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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Crispy Bars

I am a firm believer in ‘Everything happens for a reason.’  Like that one time when I dated a guy for a year, then was engaged for a year, then called the wedding off six weeks before the knot was tied.  All that happened so I could get my almost-mother-in-law’s Banana Crème Pie recipe.  I’ll share that recipe with you all one day, but you should know that the drama and heartache of that relationship has been well well worth an occasional slice of that pie.

Today though, I want to tell you about another time.  The time we moved to Minnesota.
 

We left our Air Force life, eager for my husband to go into private practice. (He was a young strappy dentist.)  In a cute little small town, we bought our first house, and with our three incredibly young children, decided that this was the place that we were going to raise our young family.

I’ll just some up our experience in few words.  Mosquito bites, mortgage, Life Flight, mid-life crises, poop, snow shovels, small town gossip, and 100 proof Southern Comfort.  All this in temperatures well below freezing.

But there are always diamonds in the middle of the coal, right?  (Like I didn’t marry the one guy, but I got a much better one. Yay me!)  So despite our lack of enthusiasm for the weather and mosquitos, we met some great neighbors who wanted to drink all of our Southern Comfort be our friends.   They would set up huge neighborhood block parties to watch the Packers and Vikings play football.  There were hot dishes (Minnesotan for casserole) galore, and don’t cha know…..Crispy Bars.  Yes.  The very reason we lost our life’s savings and almost our minds, was for these. 

Crispy Bars

My friend Dorie told me, “Oh this is soooo easy.  Just remember cuppa, cuppa, cuppa,", and she was right.  This recipe has stayed in my head for years.  You will need 1 cup of Karo Syrup, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of peanut butter…..cuppa, cuppa, cuppa.  Melt these three ingredients in a saucepan on medium low heat until smooth.

  Pour this mixture over 6 cups of corn flakes and press into a buttered jelly roll pan.

Next, melt together one bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and one bag of butterscotch chips in the microwave, stirring together until smooth.  Now pour this over the corn flake mixture and spread around until it is covered. 

Cut into small squares and serve when chocolate is set.

  (I usually end up putting mine in the fridge for about 30 minutes.)  Serves 24-36 depending on how small you cut them.

I’ll leave you with one more recipe.  A cuppa love, a cuppa detours in your path, and a cuppa God’s plan and not your own.  Mix together and you will get a sweet sweet journey.

Baked French Toast - Breakfast for Swimming Champions

It’s no secret that I am SUPER proud of my two oldest girlies and the fantastically awesome effort they put forth for the Yokota Stingrays swim team.  But I am also SUPER excited to announce that my youngest girlie had the chance to swim this past weekend at our home swim meet.  Yay Amber!!!!

She swam the 50 meter back stroke in one minute and twenty-two seconds, and although she didn’t win any medals or ribbons, she was just excited to swim……

Just like her big sisters do.

And since the girls burn about a zillion calories during a swim meet, I have to carb load them with something yummy for breakfast.  It is fast and easy and you can make A LOT if you need to.

 This recipe works well with any kind of bread, but a nice French bread or sourdough is perfect if you want to be fancy.  I am not feeling that fancy at 5:30am, making sure everyone has swim caps and goggles, so this time I just used a left over baguette from dinner the night before.  It made perfect little dippers.  (Normally though, I use Wonder Bread…like a bad mom…who doesn’t make her kids eat whole wheat bread like I should.)

Baked French Toast

(recipe adapted from http://www.cooks.com/)

Ingredients:

·        1/4 cup butter

·        4 eggs

·        2/3 cup milk

·        1/3 cup sugar

·        1 tsp cinnamon

·        8 slices of bread (more or less depending on the kind of bread)

Turn oven to 400 degrees.  Melt butter in a 10 x 15 pan while the oven is pre-heating.  Mix sugar and cinnamon.  Remove pan from the oven and sprinkle sugar cinnamon mixture evenly into the pan.  Mix the eggs and milk.  Dip the bread into the liquid mixture and then lay it on top of the buttery sugar.  Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until bread begins to brown. (I usually go about 15.)  Lift out sugar side up onto a serving platter.  Serve with warm maple syrup and powdered sugar…or whatever French toast toppings you love!

Then, you better go swimming to work those calories off!

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

 Like every mom, I could tell you how busy I am.  I am the treasurer of this and I am the president of that.  I have social engagements on top of laundry, housework, swim team, and homework.  Oh yeah, I have a husband too.  He needs a haircut and his underpants washed. 

See, I am the busiest woman on earth.  That’s why I haven’t emailed you back, taken you up on your lunch date, or been blogging……because I know you have been waiting for a new blog post.

Really though, on top of the busy mom stuff, I’ve just been playing on Pinterest. 

I am addicted.

So I made these cookies, not just because they are good, but more because they would make an attractive Pin.

I know.  I have lost my mind.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Ingredients:

·        1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

·        2 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened baking chocolate

·        1 cup sugar

·        ½ cup Butter Flavor Crisco

·        2 eggs

·        ½ tsp salt

·        1 tsp vanilla

·        1 ½ cups flour

·        ½ tsp baking soda

·        ¾ cup finely chopped peanuts

·        36 Reeses miniatures peanut butter cups

·        1 cup melted peanut butter chips for drizzle

Combine chocolate chips & chocolate squares in bowl and microwave at 50%.  Stir after 2 minutes.  Repeat for an additional 30 seconds until chocolates are smooth & melted.

Combine sugar and ½ cup shortening in a large bowl.  Beat at medium speed until blended and crumbly.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, then salt and vanilla.  Reduce to low speed.  Add chocolate slowly.  Mix until well blended.  Add baking soda & flour until you have moldable dough.

Shape dough into 1 ¼ inch balls.  Roll in crushed peanuts. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.  DO NOT OVERBAKE.  Cookies will be soft.  When you remove them from the oven, immediately press a peanut butter cup into the center.  Let cool on pan for 1 minute, and then move to cooling rack.

When cookies are cooled you can add the drizzle.  Melt the peanut butter chips at 50% in the microwave for about 1 minute.  Stir until smooth.  Add the melted chips to a plastic sandwich bag and cut off a small corner.  Squeeze out and drizzle over cookie.

Yummy, chewy, chocolaty, peanut-buttery goodness.  Perfect for a fall bake sale.  Plus, they will look fabulous on Pinterest don’t you think?

To follow my pinning adventures……CLICK HERE!