Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

I don't think I can state enough how easy it is to whip up something

dang tasty and original, starting with a simple box of cake mix.  Once

again, I am getting my pumpkin harvest on with these little beauties.

1 box of vanilla or white cake mix (to yield 9x13 pan)

1 cup of pure pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp pure almond extract

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg (or ground nutmeg)

Mix all the above goodies and add 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 degrees in paper lined cupcake tray for 18-19 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool, then top with my ridiculous frosting!

*10 out of 10 people agree that these treats are needed at your Thanksgiving dessert table!

(* = I would imagine they would say that!)

Minnesota Apple Crisp

This time of year represents many wonderful things: crunchy leaves, sweaters, dragging the soup tureen off the top shelf, pumpkins and most importantly...APPLE CRISP!

I am blessed with in-laws that have many lovely apple trees on their wooded land north of where the hubs and I grew up in Minnesota.  I am doubly blessed that they visit every fall with the biggest box of Honeycrisp and Haralson apples (the best for baking, in my humble opinion), straight off these trees. 

Here is my recipe for outstanding apple crisp.

Peel and cut apples into roughly 1/2 inch chunks.

13 cups of cut apples in a greased 9x13 baking dish.

Add to apples:

2 T. flour

1 T. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. finely grated nutmeg (if you use ground nutmeg, add additonal 1/8 tsp.)

Use clean hands to toss the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg

with the apples.  The flour will help thicken the juices

of the apples that will ooze out in baking. 

Anxiously awaiting the crumble.

 Crisp Crumble:

1 stick softened butter

1 c. quick oats

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 c. light brown sugar, packed

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

Use a fork, pastry blender, food processor or clean hands to mix until good and crumbly.

Crumble and seasoned apples.

Evenly top apples with the delish crumble (it tastes like

oatmeal cookie dough, so I dare you not to sneak several tastes)

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour. 

After 1 hour, fork the middle of the apple crisp to check that apples

are tender.  If the apples need additional cooking time, drape a

piece of aluminum foil across the baking dish (to prevent the crumble

from burning) and pop back in the oven, checking every 10 minutes, until

apples are fork tender. 

Enjoy this dish breakfast, lunch or dinner this time of year!

If there is any left*, store covered at room temperature.

(* = doubtful)

Baby Ben!

Who doesn't love newborn pictures???  They are so sweet!
When I think back to my daughter's newborn pictures, I remember raiding the entire house, looking for fun and funky things to bring with for the photo shoot.  I came up with oodles of items.  So many fantastic things (yes, I am most certainly tooting my 'loads-of-junk-that-is-totes-adorbs' horn) that I actually had to edit my selections a bit, so the photographer didn't think I was showing up to audition for The Jerk!  Sigh.

Here are a few gems from Logan Elizabeth's newbornies:

This time around, all my fantastic finds were somewhere in Denver, in some lonely storage facility.  Double sigh. 

So, girlfriend (me) had to get creative.  Oh, and we were in our summer housing (sounds fancy saying it like that...) which you hopefully saw in previous pictures was wall-to-wall windows of a high rise in downtown Denver.  Not too shabby, but not too fantastic for a mini photo shoot.  You feel me? 

Here's my Benny James (and a couple with big sis too):

Like I said, all my fantastic treasures were in storage,

so I popped down to Ikea to get this solid gold piece.

I would have bought it regardless, but newborn pics

felt like an excellent excuse.  At this price, I will throw

it out there that each and every one of you need one.

Sweet Ben! 

We were not going for the artsy 'naked baby' shoot.

Logan refused to get dressed, so alas, we are

pretending to be a bit deep and owning this

artsy moment. 

I bribed her to smooch her brother with ice cream and

soccer at the park across the street.  A mama has gotsta

do what she has gotsta do in a moment like this. 

No judgement!

This is that fantastic mid-century dresser

I bought earlier this summer on Craigslist

My ma-in-law made the blanket

for Ben with the fantastic fabric

I blogged about earlier this summer.

Baby Ben!  Look below to see

if you think he kind of looks like baby Logan.

Baby Logan.  Just a slight resemblance, huh!

Zac joked that we could reprint the newborn pics of Logan

(well, the ones without the doilies hat) and play them off as baby Ben!

Always looking to save a buck...I only laughed for a second.

Seasonal Confusion...3 year old style.

Let's be real, the weather outside is frightful!  Frightful because it is winter and in the 70s.  If we lived in Arizona, this would be kosher, but for Pete's sake, we moved to the foothills of the Rockies for a reason...A REAL WINTER! 

My little sweets is beyond confused.  She is 3 years old, if you have (or had) one, you know how 3 year olds roll...OMG, they are crazy (back me up here, please)...her doctor finally gave me the best advice when it comes to her stubborn streak of dressing herself, 'let her own the consequences of those choices'.  So true.  I will of course step in if she puts on a swimsuit and flippers to go outside and play this winter, but other than that, game on!  This morning though was a hilarious doozy of an outfit.  Too funny not to share. 

