Spice Cookies

Here I am! With the last cookie recipe before Christmas. Posting this post from my desk at work. Because I'm 1 of 3 people here. Wahhh! Ok, I'm done with my pitty party. Anyway, IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE! I am obsessed with Christmas by the way. It consumes my life, mainly the decorating. See my purty tree!?

Last night, I had a little Christmas get together. Well, it was supposed to be for 8 people. Then it grew to 12, then it grew to 17 unbeknownst to me. Let's just say it was quite the party with all the work that went into it but I was happy to have family from Georgia who I rarely see to my house. I was really excited too to show off all the work we've done. We are almost done our wainscoting and I will show you a picture soon. It's glorious. Back to the main subject of this post though, the cookies. These are probably some of the easiest cookies to make, ingredient wise and if you love spice cake you will love these as well.

Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Spice Cookies
Yield ~ 60 cookies

1 box of Spice cake mix
8 ounces of cream cheese
1 stick of butter
1 egg

powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl mix the cream cheese and butter, then mix in the egg. Last mix in the cake mix. Take about 1 1/2 tablespoon balls of dough and roll them up then roll them in a bowl of powdered sugar to coat. Place on the cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Trail Mix Cookie Bars

As promised here is installment 3 of the Christmas cookies. I came to my Mom's and spent 2 hours baking all 3 types of cookies to bring into work tomorrow. I definitely had no time to do it last night considering I was a little too busy at the gym winning a pair of lifting gloves! I'm pretty sure I'm in love with the instructor for Body Pump on Monday nights. She plays Christmas music all before class and last night she made Christmas barbell cookies! Totally a girl after my own heart. Then she had a drawing for a pair of lifting gloves. Every time you came to class since Thanksgiving, your name was entered for the drawing. Good thing all 4 people who were called before me weren't in class yesterday or I never would have won. Over ohhhhhh, 5 weeks I only put my name in once. Ooopsy. Luck was on my side last night, definitely not being healthy.

Trail Mix Cookie Bars
Yield ~36 squares

Cookie base
1 cup flour +2 tablespoons
1 stick of butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Filling
1 can sweetened condensed  milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon flour
1 1/4 cups trail mix (any combination you prefer, place it in a bag and smash it with an ice cream scooper or hammer to crumble the nuts especially)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl cream the sugars and butter together. Next mix in the egg and vanilla. Then add in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold in the chocolate chips. Line a 9x9 pan with aluminum foil then spray with oil. Spread the cookie dough all over to make the cookie base. Bake for 8 minutes. Meanwhile in another bowl, mix the sweetened condensed milk, egg, and flour. After you take the cookie base out, pour the filling on top, then sprinkle the trail mix on top to cover it. Bake for another 20 minutes or until the top is barely jiggly.

PB Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ever since I got this new job I have fallen off the face of the Earth. I used to have so much time and apparently it disappeared, completely. Don't fret though, because this week I am making a conscious effort to share 3 cookie recipes with you. You know, since it is the holidays and everyone is making Christmas cookies. Today it's some Peanut Butter Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies. I have had Nutella in the pantry that I've been dying to get rid of (so I can stop dipping my finger in it) and this was the perfect occasion. It's a miracle I was even able to bake these. Remember how long ago I started showing pictures of work we were doing in the kitchen? Well it's still going on... We got new hardwood floors put in, we painted, and now we're in the process of putting up the wainscoting which is what was going on when I tried to bake these. I thought I might lose my hearing from all the noises going on in the kitchen that day. Luckily, I survived and so did the cookies.

Peanut Butter Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield ~ 2 1/2 dozen

1 stick butter
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
4 tablespoons Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl mix your butter (melted), peanut butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Then add in the egg and vanilla. Next mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Then fold in your chocolate chips and drop 1/2 tablespoon sized dollups of Nutella all over the dough. Stir it around just a little bit so the Nutella is swirled into the dough. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden around edges.

