Hello October!

Hi. It's October. This makes me happy. October means lovely fall weather, sweater/boots attire, my birthday, Halloween, and any and all things pumpkin. My first pumpkin baked good of the season is a real doozy. And by doozy, I mean awesomely AWESOME. Yes, "awesomely AWESOME." Pumpkin cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting. Hello, I'll take five please. Thank you. My lovely friend, Jade, helped me make these. Thanks, friend! :)








Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

1/3 c. milk
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. canned pumpkin
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
1 pkg. dry yeast
2 c. bread flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. melted butter

In small saucepan, heat milk and 2 tbsp butter just until warm and butter is almost melted, stirring constantly. In large mixer bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Add milk mixture and beat with electric mixer until well mixed. Beat in egg and yeast.

Add half of flour to pumpkin mixture. Beat mixture on low speed for 5 minutes, scraping sides of bowl frequently. Add remaining flour and mix thoroughly (dough will be very soft). Turn into lightly greased bowl, then grease surface of dough lightly.

Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down. Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead a few turns to form a smooth dough, sprinkling with enough additional flour to make dough easy enough to handle. Roll dough into 12X10 inch rectangle.

In small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon. Brush surface of dough with melted butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar mixture. Beginning with long side of dough, roll up jellyroll style. Pinch seam to seal. With sharp knife, cut roll into twelve 1-inch slices. Place rolls, cut side up, in greased 11X17 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, 30 to 45 minutes.

Bake rolls at 350 degrees about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to waxed paper-lined wire rack. Frost with cream cheese frosting. (The original recipe uses a caramel icing, which is totally delicious as well. But I prefer cream cheese frosting!)

Writing Papers, Making Muffins

I'm in the middle of writing four papers. Count 'em, four. I don't want to write these papers. I just want to make these muffins.


Is that too much to ask? Of course not.






Browned Butter Blueberry"Mixed Berry" Muffins

Hunting, Gathering...the "Caveman" Diet

Atkins, South Beach, Zone, Grapefruit. All "popular" diets at one time or another, that many Americans have picked up. I personally, have never tried to be on a diet...until now. I introduce the Paleoithic diet a.k.a the "Caveman" diet.

My brother has been raving about this diet for months now. He swears by it. With the caveman diet, you only eat lean meats, fruits, lots of veggies and nuts. No dairy, grains, legumes, starches, processed sugars and processed foods and no alcohol.

The overall idea is, "If you can't hunt or gather it, you can't eat it." Slightly strict, but isn't that the point of a diet?

So now my diet consists of grilled chicken, tuna, veggies, fruits, and nuts. However, I am making a few minor exceptions. I still have the occasional alcoholic beverage and I still get my peanut butter, duh. And one, ok, two, alright three of these...

Oh my gooooodnesssss. Danishes, kolaches, whatever, I looooove them dearly. Growing up we had a bakery in town, run by some Mennonite women, that turned out these delicious pastries. So darn yummy. And I took a crack at 'em and succeeded! Set aside a day to make these, you'll be happy you did.

I think I've actually heard of wild Danish herds up north. Maybe they can be hunted? ;)

I love cherry...

and cream cheese is by far my favorite, but...

together, it makes my heart (& tummy) very, very happy.

Cherry Cheese Danish (Kolache)
adapted from pete bakes!

Dough:
1 package instant dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
4 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
3/4 cup shortening, divided
1 cup warm milk
3 eggs

Cream Cheese filling:
2 8oz packages of cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Cherry filling:
1 can cherry pie filling

Glaze (optional-I just like a sprinkling of powdered sugar, personally)
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp milk
1/4 tsp vanilla


In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the milk, 1/4 cup shortening, sugar, 2 eggs, salt, lemon peel, vanilla and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. stir in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth an elastic. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (about an hour).

Punch dough down and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a 24×16 inch rectangle. Dot half of the dough with 1/4 cup shortening; fold dough in half lengthwise. Dot with shortening and fold lengthwise into thirds. Dot with remaining shortening and fold widthwise into thirds.

Roll dough into a 16×15 inch rectangle. Cut into 8×3/4 inch strips, coil into spiral shapes, tucking end underneath the coil to form a bottom. Place on a greased baking sheet and cover and let rise until doubled (about an hour).

