Yummy Pumpkin Swirl Baked Oatmeal

When I was 15 I spent a summer in New Mexico with my relatives on their ranch and I enjoyed some very yummy foods that summer. One of them was baked oatmeal. WOW! My cousin would add some chocolate chips and it was so yummy for breakfast, even cold for a snack!!!

Last week on Brown Eyed Baker I noticed she shared a baked oatmeal recipe, found here.

You can find my version below:

Pumpkin Swirl Baked Oatmeal

2 cups quick oats
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1½ cups milk
½ cup butter
5-6 Tablespoons Libby's Pumpkin Pie Canned Mix.
1 large egg, beaten

Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

Stir all ingredients except pumpkin. Then spoon pumpkin on and swirl around a bit. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Inspiration.....28 Steps to a Deep Cleaned Bedroom

Fluffed Pillows on a Cabin Bed at Lake Champlain

Where to begin......We live in a little cottage (little) and while I admire "Wonder Women" and "Martha Stewarts" ....I am NOT one. I want to be, but it never seems to happen. :)  With such a cozy little place, (which I love) it can be hard to figure out where and how to store things. And since organization is not my niche, it seems I am sometimes doomed for failure.

Today I stumbled upon Raising Homemakers and really enjoyed her Homemaking Link-up and that is where I found:

Drum roll.........

Time~Warp Wife

OH MY! Her blog is so inspiring, and let me tell you I WAS Inspired! I read her article

"28 Steps to a Deep-Cleaned Bedroom"

and in 3 hours my bedroom was 85% deep cleaned. I ran out of time today and hope to finish up tomorrow.  Because I am out of printer ink I actually scribbled all 28 Steps down and went to my room and I meant business.  

Sadly my bedroom is dual labeled, one: as of-course a bedroom and the other as:.... Cringe and slap by hand....a "storage room".  I sell things on ebay, do crafts, and we have our own house cleaning business and there is no other place to put things.

While our bedroom still serves both purposes with her helpful instruction I was able to have a tidy looking room in no time. And hubby was mightily pleased!!!

Here is a little bit of what Darlene Schacht has to say:

"Bedrooms tend to accumulate stuff, whether it be clothing, jewelry, magazines or leotards, most of us have too much of it cluttering our drawers and our table tops. It shouldn’t be this way. The bedroom should be the most relaxing room in the house—a place where you can retreat to when you want to stretch out, or snuggle with your husband on a cool winter’s night. But there’s nothing relaxing or romantic about a room that’s cluttered and disorganized, is there?

I’m going to offer you 28 steps that will get your bedroom into the shape that it should be. Depending on the current state of your bedroom, this deep cleaning schedule could take you anywhere from one afternoon to a few, but in any case, the final result will be well worth your effort. I promise!

1. Start by taking the sheets, pillow cases and blankets off the bed and throwing them into the washing machine. Set the timer so that you won’t forget they are there.
2. Take your curtains down and get them ready to go into the next load.
3. If you have blinds, wipe them down with a damp cloth.

You can read the rest of her AMAZING 28 Steps HERE

I am super excited about visiting her blog, she has a Housekeeping Schedule that I found inspiring as well. I have read many different schedules and ideas but something about hers really stuck with me!!!

http://gnowfglins.com/2011/01/13/simple-lives-thursday-26/

Wordless Wednesday....Our Kitten Fluffers

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday @ Happily Domestic here

Pumpkin Pound Cake

So what is the rhyme or reason for food that I cook or bake? It's usually what i have on hand and then finding a new way to use it. I have a few recipe stand-bys but I tend to try new recipes often, I really like the variety!

Well I wanted to make a pound cake but I was out of butter....and I had pumpkin on hand, so I went to allrecipes and clicked on the ingredients section. I typed in that I wanted to use oil and that I did not want to use butter and this Pumpkin Cake recipe was one of them. You can find it here.

And below you will find my version with a few changes.

