Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin. Pumpkin. Pumpkin.

         Friday was my Birthday! One of the things that I really wanted was a loaf pan! For some reason, I've never owned one. Casey got me two awesome non-stick ones. So, today I decided that I needed to make some kind of bread. Of course, I chose Pumpkin Bread. I've never made it before and I'm pretty sure I've never even had pumpkin bread! But it sounded good so I gave it a shot!

Kristen's Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup Canola Oil

2 2/3 Cups Granulated Sugar

4 Large Eggs

15 oz can of Pumpkin Puree

2/3 Cup of Water

3 1/3 Cups of All-Purpose Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

2 Teaspoons Baking Soda

1 1/2 Teaspoons of Salt

1 Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine oil, sugar, eggs, pumpkin and water. Beat until smooth
3. Once mixture is smooth, add everything else and then stir together. Make sure you stir here and not beat.
4. I used two 9 x 5 in. loaf pans. I filled the pans about half full of the mixture. 
5. Place in the oven and bake for 50-70 minutes. Check on it at around 40 minutes will a tooth pick. Just make sure there is no unbaked mixture sitting on top. That might happen.
6. Once the bread is fully cooked, let cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Parmesan Garlic Asparagus

Casey makes the best chicken in the world! It's his hidden talent! Tonight, he made zesty herb chicken...AMAZING! I wanted to add something new to plate and asparagus is one of my favorites! Sometimes when you don't put asparagus on the grill, it's not as good. So, I tried this recipe that roasted it perfectly. Parmesan and garlic add the right amount of flavor to this side dish. I will be making this again!

Ingredients:
Olive Oil
About 20 Asparagus
2 tablespoons of Garlic (I use minced)
2 tablespoons of Parmesan Cheese (I used more because I love cheese)

First, place the biggest frying pan you have on the oven at a little above medium heat. Once it feels hot, add a couple splashes of olive oil, or however much you think you need. Put asparagus in the pan and spread them out, so all are laying flat on the pan. You can either let them sit there for two minutes or you can cover the pan for two minutes. After the two minutes are up, throw the garlic and Parmesan cheese in there and toss the asparagus in it. Let the asparagus cook until dark green and the garlic is a darker shade of beige. When I got ready to serve it, I put a little more cheese on it! Now, ENJOY!

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

"If you stand in front of a mirror and say 'pumpkin spice latte' three times, a white girl will appear and tell you everything she loves about fall." That is a joke Casey told me today. He said it instantly reminded him of me. Which does not surprise me cause I love Fall!! Pumpkin everything!! My mom emailed me a recipe for pumpkin cake, that called for one box of yellow cake mix and a can of pumpkin puree. We don't really like cake around here, so I took that recipe, made it my own and made 18 delicious cupcakes!

Ingredients:

1 box of Spice Cake Mix

1 can of Pumpkin Puree

3 Eggs

1/3 cup Vegetable/Canola Oil

1/3 cup water

Optional:

Cream Cheese Frosting

Cinnamon 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees!

First, blend Cake Mix, Puree, Eggs, Oil and Water with a beater until well blended. The mixture smells so good and takes just like Pumpkin Pie!

Next, take a cupcake pan and put your liners in it. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.

Place in oven and bake for 15-18 minutes! Check at 15!

They are really awesome looking when you take them out of the oven. Allow them to cool, then frost them with the cream cheese frosting. You can either sprinkle the cinnamon over the cream cheese or you can mix the cinnamon into the container. Either way, it comes out delicious and moist! I guess all this just proves how much of a white girl I am!

Crockpot Potato Bacon Soup

 Today was 90 degrees out but that did not stop me from making soup! Casey and I love soup! We always bring Campbell's Chunky soup to work for lunch. For awhile now I have been wanting to make soup. I've always been a little nervous about it though. Since I am determined for Summer to end and Fall to start, I decided to just find a recipe, get the ingredients and make my own soup!We even turned the AC up so it felt right eating warm soup!

Ingredients:
1 Bag of Ore-Ida frozen shredded hash browns
1/2 a onion chopped up in little pieces
3 cans of chicken broth
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper
1 8 oz package of Cream Cheese

Optional:
Bacon...lots of it!
Shredded Cheese
Seasoning Salt of your choice. I used Red Robin's seasoning salt.


