Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts

It’s like someone read my mind when they decided to make these (since almost every pumpkin food item must be mine).  As soon as I knew about them, I needed them IMMEDIATELY.

I sought them out for a few days.  Dropped a hint to many others to keep an eye out.  I finally found them at Target, yes!

I was so excited that I took a picture of them as soon as I got in the car.  (Yes I got three boxes, be jealous.)

The next weekend, I decided it was time for J to have his first pop tart.  Big moments like this need to be documented, obviously.

I assure you he enjoyed it very much, contrary to what his face might reflect.  I believe that face would be accurately translated to “Mom, stop taking my picture, you are interrupting my pop tart eating concentration!  Geez!”

Yogurt Popsicle

I put some yogurt in a popsicle mold and put them in the freezer.  Just boring strawberry yogurt, nothing fancy.  But it was so good!  They made me feel like I was eating dessert when really I was having some healthy yogurt.  Jaxon agrees that it is a good way to enjoy some calcium.

Bottomless Pit

Have you ever had one of those days where you can’t seem to get full? I am having one of those days now.

I am too ashamed to share what I have eaten in the last 4 hours, but I am pretty sure you would be impressed! I really need to get out for a walk tomorrow to burn some of this off. 🙂

A Fun Weekend

-J has thrush.  His purple goth lips provided by the treatment, Gentian Violet.

-I made dog biscuits!

-J got his first self-inflicted injury from exploring the house.  (Please note that he is not dirty, but still has the goth lips as seen above, and is eating a baby cookie and not one of the dog treats!)

Can you see that tiny red speck there above his lip?  Yep, there it is.

Tuesdays with Dorie – Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops

This week’s recipe was chosen by Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart (go there for the recipe).  This was one of the first recipes that really stood out for me when I first flipped through the book, so I was excited to try them out!

Below is an action shot of the sifting.

Everything in the mixer.  (By the way, best raw cookie dough ever!)

Overall, I really like these cookies.  I was a little disappointed about how the whoppers became chewy after baking, but otherwise, nothing but chocolaty, yummy goodness.

Anyone want a cookie?  🙂

Go here to see everyone else’s Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops.  Up next week, more cookies!  Chocolate Chunkers to be exact!

Tuesdays with Dorie – Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

This week’s recipe was chosen by Stefany of Proceed with Caution (go there for the recipe).  Yay to more cookies!  These are some pretty good cookies!  Oatmeal, chocolate, cinnamon.  Yum.

Here is the dough, all ready to be made into cookies.

Here are the cookies starting their journey to yummy-ness in the oven.

I really like these cookies and they are tasty.  I am pretty sure I added peanut butter to the dough, but I cannot taste it at all.  I love peanut butter so that is very dissapointing to me.  But I do think that they cookies will get eaten, whether we can taste the peaunut butter or not.  🙂

You should go check out the rest of the group’s cookies here.

Next week: Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops.  G is very excited about this one!

Tuesdays with Dorie – Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte

This week’s recipe was chosen by Amy of Food, Family, and Fun (go there for the recipe).  This is something that I would have NEVER made on my own, becuase it seems too fancy.  I have just never made anything fancy.  The original recipe calls for the ice cream layers to have raspberry incorporated.  Since I do not enjoy fruit and chocolate mixed together (I know, I am weird) and I wanted to be able to enjoy this, I went with plain vanilla bean ice cream.

I started the process of making this WAY too late one evening.  I realized that each layer needed to chill in the freezer a while before the next layer could be added, I just apparently can’t do math…  So, at 11 pm, I decided sleep was more important that a pretty torte and lost my patience.  Therefore, my torte is not pretty, but it is yummy!

You can see, I also lost my patience while trying to cut out a slice!  🙂

You can check out the rest of the group’s tortes here.  I am sure most of those are much neater and prettier than mine!

Next week: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters!

Tuesdays with Dorie – Granola Grabbers

This week’s recipe is Granola Grabbers, chosen by Michelle of Bad Girl Baking. I am not a fan of cookies with nuts, raisins, or coconut. Um ya, so that is practically all of the ingredients for the cookies this week. So, why did I make them? Well, I thought that if I was going to join a group, I would participate. And the whole point is to make something each week and to try some things I may not have on my own. So, I decided I would make them. Who knows, I could actually like them, you know?

Here is the mix of granola, nuts, coconut and raisins.

After that mixture is mixed in with the cookie dough. Very dough-less.

Here are the cookies waiting to go in the oven. Ignore the extra cookie on each sheet that is due to my unwillingness to wait for the sheets to cool to put another two sheets in the oven. All or nothing I say!

And out of the oven.

They were easy and fun. And pretty. But I will admit, I don’t like them. My husband says he enjoys them and I will take them to work and my parents, but I am not a fan. I have to say, it was a little dissapointing to take fresh cookies out of the oven and not be excited at all about eating them. I tried one, just to make sure, and it is for sure that I don’t like them. Oh well, still a success, just not for my taste buds. You should go check out the rest of the group to see everyone else’s version.

Next week: Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte! (YUM)

Tuesdays with Dorie – Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

This week, our group is not so much baking, as freezing.  Yum!  Thanks to Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity, I made Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream this week.  It is the first time that I have made ice cream with my new ice cream maker attachment to the Kitchen Aid mixer and it was easy and fun!

First, I cooked the blueberries with the sugar and lime juice and zest.

Pretty, no?  After cooking that down, blending it, and then adding in the dairy, I put it in my ice cream maker.

Here it is about halfway done churning.  Action shot!

Here it is in the maker after I deemed it done churning.  It looks like ice cream, which I was thrilled about.

Overall, I would say that this was a success.  It turned into ice cream at the end, after a few hours in the freezer, which was my only real goal for this recipe.  I am not sure why I was so worried or why I was surprised, but it turned out well.  I do wish that it had more lime flavor than it ended up having, but still, I am happy to eat all of this project over the course of the next few days!

Go see what everyone else made this week!  Next week: Granola Grabbers!

Tuesdays with Dorie – Summer Fruit Galette

This week’s TWD recipe was chosen by Michelle of Michelle from Colorado Springs.  There were many options for the fruit to use, but after arriving at the grocery store and seeing that the plums were on sale, they became my fruit of the moment.

This was a fun recipe to make, but it didn’t quite go as planned…  Let me show you.

Here is the crust after I rolled it out.

I think that this is were the problems began…  Do you see the lighter pieces there?  Ya, that’s the butter…  The recipe said to not be afraid of the butter pieces, and so I decided not to be, even though the recipe for crust that I usually use does not result in polka dotted crust…  But I powered on.

Here is the galette with my plums.

I knew at this point that it was not going to be pretty, but I was okay with that.  It was going to be a little rustic anyway, so I decided not to bother trimming the edge of the crust after I rolled it out.  I didn’t want to waste the buttery goodness!

Well, 10 minutes into baking it, I realized that things weren’t going to be exactly as it should.

It was kind of, well, melting…  But I decided that ugly doesn’t mean non-yummy, so I continued on.

After adding the custard and finishing the baking, it was not the most beautiful baked good I have ever seen…

But, in my defense, it was still yummy.  Even with the custard spilling over the side of the crust and the whole thing being quite a mess…

You should go now to check out what this was supposed to look like from the rest of the group.

But tell me.  What do you think went wrong?  Was it the large butter dots in the crust?  Was it the fact that I skipped the optional 15 minutes in the freezer before I baked it?  Both?  Something else?

I would love for some input…  Teach me.  Share your wisdom.