Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

My husband’s favorite fall treat of choice. I should have probably made them 5 times by now as it is the end of October, but I worry I’ll eat too many if they’re around! We love this recipe and use it every year! I also added a cinnamon cream cheese frosting on top & heated it up so I could spoon it on like a glaze. You must try these! We love them.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies:

• 1/2 c butter room temp
• 1 1/2 c sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c pumpkin puree
• 2 1/2 c all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together in a stand mixer. Once mixed well add egg, vanilla, and pumpkin, and mix again. Separately, combine dry ingredients. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet mixture, and then add the chocolate chips last.

GREASE your cookie sheets with cooking spray. This is unlike normal chocolate chip cookies but it helps them slide right off. Cook for 15 minutes or until first sign of brown appears on top.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1/2 block cream cheese
• 1/2 stick butter
• 2 –3 c. powdered sugar
• 3 –4 tbsp. milk
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Beat cream cheese in stand mixer until soft and light. Slowly add butter and continue to mix until whipped. Slowly add powdered sugar and cinnamon. Add milk slowly until it is whipped into a thick butter cream. Remove from stand mixer and place into microwave safe bowl. Heat for about 30 seconds or until frosting is melted. This helps the frosting coat the cookies but it will still remain thick. If you simply add more milk to the frosting it will be runny. Spoon the warm frosting onto the cookies and let set. Enjoy!

   

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Trader Joes Carolina BBQ Burger

I love to experiment with new kinds of burgers. The other week I cooked a burger in our favorite BBQ sauce – Carolina Gold BBQ sauce from Trader Joes, topped it with Trader Joes guac and some cheese and tomatoes, and it was the best flavor combo. The whole time we were eating them we couldn’t believe how well the flavors went together. The trick is to actually cook the burger in BBQ sauce – not just put it on top. This is such an easy dinner or meal – you should try it!

Ingredients:

• Ground beef
• Sliced cheese
• Trader Joes Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce
• Guacamole (we love the guac shown below from Trader Joes – it’s made with greek yogurt)
• Sliced tomatoes
• Hamburger buns
• Seasonings for meat (my special burger seasoning combo is below):
• Garlic powder
• Dill
• Onion powder
• Salt

Directions:

1. Place skillet pan on stove and turn heat to medium high.
2. Meanwhile, form patties from ground beef. Season each side with seasonings listed above (or your own mixture!)
3. Turn patties out onto pan once it’s hot. Cover.
4. After 2-4 minutes on the first side (depending on how done you like your burgers and depending on how hot your pan is), flip burger (make sure both sides are seasoned).
5. Cover again and cook for 2-3 minutes.
6. While burger is still in pan, turn heat down to medium low and pour some BBQ sauce over the burger it. Enough to make sure it is covered.
7. Cover and cook again for 1-2 minutes.
8. Then place cheese on top and cover for another minute, until melted.
9. Serve on buns, and add guacamole and tomatoes to burger. Also add more BBQ sauce to the buns before serving.

Get ready for a messy but delicious meal!     

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General Conference Printables

Two weekends a year our church holds a general conference to address all our members and any visitors or investigators, worldwide. We receive uplifting messages, advice, stories, and guidance. It is the best time of the year (twice a year;). Our wonderful leaders are good people but human and imperfect like us. They help us live the Gospel and find ways to navigate the ups and downs of life. I am grateful for these two weekends where I can recharge and refocus! I am grateful for a church and leaders that give us high standards of how to live our lives and are always helping us improve!

Here were some of my favorite quotes from conference so far. Click the photos to access the downloadable PDF links.

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My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies have been my go-to for almost 10 years. They are fail-proof in my mind! They always turn out thick and chewy. You can make them small for a group or giant and they still turn out great. I love everything about these cookies! They stay soft for days because the butter to flour ratio is so high. My secret for keeping them soft is taking them out of the oven the second you see any brown appear on top. Even the tiniest bit. Then leave them on the tray for at least 10 minutes so they can slightly cook a little more without browning any more. When they come out they won’t be done at all. But in my experience if you wait until they’re all the way done they will be rock hard once they cool! Just take them out early… They will be delicious!