First, get your crockpot out! Put hash browns, onion, broth, cream of chicken soup and pepper in the crockpot. I used a little bit more pepper than just 1/4 teaspoon and used a little more than 1/4 teaspoon of my seasoning salt. It made the soup turn out a little spicy and extra flavorful! Next, turn the crockpot on and let cook for 6-8 hours. I started it at noon and ended up eating around 6:30pm. At this point your soup will look and smell like Chicken Noodle Soup.

Yes my crockpot was filled to the top!

On the 5th hour, take your cream cheese and put it in a bowl. Microwave it for about 25 seconds or until it is just starting to melt. Then ladle at least two scoops of the soup into the bowl. Use a whisk and mix until the cream cheese is well blended with the soup and there is no cream cheese chunks! Take that mixture and pour it all back into the crockpot and mix around! Cream cheese is what makes your soup creamy. Continue cooking the soup. If adding bacon to the soup, start cooking it and chop it into small pieces. About fifteen minutes before turning the crockpot off, throw the bacon in there. 

The final result!

After you dish up your soup, add some shredded cheese, more bacon and saltines! Then enjoy the most delicious soup! We really loved this soup! So much! It even left us with a bunch of leftovers that we can bring to work. This is at the top of our dinner list now!

Fall Oreo Mini Cheesecakes

                                                           IT'S FALL!!!!

My first post!! So of course I had to make it something fall related! Everyone who knows me, knows that I love fall. So many great things happen in the fall. Leaves change, pumpkins, corn mazes, crisp air, apples, Halloween and pumpkin spice lattes! I even wore boots and a cardigan yesterday! Two big events happen during the fall in the Larsen/Homan household, especially this year, it's Casey and my 21st Birthdays!! Our problem is Casey turns 21 twelve days before me, which doesn't leave him a lot to do on his birthday since I can't go to any bars. I keep trying to throw ideas out for things we can do, like have a party at our apartment (alcohol included), but he doesn't want to do that. He doesn't seem to want to do much, which kills me because all I want to do is plan parties! So, all I can do is make the day as special as possible for him. I already know that I will be making his favorite strawberry cupcakes for him, but Casey's favorite dessert is cheesecake. I've tried making cheesecake before and it turned out like cheesecake pudding. It's really the only thing I do not feel comfortable making. Yesterday I decided to try making it again but using a different recipe. A recipe geared more towards fall! I wanted to try this recipe out hoping it would taste wonderful and I could make it again for Casey's birthday. After letting it chill over night, I gave one to Casey and after a couple bites, he turned to me and said, "This is incredible!" And now I am comfortable making cheesecake!

Ingredients:

16 oz Cream Cheese (I ended up having to buy two 8 oz packages)

1/2 cup Sour Cream (I used light sour cream)

1/2 cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

A package of Halloween Oreos 

Materials needed:

Mixing Bowl

Beater

Muffin Pan

Cupcake Liners

Plastic Baggie

Rolling Pin

Red and Orange Food Coloring

First, Preheat the oven to 250 or 275. I have to do mine at 250 because my oven is old and seems to be off so I always decrease the degree by 25. 

In the mixing bowl place all the cream cheese in there then beat on medium. Cream cheese is not a fun thing to mix. 

This is how the cream cheese looks after mixing.

Next, add the sugar and beat on medium again until well blended. Then, add the eggs and vanilla, beat until blended. Finally, add the sour cream and blend again. The mixture should be a lot smoother now! 

Add food coloring to the mixture until it becomes the perfect orange color! Think Pumpkin! Take the plastic baggie and place about 5 or 6 Oreos in there. Close the baggie and place on a smooth surface. Roll the rolling pin over it and crush the cookies until there is just crumbs! Add the cookies to the mixture and stir it.

Take your muffin pan and put the liners in. Add an Oreo to the bottom of each liner. My mixture made about 17 mini cheesecakes.

Fill each liner with the mixture. Because cheesecake does not rise you can almost fill the entire thing to the top.

Put in oven and bake for 22 minutes! I put both pans in the oven and switched racks halfway through.

After it is done baking, take the pans out, let them cool then place in the refrigerator to chill over night. If you can not wait over night, let them chill until they feel very cold.

VIOLA! The perfect most delicious mini cheesecake!