Gooey Butter Pumpkin Cake

This blog post is going to be about a dessert….one of my favs, in fact.  But first I have to mention something about hair….my hair, in fact.  ( Am I allowed to use “in fact” like that in a sentence?) 

I have fairly curly hair.  Back in the day when I was a cosmetologist, people used to want a perm just like mine….but mine wasn’t a perm.  It was totally cool in the 90’s to have big curly hair like mine.  But now it’s just a mess.  Here’s a picture of me and my hair in Hawaii.

Sometimes I try and straighten my hair.  It’s pretty cool when I do that, but it takes me about an hour and that makes me crazy.

Mostly I just throw it up in a messy pony.  Like this morning, when my husband and I took the dog for a walk and I was thinking it looked pretty good…..ponytail with loose curly tendrils gently blowing in the breeze.  My husband even commented, “Nice hair.”  Evidently, I missed the sarcasm in his voice because when I looked in the mirror when I got home, this is what I witnessed……

Looks like I need a cup of coffee and some of the Gooey Butter Pumpkin Cake that I made last night, for breakfast.

Gooey Butter Pumpkin Cake

TGFPD (That’s Thank Goodness for PaulaDeen)

Printable Recipe

Ingredients 

Cake:
1 18 1/4-ounce package yellow cake mix 
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
1 15-ounce can of pumpkin
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened 
3 eggs 
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 16-ounce box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make the cake, combine all of the ingredients and mix well.  Pat the mixture into a lightly greased 13x9-inch baking pan. 

Prepare filling:
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth.  Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.  Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with fresh whipped cream.  

Making a bad hair day better.....one blog post at a time.  Enjoy!

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Turkey & Garlic Bread Sandwiches with Caesar Spread....Rockin' Those Leftovers!

What’s better than sliced bread?  Sliced bread with garlic, butter, and herbs, toasted to a golden brown of course.  Unfortunately, the Pepperidge Farm Texas Toast box already made that statement clearly on the back of their packaging, and so I had to come up with something better.  So what is better than sliced bread with garlic butter and herbs on it?  An entire sandwich made with the buttery herby bread goodness!    What’s even better than that?  You can use your leftover turkey from Thanksgiving to make this AMAZING sandwich!!! 

Turkey & Garlic Bread Sandwiches with Caesar Spread

 



 Ingredients:

·        1 package frozen Texas toast (8 slices)

·        Leftover turkey from thanksgiving or fresh deli turkey

·        ¼ cup mayonnaise

·        ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

·        1 tablespoon lemon juice

·        1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

·        1 clove garlic crushed

·        Lettuce and tomato

Obviously, I used the Pepperidge Farm Texas Toast (aaaah…yumm!) for my sandwiches.  Bake the bread according to package directions.  I actually baked them a tad bit longer to make them crispier.

   While the bread is baking mix the mayo, parmesan, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and garlic for your Caesar spread.  This might be a great time to teach your kids the snobby Grey Poupon commercial.  They will roll their eyes at first, but ever so gradually they will catch on to the humor of it.

After the bread is cooled, put together your sandwiches.  Spread each slice with the Caesar mixture, then add the turkey, tomato, and lettuce.

These sandwiches turned out awesome!  You know when you start to debate with yourself… “I think we should throw out some of these leftovers….” and you know you should make turkey stock or soup or whatever and you just want to puke thinking of turkey?  Well, you need to make these.  They are the same sandwiches you would eat inside the Grey Poupon limousine.  Enjoy!

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Thanksgiving Interview

“I   am    thankful   for   the    food    god    provides   us   with.  I    am    thankful    for     my     mom    &     my     dad.  I    am    thankful     for    my    frindes     because    thay    make    me   fell    speshl . “ *

*This is what I  found this morning on my laptop when I opened it up.  By Amber, age 7. (I’m guessing we need to work on the words friends and special.)

It’s somewhere in the 4am-ish zone here, all nice and quiet.  My husband doesn’t understand why this quiet time is different from the quiet I get when he is at work and the kids are at school.  But, it is different.  I love that my family is upstairs all cozy and quiet…..they are home, but not bothering me.  It’s nice.  So with my cup of coffee and nice quiet house I bring you this week’s Writer’s Workshop!

I interviewed my kids yesterday about Thanksgiving. We are 15 hours ahead here in Japan, so our Thanksgiving is over, while you all feast today!  Amber is 7, Allie is 10, and Abbey is 12.  Yeah, they are all A’s….my husband’s idea and I don’t recommend it to anyone.  When I get confused I call them names like Almby and Ambie. Here are the questions and answers….(my thoughts are in parentheses)  The picture of the girls above, is on the Tama river last weekend here in Japan.  Aren't they cuties?

