pumpkin bars w/ cider-cream cheese frosting

Do you remember that show "DoorKnock Dinners" with Gordan Elliot? Almost 11- 12 years ago on food network? Back when food network was just starting out? I do. And I remember the episode when Gordan went knocking on Paula Deen's door. This was waaaay before she was famous. Oh she had such a warm, inviting personality when she answered the door. Surely that was what Gordan was drawn too, her bubbly personality; for he knew she would be great on the show. Smart man. And from there Paula started her journey into food. Granted from interviews with Paula now she states she always wanted to do something with food--just wasn't sure what exactly. She was doing a lot of catering well before she opened her restaurant. Amazing to also find that back in her late 20's she suffered from panic attacks and agoraphobia that literally kept her housebound. After reading that I just find it so hard to believe with her very bubbly personality and tremendous self esteem that shines through on her shows, book events, guest appearances, etc... Apparently it took her a few years to get well, when she then ventured out to have a job as a bank teller, then onto a small catering business, a large catering business, then meeting Gordan Ramsey, and the rest is history. Fascinating how she turned her life around at such a late age and finally realized/accomplished her dream of being int he food business.

Onto the bars. These moist pumpkin bars are from Paula Deen with a kicked up frosting from me. I finally have some of the 'pumpkin baking bug'. Took a while but it's here. While I have you--any kicked up pumpkin requests? Love to hear them!
(sorry the photos are so dark, we've had a ton of rain here on cape cod).
Since I get emailed (a lot) about where do I get the sprinkles from. I all mine from Whole Foods. They have such great colors and varieties of sprinkles and they're all natural too; no chemicals or dangerous food dyes in them.

pumpkin bars with apple cider-cream cheese frosting
bars by paula deen, frosting by vanillasugarblog.com
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Bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting:
1 cup +/- confectioners sugar, sifted
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp (nice & soft)
1 ts ground cinnamon
A dash or three of pure apple cider (apple juice really won’t work here for that full flavor of apple, stick with the cider)

Orange sprinkles, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 X 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting:
In a medium bowl add in the soft cream cheese with the sifted confectioners sugar, cinnamon, and a couple dashes of the apple cider (in batches--don’t add in all the cider at once; it’s better to add in small doses than larger ones).
Get out the handheld mixer and beat until well mixed, no lumps are present. You can add as much or as little apple cider depending on how thick you like your glaze. I like to place mine frosting in the fridge for a while to harden up before frosting/piping onto the cake. For a decorative cake like mine, you can use a piping bag to frost or a knife. But make sure the cake is cooled before frosting.
Dust with orange sprinkles if desired.

sunset photos, beach photos, etc..

There hasn't been a lot of sun here on cape cod lately, it's as if our winter (which is mostly rain and snow) is starting too early for me. I'm missing the summer sun and all its brightness. We did have a couple stellar days where it was high 70's, low humidity and bright sun. The sunset for those couple of days were amazing; a spectacular sunset that brought people out of their houses and onto the beach to just stand, be silent and watch. It was almost like being back in California--it was breathtaking; the colors, the air, the calmness of the ocean.

These photos were taken at corporation beach in dennis, mass. Can you imagine living in this house with those views?


Love finding little critters in the ocean at low tide.




Found this little guy in my backyard swimming in the sun.

You know for a couple years now I've been waiting for the perfect timing to occur and capture a shot of the cape cod railroad. Finally got one! If you ever come to the cape you should try this, it's fun in the off season months like october when it's not as packed. The rail travels along the great cape salt marsh to cape cod canal; they're infamous for traveling through the cow tunnels: one cow high, one cow wide. They give you a scenic/narrated tour along the trail, along with a great lunch or dinner. It's worth it if you are a history buff.

We still have massive seal sightings on the cape cod national seashore. Can you see the seal? They are huge; some of them are just as big if not bigger than a shark. It's moments like this when I wish I had a fancy camera, but the iphone gets great shots for now.

I love when the tide is low and you can wade through the water, searching for all kinds of critters.



Remember last winter when I introduced you to Mabel? She's back, having her pre-evening stroll. She's quite the character, and must say hello to EVERYONE on the beach before walking home.

The swells at cape cod national seashore have been pretty big, well pretty big for cape cod. A good handful of surfers out making the most of it. The weather this weekend was perfect. I'm really going to miss summer, so not ready for winter.

cake filled peanut butter cups

Wouldn't this be a fabulous gift for the upcoming holidays? Imagine the look on their faces when they bite into one of these? Priceless. They'd say "oh my gosh there's cake inside my peanut butter cup!" That's reason enough to make them.
I mean who doesn't love a little cake with their peanut butter? And why not throw them into a nice cute little milk chocolate cup?
Ever since I made my first homemade peanut butter cup way back in 2009 I've always had it in the back of my mind to kick them up a notch, somehow, someway. Finally I thought of putting cake inside when all this cake ball madness came about from Bakerella.
I hope some of you make these, they are a lot of fun. Enjoy!






cake filled peanut butter cups
recipe by vanillasugarblog.com
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Cook notes:
I only made 12 (regular size muffin tins) with this. You could go ahead and make a lot more, but I only wanted 12. The rest of the cake batter I used them for cake pops.
One could make these cups smaller, like mini’s, but it might be hard as you have to put a layer of cake batter in there and a layer of pb filling—you need the room that a regular sized muffin tin has.
I used milk chocolate for this, you could try dark; I don’t know how that would taste.
I used devils food cake for this as I wanted something that would go nice with peanut butter. But feel free to experiment and use any type of cake filling you desire.

