Pumpkin Pancakes

My super wonderful awesome friend Abby came to visit this past weekend and we sure did have a blast. Abby came down from North Carolina and then we found out that Lindsey's (my roommate) sister, Sydney and her boyfriend Tyler would be coming up from Florida to visit for the weekend. It sure was a fun and busy weekend. I decided that on Saturday morning I would cook a nice breakfast for everyone before we all set out on different adventures.

The Fall weather is finally in full effect here and it is getting colder and colder every day! I decided that I would make some Pumpkin Pancakes which also happens to be on my Fall Baking List!!

Dry Ingredients:
2cup flour
3 Tbs brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
2 Tbs vegetable oil
2 Tbs vinegar
In one bowl mix together all of the wet ingredients....mine happened to look like it had eyes when I put them all in the bowl.

 

Then in another bowl mix together all of the dry ingredients.

After you have both mixed together, stir in the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until it has a wet consistency which will look like pancake mix.

Then heat your lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat.

Using a 1/4 cup pour the batter onto the pan or griddle, the batter is a little bit more thick then some pancake batter but it's ok I promise!

After about 1-2 minutes you can flip the pancakes and cook them again. I like to use a lower setting and cook them longer to keep them from burning. They get a nice brown on each side and the house will smell pretty good.

I got about 12-15 pancakes out of my batch and we had some left over so we put them in the fridge and Lindsey's boyfriend ate them as left overs the next day.

They were delicious and a welcomed part of the big breakfast that we had.

Orange juice, bacon, cheesy eggs, fruit, and pumpkin pancakes with syrup...my mouth is watering and it's lunch time right now haha.

I will hopefully be posting again later today on my super fun weekend with Abby.

Have a great Monday!

Jenny

So What Wednesday!

So What If I....


Not a fan that for the third time this week I came to work with a kid still at home, two days of sickness was ok, this third one...come on now.

Am forcing everyone I am buying Christmas presents for to tell me what they want, I got to get ahead of the game!

Had spaghettios and grilled cheese for lunch two days in a row, the kiddos are sick and that's what they wanted, I'm just trying to get in the spirit.

I haven't made that much more from my Fall Baking List, I recently made this pie last week so that counts right?

 

• Am a tad bit upset that I want the Iphone 5s in Gold but it is on back order for 8 weeks for Sprint.... maybe I'll just have to settle for the silver phone. (And I know I know that it wont matter because you're just going to put a case on it. Hello my name is Jenny, and I like my phone to be naked [insert gasp])

• Am wayyyy over excited that one of my best friends and the girl I mentored from college is coming into town tomorrow. Abby is probably one of my most favorite people and is doing her thing in Seminary but is going to take a break out of her busy life to come and get her Southern Girl on with me at the Country Living Fair.

                                               

• And on that note I am definitely going to have some good cash money (because of a recent answer to prayer) that I plan on spending on old antiques and stuff. Gotta keep up my grandma reputation.

 

• I got around to making this cute blanket for my nephew James with the help of this fantastic tutorial that you can find here from Happy Together. I can't wait to send it to him for Christmas.

 

• Am freaking out over this photo I posted on Instragram a couple days ago... come December it's gonna get a little crazy in my life. Orlando, Florida. Phoenix, Arizona. and Beaver Creek, Colorado?? I think I'll manage :) 

 

It's hump day and bible study day and now only one sleep till my Abby arrives. And I only have 4 more hours or less of work!

Jenny

 

 

Happy Heart Apple Pie

So as we all know, I bake a good bit. It seems to be my thing. I also tend to know a good bit about running a house, could be that my mom was a fantastic homemaker or I just read a lot of magazines. It never really realized to me how what I thought was simple knowledge is not necessarily so to others around me.

My friend Kristi and I took a trip up to the orchards last weekend to pick some apples. We walked around and picked apples. I am a chatter box as well I just keep talking and talking about random stuff I know. I went on and on about how you want Granny Smith or Golden Delicious to make an apple pie as opposed to Red Delicious which aren't firm enough to hold up in baking and so they need to be used for applesauce. Luckily Kristi is the best and had no problem at all listening to me ramble on and on about this.

As we were picking apples she asked if I would teach her how to make an apple pie and I jumped at the opportunity to say yes, because I just love when people want to learn to do something I love myself. We decided to meet on a Tuesday with our fresh picked apples and I would teach her the tricks and trades.

She came over and I had already made my pie crust which is soooo easy!

Basically

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Sticks of butter
1/4 cup water

Mix the flour and the salt together in a bowl.
Then I use a pastry cutter and cut in the butter...or honestly you can use a fork and then your fingers to make sure that it is mixed in.
Lastly add in the water and mix it all together so that it forms a ball. Then cut it in half. (If you choose to use it at a later time just wrap it in Saran wrap and put it in the fridge till your ready to use it) Flour a surface and I like to flour my rolling pin. Then roll out the dough to be as flat as you can and so that it's round enough to fill in the pie pan. Using the pin transfer your dough from the counter to the pan and press it into all of the creases using your fingers to fill in everything. If you have extra dough coming over the sides you can cut it off and toss it or keep it around and see how I use it later.