Ingredients, Chocolate Chip Cookies:

• 3/4 c. butter, softened
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla
• 2 c. flour
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 c. chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars in stand mixer for 2-3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and keep beating for 1 min. Meanwhile in a separate bowl mix flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture and cream. Then add the chocolate chips and mix quickly until incorporated.

Bake at 365 degrees for 7-9 minutes, until first sign of brown on top. Then remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack.  

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Herringbone Quilt Tutorial

This summer we decided it was time for our little girl to move to a “big girl bed” … she is very picky about blankets and her sleeping situation so we tried to get her excited about a new place to sleep and a new special blanket to sleep with. Doing this with her as a part of the process was so much fun for the two of us, and really allowed her to get excited for this project. She’s had the quilt for a couple months now and still gets excited to get tucked into it at night. I’d call that a success!

I looked online through lots of quilt tutorials before deciding on the herringbone quilt. I couldn’t find one very detailed tutorial online so I thought I’d put one together here. I can sew okay but I’m definitely not a master seamstress so I needed something pretty simple and also something that would work with the fabrics I’d found. I loved the idea of a pattern on the entire back with the quilt squares pieced together on the front. I went with my daughter to pick out the fabric and get her input. She picked out the floral back and I picked a coordinating front color to match.

Herringbone Twin Quilt Tutorial // 10 inch squares // 7 squares wide by 9 squares long // 63 total squares

• 3 yards solid color fabric (in actuality you need about 2.5 yards but I got 3 to err on the side of caution)
• 3 yards solid white fabric (in actuality you need about 2.5 yards but I got 3 to err on the side of caution)
• 5-6 yards of patterned fabric for the backing (you will actually need about 5 but I had to stitch mine with a couple pieces to get the pattern to line up so you’ll need to consider this when you purchase your fabric. Also all fabric varies in width per yard so measure how wide it will be as well and calculate if you’ll need to double up)
• Quilt binding of your choice (I know a lot of people who make their own quilt binding – I do not! I purchase it by the notions and bias tape. The number of packs you need will depend on the size of the binding so double check before you purchase. I used 3 packs.)
• Twin Quilt batting: You can buy packs of twin quilt batting or you can do what I did – I found an old Twin quilt comforter, cut the edges off and used that as my batting. I’ve always bought loose batting for quilts but this was MUCH easier and the batting stayed together the whole time and was distributed evenly throughout the quilt. You know those cheap twin comforters at Target? Yep that’s what I used! As long as it’s a light color (mine was a light khaki) it won’t show through and it’s probably cheaper as well.
• LOTS of white thread ;) (I used 4 spools)
• Lots of safety pins
• 10 inch square template, preferably made on cardstock or cardboard

Here we go!

