Most amazing carrot cake!

This is the carrot cake recipe that my family has been making for year! Most of the family friends know about it and remember it because it is that good. I decided to share with you all!

You don't want to make this very often because it is not that healthy carrot cake, but it is delicious. Save it for special occasions. I most recently made it for a work pot luck. It is perfectly moist and delicious. I am a HUGE cream cheese frosting fan as well and this has crushed pineapple in the frosting. Oh so yummy!

Carrot Cake Ingredients:

1-3⁄4 cup canola oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1⁄2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups shredded carrots
1⁄2 cup crushed pineapple

Frosting Ingredients:
1 – 8 oz pkg cream cheese (softened)
3 cups powdered sugar
1⁄4 cup crushed pineapple

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350
2. Grease and flour 9x12 pan. Mix oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add in flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add carrots and pineapple.
3. Pour in pan and bake 35-40 minutes.
4. Mix all ingredients for cream cheese frosting.
5. Cool and frost with cream cheese frosting.

I forgot to take a picture of the whole cake, so here is a picture of one left over piece. Enjoy!

~Court

A Homemade Christmas -- Gifts

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 We decided to combine our experience and knowledge of homemade gifts for this post.

We both really really really enjoy crafting and making gifts for people. It’s not always easy to figure out a homemade gift for people, but here are some ideas. Not everything is homemade, but pieces are.

BBQ Kit – BBQ Spice Rub (Nick made this), Store Bought BBQ Sauce, Homemade Candied Pecans, Jiffy Cornbread Mix

Handmade Ornaments – Courtney made some really cute pinecone ornaments and fabric covered ball ornaments.

Basket or Tin of Goodies – These are great for coworkers. Just find a cute tin or Christmas plate and fill with yummies and wrap up cute. Like these: Baking Gifts

Cookie in a Jar – These are great during the holidays because so many people receive a lot of sweets, so with a cookie in a jar, they can wait to make the cookies when they are ready for something sweet again.  These Cowgirl cookies are great; I(Courtney) tried them a few years ago.

Mason Jar Décor – I did this when I was bored over a year ago and I currently use it for straws and it sits on my kitchen counter. It can be used for make-up brushes, as a vase, as a decoration with sticks, or a pen holder to name a few.

Photo Album – Create a photo album on Mixbook.com (my favorite) or blurb.com

Scarves (Corynne’s Domain) – My mother-in-law got me in to knitting and then I started crocheting and I love it. It’s a great and fun hobby! And it makes for great gifts. I’ve made tons of different things and sold baby sets, beanies and headband ear warmers. I have tons of my stuff on my old blog and pinterest. Here’s a link for an east winter beanie: East Winter Beanie Link

And here’s a link to the baby sweater’s I’ve made: Baby Sweater Link

Also, check out Corynne's previous blog about the teddy bear she made: Teddy Bear

Candles (Corynne’s Domain) – My friend Esther got me in to making candles and it’s also a great hobby. I don’t have a set recipe to give you, but I highly recommend you trying to make candles. This and crocheting are two of my favorite things to make and give as gifts. I bought supplies from my friend and she taught me how to do everything and I’ve made at least 12 candles already. Personally, I’m obsessed with candles and they can be expensive, but making your own is much cheaper and you get to choose what color you want and what scent.

If you wrap a small piece of twine around the candle it looks really cute, but just be sure to remove the twine before the flame reaches it. Last weekend at our mom's house the twine caught on fire and luckily we found it before the whole coffee table went into flames. Eek—safety first!

We will have some more ideas after Christmas (we cannot share now, because family will know their gifts—eek!)

Hope you enjoy these ideas.

- Courtney and Corynne -

College Football and Mississippi Mud Fudge Pie

Last weekend my Mom, Ron and Chloe came to visit us and we went to the OSU-TCU game in Stillwater. We had a great time! We tailgated, ate some yummy food, made new friends who brewed their own yummy beer and watched the game. Mom and Ron are TCU fans, as you can see in this picture. I need to get some more OSU gear, I had a Go Pokes scarf, but it got warm in the sun so I looked very neutral...

