Happy Halloween!

It has been a crazy week! We enjoyed a visit from my parents last weekend. Terry and I even got to go on a date for my birthday (thursday)! Something we haven't done in way too long. Fortunately Claire was cooperative and we were able to leave her with Grandma.
My birthday was a mainly quiet day. I took myself out to lunch at Wendy's for a chicken club. Mmmm! My birthday cake was a "pink barn" cake from Everett's cake auction at cub scouts two days before. He had to decorate a cake with a farm theme. I baked the cake and let him decorate it. He made a barn out of graham crackers with those frosted animal cookies for the cattle. He made a fence around the whole thing with pretzel sticks and put a pile of those little marshmallow pumpkins that you usually see on top of cupcakes, for a pumpkin patch complete with a little "pumpkins for sale" sign. We crushed up oreos for dirt and made a little haystack out of chinese chow mein noodles. I wish that I'd taken a picture of it but I didn't. Well, he won the prize for the "theme cake" and brought home a cake in the shape of a barn and silo. Very cute!
No candles for my birthday for fear of starting a fire!
I bought myself the Twilight series. I have not had as much time to read as I would like but I take what I can get. You might say 'I've been bitten'. Thanks, Margaret!
It's Halloween and the kids are looking forward to trick-or-treating around the neighborhood tonite. They had the trunk-or-treat at church last Saturday and got enough candy, in my opinion. Mind you, the next morning was the Primary program in sacrament meeting! The kids did very well in spite of all that sugar coursing through their veins from the night before!

Just another day in paradise

It was an inservice day for the kids and fortunately it was also sunny, which it hasn't been lately. So, thank goodness for that! I took a picture of the kids on our front steps with some of the pumpkins from our garden! The cornstalks even came from our garden! We had a good time. Some of the photos were just silly.

Terry was pleased with his birthday loot. Seemed to have a theme this year. He got some OSU shirts and other "Beaver" gear to show some school spirit in this mostly Duck town. He ended up baking his own cake but only because he got to it before me. It turned out pretty tasty.

We are gearing up for Halloween. The kids have chosen costumes but we'll see if they don't change their minds. Lindsey is positive that she'll be an angel this year, complete with a halo! I'm not sure if it's art imitating life or laughing at it. Does that make sense? Sometimes she gets a little mischievous glint in her eye and other times her lovely golden curls frame a perfectly angelic smile. Hm.

I'll throw in a photo of a spider web. I went outside during a torrential down pour to catch a shot of the rain but as soon as I turned the camera on it was as if someone turned the water off! The droplets stayed on the web. Very picturesque but I'm not so sure if I captured it.

Brownies! and Chocolate Cake!

What is it with brownies??? I can make a pan of them and they just seem to disappear! There must be Brownie Phantoms in my house! (Yeah, and their names are Terry, Everett, Camille and Lindsey --okay and me too)

We can polish off a pan of brownies in two days at the most. We've tried at least half a dozen different recipes lately. My favorite one is called "Betty Crocker"! :P I do like the recipe on the cocoa powder box because it has butter in it but for flavor and texture, I do prefer the box mix.

Well, birthday season is here. We have three family birthdays in the next few weeks and that means chocolate cake! Terry's favorite is a Bundt cake made with pudding. It is so divine! Especially with a chocolatey glaze. So, that's what we'll make for our birthdays (4 days apart).

Camille usually prefers a pink cake of some kind. We will celebrate her 8th birthday! She will likely be baptized on December 1st. (Same day as the Civil War game --UofO vs. OSU--Go beavers!)

Here's the favorite recipe (again Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines....)
Shortcut Bundt Cake
1 18 1/2 oz. pkg. cake mix
1 3 oz. pkg. vanilla or chocolate pudding mix(depending on cake flavor)
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
1 cup chocolate chips (optional but recommended!)
Grease and flour bundt pan. Mix together cake mix, pudding, eggs, oil, and water in a large bowl. Beat with mixer at med. speed for 2-3 minutes. Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 20 minutes or until cake can easily be loosened from pan. Invert onto serving platter or plate and cool completely before drizzling with your favorite glaze. Yum!

The Very Best Pumpkin Bread (seriously!)

I found this recipe on www.verybestbaking.com my favorite place to find new recipes.

Libby's Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
(My tweaking of the recipe in parenthesis)
3 C. all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. plus 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I use a Tbsp. cinnamon and a combo of ginger, cloves, and nutmeg to equal about 2 tsp.)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 C. granulated sugar
1 can (15 oz.) Libby's pumpkin (or two cups of freshly baked and mashed pumpkin OR two cups of applesauce)
4 large eggs
1 C. vegetable oil (use 3/4 C. oil and increase juice by 1/4 cup)
1/2 C. orange juice or water (I prefer oj or apple cider)
1 C. sweetened dried, fresh, or frozen cranberries (OR chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans.
Combine flour, spices, baking soda and salt in large bow. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil and juice in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mix to flour mix; stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries (or chocolate chips). Spoon batter into prepped loaf pans.
Bake for 60-65 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

The texture of this bread is very moist and springy almost like cake. It is soooo delicious! It makes great gifts too! Use the little tiny pans and make five or six at a time. Bake those for 45-55 min.
Happy Baking!

October

It's been a sneezy month so far at the Nash house! Four out of six of us has had a cold for the last couple of weeks. Ugh! It seems that we're on the mend now, though. I think it's all because of the sudden change in the weather. See, I told you it would happen! It's been the typical rainy fall so far. We will be harvesting our pumpkins soon. I bought a little "pie" pumpkin to collect the seeds to plant next year. I used the pumpkin mush to bake some really yummy bread. It's the very best recipe I've ever made for pumpkin bread. I love to bake any time of the year but when the weather is cooler I do more. So, I baked applesauce bread (it tasted much like the pumpkin bread) and some almond poppy seed bread. It tastes just like those ginormous muffins at the bakery. YUM-O!

Camille had her first Oregon Children's Choir concert this weekend. Her group sang three songs. The one about loose teeth was my favorite. It was very funny. They had motions to go along with the songs. Very cute! Needless to say, I am very proud of her. During one of the songs Lindsey started to sing along. She'd heard the songs so many times, she thought she'd join in. We had to shush her though. Everett even enjoyed the concert. Two other groups performed including a few girls from the Junior Girl Choir playing the marimbas! I am looking forward to the Christmas Concert in December!