1. The first thing you’ll need to do is cut out your template. I made a 10 inch square but you could really use any size square you’d like. Use cardstock or cardboard or something thick.
2. CUT SQUARES: Start cutting away. You can use a rolling quilting cutter or good old fabric scissors. You will have 63 total squares, so I cut 32 white and 32 mint green. I put a movie on and cut away. I’m not a perfectionist so not every square was precision to the millimeter, but you do have to keep the sizes pretty close to keep the quilt lined up. Once you cut one stack it in a pile and straighten the pile. As you go you’ll see if any don’t line up straight in the pile.
3. HALVE SQUARES: Once your squares are cut fold them in half on the diagonal, and cut on the diagonal. You will get two triangles. My fabric wasn’t too thick so I could easily run my fingers through it. Stack the colored fabric triangles in one pile and the white fabric triangles in another pile.
4. SEW SQUARES TOGETHER: Now take a white triangle and a colored triangle and line them up RIGHT SIDES IN. Then sew a line down the diagonal / longest edge of the triangle. I left about a 1/4 inch allowance between the stitch and the edge of the diagonal. Once you sew it you can open it up and see what your squares will look like! Keep sewing! You have lots of squares to make.
5. Quality control on squares: Once you’ve sewn your squares, go through each one to make sure it looks square. Sometimes depending on the cut or your stitch it might not line up. If you can trim and edge to make it square, do that, but if not, you’ll need to remake the square. I had to remake a couple that weren’t lining up.
6. LAY OUT QUILT TOP WITH SQUARES: Now comes the fun part, when you can see your quilt coming together! In a very wide open space, start laying out your herringbone pattern. You can also use these same squares to make a chevron quilt if you just change the colors around. My quilt was 7 squares wide by 9 long. If I was to make another twin quilt I might do 8x10 just to make it a little bigger. But 7x9 is also great as a smaller twin quilt.
7. TRIPLE CHECK YOUR PATTERN: After I laid my squares out I noticed a couple were facing the wrong direction. Go through to make sure everything is facing the right direction.
8. SEW ONE ROW AT A TIME: I pulled the squares from one row at a time and sewed the edge of each square together, one at a time, again leaving a 1/4 inch allowance. You’ll want to make sure your allowance on the entire quilt is very similar on all squares so your squares are about the same size! After you sew one row together, go lay it down back in its place on the floor with the rest of the quilt.
9. SEW ENTIRE QUILT FRONT SQUARES TOGETHER: Once your rows are sewn together, you are ready to sew each together. Grab the first two rows, sew them together. Then add the third and so forth. Once you’re done you have your top done! TRIPLE CHECK YOUR PATTERN!! ;)
10. MEASURE YOUR BACKING: Now lay your backing fabric on the floor, and then lay your quilt top over it. Measure the backing to fit the exact size as the front. I had to cut mine in a couple pieces to make it wide enough and to attempt to get the pattern to line up. Pin it together and then cut to size.
11. SAFETY PINS: As a note I only use safety pins for pinning when I’m quilting. Regular pins just come out most of the time for me.
12. SEW BACKING TOGETHER: If you’re lucky enough to have one huge piece of fabric that fits the whole back, you can skip this step, but if not, sew your backing together, keeping the seams turned in so they won’t be visible.
13. QUILT SANDWICH: Now lay your backing on the floor, then your batting, and then your quilt top. Line up everything as close as you can. DON’T trim anything yet. Even if the edges don’t seem to line up you won’t know until you pin it all and sew it. I like to start pinning in the middle and work my way out (I started doing it on the edges and it just wasn’t lining up). Working form the center out takes a while to get right. Put a safety pin in the very center, and then go to the outsides and pull everything tight, and then do it again working your way out to the corners. After you’ve pinned it all flip it over to make sure you don’t have any creases or folds.
14. ROUGH STITCH: I honestly don’t even know if this is the right way to quilt – I just made it up as I went along so I hope this works for you! The main purpose of the rough stitch, in my opinion, is to just get the layers held together. I sewed one long stitch down the entire middle of the quilt to get it held together. (Of course make all your stitches on the lines of the squares.)
15. REVIEW AGAIN: Once you get a rough stitch together lay it down again and tug at the edges to make sure it lines up. If it does then start sewing your rows together. If not you may need to rip out some seams to get it right.
16. STITCH SQUARES ON ENTIRE QUILT One row at a time. Once those are done you’ll need to sew the columns. Let me tell you this was TOUGH with my little basic sewing machine. You have to tightly ROLL your edges in to even get this through a standard machine. If you have a large machine or quilting machine this should be pretty easy. I even found my machine sometimes tuggi ng at my stitches because it was so thick. It took some muscle to pull it through!
17. STITCH DESIGN ON SQUARES: Once you’ve quilted around each square, you’re ready to decide what pattern you’d like on each square. I did two diagonals across the mint fabric and three across the white. If you have a quilter you can do some cool things here too! This took me a while so in the evenings my husband and I would put a movie on and I’d sew as many squares as I could. I did this whenever I could take up a whole evening to sew. I think it took about 5 total nights spread out over a couple weeks.
18. TRIM: Now you can trim all the edges to make them squared up and you also need to go through and trim all the thread ends. I tried to do this as I went, but there were still so many at the end!
19. BINDING: I iron my pre-made binding first to get the creases out. Then I just line it up on the edges, pull it tight onto the edges and try to sew it as straight as I can, while making sure to include all layers of the quilt inside. I had to redo part of the binding on a quilt I made a couple years ago because some of the backing was missed on my stitching, so now I’m paranoid about getting this right. I double stitched the binding on to make sure it was sturdy. You’ll also have to sew the seams together if you use several packs of quilt binding. Wherever one starts and one begins, just layer them over each other and stitch together.
20. Final trim of everything. And now you can actually appreciate all this work! It was much more than I thought I’d be going into it! Just take it one step at a time and you can do it.

