Starbucks' Butter Beer Frappuccino

     I recently posted about trying a Butter Beer Latte from Starbucks' Secret Menu, well here is the Frappuccino version.  I found this recipe too on the Starbucks Secret Menu, you should order one on your next visit to Starbucks.

This is for a Grande 
Start with a Creme Frappuccino base (I used the vanilla bean one) - DO NOT skimp on the milk, you want to use whole milk for this one. 3 pumps caramel syrup 3 pumps toffee nut syrup Top with whip cream Drizzle with caramel syrup
* Adjust the recipe based on size or the preference of sweetness you like *
Stick a straw in it and ENJOY!

A new twist on Spinach Salad

Recipe from The Food Charlatan

Here's what you need:

Dressing 2 cloves garlic (minced)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1 TBsp sugar 1/2 tsp salt pepper to taste
1/4 tsp dry mustard

 Pecans
2 TBsp butter
1 cup pecan halves
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Salad 10-13 oz spinach
1 pineapple (chopped into bite-size pieces)
6 oz feta cheese

How to make it:
Combine all the dressing ingredients in a mason jar or plasticware.
Shake vigorously and set aside.
In a small pan, heat the butter over medium-high heat.
When hot, add the pecans and stir to coat.
Add the brown sugar and stir again.
Stir occasionally until the sugar starts to caramelize, about 2-5 minutes.
Pour onto some wax paper lined cookie sheet to cool.
In a large bowl add the spinach, pineapple, and feta.
Toss to combine.
Sprinkle the top with pecans and serve with the salad dressing.
Then ENJOY!

Biscoff Pumpkin Muffins

Recipe modified from Lil' Luna

What you need:

Muffins

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (sifted)

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

2 eggs (room temperature)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup water

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Streusel

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup Biscoff cookies (finely crushed) or oatmeal (I was out of cookies so used this)

2 TBsp Biscoff Creamy spread

3 TBsp unsalted butter (cold)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Filling

4 oz original cream cheese (softened)

2-3 Tbsp Apple butter

How to make them:

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Line one standard size muffin pan with liners, set aside.

In a bowl of an electric mixer on low speed, combine the sugar, brown sugar, puree, vegetable oil, applesauce, water, and vanilla extract.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until just combined.

In a medium size mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and ground cinnamon.

With the mixing speed on low, gradually add in the dry ingredients, scraping down the sides as needed, mix until no flour pockets remain, set aside.

For the streusel, in a small mixing bowl combine the sugar, brown sugar, flour, crushed cookies or oatmeal (like I used), and ground cinnamon.

Using a pastry blender, cut in cold butter and Biscoff spread.

Continue working the mixture with the pastry blender until it resembles chunks about the size of a pea.

Scoop in enough batter to fill 1/3 of each muffin well.

Then scoop a bit of the cream cheese filling on top of the muffin batter.

Next top the cream cheese with another scoop of muffin batter.

Sprinkle some of the streusel topping on the muffin batter.

Gently pat the streusel into the batter to help it bake into the muffin.

Place in the oven and bake for 18-22 minutes or until the tops spring back and the streusel is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 2 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Then ENJOY!

Key Lime Pie

 Recipe featured on Cook. Eat. Love.

What you need:

Crust

3/4 lb graham cracker crumbs

4 TBsp sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (melted)

1/4 tsp salt

Filling

4 egg yolks (room temperature)

1 can (14oz) condensed milk

2/3 cup fresh Key Lime juice

1 lime grated zest

Topping

1 cup heavy cream (chilled)

2 Tbsp confectioner's sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

How to make it:

Preheat oven to 325˚F.

Break up the graham crackers by placing in a food processor and process into crumbs.

Add the melted butter, sugar, and salt, then pulse until combined.

Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch pie pan, forming an even layer on the bottom, sides and edge.

Bake the crust for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow the crust to cool.

While the crust is resting, in a bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the egg yolks and lime zest at high speed until fluffy, about 5 to 6 minutes.

Gradually add the condensed milk and continue to whip until thick, about 3 to 4 minutes longer.

Lower the mixer speed and slowly add the lime juice until incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 15 minutes or until the filing has set.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Then refrigerate for 20 minutes or over night.

In a clean bowl of an electric mixer with a clean whisk attachment, whip the cream, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla until nearly stiff peaks.

