“Colleen” Pumpkin Eggnog Bread Pudding

My friend Colleen sent me the link to this recipe – and upon first sight I couldn’t wait to make it. So, I’m naming it after her. Today, I just did the recipe as it was listed in the original article in the Seattle Times Food & Wine section – except that I coated my baking pan with butter, drizzled more butter on top, and broiled it prior to taking it out of the oven to crust up the top a little. I was having a girls night with my three sisters, and brought it for dessert.

Obviously this is a fall to Christmas baked good since eggnog and cranberries are only really available around this time of year. My youngest sister said this tastes like Christmas on a spoon. I’d have to agree. It’s a moist delicious bread that tastes a little like pumpkin pie, with the richness of eggnog and the spices of the holidays. The cranberry compote it’s served with it tart and tangy, the perfect offset to the rich bread pudding. However – with the sweet tooth that runs deep in our family, my sisters and I kind of agreed that we’d rather have it with a vanilla dipping sauce/custard the next time. And, I’ll probably do up the bread pudding in individual ramekins next time for a prettier presentation.

Pumpkin Eggnog Bread Pudding

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Triple Layer Oreo® Pie

Bible study tonight! I whipped up this decadent (totally easy) no-bake pie to get rid of the package of Oreo® Cookies that have been calling my name for the past couple days. Make sure you use only the amount of milk in the recipe, not what the pudding box calls for. Otherwise you’ll end up with Oreo® soup instead of a nicely layered pie.

Triple Layer Oreo Pie

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Lemon Pancakes

My Auntie Julie used to make lemon pancakes when I was little. I always loved having breakfast over there. I asked her a while back what she did to make them so delicious and she laughed and told me it’s just basic pancakes thinned out topped with lemon and powdered sugar. So, yesterday when making breakfast for my family (I love lazy Saturday morning breakfast) – I decided to try my own spin on this childhood favorite.

Lemon Pancakes

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Shortbread Three Ways

I love versatile recipes. This one I got from my cousin’s blog – care of the Barefoot Contessa. Today, I made it into three different cookies. Part of it I turned into Emilys. Others into Raspberry Linzers and then just cut out some pretty leaf shapes and did a little chocolate and roasted peanut action on top of the rest.

Emilys, Linzers, Shortbread

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Emilys

Yesterday I made an amazing discovery. I love people and I love food. Well, I already knew those things, but here’s the discovery. I bake because I enjoy it, but more because I love the people in my life and want them to have delicious things. I’ve made a decision. Someday, when I have my own bakery, all the goodies will be named for the people I love that had a hand in the creation of those things. So, instead of having a cookie called “Double Chocolate Brownie Cookies”, they will simply be named “Phil”. As in, I’d like a dozen “Phils”. Because I created that cookie specifically for my pastor. And each item will have a photo of that person next to the name. I’m thinking of calling my bakery “Bakerlady’s House” – because it will be filled with all the people I love…in the form of delicious treats. We’ll see, I’m still working on it.

Today, I created what will be known as Emily. Emily (the person) is a friend from church. She is generous and organized. I love that she always seems to know when I need a play date to walk with our strollers and just talk. I made these cookies today to recreate some that I purchased (gasp!) for her baby shower last week. I have an excuse, I could not use my kitchen that day. Here’s what the purchased (Trader Joe’s) cookies looked like: Continue reading

Vanilla Dipping Sauce

When I made my Applesauce Drop Doughnuts the other day, I felt it was missing something. I found this recipe from pastry chef Amy Foster of Tallula, and decided it would perfectly complement the fluffy doughnuts. I added vanilla bean innards to mine, which gives it the beautiful specks of black. I took the remaining innards and the hull of the vanilla bean and added them to some powdered sugar in a ziplock bag for coating this batch of doughnuts.

Vanilla Dipping Sauce

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Pumpkin Puree

This is one of my favorite memories of Halloween growing up. Every year, we carved our pumpkins the day of Halloween as a family. We  lined them up like little soldiers on the pathway of my parents house to light the way for the hoards of trick-or-treaters. Then, first thing the next morning, my mom would start slicing them down the middle and roasting them in the oven. Pumpkin roasting began the season of homemade pumpkin pies and pumpkin bread from the fresh pumpkin puree. I continue the tradition today.

Silky Pumpkin Puree

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Simple Caramel Apples

Yesterday I went in search of caramels to make my Halloween tradition, Caramel Apples. I had to visit three stores before I found one that had them in stock. It was very frustrating – but, these babies are totally worth the irritation. You can go crazy with decorating caramel apples…drizzle with melted chocolate, rolled in chocolate then coconut or candies etc. I prefer the good old-fashioned original.

We had a great spread tonight at our gathering – I also made Wassail, Mom’s Tortellini Soup, Applesauce Drop Doughnuts, and Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Caramel Apples

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Applesauce Drop Doughnuts

I made these tonight for our annual family trick-or-treating extravaganza. They were crispy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. They were awesome! Next time, I’ll make some kind of dipping sauce (raspberry maybe, or possibly a vanilla bean custard) and try rolling them in powdered sugar. I think that would make them absolutely perfect. I also would like to try these substituting pumpkin for the applesauce and kicking up the spices a little. Mmmmm, I really do love pumpkin spice things.This recipe makes a TON of little doughnut holes. They disappear quickly though, this whole batch was gone before I knew it! Luckily, we had lots of other food, including Simple Caramel Apples, Wassail, Mom’s Tortellini Soup, and Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. 

Applesauce Doughnut Drops