Salivating Saturday

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere! I love anything pumpkin-pie, cake, seeds. Add a little spice to that orange mass and you've got yourself a delicious dish! I ran across this recipe for pumpkin brownies and I couldn't resist. Pumpkin and chocolate! I'm in HEAVEN!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip  Brownies

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice (if you don't have pumpkin spice, you can make your own with 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon each allspice and cloves all ground-I use less ginger but that's totally up to you. )
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/2 to 1 package chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate but you can use semi sweet also)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on all sides. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in pumpkin puree (mixture may appear curdled). Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan.

Lift cake from pan (using foil as an aid). Peel off foil, and use a serrated knife to cut into 24 squares.

These taste great with tea and coffee. The bitterness along with the spicy sweetness of the brownie is a perfect fit. I think I just described myself. Anyhoo! Enjoy!

Feel Good Friday!

 It's Friday! Oh yeah!  I am so excited that we are getting into the Halloween season. The house is almost decorated, the fire is blazing and I'm ready to settle into a Feel Good Friday. Let's see what I have for you my little kiddles.

I really think I need this cute little felted pumpkin cupcake. Fabric Fancies has adorable cakes, pin cushions and wreaths. Each cake is made to order, which makes them even more special.

I absolutely have the biggest sweet tooth known to man. I can't help it. If you dangle a donut in my face, I will follow you anywhere. When I saw these banana split bites, I about dropped over dead. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea! P.S-this has nothing to do with my theme but I couldn't help it.

Head over to Bakers Royale and check out these wonderful tasty treats. Here's the secret. There is ICE CREAM INSIDE the bananas! No, I am not kidding you! It is brilliant. 

When Staar84 posted this over at Craftster I instantly fell in love. The Raven is stitched up from the famous Edgar Allen Poe poem. It blows me away!

This is the perfect costume for Pete. I'm pretty sure that he has already built his jet pack.

Okay guys and ghouls! Once again, Turner Movie Classics is showing Hammer Horror films and this time we have ZOMBIES! I'm off to stoke the fire, heat up some apple cider and have the dogs attack my bunny slippers. Have a great weekend everybody!

Bad Little Puppies

These are such bad little puppies! Getting into all sorts of trouble, but I can't be mad-they are just too cute!

Tie One On Tuesday!

Guess what I'm doing tonight? No, I am not sitting on my butt, sipping a few cocktails while watching Ghost Adventures. I'm decorating the house, sipping a few cocktails while watching Ghost Adventures. Geesh, what do you guys think? I sit and eat bon bons all day while downing a magnum of champagne-I mean granted that is my dream.

Anyhoo, where was I going with this? Oh yeah! It's October and that means Halloween and that means decorating and enjoying a few libations while making the house spooky. These are great drinks to bribe your friends to get them to come over and help you put out the plastic tombstones and fake spiderweb.

This is such an easy drink and people are able to handle it a lot better than Rob Zombie

Red Zombie
2 oz. Gin
Juice from 1 1/2 lemons
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
carbonated water (tonic or seltzer)
Shake gin, juice of lemon, and powdered sugar with ice.
Strain into a highball glass over two ice cubes.
Fill with carbonated water, stir, and serve.
Garnish with a red zombie eye by de-stemming a maraschino cherry and placing a chocolate chip (pointed side down) into the hole.

Okay, so you don't have friends to come over and help with the decorations. Grab those little goblins you call kids and put those nimble little fingers to work. You can reward them with Candy Corn Punch

Candy Corn Punch
1 Cup vanilla ice cream
2 cups orange-colored sorbet or sherbet
1 Cup yellow-colored sorbet or sherbet
1 gallon tropical blend juice
1 Liter ginger ale
Line a 4-cup 32 oz. Bundt pan with sheets of plastic wrap. Extend plastic wrap down into mold and over sides to make it easier to unmold the ice cream.
Soften ice cream so it is easy to spread, but not melting.
Add vanilla ice cream into the lined ring mold and smooth top surface making it level. Add orange sorbet on vanilla and smooth top surface making it level. Add yellow sorbet on orange sorbet and smooth top surface making it level. If ice cream in ring mold becomes to soft to support the next layer, put the mold in the freezer for 15 minutes until firm. Freeze mold until party time.
Pour juice and ginger ale into punch bowl. Invert mold on to a large plate and gently remove ice cream. Slide ice cream from the plate into the punch for a candy corn ice cream float.

So, you have no friends, no kids, only little furry beast looking up at you. They can't help, they have no thumbs. You can still whip up a cocktail to honor those furry creatures I guarantee that this will have you howling at the moon.

The Wolf Bite
1 oz Absinthe (in the US, we can't get real Absinthe, unless you make it, which I do not suggest-so just get the watered down version and be happy with it)
1 oz melon liquer
1 oz lemon lime soda
1 oz pineapple juice
In a cocktail shaker add  Absinthe,  Melon Liqueur, pineapple juice, and ice. Shake vigorously and strain into 2oz. shot glass. Splash lemon-lime soda on top and a drizzle of grenadine.

