Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

 Hello again, blogging world! I know I've been absent, but I couldn't let October pass without at least ONE fabulous pumpkin recipe! Some of you may have seen me sharing about these life-changing cookies all over social media, you might even have the first draft of the recipe! Well, after four batches and three different adjustments, THIS is the perfect pumpkin snickerdoodle recipe! I squeezed in some more pumpkin and evened out the spices, so pencil in the changes on whatever version you may have saved!

One of the things I dreamed about when we were waiting to bring our daughter home was baking for her. Filling her to the brim with delicious treats! Well, that didn't go quite as planned, since she arrived with a wariness of all things bread and a sweet tooth that only liked candy. Instead, she made me up my noodles and meats game. Slowly but surely, she's getting a taste for baked treats, and I have found the secret weapon: pumpkin!!

She loves EVERYTHING with pumpkin in it! (Not to mention actual pumpkins) Heck, she'd eat pumpkin out of the can with a spoon. And I just might let her... These cookies are hands-down her favorite! They just might be the Geologist's new favorite cookie too... So basically, if you haven't tried them already, you MUST!

Fluffy Whole Wheat Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup

Another re-post! These are my favorite pancakes ever in the history of pancakes. I posted them way back in the beginning months of my blog, and while the pictures weren't terrible, they just didn't do these completely scrumptious pancakes justice! Plus they were missing some historical toppings. You see, these pancakes are a kind of family heirloom.

Back in July 2012, when I began this blog, I was in and out of the hospital preparing for a yard sale surgery. Ironically enough, I started a food blog during a time when I couldn't really eat anything! My Mom was visiting us (and most of her family) in Utah for the 4th of July and my doctors let me leave the hospital just in time to go to a very special family reunion with her. A reunion of two families: The Watts and Rytting families. Ardean Watts was her Dad's (my Grandpa's) best friend. His family, and my Mom's family, the Ryttings, practically grew up together. Camping, holidays, various celebrations, all spent together before everyone grew up and scattered to the winds. Most of them happened to be back in Utah for a wedding that year, and they decided to get the whole "clan" back together for a Fourth of July breakfast, including all possible progeny. It was quite an experience! We all got to meet each other, catch up, and listen to Ardean's notorious story-telling. And I tasted these amazing pancakes for the first time! Totally cheated, I wasn't supposed to be eating solid food but I just had to try one bite and fell in love! It was months before I could make them for myself, but so worth it. They're still my favorites.

Best Chewy Sugar Cookies

Today I have a re-post for you! And because I am saving all of my interesting blogging thoughts for my daybook, and I described these cookies so well the first time, I think I'll just use my words over again, with MUCH better pictures! Enjoy :)

There are two, distinct, completely different kinds of sugar cookies in this world. Lets get that straight. There are the fluffier, thicker kind, the kind you cut into shapes and frost. Then there are the chewy, crispy, covered-in-sugar cousins to the snickerdoodle. Keeping up? Good. I love both. I already have a perfect cut-out sugar cookie recipe, but we'll save that one for a holiday (and frost them, of course!). I've never bothered to try and make the other kind, because they always let me down. I am PICKY. When you have a cookie this simple, it has to be PERFECT. It should taste creamy, and buttery, not just like sugar. Bleck. So when I saw this recipe at Bunny's Warm Oven, I was skeptical. But she said they were the best... and the pictures looked just about perfect... and I was determined to make a batch of cookies for the boys. Not to mention it has cream cheese in it. Cream cheeeese... Which I love as much as lemon, and more than most things.

