Apple and Pear Crisp

  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Ours was very nice. We have a lot to be thankful for this year and it was a blessing to have time to reflect on those things.
  I made two desserts for Thanksgiving. This post is about the apple/pear crisp.
Yum! Truly was a hit. This is an Ina Garten recipe. Not too labor intensive, but peeling and coring apples and pears is never really fun. There is an interesting , good interesting, flavor to this from orange and lemon zest. The topping is plentiful and perfectly crunchy. We served this warm with vanilla ice cream ( shouldn't be any other way ). I already have requests to make this again for Christmas.
  I apologize for the not so appetizing picture that follows. But, seriously, this is all that is left and that was yesterday (Friday) midday.

Will the baking never end?!

   OK, I love baking. I do. but it seems to have gotten out of hand lately. It started with that big order for my mom, which should be completed tomorrow. But biscuits worked their way in there. We had some buttermilk left over from another recipe and we hate to waste things, so we decided I should try buttermilk biscuits. I have only made biscuits once and they were not good! My grandmother always made good biscuits, but i don't know, they scared me a little. So, I made them and they were good! We froze them and had biscuits to pull out for breakfast. So we ate them all and my penny, pinching husband decided I should make more because they cost way less than the bagels or other breakfast breads we usually buy. So today I made 40+ buttermilk biscuits! They are really quick and easy to make. The trick is to not roll them out or work the dough too much. But, really, 40?!
   Not to mention the 90+ sugar cookies I baked yesterday afternoon! Already have 75 frozen. I have already made Christmas trees, which i will post pictures of today. But today I will be working on holly leaves (excited about these) and stockings. I really am pleased with how my trees turned out.
I had grand plans of making turkey and acorn cookies, but that, I think, would drive me to insanity. This week for Thanksgiving I am making a pumpkin cheesecake, an apple and pear crisp, and yeast rolls. I will post about these as soon as I can.
   I wonder if after Christmas I will ever want to bake again : ).

P.S. Check out the biscuit pictures. Do they look different? New (to me) camera! So much better!

Pumpkins

   This week, I got an order for pumpkins. They were being given to some much appreciated teachers. I absolutely love making the pumpkin cookies. They always seem to bake nicely, ice nicely, and just look cute. Maybe they seem easy because I love autumn and pumpkins say autumn to me.
   Coming up, I have another order for pumpkins and leaves. Yay ! I love getting orders : ). Then I have a giant order I have to start baking now to fill. It is for my mom's Christmas piano recital. So you will probably start seeing Christmas cookies before the Thanksgiving ones. For my mom's order, I got to trade for clothes and publicity. Awesome for me!

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet, Give Me Something Good to Eat

     Let's skip the feet part and go right to the "good to eat" part. I cannot believe we are in the second half of October and so close to Halloween. Time is flying! Today fall really arrived for me. It was in the 60's all day and I absolutely loved it!
    Last year I did not make Halloween cookies per say. I made fall cookies, but with a child in the house now Halloween seems fun again.
    I made spider web cookies and candy corn cookies. It was really fun to make cookies I've never made before, but a little nerve wracking too. I was a little impatient with my icing, so it is not as smooth as usual. But, oh well, you live, you learn. My little one kept licking his lips saying, "mmmm." Sorry, kiddo, but no cookies yet. I look forward to the days that my sweetie gets these for his Halloween treat.

   

Muffins for Moms

    This week I had a great excuse to bake. I am part of a mom's group through church and it was our table's turn to bring food for breakfast. I knew I wanted to bake muffins, but not sure what kind. Then it hit me, pumpkin cream cheese muffins, like those from that super popular coffee chain everyone knows.
   Sure enough, when searching for a recipe, there are a few out there. There was one in particular everyone raved about, so I decided on this one.
   I love anything pumpkin and anything that reminds me of fall. Oh yeah, and i love anything with sugar : ).  these turned out so well and were delicious! Good thing i had a place to take them or we might have a sugar coma over here. Happy Fall!
  Next week back to cookies: candy corn and spider webs.

Writing, Reading, Arithmetic...

     I know school has been in session for about a month, but August doesn't say school to me. September does. So the kids are hitting the books again and the teacher's are back to work. What screams school more than crisp apples and new, sharpened pencils? So, I made some cookie versions for my own students. The pencils need something, I know. They are missing their little metal things (did you know it's called a ferrule?). But i did not have anything to make gray or silver icing. I'm sure they still taste good. : )
     These would be great for an after school treat or a lunchbox surprise, great for teacher gifts ( tucked into one of those Pinterest teacher survival kits), for a test day... any of the above.
      Happy Back to School!

I'm Ba-ack!

     Wow! I am finally back to the blog. What a few months it has been. We moved, so even before the move there was no room or baking supplies to bake and definitely no time to bake. We are moved in and I am ready to start creating again.
    My first order of business was for a wonderful friend's birthday. Last year I discovered these great marshmallow sandwich cookies. Call them moon pies, smores, whatever, but no matter what they are called they are yummy! They consist of homemade graham crackers, which are really quite easy to make. These are slightly sweet, crunchy, a little salty, and cinnamony. The crackers are coated in semi-sweet chocolate and sandwiched around giant marshmallows. Homemade marshmallows. Have you ever had homemade marshmallows? So much better than store bought, so much! They are giant and and look really cute packaged. My friend said they would be great later when my son has bake sales. Good idea.
   Coming soon will be some September themed cookies. Let me know if you would ever like to order some or if you know of anyone else who would. I'm always game.

P.S. I know I need to change the blog surround. All in good time : )