Pumpkin Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 1-1/3 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup solid pack pumpkin puree
• 1-1/2 cups Libby Pumpkin Pie Canned Mix

(My Notes:  I changed this recipe by putting in much less sugar and using mostly the Libby's Canned Pie Mix instead of all just regular plain pumpkin. You will have leftover Pumpkin Pie Mix, put this in the frig and I have a wonderful baked oatmeal that you can use this in!!!)


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan. Sift together flour, soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine oil and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix well. Add the flour mixture and beat until smooth. Add pumpkin and blend until smooth. Pour batter into greased 10 inch tube pan.
3. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and finish cooling. Dust with confectioners sugar before serving.
4. 
   

Homemade Cheese Crackers like Cheeze-Its

One of my friends had us over tonight and she decided it would be a lot of fun to make homemade Cheez-Its......not only did we have A LOT of fun but they were incredibly yummy and one batch was NOT enough!!!

We donned our aprons and went to town.

I love my apron, I got it for Christmas from my sweet Aunt Dana, it was re-purposed from a mans old button up shirt.

T. grating the sharp cheddar cheese

I had never heard of this kind of Paprika until my friend introduced it to my I highly recommend it instead of using regular Paprika. 

Homemade Cheese Crackers

She found the recipe from My Kitchen Snippets

Ingredients:

1 stick butter (113 grm) – at room temperature
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups Flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp of black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper (we did not add the cayenne and I am glad we didn't)
1 tsp of paprika (Hungarian Paprika highly recommended, has a wonderful smoky flavor)
2 tbsp of cold water (I think we for sure used 3)

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degree F. Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper.
2. Put all the above ingredients except water in a food processor. Pulse until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. Slowly add in one tbsp of cold water or a bit more until the mixture comes together into a ball. (We just mixed by hand)
3. Take out the dough and lightly floured work surface, give the dough a few knead and let it rest for half an hour.
4. Roll the dough out thinly about 1/8" thick. Cut out into desired shapes. (I used a pizza cutter and cut diagonal shapes)
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crackers start to get just golden on the edges
Remove the baking pan from the oven, and transfer the browned crackers to a cooling rack.

Here we are in our aprons. :)

I LOVE her French rolling pin....only slightly jealous. :)

Sooooooooo good.  You will be making them over and over again!!!

By Request: Vanilla Butter Cookies w/Lemon Buttercream Frosting

I made these cookies several months ago and they were Oh! so good!!!...A friend of mine requested the recipe so I searched my pile of scribbled recipes and found them! YAY!!!  I had seen some cookies on Etsy that totally inspired me to find something as "good looking" as they were. And yes they tasted as good as they looked!!!  These two separate recipes were found on www.recipezaar.com

Vanilla Butter Cookies

Makes 36 Cookies

1 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 T. pure vanilla extract (the secret)

1/2 tsp. almond extract ( I did not use this just because I didn't have it on hand)

2 cups flour

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Cream butter and sugar.

3. Add egg, vanilla, and extract, and beat well.

4. Mix in flour.

5. Drop by rounded teasponfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes.

(My notes: Do not over bake, let cool and then make sandwich cookies with the frosting recipe posted below).

Lemon Buttercream Frosting (From the Famous Sprinkles Cupcakes)

1 cup butter

3-3/4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 lemon, juice and zest of

1 tsp. vanilla

1/8 tsp. salt

1. Combine butter, sugar, and salt and beat till well combined.

2. Add lemon juice, zest and vanilla and continue to beat for another 3-5 minutes or until creamy.

(My NOTES: I didn't have a lemon, so I just used 1-2 Tablespoons of lemon juice.)

