The Joys of Boys

Thanksgiving is less than a week away.  Beyond question one of my greatest joys are my two little boys. 

If you have boys here are some of the 'Joys' you undoubtedly get to share in:

- The excitement (on behalf of your child) when they burp or fart

- Sweaty wrestling matches and yes they already love those at the tender ages of 1.5 & 3

- Picking up bugs and if they are lucky, finding something dead to show you

- Playing baseball/football outside regardless of the weather

- The discovery (on behalf of your boy) that they can make their pee go where they want it to

Okay, so some of those things I am not as thankful for, but in all honesty I am glad that I am able to be with them for all of their moments both the good and not so good. 

If you have a 'funny joy' that you'd like to share please leave me a comment!

Homemade Spice Ice Cream

We make my Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream all the time and add toppings to our individual bowls.  Until now, I hadn't ever made a different flavor of ice cream besides vanilla (Crazy! I know!).  And believe it or not the first flavor of ice cream I made was spice, not chocolate!  What actually spurred this Spice Ice Cream thought was that I had some left over spice cake mix from a box that I had used in a separate recipe.  I had previously seen on Finding Joy in My Kitchen the idea to use cake mix to flavor your ice cream (although she used a completely different flavor) and thought this would be great for Fall :) 

Not surprisingly we gobbled this right up.  I am definitely going to be experimenting more with adding cake mix to flavor ice cream because it was so simple and tasty!  The sugar and vanilla is decreased a little from the vanilla ice cream recipe but is mostly the same.  Can't you just imagine this with some yummy fall baked dessert?

Homemade Spice Ice Cream  Source: An 'A' For Effort and Finding Joy in My Kitchen

Ingredients:

1/2 C sugar
16 oz. Half and Half (can use fat free)
8 oz. whipping cream (light or heavy)
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 C spice cake mix
Directions:


1. Combine the sugar, half and half and whipping cream in a bowl and stir until all sugar is completely dissolved.
2. Add vanilla and spice cake mix.
3. Carefully pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl of the ice cream maker.
4. Turn on your ice cream maker and allow it to "make" for 30-40 minutes (depending on your desired thickness, type of machine and your patience level :)

For firmer ice cream scoops, allow it to harden for a little bit in the freezer first.

Bloomin' Onion Bread

Tuesday night I had plans to get together with a few girl friends, make cheesecake and enjoy chit chat.  I had planned to bring this Bloomin' Onion Bread to share.  Sadly, our girl's night had to be rescheduled for December (Faith, I am so glad you guys are better now!).  I went ahead and made this anyway and let Matt and I feast on it as part of our dinner.  I am glad I did because really liked this!  This bread has great flavor and makes a very appealing presentation. It was super easy to make too, which you all know is one of my main requirements :)

Be sure to pick a dense, firm bread, like sourdough, or the pieces of bread will fall apart when you cut into it.

Bloomin' Onion Bread  Source: Your Homebased Mom 

Ingredients:

1 round loaf unsliced bread (sourdough or other dense bread)

8 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, thinly sliced (Your Homebased Mom used 16 oz.)

1/2 C butter, melted

1/2 C green onion, finely chopped

2-3 tsp poppy seeds

Ready for the oven!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Carefully cut the bread in both directions, forming cubes.  Do not cut all the way through to the bottom of the crust.

3. Stick pieces of cheese in between all the cuts.

4. Mix together the melted butter, poppy seeds and green onion.  Pour over the top of the bread.

5. Completely wrap the bread in tin foil and place on a baking sheet.

6. Bake for 15 minutes, then unwrap and bake for 10 minutes more or until all the cheese is melted.

Pumpkin Cranberry Apple Pecan Everything Bread

This bread has a little bit of everything in it and I loved it!  Lots and lots of spices and very healthy!  Every little bite reminds me of the holidays.  Pumpkin, cranberries, nutmeg, maple syrup, yum :) I think this would be exceptional to serve for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving if you have out of town guests staying over.  You could very easily make this bread ahead of time and freeze it so that you have it ready to go.  Perfect.  This recipe is vegan but everyone regardless of their food preference will like this!

I found this bread on Joy the Baker's website.  Her original recipe called for 1 C oil.  I decided I want this to be a healthy breakfast bread (a good thing for post Thanksgiving) and completely excluded the oil replacing it with 1 C applesauce.  I don't ever plan to make this with the oil because I enjoyed it so much with the applesauce.  Joy also mentioned that her bread was a bit crumbly, mine was not, I am not sure if that was because of the applesauce or what but it was perfect.

