Weekly Winners : Oct 23-29 2011

All Shots taken with my Canon Rebel xsi

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I've been MIA the last week-in-a-half.  Between a brother coming home from Japan to visit (I hadn't seen in 19 months), and my Sister getting married, our lives were filled with family.

I do however want to post a pic or two from last week; my Sister's wedding day was gorgeous & all in all, it was a fantastic day :)

Two of the best looking boys you could ever find.

Michelle & Derek coming out....two of the most giddy-est people & rightfully so.

My Sister & My Dad during their dance

My Cousin got some tickets to the BYU game; it was a blast to watch BYU trample Idaho State.

The leaves are falling

Why not jump in them ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Tasty Kitchen Review : Salt & Vinegar Crusted Chicken

As I was browsing through recipes, this stood out......I mean, stood out.  Covering chicken {well cod in the recipe's case} with Salt & Vinegar chips....come on.

This was a very simple recipe to put together.  Mayo, some S&P, and the crushed chips...how simple is that?  And this baked up in no time flat. Especially since I used thinly sliced chicken tenders.

This was a very delicious & moist chicken.  Madi gobbled up the chicken {she's been playing vegetarian lately}.  Jaxson gobbled up the chicken......took forever to eat his green beans, but he sure ate that chicken quickly.  I had no leftovers, so that made my Fridge & I very happy.

So if you would like the recipe, click on over to here & try it out!

Enjoy!

 

Weekly Winners : October 9-15, 2011

-All shots taken with my Canon Rebel xsi-

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To conclude all things Pumpkin, I made this Pumpkin Roll.  Best dessert I've had all week.

One of the Junior Highs in our school district was doing a week-long preschool class & Madi got to participate.  She was so stinkin cute in her spiderman backpack.

Madi & Mommy

Jaxs probably had the best soccer game ever, scoring 6 goals!!!  He got so excited running down towards the net.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pumpkin Week 2011 : Desserts

Today, we're focusing on Pumpkin desserts.......well I should say dessert, since I was only able to make one of the things that I wanted too.  Oh well....I'll also show you want I wanted to make {and maybe I still will in the future}.

First,

Paula Deens Pumpkin Roll

{Recipe found Here}

October's Issue of the Food Network magazine contained this recipe inside.  In fact, it was probably the magazines fault for me wanting to make/try so many recipes.  My in-laws make a pumpkin roll around Thanksgiving/Christmas, but I never partake because it is too rich {all that cream cheese}.  I liked Paula's idea of using whipping cream, and heck, the toffee bits sounded delicious as well.

This was the first time I've ever made a "jelly" roll.  But everything went smoothly, especially since I didn't have parchment paper {I used wax paper though}.  We also skipped the rum part.  But I did substitute vanilla & rum extract when it came to dissolving the gelatin.  It worked, so I'm not complaining.  Also, the store didn't have just plain toffee parts, so guess what I used???  SKOR bars.  Holy Cow...that took it over the edge.

Carmel Sauce also took it over the edge.  This dessert for sure has the name "YUMMO" attached to the end of it :)

Here are some of the desserts that I wanted to try:

Pumpkin Mousse Parfaits

{Recipe found Here}

Frozen Spiced Pumpkin & Chocolate Pie

{Recipe found Here}

Cheesecake Caramel Pumpkin Cups

{Recipe found Here}

Pumpkin Filled Cannoli Cones

{Recipe found Here}

Thanks for stopping by :)

Pumpkin Week 2011 : Savory Foods

Welcome to the Savory edition of my Pumpkin Week!

Today, it's all about the savory side of Pumpkin.  I've only experience sweet treats when it comes to Pumpkin, so this was totally new to me.  In fact, my husband was a little leery when I started looking up dishes that would be main courses.

First up,

Pumpkin Stuffed Shells

{Recipe found Here}

Oh my gosh....this was delicious.  And the consensus was....we couldn't tell that it was pumpkin.  Whether or not that's a good thing, I don't know.  And as you can tell, I used Manicotti shells instead of the big pasta shells {the store was all out when I went shopping}.  The filling was super easy to make, and I used a pastry bag to fill each shell up {which made it super easy}.

I also thought that this would be super yummy with an Alfredo sauce.....I might have to try it that way :)

Next,

Pumpkin Curry Alfredo

{Recipe found here}

Holy Cow!  This was definitely a YUMMO dish :)  Although, again, we couldn't taste the pumpkin, but we so enjoyed the curry flavoring.

I think one of my favorite aspects of this dish was that I threw all the Alfredo ingredients into a pot & let it all melt together....no worrying about a roux and such.

One thing that I particularly didn't like was the fact that I had to use 3 different dishes to cook everything.  If you've seen my kitchen, it's not that big, and when cooking I like to try and keep everything minimal {that's why I like one pot dishes}.  My husband was very kind though, and told me before dinner that he would wash dishes, so I guess it made it just a little bit better to dirty-up those few extra dishes.

There were things that I did different though:

• I halved the Alfredo sauce.  When I was reading through the recipe, the author had said that they had sauce leftover; I really didn't want that.
• I used an Italian blend cheese, instead of just Parmesan cheese.
• To thin out the sauce, I used some pasta water until I got the consistency that I wanted.
• I also halved the pumpkin sauce, except for the curry....my family loves the taste.
• Even though I halved the sauce ingredients, I still used a full box/lb of pasta, and it worked out fine.  Maybe a little bit too fine because we had no leftovers :)
  
  

And that was all the savory dishes that we tried, and really isn't that scary I guess.

Pumpkin Week 2011 : Pumpkin Pies

Welcome to the Pie edition of Pumpkin Week

I think one of the first things we think about when it come to treats & pumpkins is pie.  It's one of my favorite pies, especially around the holidays.  And you have to have cream on top.  That is a definite must.

First,

Pumpkin Streusel Pie

{Recipe found here}

This was a pie that I made last year for Canadian Thanksgiving.  I mean....streusel & pumpkin....you can't go wrong with that :)

Second,

Pumpkin Pie Bites

I was in the mood for some Pumpkin Pie {since I had been baking with alot of pumpkin lately}, but I didn't want to make a whole pie I guess, just to feel guilty about eating the whole thing.

So I got out my trusty food processor, and ground up some graham crackers.  Combine that with some melted butter, and I had a nice little crust.  I used my muffin pan to make these little beauties.

And with the pie filling part, I just follwed the recipe on the can...you can't go wrong with that.

I didn't cook the crusts beforehand, because I figured they would be in the oven long enough.

When these little pies came out, and cooled, I was able to eat it with my hands....Awesome!  What a nice little snack :)

Pumpkin Week 2011 : Breakfast Foods

Welcome to the Breakfast edition of Pumpkin week.

Again I went trolling around the internet to find some yummy recipes.  One of the first recipes I immediately pinned was a recipe I remembered being made on MADE.  So I clicked on over to the recipe, and I loved the simplicity.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

{Recipe found Here}

These were probably some of the best tasting cinnamon rolls I've ever made.  No joke.  I think one of the best things was the filling that came out and created a sort-of caramel sauce on the bottom of the cinnamon rolls.  Pumpkin, Cream Cheese Frosting, and Caramel.....Yes please!

Pumpkin-Cranberry Crunch Muffins

{Recipe found Here}

Pumpkin Scones

{Recipe found Here}

These were very delicious.  I really should make scones more often; I love these traditional treats as opposed to the fried version.

This recipe used two different types of glazes, but I would probably only do one...the spiced up version was all that mattered to me.