Vegetable Soup & Amish Bread Recipe

Easy Vegetable Soup

(original recipe found here).....my version below)

Ingredients

• 35 oz. your favorite Spaghetti Sauce ( I used great value traditional sauce )
• 6 cups water
• 4 T. Knorr Beef Bouillon 
• 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 can corn
• 1/2 bag frozen green beans
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup frozen carrots
• 8 oz. whole wheat Rotini
• 
  
• I also added 1 T. dried basil, some onion powder, pepper, season salt, and
•  
• Emerils original.  Just sprinkled in to taste.  Also threw in 1 1/2 T. sugar
• 
  
• Directions

1. Place the spaghetti sauce and water in a large pot over medium high heat. Bring just to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and add the mixed vegetables.
2. Bring to boil again, Add the pasta, and let simmer until heated through or until pasta is done, about 15 minutes.

Now I am sharing a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks!!! The Wooden Spoon by Miriam Miller.  You can purchase it for around $10 bucks on Amazon, link below. :)

White Bread

1 cup white sugar

pinch of salt

2 T. yeast

1 cup oil

flour

Combine sugar, salt, 2 cups hot water, and 2 cups cold water. Make sure water is warm. Add yeast and let set until yeast dissolves. Add oil and flour to make a nice dough, not too stiff. Let rise; knead and let rise again. Shape into 5 or 6 loaves and put into greased pans. Bake @ 350 for 15~20 minutes. Do not overbake.  For light wheat bread, add 1 cup of whole wheat flour.

A friend taught me that when I knead the bread the second time to do it on oil.  I really like doing this.  I added 2 cups of whole wheat flour to this recipe.  I got 2 round loaves, a braided loaf, and I made a pan of cinnamon loaves!!!!

Rising

The cinnamon rolls were super duper yummy!!! :)

This loaf went really fast!!!! Saving the braided loaf for supper!!! We are having left over veggie soup!!! :)

Scottish Shortbread and some yummy embellishments. :)

Traditional Scottish Shortbread

This recipe is soooo easy and makes a great tea time treat or late night dessert. I found the original recipe here.

1 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter

This is how I do it, melt butter and mix well with sugar and flour, press in a parchment lined 8 x 8 baking dish.  Sprinkle the top with granulated sugar.

To make it fun for the kids, okay it's really for me, I like to sprinkle chocolate chips on the top, this part is probably not traditional. :)

Bake @ 300 for 30 mintutes, Remove and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.  Cut, cool, and eat. :)

Comforting Potato Soup and Homemade Crackers

I grew up on this potato soup recipe, my mama made it and now I make it. We love it, and it sure warms your heart and soul on a cold blistery winter day. I hope you will enoy it too. Paired with homemade whole wheat crackers I think it will surely be a hit at your home.

Potato Soup

6 cups water

1 stick butter

5 to 6 potatoes

2 carrots

1 onion

6 Tablespoons Knorr chicken bouillon ( I love the powdered)

1 can evaporated milk

In a stock pot add water, butter, chop up potatoes in bite size pieces and carrots, chop up onion.  Add bouillon and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until potatoes and carrots are tender.  When done turn off heat and add evaporated milk. Serve and enjoy. :)

Whole Wheat Crackers

I love this basic and easy cracker recipe and I got it from my favorite blog...Aspiring Homemaker

You can find my adaption below:

1 cup flour

1/2 whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 cup oil

1/2 cup water

1 to 2 tsp. Italian Seasoning (optional)

Riverwalk Jazz Cafe Ozark, MO

(My hubby's Dad and wife own a Jazz Cafe and she gave me her Italian seasoning mix she sells in the cafe and I added 2 tsps. of her special blend. It makes the crackers just wonderful. Visit their website here Riverwalk Jazz Cafe)

1 egg, 2 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp vinegar

Mix flours, salt, powder, oil, water, and seasonings. Roll out thin on a baking sheet. Mix together egg, sugar, and vinegar and brush on crackers. Use a pizza cutter to cut strips or squares. Bake @ 350 for 10~20 min or until golden brown.

Shepherds Pie

I saw a recipe on All-recipes tonight for an easy Shepherds pie found here but I couldn't help but tweak it a bit. I picked this recipe because I had everything on hand.

