Pumpkin Cookies....

I post this recipe every Fall and a couple people have been asking me about it.  I got this back in 2005 from friends at Duke and it's been a family favorite every since!  If you haven't made them, do it!  You won't be sorry....unless of course you hate pumpkin...and even those of you who hate pumpkin, should try these.  The cooked icing will make you just want to lick the icing off of every cookie. I haven't made them yet, but I need to very, very soon. They're calling my name.

Pumpkin Cookies with a warm Vanilla Icing

¾ c. butter                           Cream together the first 3 ingredients then add: 

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. sugar

 Add 2 tsp baking soda to 2 cups of pumpkin

Then add pumpkin mixture to butter mixture

 Sift all dry ingredients together and then add to above mixture:

3 c. flour

3 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

½ tsp ginger—optional

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes

 Frosting:

1 c. brown sugar

½ c. butter

½ c. cream or milk

Bring to a boil and remove from flame.  Add ½ tsp vanilla. A pinch of salt and powder sugar until spreadable.

Add warm milk if thickens while standing.

I dip mine into the icing while it is still hot instead of spreading it onto the cookie. 

Store cookies in refrigerator.

Give me 2 Pina Colada's.....

We've had an empty space in our living room since we moved in.  We kept thinking about what we wanted there but we finally found it.  Some of my readers might not think it was a necessary piece for our house, but it is.  We do a lot of entertaining and enjoy having a good time with friends. 

We were looking one day and found a wine cabinet that we liked.  The only problem was that it was open with no doors.  With the amount of dust here, I could only imagine how dusty our wine glasses and bottles would have been.  Until we found this one.  We love it. 

My parents bought this antique Whiskey/Scotch set for Trey last year in Boston when we were checking out some stores.  It's beautiful and has an etched sailboat.

It even has wheels which means we can move it around the room as we'd like.  There is a sliding glass door right next to it, so when it's cool outside, we can open up that door which goes out to the patio and position this just right so that people can come in and out and help themselves.

 The thing I love is that the top counter opens up to make a longer bar-like thingy so you can use it a few ways. If we turn it around we could put some high stools by it.

And as you can see, above the new cabinet, we put a picture of Sheikh Zayed (the founder of the country).  Man of the locals will have a picture of him in their home and so we thought we'd join along for fun. 

Come on over.  Drinks on us.

Chowda'

Yesterday I was dreaming about having clam chowda' while sitting outside by the water in New England on a warm summers night.....

But then I came back to reality and realized that I was stuck in the desert where the weather is one bajillion degrees still....and I'm afraid to eat clams from here (what do they know about clams!?).....and it's nothing like New England.

So I made Chicken Corn Chowda'.  And I did say it like that.  How can you really get into the moment if you don't say chowda' properly.  The recipe is from a New England friend and she got it out of an old New England cookbook so it felt pretty close.

So here's the recipe for you. 

1 to 1 1/4 pounds bone-in chicken breast
2 cups water

1 rib celery, cut up
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp salt
-milk (see directions)
1/4 c butter
1/2 c diced onion
1 c diced celery
2 tbsp flour
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 (17 ounce) can cream-style corn
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Combine chicken, water, celery, bay leaf and salt in 3-quart saucepan.  Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered, until chicken is tender, about 25 minutes.  Remove chicken from brother' cool, discard bones.  Dice chicken; set aside.  Strain broth; add enough milk to make 3 cups; set aside.  Melt butter in 3-quart saucepan; saute onion and celery until soft but not brown.  Blend in flour, gradually stir in milk mixture.  Add potatoes;  simmer until tender, 15 to 20 minutes.  Stir in chicken, corn, salt, and pepper; heat through.  Garnish with chives. 

Fiesta Bunco Night......

We had a blast at our Fiesta Bunco Night last evening!  I think everyone else would agree with me.

 So everyone is asking, "What is Bunco?"  It's a dice game that is super easy to play with anybody and everybody.  You play 4 sets and in set are 6 rounds.  So in the first round, your goal is to roll 1's on the  3 dice, in round 2 you want to roll 2's, in round 3 you want to roll 's.....get it?!  Pretty easy, right?   Then, for example, if you are in round 4 (the round where you are trying to get 4's on the dice) and you roll 3 4's on the dice (there are only 3 dice) than you get a BUNCO.

 Are you with me?   There are 3 tables with 4 people sitting at each table.  So 12 people total.  There is a Kings table, a middle table and losers table.  Depending on if you lose that round or win, you move up and down to the different levels of tables.  Alright, that's enough.  Google it or go buy and throw a Bunco party for your friends if you want to know more!  It's fun and easy. Promise.

Now comes the Fiesta part!  We had a salsa contest.  Each party member had to bring a home made salsa of their choice.  We had 3 categories that we voted on.