Pumpkin Cranberry Apple Pecan Everything Bread  Source: Joy the Baker



Ingredients:

2 C flour (all-purpose)
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
2 C brown sugar, packed
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sat
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp crushed cloves
1 15-oz can pumpkin (almost 2 C)
1 C applesauce
1/3 C maple syrup
1/3 C water
1 C pecans, chopped
1-1 1/2 C fresh cranberries
1 apple, peeled and chopped
3 T cinnamon sugar


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease and flour two loaf pans.

2. In a mixer on lowest setting, combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and all spices except the 3 T cinnamon sugar. 

3. In a separate bowl carefully stir together the pumpkin, applesauce, maple syrup and water.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and blend until thoroughly combined.

5. Hand stir in the pecans, cranberries and apple.

6. Pour into prepared pans.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

7. Bake for 60-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

This recipe linked to: Countdown to 2011: Breads at Finding Joy in My Kitchen
                                      Decidely Healthy or Horridly Decadent at Barbara Bakes

Ooey Gooey Caramel Pie (O'Charley's Copy)

Thanksgiving is only 9 days away and if you are looking for a tantalizingly delicious dessert to add to your traditional pumpkin pie at the Thanksgiving dessert table look no further!  I love caramel almost as much as I love chocolate and this recipe leaves nothing to be desired.  It is so perfectly wonderful and is sure to be a hit with your friends and family.  I will warn you, if you are someone who tends to find some desserts too rich, you may want to go with a small piece. This is not for the faint of heart! :)

There are many different methods for making the caramel.  Some methods include boiling the unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk but if not carefully watched this can result the can exploding.  Considering that my two boys make enough messes on their own, the idea of cleaning up a caramel explosion doesn't resonate with me.  I prefer the stove top double boiler method because I find it to be simple to do, easy to see how dark your caramel is getting and has no risk of the can exploding. :)

Ooey Gooey Caramel Pie (O'Charley's Copy)  Source: All Recipes

Ingredients:

1 graham cracker crust

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

1 tub cool whip, softened

1/2 C pecans, chopped

3/4 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Pour both cans of sweetened condensed milk into a double boiler (or you can make one like mine).

2. Cover with a lid and heat the milk over low heat for 1 1/2- 2 hours or until the sweetened condensed milk reaches a nice golden caramel color.  You do not need to stir, but I did occasionally because I was too excited about making this and wanted to feel like I was 'doing' something :)  Check the level of your water in the double boiler after about an hour and add more if necessary.

3. Pour the sweetened condensed milk (now caramel!) into the graham cracker crust.

4. Allow the pie to cool in the refrigerator.

5. Once completely cool top with cool whip. Garnish with chopped pecans and chocolate chips.

Tuna Cakes

Tuna.  Hmm, I think sometimes poor tuna is made fun of because he is a little smelly.  But, the truth is that I enjoy having a little tuna every now and then!  I really like making these Tuna Cakes to mix up our dinner routine.  It is a nice change from pasta, chicken and beef.  I let them get a nice crisp before I flip them over while cooking.  Matt eats his on a bun with lettuce, tomato, mayo and mustard.  Me, I like it with ketchup, no bread or anything :)

Tuna Cakes  Source: Good News Radio Family Favorites Volume 1

Ingredients:

2 6-oz. cans tuna

2 eggs

2/3 C minced onion

1 C bread crumbs

3 tsp baking powder

4-6 T oil

Directions:

1. Lightly drain the tuna, you will want some of the juice to remain.

2. In a bowl, combine tuna, eggs and onion.

3. Add bread crumbs and baking powder.

4. If the mixture is too dry to form into patties, add a small amount of water.

5. Form into patties.

6. Heat oil in skillet until hot.

7. Fry patties until brown and crispy, then flip and cook the other side.

Maple Butter

The recipe today is a reader suggestion!  Whoo Hoo!  Okay, so it is actually from my sister, Lydia. But in all honesty she is a reader and she did suggested this recipe when she saw my World's Easiest Pumpkin Muffins post yesterday, so I can get excited about my first reader suggestion right?!?  Glad you agree! :) I made this within sheer seconds of getting off the phone with her.  I can't disappoint my readers by having them wait for their suggestions can I?  For the photo I used a yummy roll but this butter is also marvelous for pumpkin muffins or pancakes or anything!  The butter has hints of the cinnamon butter most people are familiar with but it has so much more, I love the maple flavor :)

Maple Butter  Source: My sister,  Lydia

Ingredients:

1/2 C butter, softened

2 T maple syrup

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients until well blended.