Pumpkin Sheet Cake

Only a week left until Thanksgiving and already fall is out of the stores. I hate that. I went shopping for fall decor yesterday and all that was left was the cheesy clearanced items, most of them left over from Halloween. Christmas has taken over. Now don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. So much. But there is a time and a place. And time is the day after thanksgiving, starting at 12:01. (Have you seen those people who camp out at Best Buy? It's a family tradition to dry by.) I'm totally rambling, but my point is, I thought I'd try and get in a few more fall recipes before all the Christmas baking takes over, because they are different.

There a million recipes out there for a pumpkin type bread/cake and a frosting involving cream cheese goodness. This is another one of those that I have fallen in love with. I made it last night for a girls Bunco night I hosted, and it was a huge hit. I love this recipe because it makes a ton, sheet pans are big! I'm sure it would work just fine in a 9 x 13 pan too. It's a good, quick, no special ingredients needed kind of recipe. It calls for oil, which I think makes the cake extra moist. If you're looking for a last minute recipe to feed the family in town, whip this up.



Pumpkin Bars

Mix these ingredients:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup oil
15 oz. can pumpkin

In separate bowl mix these ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda

Mix together. Pour into sheet pan. (Or 9x 13)

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (Adjust cooking time for other pans)


Frosting:
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
3 1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

How Easy Is That?

A few posts back I mentioned that I was going to a book signing with Ina Garten, thee Barefoot Contessa at Willams Sonoma South Coast Plaza! She just released a new cook book "How Easy Is That?". If you watch her show you know that's a common catch phrase she uses. The signing was the day after my birthday and I looking forward to the signing more. I heard about it from my new and fabulous friend Michelle. She told me it was on Friday the 12th and I thrilled because I didn't have school that day. A while back I found out about a Giada signing, but couldn't justify taking a day off of work for it. So thank you furlough days.

Michelle had the inside scoop on book signings since this wasn't her first one. She works at Crate and Barrel and they hosted the previously mentioned Giada book signing. She also went to Williams Sonoma to check out the Bobby Flay signing, just to get a peek at him. That's when she saw how out of control the lines were! Michelle suggested we get there at 8 am, when the store opened to hand out the pre-ordered books. That was a great plan! We knew we were going to have to wait in line until the signing started at noon, but at least we'd get to wait inside the mall. We were in the first line, maybe about 40 people back. We sat on the floor next to Saks Fifth Ave, made friends with the people around us, ate the pumpkin treats the Williams Sonoma workers kept bringing around, and read through all the cookbooks we had purchased. We had such a great time talking all things Ina. My Mom kept saying she hoped Jeffrey, Ina's husband, was going to be there! No such luck. Then we dared her to ask Ina why Jeffrey didn't come. Good times! While we were waiting in side, having a fabulous time, the rest of the last comers were waiting outside in a line that went past two department stores and around the corner. And this is Orange County, is was kind of hot out there! Rumor had it though, if you were in line by 2 pm she would sign your book. The signing was supposed to be from noon to two.




The signing started at 11:45 am, Ina was very prompt. The line moved fast. You could take pictures but she wasn't going to pose for any. As we got closer I snapped a few of her signing other peoples books. When it was your turn they had workers taking your camera and would get a picture of her signing your book. I turned around when she took mine, but I have like a million chins in that picture, so I'm not posting it! But we got a few others. We all were deciding what we would say to her, I ended up just telling her thanks for coming and my mom was like, "we love you!" She was friendly, but didn't have time to chat. I had her sign two books, then my mom had her sign one, then Brittany came and had her sign one. The workers moved us right along after three books were signed and we kind of held up the line trying to figure out what happened to the fourth. Ina tapped the table and said laughing, "Come on ladies, pay attention." That's quite typical of us, to hold up a line of 2,000 people. Ina talked just like she does on her show. She looked really pretty, much better than on TV, and she looked smaller too. While in line we were talking about what color of shirt she would be wearing. She had a blue button up on all three of the different cookbooks we had. At the signing she wore a black button up with black pants.




I'm kind of amazed I have so much to say about a five second encounter with Ina, but it was so fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat. However, I wouldn't wait in a four hour line for just anyone. Ina is special. So classy. While in line we read an article in the Costco Connection magazine about her. In it she talks about how she gets asked to expand her "brand" beyond food to accessories, furniture even clothes. She said, "I wear the same thing everyday, you don't want me to do your line of clothing." But that's what I love about Ina, she's all about the food, keeping it real, but sophisticated, and getting back to the basics.

