Pumpkin Brookie Bars

Allow me to explain what a pumpkin brookie bar is... pumpkin cookie base + fudgy brownie top.  You with me so far?

Good.

Drooling yet?

Good.

Pumpkin Brookie Bars
From Crazy For Crust

Ingredients
For the cookie layer:
1/2 cup melted butter
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (if your butter is unsalted)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 cup flour

For the brownie layer:
1 box mix + ingredients to prepare

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 13x9 inch pan.
2. Mix together butter, pumpkin, and sugars.  Add egg yolk, vanilla, and spices and combine.  Slowly add flour.  Press dough into the prepared pan.
3. Mix brownie ingredients together and pour over cookie layer.  Bake 25-35 minutes until the brownie is set in the middle.  Let cool before slicing into bars.

These are every bit as wonderful as you are imagining right now.

Could you have imagined a more beautiful sight for your Thanksgiving dessert table?  I think not.

Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars

THESE ARE EVERYTHING!

It's a cheesecake!

It's an apple crisp!

It's so much graham cracker crust!

Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars

Ingredients
For the crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick melted butter
1/4 cup sugar

For the cheesecake:
3 packages cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

For the apples:
3 apples, peeled, cored, finely chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

For the streusel:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup butter, softened

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Mix together melted butter and graham cracker crumbs. Press into a 13x9 inch pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
2. Wipe out that bowl and mix cheesecake filling together until smooth.  Pour onto crust.
3. Wipe out the same bowl and mix the apples with cinnamon and sugar.  Spread evenly over cheesecake layer.
4. Mix the streusel ingredients together until it resembles wet sand.  Sprinkle evenly over the apples.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until filling is set and streusel is browned.  Cool for at least 3 hours before slicing into bars.

This makes a ton of massive bars so your Christmas crowd will be stuffed for sure. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Recipe Round Up

In case you are still deciding how to add some pumpkin spice to your Thanksgiving table this year, here are a few of my favorites.

Top row: Pumpkin cinnamon rolls, pumpkin blondies, double chocolate pumpkin spice cookies, pumpkin potato gratin

Middle row: pumpkin mac and cheese, pumpkin shortbread

Bottom row: sopapilla pumpkin bars, pumpkin chocolate chip bars, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin brownies with apple butter

Happy Thanksgiving!

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cookies

So I came upon these awesome pumpkin spice chips by Tollhouse during pumpkin mania at the supermarket.

Before we go any further can I just comment on the fact that pumpkin madness began before fall started and the supermarket has already deemed the season over before the end of October! What is this nonsense!? Pumpkin flavors have a least another month to go in my meal rotation.  I have a feeling no one is starting their Christmas baking yet, despite the stores encouragement.

Double Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Ingredients
1 package Betty Crocker chocolate chunk cookie mix
1 cup pumpkin spice chips
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
2 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 375.  Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Drop dough by the tablespoon-ful onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes.  Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing.

Here is a little bonus idea for you crazy kids out there: take some pumpkin gelato and sandwich it between 2 cookies!

Hellooooo fall chip-wich! 

Slow Cooker Chicken and Stuffing

This is just the kind of recipe you need now that the holidays are over.  It's time to put your feet up and relax, and this is the perfect dinner for such an occasion.

Slow Cooker Chicken and Stuffing

Ingredients
boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 box of stuffing crumbs
frozen vegetables of your choice

1. Place chicken breasts in slow cooker, top with stuffing crumbs, then chicken soup and sour cream.  Let cook on low for 6 hours.
2. When chicken is just about finished, pour vegetables on top and cook until tender.

Perfectly simple winter dinner, eat up!

Honeymoon Cruise Food Fest!

A few weeks ago I went on my honeymoon.  We cruised to Aruba, Colombia, Panama Canal, Costa Rica, and the Cayman Islands.  The scenery and adventures were incredible, but we know what you guys are here for...the food!

Princess Cruises did not let us down with their menu choices.  If you want a little run-down of a typical food filled day it goes a little something like this:

Breakfast at the buffet
Iced coffees/lattes at La Patisserie
Lunch at the buffet, or pizza, or the grill
Formal dinner: 3 courses, plus dessert each night
Post dinner snacks: a visit to the buffet, popcorn, ice cream, possible room service

Created with flickr slideshow.

