping the other day and I smelled FRUIT! Peaches, and nectarines, and all that other yumminess! So I picked up a few and made this little beauty for dessert last night! It was really fast and yummy!

Nectarine Shortcakes

Refrigerated biscuit, baked and cooled

Vanilla Ice Cream

1 nectarine, sliced

cinnamon

After you slice the nectarine, sprinkle with a pinch of cinnamon, stir to combine and allow to sit while you assemble the rest.

Split the biscuit in half and add a scoop of ice cream to the middle. Top with the nectarine slices and the other half of the biscuit.

ENJOY!!