The other day I was in the mood for Pumpkin pie. I’ve never made a pie before so I gave it a try. I don’t like the original pumpkin pie crust, so I did some research to find a different kind. I found a recipe for Gingersnap crust. YUM! Please Note: I only used that recipe for the crust. I used the recipe on the back of the Libby’s 100% pure pumpkin can for the filling of the pie.

Here is what it looks like after I added the good stuff. YUM! And if your wondering why the crust is not climbing over the back side, well I did mention this was my first pie... right? I forgot to add it to the sides of the pan as well. Not bad for my first try though.

Gingersnap Crust:

-2 cups of Gingersnap cookie crumbs

-1/3 cup of sugar

-1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger

-6 tablespoons of melted butter

*If you are making 2 pies you will need to double that*

Filling of the Pie:

-1 1/2 cups of sugar

-1 teaspoon of salt

-2 teaspoons of ground Cinnamon

-1 teaspoon of ground ginger

-1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves

-4 large eggs

-1 can of (29 oz.) Libby’s 100% pure pumpkin

-2 cans of (12 fl. oz. each) of Carnation evaporated milk

-2 pie shells (I used the gingersnap crust)

1. Start by making the pie crust. Take the gingersnap cookies and crush them up, I used a food processor. This is the most annoying and loudest part. Next pour the crushed cookies into a large bowl, mix in the sugar, ground ginger, and butter. Spread into the pie pan evenly (don’t forget to go up the sides, HA HA!). Repeat this step for the other pie as well.

2. Making the pie filling. Preheat the oven for 425 degrees. In a small bowl mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Beat eggs in a large bowl, then stir in the pumpkin and sugar/spice mixture. Next gradually stir in the evaporated milk. Pour into the pie shells.

3. Bake in a 425 degree preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 40-50 minutes or until knife comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. ENJOY!

I was in the mood and wanted to make homemade caramel dipped apples with nuts. However, I was also in the mood for cupcakes. Well I decided to hop on Pinterest and check some ideas out. I found Caramel Apple cupcakes, BINGO best of both worlds. I could smell the deliciousness through the picture, so I had to make them.

What you need is:

For the amazing cupcake batter:

-1 Can of apple pie Filling

-1 box of French Vanilla cake mix

-1 teaspoon of apple pie spice or (cinnamon and nutmeg)

-3 eggs

-cupcake liners

For the caramel buttercream frosting:

-1/2 cup butter

-8 oz cream cheese

-1/4 cup caramel sauce (store bought)

-2-3 cups powdered sugar

-chopped nuts to sprinkle on top of final cupcake

Here’s what I used:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

1. In a large bowl mix together the can of apple pie filling (slice the apples so that they are bite size), French vanilla cake mix, apple pie spice, and eggs.

2. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, bake for 14-18 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

3. For the buttercream frosting, beat the butter and cream cheese until its light and fluffy. Add caramel and beat again.

4. Add powdered sugar until it taste perfect. If the buttercream is too thin to pipe you can refrigerate until it thickens. I was inpatient, so mine wasn’t as pretty as if I were to wait.

5. Pipe buttercream frosting onto cupcakes, drizzle with caramel, and if you wish sprinkle with chopped nuts.

I ran out of frosting (probably because I was inpatient and it was thin) so I had a few cupcakes that I just drizzled caramel on and sprinkled with nuts. Those were still delicious, but had more of a muffin taste. Enjoy!

This recipe is from one of my relatives. Pretty good, but pretty hard to make (or maybe its just me). What you will need is:

1.) 2 1/4 c. warm water

2.) 2 Tbs. honey

3.) 2 1/4 tsp. salt

4.) 5 c. flour

5.) 1 Tbs gluten (optional)

6.) 2 tsp. instant yeast

7.) 1 egg

8.) any seasoning..I used: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, minced onion, and garlic.

1. Start out by doing yoga, relieve the stress you're about to have. HA just kidding.

Combine water, honey, and salt into a large bowl. Add half the flour, yeast, and gluten, mix well (I had no clue where to find gluten and since it was optional, I didn’t use it). Add remaining flour and knead to form a slightly stiff dough. About 8-10 minutes. YEA..where is my yoga mat. My dough was very sticky and not very stiff.

2. Let the dough rise until double it's size. Make sure to cover so that it doesn’t dry out. This part lasted about an hour or so. I was inpatient, probably the bulk of my problem.

Here is my “double in size” photo.

3. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and shape into balls, than set them aside to rest. ohh boy, this didn’t work out as planned. The dough was very sticky and when I shaped them into balls they flattened. I ignored the fact they were no longer balls and continued.

4. In a large pot bring one gallon of water to a boil. Add 1/3 cup of Honey to it. At this point I would also preheat the oven to 425 degrees and grease a baking sheet. (trust me, do it now, or get your yoga mat)

5. Working with only six balls at a time, take each ball and poke your thumb through the middle forming a hole. Twirl the bagel around your thumb to enlarge the hole until it is about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Let each bagel rest for five minutes.

