its the most wonderful time of the year....

so has anyone else heard the extremely annoying comcast commercial on the radio lately? you know, the one with the raspy deep men singing "its the most wonderful time of the year" due to the arrival of football season? well, even though it drives me crazy, i must agree- it IS the most wonderful time of year! and not just because of football- because of PUMPKIN! i am quite a fan of pumpkin, and this is the first of MANY pumpkiny recipes i intend to share this autumn season. if you want a peek, check out my pumkpin pinboard here. i love pumpkin anything- bread, candles, lattes, pies, cookies, cakes, soup, the color, the smell, the flavor, the warmth, the seeds, the carving, the small ones, the big ones- anything pumpkin!! i've often said if i had to live on one food for the rest of my life, it would be pumpkin pie. i mean it too!

so nevertheless, with much anticipation and eager excitement for the arrival of cooler weather, freshly sharpened pencils, and all things pumpkin, i went to my kitchen, ipad with recipe in hand, and got out a can of pumpkin.

then, i got to work. i used this recipe here. to start, i combined the sugar, eggs, and water with my handy dandy pink kitchenaid whisk in my le creuset batter bowl (love)

to that, i added my pumpkin and some oil

next, i combined the dry ingredients- i should note here that i doubled the recipe because i wanted 24 muffins instead of 12. i used 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 2 cups unbleached all purpose white flour, then i added everything else it called for- baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, salt, and then to that, i also added in about 1/4 cup flax seed and oatmeal. i think i could have added even more of those, but was worried about the texture.

i used my new large 4-qt pyrex bowl which was perfect! this was a lot of stuff! next, i tossed in the chocolate chips so they would get coated and not sink in the muffin mix.  i used mini chocolate chips, mostly because thats all i had, but i think they were a good choice- more distrubition of the chocolately goodness.

then, i dumped the liquidy pumpkiny stuff right on in. i stirred just until everything was mixed. it looked great!

then, i scooped it out in my muffin tins and it was ready to go in the oven

i should add here, i have learned my lesson about cheap muffin papers. see what happens? they bunch up. and they burn. and they stick. yuck. no good. so, i plan on investing in good muffin papers soon.

while these looked super yum, i decided they needed a little something else. maybe a dip in cinnamon sugar when they come out? some sort of glaze? no- i got it, streusel! so i quickly looked up a streusel recipe and got to work. i chopped up 1 stick of butter like so and tossed it in the food processor, then added 1/2 cup flour, a big dash of cinnamon, and 1/4 cup sugar. i processed until crumbly, then poured on top of my muffins.

20 minutes at 400 and these babies were perfect!

i made a few without streusel, and they were pretty too

so there you go! pumpkin streusel muffins. they were delish- and quite hearty & healthy, with the addition of flax and oatmeal. here's to autumn- and lots more pumpkiny perfection!!!

homemade from scratch yellow cake cupcakes with the perfect fudgy chocolate frosting

so last night, i got to baking. i love baking. i just love being in the kitchen. there is a quote in the movie julie & julia that i can totally relate to- "You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That's such a comfort." i compeletly agree :) not that yesterday was a bad day, it was totally normal, but i love how consistent (ok, at least most of the time) baking is.

last night, i made yellow cupcakes with fudgy chocolate frosting and they were a delight. i was making them for a saturday fun day we are headed to this weekend, and i thought i just had to share them with you. the recipe i use is from here and i think it is hands down the best yello cake recipe ever. even better than the box!

ingredients...ready to go!

first, i mixed the sugar & the room temperature butter, whipping it to a fluffy perfection in my kitchenaid mixer.



next, in a separate bowl (my handy dandy le creuset batter bowl of course), i combined my cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. i alway use Swans Down Regular Cake Flour



then, i started adding the eggs one by one to the sugarybuttery goodness. once the four eggs were added, i dropped in a good splash of vanilla

and finally 2 cups of well shaken buttermilk. gross, i know, but i swear it makes a huge difference.

the recipe says to mix the buttermilk in just enough so it looks "curdled." she wasn't kidding! it looks just like that:

and finally, i added in the flour mix

and i ended up with this smooth, yummy, perfect, yellow cake batter.

i'm not going to lie, nathan & i could have eaten the whole bowl right there. but, we didnt. instead, i carefully scopped it out into cupcakes. i have found that using a cookie scoop helps me create consistent cupcakes that have just the right amount of batter (plus, i feel like a "real" baker when i do it)





i bought the wrong paper liners- these shrivled up in a no-fun kind of way



i popped these in the oven and got to work on my icing (side note here, i made her recipe and while it says it yields 22-24 cupcakes, mine made exactly 32. also, i baked mine in our crazy oven for about 13 mintues). while i didn't document my icing escapade (not much to photograph about powdered sugar), i used her fudgey recipe found here) once it was whipped up, i put it in a homemade piping bag to squeeze on top of my cake. while i have wilton bags, for this amount of icing, and since i was just doing a swirl on top of the cupcake, i used a gallon size zip-loc bag with a wilton tip on the end.



yummy chocolate frosting!



one thing i have found about this icing, i think i like it a whole lot more when it has set for a little while. the color is better, and the chocolate seems to blend in and have a better look & texture.

my icing was ready just in time for me to grab these guys out of the oven and move them to my cooling rack. how delish do they look?!

ah, perfectly golden brown and not burned on the bottom at all!! i was very pleased. since i was taking them to an event on saturday, i needed a way to transport them so that they wouldn't slide and so they would stay pretty. i had seen this idea on pinterest to put them in punch cups, and it sounded like a great idea so i gave it a try. i thought this would be a great way to transport & show off the cuteness of these little guys

worked like a charm!

beautiful. threw on a few nonperil sprinkles and called it a day. i think these will be a hit!

i had several left over (i only needed 13) so i sent a dozen to work with nathan and then we shared the rest with some of our friends (ty & molly) who cam over for dinner. they were pretty stinkin' awesome, if i do say so myself.

be sure to check out the recipe site, and i definitely recommend using this one!! every time i have made them they have turned out just perfect. 

if you make them, let me know how they turn out. enjoy!

my new baby!

ok, well, not quite a BABY. but, my new pride and joy :)

this weekend, my awesome mom treated me to a little bit early birthday present...a sewing machine! 

i have enjoyed sewing even since i was a little girl, and while in college, a few friends and i joined the local quilting guild and would spend our evenings sewing (by hand) quilts and odds and ends (side note- i never finished anything). 

since looking around on pinterest (and getting a late but INCREDIBLE wedding gift), i got inspired a few months ago and decided that i wanted to take up sewing again. so, what a perfect time to get a sewing machine!

mom, jamie, teague, and i packed up saturday morning and headed to the quaint local sewing shop, The Scarlet Thread (i highly recommend it if you are looking for a sewing store in mcdonough). after looking around for quite some time, i settled on some fabric for my first project (jamie had already helped gather the machine and things i would need- shes the best!).

for a machine, a baby lock came highly recommended. its funny, normally i'm a big researcher and i try to know everything i can about something, but this time, i just trusted jamie (so that was a pretty big deal for me!). i haven't used it yet, but just getting it out of the box was so exciting!

so here's to a source of infinite blog posts! i'll keep you posted once i get all the tape off and sew something :)