It's a little blurry but here is Kristi pressing in her pie crust and then of course Milo who hung around in the kitchen with us the whole time.

Then comes to fun part, pie filling time!

I used the recipe for a Dutch Apple Pie from Happy Hour Projects.

4 Medium-Large Apples

½ c. sugar

¼ c. brown sugar

3 Tbsp. flour

¾ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

 

Topping:

 

¾ c. flour

⅓ c. softened butter (not melted)

¼ c. sugar

¼ c. brown sugar

½ tsp. cinnamon

 

Oven set to 357

Take some Golden Delicious or Granny Smith or any other firm apple (in my opinion Golden Delicious make the best pies). You do not want to use Red Delicious they will just turn to mush and not hold their apple slice shapes that you want.
You will want to peel, core, and slice the apples. I own a gadget that does all three of these and I was so excited showing and using it with Kristi that I forgot to take a picture. The gadget cuts a lot of time so if you do it by hand this will be the longest step.

After you have all your apples sliced up place them in a large bowl.

In a smaller bowl mix together all the rest of the ingredients for the pie filling.

 

After all those ingredients are mixed pour them over the apples and mix them all together so that the apples are well and covered all over.

After all your apples look nice and covered them, pour the entire bowl into your pie crust and make sure that they sit evenly.

Then you can use the same small bowl or a new one, up to you and mix together everything but the butter for the topping. Then cut in the butter and it will resemble wet sand.

Then take a handful and bunch it together in your hand then crumble it all over your pie so that everything is covered.

You can take your extra dough and cut out cute shapes or anything else you want and just lay it on top of the crumble. I decided to use a bunch of little circles and make a heart.

 

Place your pie on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil to catch any juice that might bubble over. Place the pie in the oven for about 45-55 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

 

Kristi made hers with a cute apple decal on the top of her pie, how cute!

You want to let it cool completely for a couple of hours so that it can set, if you cut in too early it will be very juicy and will fall apart. We didn't wait haha, but that's ok it was still good, presentation was not what we were going for. Top it off with some ice cream and you are all set.

All in all it was sooo delicious and so much fun to make with my friend. So glad she wanted to come over and learn.

Tonight I am making a football blanket that has been circulating Pinterest for my nephew for Christmas, hopefully I will be posting that tomorrow.

For now, go get some apples and make you a pie!

Jenny

Don't forget to check out my other posts on my Fall Baking List!

When the Kids come out to Play

My kiddos were out of school for two days for Columbus Day and a teacher work day. It has been a couple months since the kids have started school and I have had the opportunity to hang out with them. I forgot how much I love them as well as how exhausted I get when I spend 10 hours a day with them.

The week before the days off we discussed what we wanted to do so that we weren't spending hours in the morning fighting over what we were going to do. I love fall. That's no surprise at all. I thought it would be fun to take them up to the apple orchards and pick apples since it was something they have never been before. The kids were really excited and I knew it would be a good day.

On Monday I got to work and the kids were excited and ready to go apple picking. Their mom mentioned that we could go and get some pumpkins too. We ended up going to a pumpkin farm first which was about an hour away. Burt's Pumpkin Patch is a really cute place that is in the North Georgia Mountains. They have pumpkins set up everywhere and hay rides and anything you can possibly imagine. The kids loved it and we picked out sooo many pumpkins.

Luckily from there the Apple Orchard was only 15 minutes away. We went to BJ Reece's Apple Orchard which is in Ellijay, Georgia. It is a beautiful orchard that sits on some really nice hills so the views are breathtaking. The line to get in the orchard was forever long and I am amazed my kids were pretty patient while waiting. We got inside and the orchard was pretty empty as you could tell most people had already gone through the front and middle sections. Eventually we made our way to the very back and found some apples to pick. The kids had a great time!

 

 

It was a fun filled day and at the end of it I thought I was going to pass out from being so exhausted but I forgot how much I love hanging out with these goobers. I also realized how big they are continuing to get. Their mom and I really noticed it in these pictures and its crazy for sure.

 

The next day, Tuesday, we spent the majority of our day at Toys R Us and the mall spending allowance money that has just been racking up. So a good bit of money later we ended up with a number of new toys. Then we came home to carve pumpkins.

This took about 2 hours but it was worth every moment because it was the kids first time ever carving pumpkins and they loved being able to do most of it themselves. W is a little funny about stuff being on his hands so he just used a spoon and got about 4 seeds out, but luckily with two sisters and a Jenny we had his back.

 

 

 

Fun days out of school with my kids, and it reminds how much I love my job!

 

Jenny