1.      What are you thankful for this year?

Amber: God

Allie: Moving to Japan.

Abbey:  My mom and dad.  They are the coolest parents a kid could have. (Okay Princess Buttkiss)

2.      How much do you think a turkey costs?

Amber: Eight dollars

Allie:  Fifteen dollars

Abbey: About 20 bucks I guess.  Why are you asking me these questions?

3.     If you could invite anyone to Thanksgiving dinner who would you invite?

(These answers described my kids 3 different personalities perfectly)

Amber: Taylor Swift

Allie: Will Ferrell

Abbey: Stephenie Meyer, the lady who wrote Twilight….or maybe Taylor Lautner.  You know mom, the guy who plays Jacob on Twilight.  (ummm…yeah I know)  But you probably would have him wear a shirt at the dinner table huh?  (Yes I would have him wear a shirt.  No I wouldn’t.  Wait, is my 12 year old looking at boys with no shirts? Oh geez…I am not ready for this.)

4.     Is our house clean enough for the president of the United States to come over for Thanksgiving dinner?

Amber: Yes, and I would make my bed for you to help. (awwwww)

Allie : No (Whaaaaaat????)

Abbey : Yes, he can come over but we can’t let him go upstairs.  (Okay, that is probably true.)

5.      What movie do you want to watch while lying on the couch all stuffed with food from Thanksgiving dinner.

Amber: Cats and Dogs in 3D (I have no idea where she got this idea)

Allie : Jaws

Abbey: Jaws

6.     What does your dad do after he eats Thanksgiving dinner?

Amber: He lays on the couch.

Allie: He takes a nap on the couch and watches TV

Abbey:  He gets some chips and salsa and lays on the couch and watches football, and then later he eats some more turkey and sneaks deviled eggs.

Both Amber and Abbey, did not want to interview anymore and I had a Thanksgiving feast to prepare.  We had a wonderful day with some new friends and a couple of single airmen. 
This Thanksgiving I am once again thankful for my military life and the people I meet.  I am especially thankful for all the men and women who serve our country.

Wondering where the Jaws thing came from?  Last year at Thanksgiving the girls and my husband watched Jaws while I was cleaning up our feast.  They LOVED it.  Ironically, Brian was flipping around the channels last night after sneaking another deviled egg, and guess what was on?  Jaws II!!!  Yep, it was some quality family time!!!!

Oh yes…..enter my contest if you can!!  You will probably win because no one has entered.  I’ll be totally embarrassed if no one enters!  Just click on the pic below and post your holiday recipe or craft!  $25 Gift card....anyone?....anyone?

Sweet-n-Spicy Garlic Dill Pickles

Sweet –n- Spicy is such a good combination, don’t you think?  My husband makes the coffee every night so all I have to do in the morning, when I am not the most pleasant person, is flip on the switch.  Awwwww…..he’s so sweet.  He also takes my CENSORED and he CENSORED it as he CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED me in bed.  Oooooh….SPICY!

Not only is he a sweet-n-spicy guy but he likes to eat sweet-n-spicy food.  For instance I might make him an egg sandwich for breakfast and he will put salt, pepper, grape jelly, and Tabasco sauce on it.  Don’t knock it until you try it.  I can say that because he force fed me once.  Anyway, he likes this pickle recipe and since there are three jars of it in the refrigerator he’ll probably put them on his egg sandwich this morning.

Sweet-n-Spicy Garlic Dill Pickles

 

·        One 16 ounce jar dill pickle slices

·        2 cups of sugar

·        ½ to 1 Tablespoon hot pepper sauce (I use Cholula)

·        5 pressed garlic cloves or 2 teaspoons chopped garlic

·        ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Pour ALL of the ingredients in a bowl.  Usually, I make several jars at a time, like five for us and one to give away.  (I can eat a jar of these a day.)

Other recipes call for much less sugar, like just a half of cup.  This is bad.  Don’t make those.  Make mine.  Also, use Cholula hot sauce and not Tabasco sauce like other recipes say.  This is very bad also.  People will not like your pickles if you use Tabasco sauce.  Just make mine.

Where was I?  Oh yes, put all the ingredients in a bowl. (Save the pickle jars because you are going to use them later.) It is okay if you used the garlic from a jar.  Fresh is good, but there is so much sweet and spice going on you won’t be able to tell.  Just don’t use garlic powder....blech!

Now stir the mixture all together until the sugar is mostly dissolved.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 24 hours.  You may want to stir them occasionally if you think of it, but sometimes I forget and they still turn out fine.  Be sure you taste one if you stir it, so you can get an exciting sneak peek of flavor!

