How do you feel about 

THIS

?

I feel... like i might try it!  

So i am apparently FLYING through books these days.

 

I finished The Pact last night and Handle With Care last week.

Yes, i love Jodi Picoult.

She rocks my world.

I will read Captivating (which i have already read 2x), Blue like Jazz, and Crazy Love(which i have also already read) before i move on to something new

 but with the way i am going...

I need some new books.

Any suggestions?

um, hi i love you

Okay so i stumbled upon this cupcake blog and saw what sounded like the most fantastic idea ever...

pumpkin pie frosting.  

She put hers on some apple cupcake or something but me and my love of chocolate decided to use a chocolate buttermilk cupcake instead.

Turns out... the frosting IS the most fantastic idea ever.

YOU GO GIRL!

She literally makes a pumpkin pie... the goodness is baked right inside!

YUMMY-in-my-TUMMY

because yes, that is where these cupcakes now live.

Right next to Jack.

Here is her recipe

I however had just read the jist of it and decided i was too lazy this morning at 5 a.m. when i needed to whip up the frosting, so i threw the whole pie in there (no crust), 1 stick of butter and about 4 cups of powdered sugar (all i had left). 

Oh, and now i read she straight piped pumpkin pie.  

DUDE, this woman is awesome.

 It didn't whip up as pretty as hers to be able to pipe fantastically but...

It tasted darn good, so no dissin'.

:)  Dissin'

Who says that?

Buttermilk Chocolate cake recipe

DO IT

I promise you won't regret it!

DEEP FAT FRYING

I need a reason to buy some more oil... 

I REALLY WANT to make these doughnuts!  YUMMY!

Are doughnuts enough reason to spend $15 on the oil alone... and have the smell in my house?

SWEET POTATO DOUGHNUTS WITH MAPLE ICING

and they are Paula Deen's so you know they are good!

Paula's recipe

It might be worth it.

Rocky Horror Picture Show - Time Warp (Original)

I seriously don't know why i like this song so much. I never made it through the whole movie, i guess i just didn't get it. This song though is just so silly! I love it.

GLEE - "Time Warp" Full Performance from 10/26!

Oh Glee, i missed you last week. Thank you for singing Time warp, i love it! LOL random, i know!

You know you are crazy when...

When in the middle of writing a paper you see a paper back book you already finished reading, grab it and start tearing ALL THE PAGES OUT.

Yes, this just happened in the Cooley house.

I then went on to grab tissue paper, paper scraps, paper bags... whatever i could get my hands on in my brown color scheme.

This random collection of papers was then cut into fall leaf shapes.  Now i just did them free hand so some of them are a bit of a doozy!  lol

Homemade, that is what i call them.

I am now organically dropping/throwing them around my round mirror.  I will glue them together to frame the mirror and add a ribbon to finish this fall project that literally just stumbled into my lap.  

Sorry Nutrition paper, you are boring.

Tis' the Season

So for a holiday treat this year, we decided to send little gift packages to our families.

We decided to keep it cheap and simple.

We made Hot Chocolate packets with marshmallows,

Peppermint Biscotti,

Pumpkin Scone Mix,

one of our pregnancy pictures,

And some Hand Turkey's saying what we were thankful for.

The finished product: Hot Chocolate and Peppermint Marshmallows

Packaged up and ready to enjoy!

These are the personalized Peppermint Biscotti's Monogramed with the recipient's last name

Here is the Scone Mix.

The leaves are the instructions, and inside the bag are an orange cellophane bag with the scone mix and a clear cellophane bag with the spiced glaze mix.

Here are our school projects:

Our Thankful Turkey Hands

I wrapped the pictures in these envelopes that i just stamped... easy as pie!

All together...

Now i am just waiting for 14 boxes to send these puppies out.  

:)

Want to do this yourself?

Here was our break down:

Grocery Store: $56

Pictures $32

Craft Store $30

Not bad for 14 gifts right?

$118 / 14 = $8.42 a piece

Not bad, just took some time, effort and love.

We still need to pay shipping, but if you are stateside, you probably wouldn't so you would save money there too!

Pumpkin!

Pumpkin butter

Recipe Post

Swedish pancakes with pumpkin butter, chocolate chips and topped with homemade whipped cream.

Pumpkin cream cheese chocolate chip cupcakes

Recipe Post

I also made Pumpkin spice syrup, yum!

Recipe

Marshmallows as a muse?

Inspired by the marshmallow's i decided to google some other homemade marshmallow's

...

How cute are these!

If you remember, i made pink heart shaped coconut marshmallows for Valentine's day last year

Valentines Marshmallow Post

BUT i have to admit that these plain square/coconut marshmallows are beautiful!

They are simple and gorgeous.

Then i stumbled upon this beauty...

I WILL be making this

Marshmallow Cranberry Cheesecake

Side note:

I just LOVE handwritten recipes on recipe cards
Especially in cursive
My grandma made all of us a cookbook with our family recipes neatly organized in it, but i still hold on to her handwritten recipes because they just cannot be matched.

... I am making marshmallow's, what are you doing?

Want to make some cocoa and marshmallows?

Here you go:

Marshmallows

&

Hot Cocoa

Gelatin and water

whisking full speed until the gelatin, and corn syrup mixture become light, fluffy and luke warm

Add peppermint and Vanilla

I threw some crushed peppermint on top for kicks and giggles

pour the mixture into your pan and let set

When the marshmallows are set cut them with a cookie cutter or a knife

Cocoa mix

drug dealer?

No, just cocoa i swear

I cut my marshmallows into circles with a cookie cutter because i thought they were cuter than just squares, but squares would be much easier F.Y.I.

I added a few too many marshmallows :)

Nick said "This white tar is delicious!"

Compliment?

Not quite sure.

Totally excited about my new Christmas banner

THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!

Shop this store

A night in the deep south, or at least the deep fat fryer

Last night we had our friend Denise over for supper and decided to try and cook "Southern" for her to remind her of home.

I had to preface this with saying i am a white girl attempting this food so it is probably not the same... but i tried

We made Fried chicken which is a recipe i have from a friend who can kick some fried chicken in the mouth.  I still don't know his exact seasoning for his flour, but i try...

We also had Mac & Cheese

I used Grandma's recipe for this and added some ricotta on the bottom of the pan to make it a bit more creamy.

THEN

...

Since i already had all of the oil heating and my dear friend Sara gave me a recipe, i decided i would make some pumpkin donuts

(I did these before the chicken)

(No chicken bits in my donuts please)

They were good but next time i would either use self rising flour to see if that makes them fluffier or at least try cake flour.  

They were a bit dense.

But they are pumpkin... so all in all they weren't too bad :)

This was my taste tester :)

Get the recipe

I almost tripled the spices in the recipe, and i made a spiced sugar as suggested and a spiced glaze using the same ingredients but substituting the sugar with powdered sugar and adding a little milk.

I drizzled these with the glaze and then sugar coated them.