You don't have to be scared to stir up these spooky cocktails. They are easy to concoct and will leave you and your guest with big toothy smiles. Just a few sips of these yummy drinks and your friends, neighbors and even relatives should be willing to help put your decorations up while you kick back and relax, they may even put up your Christmas lights for you-yep, they are that good.

AGH! Monsters!

Well, well, well....will you look at that? It's time for Shocktober. Oh yeah, you  heard me right, a whole month of scary movies. One of my favorite things about scary movies are the monsters. The sillier the monster, the better!

My FAVORITE monster is the Creature in the Creature from the Black Lagoon. How can you not love a slimey monster that just wants to hang with the ladies. A scientific expedition looking for the proof of the fish missing link gets more then it bargains for when they find the real thing, not just the fossil remains. Lots of great underwater action, a guy in a rubber suit and one of the cutest bathing suits ever is all you need to know about this Universal Monster classic.

Do you like dogs wearing shredded carpets? If you do, than The Killer Shrews is the movie for you! Besides the shredded carpet dogs, James Best aka Rosco P. Coltrane of Dukes of Hazzard fame stars in this fine piece of cinema. Once again, we just can't keep our hands off mother nature and thus the killer shrew is born. How will the shrews be stopped? Who will save us? Well sillies! Rent it and find out.

 Okay, so I've noticed that in the 1940's and 1950's people really had a fear of gorillas. I don't get it? I mean, did gorillas run rampant on the streets? Did the people of that time already know that we were going to be ruled by apes a la Planet of the Apes? Anyhoo, Robot Monster has two things that our mid-century modern ancestors feared most. Robots and Gorillas. Oh yeah! I forgot about radiation, big lizards and cute girls screaming. The marrying of a diving helmet and gorilla suit? Pure genius !

These are just three bad monster movies that I highly recommend these cool Shocktober nights. If you are having a bad day, pop one of these fine *ahem* movies in your DVD player, sit back and have a good belly laugh.

Scrappy Dog Sunday!

It was one year ago today that we brought home our little bundle of joy. Mark had told me that he didn't want anymore kids-he was finished and then BAM he told me me that we were driving to rural Washington to look at a little man. We grabbed the girls, headed north, went past pasture after pasture of Alpacas(I'm pretty sure after saying 6 times that we should have the Alpaca lifestyle Mark was ready to turn the car around) we arrived at a  farm with tiny little babies running around everywhere.

There he was, running around like a maniac, keeping up with the girls and showing us that toothy grin that he is so famous for. At that very point, he melted our heart. We brought the little guy home and he cried for a little bit in the car but otherwise he was a perfect  angel....until that night. He would never settled down, cried the whole night and eventually Mark had to go downstairs with him and sleep on the couch. All I could think about was did we make a mistake? Are we crazy? We have two Jack Russells and now we have a Miniature Pinscher. The next night was fine and each night after that has gotten better. Of course, he thinks he security and must check out every little sound. If someone sneezes 2 hours away, Pete can hear it.
I'm not gonna say every day has been a walk in the park. We have had to secure the backyard more than ever because he is an escape artist, he's not a fan of little kids and will follow some house guest around barking at them. He has marked his territory in the house a few times and decides at 4am it's time for patrol of the backyard. Every time he does something he knows he shouldn't, he looks up at you with those little eyes, perks the ears up and gives you a toothy little smile as if to say, "I'm just a puppy, mom....I love you, did I mention that? I really do." Then my heart melts and I forget why I was so angry in the first place.

This little black and tan puppy, in a year, has managed to wrap us around his little paw. He brings Mark so much joy and when that little nubbin of a tail starts wiggling, well, it's all over. He loves to chase birds with the girls, steal treats when he gets the opportunity and snag your blankets in the middle of winter, but we love this little man. We can't imagine our life without him. The smile he puts on our faces and the laughs we have with him takes away all the cold feet nights. So, here's to you Pete! You are the sunshine on a rainy day and the rock in my shoe and I love you for that.

Salivating Saturday

Fall has started and that means that it's time to start baking! One thing that I love to bake is a super simple savory treat that you can literally make in under an hour-Cheese straws. Oh yeah....Cheese! (I immediately started saying it like Wallace from the Wallace and Gromit fame). This wonderful little cracker has a nice little spicy bite that will make your mouth happy.

Cheese Straws
2 sticks of butter
1/2 lb of sharp shredded cheddar cheese (you could try other cheeses but cheddar is traditional)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cups all purpose flour
1/tsp salt

Cream the cheese and butter together. Mix dry ingredients together. Slowly add in dry mix. You can use your cookie press to makes these, again the traditional way or you can roll into little marbles and press with a fork on a cookie sheet. Press them so they look like Peanut Butter cookies. Bake for 8-12 minutes at 375 (start at 5 minutes and go up from there). Don't let them get too brown.

I usually make these in my cookie press with the star template but I was really lazy and didn't want to walk all of 5 stairs to the basement and pick up the press and then walk all the way back up.So, I made them into cracker/cookie like disc. No matter, they are still just as delicious.

These spicy morsels are great for a party, watching the football game (Go Heels!) or watching that super scary movie. The best part about these little guys, the smell reminds me of the holidays and I get all sentimental. Now, if you'll excuse me-I'm gonna go reminisce over a cracker.