Category: Desserts

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” ~ Albert Camus

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Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin!!!

When did the world become so pumpkin obsessed??

Didn’t it start with Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, now know as the PSL?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not knocking it. Not at all. I’m sitting right in the middle of that bandwagon.

I think a lot of it has to do with how much more people seem to enjoy and want to celebrate the fall season. I say more power to them! I love the fall and I’m glad it is getting the recognition it deserves!

So here is my contribution to the pumpkin craze.

Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Caramel Drizzle

(adapted from Chef in Training)

For the cake:

  • 1¼ cups sugar
  • ⅓ cup canola oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 (15 oz). can pumpkin
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2¼ teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon salt

For the drizzle:

  • 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla

For the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, pumpkin and sour cream in a large mixing bowl. Add flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt and stir in to combine. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.

Bake for around 50 minutes at 350 degrees F. Test it with a wooden pick to see if it comes out clean. Invert cake onto a cooling rack.

For the Caramel Drizzle:

Heat milk and brown sugar in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from stove and add butter and vanilla. Cool for five minutes and drizzle over cooled cake.

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-abp

“I would have been in bed an hour ago, if only I could find the bottom of this Pinterest page….” ~ unknown

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I love Halloween! I think it is the most fun Holiday other than Christmas. The retail world has caught on to this as well and OH! the fun things you can find to make and to decorate!!

And Pinterest has taken it to the next level.

It makes my head spin.

But today, I am just going to do a Halloween classic. You can never go wrong with a classic. 🙂

Caramel Apples

  • 50 pieces of caramel, unwrapped
  • 4 popsicle sticks
  • 4 medium sized apples
  • 2 Tablespoons of evaporated milk

Wash and dry apples and insert popsicle stick into the core of each apple.

Place caramel and evaporated milk into a 1 quart microwavable bowl. Microwave on high, stirring frequently until smooth. (around 3 minutes)

Dip apples in caramel mixture and use a spoon to help coat.

Place on waxed paper until caramel sets.

The fun part is you can do a number of different things with your apples. You can roll them in nuts, crushed cookies, etc while the caramel is still wet or you can do like I did and decorate after the caramel has set.

So much fun and so easy!!

CA

The great thing about these are how versatile they can be. I know they are traditionally Halloween items but you can decorate them to suit any occasion.  They also bag up well and make great gifts!

bagsHappy Fall Y’all!

-abp

“Poetry and music are very good friends. Like mommies and daddies and strawberries and cream – they go together.” ~ Nikki Giovanni

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Just because I have started to try and eat healthier most of the time doesn’t mean I have stopped making yummy desserts!

I will never give up desserts and I’m sorry, these low cal/low fat so-called desserts (i.e. greek yogurt with honey and strawberries) just does not cut it!

Granted, one way I do cut a few calories with this dessert is to have frozen vanilla yogurt instead of real ice cream. (I prefer Mayfield)

I honestly can’t tell much of a difference.

Strawberry Cobbler

(adapted from my friend Ann Dunn of Cullman, AL)

  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 cup self rising flour
  • 1 ½ cup sugar (divided)
  • 1 cup milk
  • 3 cups strawberries, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°.

Melt butter in a 2 quart casserole dish (I just put the butter in the pan and place in the oven while it preheats – but don’t let it start to bubble).

Mix flour, milk and 1 cup of sugar in a bowl and pour on top of melted butter.

In a separate bowl, toss strawberries with lemon juice and then mix in ½ cup sugar.

Pour strawberries over flour mixture.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

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Oh my. This is slap ‘yo mama good!!
-abp

“New Orleans is like the bad-kid island in ‘Pinocchio.'” ~ Jonah Hill

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Happy Fat Tuesday!!

I have never experienced Mardi Gras but it is definitely on my bucket list.  I will probably start off a little easy by trying out the Mobile Mardi Gras then one day hit up the big shebang in New Orleans.

So, since I’m not there I thought I would have a little Mardi Gras (minus the beads) celebration here at home with Jambalaya and mini King Cakes.

Mini-King Cakes

(adapted from the Chew)

Cakes

  • 1 refrigerated pizza dough
  • 4 tablespoons Butter (melted; plus more for brushing)
  • 1/3 cup Granulated Sugar
  • 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon Lemon zest
  • 1/3 teaspoon Salt

Frosting

  • 1½ cup powdered sugar
  • 6 tsp milk (may need more to get right consistency)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • yellow, green and purple colored sugar

Preheat oven to 350º and grease an 8-10 inch cake pan.