In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Beat remaining egg, make a depression in the center of each roll and brush with egg. Fill each with the cheese filling, cherry filling, or both.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. While baking, combine the confectioners’ sugar, milk and vanilla to form the glaze. Drizzle over the danishes while they are still warm.

Sleep, Puppies and French Toast

There are many things that I will never grow tired of...

For instance, sleeping in. Oh dang, that extra 2-3 hours in my warm, comfy bed is a gift from the sleep gods.

Puppies, dogs in general and their ridiculously cute faces and wet noses. I wanna cuddle with this guy and this guy and this gal.

And breakfast food. Biscuits & gravy, pancakes, waffles, omelets, eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, breakfast burritos, muffins, danishes, must I keep going?

But you know what just really hits the breakfast spot? A couple of slices of good ol' french toast. Mmm...

And you know what makes french toast even better? Turning it into a giant casserole.


This casserole is top-notch. It's easy to prepare, cheap and delish. And it can feed a ton of people.

Slap some peanut butter (shocker, I know) on top and douse it in syrup and you are good to go.

Now perfect case scenario...sleeping in that extra 2-3 hours, cuddling with the puppy and then waking to this.

All from the comfort of my warm bed. Ah, now that would be the life...

French Toast Casserole
adapted from Frugal Upstate

1/2 c. butter

12 slices white bread

1 c. brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 eggs

1 1/2 c. milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter & pour in a 9X13 pan. Mix together brown sugar & cinnamon. Whisk eggs, milk & vanilla together. Layer bottom of pan with half the bread. Sprinkle half brown sugar mix over the bread. Layer second half of bread. Pour egg mixture over all then sprinkle remaining brown sugar. Cover & refrigerate overnight. (Totally optional) Cover with tinfoil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 more minutes (should be browned and set).

12 Days of Christmas Cookies! Day 8 and I'm Out of Eggs...

I am out of eggs. Do you know how hard it is to make cookies without eggs? Oh, it can be done, but I did not want to attempt that this morning. So here is a classic, Chocolate Chip cookies. And waking up this morning I wanted pancakes, but the boxed mix in the house calls for eggs. Dang it. But check this, eggless pancakes! Thank you, Google.


So good! It reminded me of french toast, but shaped like a pancake. Yes, please. And today's Christmas song is Dave Barnes with Christmas Tonight. I highly recommend buying this album. Love, love, love, Dave! Ok, that was a lot thrown at you, go make some cookies and pancakes for dinner!


"Out of Eggs" Pancakes
adapted from cooks.com

1 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. milk
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. butter, melted

Combine dry ingredients. Add milk, oil, water, and vanilla. Whisk together until just combined, should be lumpy. Set aside. Heat large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. While pan is heating, add butter to skillet. As soon as butter is melted, add 2 tbsp. melted butter to pancake batter. Pour 1/4 c. batter onto skillet for each pancake. Cook until bubbles form on surface. Carefully flip pancakes with spatula. Cook until golden brown.

Dear Professor...

Dear Professor,

Let me start this off by saying that I respect you. You seem like a cool person. You were super nice at the beginning of the semester. You cracked a few jokes here and there. But then, you totally lost me. You stood up on your soapbox, started lecturing and completely bamboozled me.

You actually bother me, quite a bit. Hey, I get it. You went to school a little longer, got a Ph.D. and now you're all "enlightened." Good for you. But these freakin' tangents that you go off on, not only confuse me, they royally piss me off. That blank look on my face? Yeah, that's code for, "What in the hell are you talking about?"

And this "final project?" I think it's kinda dumb, ok no, really dumb. Rather than standing up at the front of the class, reading a 14-page, crappy, research paper and arguing about some stupid point about some stupid piece of literature, I'd much rather make you this banana bread. And I'd much rather argue why this is the best banana bread in the entire world. My thesis is clear and my argument has strong points (and lots of literary devices.)

Please think about it and let me know. Hope you're having a fantastic Thanksgiving break.

Sincerely,
Allison


Have you had a fantabulous Thanksgiving?! I sure hope so. I hope you ate way too much food and watched way too much football. :) I rolled into my hometown Wednesday afternoon and the first thing I did was of course heat up the oven and bake something with Papa Blackwell.


I absolutely adore a fabulous banana nut bread and the recipe Papa B and I use is honestly the best. I'd be lying if I told you I haven't had a couple of slices of this for breakfast the last three days.


