Halloween Cookies

Sugar cookies and frosting: What a combination! Daveo was so excited to share his hard work with our neighbors. (And with his tummy.)

PUMPKIN!

Pumpkin! My favorite part of the fall season.

Pumpkin Cake 

Ingredients:

1 pkg yellow cake mix (Reserve one cup for topping)

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 30 oz can pumpkin pie mix (this is the one that has the sugar and spices already mixed in)

3 eggs

1 cup of reserved cake mix

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons softened butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or grease one 9x13 inch pan.

Reserve one cup cake mix. 

In a large bowl, combine the remaining dry cake mix, 1 egg, and melted butter. Mix well and pat into prepared pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin pie mix and 3 eggs. Poor over crust.

In a small bowl, combine reserved 1 cup cake mix, brown sugar, and softened butter. Crumble over pumpkin filling. Sprinkle pecans over top if desired.

Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes. 

In Search of Salmon

One of Dad's request while here was to eat a juicy salmon. So, we drove to Monterey and walked along the wharf reading the menus. We settled on a Domenico's and were thrilled to be seated at a window with a view of the bay. We enjoyed watching fishing boats come and go with seals following them. The food was fantastic! Dad's salmon was cooked the way he wanted and we all left with full tummies. Next, we drove a little ways south to tour the Carmel Basilica Mission and ended the day at the white sand beach. It was such a beautiful day.

Baking Cheesecake

 (Sister Zeng, Sis. Maka, Sis. Larsen, and Kirsten)

 So grateful for these amazing Sister Missionaries' help with baking cheesecake for Mother's Day. They helped with the chocolate chip cookie dough cake. In all, there were 6 cheesecakes and one Andes Mint Cake made for the ladies in the Branham Ward. 

Quart Sized

Those who know me well, understand that I'm not a huge ice-cream consumer. I can take it or leave it. However, when February rolls around, I am the first one to suggest a stop into Baskin Robbins for their Love Potion ice cream. Yummm! It's easy to fall in love with the white chocolate flavored and raspberry ice creams, a raspberry ribbon, chocolate chips, and raspberry-filled chocolate hearts. 

Puppy Love and Blackberry Delight

(Photo cred: Deborah)

There are lots of trails surrounding Deborah's neighborhood. Some take you to parks and one particular trail leads to their church building. It was strange being able to walk two minutes to church. Lonetta is in love with the Douangaphoivong's puppy, Maddie. She follows her everywhere and Maddie lets her lay on her. I think a special bond formed when Loni fed her peanut butter. 

Later in the afternoon, Deborah introduced Steven, Loni, and I to berry picking. Blackberries grow wild everywhere here. 

You have to watch out for spiders and thorns though.

After our bag was quite heavy, we went for a little walk and found a creek that was Loni size. She found a slug on a rock and insisted it was a fish. 

That night, we made blackberry cobbler using a Pioneer Woman recipe. It was so delicious!

Chilling and Sticky Rice

Our first full day at Deborah's house, was a relaxing one. We were all tired of driving so it was pretty mellow. Lonetta discovered Kamea and Leeah's room. She was in girl heaven with all of the Barbie dolls and houses and other accessories.We invited David and his family over in the evening for dinner. Thavee made curry and sticky rice for us. It was fantastic! I loved watching the sticky rice cooking process. In fact, I ordered my own pot and basket to make at home. 

Heirloom

 I have enough heirloom tomatoes from my garden that are ripe to make tomato soup. This is a family favorite.

I use Tyler Florence's Roasted Tomato Soup recipe

Peanut Butter Over-Load Cookies

When David and I first got married (21 years ago), I was anything but a peanut butter lover. However, David was. Eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for most of my childhood turned me off on this popular nut. Thankfully, this food conflict didn't put a strain in our marriage. In fact, a few years ago, I started liking peanut butter. Now I can't get enough of it. (It's strange how our taste buds change over time.)

Today was one of those days that I was seriously craving peanut butter. So, I baked a batch of over-loaded peanut butter cookies. Mmmm. Just what I needed.

Peanut Butter Over-Load

• 1 cup butter (2 cubes)
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Mix butters and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Whisk dry ingredients together in separate bowl. Add flour mixture to butter mixture one cup at a time until combined.

Now for the YUM factor...

• 1/2 cup Reese's Peanut Butter Chips
• 1 cup Reese's Mini Pieces
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 20 (approximately) Reese's Peanut Butter Cups-Miniature (chopped into fourths)

Stir into the dough.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I use a small cookie scoop to drop onto the ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.

Elephant Ears

The Phoenicians are a fascinating people to learn about. They were expert ship builders, sailors, glass blowers, and were famous for their beautiful purple dye out of snails called murex. The Phoenicians sailed all around the Mediterranean Sea, trading and starting colonies. One of the most famous cities was Carthage, built on the northern coast of Africa. It started out as a tiny village but soon grew to be a huge city where merchants came from different countries to trade their goods. Rome wanted to trade with these countries but didn't want Carthage interfering. So, Rome and Carthage fought with each other for many, many year. These wars were called the Punic Wars. 

One interesting story that emerged from this war was about a Carthaginian general and his elephants. Hannibal saw that the battle between Carthage and Rome at sea was a stalemate. So while the two navies fought with each other, Hannibal took his army and 40 elephants around the Mediterranean Sea by land and surprised the Romans by coming down over the Alps in Italy. The Roman soldiers fled in terror. Most of them had never seen an elephant before. And these weren't ordinary elephants. They were specifically trained for battle. When they were told to attack, they spread their ears wide out to make their heads appear larger. Their heads and ears were painted red, white, and yellow. Some pulled carts full of armed Carthaginian soldiers shooting arrows at the Romans. The Romans who were brave enough to fight back, mounted their horses to attack head on. But their horses were stricken with fear and bolted.

Kirsten loved hearing this story about her favorite animal. A fun activity to go along with this history lesson is to make elephant ears using a can of biscuit dough. She rolled them out in the shape of ears and fried them in a pan of hot oil. They were then coated with a cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Yum! Very tasty. And easy to make.

Mozell Monday

Each Monday, I now turn my kitchen over to Kirsten, who plans and prepares dinner for the family. 

She even looks the part with flour on her face (unbeknownst to her).