Lemon Biscotti

Happy Birthday to meeeee! This Saturday I turned 30. Most of my adult life, I haven't quite dreaded reaching that landmark age, but haven't exactly been thrilled at the prospect. Thirty seemed old. Not ancient, but "mature". Like by the time I hit that big three-oh, I should be all settled down and boring. I should be done with my youngster shenanigans, turn my music down, quit fan-girling over British actors, Indian movies, and Japanese cartoons, and feel thirty. Surprise surprise, I'm not done, and I don't feel thirty! But now I have a reason to be thrilled to death about turning thirty, because now I am officially old enough to adopt our little girl from China! THAT is something worth celebrating! And guess what? I've still got plenty of youngster shenanigans to go, and if I don't feel thirty, well, China doesn't need to know that, do they? :)

I truly meant to post this recipe last week, but I was too busy having a fabulous birthday week and going through a 48-hour emotional adoption rollercoaster. (More on that later) On Tuesday The Geologist and I got surprise tickets to go to a hockey game (go Avalanche!!), we had two of our four homestudy visits, Friday we had a birthday lunch date at a beautiful "country Japanese" restaurant for ramen, my favoritest food, in a beautiful Japanese garden courtyard, and on Saturday my parents came up to play games, bringing a scrumptious Hummingbird Cake (which I will be making for you SOON! Yum!!) which was a very good thing, because I burned my Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake. :( The Geologist gave me tickets to a Lindsey Stirling concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater (that's kind of a huge deal, lol), Mom gave my a Lindsey Stirling hoodie, which I never want to take off, and a handmade glass star. Not sure if it counts as stained glass, because it's clear, but I love it. To top off a perfect birthday, I bought myself those burgundy Vans sneakers I've been coveting, so Kate and I have matching shoes!! Yup, a very good birthday. And you had to know I'd give you something lemon, because lemon everything is my favorite. And it's Spring-y!

Cinnamon Crumble Breakfast Cake

So, apparently it takes 10 inches of snow overnight on top of a layer of frozen slush to cancel school here in Jefferson County. First snow day since we moved to Colorado!! That's three years! Oh, and it's still snowing. And I really need to go to the grocery store, and really don't want to... On the plus side, it's gorgeous, and cozy, and I get to hang out in my pajamas all day and let the boys be complete couch potatoes. I'll order them outside at some point, but lately their version of playing in the snow entails creating nests in the snow and sitting there, eating snow. In their defense, this fluffy, light as air stuff is completely useless for building anything, including snowballs. So, fresh air at least, right?

I didn't get a chance in my last post to apologize for disappearing for a month. February seems to be my slump-month, where it's hard to get inspired or motivated about much of anything. Maybe because I spend so much energy being excited about Christmas! I may take little breaks now and then, but I promise I'll never disappear completely without letting you know! Thank you for sticking around. :)

Egg Nog Pancakes with Cranberry Maple Syrup

Okay, so the only thing better than starting a day with a stack of these pancakes is starting my day playing with puppies! I'm off to the most incredible German Shepherd ranch to help my Mom pick out her new puppy! I swear, they're the cutest puppies in existence. If they didn't require tons of exercise, and if the Geologist didn't have his heart set on an Irish Wolfhound for our next dog (I know, he's crazy!!) I would so take one of those adorable balls of fluff home with me! I'll take pictures and share them tomorrow, cross my heart! :) Happy Friday!

One-Bowl Gingerbread Muffins

Sorry for the late posting!! I was all ready to blog my way into a new year, productive habits and all that, but the Geologist and I came down with some kind of weird lingering January crud that involved lots of tiredness, headaches, and lack of motivation and brainpower. Not gonna lie, there was a lot of napping and TV-watching. But it seems we're coming out of it! I feel like a human being again this week! So on with these recipes, which were supposed to be post-Christmas recipes, but now they're half a month late... so... Oh well! Maybe a few of you will still be on the lingering Christmas flavor bandwagon with me. Or you can always save them for next Christmas!