Combine sugars, cinnamon, lemon zest and salt by smashing together with fingers.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar mixture.

Roll dough lengthwise to form a log and cut into 1½ inch pieces and place cut side down on to prepared cake pan. Brush cakes with melted butter.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown but not crispy.

While cooking, mix together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla.

When cakes are cooled slightly, flip onto an inverted plate, frost and sprinkle with colored sugar.

These would be great anytime of the year – just change up the color of the sugar to match the season or occasion.

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-abp

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“The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.” ~ Blaise Pascal

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I really love Valentine’s Day!

It’s a fun low pressure holiday that has great decorations and great goodies.

Pink, red and white go so well together!

I can still remember the excitement of making your white paper bag Valentine’s holder in elementary school and taking forever at the store trying to decide which box of cards you would be distributing.

A favorite of many were the cards that had the heart-shaped sucker attached. Remember those??

Because of my fondness for V-Day, I couldn’t wait until the 1st day of February to try a pink themed treat so I got a head start on this cold January day.

Strawberry Cake Cookies

(adapted from Taste and Tell)

  • 1 strawberry cake mix
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350º

Mix egg and oil together until well combined. Add in cake mix, then fold in white chocolate chips.

Scoop out 1 tablespoon sized balls of mix onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 8-9 minutes. Cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Makes around 2 dozen cookies.

I cannot stress how easy this was and they are so good! I will be experimenting with different flavors very soon!!

Strawberr Cake Cookies | Poore Amy-abp

“You are the Pop to my Tart!” ~ unknown

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This recipe should be fun if anything!

It’s not my typical type dessert to make but in keeping with my theme of finding new simple recipes to try, I thought I would give it a whirl!!

It was the colors of the dessert that first caught my eye when perusing through my blog emails this morning and it is from one of my favorite blogs – Plain Chicken.

It says you can play around with the flavors but I since it was the colors that first grabbed my attention – I thought I would stick with the ones she used.

I just hate that I have to wait at least 12 hours for it to set up.  The new age of instant gratification is obviously rearing its ugly head!  I want it now! 😉

(Listed below is the full recipe – I halved it because I did not need 10-12 servings)

Pop Tart Eclair Cake

(adapted from Plain Chicken)

  • 3 boxes Red Velvet Pop Tarts
  • 2 (3 1/4-ounce) boxes cheesecake instant pudding
  • 3 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 (8-ounce) container Cool Whip, thawed

Prepare a 9 x 13 dish by spraying with cooking spray.

Mix together pudding and milk in a bowl with an electric hand mixer.  Fold in cool whip.

Layer one box of Pop Tarts in the prepared pan. Then layer 1/2 the pudidng mixture.

Top with another box of Pop Tarts and layer second half of the pudding mixture.

Finish with the last box of Pop Tarts, frosting side up.

Refridgerate for at least 12 hours before serving.

photo-12Ok, it’s not the prettiest dessert by any means but it tasted great!!!

You could probably crumble the pop tarts and layer them with the pudding in a large trifle or individual trifles to make a better presentation.

-abp

“Trips to the dentist – I like to postpone that kind of thing.” ~ Johnny Depp

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I better enjoy the last few weeks of my pregnancy and my newly found sweet tooth!!

Because once she gets here – someone is going to have to pull that sweet tooth!!

I’ve always been a fan of sweets but I would usually rather have a second helping of the savory dish at hand and pass on dessert.

Not anymore.

I had whipped up these Graham Cracker Toffee Bars last Saturday to go with the Vegetable Beef Soup and I ate my one (good-sized) bowl, pushed it aside and stuck my hand into the plate of Toffee Bars.

6 times.

Yep, I ate six, without even moving from my chair.

I know I’m having unusual cravings but seriously folks – they are THAT good!

Graham Cracker Toffee Bars

  • 24 Graham Crackers
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350º.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper (you will need 2 or 1 if you half the recipe like I did) and lay out graham crackers

In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter and sugar, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil – careful not to scorch. Stir in pecans.

Pour melted butter/sugar over crackers and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Allow to cool completely and the break apart.

photo-8You can thank me later!

-abp

“Mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.” ~Emily Dickinson

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My momma is so good to me.

In these last few weeks of pregnancy, I have had cravings. Nothing crazy but when I decide I want it – I WANT it.

So thank goodness for mommas!!

Not that the husband wouldn’t help me out – it’s just that he’s busy working most of the time and well, sometimes a girl just needs her momma.

One example this week was I decided I just had to have the Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Whipped Pie she makes, within 24 hrs – she had one in my fridge.

