Is it a waffle...or a slice of cake?

I know waffles have been all the rage...

you can make pretty much anything in a waffle iron...so someone says.

A couple of Sundays ago I had a big fail on a crock pot dinner.

I didn't even post it because it was that bad.

I was hungry...I wanted something delicious...I decided to make some cake.

The waffle iron way.

Make a cake batter...the box kind...the regular old way.

Pour it into a waffle iron...like you are making waffles.

Top that delicious chocolate waffle cake with some ice cream and chocolate syrup.

You will thank me.

Oh...and freeze the leftovers...pop them in the toaster...even better the second time.

Next time I'm topping them with fresh strawberries and whipping cream!

A shower for Coco Bean

I threw a little shower/luncheon for one of my gallies

(the girls I used to work with including my old supervisor who is not a girl:)

She is having a little boy in a few months so we got together to eat and chat and to celebrate her baby belly!

I went super simple using taffy, onsies and a very strange looking teething toy as my center pieces.

I added a little green cardstock and some fabric to make a pseudo table runner.

For food we had some grilled chicken skewars with my favorite marinade.

A yummy spring salad with the best poppy seed dressing my neighbor makes.

Strawberries and apples dipped in a key lime fruit dip (yum!)

A veggie tray with hummus,

and these cute little "caprese bites" that I found on pinterest.

(these are SO simple to make and taste So good)

For dessert I made mini lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

Last minute I decided to use this trick I learned from Sutton Grace to make "B"s and little rattles.

I had some major drama with some mini key lime cheesecakes and ended up running to my local bakery for some mint brownies. These brownies are my favorite...plus, they have green so they went with my color scheme :)

A bowl full of cherries

I bought some cherries at the farmer's market last weekend and decided that I needed to do something more with them then shove them in my mouth every time I walk by. Although there is nothing wrong with that, it's just a pain to have to stand and wait till I can spit the seed out...wah wah wah:)

Anyway, I decided to make some cherry turnovers.

Lil D was super excited to use the cherry pitter...super excited.

Who knew it could be so fun?!

He made it through half the bowl, which is pretty good...but Backyardigans came on and well, they are WAY better then cherry pitting!

I found this recipe to make my own cherry filling. Let me tell you, worth the effort...SO much better then any canned version. I may have to buy even more cherries and make up some to freeze...YUM!

I used this recipe for the actual turnover.

(there's turned out way prettier...

but looks don't make things less delicious, right?!)

Oh yes, I added some ice cream with a little chocolate sauce and whip cream...

why not...this pregnant belly ain't counting any calories.

I still have half a batch of the cherry filling left and another pie crust...

I'm thinking mini cherry pies....mmmmmm!

Mr. T had a birthday...

Sunday was Mr. T's birthday (the big 3-6)...

We went out on Saturday by ourselves to celebrate...

and then on Sunday we had his brother over for dinner...

Baked Salmon with a honey balsamic glaze (my favorite)

Potatoes Gratin (recipe here...yummy)

and a spring mix salad with pears, craisins, blue cheese and my fav dressing.

Simple but delicious (and then plenty of room for dessert)...

I cannot take credit for the cake (Schmidt's bakery)

but the cupcakes are mine...

and I am proud to say that I finally cooked them the perfect time:)

I only made Mr. T blow out 1 candle (I'm nice like that)

guess he was still worried about blowing it out...

so he had Lil D help:)

Happy Birthday Mr. T...

Again!

I am my mother's daughter...

It seems like the more I have to do...the more I take on...

what is that about?

So after a morning of running all over the place...

I finally finished this project

then I moved on to more prep work for the Halloween Party for my ward...no pictures till the night of the event (on the 27th...the day I fly home after a 5 day excursion I will share more about in another post).

Then I got these all put together...

found the faux make-up idea here

Can you believe how great these look?!

and they fit perfectly into my make-up bags

Then I worked on more of these...

I am mid process of a couple black ones...

and the green ones are next on the list...

then I dealt with this problem...

and because I had nothing better to do....

I finally made these:

(recipe here)

I made them in little loaf pans so I could use 3 of the 4 for this...

Every year someone in the neighborhood starts this going round...it's one of my favorite things about this holiday!  Love getting treats...and getting an excuse to make some myself to pass out to others.  Decided this was the perfect opportunity to try the raspberry sour cream cake.  Let me tell you....delicious...hope my neighbors agree!

and now it is way too late to be up...and tomorrow is another busy, busy day!  