Put whipped cream in a piping bag fitted with star tip.

Pipe the whipped topping onto the cooled pie around the edges and in the center.

Garnish the pie with a slice of lime.

Place in the freezer for about 20 minutes prior to serving.

Then ENJOY!!

4th of July

     Fourth of July has come and gone...but I wanted to still do a post about how we spent our Independence Day.  I decorated the house with lots of red, white, and blue!

I found some patriotic daisies 

These are the Stars & Stripe Bottles we made at our July Crafternoon last year.

I got the kiddos a big basket full of fun glow necklaces, 

window decorations, sunglasses, necklaces, balloons, bracelets, and other fun stuff.

Found these cute shirts for the kiddos too!

For breakfast I made some cinnamon rolls with a little patriotic flare 

and some red, white and blue-berry skewers.

The kiddos really liked them!

 

Little Miss insisted she wear her new glasses and necklaces for breakfast

Later that day, our friends came over to join us in some yummy dinner.

I made some of these

Manchego Cheese & Marcona Almond Stuffed Dates wrapped in Bacon

I found some fun red, white, and blue corn tortilla chips 

that I paired with some roasted chipotle salsa

My friend made some Red, White, and & Blue-Berry Bruschetta

I made a little berry salad for the kiddos to munch on too

As for the main meal, I baked these hot dog and biscuit kabobs for the kiddos

As for the sides, we had some 

Red, White, & Blue-Berry Potato Salad

I really liked the Tangy Coleslaw

I think the Baked Beans & Sausage were really good too

Baked up some Texas Rolls

These Hard Apple Cider BBQ Ribs were amazing!

My friend also brought over some yummy Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

And I baked up a

Stars & Stripes Apple Pie

Served it up with some Red, White, and Blue Ice Cream

I found these funny colored mustaches for the guys to wear

Liam showing me his bracelet chain

and Kinley wanted to show me the basket on her head...I have some crazy kids!

After the sun went down, and Kinley went to bed, we busted out the firecrackers.

Liam and I liked watching daddy light the firecrackers.

SPARKLERS!

My big boy celebrating another fun 4th of July

The next morning, I enjoyed a slice of pie with my latte.

Hope you had a great holiday, we sure did!

Stars & Stripes Apple Pie

Pie crust from Barefoot Contessa and Pie filling from My Sister's Cafe

What you need:

Pie Crust (need 1 double pie crust)

12 Tbsp very cold unsalted butter

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1 TBsp sugar

1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening

6-8 Tbsp ice water (about 1/2 cup)

Pie Filling

1/2 cup sugar

1 TBsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp lemon juice

6 cups Granny Smith apples (peeled and sliced)

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

How to make it:

Pie crust

Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture.

Place the flour, salt, and sugar in a bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix.

Add the butter and shortening.

Pulse 8-12 times, until the butter is the size of peas.

With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball.

Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in half.

Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn't stick to the board.

Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to the fit the pan.

Roll out the second half of the dough then using a star cookie cutter, cut out some stars, set aside.

Then cut some strips to make the stripes, set aside.

Filling

Preheat oven to 425˚F.

Pour the lemon juice over the sliced apples.

In a bowl, combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon.

Coat the apples with the sugar mixture.

Put the apples in the unbaked pie shell.

In a separate bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar, and flour, cut with a pastry blender or rub with fingers.

Sprinkle over the apples.

Cover the apples with the stars and stripes dough pieces.

Bake for 35-40 minutes.

Serve warm or with ice cream then ENJOY!

Abnegation

Recipe from The Comfort of Cooking

Selfless Bread

What you need:

3 cups all purpose flour

2-3 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp dry yeast (active dry or highly active dry work the best)

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

How to make it:

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and yeast.

Add water and stir using a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a cohesive dough (do not over work the dough).

Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap.

Let the dough sit at room temperature for 8-24 hours (dough will bubble up and rise).

After dough is ready, preheat the oven to 450˚F.

Place the Dutch oven, uncovered, into the preheated oven for 30 minutes.

White the Dutch oven preheats, turn the dough onto a well-floured surfaced surface and with floured hands, form a dough into a ball.

Cover dough loosely with plastic wrap and let rest.

After the 30 minutes are up, carefully remove the Dutch oven.

With floured hands, place the bread dough into preheated Dutch oven.