The recipe comes from one of those cookbooks that our little church puts out with little old ladies' recipes, so you know it's dang good.

Side story-poor Papa B went to check the "doneness" of the bread, burnt his finger and dropped the rack with the two loaves (which were baking up, oh so beautifully). The middle of each loaf, came oozing out and Papa B yelled a few choice words. It was semi-hilarious and I was trying not to laugh with Spilt Batter (no pun intended, ok maybe a wee bit) all over the floor. The bread still turned out delicious and Papa B's finger is healing nicely.

Banana Nut Bread
adapted from Margie (Sidlinger) Cook

1 c. butter or oil
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs, beaten
6-7 bananas, mashed
2 1/2 c. sifted flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 c. chopped pecans or walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 large loaf pans or 5 small ones. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the mashed bananas, stirring to blend. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Fold the dry ingredients and nuts into the batter, mixing well. Pour the batter into the pans. Sprinkle tops of loaves with nuts. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. For muffins, fill 12 muffin cups, half full and bake for 35-45 minutes.

Good Mornin', Good Mornin' to You

Can I be honest about something? Pinky-promise you won't judge me?

I love mornings. (GASP!) They are probably my favorite time of the day. Birds chirping, sun rising up, the day waking up, getting ready to go. I love it.

You know why else I love mornings?? BREAKFAST. How convenient is it, that my favorite meal of the day is served at my favorite time of the day?

Thursday mornings have become one of my favorites this semester. Every Thursday my roommates, a few friends and I wake up bright and early for prayer at 7:00a.m. We spend about 45 minutes, talking to the Big Guy, praying for each other, campus, the world, whatever is on our hearts that morning. For me, it really is a great way to start off the day ahead of me. After praying, we do what we always seem to do, EAT. I am in charge of what will be for breakfast that morning. We started off the semester doing pancakes, but one morning I switched things up.

We had these bad boys...


and they were a hit...


and became a favorite.


And they are super S-I-M-P-L-E to make. Canned biscuits+melted butter+cinnamon/sugar=pure breakfast bliss.

My mom used to make these for my siblings and I all the time when we were growing up, so I give her all the credit for these delicious, warm, cinnamony gifts from the heavens.

Carla's Cinnamon Biscuits with Frosting
1 can biscuits (flaky)
1/2 stick of melted butter
3/4 c. sugar (can also use brown sugar)
1-1 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 can white frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cinnamon and sugar. Dip biscuit in melted butter, covering whole biscuit. Then coat biscuit in cinnamon/sugar mixture, making sure to cover entire biscuit. Place biscuits in pie pan and cook for 17-20 minutes. Remove from oven and cover biscuits with frosting (for easier spreading, melt frosting in microwave for 30 seconds). Serve warm and enjoy! And I dare you, no, double-dog dare you to try and eat just one. Friends, it is impossible. ;)

An Adventure to the Pumpkin Patch

You've probably realized that there has been an influx of pumpkin related postings. I am sorry.

Ok, I'm totally not. It's fall and pumpkins are abundant. And besides, baking in the fall season without pumpkin anything, is against the law, baking law. So here you go, more pumpkins! Woo!

Lets start this post with a trip I took yesterday with some friends to a local pumpkin patch.

It was pretty fun, but hella expensive. They know how to make you spend your moola. (I can't fathom how much this little excursion would cost for a family of four. Mother-"Ok kids, start scrounging up every penny, nickel, dime, quarter you can." Kid-"Disneyworld!?" Mother-"Pumpkin patch.") You get my drift...

But nonetheless, it was a good time.

We spent the day looking at pumpkins (haha, obviously, Allison)...

Pet some goats...

Shot mini pumpkins...with excellent aim, I must say...

Went through a "haunted barn"...

(My friend One, was terrified.)

Got lost in a corn maize...

And of course, we ate.

And above all else, made some gosh darn memories.

You're craving something pumpkin, right now, I just know it. ;)


These Pumpkin Cream Cheese muffins will take care of said craving, straight up. Pumpkin, cream cheese, streusel topping, what more do I need to say?! Stop reading! Go make some!


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
adapted from Annie's Eats
makes about 2 dozen

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ cups vegetable oil

For the topping:
½ cup sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours.

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.