6. Place 2-3 bagels at a time into the boiling honey water, make sure to adjust the heat so that the water is simmering at all times. While these cook, prepare the next six balls for the water. 

*the bagels should sink then rise within a few seconds, if they don’t (don’t panic) they are still fine, it just means they rested for too long. If the bagels do not sink than make sure to turn them over, so that both sides touched the water.

7. After the bagels have soaked for about one minute, remove them with a slotted spoon and place them on the greased baking sheet. Bake all at once in a preheated oven to 425 degrees for 35 minutes, flipping the bagels over at the halfway point, if their not browning evenly.

8. The final step is to crack and whisk an egg into a small cup. Add 2 tbs of water. Using a seasoning brush (I think you call it that?), brush the egg onto each side of each bagel.

9. Sprinkle on your favorite seasonings, I did "everything bagels" and they seemed to be the best. If there is any extras, they can be frozen and eaten at a later date. ENJOY!

I found this yummy recipe on Pinterest.  I love Pinterest because you can type in a word such as strawberries and get all sorts of delicious recipes.  This is a very easy recipe and if you can’t cook (me!) than its perfect for you.

This was used from Sugarderby.com

The Ingredients

  I used 1 carton, but you will want 2 cartons of strawberries.

  8 oz. package of softened cream cheese

  1/2 cup powdered sugar

  1/2 teaspoon vanilla

  1 sleeve of graham crackers (I only used about 2-3 crackers)

  1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips (optional)

PS. not sure why I didn’t retake this photo after I noticed the powdered sugar was upside down…(awesome photography skills)

1. You will want to wash the strawberries and cut off the top. Than you core the insides out (I put the insides into a separate cup and set them aside).  This part is pretty tough and the most annoying part. Sugar Derby mentioned she used a thin apple peeler and a small knife. She said the Knife worked better. I was blessed with this amazing tool (not sure where it came from), which was awesome and worked very well. I actually believe its called a strawberry corer. HA!

2. Next you want to make the filling (the yummy cheesecake filling).  Beat the cream cheese, add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth. This is where I added the cup I set aside with the insides. I thought it might add an extra touch. Mix the insides with the filling. 

3. In the next step you want to crunch the Graham crackers, which is another pain if you don’t have an awesome meat hammer. I just used a big spoon.

4. Now you can fill the empty strawberries with this amazing filling.  I used a plastic bag and filled it with the filling than cut off the corner. This is the fun part. 

5. Last take the strawberry and dip them into the crunched graham crackers.

6. Now if you want you can add the chocolate drizzle on the strawberry. Take half a bag and melt them in the microwave, I also used the plastic bag clipped corner technique here. Than drizzle the chocolate over the strawberries.

Here is the final look keep them cold in the refrigerator for best results. ENJOY!  

Hi, I’m Tara! I wanted to share these yummy Mini Oreo Cupcakes and Kristen mentioned I should start blogging all the yummy things I bake. So I am! 

The First time I made the cupcakes was for my boyfriend Andrew’s Birthday. They were a hit! So I made them again for Tony. Easy gift, HA HA!

Preheat Oven to 350°F

Makes 24

Altered a tad from this recipe at Kraft Foods

1. The Ingredients

• 1 pkg chocolate cake mix
• 1 pkg cream cheese, softened (8 oz)
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp sugar (30 ml)
• 1 (8oz) Bag of bite size Oreo cookies (Maybe 2 See #6)
• 8oz Container of Cool Whip
• (Don’t forget the ingredients for the cake mix you get)

2. Cupcake Batter & Filling

Follow the directions on the back of the cake mix. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese, egg, and sugar to make the filling.

3. Cupcake layer & Surprise filling

Spoon half the cake batter into the lined cupcake pan. Then spoon about 1-1/2tsp. of the Cream Cheese filling on top of the batter. 

4. Make that surprise extra Yummy

Add one Oreo on top of the filling to each cupcake. Make sure it sits flat and is in the center.

5. Cover your surprise

Add the rest of the batter to your cupcake. Make sure to cover them fully. Almost to the top.

Bake 19 to 22 minutes or until your toothpick is clean. Remove and cool on a wired rack.

6. Make frosting

This is where I altered a little from the linked recipe. It calls for just cool Whip. However, I added the extra Oreo crumbles to the cool Whip. We don’t want to waste any of them little guys. I even use a little from the extra bag to give the frosting a little more color and flavor.

7. Add frosting (Sorry about the picture)

I normally add the frosting to a zip-lock and cut a corner to make it pretty and it’s much easier. After cupcakes cool completely, add frosting and top with an Oreo! Eeep!!

8. Eat

Put in Refrigerator and wait until cold.

Make sure to cut in half and take a photo – Just Kidding!

Eat and Enjoy!!