My Favorite Molasses Spice Cookies

Every once in a while, when you're really hungry, that plain old blue box mac & cheese can taste completely awesome. I'm sitting here blogging about fantastic homemade Christmas cookies while eating neon orange pasta, and happy as a clam. It's been a lovely Sunday, full of Christmas hymns and peaceful joy. We have been doubly blessed this Christmas season, both as a family and with opportunities to help others. Service adds an extra-special feeling of Christmas spirit, and I'm so glad my boys are old enough to feel it with us! I remember the first year we had them pick out toys to donate to a toy drive, and it was a disaster. They could not comprehend why they didn't get to keep the presents they picked out!! Now they have as much fun with it as we do, picking exactly what they would want, to give to some other lucky boy. Love it!! I have yet another batch of this cookie dough chilling in the fridge, Christmas music playing, boys napping, clouds rolling in, and I think I'll go join the napping trend. Tonight we'll watch White Christmas and start the relaxing part of our Christmas week!

Gingerbread Pancakes

People keep asking me if I'm ready for Christmas. Um, YES! It helps when you start getting ready somewhere around the first of November, and take a break for Thanksgiving. If I started after Thanksgiving, I have no idea how I'd be ready in time. And rushing around the week before Christmas is no fun! The Geologist is off work all next week, hooray!! We kicked off our Christmas vacation today with a trip to the community center pool. It has a dragon water slide and a pirate ship. We'll be spending a lot of time there the next two weeks. :) And I will be eating leftover pancakes for dinner this evening. 

Soft & Thick Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

Rollin' out one of those old family favorites today! Actually, I haven't made them since I first posted them back in 2012. I like the pictures so much from back then that I'll just keep them! :) They're the boys' favorite, requested every year, because they are treat AND activity! Who doesn't like playing with sprinkles and frosting? They were always my favorite Christmas treat too, and I spent hours painstakingly decorating them perfectly. Seriously. Ask my family, they'll be happy to mock me for it. :) These days I leave the detailed decorating to the boys, but still take great pride in my frosting abilities. Oh, and they're seriously scrumptious. So if you've got a few hours and need a family activity idea during this Christmas break, I've got you covered!

Polar Express Hot Chocolate

We are a family of believers. We treasure imagination and belief in things you can't exactly prove, childlike wonder and fantastical mysteries. My boys will believe in Santa Claus for years and years, just like I did. As you can imagine, the story of The Polar Express is a family favorite. We have the book and the movie and went on a Polar Express train ride in Utah. Today's recipe, a brand new family favorite is inspired by that classic Christmas Eve adventure!

How many of you love hot chocolate? Hot cocoa? Show of hands! Okay, then how many of you think those terms are interchangeable? Have you ever had hot chocolate that didn't come from a powdered mix? I hadn't. In fact, I rarely drink hot cocoa, I usually stick to hot apple cider (also from a powdered mix). But the other day I was craving a really great cup of hot chocolate, and the powdered stuff just wasn't cutting it. Now, you have to understand, The Geologist is a hot chocolate fanatic. We always have at least 5 different types on hand, often more. So I figured he had the good stuff, right? Wrong. At least for that particular craving moment, it was incredibly disappointing. Later we watched The Polar Express movie and I remembered the line from the book: "We drank hot cocoa as thick and rich as melted chocolate bars..." and decided I had to make real, full-on, melted chocolate bar hot chocolate. So I browsed pinterest, made my own adjustments (upping the chocolate ratio, duh) and created the most insanely delicious hot chocolate (emphasis on the chocolate) EVER. It is now a Christmas staple in this house. I hope you like it!

Pumpkin Roll

I seriously can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving. It completely snuck up on me this year!! Tomorrow I'll be cleaning house and dog, running errands, picking up a monster load of groceries and preparing for the first Thanksgiving in TEN YEARS that my whole family will be in the same place at the same time!! I hope you have a fantastic week, whether you're in the US celebrating Thanksgiving or all over the world doing whatever it is other people do this week. I hope there is at least yummy food involved for all of you! And this is a treat you can make no matter where you are or what you're doing. As long as you can get your hands on pumpkin and cream cheese, that is. Which I am learning is not as universal as I always vaguely assumed. Either way...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Sometimes this Mom thing is a tough gig. Sometimes no one listens, kids forget everything you've ever taught them, can't find the backpack sitting in the middle of the room, throw a fit over something tiny and pointless, wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and take you completely for granted. Those days are rough. 

