I couldn’t resist trying this cute idea for a fun little Thanksgiving treat.
Aren’t they so stinking cute?!
So easy to make…
and even more sweet to eat!
I simply used chocolate icing in a tube to “glue” Nutter Butter Bites to Hershey’s Kisses and topped with a Nestle Mini Morsel Chocolate Chip.
(I’ve also seen these done with mini Nilla Wafers if you’re not a big peanut butter fan, but I think these are way yummier! 🙂 )
Voila! A fun, easy, and sweet treat!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
This Raw Apple Cake recipe I received from a neighbor friend, Denise, years ago, is one of my ABSOLUTE favorites, and I make it at least once or twice every Fall/Winter.
My favorite way to enjoy it is with coffee for breakfast/brunch, and I love it kept cold in the fridge, though refrigeration is not at all necessary – just my preference.
I made it for our Un-Thanksgiving celebration this year, where we served it with dollops of whipped cream.
If you try it, let me know what you think. I have never had better!
Raw Apple Cake
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
Mix together:
2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. oil
2 tsp. vanilla
juice of 1 lemon
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tsp salt
Combine dry ingredients in another bowl:
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
Add to batter.
Fold in:
2 c. chopped apples
1 c. golden raisins (optional)
1 1/4 c. chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
Pour into greased and floured bundt pan. Bake 1 1/2 hours.
While cake is baking, prepare topping.
Topping:
1 c. brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 c. milk
Cook in saucepan 2 1/2 minutes.
Cool cake 10-15 minutes, then gently loosen at outer edges and spoon topping all over and down edges until absorbed.
Let cool for several hours in pan while cake soaks in the topping.
Invert and serve when completely cooled.
Every single time I make a cake in a bundt pan, I can’t help but chuckle remembering this scene from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” “Is a bunnnnn ttt!” “Is a kick!”
Enjoy!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
I have to admit. I love a good theme.
Party that is.
Birthday, holiday, any ole’ special occasion.
You would think I’ve had my fix raising my two sons, celebrating birthdays, creating Halloween costumes, being homeroom mom every elementary school year.
But nooooo – my boys are in their twenties, hubby in his fifties, and I’m still “theme”ing it up when I can. They always harass me about it, but “I’ll betcha a nickel,” (as Pap used to say) they would be disappointed if I didn’t….
So when Marty said all he’d like for his birthday this year is some new RED felt for a beautiful gently-used pool table Nick helped him find on Craig’s list for the “man cave,” I couldn’t resist going with it.
The kids came over one evening while Marty was at a meeting and did an amazing job re-felting the table from an ordinary green to an extraordinary burgundy red. (and saving me $300+ labor to boot!)
Going with the theme, the boys bought Marty some beautiful new balls (which we had fun with all evening) 🙂 and some other pool table accessories.
Of course I made a pool ball cake…
…which consisted of RED velvet cupcakes (they don’t make red felt cake mix) decorated as stripes and solids (even if not the exact colors and numbers to match as was pointed out to me – and THEY give ME a hard time about my themes!?!) with white Necco wafers I numbered with black icing.
And you don’t want to know how many rolls of those things I had to go through to get 15 whites – that were NOT broken!?! 🙂 I now have a pint jar full of all the other colors if anybody has any creative ideas for using these little disks of hard sugar that pretty much taste like nothing. (C’mon Jill – I know you’ve got something in you!!)
And by the way – no need to purchase all the different colors of sugar. Did you know you can simply add a couple drops of food coloring to a scoop of sugar in a jar, shake, and Voila! – colored sugar!
And, of course, I had to make a little card to go along with the theme too.
I got lucky and won ONE game of pool….
and ZERO games of “Smart Ass” – but we sure had a lot of fun.
Happy Birthday Merv!
Cheers & Hugs & Lots of Love,
Gert
I had some googly candy eyes left from making Peanut Butter & Chocolate Spider Cookies for Halloween, so I thought I would make these cute little Thanksgiving Turkey Oreo Cookie Balls.
With just a few simple ingredients, you can create these little critters for your Thanksgiving turkeys.