See you then!

Dinner at the Thompsons (and a little dessert)

It's 9pm on thursday night...time to read some recipes...get my tummy growling and start munching on some snacks...'cause it's....

and I'm reposting and Linking up...

(scroll down for dessert)

Quiche with Artichoke Hearts and Parmesan

recipe at Boiled Hot Dogs

mine does not look as good as the pic on Boiled Hot Dogs...whatever...still tasted VERY good.  Mr. T and I both really liked this.  Lil D took his bite...but was not a fan of the onions and wanted me to pick them out:) I fried up some ham steaks on the side and of course since we were having "breakfast" for dinner...we had to have:

Strawberry Julius:

1 C milk

1 C water

1/4 C sugar (you can do less or none:)

capful of vanilla

two handfuls of strawberries (depending on the thickness you like)

*you can also add a banana

By way of the Quiche...I'm not sure if I would change anything. I LOVE artichokes...especially anything with artichoke hearts in them...so this was right up my alley.  Oh...and I LOVE quiche. I think I might add some other ingredients to the quiche...maybe shredded chicken and/or corn.  Make it more "dinnery"?!  Just a thought.  But all in all, we really liked it!

And tonight, I even went all out and made dessert.

Pumpkin Spiced Doughnuts

(saw this recipe last year on my cousin-in-law's blog and I requested she email me the recipe...took me a whole year to get around to make them...sure glad I didn't wait any longer)

Pumpkin Spiced Doughnuts

Makes about 18 doughnuts and holes

Total time: 1 hour

Whisk Together; add:

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 cup canned or fresh pumpkin puree

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C buttermilk

1/4 C brown sugar

3 T unsalted butter, melted

4 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Fold in; pat out: 

3 C sifted all-purpose flour

Fry in; vegetable oil

Whisk egg and yolk together in a large bowl until frothy.  Add pumpkin, sugar, buttermilk, brown sugar, and butter; whisk until combined. Stir in baking powder, pie spice, salt and soda.

Fold flour in gradually until a sticky dough forms; cover with plastic wrap and freeze 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, heat 2" of oil to 370* in an electric skillet, deep fryer, or straight side pan over medium.  Pat dough on a well-floured surface to 1/2" thick, then cute with 3" and 1" biscuit cutters dipped in flour.  Transfer doughnut and holes to a floured baking sheet using a spatula that has been dusted in flour.

Fry doughnuts and holes in batches in the oil until browned, about 3 minutes, turning once (holes cook faster).  Dry on a paper towel lined baking sheet.  Finish with sugar or glaze.  Note: toss in the sugar while doughnuts are hot.  Dip in glaze when doughnuts have cooled.

Apple cider glaze: 1/4 C apple cider-pinch of salt-3 C powdered sugar.  Heat cider and salt in small saucepan over low until hot.  Off heat, whisk in powdered sugar until smooth.  Dip cooled doughnuts in glaze and let stand about 5 minutes.

Cinnamon sugar: 1 C sugar-1 tsp. ground cinnamon.  Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small paper bag.  Toss doughnuts and holes in sugar mixture while hot.

*I didn't do the glaze because I didn't have any apple cider...will definitely try that next time.  

**I liked the doughnuts...but like the holes better.  I think in the future I will mainly cut out 1" holes...Lil D loved them..."mom...more doughnuts in my bowl for me to eat?"

***Makes LOTS of doughnuts so it's a good dessert to share with neighbors!

Yummy...that's all I'm saying...

So over the past few days I have come across A LOT of delicious looking baked goods and the colder air the past 2 days has made me want to be in the kitchen baking!

I think tomorrow might be a good day for that...if you are lucky enough to be a neighbor, I will probably bring some your way...'cause I want to bake it...but I shouldn't eat it...well, not all of it!

1. 2. 

3. 4. 

1. Peanut Butter Carmel Cheesecake from Boiled Hotdogs

2. Strawberry bread from 4 reluctant entertainers

3. Spiced Pear Cake from Centsationalgirl I know I have blogged about this one a few times...but it was completely delicious AND I will be making it again...SOON...like tomorrow!

4. Fresh raspberry sour cream crumb muffins/bread from ashleysbusy a Williams Sonama recipe.

Happy baking...'cause if this hasn't got you in the mood, well...I think something may be wrong with you!