What food pyramid?

Ken and I must look like the biggest junk mouths on the planet because all I've blogged about lately are the sweet treats we seem to be making these days. My friend Nancy gave me a great recipe for a caramel drizzle. I made some, added a bunch of ground cinnamon to it, and Ken and I had it on our French Toast yesterday instead of syrup. It was delicious!

Sunday is our cinnamon roll day. Yes, more admission to the junk food consumption. We just make the Rhodes bake and serve kind on Sunday mornings. Nothing too elaborate. They're delicious and easy. We had some of the French Toast drizzle left and decided to add it to our frosted cinnamon rolls. Sugar on top of sugar? Yes, please!

We made a second batch of these newly discovered diabetic shock-worthy cinnamon rolls this afternoon and are getting ready to take them over to his great aunt Shirley's house. The picture below is of Shirley's little treat - we've pretty much polished our own off. Who wouldn't let us in the door with these?

I also wanted to post about my second attempt at making pie crust. The first apple pie I made for Ken turned out okay. The crust was a disaster however. Here is a picture of the first one. Looks like my little wife skills are seriously lacking in the crust department.

The second pie I made for Ken was much more of a success. I used the same recipe from my friend Tiffany's mom (thanks, Karen) but used my mom's pie crust recipe instead (thanks, mom). It turned out much, much better as you can see below. I even got all "Martha Stewart" and played with the edges of the crust. Ha ha!

Maybe my next post will be something about carrots, peas, or celery... but I certainly wouldn't hold your breath on that one... unless they're glazed with a lovely little caramel drizzle. Hmmm... that gives me a few ideas. Ha!

Vintage Halloween...

I really like vintage things.

I like to look at them, but I don't want them in my house. Is that weird? I love antique stores but wouldn't buy anything there. It all seems so dirty to me. I know, I know... it's weird. But I feel like no matter what I did, it would never be clean enough.

I'm a freak, I know.

But I did find some fun vintage Halloween photographs. Things have sure changed over the decades.

Hope everyone has a very

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Yippee for three...

Three.

It's a good number.

Good things come in 3's.

The Three Little Pigs.

The Three Stooges.

The Three Amigos.

The Three Musketeers.

The Three Wisemen.

The Three Tenors.

Three Months.

Happy Three Month Anniversary to us!

Pumpkin, spice, and chocolate...

I love pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.
They rank in my top 3 favorite cookies for sure!
I made some for my friend Kim last night and Ken and I took her the whole batch. I was having a major craving today so I whipped some up for myself.

There are so many recipes out there with the traditional flour, egg, sugar, baking soda, etc. ingredients.
But below is the easiest recipe on earth!
(and my sis-in-law Denise can attest to their deliciousness)

All you need are three things...
one spice cake mix
one 15 oz. can of solid pumpkin
and one 12 oz. bag of chocolate chips.
That's it.

Pour the cake mix in a medium bowl.

Add the can of pumpkin.

Mix the two together.

Add the bag of chocolate chips.

Mix it all together.
There you go!
That's it.
That's your cookie dough!
(FYI... it's pretty sticky)

Put cookie dough on a cookie sheet. Whenever I make this recipe I always get 18 cookies. I always make my cookies on the larger side. I hate wimpy cookies!
(and by the way... our kitchen smelled soooo good while these were baking!)
350 degrees for 15-17 minutes.

Out of the oven.

Cooling on the wire rack.

Yum!

Here's one all broken open.
It's all soft and gooey AND full of chocolate!

If you make these, just know that the cookies don't spread or rise while they cook. Basically however they look going into the oven is how they'll look when they come out.

"Always Follow The Brethren..."

Yesterday in our sacrament meeting, two letters were read from the First Presidency. The first letter nicely stated to please quit sending letters and requests to the office of the First Presidency and take your questions to your local leaders. This cracked me up for some reason. I kind of want to see the mail room at the church offices. I'd also like a 30 minute pass to open any of the mail. I can only imagine some of the bizarre things members of the Church send in.

In the second letter, LDS church members were warned about attending and participating in self-awareness groups. The letter stated that such groups should be avoided as they are not sanctioned by the Church. Seeking to find oneself in areas outside of and against church doctrine is not wise. Even if these groups base themselves on Church teachings and scriptures, they are still harmful and should be avoided.

I am saddened that such letters even need to be written in the first place.

It reminded me about something my Mission President told me just a few weeks before I returned home. This has ALWAYS stuck with me over the years, and I have thought about it many, many times. He said (and I loosely quote this as best as I can)

"No one will ever go apostate, inactive, be excommunicated or leave the Church if they follow the brethren. It's not possible. The only way to ensure happiness and safety is to always always follow the brethren!"

GUESS WHO'S HAVING A BABY!!

GUESS WHO'S HAVING A BABY!!

My friend Kim is.

In fact, she's at the hospital right now.

You thought it was me?

What made you think THAT? Geez!

For the apple of my eye...

Ken likes apple pie.

I do not.

Actually, I don't like cooked fruit of any kind. To me, pie needs to have chocolate as the main ingredient followed by more chocolate and some whipped cream.

Knowing that Ken is a lover of cooked fruit (and also apple pie) I decided to bravely make him one as a surprise. So, last night while he was at work I got going.

Here's the nitty gritty documentation...

Here's the crust.

It didn't turn out very well.

It wouldn't roll out at all so I basically "patted" it into the pie plate.

Don't worry... I knew that it was going to be crust failure.

Fresh apples from my dad's tree peeled and ready to go.

BTW... the apples had been picked about an hour before they went into the pie.

The apples are sliced and ready for a little sugar.

Yummm... I must admit that I ate of few of these apples that were tossed with cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar.

All loaded up in the pie crust.

Time to mix the streusel topping - how could you not love chunks of butter with cinnamon and sugar? I could have eaten this with a spoon I tell you!

Looking good!

Into the paper bag for cooking. Yeah... you read that right. The recipe was for a paper bag apple pie.

Stapled shut and ready for the oven.

In the middle of the pie baking, Ken came home from work totally unannounced about an hour or so before he was supposed to. My surprise was a little ruined (it was still in the oven) but I was SUPER glad to have him home!

An hour and a half later... done!

Ken unveiling his surprise...

Voila!

The finished product!

Here's Ken cutting into his little surprise.

Ta-da!

(he did add vanilla ice cream on top as well)

According to Ken, on a scale of 1 to 10 the pie came in at a 7.5. Considering this is my first attempt and a 10 would have to be beyond amazing, I'm feeling pretty good about that score. Ken said the crust tasted really good, but as you can see from the picture it didn't hold up at all. Oh well. Next time I'll try a different crust recipe and see what I can come up with. I'm pretty proud of my little attempt.

Two words...

Two words...

Fall Break!

I am off work until Monday.

I'm pretty sure nothing feels better than this!