I had some fun little “turkeys” to share mine with. Like this one….
and this one. Who each gave them a big thumbs UP! 🙂
Here is the recipe, which I tweaked slightly from the original found on Pink When:
Thanksgiving Turkey Oreo Cookie Balls
Crush OREO cookies to a fine crumbly mixture (I placed in a Ziploc Freezer bag and rolled a marble rolling pin over them). Mix in the softened cream cheese.
Roll into one inch cookie balls, and freeze for 10 minutes.
Dip cookie balls into melted chocolate and place on a prepared cookie sheet covered with wax paper.
Place into the refrigerator for 15 minutes to an hour before decorating.
Add 5 candy corn to the back of the ball as tail feathers by gently poking into the cookie ball.
Use additional melted chocolate as glue to attach the candy eyes, nose and feet. (For each turkey, cut a piece of candy corn – using the white tip as the nose, and the orange part (cut in half) as feet.)
There are certain foods that just love each other…
peanut butter & jelly… bacon & eggs…. macaroni & cheese…
and bananas & chocolate!
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Top Cookies – photo by Nick
So when I saw a recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies on Rantings of an Amateur Chef’s Maggie Monday yesterday, I knew I had to try them.
And I had some perfectly over-ripe bananas on the counter just waiting to be used.
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Top Cookies – photo by Nick
I hesitated a bit messing with chocolate chip cookies, but when I read that these were more like muffin tops in their taste and texture, I was sold.
Be warned, these are not your normal chocolate chip cookie, and they taste nothing like my “almost famous” chocolate chips cookies, but they are a surprisingly delightful treat.
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Top Cookies
Even Nick, who was skeptical with me messin’ with chocolate chip cookies, gave them a big thumbs up (and shared some of his photography talent by taking some of the photos I’m sharing today).
If you are looking for something different, and you love banana bread, muffins, and chocolate chips cookies, these are a must try.
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin Top Cookie & Milk – Photo by Nick
Here is the recipe as posted yesterday on Rantings of an Amateur Chef:
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
2 cup chocolate chips
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and bananas. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add this to the creamed mixture and blend well. Stir in the chocolate chips. Chill dough for at least one hour. Drop by tablespoonfuls about 2” apart on baking sheets covered with parchment paper. Bake at 350° for 9-11 minutes until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.
Enjoy!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
It’s the countdown to Halloween on Friday!
I can’t believe it will be NOVEMBER in a few days! Where did the time go? We hit close to 80 degrees F Tuesday, and it is still 70 degrees F as I write this post well into Tuesday evening with the windows wide open and the warm breeze blowing in.
I think we are going to be in for a brutal awakening in a few days as the weather forecasters are calling for that “S” word to hit for Halloween! YIKES!
Since I don’t have children at home anymore to create costumes for or grandchildren yet (patiently waiting – fingers crossed! LOL!) and don’t even get any trick or treaters living a bit far back off the beaten path, what is a girl to do but bake pumpkiny “stuff” for Halloween – right?!?
With a few cans of pumpkin still in the pantry and everything else I needed for this yummy recipe on hand that I discovered on Bakeaholic Mama’s blog, I had to try these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Filled Snickerdoodles that combine all the wonderfulness of pumpkin pie, cheesecake, and snickerdoodles ALL IN ONE COOKIE!
Marty gave them a THUMBS UP (and hopefully will remember to take most of them to the office tomorrow so we don’t eat them all)!
Hope you are enjoying the last week of October, wherever this finds you, and hope you will try this yummy treat.
Recipe from: Bakeaholic Mama’s Blog
Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
Beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed of electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Blend in the pumpkin puree. Beat in the egg and vanilla until incorporated. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Cover and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.
While the dough chills, make the filling. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Cover and chill this as well (for at least half an hour).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Halloween is a week away, and I had more fun than any normal middle-aged (ugh) woman with no children left at home should have making these adorable little peanut butter and chocolate spider cookies! Heck – we don’t even get a single trick-or-treater, but who says you can’t have fun anyway?!?
I had seen a photo of these somewhere, and then a friend texted me a picture from Pinterest by Sommer Collier of A Spicy Perspective saying, “You need to make these for your blog.” Well… that’s about all it took to get me excited, so I went in search of candy eyes at the local Michael’s Store – but none to be found…
Not giving up, I went to good ole’ Amazon Prime and had them in my hot little hands in two days!
