Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins 2012

 

Pumpkins 2013

 

 

 

I wish you all a day full of spooky fun, sweet treats and trickery. Be safe and enjoy this trick-or-treat filled day! Happy Halloween!!

Spiced Coffee Whoopie Pies

 

Whoopie pies are pure Americana. They are often filled with childhood memories, appreciated by both young and old. I remember for years when I was just a little girl, my mom would make my favorite chocolate whoopie pies for my birthday, with homemade marshmallow fluff filling. Gosh those were good. She still makes them from time to time, and every time she does, the memories shoot straight back to my childhood birthdays. My mom would stick a candle into mine, which made me feel extra special. The chocolaty cookie filled with that sweet sticky cream, accompanied by messy fingers and a face full of pure joy, and of course the longing to eat another one; those are sweet memories. I can almost taste them just thinking about it.

Deconstructed Pumpkin Cream Chiffon Pie

When you think Fall flavors, you think pumpkin. It is only fitting that we all have our share of pumpkin pie, and might I add more than one share of it throughout the season. Sometimes this is a hard order to fill. You could of course go to your local grocery store and pick up a pie, but you know it is never quite as good as homemade. I have a tastier, homemade solution for you- deconstruct that pie! You will save time and frustration (and it makes for a very pretty plate). All the flavors and components are still exactly the same; each bite is still full of spicy, pumpkin filled goodness. Every bite is pure Fall. And yes, your home will still smell wonderful when you are making it.

Great Gram's Breakfast Puffs

There is something truly comforting about opening a cookbook handed down for generations, full of hand written recipes and nostalgia. Torn pages, loose recipes, oil splotches, a story only a kitchen can tell. Great gram specialized in so many treats, her house always smelling of wondrous aromas, as I have been told. From her paczkis to her potato rolls...and the ever famous family treat, "Heavenly Hash" (frivolous name I know), a candy made from the combination of marshmallows, peanut butter, and chocolate. As if a novel, this cook book tells a story. A story about the era in which it was created, full of tuna casseroles and stock full of recipes involving lard, buttermilk and instant mashed potatoes. An era in which money was tight. An era in which you used every last scrap, every last speck of the leftover butter on the wrapper. This book means so much.