Pumpkin! Pumpkin! Pumpkin!

Every year, around the middle of August, I start longing for Fall. I honestly try not to rush the summer away, but it never fails.

Last week - yes in August - I pulled out all my Fall decorations and baked some pumpkin pie cupcakes!! They were delish! You can find the recipe here.

I have a Pinterest board dedicated to pumpkin recipes, and since it's September, I won't feel so bad about my pumpkin madness which starts NOW!

Make Cake

I decided to make myself a late birthday cake. Carrot cake. I'm really not a cake person, but if I do have cake, my favorite right now is carrot cake. I've gone on a Pinterest spree of pinning cake recipes, so I could find a new favorite. I'm thinking a chocolate/peanut butter cake would be good. Only problem, Fonzy and the boys do not like chocolate or peanut butter cake! So I'd have a whole cake to eat. Not good!

Apple Pie and Faded Memories

Apple pies are my favorite.

The smell while baking is heavenly. And the smell....that sweet, apple, cinnamon smell took me back in time. To a yellow house on Marsden St, to a small kitchen, with an open window looking out into a backyard of plum trees, lilac bushes, a chestnut tree and a clothes line filled with freshly washed clothes.

I see my Mom, standing in that kitchen with a piece of apple pie, a slice of cheese melted on top, and a cup of ever present black coffee.

A faded memory, so clear while smelling my own apple pie. Sometimes I want to go back. Back to the time when she wasn't sick, battling cancer. To the time she was young, enjoying life, being Mommy. 31 was too young to die.

Funny how the smell of my own apple pie, bought Mommy back for a moment.....bought me back to her....standing in that kitchen at 75 Marsden. St, smiling and eating apple pie.

Cookies!

Cookies!

I'm not really a cookie person, but the past few weeks cookies have been my go to baking item. Sugar cookies and peanut butter cookies have been made more than once. The Texas Longhorn cookies I made this past weekend, and they were not easy to make! Cutting the cookies out, the horn would break off. I had to redo almost all the cookies. Once baked they looked great. Just took a little extra patience. And if anyone knows me, I'm kind of short on patience. I tried to get the perfect burnt orange but as you can see - or not see - since I didn't post any frosted cookies, I really wasn't successful. And trying to frost them, made me realize I am not a cookie decorator. The ones not frosted looked so much prettier. Simple is better, right?

Want to make your own cookies? Here's the recipes I used.

Cut-out Cookies - taste great without icing!
Sugar Cookies - best and simple sugar cookie recipe EVER!
Peanut Butter Cookies - Nancy Fuller of Farmhouse Rules is a new favorite of mine on Food Network. One change - don't bake for 18mins. Might be a misprint. I baked mine for about 8 - 9 mins. I would check as baking as each oven is different.

Bourbon Peach Cobbler

At the grocery store the other day Fonzy mentioned getting a peach pie. He went off to search for one, and came back empty handed. I took that as a sign that I needed to bake one.

I've never made peach cobbler, but a co-worker recommended this recipe Bourbon Peach Cobbler and I followed it exactly. The cobbler was yummy, warm with French Vanilla ice cream. The only change I would make is to add more peaches. 8 peaches was not nearly enough.

I enjoyed making this and would definitely make again.

My love/hate relationship with cooking continues.

Weekending

This weekend:
~ Blueberry and strawberry pancakes
~ Cute puppies
~ Easy crockpot dinner so we can hang out at the pool
~ Pool play and knitting
~ Movie in the park - Despicable Me 2
~ And trying a new recipe - Bourbon Peach Cobbler. It came out really good.

I wish weekends lasted longer. There's only so much you can squeeze into 2 days.

Cupcake affair.

I've been having a thing for cupcakes lately. Not really sure why, but I've been making them a lot lately. We are having another bake sale at my office, so I made butter pecan and carrot cake cupcakes. My favorites were the carrot cake. Yum Yum!

I felt like baking a pie today.

I need a new apple pie recipe. This one is simple, and I want something more. This one looks delish!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

I've never been big on cupcakes, but the past year or so I've been loving them. I've been trying out different recipes or just making them out the box. Tonight's cupcakes are out the box, but they tasted so good! Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Would definitely make again! On the search for a unique cupcake to make for our 2nd annual Valentines Bake Sale at the office. Last year I made French toast & bacon cupcakes w/maple butter cream frosting. They were a big hit and people keep asking me to make them again. Not sure I can top those!

Bread, Puppy Paws, and What to Knit

 I'm sitting here at the dinning table stuffed mostly on bread. Today's loaf, rosemary and olive oil. It was very tasty and with only crumbs on the cutting board, I guess everyone else agreed.

I had to post these pictures of Azul. Whenever he is sleepy, he wants co cuddle up next to Fonzy and sleep. He will get in that corner of the couch and snore away. I was just reminded of the picture of Titus and I like that when he was puppy. Awwww...he grew so fast. He wasn't a puppy for long.

Maybe all the bread making was due to not knitting anything right now. I can't decide what I want to knit. I thought maybe I wanted to knit a doll, but couldn't decide on which one. It's been chilly here this past week, so I was thinking mittens, but I searched and didn't find anything that said knit me. Another hat, cowl, maybe work on one of the two blankets I have in progress. I can't decide, but I will have something on the needles tonight. I'm going into withdrawals since I haven't knit in a few days.

I Baked Bread! Artisan Bread!

I baked bread!

And it's so pretty and good!

When I saw this post , I knew I wanted to try this bread. It only has 4 ingredients! So I got myself a dutch oven, made the dough last night - took all of five minutes and let it rise overnight. When it came time to cook dinner today, I followed the instructions in the blog post and into the oven my bread went with hopeful anticipation. After a short while, I could smell the baking bread. I wanted to take a peek, but held off for the 30 mins. When the timer went off and I lifted the lid, I got a huge smile on my face and started doing the happy dance, singing, "I baked bread, I baked bread"  It was so easy! So easy I'm mixing up another batch tonight, but this loaf will have rosemary and olive oil in it. I have a few other ideas too.

lemon and rosemary
cranberry, orange and almond
cinnamon, raisin and walnuts
garlic and cheese

So many different breads to try!

I've mentioned several times that I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. This is one of the times I loved it. I love trying new recipes and the recipe actually coming out the way it should! Experiences like this make me want to find other new recipes to try!

Dutch Oven Cooking

I've been wanting a dutch oven for a while now, but couldn't bring myself to shell out over $200 for a Le Creuset Dutch oven. I loved all the pretty colors, but paying that much just wasn't happening.

Then I found Lodge. I read all the reviews, found blog posts of people who compared Le Crueset to Lodge, and guess what. The Lodge performed just as well as the Le Crueset, and I got my 5 quart oven for $38 and some change at Walmart! You read that right! $38. As much as I hate Walmart, I was happy to get this. It's not as pretty as all the bright colorful dutch ovens, but I'm sure it will perform just as well. Lodge does have the pretty colors though, you will just pay a bit more for it. If you are on a budget like me, go with the black.

One of the first things I want to make in my new dutch oven is Artisan No-Knead bread. Yep, you read that right. Bread! I found this blog post, and plan to prepare the dough tonight and make my first loaf of bread tomorrow. I hope it's as easy as they say. It's suppose to be a chilly rainy day tomorrow, perfect for baking bread. I can smell the baking bread right now. Actually, I take that back! I smell wet puppy right now!!! So looking forward to smelling fresh baked bread instead!