They are basically a simple peanut butter cookie with a chocolate truffle in the middle, much like the Hershey Kiss peanut butter cookies (just on Halloween steroids!)
I thought they would be adorable, but wasn’t sure if anyone around here would eat them.
Well – I was wrong! They loved them!
And it was fun to send some to Nick’s girlfriend, Liz’s office for my blog-following girlfriends at TS 🙂 and deliver some to my daughter-in-law, Colleen at work for a silly surprise.
I must give credit where credit is due. I found this recipe on A Spicy Perspective’s Blog (which I am a total new fan of!). She used Lindt Lindor truffles, which I think would be awesome too! Here is Sommer’s recipe, which I tweaked just a bit for my own brevity’s sake:
ENJOY!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
PS Hope you enjoyed this T! 🙂
Since we are on the subject of Salted Caramel and Chocolate….
We were – weren’t we?!??
I came across a new One Word Photo Challenge (by photographer Jennifer Nichole Wells) via my friend, Colleen, at Silver Threading (who shared some glorious chocolate-colored rocks from Glacier National Park) where the theme this week is “Chocolate.”
Well – – I took it quite literally 🙂 and had to share this glorious recipe for these super simple yet amazingly scrumptious little gems I made last year at Christmas time.
And we were talking about Christmas too – right?!?? 🙂
I originally found this recipe on InsideBruCrewLife’s blog.
Salted Caramel Brownie Bites
You will need:
People are going to go GaGa over them, so watch out!
Enjoy.
And though it’s not an award-winning photo, I’ll bet your mouth is watering – and you are definitely thinking CHOCOLATE! 🙂
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Who can resist Sea Salt Caramels mixed with Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks??!!??
And baked into a warm, crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside homemade cookie!
I saw these new yummy Brach’s Sea Salt Caramel Royals at the store recently and thought they might make a nice addition to my basic “almost famous” chocolate chip cookies for a little change up.
So I chopped up a bag of these amazing little bites of heaven and substituted them for half of the chocolate chunks in my cookies. The only tricky thing about these is that the melted caramel makes the cookies a bit tricky to remove from you baking sheets (stones), so I recommend letting them cool almost completely on the sheet before removing.
Two thumbs up from the guys in the McKinney house (and if Mikey had an opposable thumb, he’d give one too).
Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Mix together:
1 lb softened butter (YEPPERS – you heard me right – I did say O N E P O U N D – 4 sticks – 2 cups – – – don’t get too shook up – recipe makes A LOT!)
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1-1/2 cups white sugar
2-3 tsp vanilla (just pour some in)
4 eggs
Then add:
5 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Mix well, then fold in:
1 12-oz bag Nestle Semi Sweet Chocolate Chunks
1 10-oz bag Brach’s Sea Salt Caramel Royals, chopped
Chill for several hours.
Drop by heaping tablespoons on baking stone, and bake at 375 for 9-11 min.
ENJOY!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
I made some Snickerdoodles this past weekend to take along to Krautfest. They are such a simple, old-fashioned cookie, but one that folks seem to really love.
Every time I bake these, I think of my friend, Janet and her sweet mom. Before them, I had never heard of Snickerdoodles. I recall visiting one day, and their house smelled so cinnamony wonderful with these fresh-baked treats cooling on the kitchen table. I can remember tasting my first one and loving it. They are a bit crispy and crunchy on the outside and tender and chewy on the inside. Nobody in my family had ever baked these – not even Grandma, but they have become one of our family’s favorites. I have passed this recipe on to my daughter-in-law, Colleen, who has begun making them too.
The nice thing about Snickerdoodles is you can make them in a pinch as you typically have everything you need on hand. They can also be made pretty quickly, as this is one dough that really doesn’t need refrigerated before baking like I usually prefer to do. I think because shortening makes for a firmer dough – but if there is someone out there that knows more about this than me, I hope you will offer your feedback.
Snickerdoodles
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter, soft
½ cup butter Crisco shortening
2 eggs
3 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Makes 4 dozen cookies
My cookie secrets include: Always add a little extra flour (included in this recipe), underbake, bake on well-seasoned baking stones, use electric oven.
ENJOY!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
the creative life in between 