Autumn Harvest Party

How lucky am I to have a hubby with such photography talent?

Last week I left you with the teaser, tonight I am fulfilling my promise!

It started with this invite:

The Decor: I showed up early to my sister-in-law's lovely farm to help her get the place spruced up a bit. I had made the banner the day before to hang on the porch. We gussied up the front door and porch (a perfect farm porch by the way!) and got the dining room all ready for dinner after a visit to the pumpkin patch:

Favors and Goodies: The day before I made mini pumpkin bread loaves (courtesy of Martha Stewart "Baking Handbook" cookbook) for everyone to take home as a favor, and some "goodie bags" for the kids. The goodie bags had some pumpkin candies, pumpkin patch Pop Rocks, Halloween Fruit Snacks and an Orange "Izze" soda, all tied up with a Pumpkin Patch Ribbon.  I also created some awards to present to each child to go along with their goodie bags. Awards like : Biggest Pumpkin, Quickest Pumpkin Picker, Littlest Pumpkin, Most Perfectly Round Pumpkin, etc

The Food: After all the fun at the pumpkin patch, and running around the corn maze, we had homemade applesauce doughnuts and hot mulled apple cider! Yum! I found the recipe on the "Farm Chicks" blog, and they turned out great! We packed it all up in a perfectly autumnal picnic basket belonging to my sister in law. Dinner was just as delish... I created a potato soup from a hodgepodge of recipes and everyone topped the soup off with bacon bits, cheese and chives. To go with the Soup was a sausage and cheese biscuit recipe that was such a hit that I must share it with you! See recipe below. Salad was an easy mix of greens, dried cranberries, candied pecans and pear with a poppy-seed dressing.

 

I couldn't resist this "Pumpkins in the Field" recipe when I saw it. It was too perfect to pass up considering the occasion. Another recipe I will share. And to make it even better? These adorable polka-dot cupcake liners from "Confectionery House" (fear not... I ordered them in every color)!

Recipes to share:

Pumpkins in the field (from "Ghoulish Goodies" by Sharon Bowers)

1 cup butterscotch morsels  

2 cups chow mien noodles

1 cup dry-roasted, salted peanuts

24 candy pumpkins (I used Brach's Mellow-creme Pumpkins)

- Line baking sheets with wax paper (or drop them into cupcake liners like I did)

- Put butterscotch morsels in a bowl, and melt them in microwave: Heat on high for 60 seconds, then stir well. Microwave and stir in 10 second bursts until just melted through.... don't overheat!

- Stir in the chow mien noodles and peanuts and drop mixture by heaping tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets.  While the haystacks are still warm, place a pumpkin on the top. Refrigerate to cool and harden. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Simple Sausage Ring (from Taste of Home)

1 lb pork sausage (I used Jimmy Dean's Sage variety)

2 tubs (12 oz each) refrigerated biscuits

2 cups shredded cheese (Mine was a cheddar and jack cheese mix)

- In a large skillet, cook sausage until no longer pink; drain and set aside

- Flatten each biscuit to a 3-in diameter. Press half of the biscuits onto the bottom and 2 inches up the sides of a greased 10 inch fluted tube pan. Spoon sausage over the dough; sprinkle with cheese. Top with remaining biscuits.

- Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate and slicing.

Gooseberry Patch

I love cookbooks. I read them like other people read novels. I pick them up wherever I can find them... and often times I have to find new and creative places to store them.

My most reliable, and most oft used cookbooks (because, let's face it... sometimes we are tempted to buy cookbooks that we will never, ever actually cook from!) are those from the "Gooseberry Patch". At nearly every dinner party and holiday, you can bet that at least one dish will be made from one of the many gooseberry patch cookbooks I own.

Why? Because they are no-frills, fuss-free and just plain old, good down home style cookin'. The added perk, nearly all of them come with other ideas for decorating, gift giving, crafting and celebrating.

This weekend, I made a wonderful Sunday brunch... with nearly everything coming from, or at least inspired by, a recipe from one of these wonderful cookbooks.

I think the favorite was "Oven-Baked Maple Pancakes" from the "Merry Christmas" book. The syrup was almost like carmel, and drizzled over the top, it was divine!

Oven-Baked Maple Pancakes

No need for syrup... it's baked right in!

