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!

Homemade Salsa

Re-post today, because this is one of our family's summer essentials, and I just happen to be making a behemoth batch of it today! The Geologist requires plenty of salsa for football season, but we usually just barely run out after the Superbowl, so hopefully this batch will last a little longer. :)

Essential tips for making homemade salsa:

First: Wear gloves. Don't be a hero, you are slicing up jalapenos, and I don't care how tough you are, NOTHING gets jalapenos off your fingers. I tried it all, lemon, rubbing alcohol, baking soda, dish soap... Nuthin. You WILL put your finger in your eye. Or use it to put on lip balm and have spicy lips. Just wear the gloves. 

Second: If there is any possible way for you to move your food processor outside for the chopping of toxic veggies, do it! Extension cord, outdoor plug, whatever. It helps SO much!

Third: At some point you will have to cook this concoction, even if just for a few minutes. Make sure all of your doors and windows are open, all fans are on first, you are simmering tear gas. You will run from your kitchen, eyes streaming, seeking shelter from the fumes! Ventilation, people!

Fourth: Keep ventilating as long as possible. All night if you can. Your whole house will smell like salsa. Which is kinda fun while you're making it, not so much when you wake up the next morning... and your pancakes taste like salsa... Took me 48 hours to get the salsa smell out of my house!

Kimchi Bacon Fried Rice

Can I just quit my "job", move to Korea, and learn how to rap in Korean? No? Okay fiiiiine. Ugh. I'm obsessed with this stuff you guys. Korean music is spoiling me for American Top 20 nonsense. I've got this new song on repeat and my boys learn the lyrics faster than I do. In fact, they created a game where I pick them up from school, they roll down the windows, we crank a Korean song up nice and loud and they see how many "weird looks" we get. Although I suspect a good half of those looks are due to Joe's rap faces. He's pretty hardcore. I'm pretty sure the other parents think we're obnoxious... little do they know that our Korean rap/pop is squeaky clean! Pardon my nerd-ness, I'm done for today. :)

Well, not completely, since I'm also a food nerd, and watching all of these Korean dramas (cuz somehow you just can't have the music without the dramas!) made me run to the internet searching for recipes for all the amazing looking things they're eating. I've loved kimchi ever since I was 14, when one of my best friends used to bring her Mom's homemade kimchi to school for lunch. Yum!! Anyway, in the midst of my TV-fueled Korean cravings, I discovered a new favorite food blog called Beyond Kimchee. I found this crazy dish there, and it's my new favorite thing to eat for lunch. It may sound a bit odd, especially among my pies and muffins and things, but it's deeeelicious!All you have to do is find yourself some decent kimchi, (or make some!!) and you should have the rest hanging around your house! Oh, and if you need some music to listen to while enjoying your kimchi fried rice, let me know and I'll be happy to recommend a few songs. ;)

Grilled Sesame Scallion Steak

Happy 4th of July!! 

I know I'm a little late for your Independence Day parties, in fact most of you probably won't see this recipe until the fireworks are all cleaned up and normal life has resumed, but hey, if you're not sick of grilling yet, try this one! We've put it on the shelf for years, lacking a decent grill, but now it's back in rotation and oh, how I've missed it!

Raspberry Rhubarb Crunch

I. Love. Rhubarb. Unfortunately, it is kinda hard to find around here, at least reliably. If it wasn't so early in the year, I'm sure I could count on our awesome farmers markets, but sadly, they start up right after rhubarb season is ended. So every time I go to the grocery store I eye the tiny space that holds the rhubarb for a few weeks... usually they're too big, too tough, too old, too green... But every once in a while I get lucky, and they're just right, slim and snappy and ruby red. And when they are, I bring home a big bag and make this, my favorite rhubarb dessert ever! You could use just rhubarb; or add strawberries, the classic combo, but I love the tartness of rhubarb and like to complement it with tangy raspberries. Either way, it'll be delicious!!

Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

TA-DAH!!! How do you like the new look?? I felt it was about time for a teeny bit of sprucing up around here! I have to figure out a way to move my recipe index to one of those tabs, but other than that, it's all ready to go! I love it, it's cleaner and brighter and makes me happy! Plus, I did it ALL by myself! *pat on the back* Code and everything, woohoo! I hope everyone likes it. :) Please leave a comment if you find any errors or malfunctions! Also, I finally joined the social media parade and created a Facebook page for Dimples and Delights, and you can follow it with that cute little red Facebook button in the right column. See you there!

Time for something yummy and sunny, because yet again we're getting dumped on by a snowstorm! Supposedly, we're going to get 8-14 inches, but it's going to have to take it up a notch if we're going to get there. I shall snuggle in and bake some bread (very excited about this recipe!) and try to resist the urge to bake gingerbread (it's just so Christmassy outside!) and pray that this storm doesn't destroy what is left of my poor lilac bush. The last one that we missed while in Utah broke a few crucial branches. Sadness. Oh well!! At least it's still alive! I can't help it, even now, snowstorms are fun. The slushy muddy days after them, not so much, but I'll always be a sucker for snow.

Meet Mei Li Kay!

The blogging itch has been growing the past few weeks, and last night I got a pretty huge boost of motivation! Some of you may have seen it, but just in case, Buzzfeed posted a list of 25 High-Altitude Recipes and FIVE of them were mine! I had over 3000 hits in 24 hours! Welp, turns out that was the final push I needed, and I'm baaaack! I posted some epic chocolate cupcakes yesterday, and today I'm catching you up on life. Specifically, my 4 year old distraction from blogging, Mei Li Kay!

Ultimate Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes

You might notice that this is the very first cupcake recipe on this blog. Ever. In 5 years. That's because I'm not a huge fan of cupcakes, to be perfectly honest. They're just too sweet for me! But this is not just any cupcake. Noooo, this is THE most chocolate-y cupcake I've ever encountered. This cupcake is so amazingly delicious that it even earned itself a nickname and a cute backstory. We call these babies "Chocolate Puppies". Why? Well, my Mom used to be THE resident treat-maker for my Dad's office. Considering this office changed every three years, thanks to the US Air Force, that was quite a badge of honor. Certain cookies and breads of her making became famous across multiple Air Force bases! So one day she hauled a few dozen dozen of these cupcakes to the office and one of the captains, a fellow chocolate fanatic, was so enraptured with them that after his first bite, he was going on and on about how good it was. He was cradling it by his face and my mom said, "Terry, get a hold of yourself! You're holding that thing like it's a puppy or something!!" Thus the nickname Chocolate Puppies was born. I actually posted them forever ago, but the pictures are simply atrocious, plus I tweaked them (of course!).