One of the fun things that my mom did for my sister and I last Christmas was get us each a subscription to Southern Living Magazine. Which is my favorite. It's fun to get it each month, drool over the home decor and recipes, then talk about it with each other. So about two weeks ago my mom was saying how she wanted to make one of the Mississippi Madness recipes in the Fall issue of Southern Living. Since they were coming to town, I decided it was a great time to try out the Mississippi Mud S'Mores Fudge Pie.

It was amazing and probably one of my favorite desserts, I'm craving some right now. It was sweet but a little salty with the graham cracker and butter crust. So delicious! I had also just bought a spring-form pan on clearance at TJ Maxx (Only $5—yeah!), so it was perfect timing to break it in with this recipe!

So here is the recipe —

Ingredients:
2 cups grapham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter melted
2 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans, toasted and divided
1 (4oz) semisweet chocolate baking bar, chopped
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups regular marshmallows, cut in half horizontally
2 cups miniature marshmallows
Chocolate Frosting (recipe at the end)
1. Stir together first 2 ingredients and 1/4 cup sugar; press on bottom and 2 inched up sides of a shiny 9-inch spring-form pan. Sprinkle 3/4 cups pecans over crust.
2. Microwave chopped chocolate and 1 cup of butter in a large microwave safe bowl at HIGH 1 minute or until melted and smooth, stirring at 30-second intervals.
3. Whisk flour, next 4 ingredients, and remaining 2 cups sugar into chocolate mixture, whisking until blended. Pour batter into prepared crust.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes (I start check at 45 minutes) or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven cool on  pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes
5. Preheat Broiler with oven rack on lowest level from heat. Place pie  (in pan) on a jelly roll pan. Toss together both marshmallows' mound on pie, leaving a 12 inch border around the edge. Broil 30 seconds to 1 minute or until marshmallows are golden brown. Remove from oven,and immediately remove sides of pan. Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, prepare Chocolate frosting. Drizzle over marshmallows; sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup pecans.
Chocolate Frosting
Cook  1/4 cup butter, 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa, and 3 Tbsp of milk in a saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, 4 minutes or until slightly thickened; remove from heat. Whisk in 2 cups of powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract until smooth.

The Final Product. Enjoy!

-Court

All Things Pumpkin

I absolutely love fall. But I am pretty sure I already blogged about that. The other part of fall that I love includes baking / cooking with pumpkin. These recipes are great for fall! It makes you want to sit next to the fire with a good cup of coffee. Oooh and I love coffee too!

This pumpkin bread recipe is phenomenal and I have been making it for several years. Some new recipes that I  tried include pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin pie oatmeal and both were fantastic. 

Extra Moist Pumpkin Bread

Makes 2 loaves.

Ingredients:

4 beaten eggs

3 cups sugar

1 cup oil

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

2 cups pumpkin (1 lb can)

2/3 cup water

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350

Mix all ingredients. Pour into loaf pans and bake for 60-70 minutes.

Option: Add cream cheese frosting.  But it really doesn’t need it.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 cup buttermilk pancake mix ( I cheated and used a mix)

1 cup cold water

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Nonstick vegetable cooking spray

Butter, room temperature

In a medium bowl, whisk pancake mix, water, pumpkin, cinnamon, and ginger until just blended (do not over mix; mixture should be lumpy).

Spray a heavy griddle with nonstick spray and heat griddle over medium heat. Spoon 2 tablespoons of batter onto griddle to form each pancake. Cook for 2 minutes or until bubbles appear, then turn pancakes over and cook for 2 minutes longer. Transfer pancakes to plates. Top with butter and serve with warm syrup.

*Amaretto Syrup Option – Nick decided to get fancy a make a nutty flavored syrup to go along with the pancakes. We have 100% maple syrup in the fridge, so he mixed 1 cup of the syrup with 3 Tbsp of Amaretto and heated in on the stove top. We had to let it simmer a while to cook out some of the alcohol. But it was very tasty. 

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

I found this recipe on pinterest and the original recipe is here.

I made a few changes, so here is my receipe.

Ingredients:
1 serving oatmeal (cooked) I used ½ cup Old Fashioned Oats
2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 dash cinnamon
1 dash nutmeg
1 dash ginger
1 dash cloves
1 splash almond milk (or more)

If not sweet enough, add splenda or more agave nectar.

When the oatmeal is finished cooking add the pumpkin puree, brown sugar and spices and cook to heat.

Add a splash of milk to cool the oatmeal and to get it to the consistency that you prefer.