Easy Pumpkin Bars

These pumpkin bars are quick and easy and the best I have ever taken. I don't know about you, but I think that cream cheese frosting (the traditional frosting on pumpkin bars) can sometimes be a little too overpowering of a flavor. Instead, these bars call for Brown Butter frosting which really compliments the pumpkin flavor instead of taking it over.

Pumpkin Bars:

1/2 Cup butter, soft (1 stick)
1 Cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2/3 Cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
1 Cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. CINNAMON
1/4 tsp. POWDERED GINGER
1/4 tsp. GROUND NUTMEG

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream the butter. Add the brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin, and VANILLA and mix well. In a separate bowl, sift all of the dry ingredients together. Gradually add to the wet mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch pan and bake at 350° for about 15-20 minutes. Let cool and top with Brown Butter Frosting.


Brown Butter Frosting:

1/2 Cup butter (1 stick)
3 Cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. PURE VANILLA EXTRACT
2 TB milk


In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the butter over low heat until it is a light brown. Remove from heat and add the powdered sugar, VANILLA, and milk. Whisk until smooth and well blended.


To spruce these up for a party, try topping each square with a couple candy corn or a creme pumpkin.

6 months? Sorry

I apologize for my 6 month hiatus. It was a busy summer and early fall. There have been a lot of changes around our house. But things are finally starting to slow down. After this week, I will officially be a stay-at-home mom! That means more time to try new recipes, and more time to blog! So keep your eyes open for some great new recipes

Strawberry Marshmallow Pie

Here's another berry recipe. Although, this one calls for frozen berries and I've never actually tried it with fresh. Although I'm sure you could do fresh if you put a little sugar on your fresh berries so you would have the required 3 Tbs of juice.

Its quick and easy. You don't even have to know a thing about making pies in order to do this one!

10 oz. Marshmallows
16 oz container frozen strawberries, thawed
3 Tbs Strawberry Juice
1 c. Heavy Whipping Cream
Graham Cracker Pie crust

Drain the juice from the strawberries, reserving only 3 Tbs. In a large bowl, beat whipping cream until soft peaks form. Melt marshmallows in the microwave and add to the whipping cream along with the strawberries and reserved juice. Beat with mixer until well blended. Pour into crust. Refrigerate.

Like I said, quick and simple!

You could also try this recipe with raspberries or probably even blackberries. For a flavor twist, try using a chocolate graham crust, or a Nilla wafer crust.

Homemade Pizza Dough

We love making homemade pizza at our house. In fact, it is rare that we buy any type of pre-made pizza. I will do another post sometime on the different pizzas we make (you won't find us making plain pepperoni or sausage). Recently I have had some requests for my dough so I thought I would share it with everyone. It is very simple and pretty quick. I usually use the time while the dough is rising to prep my toppings.


This is the recipe I use. However, there are a couple little changes I make: 1) I use 1 tsp Garlic Salt instead of regular salt, 2) I add a couple tsp. of dry Italian Seasoning as well.

1 pkg. reg. or quick-acting active dry yeast
1 c. warm water
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
2 3/4 to 3 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a bowl. Stir in sugar, oil, salt and 1 cup of flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place until almost double, about 30 minutes (see note below).

Note: I preheated my oven to 200 degrees. Then turned it off and set the covered bowl in the oven with the door closed while I prepped my pizza toppings

Roll out on a pizza pan or cookie sheet and add your favorite toppings. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Hand-Squeezed Lemonade

A lot of people don't actually know the correct way to make Lemonade from scratch. I'll even admit, I didn't find out until just a few years ago myself. But it really is simple, and the tiny bit of extra work is well worth it. I made a huge pitcher of it last night and it is delicious. Now, if only it would warm back up outside so I could enjoy a nice cold glass of it while relaxing in my hammock.

A Tip on Picking Lemons: Smell them! You want them to give off a light lemony smell. Believe it or not, some lemons just don't smell very lemony. If if doesn't smell wonderful, it isn't going to taste wonderful.

Here is what you will need to begin:

5-6 lemons
1 c. Water
1 c. Sugar (you can use a little less if you would like)

Hand squeeze (or use a citrus juicer if you have one) the lemons until you have 1 cup of lemon juice. Set aside. Mix water in sugar in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar is dissolved, creating a simple syrup.

In a large pitcher, combine syrup and lemon juice (reserve a small amount of each, set aside). Add 3-4 cups of cold water, stir together. At this point taste your lemonade, keeping in mind that it does taste just slightly different when warm. If it is too sweet for your taste, add some of your reserved lemon juice. If it is too sour, add some of the reserved syrup.

Refrigerate. Serve with ice and fresh lemon slices.


Note: Personally, I love hand squeezing the lemons and think it tastes better. However, if you don't have the time or energy, you can use purchase pure lemon juice from the store.

This recipe also works very well for Limeade.

Raspberry Streusel Muffins

As berry season approaches, I have been looking through my recipes to find ones that are best this time of year, with fresh plump berries. This is definitely one of those recipes. I first tried making these when I was about 14 after trying one at my neighbor lady's house.

I will say, though, that these do take a little bit of work. They aren't hard by any means, just time consuming. Also, only use fresh berries with this recipe, NOT frozen

Muffins:
1/2 c. Butter, softened
1/2 c. Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 c. Milk
1/2 c. Sour Cream
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
2 c. Flour
1 c. Raspberries

Cream butter and sugar in mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla, milk, and sour cream. Mix dry ingredients together and add to batter. Mix just until moistened. Gently fold in Raspberries. Spoon into greased or lined muffin cups.

Topping:
1/2 c. Flour
1/2 c. Quick Oats
1/3 c. Sugar
1/8 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
6 Tbs. Butter

Mix Flour, Oats, Sugar, Cinnamon and Salt in small bowl. Cut in butter (using two knives, a fork, or pastry cutter) until crumbly. Sprinkle over muffins

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Yield: 18 regular muffins

Enjoy!

Fluff

Ok, I will admit it: I am a sucker for fluff. I LOVE Fluff! All types of Fluff. My husband on the other hand, can't stand it. But thats okay. Because that means that when I make fluff, I get to eat all of it! Plus, since it is so light and airy, I always feel good about eating it, because it certainly can't contain TOO many calories, right? :)

I've had lots of different kinds of fluff. But I recently had the best fluff of my life. And its very simple. So, I thought I would share the recipe in case there are any other fluff lovers out there. Plus, berry season will soon be upon us and this is a great recipe for those yummy, fresh, plump berries.

1 small package Vanilla Pudding - cook & serve style
1 small package Strawberry Jello
2 cups Water
1 pint Strawberries, cut up
8 oz. Cool Whip

In sauce pan, mix together the pudding, Jello, and water. Boil until slightly thickened, stirring constantly. Cool. Add strawberries and Cool Whip. Refrigerate. Garnish with a few fresh Strawberry and dollop of Cool Whip on top.

Note: Be creative. Try Raspberry Jello with fresh Raspberries, Orange Jello with Mandarin Oranges, Blackberry Fusion Jello with Blackberries, Or perhaps even Strawberry Kiwi Jello with Strawberries.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to fluff.