Replace the cover and bake for 30 minutes covered.

Carefully remove the cover and bake for 7-15 minutes more, uncovered.

Carefully remove bread to a cutting board and slice with a bread knife.

Serve up with some special butters and ENJOY!

Recipes from The Elliott Homestead

Benevolent Butters

Berry Good Butter

What you need:

1/2 cup fresh unsalted butter (softened)

2 TBsp raw honey

2 TBsp strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, or any other berry preserve of choice

Seeds of one vanilla bean

Lemony Rosemary Butter

What you need:

1/2 cup fresh unsalted butter (softened)

1/2 cup tsp lemon zest

1 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary (minced)

1/2 tsp sea salt

Mediterranean Butter

What you need:

1/2 cup fresh unsalted butter (softened)

2 TBsp feta cheese (crumbled)

1 TBsp sundried tomatoes (drained and minced)

1 clove garlic (roasted and minced)

1/2 tsp fresh chives (minced)

small pinch of sea salt

How to make them:

Simply combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and used a spoon to squish and combine.

Put in a bowl or wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate until needed.

Spread on some fresh baked bread and ENJOY!

   

A little about Abnegation....

DEFINITION: [Pronounced: Ab-neg-ay-shun] l. to refuse or deny oneself (some rights, conveniences, etc.); reject; renounce. 2. to relinquish; give up. --active forms of ­stripping things from your life. As opposed to relinquish, give up-- more passive.

HISTORY: Abnegation was formed by those who blamed selfishness for human nature's errors. They believe in selfless actions and attaining peace through the elimination of selfishness. By doing so, they choose to completely forget themselves and only serve others.
TRAITS: Sit quietly and wait. Bow heads, a sign of respect, when greeting each other. Not manipulative, but not forthright.Their morally incorruptible quality makes them the only reasonable faction to be able to govern the city as political leaders.
PHYSICAL TRAITS: Clothing is gray and simple. The only adornment allowed is a watch. Female Abnegation typically wear their hair in a bun/knot. 
ABNEGATION INITIATION: The initiates, who will spend thirty days performing community service before they can become full members, sit side by side on a bench while one of the older members reads the Abnegation manifesto. Then all of the older members wash the initiates feet. They all share a meal, each person serving food to the person on his left.  
NICKNAME: 'Stiffs'. 
RELATIONS: On good terms with Amity; unknown relationship with Candor; on neutral terms with Daunless but opposing views on violence; rivals to power-seeking Erudite. 
CURRENT LEADER: Marcus Eaton. 
FACTION MANIFESTO: 

* copied from The Divergent Life

Cupcake Couture

     I love baking, especially cupcakes!  Finding new recipes and trying them out is such a delicious challenge I take head on!  What makes it more fun is when I can bake up a tasty treat for my son or daughter's birthday or a friend's baby shower or special holiday get together.

I baked up these Chocolate Chip Cupcakes for my friend's Enchanting Butterfly Baby Shower

I made these for Kinley's Rainbow 1st Birthday Party

These were fun for Liam's Skylander 6th Birthday Party

These minty cupcakes were for my sister's Baby Shower

These Strawberry Lovecakes were for Liam's Valentine's Day party at school 

Liam's Angry Bird 5th Birthday Party cupcakes

We celebrated 4th of July Crafternoon with these Snow Cone Cupcakes

Made these colorful cupcakes for my sister's Baby Shower too

Margarita Cupcakes for our March Crafternoon

Horton Hears a Who Cupcakes to celebrate Dr. Seuss Day

July Crafternoon with Cheeseburger Cupcakes

Also made these Cotton Candy my sister's Baby Shower

Celebrating Halloween with some festive Jack Skellington Cupcakes

Some throwback cupcakes for a Vintage Baby Shower 

Love the neon colors on these 80's Cupcakes

One of my favorite parties to host included these Twilight Cupcakes

It's Tea Time with these Black Tea Cupcakes for January Crafternoon

Liam loved these Alien Cupcakes from his Toy Story 3rd Birthday Party

March Crafternoon with these Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

These Brain Cupcakes were ghoulishy good 

Made some Batman Cupcakes for a friend's son's birthday

Mad Hatter cupcakes for my friend's Mad Hatter Tea Baby Shower

Lots and lots of fun festive cupcakes! Pretty to look at and yummy to eat!