But sometimes, kids write you letters to try and cheer you up. Or make a "do not disterbd" sign for your door when you ask for some time to yourself. They say "Thank You!!!" a bazillion times for a trip to the Botanic Gardens, are actually sad when you leave, and are ridiculously proud to carry a treat in to the school office. And somehow, all those little moments really do make this whole Mom thing worth sticking with. Like baking this biscotti with Joe!

Classic Rice Pudding

Today could possibly be a very exciting day! Now that my parents have found a house, it's time to get them a puppy!! They've been visiting breeders all over the state of Colorado (okay, nearly) and you would not believe all the different kinds of German Shepherds out there! Tall, short, thin, bulky, long-haired, short haired, pointy nose, square nose... It's been quite an adventure! I've gotten to visit a few breeders with them, and we're hoping to go back to the biggest (and my favorite!!) to put down a deposit on a puppy today! I just love tagging along to pet dogs and play with puppies. I have to admit, as adorable as my little black ball of Bracken fluff was as a puppy, German Shepherd puppies are the cutest puppies everrrr!! Pretty much the only thing cuter than a German Shepherd puppy is my Joe surrounded by German Shepherd puppies.

He's quite the puppy whisperer, that boy of mine!

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake

 I'm still on schedule!! Hurrah! I'm back, folks. Back in my blogging groove. Actually grooving at the moment too, headphones in and everything, listening to a rather odd mix of new favorite songs. Cheezy country love song, silly pop nonsense, awesomely random soul/rock/something... I don't even know how to describe that last one. Lets just say I need to learn the words FAST. We're still in single digits over here, but we saw the sun for the first time since Monday! Who is experiencing plummeting temperatures with me and who has yet to freeze? This week has been kinda fun, no one wants to go out at night when it's this cold and snowy, right? So all of our weekly obligations have been canceled left and right and we're all reveling in our natural homebody/hermit state. Watching way too much TV and, in my case, eating way too much of my favorite dessert of all time!! Yes, that would be this one, right here. I baked it three times, just to get it perfect. For you of course. Not so I could eat it three meals a day. All for the blog...

Lion House Wassail

While we may not have gathered "feets and feets" of snow, enough stuck around to blanket rooftops, powder trees, and strand my parents in Colorado Springs! I always forget they're actually about 2000 feet higher over there, which makes storms worse. The forecast called for "a small possibility of flurries" today, but it's been flurry-ing ever since I woke up! So festive! It seems to have refreshed me, I'm more motivated than I've been in weeks! I am also a complete dingbat. I shall explain. 

First of all, it's long past time to show you the before and after of our ridiculously drawn-out spring project, replacing the bay window and installing french doors! Yeah, it was quite a battle... but we learned a lot and are finally thrilled with the result! First up: The Bay!

Interior Before:

Interior after! A grill between the panes, which I adore, and you may not be able to tell, but it's actually deeper and wider than before! I know my pictures aren't awesome, but you should be able to get the idea.

Exterior Before:

 And After! Much nicer. And all the seals intact, hooray! I can sit in my couch without freezing now!

Next, the French Doors! This is their Before shot, the panel on the left didn't move, basically just a giant window. The right side opened, and was the source of our massive heating bills and insidious drafts. We once stood in front of it and watched snow blow in around the sides. *Shudder*

And After!! Aren't they gorgeous?! I love them so much! We used them so often during the summer, opening both doors to the backyard as the evenings cooled off; it was heavenly. And no snow! Functional seals, hurrah!

And now for my dingbat moment. I've been taking pictures for months on the table in front of the French doors, thinking that all indirect natural light is created equal. Turns out it's not. It may be natural, but the back is always in shadow and my photos are always grey. I finally decided, just for the heck of it, to try taking pictures in my South-facing bay. 

