Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles with some pumpkin~ a yummy fall treat :)
I love snickerdoodles, for some reason they possess me more than chocolate chip cookies do~ I could eat TONS of snickerdoodles :D

This fall recipe puts a twist on the old classic. Instead of a regular snickerdoodle, why not add 3/4 cup of pumpkin puree? Sounds good to me :) Take a look below:

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Some notes: because of the pumpkin puree addition, these snickerdoodles may be puffier and softer than classic snickerdoodles. Click here for the original recipe and a little blurb about "cookie confidence" :)

Bake in Oven: 15 min

Yields: 3 - 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

for the cookies...

• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

for the coating...

• 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground giner
• Dash of allspice

Directions:

1. Beat together butter and sugars with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until the mix is light and fluffy (should take 2 - 3 min) Then stir in the pumpkin puree, and beat in the egg and vanilla
2. In another medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Put the mixer on low speed and gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Make sure they are thoroughly mixed and blended together.
3. Cover and chill the dough for at least an hour
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or anything of the like. 
6. Mix together the ingredients for the coating in a small bowl. Scoop equally sized chilled dough balls and roll them into the coating mixture. 
7. Place each ball on the cookie sheet about 2 in apart
8. Dip the bottom of a flat drinking glass into water then in tho the sugar mixture to use to slightly flatten the dough balls and coat the top of each cookie with sugar.
9. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until the cookies are baked through
10. Let the cookies cool untouched for about 2 min then transfer to a wire rack. 

Of course you could have these cookies warm (my favorite kind of cookie) and eat them with a cold glass of milk, or if you liked them cooled down so that they're firmer, leave the cookies on the wire rack and then enjoy them :)

Late Night Indulgences

Hi everyone! It's late, 1:02 am, but I can't go to sleep. My teeth kill because I put my retainer in for the first time in about two months, and I really should be tired because I was exhausted the entire day :P But I digress. Let's see...why have I decided to post something this late, or this early in the morning? Well, I've started to use stumbleupon.com which is a really great internet tool if you are extremely bored, or if you are like me, who just wastes time on the computer..It's like the gps of the internet: it takes you where you want to go and what you want to see :) I've found so many awesome websites through it! You simply mark your interests (I marked a lot of food, recipe, crafts, diy, etc so I'm getting a lot of amazing diys and recipes :) and the "stumbleupon" button takes you to websites that involve your interests! 

Well tonight, or I suppose this early early morning, I've found a really nice food/craft website tonight using stumbleupon and I thought I'd share. The pictures are almost food porn: the gooey chocolate-ness, yummy bread, cinnamon, sigh..I really want some chocolate right now. They're all delicious looking recipes, so if you got the time, go let your inner chef take over and get baking :)

2-min Chocolate Chip Cookie for One

original recipe here!

Literally a cookie in a bowl, late night snack if you will. It looks so good ^o^ As the website explains it, this recipe is perfect for those "I-need-a-cookie-right-now-or-I-die" moments. And all the "baking" pretty much takes place in a bowl!

Double Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies

recipe: click!

yumyum, they look so soft and chewy~ This recipe combines the double fudge cookie and the original chocolate chip cookie :) The best of the best all in one delicious cookie~ {original, original recipe here from howsweeteats}

Bowtie Cookies: Holiday Cookies!

clickclick

I'm getting a little ahead of myself thinking of Christmas, but these would probably be perfect for the holidays! Just look how sweet and delicious they look. I'm pretty sure that's some jam inside there with powdered sugar sprinkled over it, it just looks so sweet. Definitely going down in my holiday recipe book. 

it IS jam!

Chocolate Pancake Cake

o-r-i-g-i-n-a-l

As the website claims, "this is a very healthy dessert with nearly no calories at all." ....true or not true? Oh, I read on and they say "okay, that's not true...but wouldn't it be awesome if it was?" Yes my friends, yes. That would be extremely awesome. 

Would you eat this for breakfast or desert though? It would be a sweet start to your day!

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

I'm guessing you know what to do by now..

SO DELICIOUS LOOKING. BREAD <3 The website calls it "a gift from heaven". It LOOKS like a gift from heaven, I bet it tastes even better. I like how it's not in perfect slices; perfect for just tearing at. Plus I think the unevenness adds texture when you eat it. When something is just crumbly and not perfect, it just tastes more delicious, you know? Maybe not. This is probably just confusing. If you make this though, tell me how it tastes! {and mail me some! :D}

5-min Chocolate Mug Cake

sparkles {click!}

Last recipe and last picture of deliciousness. This is probably the best idea ever. A cake in a mug. How innovative could it get? It's like the first recipe: all the baking takes place in a cup. How simple :) A lot of thought was put into this recipe by the maker so I think this is definitely a must do mug-cake. 

Well now that I've given you all the goodies, why not make some of them or just get a snack and watch a movie? It's not the weekend anymore and school may have already started for a lot of you, but maybe on the weekend for just one last time of fun before you get really into the books you can eat merrily and watch a good movie. What movie? This one:

First words you see, "A Great Movie.." and that is so true. I actually just watched this tonight with my brother and dad. It's old, 1999, but it was just so good! Sometimes I think some old movies are somehow better than the ones that come out today. These days producers and writers mainly come up with plot lines full of action in order to draw in a lot of audience, but back then, even the inspirational, "based-on-a-true-story" movies could be successful. October Sky is just really inspiring, especially for someone that has expectations placed upon them yet they want to do what makes them happy, and it's not what is expected. I'll give a brief summary: Homer Hickens (hopefully I spelled it write) lives in town where coal mining is pretty much everyone's occupation. It's a generally small town and everyone becomes a coal miner, except for the few that get out into the world with football scholarships to college. Homer's father is the town boss of the coal mining business and since his older brother received a scholarship, Homer is expected by his father to take to the mining business. Yet Homer wants something more out of his life. This movie takes place during the time when Russia launched Sputnik and the great outer space was beginning to be explored. Homer sees Sputnik race across the sky one night, and his life is changed forever. He now chases after the dream of making rockets to fly and ultimately go to college to perhaps go into space. But what hinders his dream are his father's expectations which expect Homer to stay in the small town and take over the business after his father. This is a truly inspiring story of a young boy chasing after his dream. The main message I got was to follow what you are passionate about and that will lead you to a career with something you love. I still have to find that passion and I hope I do someday soon. I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. This is definitely a good movie to watch though! I highly recommend it :)

Okay everyone, good night! Time for me to finally go to sleep x) I leave you with the one message below & have a good rest of the week!

bye :)

Rice Krispie Kisses

These are the cutest treats ever! And really simple to make for gifts, lunch, and even just a snack for you right now.

All You Need is:
Funnel
Rice Krispie Treats (homemade recipe below)
Tin Foil (opt.)
Slip of Paper with message (opt.)


RKT recipe:
Ingredients
 - 4 cups (1lb bag) of rice krispie cereal
 - 5 cups (16 oz bag) of mini marshmallows
 - 1/4 cup butter or vegatable oil

Instructions
 1. Melt the butter thoroughlyin a medium sized pot, then dump in marshmallows
 2. Keep mixing until the marshmallows melt and no longer have shape.
 3. Add rice krispie cereal
 4. Stir quickly to make sure all the cereal gets covered in marshmallow. And...you're done!


Instructions for RK Kisses
1. If you're using Rice Krispie Treats from the store, break them up and pack them into your funnel until its full. Or for the homemade Rice Krispie, just pack it in tightly until the funnel is full.
2. Put in fridge for about 5-10 min for it to harden slightly. This makes it easier to get it out of the funnel without breaking. 
3. Gently with a fork (or chopstick, what I used) separate the edge of the funnel and rice krispie and gradually take out the entire Rice Krispie. It's okay if it breaks a little, you can fix it once it's all out.
[You can eat it now if you like]
4. If your Rice Krispie Kiss needs some touch-ups, add some rice krispie mix or pack it more tightly. If you want, you can also round the bottom to make it look more like a Hershey kiss. 
[or eat it now :]
5. For gifts and packaging, put the Rice Krispie Kiss onto a square piece of tin foil (size depending on size of RK Kiss) and place a bit of the end of the slip of paper with your message underneath your treat and raise it as you fold the tin foil up and around the RK Kiss. 
Now you're done! You're Rice Krispie Kiss is ready for being given to a friend or family member or ready to be munched on by the maker :) Enjoy!

This recipe is not mine. Sadly. Adapted from a pin on Pinterest. Creds to the original maker!

The Weekend is Finally Here!

Here are some recipes for the weekend!

Happy Bread~

its so pretty & yummy looking :)

This one is from the foodivakitchen blog. She has a lot of good recipes and they all look really good!
This recipe though, the happy bread, looks so pretty. Look at those swirls! How did she come up with this idea! I really want to try to make bread like this.. and then eat it x) Here's the recipe, it's toward the end of the page. Hope you enjoy making it and eating it if you get the chance!
Here's another recipe which be for breakfast tomorrow, or anytime really~

Cream Cheese Pancakes~

look at that syrup! & look at its fluffiness!!

Here's the recipe from myrecipes.com. I think the cream cheese addition makes the pancakes look fluffier, taste fluffier, and just melt in your mouth ♥.♥ I want to try it so badly!! After waffles, pancakes are my next favorite food ^^

This would be a great day to start off the day with~ even the baking process of it! It's definitely Saturday morning breakfast material x)

Thinking of the fluffiness of the pancakes made me think of this, from one of my favorite movies:

Despicable Me!! ♥

Ps. My parents are watching nbc news right now and two interesting facts I heard:

1. Gabby Douglas's last name unscrambled : douglas = usa gold :)
2. If Michael Phelps was a country, he would be tied with India for the most medals xD He's just amazing

Have a good weekend guys!!

Watermelon Waffles

I absolutely love waffles. When we bought a waffle maker last year, i was ECSTATIC. It was so easy to make and so fast..I think we had a month's worth of waffles in a week~ they were so good! 

Well now, I'm looking for waffle recipes I can use the waffle maker for, and this site, the wilson world, gives an excellent recipe. It combines probably my two most favorite foods: watermelon and waffles ^^

creds to supermom on the wilson world !

You separate your pancake batter and dye one red and the other green with food coloring. Next you want to add in chocolate chips to the red batter. These will be the "seeds" :) Then spread the red batter over only the middle of the waffle maker then around the edge, pour some green batter. Follow whatever process your waffle maker requires to cook the waffle and wah-lah! Once its finished you'll have watermelon-looking waffles that you can eat like watermelon!

I want to try this with pancakes too~ Try this recipe out and check out supermom on  the wilson world (:


toodles~

Monkey Bread!

To start things off, I've decided to share a recipe of monkey bread! I love bread and this is probably one of the best kinds of them all. If you haven't heard of this before then you've probably heard of it as sticky bread. I honestly like both names: monkey, sticky... monkey is so random though! I want to know why monkey..why not elephant??

Click here for the site recipe from Pillsbury! Once I try to make this on my own, I'll post pictures of what I end up with and the whole process and maybe I'll even change the recipe a bit. But try out this recipe! Monkey bread is really good especially when you make it with someone and then tear it apart!! Enjoy~

perfection <3