3/4 cup of brown sugar, packed and divided

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 1/2 cup biscuit baking mix

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup milk

2 eggs

Heat 1/2 cup of brown sugar, butter and syrup in a small saucepan over low heat; stir until melted. (I actually skipped the step of melting in a saucepan, and just used soft butter, then spreading the mixture in the bottom of the pan...worked great, and one less pan to clean!) Pour syrup mixture into a lightly greased 13' x 9'' baking pan. Combine remaining ingredients and beat with a whisk or fork until well blended; pour over syrup mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until top springs back when touched in the center. Cut into squares; invert onto a serving plate and serve immediately.

Serves 6-8

PIE!

Over the last couple weeks I have been on a bit of a pie kick. The first pie I made was for our annual get away with friends, "Nate Fest". I was slow to choose a meal to make for the gang, and everyone volunteered before me. I decided to bring beverages and desserts, which is honestly the two things I love most in this world!

I found this delicious and easy recipe on the blog Huckleberry Prairie. It is a blueberry cherry pie... and one pie was NOT enough for our large queue. Note to self....make twice as much as next year!

Blueberry Cherry Pie
Crust ingredients needed:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
2/3 cup vegetable oil
Mix together until ball of dough forms. Pat out into pan. Make additional crust for pie top.

I cheated and used ready-made pie crust! Shhhhh.....

Pie Filling:
1/2 cup sugar2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
1 1/2 cup frozen blueberries

Mix sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon.Add cherry pie filling and blueberries. Mix.Pour into prepared crust.Roll out second crust on floured wax paper.Cut out star shapes with small star cookie cutter.

Egg white mixture:
1 egg white
1 tsp of water
2 tsp sugar
Mix egg white and water. Brush on stars and sprinkle with sugar.

Cover pie crust edges with foil and bake in preheated oven at 425 degrees for 35 minutes WITHOUT star crust top.

After 35 minutes, remove foil edges and add stars in any pattern you desire.

Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until stars and crust are golden brown.

The next Pie was made for a very pregnant co-worker who craves banana flavored foods... not bananas! For this reason, I had to make some slight modifications to the recipe. Link to the original recipe listed below. This time I wised up and made TWO! It received rave reviews, several declaring it the best banana cream pie they have every had. It came to me courtesy of Country Living Magazine (May 2009 issue).


Banana Pudding Pie

The original recipe can be found here.

Here were my modifications:

Crust:
2 c Vanilla wafers, crushed
2 Tbsp dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
5 Tbsp butter, melted
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and press mixture into a 9-inch pie plate. Bake for 10 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Filling:
1 Large box Instant Banana Pudding, prepared according to box directions
1 cup fresh whipped cream
5 Tbsp of Caramel Sauce/ice cream topping, plus extra for garnish
2-3 Bananas, sliced

Gently fold whip cream into prepared and cooled banana pudding, set aside. Layer sliced bananas over cooled crust. Drizzle the caramel over the bananas and top with pudding mixture. Chill for 2 hours, or overnight. Decorate with remaining banana slices and caramel (and maybe some chopped pecans!).

Independence Day Party

I have been aching to make this mouthwatering Strawberry Coconut Cake I saw on the Daisy Cottage blog. I tried to convince hubby we should have a birthday party, just so I could make it... but he wasn't interested! So... we had an impomptu "3rd of July" BBQ with a few friends who were quite happy to help me enjoy it!

Look at those babies! Freshly picked and washed... almost worth crying tears of joy over.

This is what happiness is... for me at least. Let it also be known, this three layer cake was so tall, I wasn't able to put the lid of my cake stand on!

Oh divinity.

How I spent my Sataurday

The holidays are winding down, but before they ended totally I was due to do some serious baking. I did, and I have the back ache to prove it.

I spent all day Sataurday baking.

My kitchen looked like this:

But it was worth it, because I have many dozens of cookies to give to our friends and family, and some delicious desserts to share at our family get together today:

Here are some giant snowflake cookies I presented on specially painted plates for each of the children in the family. They turned out really well!

Halloween Cupcakes!

We had a little Halloween party, which meant I could have fun making some "themed" treats! My proudest, was my graveyard cupcakes!
Made to looks as though bony fingers are sticking up out of the grave site.

For dinner we had mummy dogs and calico beans. I made a blood red jello fruit salad... and totally forgot about it in the fridge. Nice. Now I guess we will be eating jello for a few days. Dang.