Some of my favorites were:
Grilled calamari steak, I had it for a dinner entree and it was just incredible
Goat cheese and apple soup, served chilled, so interesting
Pistachio Chocolate Journey dessert, this is a limited edition 50th anniversary Princess cruise dessert. It was gorgeous and easily the most delicious dessert we had on the cruise.
Popcorn! All the time! It was like dreams coming true.

It was the trip of a lifetime, food and adventures all rolled into one.

Apple Pear Crisp

Hey guys, sorry for abandoning you the past few weeks.  I've been dealt an interesting deck of cards this month, but hopefully I'll be back to my regular postings now.

It's been ages since I cooked up a dessert, seriously it was August, so I was really excited to get the blog up and running again with this apple and pear crisp.

Is there anything better than cinnamon and brown sugar?  I just don't know.

Apple Pear Crisp

Ingredients
4 cups sliced apples and pears (feel free to use an combination you like this is not an exact science)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1/3 cup butter, softened and cubed
2/3 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp cinnamon
2/3 cup brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Place sliced fruit in an even layer in an 8x8 baking pan.
2. In a small bowl mix flour, oats, butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar.  Use your fingers to combine ingredients.  Mixture should be like wet sand. Top fruit mixture, making sure fruit is completely covered.
3. Bake for 60 minutes, until fruit is bubbling.  Let sit for 10 minutes. Serve topped with ice cream or whipped cream.

P.S. I got some pretty killer fall ice cream at the market recently.  1. Cinnamon caramel apple pie, the ice cream is cinnamon flavor! amazing! 2. Pumpkin pie, it's got a cinnamon graham cracker swirl! You probably need both of these in your freezer this fall.

Thanksgiving, a Retrospective

This year, I cooked up a Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday for me and Chris since we wouldn't be spending Thanksgiving together.

The menu consisted of stuffing, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, and turkey cutlets.

For the stuffing I added sauteed carrots, onions, and celery to a bagged stuffing mix.

The mashed potatoes were mixed with sauteed corn and red onion and topped with paprika and Fritos.

The brussel sprouts were mixed in a dijon balsamic vinaigrette with pecans, blue cheese, and craisins.  This was my favorite dish of the night.  You can find the recipe over at Two Peas and Their Pod. The recipe does not call for you to cook the brussel sprouts, but I did.  I sauteed them in a bit of olive oil with the pecans.  Best brussel sprouts ever!

I placed a sage leaf on each turkey cutlet and sauteed them in a frying pan.

My contribution to my family's Thanksgiving meal were these adorable cheese ball turkeys!  I mixed cream cheese, 2 cups of an Italian blend of shredded cheeses, and sage to make the balls.  Then I rolled them in chopped pecans, put craisins for the eyes, cheese for a beak, and sliced almonds for the feathers.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!  I'm giving thanks to you guys for another record breaking month here on the blog!

Stuffing Casserole

In a week's time I'm sure you'll all have some leftovers laying around that are sick of eating.  Why not transform them into something a little more desirable?

For the base of this casserole we shredded a few cups of leftover chicken.  The chicken was then topped with frozen corn and butternut squash.  No need to thaw it, it's going in the oven.  Layer the stuffing on top and cook until heated through.

We whipped up a quick gravy from a packet to top it all off with.  Serious culinary skills here folks.

Little known fact this dish makes a fantastic breakfast.

Yes, that was me telling you all we cooked this at 10 am.  By the time it was done, it was totally brunch time so quit judging.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Have you guys had enough pumpkin yet? Doubt it!

These pumpkin cinnamon rolls are such a great weekend or holiday breakfast.  What makes them so great? They are beautiful, give off the appearance that you were in kitchen all morning, smells up your kitchen something wonderful, and are ridiculously easy!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

1 can Pillsbury Recipe Creations seamless dough sheet*
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
cream cheese frosting, only about 1/2 cup will be needed. a powdered sugar and milk glaze would work nicely also

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Unroll dough sheet.  Spread pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg evenly over the dough.
3. Roll dough into a log, working from the short side of the dough.
4. Cut dough into 8 pieces using a serrated knife.  Place onto a greased round glass pie plate.
5. Bake 15-20 minutes.
6. Top rolls with cream cheese frosting and devour instantly.