What I did and what you will need:

1 lb. ground beef

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 can milk

1 can corn

1 can green beans

1 cup frozen carrots (or canned)

5 to 6 potatoes

Cheddar cheese

I fried my ground beef with seasonings like onion powder, garlic, season salt, etc.  Then mix the ground beef with 1 can cream mushroom soup, and fill half the can with milk and pour in mixture.  Stir in the veggies.  Pour in greased 9 x 13 baking dish.  Meanwhile cook mashed potatoes (I added some milk and butter to my tators). Pour over beef mixture, top with lots of cheddar cheese. Bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes, until golden and bubbly.

I made whole wheat cinnamon rolls for dessert and will post the recipe for that soon!!!

Make your own Laundry Soap

Is it really cheaper to make your own???  Well I finally did the math.  I realize that making your own soap is not for everyone, but if this is something you have been interested in, then this post is for you!!! I have posted on this before, found here......but I have changed the recipe a bit and made 5 times more here so I have a lot on hand.

If I figured correctly this makes roughly 

about 2 gallons of laundry detergent...it cost me $7.81 in supplies....it will make 512 loads, and if I figured right that's $.015 cents per load. 

So let's get started!!!

In a 5 gallon bucket add:

5 bars of Ivory soap (grate each bar into the bucket, I liked the small grate better.These are $1.07 for a 3 pack....I used 5 bars, so that is $1.77 for 5) 

I am sure that those who coupon, could get these much cheaper for great savings!!!

Pour in 1 box of Borax...this cost me $2.98 at Wal Mart.

And 1 container of Sun oxygen cleaner, only $1.96 at Wal Mart.

2 lbs. of baking soda, I could not find Washing soda at Wal Mart, I was told to check out my Dillons or Ace Hardware, if I end up finding some I am going to add washing soda to this mix.  It seems to work find for me even so without it.

Mix all this together and store in a 5 gallon bucket with a tight lid, I have a cute glass container I keep on my dryer with some of the solution in it for convenience. Add 1 Tablespoon per load.  We have hard water here, so I like to 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vinegar in each load of my clothing. It's a natural fabric softener as well.

I am hoping that this amount will last me 6 months to 1 year.

And of-course we've already added the Ivory soap, but I love the motto on the bar:

"If you want to be free, learn to live simply."

I added some to a brown paper lunch sack, added a label and topped it with a clothespin just for fun!! :) 

Hope you all enjoy making your detergent!!!

CCC's

A good friend of mine would talk in code to her hubby when she had several of her younguns listening.  For example when it got close to bed time she would say to her DH, "How about some frozen dairy product after the kids go to bed." Instead of saying ice cream.  And their code for chocolate chip cookies....CCC's.  

Tonight while I was checking out my favorite blog...Brown Eyed Baker and found her post on the best Thick and Chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Tell you what, I LOVE IT!!!!

You can check out Brown Eyed Bakers post here, and I have posted the recipe below as well. Pictures are my CCC's after I took them out of the oven. :)

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Source: Baking Illustrated, page 434)

Makes about 18 large cookies.

These oversized cookies are chewy and thick, like many of the chocolate chip cookies sold in gourmet shops and cookie stores. They rely on melted butter and an extra egg yolk to keep their texture soft. These cookies are best served warm from the oven but will retain their texture even when cooled. To ensure the proper texture, cool the cookies on the baking sheet. Oversized baking sheets allow you to get all the dough into the oven at one time. If you’re using smaller baking sheets, put fewer cookies on each sheet and bake them in batches.

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (10 5/8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed (7 ounces) light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. Either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the chips to taste.

4. Roll a scant 1/4 cup of the dough into a ball. Hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough’s uneven surface. Place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.

5. Bake until the cookies are light golden grown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets with a side metal spatula.

These were so easy to make!!!  Be sure to have a tall glass of milk nearby!!!