I can't believe I didn't try this sooner! I just scoot the couch for a minute and it's basically a ready-made studio! No awkward furniture in the background or off to the sides, no awkward empty angles, I just need a reflector for the house side, and it's perfect! The light is so much better! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the results of my new studio as much as I do! :)

And, in honor of our very first snow of the season, I'm thrilled to finally share one of my favorite recipes of all time. A childhood favorite that has become a holiday season must in our family!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Bread

Happy November!! One of these days I'll stick to that schedule I keep making myself. Until then, I'll just keep my fingers crossed that as long as I can keep giving you scrumptious food, you won't up and rebel on me. Totally kidding, you're the sweetest, most patient group of friends and readers that a scatter-brained girl could ask for! Which is why even though 'tis late, I had to get you this recipe, come hell or high water or a week-long hiatus. October may be over, but who said that means we have to put our pumpkin away till next year? If you've got a spare can, and some cream cheese lying around, with that winter storm front looming, you'll be set for scrumptious goodies to hold you through the big chill with this recipe. Is it just me, or does this whole Alaskan storm remind anyone else of the intro to the classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie??

If it were December instead of  early November, I would be pretty concerned about Christmas, I don't know about you... Instead, I'll just be concerned for Alaskans, pray like crazy, and hunker down planning my baking list!! For those of you not in the US, congratulations. :) For those of you getting frozen already, bundle up and stay warm!! I'll see you tomorrow, when we start getting snowed on. Have a delightful Sunday!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

Wait a second, where did my easy week go?! I went from nothing (well, almost nothing) on the agenda to supplying all of the food for Stephen's class Halloween party and a very specific cutesy treat for Joe's party, chili for the trunk-or-treat tonight, check-up for Bracken, carpet cleaning, and a few other odds and ends. This was supposed to be the week of relaxing and doing nothing! Besides baking a cheesecake. Which I am very excited about. Trick-or-treating tomorrow, Happy Almost-Halloween! 

Perfect Apple Crisp

Today I thought I'd give you a short picture visit to the most adorable apple orchard, and one of my new favorite Colorado finds!

 It has kind of a funny name, but Ya Ya Farm and Orchard is as pretty as can be! They grow heirloom apples, which are being revived from an orchard that was planted in the late 1800's, and adding lots of newer varieties, including Honeycrisps, my Mom's favorite, and Ginger Golds, my new favorite.

 Isn't their farm store adorable?? Lots of yummy apple treats and honey from their hives, delicious apple cider, cider muffins,and bushels of already-picked apples. If you want to pick your own apples, especially the heirloom varieties, you have to make a reservation. In January. You better believe I'll be on that list!!

 Plus they have mini cows!! I did not know such a thing existed!!! They're so cuuuuute! 

 But, of course, the baby Percheron was my favorite part. He's taller than ME! He liked nibbling on Joe's shoes. 

 Oh, and apples. Of course. Apples everywhere! I came home with ten pounds of Ginger Golds and this crisp was the first item on my apple treat list. Enjoy!!

Apple Butter Cinnamon Rolls

I love baking. A LOT. After the PTA welcome meeting where they tried their darnedest to get us to join up and participate and make our kids' lives better by helping with everything, I was a little swayed. But, being the semi-antisocial introvert that I am, that little kernel of motivation manifested as signing up for every possible PTA opportunity that involved food. Because I may be awkward around a bunch of parents I don't know, but by golly I can bake! Sometimes I get a little carried away, and everything has to be creative, everything has to be for the blog, everything has to be photographed, or perfect, or lit correctly, or new... I forget all of my favorites, the things I baked all the time before the blog was born. Yesterday, as I mused about what to bake while writing up my daybook, I decided to make scones, just cuz, just for me, no pictures, and yum. And they were! It was very satisfying. Now I need to freeze half of them so I don't eat all of them, all by myself. Oh, and by the way, the recipe for those spontaneous scones, my absolute favorite Ginger Chocolate Chip scones, is already on here. Lucky you!