Cake filling:
1 box devil food cake mix
1 can cream cheese frosting

Peanut butter filling:
1 cup of plain or crunchy peanut butter (use a pb that is not runny or too oily)
2 TB confectioners sugar
3 TB of crushed graham crackers, finely crushed

Milk chocolate cups:
About 2-3 cups of melted milk chocolate
Pastry brush

Bake cake according to directions on box. Let cool, then crumble cake into large bowl or use a food processor to crumble. Then mix the cake crumbles with the can of cream cheese frosting. Mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and let chill for an hour.
Line a regular muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Melt the milk chocolate over a double boiler. It’s best to use this so this way we can go back and reheat what we need in steps. Take pastry brush and gently line the bottoms and sides of the cupcake liners with melted milk chocolate; do this a couple times as we want a nice thick bottom and sides to hold all the stuffing inside. Let the chocolate harden in the fridge or on the counter.
Make the peanut butter filling by combining the peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar and crushed graham crackers. Mix well, cover and store in fridge.
Take your chilled cake batter and scoop out “almost golf ball” size and place into hardened chocolate cups; flatten just a bit. Make sure to leave room around the edges for pouring chocolate. Then take your chilled peanut butter filling and make a smaller ball than that of the cake batter and place on top of the cake batter. Once you’ve done all the cups, let this sit in the fridge to harden up a bit.
Go back to your chocolate over the double boiler and melt chocolate again. With a spoon, take the melted chocolate and filled the sides and tops of the peanut butter making sure to cover everything in chocolate and giving the cup an overall good seal.
You can either let these harden on the counter or if you can’t wait the fridge.

teriyaki beef tacos w/ ginger-miso slaw & sriracha

Ohhh these were good. I marinated the beef strips for about 3 days and they turned into little pieces of sweet candy after grilling them.
Incredibly easy to throw together. The sauce for the slaw I got from whole foods. As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what to do with it--make a nice crunchy slaw for a beef teriyaki taco. Don't you love how you find one special food item and instantly you figure out a fabulous meal from it? Love when that happens.
Can you do this with chicken, fish, tofu? Yes! Please do. I bet the fish would be amazing tasting, just make sure you grill it. Teriyaki anything is better grilled don't you think?
Please make sure to top off the tacos with sriracha sauce. OK?
These cook fast; 3 minutes per side for medium.
I know the outside looks burnt, it's not, just the grilling turns the teryaki marinade dark and sweet. The inside is nice and juicy and tender.



That ginger-miso dressing I found at Whole Foods in the refrigerated section over by the lettuce. It's really good. Great on plain salads too. Any bottled ginger-miso dressing will do. If you can't find one, here is a good homemade ginger-miso dressing recipe from Chow. I marinated the filet strips for 3 days; they were like candy after I grilled them, so good. The marinade will turn the beef a dark color, don't be alarmed.

buckwheat-oat waffles

Do you like buckwheat pancakes? Waffles? Me, not so much. But then I had them this way and I liked them.
I don't know, maybe it's the over-grainy taste that's in there? I feel as though buckwheat belongs in a bread: a honey-molasses bread. That sounds good doesn't it? I'll have to work on that one.
I found a good mix for buckwheat waffles. I added in some light brown sugar, butter, oil, cinnamon and buttermilk. Tasted good. But it really was the blueberries that tasted well with the buckwheat.
So the next time I make these, I am using a blueberry sauce, not maple syrup. If you make these, try it with a warm blueberry compote or sauce. I bet it's just fabulous.





buckwheat-oat waffles (from pre-made mix)
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There is no recipe. I did not write it down--made it on the fly. Sorry. But you're all smart bakers, so you should be able to figure this out if you taste as you go along and see how the batter comes together as you add in what I did (in the above photo). If you buy this buckwheat mix, remember to:

- this is based on use for 1/2 the bag, about 8-10 giant waffles.
- sub out the liquids it has on the directions with buttermilk and some oil.
- I added in the quick cook oats (about 1/2 cup) to give it a nice crunch, you don't have too.
- it did not say to add in the oil, but I did (about 2-3 TB) as the batter was very dry
- it does say to add in melted butter, I did plus a little extra
- I added in about 2-3 TB of light brown sugar to the batter
- I added in about 1 TB of cinnamon to the batter
- always always always taste- test before cooking to see what it needs.
- this batter is very lumpy and thick, that is good. Watery thin is bad.
- as I said before the maple syrup was OK, a nice warm blueberry compote would be awesome with hot waffles or even warmed up blueberry jam.