Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

My favorite grocery store, Kroger, has started to put pumpkin on sale for just a buck a can!  When I told the hubby, he said, "you better stock up and get five or ten cans!" Little does he know, I'm going to get that many cans EVERY time I go shopping for about the next month. I learned my lesson big time a few years ago, when there was a pumpkin shortage and I couldn't find canned pumpkin ANYWHERE!!!!!!! Since my family loves pumpkin and also cinnamon rolls, how about putting them together?!!?!? I topped these when they were still warm with an easy three-ingredient icing. When Dominic came home from school today and wanted a snack, I asked him to point to the pumpkin cinnamon roll that he wanted. He pointed to the middle one. Yep, that comes as no surprise, because that is the one that always has the most icing!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups white flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold
1 1/4 cups packed pumpkin
1/3 cup milk

Filling:

3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Icing:

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside. In large bowl, put the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, white sugar, salt and vanilla. With two knives or a pastry blender, "cut" in the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add the pumpkin and milk and mix by hand with large spoon. On a lightly floured board, press out dough to a rectangle about 12 inches long. In small bowl, put the brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well with small spoon. Sprinkle the filling ingredients evenly, so it covers the entire rectangle. Roll dough tightly, like a jelly roll. Cut into eight slices and put into the prepared pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes on a wire rack. In small bowl, put the powdered sugar, butter and milk. Mix with small spoon until thoroughly combined. Spread evenly on the cinnamon rolls with a dinner knife. Eat immediately. If you have any leftovers, store in fridge in a covered container. To reheat, put a cinnamon roll in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Yummy!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cookies

Chocolate and peanut butter are a "classic" combo that have been around for a long time. Did you know that the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup was invented in 1928? Lauren and Dominic "inherited" their love of cinnamon from me and their love of peanut butter and chocolate from their dad! When I make the peanut butter crisscross cookies they barely last a few days.  How about if I added chocolate? They would probably last a few hours!!

Ingredients

2 cups white flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups white sugar + 1 tablespoon white sugar (reserved)
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large bowl, put all the ingredients in the order given (except the one tablespoon of reserved white sugar). Mix well with a large spoon by hand until combined. Roll into 36 equal sized balls with the palms of your hands and put a dozen balls at a time onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  On small plate,  put the reserved one tablespoon of white sugar. With a dinner fork, first dip in the white sugar and then crisscross the top of each ball to flatten.  Add sprinkles if desired. Bake for 12 minutes and then remove to wire rack immediately to finish cooling. Makes three dozen cookies.

Easy Homemade Biscuits

The other night, when Dominic and I made some homemade biscuits to go with our dinner, the hubby said, "are these homemade or store bought?" I said, "why?" He then said, "because these are really good!" Biscuits from scratch are easy to make and since this recipe uses an entire tablespoon of baking powder, they rise up high.

I love to split one of these open while they are still warm, put a small dab or two of butter on each half and then spread some apple butter on!! Talk about scrumptious! Speaking of apple butter, I found a recipe recently for apple butter pie that sounded really yummy.  Hmm, the sugar cookies Dominic and I made earlier in the week are almost gone and I have all the ingredients in the house for the pie, I think a little pie baking may be in order for this afternoon!

Ingredients

2 cups white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In large bowl, put the flour, baking powder, salt and white sugar.  With two knives, "cut" in the shortening until it starts to resemble coarse crumbs. Pour in the milk and with a large spoon, mix well by hand until all ingredients are combined. On a lightly floured board, knead dough about 10 times and then press out to a rectangular shape about 1/2 inch thick. With a knife, cut into six equal-sized squares. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and put in the oven for about 14 minutes or until the biscuits start to turn a golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to continue cooling. Makes six biscuits.

Frozen Fruit Yogurt Bars

Dominic could probably eat his weight in strawberries. Blueberries and yogurt on the other hand, are two foods he flat out refuses to eat!  I decided to "sneak" in some blueberries and yogurt along with some strawberries into these bars to see if Dominic would notice. When he came home from school, since it's so warm here today, I thought it would be a perfect after school snack. I was curious if Dominic would want to eat them given they have blueberries and yogurt. Well, guess what? He didn't notice!  My little "experiment" was a success!!!!  The only comment Dominic made when he bit into one of these yummy bars was, "that's cold!"

Ingredients

Two 5.3 ounce containers Greek vanilla yogurt,
  any brand
1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries, chopped
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Put all ingredients into the blender and blend until thick and creamy. Pour evenly into eight ice pop molds and freeze for a minimum of six hours. FYI - The molds I used each held a little less than a 1/2 cup of the fruit and yogurt mixture.