Next, take them out of the refrigerator and fill the jars with pickles.  Once the pickles hit right before the rims, pour in the juice.  For some reason I always have a few pickles that I can’t get back into the jars.  It is important that you leave some room for some juice though, so just eat those extra pickles yourself. 

Here’s a little FYI for you.  Re-jarring the pickles gets a kinda messy.  You will want to rinse the jars off after you put the lids back on.  Just in case you don’t know this, when you rinse things off they get wet.   When wet they can be slippery.  When you drop a slippery jar of pickles on your kitchen floor it will break and you will have a sticky, filled with glass shard, catastrophe on your hands.  I am not saying this happened to me, but it might have.

Your pickles are ready to store, eat, or give away after the lids are secured.  If you are going to give them away however, you might want to jazz them up.  It will make your friends feel special.  I decorated mine with a sort of fall harvest theme for Thanksgiving.  I know that I should have fancied up the lids also…..but there isn’t a Hobby Lobby within about 4000 miles of me.  Hope you like my pickles!

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It's Pumpkin Seed Time!

Pumpkin Seeds!!! Yum!

I know, I know.  I told you I hated carving pumpkins….but I broke down and bought two pumpkins just so I could make some pumpkin seed recipes.  Guess what?  Two pumpkins just don’t generate enough seeds for two separate recipes.  %$@&!  What did I do?  My neighbor (HI SHERRY!) has four kids AND four un-carved pumpkins sitting on her porch AND she just had her wisdom teeth pulled.  This woman needs me and I need her seeds!  So, here I am with a large knife and five children on my back porch……to make a long story short, I ended up with 4 cups of seeds. Recipe #1 is from my good friend Theresa…..hence the creative name….

Theresa’s Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

·        2 cups dried seeds

·        2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine (come on people…use the real butter!)

·        ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

·        Salt

This recipe is much much much better than your basic roast-n-salt type recipes.  If you do ANYTHING with the seeds, do this recipe.  For goodness sakes you wasted all that time digging the seeds out of the guts and drying them…love them a bit!

Directions:  Mix your seeds with the butter and Worcestershire sauce.  Thank goodness the spell check knows the word Worcestershire or else my brain would explode.  Spread those buttery wo’shired seeds in a shallow pan.  Sprinkle with salt.  Bake at 250 degrees for two hours stirring them occasionally.  They are done when they are brown and crispy.

Now for the great mother queen princess of all pumpkin seed recipes!  I found it in one of those church cookbooks.  I think that is why you can actually taste a bit of heaven in them.  There are very few foods that I think are, “taste of heaven” worthy.  Cheese fondue, red velvet cake, and these seeds are exactly what I am going to eat in heaven. 

Sweet-n-Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

 

Ingredients:

·        One cup dried seeds*

·        5 Tablespoons sugar

·        ¼ teaspoon salt

·        ¼ teaspoon ground cumin

·        ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

·        ¼ teaspoon ground ginger

·        Pinch of cayenne pepper to taste

·        1 ½ tablespoons peanut oil

You need to start out with dry seeds…..dry toasty seeds are the best. *To get dry toasty seeds, put them on a shallow baking stone or a shallow pan lined with parchment paper at 250 degrees for about 15 minutes.  Stir the seeds around and go 15 more minutes.  Stir again.  Then, turn off the oven.  Leave the seeds inside and go to the store and get whatever ingredient you are missing…..like cumin.  Stop at the salon and buy some shampoo.  The object is to leave your seeds in the oven for about 2 hours untouched.  They will toasty and dry when you get back!

Mix  3 tablespoons of the sugar, salt, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and the cayenne pepper in a medium bowl.  Make sure it is a pretty bowl like mine.  If you need to, go to Poland and get a pretty bowl of your own.  These seeds deserve a bowl this nice.

Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet on high.  Add your seeds and the last 2 tablespoons of sugar to the oil.  You need to stay with your seeds and stir them constantly.  They will brown very quickly.  Cook them until the sugar begins to caramelize.  This sounds more complicated than it is.  Just pretend you are on Iron Chef and move and stir the seeds until they are nice and brown.

  Quickly, dump the seeds into the bowl with the spices and stir well to coat.  Let them cool or burn your tongue and try some.  You can store in an airtight container for up to one week but you won’t need to.  My one cup of seeds were gone in about 10 minutes.  

Just go and buy a pumpkin right now and make these or de-gut your neighbors like I did.  You can thank me later.https://sites.google.com/site/threegirliesprintablerecipes/sweet-n-spicy-pumpkin-seedshttps://sites.google.com/site/threegirliesprintablerecipes/sweet-n-spicy-pumpkin-seeds