    

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Bacon, Avocado, & Almond Strawberry Salad

  

In my mind any pairing of berries, nuts, avocado and bacon can make a perfect salad! Here is another.

Ingredients:

• 1 head chopped romaine lettuce
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 quart pkg strawberries, sliced
• 5-6 strips bacon, cooked crispy
• Almonds, diced
• Balsamic vinaigrette

Toss ingredients together and dress with balsamic. Perfect lunch salad! Sometimes I like to candy the almonds or walnuts for a salad, but this summer I’ve been loving just unflavored nuts in salads. You should try it!

 

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Top Pot Blueberry Cake Doughnuts // Donuts Recipe

Hello long lost blog world! This summer has been filled with traveling, beaching, pool time, parks, and really little time for cooking or blogging. I must admit we’ve eaten way too many sandwiches, leftovers, or easy peasy meals. Nothing too fancy here! We’ve been soaking up summer but I have missed trying out new recipes and posting here. When we are busy during the summer with swim lessons and tball and park or pool dates I tend to stick with easy meals or my tried and true recipes (salmon, indian masala, cafe rio pork salads, BLTs, parmesan chicken to name a few), but there is something so fun about testing out new dishes. I miss it. Trying to get back into the swing of that now that fall is almost here!

Last year a good friend sent me the Top Pot Doughnut cookbook for my birthday. What a gift! It makes you salivate just turning the pages. Trust me. Two weekends ago I made these blueberry donuts for my family. And they were delicious. We love cake donuts and the blueberry flavor made them taste like they could be healthy (they weren’t) and very fresh. The only change I made to the recipe was substituting fresh blueberries for jam in the glaze. There were these thick chunks of blueberries in the glaze that tasted like little bursts of flavor. I’d recommend this if you have enough but if not I’m sure their recipe is great too.

Ingredients, Top Pot blueberry cake doughnuts:

• 2 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 2/3 c. sugar
• 2 tbsp. vegetable shortening
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2/3 c. whole milk
• 3/4 c. fresh blueberries
• canola oil for frying

Directions:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together into a medium bowl, and set aside.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the sugar and shortening/vegetable lard for 1 minute on low speed, until sandy. Add the egg and egg yolk, then mix 1 more minute on medium speed, scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula if necessary, until the mixture is light and thick.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in three separate additions, alternating with the milk, mixing until just combined on low speed each time. Mix in the blueberries. The dough will be very sticky, like very wet cookie/biscuit dough.
4. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl and refrigerate, covered directly with plastic wrap/cling film, for 1 hour (or up to 24 hours).
5. Using a candy thermometer to measure the temperature, heat oil (at least 2 in/5 cm deep) in a deep fryer, large pot, or high-sided frying pan over medium heat to 370°F/185°C. (See the frying tips.) Gently roll out the chilled dough on a counter or cutting board floured with about 1/4 cup/30 g cake/softwheat flour to 1/2 in/12mm thick, or about 8 in/20 cm in diameter, flouring the top of the dough and the rolling pin with another 2 tbsp flour, or as necessary to prevent sticking— this is a soft, wet dough. Cut into as many doughnuts and holes as possible, dipping the cutter into flour before each cut. Fold and gently reroll the dough to make extra holes (working with floured hands makes the dough less sticky), and cut again. (Note: Because this is such a soft dough, you may find it easier to cut the doughnuts just a few at a time, right before you add them to the oil, instead of cutting them all out
   ahead of time. Transferring them is easiest with a flat metal spatula.)
6. Shake any excess flour off the doughnuts before carefully adding them to the hot oil a few at a time, taking care not to crowd them. Once the doughnuts float, fry for about 60 seconds per side, or until deep golden brown on both sides. (You’ll know they’re ready to turn the first time when you see the golden brown color creeping up from the bottom of the doughnut.) Drain on paper towels/absorbent paper.
7. While the doughnuts are still quite hot, dip one side into the blueberry glaze. Let dry on cooling racks, glazed side up, for about 15 minutes.

Ingredients, blueberry glaze:

• 3 1/2 c. confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 c. fresh blueberries slightly mashed

Place all ingredients except blueberries in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Whisk until creamy and incorporated. Then slowly add blueberries, allowing them to slightly crush with the mixer. Stop mixing before they become pureed. Drizzle over warm doughnuts on cooling rack.