*Note: You can use regular Crescent rolls.  You would just have to press all the seams together.

Just unroll it, spread it, roll it up, and slice it. I told you it was easy!

These are very small cinnamon rolls so if you are feeding more than 3 or 4 people you will certainly want to double the batch.

It's ok to drool.

You have to, have to, make these for breakfast.  You're family would be so disappointed if you didn't.

Pumpkin Shortbread Cookies

Looking for something different to add to your Thanksgiving dessert menu? These pumpkin shortbread cookies with cream cheese frosting are exactly what you need.

They require minimal ingredients and effort which is great since you have about 30 other dishes to cook for the Thanksgiving meal.

It would be helpful if I actually posted recipes on this site wouldn't it? Let's give it a whirl.

Pumpkin Shortbread Cookies
From Cookies and Cups, with minor adjustments by KTC

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
3/4 powdered sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
cream cheese frosting, get a can, mix up some of your own, you decide.  you won't need very much of it.

1. Preheat oven to 300.
2. Spray an 8x8 pan.
3. Beat butter and powdered sugar until smooth.
4. Beat in pumpkin puree.
5. Add dry ingredients until incorporated.
6. Bake for 60-70 minutes until the shortbread is firm.
7. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and cut into small squares.
8. Spread each square with cream cheese frosting and eat up!

These came out exactly how I wanted them too, plenty of pumpkin and spice flavor.  Hope you give them a go this fall, especially since I went through all the trouble to post the recipe for you!

Brown Butter Brussel Sprouts with Apples

I recently fell in love with the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens.  They have a whole slew of delicious looking twists on traditional side dishes.  I'll be trying my best to cook my way through it this month so look forward to some Thanksgiving side dish inspiration coming your way!

First up are these fantastic brown butter brussel sprouts with apples and rosemary.  This side dish is simple, straightforward, and perfect for fall.

The BHG recipe calls for thyme, but I had fresh rosemary on hand and used that instead.  The smell of the butter and rosemary browning in the pan was spectacular.

All of the flavors come together so nicely in this dish.  It would most definitely make a great side for your Thanksgiving spread.

I served my sprouts alongside some stuffing and my cheesy stuffed chicken.

Cranberry Sauce

Ok, ok, I know Thanksgiving is still 3 days away, but the ladies in this household simply cannot hold back from cooking any longer!  Racking our brains for what can be made 3 days in advance we came up with cranberry sauce and the stuffing saute stuff (apples, celery, onions, pecans, craisins, mushrooms).

For the cranberry sauce I combined ingredients from a few recipes I looked at on the Food Network web site.

 I chose to use orange juice, lemon and orange zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar.

The cranberries literally pop while they cook.  Look out, they might burn you!

This is the lovely mush it all turns into when it's finished.  Dammit it's just impossible to take food pictures at night. Ugh. Well, I promise you it tastes good annnnnd I hope you are excited to see what else I cook up this Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

In the past I have made Oreo cheesecakes, pumpkin blondies, and a pumpkin cake with amaretto cream cheese frosting. This year I was commissioned to make a cheesecake for our Thanksgiving feast.  I decided to move away from the pumpkin flavor for a moment, assuming that there would be a pumpkin pie present at the dessert table.  I went with a caramel apple cheesecake and I was quite happy with it.

Chock full of finely diced apples.

Caramel action shot with the help of my lovely assistant, Amy.

Oooohhh yea she came out nice.

Just pretend like you don't see that minor crack.

I hope everyone had a fantastic and delicious Thanksgiving!

 

Thanksgiving: the meal

Our menu:
turkey
mashed potatoes
brussel sprouts
peas and onions
sweet potatoes (covered with marshmallows, coconut, and pecans!)
stuffing
glazed carrots
corn bread

My plate, of which I had more than one:


Up next, the desserts!

Thanksgiving 2009

Last year I made a pumpkin cake with amaretto cream cheese frosting.




This year another pumpkin treat is on the way! Get excited!