Love Brownies

Ok, I know I've totally slacked off on posting. My lame-o excuse #1 is that I cook and bake in the evenings and during the winter the light is non-existent. The lighting in my kitchen is terrible to cook by, forget about photography! That's my biggest excuse coupled with other even lamer excuses (such as "I forgot to take pictures of what I just made," "My kitchen is a mess, there's no way I'm taking pictures right now," "I've posted about this already, I'm in such a food rut," or my favorite, "Cooking? Forget it, I'm taking a nap."

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Last Saturday, I needed to get out of the house. Like, really. My husband rarely understands this need since he's hardly ever home during the week. But since I hardly ever leave the house, except for trips to and from the school, on weekends I gotta get out. I talk and beg and sometimes I can get him to come out with me. This weekend was a total fail on that front. 

Pumpkin Muffins

You know how I blogged over at The Lunch Diva? 

Well, I got this recipe from her site. It's so easy. So ridiculously easy.

And let's call a spade a spade here:

these are really cupcakes.

But feel free to call them muffins if it makes you feel good. Serve them with cream cheese frosting and feel really good until you step on the scale.

Advice: don't step on the scale.

Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

Question:
What do you do when you accidentally buy the jumbo chocolate chips at the grocery store?

Answer:

Make jumbo chocolate chip cookies, of course!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream

I'm a little sad as I type this blog post. I'm about to show you a recipe that is so delicious, so ridiculously bad, and so easy that I will understand if we can't be friends anymore. Really. Because I'm the woman responsible for giving you the recipe that will destroy any shred of self control.

Sorry.

Nice Cream Pie

I made this ice cream pie for my husband's family a couple of weeks ago. Despite its simplicity, they raved about it, so I decided to make it again when my stepkids were around so they could enjoy it too. I don't remember why, but on that day we were all just snippy with one another. No major fighting or anything, but the kids kept getting annoyed with each other, Gary and I kept getting annoyed with each other, and we kept getting annoyed with the kids. All around, everyone was annoyed.

I had whipped this simple dessert up the day before and was prepared to serve it that night. Before I served it though, I told everyone who wanted a piece that they must say something nice about everyone at the table. Josh went first, and, thinking hard, came up with something nice to say about everyone. Then around the table we went, including little Sophia. So this dessert was dubbed Nice Cream Pie by our family, and I think it's a tradition we'll stick with. When I make this pie, you better have nice things to say if you want a piece! (Oh, and it was amazing what a transformation our family went through... the snippiness ended and everyone was happy and laughing by the end of dessert. And I'm sure the sugar rush had nothing to do with that!)

Almost Oreo Cookies

For Christmas, I asked for Lion House's new cookbook, Lion House Bakery.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Streusal Bars

Whew! That's quite the name, isn't it? Well, it's also quite the dessert, and I can't see how you could possible shorten the name. They're not plain ol' pumpkin bars, not these fellows. And it certainly isn't pumpkin cheesecake... So the name sticks for now, but it doesn't matter. You're going to forget all about the silly name the second you bite into these suckers.