Pumpkin Monkey Bread

Wow, have I become a horrible blogger. My last blog was Nov 16!?!? In my defense I was in Ireland for a week and left the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So that's a whole other blog post I need to create at some point. For now though, I bring your our breakfast on Thanksgiving morning... along with some shrimp and cocktail sauce... Interesting combination, I know but who cares? Both of them were awesome. The only thing I have to say is when you are making this, never put your dough in the fridge. I made my dough, put it in the bundt pan and it was so high and fluffy like the picture below but it was 11 PM and I wasn't about to bake this. So (stupidly) I put it in the fridge for the night. Yea... I woke up and it was completely deflated and had to do some emergency rising of dough. I turned on the oven and put this near the exhaust and that did nothing after 30 minutes. Then I just put it in the oven on the lowest temperature with the door cracked for about 30 minutes. I was straight up in panic mode, let me tell you. Eventually it rose some, but never as beautifully as the picture below. I was quite sad but the good thing is, it was still amazing and a great start to our Turkey day along with my Bloody Mary!

Pumpkin Monkey Bread

Yield ~8 servings

1/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup milk 

1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

2 tbs butter, melted

2/3 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3 cups flour

3 tbs butter, melted

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons maple syrup 

In a bowl, stire together the milk, water, yeast, and sugar. Let it sit for 10 minutes so the yeast can proof. Then pour it into a stand mixer bowl (I used the mixer with the dough hook attachment), and add the salt, egg, butter, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and half the flour. Mix that together, then add in the other half. Make sure the dough is ready by checking that it's just slightly wet but won't stick to your hands. If it's too wet add a few more tablespoons of flour. Place this bowl somewhere warm and let it rise for an hour or more (I waited 3). Grease a bundt pan and make your coating in a bowl by mixing the butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Take about Dunkin Donut munchkin sized balls of dough and dip them in the coating, then place in the bundt pan until the dough runs out. Then pour any extra coating into the pan. Cover the pan and let it rise for another couple hours. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake for about 25 minutes and let it cool for 15 minutes after. In another bowl, mix the powdered sugar, milk, and syrup, then drizzle all over the monkey bread.

Pecan Pie Pumpkin Cheesecake

This was 100% my pride and joy for the week. When I made this I was freaking out because as much as I don't want to admit there was a crack all across the middle. Alas, there's nothing a pecan design can't fix. I feel like sometimes I really should give myself more credit than I do. I was so worried about this cheesecake and I heard nothing but good things about it from my co-workers at our Thanksgiving potluck. It was seriously the bane of my existence... for the day. I kept going back and back and taking a small slice. I should've just started out with a mondo slice and maybe I would've been satisfied. Anyway, this definitely put me in the Thanksgiving mood. So I wanted to make sure I shared it in time with all of you so, you know, so you actually make it and eat it! Then I won't feel so bad about myself, especially since I skipped the gym for 3 days now and I ate this for lunch yesterday along with some sushi, chick-fil-a nugs, eastern NC pork bbq, potato salad, hashbrown casserole, mac and cheese, and 2 cookies. Eeeeek!

Pecan Pie Pumpkin Cheesecake

Yield ~16 servings

Crust

1 package of Graham crackers (about 10 crackers)

3 tablespoons butter

Pecan Pie filling

1 cup sugar

1 cup corn syrup 

3 tablespoons brown sugar

3 eggs

1 cup pecans

1 tablespoon vanilla 

1/3 cup butter, melted

Cheesecake filling

2 packages of cream cheese (8 ounce each, room temp)

1 cup sugar

2 tbs flour

1 tbs vanilla

2/3 cup pumpkin

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 tablespoons brown sugar

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put a water bath on the shelf below. (water bath means in a cake pan 9x11, for example, fill it half way with water, this keeps the cake from cracking) In a food processor crush the graham crackers, then pour the melted butter in to mix. Press the mixture into a 9" springform pan and bake for 10 minutes. In a bowl mix together all ingredients for pecan pie filling except pecans. Once crust is ready spread the pecans out, then pour the filling on top. In another bowl, mix together all the cheesecake ingredients except the eggs. Then add them in one by one mixing between each, but make sure you hand mix the eggs in. Pour the filling on top of the pecan pie filling. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, then turn it down to 325 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes until center is just slightly jiggly. 