Oak Glen Apple Farms

My birthday was on Thursday! First just a big thank you for everyone that wished me a happy birthday and made my day so special. I love that my birthday is the same day as Veteran's Day because as a school teacher we get that day off each year. This year, because it was on a Thursday was also got Friday off! Who doesn't love a four day weekend? I wanted to spend my birthday doing something I don't usually get to do. So I looked around at little day trips and decided I wanted to go see beautiful fall leaves and do some fall activities.

EnterOak Glen, a little town up by Yucaipa, CA located up in the San Bernardino Mountains, about an hour away. There are a bunch of different apple farms there where you can pick your own apples and enjoy all kids of apples desserts. So my mom, older sister and I headed out to spend the day enjoying a fall that we don't really get in Orange County. The funny thing was, that we got there we completely forgot that it might be cold. My sister, Mikken, had on a skirt and t-shirt, and was pretty cold in the 57 degree weather. I was loving it. I love fall, I miss fall. All the leaves weren't quite as red as I would have liked. Most were more green turning yellow, but some were beautiful.




When we got there we checked out a few farms and decided where to eat. We settled on Rileys' at Los Rios Rancho and ate at their BBQ and Bakery. I had an amazing pulled pork sandwich while Mom and Mikken had deli turkey sandwiches with potato salad. Mom got hot apple cider which was a nice treat on our cold fall day. I loved Los Rios Rancho. We browsed around their cute store, bought apple butter and fresh baked bread, and tasted all kinds of apples picked fresh from their orchard. I would have been fun to pick our own apples, but it was a little late in the season and they didn't have a ton left on the trees.


Next we drove back to first farm we passed on the way in, can't remember it's name. (It's the one with Apple Annie's country restaurant.) We went into the bakery and bought a slice of apple pie, an apple empanada and an apple burrito. We didn't eat it all ourselves though, we took the goodies home to share. We also got hot apple pie mini doughnuts. I had read all about these apple cider mini doughnuts, but we weren't at the right stand. These doughnuts were good, but tasted very fried, I only ate one but my dad and the boys loved them. I found out that the real mini doughnuts I wanted were located at Snow-Line Orchard. These are the famous ones. Oh well, that gives me a reason to go back next year.




If you have kids there are tons of fun little activities to do. There are hay rides, petting zoos, pumpkin patches, and you can press your own cider. We could have stayed up there much longer than the three hours we did. There is so much to do and see and eat! It was definitely a great way to spend my birthday. I can't wait to go back next year.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

With all the baked goodies I've posted here, I have yet to put up a chocolate chip cookie recipe. Chocolate chip cookies are by far my favorite cookie, grew up on these things. Instead of sharing the mom's old classic chocolate chip recipe, I'm posting the new and improved recipe that she found, tweaked and is getting rave reviews on from everyone. (I'll share the classic later.) I made these the other week for Brian's friends birthday. I was racking my brain trying to think of something new and creative to make for him. But apparently he doesn't like new and exciting, just plain and simple. So I called up mom, got the new, must have recipe, and gave it a go. And guess what? I got rave reviews too. I loved that these cookies had a little crunch around the outside, and they have lots of brown sugar which gives them a slightly different, but delicious taste that the classic cookies don't have. Mom and I thought these cookies looked a little more professional than your average chocolate chip cookie, hers more so than mine pictured here. And I made them much bigger than usual, about 4 inches in diameter. The recipe calls for four kinds of chocolate, which Mom says is delicious, but I made mine with plain old semi sweet chips, still delicious. So if you'd like to try a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, I'd start with this one. I thought they looked cute boxed up too!




Debby's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cream:
½ c, butter flavored shortening
½ c. butter softened
1 c. packed brown sugar
¾ c. sugar

Add:
2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each is added

Add:
2 tsp. vanilla and beat

Combine in a separate bowl:
2 ½ c. flour
1 t. soda
1/8 t.salt

Add:
Flour mixture gradually to the creamed mixture.

Stir in:
1 c. miniature semisweet choc. chips
1 c. milk choc. chips
1 c. vanilla or white chips
¾ c. English toffee bits or almond brickle chips
½ c. chopped peacans (opt.)

Drop by tablespoons 3 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 350 for 10-12 min. or until lightly browned

Easy Sticky Buns

Every year on my younger sister Brittany's birthday I surprise her with a birthday breakfast baked good. Something like cinnamon rolls, or blueberry muffins. This year I thought I'd use her birthday as an excuse to try out a Barefoot Contessa recipe I've had printed out forever. (Plus I'm going to her book signing on Friday at South Coast Plaza on Friday, so I thought I'd brush up on her stuff! I am so excited, but more on that Friday.)

