As easy as Pumpkin Pie

Hallo!Bonjour!¿Cómo está todo a hacer hoy? As you may of heard from my previous blog, I recently had a plight with ants that I just don't want to rehash, so instead let me tell you about the pie that I mentioned. With the Summer coming to an end and corporate America shoving Halloween down our throats now, I woke up this morning and said to myself......UUUGGGHHHHH 5 more minutes!!! But after that, I went outside and the thermometer said it was already 70 degrees and it was only around 7:30 in the morning!! That most likely means that today is either going to be in the mid 80's to low 90's..Of course I'm no meteorologist, I'm just guessing here? But never the less, I went inside and said, hmmmmm what should I do now? OH I know, LET'S BAKE SOMETHING!! Since Halloween is just around the corner (see how I went off topic, but brought it right back around, yeah, you like how I did that right there, don't you) Anyway, I went digging through my cabinets to see what ingredients I had and I decided to make a traditional pumpkin pie. You see when people get stressed out, some eat, some shop, others do....whatever they do...well for me, I bake! So incase you want the recipe, here it is:

3/4

cup sugar

1 1/2

teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I actually put a tsp of ground clover, ginger and cinnamon, incase you don't have the pumpkin spice handy)

1/2

teaspoon salt

1

can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1 1/4

cups evaporated milk or half and half

2

eggs, beaten

1 pie crust (I used the Nabisco graham pie crust, because well....I'm a lazy baker sometimes, so if I could cut down on the prep time, then I'll do it, with *pies only though)

Directions:

First step: Heat oven to 425°F. In large bowl, mix filling ingredients. Pour into pie crust

Second Step: Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F; bake 40 to 50 minutes longer or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool 2 hours. Serve or refrigerate until serving time.

Third Step: Enjoy!  Don't forget to refrigerate any left overs so those DARN ANTS don't get to it!

  Until Next time Beloved.......

Oatmeal Banana Bread Cookie Recipe

Hello my beloved friends around the world! How the heck are you? As for me, I'm doing well, the seasons are finally changing and Baking Season is full on!! So I made these cookies once before and everyone LOVED them, but I never wrote down the recipe, so I had a baking day with my mom the other day and while I was making them, she wrote down all the ingredients and what I did. Now that I have the actual recipe, please feel free to try it and make it your own...Lots of love and until next time!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ginger

 1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 stick butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

3 cups oatmeal

1/4 cup milk

4 mashed riped banana

Optional Ingredients: Chopped walnuts, raisins or anything else you want to add for texture and crunch

Prep time 15 min

Bake time: 15 min

Instructions: 

1. In large bowl mix all dry ingredients first, then add, egg, milk and vanilla. Mix well, then add 3 cups of Oatmeal, use which ever brand you like, doesn't really matter.

2. Mash four bananas in a separate cup. The more ripe the banana the better! The ones I used were pretty much black.

3. Combine and stir with fork until all ingredients are mixed well together.

4. Put baking wax paper on a cookie sheet or simply grease your cookie sheet ( I line them for easier clean up), then With a rounded measuring spoon or tablespoon sized scooper, start to line the cookie sheet with cookie batter

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and once heated, place cookie sheets in for 15 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom. 

6. Take cookies out and let cool for a minute on wire rack. Cookies should be really soft and the consistency between a cookie and bread ( maybe I should call this my banana bread oatmeal cookie recipe instead huh)? Next place on a plate and watch them disappear before your eyes because they are so yummy!

Simple Bread Recipe for beginners

Hello all my beautiful friends around the world, as you may or may not know, my husband and I have been trying to live the simple life, and in these hard times with the Government Shutdown , the economy going down the crapper, etc, etc., we need to do everything we can to save. To continue on with this point, I decided that instead of buying bread every week, I would just bake it at home from scratch, which I think is really saving us a couple of bucks considering how expensive bread is getting. So being a beginner bread maker, I did some extensive research online and found this really easy bread recipe that I thought I would share with you all. As always feel free to make it your own as I did and hope you enjoy:

Prep Time: 3 hours

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp butter or vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup milk ( if your lactose intolerant like me, use Almond Milk)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, approximately

Preparation:

1. In large bowl, add the warm water. Slowly stir in dry yeast. Continue to stir until yeast is dissolved.
2. Add salt, sugar, shortening, and milk to bowl. Stir.
3. Mix in the first 2 cups of flour.
4. If needed, begin adding more flour, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough chases the spoon around the bowl.
5. Turn dough out onto floured board and knead, adding small spoonfuls of flour as needed, until the dough is soft and smooth, not sticky to the touch.
6. Put dough in buttered bowl, turn dough over so that the top of dough is greased with butter. Cover and let rise in warm spot for 1 hour.
7. Punch down dough. Turn out onto floured board and knead.
8. Preheat oven at 375 degrees farenheit.
9. Form dough into loaf and set in buttered bread pan. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.
10. Score dough by cutting three slashes across the top with a sharp knife. Put in oven with foil cover to prevent over browning and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.
11. Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy! I ate mine with olive oil and Balsamic vinegar...yum!

Yummy meatloaf recipe

Hello my beloved, hope your lives are happy and well?! I just made a yummy meatloaf and wanted to share the recipe before I forget what I put in it:

As you all know from my previous blogs, I don't really give precise measurements or ingredients; I guess you can say I'm somewhat of a mad scientist when it comes to cooking or baking in the kitchen? At any rate, I really should of written it down as i went, but heck I was in experimenting mode so it didn't cross my mind until now..oh well, here is more or less what I put in it:

Ingredients:

1 lb of ground beef

1/3 cup of diced white onion or more if you prefer, like I always said, just make it your own

1/3 cup Diced tomato

Little bit of diced jalapeño ( I can't have spice so I put very little, but I think next time I'll try a little more)

Cayenne  pepper

Garlic pepper

Pepper 

Garlic powder

1 egg

Bread crumbs

Serving size: 2-3

Directions: 

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees and while you are waiting for the oven to heat up, grab a bowl and put the pound of ground beef in it, along with one egg and mix it together, I find it best to mix all the ingredients by hand. next add cayenne pepper ( as much as you would like in it), along with the diced tomato, onion, jalapeño, bread crumbs and garlic pepper, again mix with hand and fold all ingredients. Then put all mixed ingredients into a bread pan or whatever oven pan you use. On a side note, I lined my pan with foil for easier clean up and even cooking. Shape your meat batter into the form of a loaf, then add your pepper and garlic powder on top. Oh wait I think once I did this step I ended up mixing those ingredients in the meat as well, so I will leave it to your own judgement on how you want to do it whether to add it with the other ingredients or just sprinkle on top. After you formed your mixed meat into a loaf, cover the top with ketchup. Make sure it's evenly spread on top. After you get your loaf to perfection, pop it into the oven for one hour. After the hour, take it out and drain all the juices that accumulate at the bottom of the pan and check if meat is fully cooked in the middle. If all is good, cool for a minute and enjoy. Or if you are like me and like to over cook to make sure your meat is actually dead, then after you drain it, pop it back into the over for another 15 minutes and voila you will have the most yummiest meatloaf!!! I couldn't stop eating it and my husband wasn't even hungry, but he inhaled his portion..the below is a picture of the finished product or at least what was left of it.....until next time my beloved

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