Graham Cracker Cookies

Even though I clean out my pantry every few months, sometimes certain items get "lost." A few days ago, I "found" two packages of yellow Peeps from Easter and a package of cinnamon graham crackers, which are expiring this week! I'm not quite sure how Peeps cookies would taste (plus they don't expire until 2016), so I decided to try and make a cookie out of some of the graham crackers. Wow, these cookies are incredible, so yummy! I had the hubby try and guess the "mystery" ingredient. I told him it started with the letter "G."  He guessed granola and ginger and then said, "I give up!"  I also put a picture on my Facebook wall and had my family and friends try and guess. One of my friends guessed graham crackers! I told her she gets a gold star. She said she would rather have the cookies!!! LOL - too bad she lives 600 miles away! I also "found" some Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme in the pantry, so I put some in between two of the cookies, so it was like a s'more.

Wonder how a few Peeps would taste in between? They are marshmallows after all, aren't they?!?!?!

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups cinnamon graham crackers,
  finely crushed
3/4 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray two cookie sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.  In large bowl, put the margarine and light brown sugar and with large spoon combine until creamy. Add the vanilla and egg. Mix well by hand. Hint: to finely crush the graham crackers, put them in a quart-sized bag, seal it up, take a metal meat mallet and then pound the heck out of the crackers :) Once the graham crackers are finely crushed, add them along with the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well again and then "fold" in the chocolate chips and oats.  Drop by tablespoonfuls on the cookie sheets - nine to each sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies become golden. Remove from oven, let cool on cookie sheets for five minutes. Remove to wire rack to finish cooling. Makes 18 cookies.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Treats

Anytime Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are brought into this house, I know they won't last long, since both Lauren and Dominic have inherited the chocolate and peanut butter "gene" from their dad! I was curious if I could make kind of a homemade version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups without using the oven or a candy thermometer. Well, I made some of these "treats" earlier in the week and guess how long they lasted? About 72 hours! Last night, I made another batch. Hmm, I wonder how long they'll last this time!?!?!?!?! If you like the fancy "look" of the ridges, try using a biscuit cutter, like I did - pretty cool, huh? You could also use a cookie cutter. A few years back, I bought a set of 100 cookie cutters from Wilton.  I think I got it on sale for about ten bucks. We have used them for biscuits, cookies, as stencils and when we play with Play-Doh. The set has the entire alphabet, holiday shapes, etc. and has more than paid for itself, for sure!

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups smooth peanut butter
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  (also known as confectioners sugar)
2 cups milk chocolate chips

Spray a jelly roll pan (11-inches x 17-inches) with non-stick spray and set aside. In large saucepan or small stockpot, put the margarine, light brown sugar, vanilla extract, peanut butter and powdered sugar. On low to medium heat and using a large spoon, stir constantly until all ingredients are melted and combined together. Remove from heat and spread evenly in the jelly roll pan. In microwave or in a small saucepan, melt the chocolate chips.  Pour over the mixture in the jelly roll pan and spread evenly.  Put into fridge for one hour. If you let the "treats" come almost to room temperature, they are easier to cut into bars, squares or whatever "shape" you want!  Store covered in the fridge.

Gingersnaps

A favorite in this house are my homemade sugar cookies. Gingersnaps, on the other hand, I have NEVER made. I guess that's because the only times I have ever eaten them in the past, they tasted like they had way too much ginger.  I decided to make my gingersnap cookies with just a "hint" of ginger. After a look through a bunch of my cookbooks and on-line, I found there was a wide variance of how much ginger was used in gingersnaps - anywhere from two teaspoons to THREE tablespoons!!!! Yikes. I got a kick out of the hubby this morning. Since I had never made gingersnaps before, I wasn't sure how long they would take to bake. When I told him I had set the timer for 12 minutes, and he heard it buzz, he said, "they're done!"  I told him, "just because the timer went off, it doesn't mean they're done."  He said, "it doesn't?!?!" I remarked to him, "you may be the "king" of the grill, but I'm the "queen" of baking!!! I found out Dominic was a big fan of these cookies when I went into the other room for a few minutes shortly after they cooled off enough to "sample."  The cookie I had taken a few bites of that was sitting on the kitchen table was gone (just a handful of crumbs remained), plus another four were missing from the wire cooling rack. After lunch, he was telling me he wanted more gingersnaps. I had to tell him, "I think you've had enough!!  

Ingredients

2 cups white flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup white sugar + 1/4 cup white sugar

7 tablespoons margarine, softened

1/4 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, put the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In large bowl, put the 3/4 of a cup of white sugar, margarine, brown sugar, honey, vanilla extract and egg. Beat by hand with large spoon until well combined. Add the flour mixture and stir well. Roll dough into two dozen equal sized balls. On a small plate, put the remaining 1/4 cup white sugar. Roll each ball in the white sugar until totally covered and place a dozen balls at a time onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 14 minutes or until the cookies start turning a golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes. Transfer to wire rack.  Makes two dozen cookies.