Happy, Happy Girl.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Whipped Pie

  • 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
  • 8 oz tub Cool Whip, thawed
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 8 oz powdered sugar
  • 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
  • 1 oreo crust

Mix cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar together. Add cool whip and blend well. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour in to pie shell.

Refrigerate over night. Serve with whipped cream.

photo-6Love on a fork!

-abp

“When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

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I’ve been putting some thought into my blog – I’ve been away for such a long time.  The whole pregnancy thing has totally flipped my world around –  in a good way!

Lots of things changed for me – for a while I wasn’t able to cook (thanks to hyper-sensitive smell), I totally changed my work schedule up and I had/have a whole new list of “to dos”.  My totally patterned life was no more. I’m completely out of sync.

Also, I’m not quite as savvy as a lot of bloggers out there and it would take me quite some time to get a post complete because I wanted everything as perfect as I could make it – the prep, the pictures, the finished product and the written part.

With this being said – I felt I couldn’t get it all done, at least not the way I would want it done.  I thought about just stopping for a while and coming back to it later in life but that’s not really what I wanted to do……

So – I have decided to omit the instructional pictures and just give a finished photo – that way if I am making something for dinner that I would like to share, I can because I would not have to take all the extra time of taking several pictures of each step (nor edit them) – I could just make dinner like I normally do and take a picture before I dig in.

See that’s the thing you might not know about some blogs that I have discovered while trying to improve mine. One being – a lot of them cook solely for their blog – they prepare dinner at 10 am so that the lighting is the best for pictures, etc.  Some even have spread sheets for the week! Please take note!! – I think that is AWESOME and I enjoy them very, very much and I am very thankful that they do these things – it’s just I have realized that I do not and can not have a blog like that, they are professionals and I am an amateur – which I’m totally cool with! 🙂

I cook for me and my family like I always have and that’s what I’ll continue to do.  And I want to continue to share it with everyone but to do that, I will have to simplify a bit.

I’m just being honest with myself and you and I hope that you will continue to follow my blog minus a few pictures. (P.S. – when the baby comes I’m sure there will be another hiatus! Talk about my world being flipped upside down! :))

Thanks again! I look forward to posting more yummy food!

On that note – I present you with a very delicious and easy dessert that could finish off any meal perfectly.

Oven Baked Churros

(adapted from myrecipes.com)

  • 1 (17.3-oz.) package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup melted butter
  1. Preheat oven to 450°. Unfold and cut puff pastry sheets in half lengthwise, and cut each half crosswise into 1-inch-wide strips. Place strips on a lightly greased parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown.
  2. Meanwhile, combine sugar and cinnamon. Remove pastry strips from oven, and dip in butter; roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Let stand on a wire rack 5 minutes or until dry.

Oven Baked Churros

Oven Baked Churros

Enjoy!

-abp

“If I can’t have too many truffles, I’ll do without truffles.” ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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A few days ago I had some time left over on a cold rainy day after throwing together a super simple crock pot meal (Honey Sauced Chicken) so I decided I would mix up a batch of Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles.

FYI – all the bowl and spoon licking that occurred during this process totally cancelled out my first trip to the gym this year, the one I had been so proud of mere minutes earlier. (Let this be a warning to you.)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles (adapted from Bakerella)

  • 10 ounces of cream cheese softened
  • 8 ounces milk chocolate chips
  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • 1 Tablespoon confectioners sugar
  • Toppings of your choice to roll the truffles in (i.e. – chopped peanuts, confectioner sugar, cocoa)

Start by creaming the cream cheese in the mixture.

cream cream cheese

In the mean time, melt the chocolate chips in a glass bowl in 30 second intervals in the microwave.

8 oz milk chocolate

melt chocolate

Stir peanut butter into melted chocolate. Mix well.

mix in peanut butter

Pour chocolate/PB mixture into cream cheese and add powdered sugar. Stir until completely combined.

Spread into an 8 x 8 dish and chill for several hours or overnight.

Once chilled, scoop out with a spoon or melon ball sized scoop and roll into balls. Re-chill if necessary.DSC03118

Roll truffles in topping of your choice.

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Place in fun candy sized cups.

DSC03124DSC03127DSC03120Keep refrigerated.

(P.S. the next night I rolled them in chopped peanuts – that’s my fav!)

I can not describe to you how sinfully good these are!!! The only downfall is they are pretty gooey so its a little difficult to roll but they are so good – I don’t care.

I must admit because of this I ate more out of the spoon than I did in ball form. 😉

Have a good one!

abp