Pumpkin Pancakes

(from here)

Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

1 1/4 cup flour

3 TB sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/3 cup milk

3/4 cup pumpkin

4 eggs, separated and whites beaten till fluffed, but not too stiff.

1/4 cup melted butter

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine dry ingredients. In different bowl combine milk, pumpkin, egg yokes, melted butter, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix together gently. Fold in egg whites. Cook as you would cook pancakes. These take a couple minutes longer to cook and are very moist.

Cinnamon Syrup Recipe

1 cup sugar

1/8tsp. salt

2 T flour

1/2 -1 tsp. cinnamon

2/3 cup water

2 TB butter

In small saucepan mix sugar, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Add water and boil till thick. Take off burner and add in butter. Can add a dollop of whip cream too!

Pumpkin Bars

Tasty pumpkin bars- I got the recipe from here.

Pumpkin-Spice Bars

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

1 15 oz. can pumpkin

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 ginger

1/4 cloves

Frosting

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

2-3 tsp. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups powered sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, if desired

Beat eggs, sugar, oil, pumpkin till smooth. Stir all dry ingredients together and add to wet ingredients. (Optional- can add 1 cup raisins or chocolate chips). Spread in greased cookie sheet pan, 15x10x1. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Cool completely, about 2 hours.

Mix up frosting. Spread over bars. Sprinkle with nuts.

A Tangled Halloween

(really bad picture, but the best we got of everyone together that night) 

Much cuter family portrait from Sears (Yes we have the copyright)

I admit- I am one of those mother's who likes to dress the family in a theme for Halloween. Since my husband likes me, my son is developmentally delayed (PDD-NOS not so specifically) and hasn't expressed an opinion otherwise, my oldest daughter has been diagnosed with Autism and doesn't say much either, and the little one is just one and thinking about talking, I can get away with it. :) We shall see how long that lasts. Because the middle fry likes to dance to Tangled, that was the theme this year. And when we go to get a family picture, I shall try to get good photos of her and her brother. Meanwhile, you can enjoy the little chameleon Pascal, who was adorable and knew it. I used the Simplicity 2792 view c pattern (yes, it is the same one that I modified last year so she could be Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon) and modified it by adding a tail (sorry, I made that up myself- just make a big spiral), ric rac down the back and top, and some styrofoam balls cut in half and covered with felt for the eyes. I also added a couple of "hands" to the sleeve cuffs that just hung over her hands. For her trick-or-treat bag I turned a McDonald's kids meal bucket into a flower pot. She had lots of fun.

How to get lots of candy

(Just for fun, because I realized this blog didn't exist last year, here is the best non-professional (aka copyrighted) family photo we got for How to Train Your Dragon Halloween 2010)

Thomas the Train, Girl Style

The middle fry had a birthday, and I was once again at a loss of what to do. So, I took her older brother to the party aisle at Walmart and let him choose. He lingered over Tangled, but then he saw Thomas and that was the end of that (in his defense, I also took the birthday girl to the same aisle. She also lingered over Tangled, but when she saw the trains she yelled "Thomas"). After much thought, I decided I would make a train cake. I had a friend with a pan, how hard could it be, right? Then I found out the train cake pan wasn't very good at thoroughly cooking the cake. So then I thought I would make a cake and top it with three rice crispy trains. That would be cool I thought. So I baked some cakes (several- I used a cookie sheet to make a sheet cake to get something large enough and stacked two of them to get the height), and made my rice crispy trains. That is where I ran into problems. I must have not let them sit long enough, cause my train was melting and falling apart as I decorated it. I ended up just doing one train that I kept refrigerated as much as possible so it would stay hard (That is Molly, in case you were wondering. I enlisted my husband's help to look up and print off a face and laminate it for the front. He is wonderful and obliged me). Happy Birthday to a sweet little princess!

Mummmmmmy!

{Potentially} Inexpensive Halloween Decorating Idea #10

I know, it is a little after Halloween, but I have excuses. First, the memory card in my camera went bad (I suspect small child involvement). Then I realized that I needed to be focusing on Halloween costumes. While I was working on those, I received word that my Grandmother was in the hospital and not doing well, so I packed up the kids and went to see her one last time and attend her funeral (I am grateful for the Plan of Salvation- if you want more info on that please see Mormon.org). I got back home with only a couple of days to try and finish Halloween costumes. So much for my grandiose plans. So without further ado, one of my favorite Halloween crafts- the mummy tissue box. Michael's sells an unfinished wood tissue box for $3.99 and you can use a coupon on it (40% off is nice). I painted it white, glued some large googly eyes on, and wrapped a bandage around it (I confess, it isn't glued or anything, just wrapped around). Then I simply filled with tissues and restocked as needed (which between runny noses and everything else was more frequent then I care to admit). I had so many other ideas for tissue boxes, that I had to narrow it down to this one. I though about Frankenstein (paint green, add felt hair to top, perhaps some silver knobs on the side), spiders (paint spiderwebs all over box and glue on plastic spiders), pumpkins (paint orange and add a short bit of branch for a stem on top. Wrap with ribbon or paint stripes. Can put a face on or not), or just silhouetting a Halloween scene on the sides. Happy (late) Halloween!