  

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Easy Homemade Cauliflower Rice

When I’m trying to eat fewer carbs this is such a great recipe to pair anything with! I love it with meatballs and homemade roasted tomato sauce or with salmon.

Ingredients, Homemade Cauliflower Rice:

• 1 head cauliflower
• 2 tsp. minced garlic or 1 clove garlic, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• salt or garlic salt to taste

1. Start by chopping all the heads or florets off of the cauliflower. Throw them into a food processor. Don’t process them to a puree, but just for a minute until the florets are finely chopped. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan or skillet pan, sautee the diced onion in olive oil. Once onions are soft, add garlic, cover and sautee for another two minutes until the garlic is soft.
3. Add cauliflower and stir to incorporate onions and garlic. Cover and let warm on medium-low heat for about 15 minutes. You can add a tiny bit more oil if you feel it’s too dry, depending on how large your head of cauliflower was.
4. Add salt and/or garlic salt to taste.

Here it is with my favorite homemade meatballs and roasted tomato sauce. It is so tasty! Definitely a little different than real rice, but a great alternative.

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Mango Salsa Chicken Salad

This is one of my favorite salad recipes! It is so easy, so healthy, and so fresh. You can add more of what you like or keep it simple.

Ingredients, Mango Salsa Chicken Salad

• 4 chicken breasts
• 2-3 c. mango salsa (we love the kind from Costco)
• 1 head cleaned & chopped romaine lettuce
• 2 bell peppers diced in strips
• Olive oil
• Fajita seasoning (I make it homemade with cumin, garlic salt, and chili powder)
• 2 avocados
• cilantro & lime for garnish
• optional: cheese, tortilla strips, black beans (when I’m trying to keep it light I leave these off but they are delicious on top too!)
• Cilantro lime ranch dressing (see recipe here)

Directions:

1. Start your recipe early in the day by placing your chicken in the crock pot and adding 1-2 cups of mango salsa. Cook on low for 4-6 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
2. Once you are ready to assemble the salad, remove the chicken, cut it into chunks or shred it, and then add another 1 c. of mango salsa. Mix salsa in and set aside chicken in a bowl.
3. Once you’ve cleaned and chopped your romaine, set that aside as well.
4. Next, add a small amount of olive oil to a pan and saute the bell peppers with 1-2 tbsp. of fajita seasoning until soft.
5. Dice avocados & limes, and prep any other toppings you’d like.
6. Assemble salad by placing the chopped romaine in a bowl, then the sauteed bell peppers, then mango chicken, then top with avocados, lime juice, cilantro & dressing.
7. Add any additional toppings you’d like!

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Cranberry Almond Bacon Broccoli Salad with Greek Yogurt Dressing

I love broccoli, I love cranberries, I love bacon, and I love almonds. You know what I don’t love about most broccoli salads? The dressing is STRAIGHT UP mayonnaise. All the recipes I look at are basically 95% mayo, 2% sugar, and 3% vinegar. I really just can’t stomach the idea of taking a piece of broccoli and dipping it in some mayo and eating it. So here is my broccoli salad that’s about 30% mayo in the dressing. It’s there as a base but you cannot taste it. I promise! Make this a couple hours before you’re going to eat, and chill in the fridge covered in saran wrap. It is SO delicious. Like it’s supposed to be a side salad but I just end up eating it as my meal.

Ingredients, Broccoli Salad:

• 2 heads broccoli florets (chopped off the stems – I prefer them smaller but make them whatever size you like)
• 1 c. dried cranberries
• 1/2 c. sliced almonds
• 1 package bacon, cooked and diced into small pieces
• 2 handfuls of spinach leaves
• Dressing:
• 1/2 c. plain greek yogurt
• 1/2 c. mayonnaise
• 1/4 c. honey mustard dressing
• 1/4 c. vinegar
• 1/4 c. honey
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Combine all salad ingredients and set aside. Whisk dressing ingredients together in a medium sized bowl pour slowly over salad. I like to pour about half, mix up the salad, then pour more as needed. You don’t want it to be over dressed but you want it coated. Cover the bowl with saran wrap, stick in the fridge until you’re ready to eat. You can serve it right when you make it but I think an hour in the fridge makes the flavors really come together. Enjoy!

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