New Things Monday

Do you love Cadbury Mini eggs at Easter time??? Are you mad that you have to wait till Easter to get them??? Well guess what??? Cadbury makes Christmas Baubles that tastes just like Mini eggs............................... :) My sister, Ashley told me about them. :)

No more waiting till Easter. Woo-hoo!! Thank you CADBURY! :) I found these at Target!

decorating for the holidays

Nate and I started decorating over the weekend for Christmas. We got our tree up and went to put the lights on it and noticed that some of the strand was out. I figured I would just get some new lights. So, I got some cute LED Christmas lights from Target.

Aren't they cute?? They kinda remind me of old Christmas. :)

The lights are all on the tree. I still have to put on my ornaments. Look under that tree.....it's a present. :)

Oh no, not a present....just kitty face. :) Love him! :) *squishes him*

I hate my record with tree skirts. I feel every year I go out and buy one just to throw it away b/c it's ruined. (covered in cat hair that won't come off) And of course you can't wash those velvet tree skirts, so Kristen gave me a wonderful good idea. Yep, a DYI Christmas skirt!!!!! You just need 2 yards (on sale for $3 a yard at Joann's) of Christmas fabric and you just wrap it around the tree as messy as you like. No sewing involved. You just tuck it all in. Perfect!! And the best thing is you can wash regular fabric to get out kitty fur. :)

Pigs in a blanket

You'll need:

A pkg of Lit'l Smokies

2 pkgs of Pillsbury crescent rolls

Put a Lit'l smokie in a triangle and roll up.

Place on greased cookie sheet.

And put in the oven @ 375 for 10 to 15 min until golden brown.

This makes a great appetizer for the holidays. Serve with Ketchup, BBQ sauce and/ or mustard. I also read that a 1/2 cup mustard and a 1/2 cup of grape jelly melted in a sauce pan tastes good with them too. You can even add cheese to them before you bake if you'd like. :)

Homemade Pumpkin Bread

Yep, I've been a baking full but when you have a lot of pumpkin to use you bake a lot of things.

This will make 1 loaf. If you double the recipe you can make 2 loaves.

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

1/3 cup water

1 1/2 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup mashed pumpkin puree

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Beat together sugar, oil, eggs and water. Combine dry ingredients and add to sugar mixture. Mix well. Add pumpkin and nuts; mix well. Pour into a greased and floured 9x5 loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 6o to 70 min. Check with a toothpick or cake tester. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 min. before turning the loaf out. Let the loaf cool on the rack with a tea towel over it until it is cold. Then wrap the cold loaf in saran or aluminum foil. Will keep at room temp for a couple of days, after that store in the fridge. Or you can freeze.

Homemade Pumpkin Roll

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pumpkin mix:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup pumpkin

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

With a hand or stand mixer, beat the eggs for 3 min until light and frothy. Add in the rest of the ingredients 1 at a time.

Spray a cookie sheet or jelly pan with a non-stick pan. Pour mixture evenly into your pan and bake for 10 to 15 min. Cake is done when it springs back from pressure.

Spread a dish towel flat and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Turn out cake onto dish towel using the parchment paper for leverage. Tuck the end of the towel over the cake and roll it up in the towel. Let cool.

When cake is baking or cooling prepare your filling.

For the Cream Cheese filling:

8 oz cream cheese (softened)

2 tbs butter (softened)

3/4 tsp vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

Once cake is cooled you cab roll out towel with cake and spread the filling completely covering one side. Roll the cake back up. You can cut off the ends to make it look more pretty. Husbands are great for eating the ends. haha :)

Homemade Pumpkin Bars

You will need:

4 eggs

1 2/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 cups mashed pumpkin puree

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

Mix your eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread out evenly on a greased pan. I used my square pan. Bake @ 350 degrees for 20 to 25 min. (you'll know when it's done when a cake tester/toothpick comes out clean)

Let it cool and then you can frost with cream cheese frosting.

To make the cream cheese frosting:

8 oz cream cheese (softened)

2 tbs butter (softened)

3/4 tsp vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

MMMM! It was very moist and cake like. Nate liked it a lot. And I was proud that I made it all from scratch using my real pumpkin. :)

Homemade Cranberry Sauce 2

I made homemade cranberry sauce again yesterday.

2 bags of fresh cranberries (washed in cold water)

2 cups water

2 cups sugar

Boil the sugar and water. Add cranberries and boil for 10 min. Let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I turned my pumpkin into a turkey the other day. :)

You might remember my little pumpkin from here. :)