Caramel Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Blondie Squares

Pumpkin Dessert...for the win!

I brought this to my office Thanksgiving Potluck, and it was a big hit.

If you aren't familiar with blondies, they are a brownie's non-chocolate counterpart. Everything you love about the texture of brownies, but made with more of a yellow cake mix idea.

These are made with pumpkin and lots of cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice, and are so delicious!

 The caramel filling proved to be amazingly tasty, but so messy. Even though I let them cool in the refrigerator overnight, before I attempted to cut them into squares, the caramel never hardened up much, and created a nice lava flow effect upon slicing.

I would perhaps try leaving out the heavy cream that is mixed in with the caramels, so that it might harden up more, when cooled.

OR, just embrace it, and serve warm, scooped into bowls with ice cream. Now that's a good plan B!

I think this seems more like a cobbler of caramely goodness, than neatly cut blondie squares.

No matter how you serve these up, they are festive and delicious!!

See this recipe found at Tasty Kitchen for the full recipe.

These are really easy to make.  The hardest part was unwrapping all the caramels! Sit yourself in front of the tv with a trash bowl and a caramel bowl....and a glass of wine helps, too ;)

You layer 2/3 of the batter into a 9x13 greased pan, then spread the caramel layer over, and top with dollops of the remaining 1/3 of the batter, spreading to mostly cover the caramel layer.

Bake, let cool, and enjoy!!

So there.

Things I Love Thursdays

I thought I'd start a new weekly blog entry with all my favorite things I've found this week - Mostly from Pinterest!

1.  I am a huge fan of dry shampoo. I used to use a drugstore brand, but seriously, this Biosilk one my friend got me hooked on is worth the $13 price tag.
No white powder residue, great smell, I am loving it. Though, I'm going through this $13 bottle much too quickly!
What's your favorite hair product?

2.  Pinterest always has new easy up-do hairstyles to try, but most look like hell on my fine hair. Aka bald spot below. BUT! There actually is hope with this one, if I tried a bit harder. The photo was of my "under one minute" attempt, as the style is titled, haha.

Try the Under-One-Minute-UpDo for yourself. My friend had great luck with it! All you need is an elastic headband. ...Give yourself about two minutes, just to be safe ;)

3.  One Pinterest hair do I actually can use is the...drum roll...Sock Bun!
Rolling your hair up into a high bun, using a piece of a thin dress sock. Works miracles, I tell ya. You've got to try this one.
I mean...if it's good enough for Olympic competitors, it's good enough for you.
Note, for my hair, the sock bun CURLS are bullsh*t. Don't work at ALL. But, I don't care. I like wearing the sock bun just for the purpose of an easy, neat up-do!

4.  Number four....Wine (have a peaked your interest?)...by the Glass (what?!). I know. Crazy!. But, it's true. And I saw it first on Shark Tank.
These plastic, resealable, single serving wine glasses are perfect for a picnic! And they taste pretty good, too!
They are available at grocery stores; I found mine at Ralph's.

5. And lastly, to stay with the topic of wine, are my adorable, funky, unique wine glasses I bought off Ebay.  I was tired of my boring Ikea wine glasses, and decided my stemware needed some color and excitement. I LOVE the retro goblets and colored stemless glasses. They make a glass of wine that much more fun to drink! (As if you needed a reason ;)  )  They make any evening feel like a special occasion. 
So, go ahead, add a little interest to your glass ware!

5 Things I Love Thursday.

So There.

Dinner Afterthought: Sweet Potato Beer Biscuits

What does any normal person do, when she gets home and is starving, so she quickly makes an open face grilled cheese (with mozzarella, Parmesan, and goat cheese. yum.), then realizes she's still hungry?
Stares at one lone sweet potato.  And makes sweet potato pumpkin beer biscuits with a honey sage butter.
See? normal.

Afterthought biscuits!
I found this recipe on Pinterest, and ever since my friend started her awesome blog Bake it With Booze!, I've been wanting to make a beer bread.
I juuuust happened to have 1 seasonal pumpkin beer left in my fridge, along with that lone sweet potato, so I whipped up these biscuits thanks to this recipe over at The Beeroness. Thanks girl for the recipe!!

There is something kind of fun and satisfying about mixing and kneading a dough with your hands.  Anything like this, where you crumble the cold butter into a flour mix, is best done with your hands.

After the dough came together, I passed on rolling it out and cutting out squares, in favor of just making drop biscuits. Laziness.

These baked up great, and were amazing topped with a honey sage butter (didn't have the suggested maple syrup; honey substituted fine).

The perfect fall biscuit.
So There!

 

I've linked up over at Inspiration for Moms' Throwback Thursday!

Cinnamon Stick Candle

When I saw this festive cinnamon stick candle DIY on Pinterest, I knew I had to make one. This beautiful display is by Beth at Home Stories A to Z. 

There are a few different tutorials out there in the world of Pinterest. Some have you hot glue the sticks to the candle, but this one uses a rubber band to secure them all, and then covers it with twine.

I thought this was easier, and plus, then you could always re-use the candle AND the cinnamon sticks.

