Pumpkin Crumble Cake

Another recipe! I swear, this isn't a food blog. I just love to eat and share recipes that family members and friends always request. This is certainly one of those. When my friend Julie made this two years ago at a Halloween party I was incredibly impressed by this recipe. And Each time I make it, someone requests the recipe.

I've seen several versions of this around. They all vary slightly by how many layers (this has three), milk vs. evaporated milk vs. sweetened condensed milk, the combination of spices and the amount of pumpkin puree. I stick to this one because it seems cheaper/easier since it calls for regular milk yet it's still rich and filling.

Pumpkin Crumble Cake
Yield: 24 servings

Ingredients--by layers: 
Layer 1:
1 box white or yellow cake mix, 1 cup separated
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg
Layer 2: 
2 cups canned pumpkin puree (not the kind with spices added), or 2/3 of 29 oz can
3 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1 pinch nutmeg
Layer 3: 
1 cup reserved cake mix
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup nuts, pecans or walnuts, chopped
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, cold

1. 1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 glass dish. 
2.  Mix Layer 1 ingredients, (be sure to reserve 1 cup cake mix) and press down covering bottom of 9x13 pan. 
3. Combine ingredients in Layer 2 in a large bowl. Mix with a spoon or wisk. Pour over Layer 1.
4. Combine ingredients in Layer 3 except butter. Cut the butter into mixture with pastry blender (or criss-cross two forks). Sprinkle this crumble mixture over top of Layer 2.
5. Bake for 35-50 minutes or until browned and no longer giggly in middle (do not over or  under bake). 
6. It can be served warm or left to cool for at least 2 hours. I prefer to eat it at room temperature or chilled. Serve with whipped cream.

Rosemary Place Settings

We were going to host Thanksgiving so I started searching Pinterest for some decorating ideas. It turned out that we didn't end up hosting but I still requested to make the place settings. Nothing elaborate, just something simple. I saw this on Pinterest and made it my own.

Rosemary (still left from our frozen garden), a simple ribbon tied to a name tag. And rosemary adds such a nice scent to the table as well. I think this would be nice for Christmas too.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars

Forgive me for sharing a few more Autumn and Thanksgiving ideas. I am just not ready for December to start! I will be sharing a few more posts until this month is over.

I love the combination of cocoa and pumpkin. Two ingredients that are not blatantly sweet but with a little bit of sugar and spice makes them blend nicely. I prefer to eat these bars over the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (which are delicious, just not equal) because they are more attractive and less sticky.

From Martha Stewart

• Prep Time 30 minutes
• Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
• Yield Makes 24

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on all sides. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in pumpkin puree (mixture may appear curdled). Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan.
4. Lift cake from pan (using foil as an aid). Peel off foil, and use a serrated knife to cut into 24 squares.

Thanksgiving Ideas

Here are some last minute yet simple ideas for your Thanksgiving festivities.

Make a Mayflower boat place setting by sticking a toothpick pennant flag into a sliced apple. Soak sliced apples in lemon water right before placing to prevent browning.

 Turkey Cookies. Use any combination of cookies and candies. In this case I used striped fudge cookies for the base and back of tail. A leftover Halloween Oreo for the tail feathers. They are easy to push in candy corn feathers. Attach a malt ball head with nutella (or frosting) to the Oreo. Add a candy corn beak. The belly is a mini nutter butter and candy corn claws. Simple enough for children to assemble and keep busy while they wait for the main feast to begin. And always a fun treat to eat afterwards!

Happy Thanksgiving! I am grateful for my family, this blog, for food and many other lovely things in life this day. Gratitude :)

Thanksgiving Kid's craft

Gobble! Gobble! Thanksgiving is almost here! It's one of my favorite holidays. Eating and spending time with family. What can be better than that? The last week we've been trying to teach our three young children about this holiday. Not only about the history of it but about being grateful. I think it's wonderful that Thanksgiving is right before Christmas becuase it begins to put things in perspective for us. My children are already asking about Christmas and gifts! But I am trying to teach them about being grateful too. For J's preschool group last week we made these little turkeys.

Simply grab 2 pieces of card stock. Cut out two circles from one (or use a paper sack for one of the cirlces like I did here). Gather some leaves, of all sizes and colors. Lay out the leaves like a fan tail, and then glue the circles on top. Then add two googly eyes and candy corn for a beak. Simple! It's kind of fun to it the next day because the leaves curl up a bit and look a little more feather like. 

REMEMBER: sign-up for the Twilight Woods giveaway. It ends tonight at 11pm. I'll announce the winner tomorrow! 

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Ya, pretend it's still Thanksgiving. Without overeating again. Without having to rush to finish Christmas shopping. Just for a minute let's take a glimpse back to my November.

We made these little chocolate covered rice krispie turkeys. I didn't really like plain old rice krispie treats but covered in chocolate makes me want to gobble them up. OH, and I did!

I made these twice. Once with my daughters preschool and then again with my nieces. I think they are easier to eat when they are flat but look more like a turkey in the ball form.

The carnage.

I made two batches of rice krispies, spread thin onto one cookie sheet. Enough to make at least 10 turkeys. Cut them out with a round biscuit cutter. Then I dipped them in the chocolate. I used melting chips flavored like chocolate. Much easier than using a double boiler or trying melt chocolate chips in the microwave. Once they're covered, stick them on wax paper or greased plate and pop them in the freezer. They'll dry in 1 minute and then they are ready to eat. I wouldn't suggest storing them in the freezer because they get really hard. Enjoy!