Nothing like a dress, flip flops, scarf and big o' furry hat to kick the day off...

who knows, she might be on to something? 

Fire Fighter Princess & a Little Candy Corn too...it's tutu making time!

My sweet Logan (she is 3) is pretty funny.  I have enjoyed her Halloween costume ideas over the past month or so...here are a few:

Road

Wall

Road that turns into a Trunk

Ballerina

Princess

Couch

Fire Fighter

She finally settled on being a Fire Fighter.  So easy!  I was feeling lucky.  Then, she switched it up (after I had the hat, realized she had a yellow raincoat and cutie striped leggings that would be perfect for a little fire fighter) and decided it was back to Princess...quick thinking on my part and I excitedly said, 'ohhhh, you can be a Fire Fighter Princess, how cool is that!?!'.  She was on board. 

I decided the 'Princess' element would be a red tutu (since I had supplies on hand), which is the cutest and simplest craft EVER...

All you need is ribbon, tulle and a good pair of scissors.

I always buy spools of tulle after holiday sales (black & orange after Halloween, red, chartreuse & hot pink after Christmas) and keep it on hand, because who knows what occasion might be on the horizon that is screaming for a tutu.  I usually use a thicker ribbon, but I had this on hand.  My hands are overflowing with new house, new baby and toddler, so I was not about to make a trip for thick ribbon. 

 My point, any ribbon will do!

Cut a piece of ribbon long enough for the circumference of the intended waist, with ribbon tails hanging on each end, that will tie in a bow to secure the tutu on the person.  Cut strips of tulle (I cut 10 inch pieces) that will fold in half and attach to the ribbon (the 10 inch sections were not measured, just eyeballed.  No big deal if they are off a bit from piece to piece).

tie knots in the ribbon so you keep the tails that will tie up the tutu, tulle free.

Start at one knot and fold the tulle in half and feed the none folded ends of tulle through the loop. 

Keep repeating, until you reach the other knot!

A few ties in, many to go...

Done.  Easy Peasy!

 Logan had a Halloween parade and party at preschool

The fire fighter took a 10er at the party, but the tutu princess held down the fort and lollipop!

It warmed up for trick-or-treating on main street, so I put shorts under the tutu for the night. 

Sweet little candy corn Benny is such a trooper!  So in love my kids.

(oh and yes, his little candy corn bunter is simply 3 sections of fleece stitched together!)

I hope this tutu tutorial was easy to follow (I often confuse myself, so shout out if not!)

xoxo. 

The Sessions

The fantastic film we saw at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, The Surrogate was released in theaters last week with the new name, The Sessions. 

John Hawkes, William H. Macy and Helen Hunt. 

The starts of The Sessions.

Read part 2 of my Sundance 2012 journey to refresh your memory about this amaze-balls film.  While you are at it, you might as well read part 1 of the journey as well...because we (girls, sans our law abiding husbands) are ridic-on-a-stick that time of year (just asking for a haul away to the pokey, if  you catch my drift!)

Check out the film, and then report back.  I still predict the film and lead actors will be nominated this upcoming awards season!! 

A Room with a View

We just finished up our first week of sleeps at our new home in Golden.  It has been a whirlwind of a week (I do not recommend, if possible, moving with little ones...yikes!).  I am so excited to be here, and start nesting (and project planning for a new kitchen) and feeling out our little life as Golden residents (so far, so good).  I can't though forget the fun we had as urbanites living the last 4.5 months in downtown Denver.  We definitely took advantage of the scene (you know, walking to the children's museum...all that ragey downtown living you do with little ones!) and did lots of walking on the 16th Street Mall, took many a visits to Little Man Ice Cream (and the park across the street that we aptly named, 'ice cream park') and even got the chance to walk over and take in a ball game at Coors field (we could see the stadium from the windows of our condo). In spite of living 11 stories above the mass transit tracks (I will not miss that), I felt blessed every single time I looked out our windows at the Denver skyline (and Zac had 4.5 months of walking to and from work...not too shabby!).

The view from the living room of our 'summer housing', many thanks

to the company Zac took a job with for putting us up (and extending

our time there until we found our home) - So blessed.

It is hard to tell in the skyline picture, but Union Station is in the

foreground, and I loved sitting and looking out the window at night

when the sign was illuminated. 

Thankfully where our house is perched in Golden, we have many great views.  Zac saw bighorn sheep up the mountain off the front side of our house, when he was looking out Ben's bedroom (oh, Ben is the new addition...how quickly I forget that I am still the world's worst blogger, and that hasn't been written about).

The view from our kitchen, off the back side of our house...I am in love! 

I am really going to work my way back into blogging...for reals.  So, until next time...