Where's Buster's Ornament?

Pumpkin Muffins and Glaze

Let me just say....these were good!!! Here is the recipe I used.

Ingredients....I used the pumpkin I made from an actual pumpkin (but it was only 1 cup, and I needed 2 cups, so I used some canned pumpkin that my mom found for me!)

Dry Ingredients

Batter

Ingredients for glaze.

2T butter

2T pumpkin

2T milk

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp cinnamon

This glaze really added an extra "yum" to the muffins!

I REALLY recommend this recipe!



I couldn't find canned pumpkin....so I made my own!

1 Pie Pumpkin

Cut into wedges, seeds scooped out, covered tightly with foil. Bake on 350 for 1 1/2 hours

Peel the skin off...

Stick it in the food processor

Pureed pumpkin! But we aren't finished yet!

Let it sit/drain for about an hour

to get rid of the watery stuff

And THEN you are finished! I would say it made about as much as would be in a can you buy from the store. However, it was not as easy as buying it from the store, haha. It wasn't difficult, just time consuming. I am going to try to find out if/how I could make this in a crock pot!!! I can't wait to try this pumpkin compared to canned!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

And boy does it smell good!! I really want to cut into that baby, but I do plan to take it to work tomorrow, so I need to practice some self-control! Here is the recipe I used (except I only did 2 layers).

Here are the ingredients ( I love it because I only had to buy sour cream!)

Cinnamon, sugar, and nuts (for the top and filling)

Flour mixture....added to the.....

butter, sugar, sour cream, egg, and vanilla mixture...

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes - I wait about 10-15 minutes before I invert the cake onto the cooling rack, just long enough so it doesn't fall apart, but not too long, so it doesn't get stuck in the pan!

Congratulations Ryan and Loryn!

Ryan and Loryn are engaged!!!!! This happened on July 23, 2010, but sorry - I am just now taking a picture of them together and posting.

They plan to get married September 10, 2011, that's 9/10/11 - pretty cool! The wedding and recpetion are going to be at the Williamsburg Winery (this is my later post about that).

We are excited for them! Congrats Ryan and Loryn!

Massanutten

This past week I was lucky enough to spend a few days in beautiful Massanutten with family. We had a great time playing mini golf, tubing, touring a winery, shopping, looking for bears (ok, that was mostly just me), and looking at the gorgeous views from the mountaintop. It's a beautiful place to go...maybe we will go back in the winter...??

Here are some pics from the week.

We rode the chairlift to the top of the mountain to feed the goats....but the goats weren't there when we got to the top (apparently they were moved because they were being mean) but we saw some awesome views anyways!

The waters got "rough" - actually the water level was a little low, so we had some close encounters with rocks.

Thanks mom and Mike for inviting me!!

Milky Way Cake

My good friend K.B. made this and brought it to school two years ago, but I recently stumbled upon the recipe she sent out and couldn't wait to make it! Milky Ways are good, cake is good, so how could this not be good? Well, if my memory serves me correctly, this is absolutely amazing!!

Here are the ingredients:

Please don't take note of how much butter is in this, however if you are like me and Paula Deen, and measure a recipes "goodness" on the amount of butter, then this is proof of how amazing this cake is.

Step 1: Melt 4 milky ways and 1 stick of butter in a double boiler

Step 2: cream together 2 cups of sugar and 1 stick of butter

Step 3: add 4 eggs, 1 cup of buttermilk**, 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp of baking soda, and 2 tsp vanilla to the sugar/butter mixture.

Step 4: Add milky way mixture.

Step 5: grease bundt pan and bake on 325 for about 1 hour

Let cool about 10-15 minutes in pan, then invert and cool completely

Step 6: FROSTING

Melt 2 milky way bars and 1/2 stick of butter in double boiler. Add 2 tbsp of milk and 1 1/3 cup of powdered sugar. Mix well and pour over cake.

ENJOY!! Thanks K.B.!!



**Buttermilk - if you don't have any, you can make it with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and a little less than 1 cup of milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes before using.

Chelsea's World Famous Garlic Knots

Ok...maybe not world famous (that's just a joke me and TJ have) but they are amazing and easy.

I buy a bag of frozen dinner rolls (Rhodes) and then only thaw out as many as I need. Spray the cookie sheet and also the plastic wrap. Plan ahead! You can set the frozen dough out in the morning and by the time you get home, this is what they will look like...

Huge! Then what I do, is pull each of these rolls apart and tie the dough in a knot. They are small again.

Put the plastic wrap back over them and leave them for maybe an hour....

And once again, they rise! I bake them on 375 for about 10 minutes. Then dip them in melted garlic butter and sprinkle some parsely and parmesan cheese on top.

They are light and airy when you bite into them...and delicious!

Watermelon Carriage!!

I saw this picture online and just had to make it for my friends baby shower!