I asked the world of Facebook where I could get a bunch of cheap cinnamon sticks, because the little bottle in the spice section of the grocery store is anywhere from $4 to $8! No thank you.

Dollar Store, people. Dollar Store!! I should have known.  I also live near a Mexican supermarket that has them pretty cheap, but the 99 Cent Store ones seemed to be more uniform in size.

So I bought up a bunch of those, found a short stubby candle to use, 'borrowed' a rubber band from my desk at work, and got crafting!

Oh, and after refusing to spend like over $10 at several stores I checked, even Walmart, for a candle like this, I found a huge supply of all sizes at Ross and TJ Maxx for around $3.99 each. Love that.

See Beth's Full Tutorial here, for all the details, but basically, you place the rubber band halfway up the candle, and begin tucking each cinnamon stick into it.  

The other problem I ran into, was if you have an especially fat stick next to a thinner stick, the thinner stick falls right out of the rubber band! I had to play with it a bit to get them all to stay in place.

I suppose the hot glue method was on to something in this sense.

Anyway, this really took no time at all to get all the cinnamon sticks into place, and then I cut a piece of burlap, and a piece of burgundy ribbon, to wrap around the candle, covering up the rubber band.

(I added the ribbon because the burlap is translucent, and you could see the rubber band through it.)

The twine pictured above and in the full tutorial would also look great.

I am just am on an extreme burlap kick right now.

Check out my adorable finished candle below!

So festive!

The question most asked on Pinterest, was if it had a wonderful cinnamon-y smell as the sticks warmed up from the burning candle.

Don't go into it expecting a strong cinnamon-apple-cider-boiling-away-in-your-kitchen scent right away, but yes, it does definitely smell of cinnamon!

I love this DIY!

So there.

                              

Holiday Cheer! Holiday Cheer!

You guys! The red cups are back for the Holidays at Starbucks! I LOVE THE RED CUPS! They symbolize the beginning of the holiday season, which is such a (and I quote...) wonderful time of the year!

Now before you start throwing a tantrum up on your soapbox, let me say that this does not mean I will stop putting pumpkin in every dish I make, take down my Fall Decor, or start playing Christmas music. That last one is a lie...I started months ago. Judge if you must.

But, it does mean double the holiday fun, so bring it on!

I love the seasonal drinks that come along with the Starbucks red cups. Gingerbread and eggnog lattes fight a good fight to rival my adored PSL (pumpkin spice lattes) this time of year.

My friend also told me making an eggnog chai is pretty amazeballs, so I'm stoked to try that next!

Check out this site for the details on all the seasonal drinks.

So go out there and embrace the holiday cheer!

So there.

Chai Spiced Mashed Sweet Potato!

I pinned these chai spiced sweet potatoes awhile ago, and my friend luckily reminded me about them this week, right when I had just bought some sweet potatoes!
OMG, you guys, they are SO good!!

[ By the way, this said friend has an amazingly pretty line of invitations at her site One Handspun Day. They are handpainted and sold as printables for customized use. Check them out over at her site! ]

The link above to the actual recipe from Oh My Veggies uses vanilla coconut milk, brown sugar, and chai spices, which sounds divine; and also recommends you bake the raw potatoes in the oven.  Buuuuuut, I didn't have any milk (at all) on hand, and was starvin' marvin, wanting to eat soon, so I totally cheated in every aspect.

(pictured: brown sugar, I didn't even end up needing to add.)

I poked a few holes with a fork in 1 medium sweet potato, and microwaved for 4-5 minutes.

Meanwhile, I boiled a bit of water (1/2 cup?) in a pan, and made a concentrated chai tea, with a powdered vanilla honey chai mix that has powdered milk in it.
I also threw in a bit of my pumpkin spice chai mix from Trader Joe's, because, seriously, why not!

Boil the tea mix for a few minutes so it cooks down a bit, I added a bit more ginger, too, then pour into a mug and set aside.

Then, scoop out the potato flesh, and add into the, now empty, hot pan that the chai was in.
Now, while whisking, add a bit of the chai mix a little at a time, incorporating as you go, until the consistency is right. 
and.....done!!
I topped with a bit of ricotta cheese, to tell myself this was dinner, and not dessert!!

These were so, so good.
Taste just like a warm, spiced chai latte, but, you know, with the awesomeness of sweet potato!

I realize this photo doesn't do them justice, but you've got to just trust me on this one.

Everyone who loves chai tea, should really make these immediately!
Yum!
So there.

Give Thanks. So There.

Well, on to the next Holiday!

But, if you have leftover candy from Halloween (or leftover Butterfinger from the recipe I made here!) make sure to try one of these yummy desserts!!

Source: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/08/butterfinger-blondies.html

Source: http://www.couponingncooking.com/2012/10/butterfinger-fudge.html



On to Thanksgiving! I am loving the fall decor using indian corn that I have seen on Pinterest lately.
I heard they have some at Sprouts...I may just buy up their whole supply and try making one of these wreaths or centerpieces!

Source: http://yourcozyhome.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html

Source: http://authentica-itsaboutbeingreal.blogspot.com/2011/09/time-to-get-corny.html

Happy Fall!
So there.