Happy Holidays! {Thanksgiving recap}

Thanksgiving Decorations

the formal table

Beverage Bar

hot cocoa

hot spiced cider

Italian soda's

No Shave November

DIY mustache photo booth props

Doodle Tablecloth

our creative table

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

Pumpkin Desserts {for the office}

Tuesday night I baked 2 Pumpkin Pies 

and 

24 mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes with Gingersnap crusts

{and Salted Caramel Drizzle}!

The pies were for an office Thanksgiving potluck on Wednesday

and I made the mini pumpkin cheesecakes with gingersnap crusts for dessert at home
however... 

one of our boys came over for dinner on Tuesday night and after dessert asked if he could take some of the mini pumpkin cheesecakes to share with co~workers at his office

{of course I said yes} 

so most of those were gone the same evening.

Time for more baking!

Salted Caramel Sauce {homemade}

Just popping in to share my new favorite topping! 

I recently made a Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake and decided to make some Salted Caramel Sauce to drizzle over the top. We loved it and since I only  used a smidgen for the cake I  have been able to try it on other things such as cheesecake, ice~cream and pie.

 It makes a perfect dipping sauce for apple slices too!

I think it makes everything taste a little bit better 

but then again 

I love sweets!

Have a wonderful day!

the perfect Scherenschnitte/papercutting design for our Alpha Gamma Delta

I wanted to make something special for our new Sorority Pledge and loved this papercutting design especially since the Alpha Gamma Delta mascot is a squirrel. I found the pattern here, chose red and yellow paper which are the sorority colors, hand cut the design using the red paper, mounted it on the yellow, trimmed around the outer edge of the heart and then designed and printed background  paper to match. 

I am still looking for the perfect frame but for now this will work. 

Have a Super Saturday! 

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

It was a busy weekend of baking.  I made several Pumpkin desserts, including 2 Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cakes. I also made some Salted Caramel which I drizzled over the top of the frosting for added flavor. 

~YUM~

Happy Tuesday!

Burnt Butter

I recently made some Burnt Butter to put on some pasta and our family loved it. Since then I have discovered many recipes that call for Burnt Butter {also called Brown Butter}. It is easy to make and is Oh So Good!

Place 1 cup butter in a 2 quart sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. 

Stir constantly once it begins to boil and continue stirring as the butter starts to foam and rise.

Continue cooking until amber in color {approximately 1~2 minutes}. It will begin to have a caramel aroma.

Pour the burnt butter through a strainer.

There will be residue at the bottom of the pan which can be discarded.

I keep any leftover Burnt Butter in the refrigerator and then reheat in the microwave as I need it. 

I drizzle the Burnt Butter on pasta and over vegetables. It is also called for in desserts such as cookies, tarts and cakes which I am  hoping to try next and will let you know how they turn out.

Have a wonderful day!

DIY Corn Hole game

We have been talking recently about how fun it would be to have a Corn Hole game and thought it would be even more fun if we made it ourselves. We finally got around to it last week and actually ended up making two; one for our family and one for a friend.

We decided to paint them in Oregon State colors and hope to eventually add the BEAVER logo at the bottom. 

I did not realize that Regulation corn hole bean bags are made out of Duck Cloth and filled with Corn Feed until after I had already finished making mine out of cotton and filling with pinto beans. I will probably end up making a Regulation set but for now these work fine.  

For a Regulation game there are 2 sets of 6" bean bags, 4 in each set. To make filling the bags easier I made a funnel out of a catalog insert.  

According to the rules of the game each bean bag must weigh 1 pound. Since I do not have a kitchen scale we came up with this simple little way to weigh the bean bags. It worked pretty well. 

We finished the Corn Hole game just in time for Dad's Weekend {except for the decals which we will add later}.

Dad's Weekend was last weekend and I heard from several sources that 

the Corn Hole game 

was a hit!

Banana Bread/mini loaves {college care package}

I made some mini loaves of Banana Bread to include in the college care packages that I was sending last weekend. Since I baked the banana bread earlier in the week I put it in the freezer to keep it fresh, however, I assembled the care packages on Halloween night while baking cupcakes and handing out candy to trick or treaters and completely forgot about the bread. No worries, I gave it to one of our older boys instead!

Happy Monday!

November

I could not decide which one I liked better 

so here are both.

Happy Day Light Savings!