Seafood Garlic Cream Sauce Pasta

Alright, finally got a new one for you all! So, if you aren't my facebook friend you don't exactly know how this week is going for me. Let me tell you. Monday night while running I was semi-molested by a 20 year old boy trying to hit on me... while I was running. Then I heard a child scream at the top of her lungs. I live in a nice suburb people, not inner city Baltimore. Then I found out our floors weren't going to be done until Thursday now instead of yesterday. That means I can't bake in my own kitchen for the event I'm making 350 cupcakes for on Friday. Yea... and I'm doing it all for free so this just adds to the stress level. Somehow in the 5 hours between getting off and going to bed and transporting all of these back to my house I have to make 350 cupcakes. It's all going to a wonderful cause, I'm just not so sure how I'm ever going to get it done. I'll get back to you on that. Then this morning a rock knicked a chunk out of my windshield. Of course, I know these are all little things in the grand scheme of things but I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever catch a break this week! Yeesh, well maybe I should drown my sorrows in the carbs of my leftover pasta.

Seafood Garlic Cream Sauce Pasta
Yield ~4 servings

1 cup mushrooms
1/2 onion, sliced
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup peas
1/4 cup sherry wine
4 scallops
1 1/2 dozen mussels
1/2 pound shrimp
1/2 cup cream

pasta (enough to your liking)

Add some oil to a pan on medium high. Saute mushrooms and onions, with salt and pepper. Add sherry wine to deglaze. Add chopped garlic and allow it to get fragrant on the medium high heat. Add the scallops and mussels, and turn the scallops once they start to get seared. Then add the shrimp, peas, and cream. Let the sauce reduce. It should be done when the shrimp are done cooking. Meanwhile cook your pasta and when it is done add the sauce to your pasta.

Apple Oatmeal Cake with Brown Sugar Caramel

It's always 'Ashley make dessert' whenever I'm invited to anything. At this point it seems I have no choice. So when we were invited over for a small retirement party of course I made dessert. It was slightly difficult being that the entire weekend we tore up the old hardwood floors in our kitchen and the boards underneath. With that being said, it meant none of our appliances were where they needed to be and I hadn't been to the grocery store. When this happened I resorted to my pantry and used what I had, considering by the time we were able to move the oven back to where it belonged it was 8 PM on Sunday night. Oy vay. That was an exhausting weekend if I ever knew one but at least you get an amazing cake out of it. The glaze was a total accident too. I just looked up brown sugar glaze and whatever combination my ingredients created was heaven. It was pretty much like a cinnamon caramel and I was eating it by the spoonful.

Apple Oatmeal Cake with Brown Sugar Caramel
Yield ~12 servings

1/2 vanilla cake mix
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 package vanilla pudding mix
1 pack apple cinnamon instant oatmeal mix
1 pack cinnamon spice instant oatmeal mix
2 eggs
3/4 cup oil
2/3 cup water
3/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla

Glaze
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl mix the eggs, oil, water, sour cream, and vanilla. Then add in the cake mix, flour, sugar, instant oatmeals, and pudding mix. Pour into a 9 inch cake or springform pan. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. In a pan bring the brown sugar, butter, and whipping cream to a boil. Reduce to medium heat and stir until sugar is disolved (about 5 mintues). Take off heat and stir in the cinnamon. Poke some holes in the cake after it's cooled some and pour the glaze on top then sprinkle the chopped pecans on top of the cake.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

We made it. Somehow Sandy didn't do anything to us except knock a tree down in the parking lot. Thank Goodness we didn't park our car in the last parking space there Sunday night or it would have been hit. Or maybe we should have parked my car there. As much as I love Clifford, (he is a red mazda 3) he could use a replacement with all the running I've made him do. Maybe next time. You know, since we have so many ridiculous storms like Sandy all the time aka once in a lifetime. Well, it's back to work tomorrow. I've been teleworking the past 2 days from Sandy and now I will be in the office once again. At least it will be Halloween and I made these cupcakes to bring in for our Halloween party! Hopefully these new co-workers don't make fun of me for my baking habits like an old group of co-workers. *cough cough*

