My munchkin in the Fall

I haven't posted any photos of the munchkin in a while so I thought I'd post a few today. We were outside the other day playing in the leaves and I got a few shots of her. She is growing SO tall! She is becoming such a big girl now. It's so crazy to hear her use all kinds of gibberish words, a few small phrases and understand mostly what we are saying.

And yes, she still looks like her daddy. ;o)

Holiday Party Planning 2011

It's that time of year again! Christmas fever is in full force and I have some helpful projects to make your holiday beautiful.

Check out these DIY holiday projects via In Style. These are some great ideas for a stress free holiday.

Cider Smash

I wanted a signature drink for our family this holiday, so I decided to make the Cider Smash. What a hot little number this was! I think this is definitely going down in the books as our drink tradition!


Here's the hook up on the ingredients if you're up for some SMASH.


• 2 ounces bourbon
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 4 ounces chilled sparkling apple cider
• Thin red-apple slice

Directions
1. Pour bourbon and lemon juice into a tall Champagne glass.
2. Top with apple cider. Garnish with apple slice.
3. Sit there and look cool holding your delicious drink.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

If you know me, I mean REALLY know me, you are aware that I am a person who does not enjoy pie. Weird, I know, but I'm just not really a fan. For some reason I can eat chocolate mouse pie, but that's about it. I really want to enjoy pumpkin pie to it's fullest over the Thanksgiving holiday, but I think it's the texture that gets me.

Since I'm weary of the pumpkin pie, I decided to try out some Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes to take to a Friendsgiving last weekend. Everyone loved them and OMGeee so did I! It tasted like a cupcake and not all squishy in my mouth. It's a definite try for the holiday. I'm so happy over it, I've shared the recipe below.

Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday... and all your squishy pies!


Ingredients:

2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup half and half

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper or silicone liners. *If using paper liners, lightly coat them with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.

In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and half and half until well combined.

Add in dry ingredients and whisk until no streaks of flour remain and batter is smooth.

Distribute batter evenly in the muffin tin. (they should be about 3/4 of the way full.)

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan. (They will sink as they are cooling.)

Chill cupcakes before serving. Top with lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Makes 12


Notes about the Recipe:
If you have silicone baking cups this is the time to use them. If not, lightly spray the inside of your cupcake liners with cooking spray. This will make the cupcakes come out nice and easily. If you don't do this you may end up scraping the delicious filling out of the liner with a spoon.

Don't be alarmed that these babies sink a bit after coming out of the oven. A dollop of fresh whipped cream fits perfectly into the sunken center!

You've Been Boo'd!

I'm a little late on this post, but I didn't want my Boo-ee (if that's a word) to see who got them. This was the first year that I have ever participated in being "Boo'd." I'd never heard of it before, so it was really fun to be able to be a part of the "boo'ing with friends. I hear it's a popular game amongst neighbors.

How it works:

A Boo-Gram is a mysterious note you leave on a neighbors door, usually with some kind of treat for the kids in the family, or for everyone. We did it for the moms in our group. You leave a large Boo! sign with the note and your gift. Some people use a ghost or other decoration to designate the Boo. The sign or decoration tells other neighbors that this house has already been hit. If people participate, by Halloween you'll see Boo's lining up and down the street on all the doors in the neighborhood!

You choose whatever you want to give for treats. They usually vary from small candy to a small coffee mug to hand towels and magazines for Mom. To keep the chain going, when you get Boo'd, you need to Boo one or two other neighbors.


Anyway, here is what I put together for my friend.

I called it the Holiday Cupcake Kit. Since cupcakes are all the rage these days, I thought it would be fun to give my friend some must haves for baking some awesome Christmas cupcakes. In the box contained cupcake liners, sprinkles, cupcake toppers and I also added in some cookie cutters and cute sticky gift tags for presents.

Final product:

This totaled to be around $12 when all said and done. Pretty good since our budget was $10 to $15.

Happy Boo'ing! And Happy 11-11-11! Whatever that means.  ;o)




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Cowgirl Cookies

Last weekend it was my husband's, brother-in-laws, girlfriends birthday. Did ya get that? haha.. She wanted to go to the Saddle Rack to celebrate, so when I saw these a few months back via Pinterest, I had to try them out. I got all the supplies back in July, so I have been DYING to put these together. They pretty much came out just like the ones I found on Pinterest. They were worth the wait! Love them!