Pumpkin Spice Trifle

Each month at book club we all take a treat. I love this because it allows me to make all those pintrest recipes I've been dying to try. This month I wanted to do something pumpkin but not traditional pumpkin so I decided to look up and see if they had any Pumpkin Trifle recipes and I found this one on Taste of Home. It was a winner. Everyone really enjoyed it.

Ingredients:
1 package (14-1/2 ounces) gingerbread cake mix
1-1/4 cups water
1 egg
4 cups cold fat-free milk
4 packages (1 ounce each) sugar-free instant butterscotch pudding mix
1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each ground ginger, nutmeg and allspice
1 carton (12 ounces) frozen reduced-fat whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, water and egg, beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour into an ungreased 8-in. square baking pan.

Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. When completely cooled, crumble the cake. Set aside 1/4 cup crumbs for garnish.

In a large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mixes for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in pumpkin and spices until well blended.

In a trifle bowl or 3-1/2-qt. glass serving bowl, layer a fourth of the cake crumbs, half of the pumpkin mixture, a fourth of the cake crumbs and half of the whipped topping. Repeat layers. Garnish with reserved cake crumbs. Serve immediately or refrigerate until serving.

I will definitely be making this again. What's your favorite pumpkin recipe?

Rocking Chair Makeover

Recently I've really been getting into the idea of refinishing furniture. So I've been buying furniture like crazy and refinishing it. At the moment all the furniture I've bought I've needed for our home. But hopefully in the near future I will buy things to refinish and sell. Here is my most recent refinish a rocking chair I bought for a whopping $20. It cost about $10 for all the materials. I wonder what I could sell this for if I tried. What do you think? Do you enjoy refinishing furniture? Any tips?

Bar Stool Recover

You know that feeling when you finally find something you've been looking for. Something you've wanted for what feels like ages but the right fit or in my case the right price never comes up? Well that was me and bar stools. I've wanted some for our kitchen bar since we moved back to the US but I could never find any the right height or more commonly the right price. That was until last week. I came across someone who was selling two for $15. I was so excited I didn't even try to talk her down. This week I bought some fabric and tonight while my lovely hubby was watch The Avengers for the 3rd time this week, he's a Marvel fanboy!, I recovered the bar stools. All I have left to do is put some clear vinyl in them.... I know, I know only Granny's cover their furniture with plastic. I may not be a Granny but I have got 4 small messy children. I'm going to cover in plastic for my sanity. :-)

Pumpkin Pie French Toast

Tis' the season for pumpkin. Honestly I can't get enough of it.

Tonight for dinner I made Pumpkin Pie French Toast. I put a picture up on Facebook for all my lovelies to see and had an overwhelming number of requests for the recipe. I guess I'm not the only pumpkin lover out there.

So as requested here is the recipe:

Pumpkin Pie French Toast

4 eggs
1/2 c. Pumpkin Purée
1/2 c. Milk
3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 teas. Vanilla
1 teas. Pumpkin Pie seasoning
1 loaf of French Bread sliced thickly

Mix the eggs, pumpkin purée and milk together. Add the brown sugar and vanilla and mix well. Finally add the pumpkin pie seasoning and give one final mix.

Heat a frying pan or griddle to medium and spray with your favorite non stick cooking spray.

Dip the French bread into the pumpkin mix. Make sure to cover both sides. I really like to let the soak it up. Place on your fry pan or griddle for 2-3 minutes then flip and cook the other side for the same amount of time. You want both sides to be a lovely light brown color.

Serve warm with maple syrup and/or whipped cream. For a special treat I whip up my own fresh cream with a little sugar and ginger added to it. Lovely.

He said WHAT!?!?!

The other morning I came downstairs after a long sleepless night with the baby. My hubby had gotten up with Miss K and Mr S to help them get ready for school and I took just an extra 15 minutes to "wake up". When I got down stairs Mr S was no where to be found, which is unsual for our 5 year old. I asked the huby where he was and he explained that he was probably hiding because he was embrassed. Embrassed? What? Mr S never gets embrassed. I asked what he did that was so embrassing and my hubby explained that he dropped the F BOMB.... Eeeekkkk What? My sweet innocent 5 year old said what? As far as I had known he has never even heard that word before. But then wait he just started Kindergarten this year. My once sweet and innocent little boy was being exposed to the world for the first time. And I quickly learned that not all 5 year old boys are as sweet and innocent as Mr S.

I wanted to do something and quick so after a little discussion about what words are right and what words are wrong we sent him off to conquer the world one bad word at a time. It must has worked because last night we watched Jumanji as a family and someone said OMG and he asked why if we cant say those words would we watch movies with those words. Nothing like a 5 year old to put you in your place :)

Anyway I was flipping through this months friend and found this totally awesome story and Pledge. The "Help Stamp Out Bad Language" Pledge. Needless to say we will be doing this for our FHE lesson on Monday evening. If anyone else is interested and doesnt have the Friend, here is a link to the website and page. Maybe we can all help to "Stamp Out Bad Language" In our own little parts of the world.

Pumpkin Spice Muddy Buddies

So I discovered a new love while at Target last week.... Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kisses. Imagine my excitement when I came across these bad boys. I started to think of all the lovely Pumpkin Spice Treats I could make. Cookie, truffles, and, wait for it.... Wait for it.... Muddy Buddies. Or as they like to call it here in East Texas, Puppy Chow. I know weird, who wants to eat something called Puppy Chow. I'll stick to Muddy Buddies 😉

These bad boys are easy to make and oh so tasty. The thing that takes the longest is unwrapping all the Kisses.

So here's what you do:

1 pkg Pumpkin Spice Hershey's Kisses
1 box Chex Cereal
1 cup Powder Sugar(or more if you like

Unwrap all the Hershey's Kisses and put them into a bowl. Melt them by sticking the bowl in hot, boiling water so as to heat the bowl melting the chocolate. Stirring constantly.

When the kisses are all melted add about 9 cups of the cereal to the chocolate and mix well.

Finally put the powder sugar in a ziplock bag. Add the chex cereal covered in chocolate and do the Wiggle Dance shaking that bag so all the cereal is covered in the powder sugar.

Open the bag and pop one of those bad boys straight in your mouth. It's not my fault if you can't stop at just one. I know they are simple divine.

Enjoy!