The recipe I tried was for sticky buns that I thought looked like a quick and easy way to make cinnamon rolls using puff pastry. This was my first time working with puff pastry and I must say I'm a huge fan. That stuff is amazing. I actually tried to make this recipe a few months ago, but when I got home from the store I had bought phyllo dough instead of puff pastry, needless to say I didn't make the recipe. I loved the texture of the sticky buns. They aren't as doughy as a cinnamon roll, more like a pastry, makes sense, right? They have the same ooey gooey center as a cinnamon roll, made with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. These took all of about ten minutes to prepare and taste best warm. The brown sugar turns into a hard caramel when they cool, but still a tasty treat. I had a few the next morning and they were just a good cold! I made some with nuts and some with out. I preferred the ones with nuts. I used walnuts instead of pecans, like the recipe calls for, and I omitted the raisins. While I do love natures candy, I don't enjoy them in my cinnamon rolls!

All in all I think the birthday girl was pleased with her breakfast goodies. And I know she enjoyed her cake, same one as last year!

Easy Sticky Buns Recipe

Pumpkin Dessert

Last weekend was Halloween and I felt like I was baking all weekend. Probably because I was. But no complaints here. Last Friday Brian and I went to a couples Halloween party and I had to bring a dessert. I knew it would be something pumpkin, tis the season, but I wasn't sure which one until my mom reminded me of the Muncy School pumpkin dessert. Muncy is my mom's school and a teacher at her school, Cindy, gets requests to make it each year. My mom got the recipe and made this for us a few times and I loved it. I already had the recipe, but I hadn't made it myself yet. This is one of those pumpkin desserts that is more like pumpkin pie, not like cakes or cookies. It has a crust made with a cake mix, a crunchy topping and in between is pure pumpkin bliss. I got tons of complements on this dessert. We like it super cold straight from the fridge, and I think a little whipped cream would send this already delicious dessert over the top. I had some left over after the Friday night party and I wanted to serve it up for my dinner guests on Sunday, but I didn't want to put out a half eaten pan of dessert. So I cut pieces and put them in cupcake liners and put them on a cake plate. That worked out great. It was a super easy way to cut it up before hand and make it presentable. Add this one to your recipes under pumpkin desserts, for sure!




Pumpkin Dessert

Ingredients:
1 yellow cake mix
1 cube cold butter
29 oz can pumpkin
12 oz evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 cup sugar
chopped walnuts (or nut of choice)

Directions:
Cut cold butter into yellow cake mix with pastry cutter or knives. Save out one cup. Press remaining mix into the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan.

Mix:
can of pumpkin
evaporated milk
eggs

In a new bowl mix:
brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
cinnamon
ginger
cloves
(or 2 tsp of pumpkin spice)

Mix pumpkin mixture with sugars and pour over crust.

Take 1/4 cup sugar and mix it with the 1 cup of reserved cake mix. Sprinkle over top. Sprinkle about 1 cup chopped nuts over top.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Onesie Cookies

Back in July our dear friends Ryan and Heather had two beautiful twin boys born into this world, Drew and Dylan. They are the most precious things I've ever seen and they pretty much make me want to have a few of my own. On Saturday they had a baby blessing for the boys and we were invited. As a little gift for them I made them some onesie baby sugar cookies. I had bought the cookie cutter here back in July when the boys were born, with the intention of making them when I went to see them for the first time, but I never had the time. Anyway, this weekend was better late than never, and I was thrilled with how cute they turned out.

To save time I piped and flooded the cookies with white frosting so I didn't have to thin a lot of different colors. Then I made four different colors, blue, green, yellow and a tan, and used them to decorate the cookies the next morning after the frosting had dried. I got creative and each cookie was different. I did a I heart Mom and Dad, two with the letter D, and my favorite was a yellow outline with a yellow duck on it.

Once again I learned the lesson that the key to easy decorating is in the frosting. If you have the right consistency of piping frosting you'll have a much easier time and much better results. I had to mix the green twice, and I still didn't have it right. First it was too thin, and then it was too thick. I made it work, but it was definitely harder to use. I'll keep working on perfecting that skill. Below are the links to my sugar cookie recipe, and a royal icing question and answer tutorial blog post that is super helpful.

Sugar Cookie Recipe
Royal Icing Tutorial from Bake at 350 Blog