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

Yield ~24 cupcakes

1 box spice cake mix

1 15 ounce can of pumpkin

1 package of butterscotch pudding mix

3 eggs

1/3 cup water

1/2 cup oil

2/3 cup sour cream

Frosting

2 1/2 sticks butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/2 cup caramel

In a bowl mix together the pumpkin, eggs, water, oil, and sour cream. Then add in the spice cake mix and pudding mix. Pour batter into cupcake tin. Bake for 20 minutes. Meanwhile put your room temperature butter in a bow and mix it with the vanilla. Then add in the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. Last mix in the caramel. 

If you want to make the ghosts all I did was use Wilton candy wafers and melt them in a baggy in the microwave. I then snipped a tiny hole in the corner and squeezed ghost shapes onto wax paper and let them harden.

Sandy

Holy Moly! It's been 2 weeks since I've blogged. You normally get 3 posts a week out of me and I've left you with absolutely nothing. The first week I was on vacation and went from Asheville, NC to Savannah, GA to Charleston, SC to Raleigh, NC. It was quite the road trip and it was really neat to go from the mountains to the beach. Exhibit A, wake up at the mountains go to bed at the beach.

Then this past week I started a new job. At this job I don't have quite so much "free time" so blogging has not even been an option while I'm there. I'm going to have to start finding some other times to write my posts from now on. So I will do my best to start back up with the recipes this week! On to the real reason we're blogging today.

SANDY! 

I was unbelievably excited about this until about one hour ago when I learned that I will have to take vacation tomorrow since I haven't been set up to telework yet. Major bummer, now for once in my life I don't want inclement weather. I'm so depressed but it is what it is. With that being said, this storm is a once in a life time kinda thing. It's pretty amazing and the effects that are going to come with it will be devastating. As I've told you all in previous posts, I'm obsessed with this stuff in a non-morbid way. Of course, I want everyone to be safe but I get excited about weather like a kid gets excited about Christmas morning. Maybe while I'm staying home tomorrow taking vacation I'll make a post with some pictures so far of everything. 

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

This picture does not even do this coffee cake justice. 1) Because this is a picture before it was even put in the oven 2) It does not show the heavenlyness of the cake. The reason I didn't seem to get a picture is because the second it was done I went on a nice 4.5 hour drive to Pittsburgh and the thought must have slipped my mind. Ooops! Anyway, I brought this to our tail gate bright and early Sunday morning and it was divine. Side note: DO NOT decide to play Gangnam Style at your tail gate unless the median age is somewhere around mid 20's. Between the hustle and bustle of classic rock hits being played I said "Hey DAD! Let's play gangnam!" He proceeded to let me and I started dancing. Within a few seconds I noticed no one else was dancing and just looking at me in sheer confusion. It was one of those awkward moments where you look around slowly and see everyone's eyes on you and it's like crickets are chirping even though I never would've heard them. Well,  you can imagine about halfway through I just ran up there and said "Dad! HURRY Put something else on!" Then I went and hid in a corner with my beer and coffee cake. There was about 1/3 left Monday morning so I brought half of that home. I couldn't bring it all because I would have just been in a pumpkin coma. The good news is though that my boyfriend ate all of it as of today. He told me he had to eat a little bit at a time because it was so good and needed to make it last. If he's eating my sweets, that's a big deal, he's not even a sweet eater. Plus 1 for team KBTM.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Yield ~20 servings

1 package vanilla cake mix
1 15 ounce can pumpkin
2 eggs
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk

In a bowl mix together the pumpkin, eggs, water, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then mix in the cake mix. Pour this into a 9 x 13 greased baking dish. In another bowl melt your butter and add 1/2 cup brown sugar, flour, and walnuts. Mix this together with your fingers until it becomes crumbly, then spread it out on top of the cake batter. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let this cool, then place the milk in saucepan on medium high until simmering and add the other 1/2 cup brown sugar and white sugar. Remove from heat and stir until all sugar is dissolved then pour over the coffee cake.