Pumpkin Spice Popcorn!

Yum 

 yum  

Yum

It was an experiment that I thought went so wrong.... then I tasted it, and it was so right!

A little sweet and a little salty with a pinch of pumpkin and a whole lot of Fall.  

 

It was a perfect treat for a rainy night in. 

*Angela*

A little Valentine Love

 Cupid came early this year....

 We have been so fortunate to be surrounded with an amazing group of friends in our area, these are friends that we have come to love like family, friends that you can pop over unexpected and sit on the kitchen floor drinking wine and eating cake together,  friends that realize they can not do this life thing wholly on their own and may ask you to come over and help clean their toilets, friends that trust enough to share their deepest secrets and fears.  Friends that will love, clothe, and feed you if you need it.  We are so grateful to have friends like these and hope that our children can grow up together and start that bond at an early age.  

To give these wonderful people a little break from the daily grind and some alone time, I hosted a Valentine party for the kiddos with some help from a very brave friend.  

We had eight little young ins ranging from one year to almost five running wild around this house,  it is nearly impossible to keep eight toddlers occupied at the same time (God bless preschool teachers)!

What worked out best was Peter Pan and a their own little buckets of Valentines Trail Mix.

Seriously this stuff is sooo good,  I've been eating the left overs for a few days now. 

Hope everyone gets a little extra lovin this weekend ;)

*Angela*

Chocolate Buttered Pecan Cake

This cake was a bit of an experiment... a very yummy experiment!

          Since I was not at work this past Sunday I was finally able to contribute to our Family Night Dinner.  Although there are so many things I want to do on the weekends when I have a chance, whipping up a quick and yummy dessert was the least I could do to help my folks feed the masses. 

Since I am not a avid cook, this beauty started with a box.  Honestly... I'm pretty sure a box cake is way better than anything I could attempt to do from scratch, frosting on the other hand is where I get to play around with it a bit. 

 Really, I just kinda went with what I had in my pantry. 

There was a thought of trying a fancy recipe off Pinterest,  

but that would have required a trip to the grocery store 

and I had a sleeping baby upstairs.

 Out came the meatloaf pan, to give it a little more

 of a "Custom Cake" feel.  

Just a pet Peeve of mine, I line the meatloaf pan 

with wax paper for two reasons

                      1. It makes it easier to lift out the cake 

                      2. It grosses me out to think there was raw meat 

                          in there before, yes I do clean my dishes but 

                          it still creeps me out.

Now the Frosting,  

this is the part that really takes the cake 

(silly I know) 

Ingredients:

                                                                1/2c. Unsalted butter

                                                                8oz Cream cheese

                                                                4oz Sour cream

                                                                2c. Powdered sugar

                                                                8oz Chopped Pecans

                                                                2 tbsp Unsalted butter

                                                                2tsp Vanilla extract

Using a large skillet melt 2tbsp of butter on medium heat and stir in your chopped pecans, it's best to let them sit for a minute to get nice and toasty.  Stir occasionally so they don't burn, this should take about 10 to 15 min.  Toasted butter pecans smell wonderful.  Once they are toasted sit them aside and let them cool down completely.

In a large bowl mix your cream cheese, sour cream, 1/2c butter and vanilla.  Once that is mixed to a creamy consistency,  sift in your sugar until the mix is fluffy.  Then mix in the cooled buttered pecans.  

Let the frosting cool in the fridge for about an hour or so, this will let the flavors settle in and help it to harden a little so it will stick to the cake and not slide off. 

Once your cake is cooled completely slather on all that amazing frosting and stick it back in the fridge until you're ready to serve! 

Yummy

*Angela*

Yummy

Just a tease....

My first venture into cake decorating! 

Made a Birthday cake for my big bro yesterday,
 and man was it yummy!

Sadly I can't take any credit as to how it tasted,  for that it was easy enough to just follow the direction on the box, 
what I did was made it beautiful =) 

umm... sorry...  handsome,  I made it handsome. 

Apparently grown men can't have "beautiful" birthday cakes. 

 

I think she's beautiful

*Angela*