1. The best overall salsa
2. The hottest salsa
3. The best tomato-less salsa 

 We even had a picture corner with all sorts of props.

And there's always a few characters in the group....... meet Ty and Cheryl.  A sweet couple from Connecticut.  Ty reminds us of Trey's dad and is also making comments that crack us up.

Then it was time to announce our winners!  There were Bunco winners and Salsa winners.  Crazy Ty above won the best overall salsa, and senorita Cheryl above won the most Buncos.  They were the happy winners of a TRIP TO MEXICO.   Just kidding.  But they did go home with a portable grill and cooler. I would say that they are ready for a fun winter b-b-q at a park.   Poor Brent--the guy with the toilet paper on the right.  He could not get away from the LOSER's table at Bunco.  But since he had the most losses, he too won a prize. 

Min has been working on making this pinata for a while.  It was a fun way to end the party.  Who doesn't like pretending they're back at their friend Susie's birthday party from 4th grade?! 

Mexican Bunco Night.....

Tonight we are hosting a BUNCO night at our house!  I am so excited because I haven't played this in a long time.  And we have a Fiesta theme to go along with it.

Some pictures of our getting ready.

 The pinata getting stuffed.

We did all kinds of fun colors of cupcakes. 

Bunco and Salsa winner prizes.

 The picture corner. I hope to show you some fun pictures tomorrow.

The die and timer. 

 Picture corner.

The buffet is ready for the salsa competition. Bring it on. 

You put the lime in the coconut.....

Have you ever been looking so forward to a recipe that you have wanted to make for a while.....you make it and it turns out EXACTLY how you expected it to be.  Then it makes you want to shout "I'm an amazing cook!".  Yeah, well that happened this morning.  Honestly, the opposite happens sometimes, too.   Or maybe you're a bit more humble and never say those kind of things.

You ready for what Min and I made for our Saturday morning breakfast?! 

COCONUT CRUSTED BANANA BREAD

A breakfast restaurant could be successful on this recipe alone.....well and in my humble opinion, some eggs benedict. 

Are you ready for the rather easy recipe?

First you need to get your butt of the couch and make 

yourself some chocolate chip banana bread.  Any recipe.  

You can make your grandmothers recipe that your family has been making since 1875, 

you could steal from Betty Crocker or you could invent your own.  

But don't let yourself cut it the night before. It's a bad idea.  

Then you just want to eat the banana bread all alone. 

Slice your loaf up

 Get your pan ready with a bit of butter and some cooking spray

Put the coconut out on a plate.

Whip up an egg mixture of eggs and milk.  

Start dipping your bread into the egg mixture like regular french toast.

Then bath it in coconut and start frying it until it is golden brown.

Can't you just taste it now?!

If you're good at multi-tasking while cooking, I recommend

you make these caramelized bananas to go on top.  

It was a bit rich but well worth it.  C'mon, that's what the gym is for. 

Put some butter in a pan and add brown sugar.  I just kept adding butter

and oh a little more butter until the consistency was what I liked.  

Then I threw in the bananas and let them get a little soft and that was it.

Make your french toast all pretty on a plate so that you feel like 

you are eating breakfast at the Ritz Carlton, light some candles, 

get your coffee and start filling your plate......

Can you taste it!?  Every bite was as delicious as it looks.  

EVERY BITE!

The watermelon crawl.....

What do you do on Friday night at 5pm?

Enjoy a watermelon martini.  Delcious-o!   I know it's Friday morning for you all back at home and you wish you could be having this right now.....but soon it will be 5:00pm for you, too.

Grab yourself a watermelon and ice on the way home -- pull the alcohol out of the cabinet--throw it into the blender and enjoy yourself a good drink.

We're off to an Iftar dinner this evening at a friends house.  Ramadan will be over next week which means we can drink water again on the street but our we go back to normal work hours. That is the hardest part.

Wave Your Flag

Check out this matching bunting for those ball jar lids I put up yesterday.

The craft paper we used for those ball jar lids came in a package and we decided to use the rest of that paper to make some bunting.

To make this you first need to decide how large you want your bunting flags to be. We decided to do small flags because we had small scrap booking paper squares.

First, fold your paper in half and use a ruler to decide how large the flag should be. Cut the flag out and leave the center fold (do not cut on the fold).

Be sure you find paper that you like- if you don't like the paper before you make the bunting you sure won't like it after!

Your flags should look like these- with a fold in the center. 

Using craft string fill the fold of the flags with glue and place the string in the center of the flag. Put just a dab of glue at the tip of the flag to keep the edges closed together. Continue this over and over again alternating your paper colors. Be sure to measure the space between each flag so that your bunting is evenly spaced.

Here is your final product! Let them dry lying flat before you try to hang them.

 Find a place to hang your bunting for your next party!