Pumpkin Filled Cannolis

It’s September which means for me, it’s time to break out the pumpkin recipes!

I was fortunate enough to start my pumpkin bingeing a little early this year. At the end of August, I traveled to Australia to visit our younger sister. To my pleasant surprise, almost every menu there had something with pumpkin in it! I tired all sorts of pumpkin things- pumpkin & feta pizza, chicken & pumpkin risotto, pumpkin & sweet potato white wine pumpkin sauce over pasta. All of which were delicious! I guess the Aussies love pumpkin as much as Grace and I do.  

Here’s a picture from the trip:

Sydney Harbor Bridge- Me & Kelsey

Now that the reality of summer being over has set in, I figured this past weekend was the perfect time to try a new pumpkin recipe from Pinterest. Enter the Pumpkin Filled Cannoli from Laurenslatest.

Lauren's Latest

Lauren filled her cannoli cream into sugar cones (so creative!). I decided to make the pie cups that I used for the mini cannoli cups. I didn’t take any new pictures while making the shells. If you’d like to see, check out this older post.

Start by whipping the cream.

Move the whipped cream to a separate bowl. Then stir the pumpkin, ricotta cheese, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar, & vanilla together.

Then whip for 1 minute.

Fold in the whipped cream- here is the step I winged. I don’t really know what fold means in the cooking sense. I just plopped the whipped cream in and used a spatula to move the pumpkin mixture over the cream. I continued until it was completely incorporated.

I spooned the cream into a plastic bag, snipped the corner and piped the cream into the cups.

The Verdict: These were delicious! They were very light and the taste of pumpkin was subtle.  This was definitely my best cannoli cream to date. What's even better is that they only took 15 minutes to make.

Things to Note/Consider: Nothing!

Pumpkin Filled Cannolis

adapted from Lauren’s Latest

¾ cup pumpkin puree

¾ cup ricotta cheese

½ cup heavy whipping cream

1/3 cup granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon vanilla

Sugar cones or mini cups

Mini chocolate chips –to garnish

• In a large bowl, whip heavy whipping cream until firm peak forms
• Spoon whipped cream into a separate bowl and set aside.
• In the same bowl you used to whip the cream, stir pumpkin, ricotta, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, & vanilla together.
• Scrape sides and whip for 1 minute.
• Carefully fold in whipped cream.
• Pipe into sugar cones or mini cups and top with chocolate chips.
• Enjoy!

S'more Cups

Who doesn't love a S'more? From girl scout camp, to backyard fire pits, to microwaving marshmallows in a microwave in college (almost to the point of explosion), I've been eating s'mores for years. Of course the best version is with a freshly toasted marshmallow over a fire, but that isn't always the most practical. I pinned this delicious looking picture awhile ago and finally had a couple opportunities to make them:

(source)

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Sally from Texas Cottage made them look simple but tasty. The best part was I actually had everything I needed already in my pantry.

First I mixed up the "crust" batter and smushed it into my mini muffin pans.

Then bake for 5 or so minutes to get the butter bubbling.

Once out, place 1 rectangle of chocolate bar on top then cover with half a marshmallow.

Back in the oven for a couple minutes to get the marshmallow to puff up a bit.

Then allow to cool, remove from pan, and once set, dunk the top in more chocolate.

Don't they look delicious?!



The Verdict: One of my favorite Pinterest Recipes to date. They were so good, so easy, and so quick. I made them the night before I needed them, and was a little concerned they wouldn't be as good the next day, but they were still delicious. From start to finish it took less than a half hour. These could easily become my go-to "throw something together last minute" baked good.

Things to Consider: The second time I made them I ran out of chocolate to dunk so I just melted some semi-sweet chocolate chips. Still tasty, but Joe was a little weirded out by the two different chocolates. I think I would try all chocolate chips next time to see if I like the semi-sweet better. The recipe made about 22 cups when I made them the second time, but they are small so they go fast. You may want to double the recipe.

S'more Cups

(from The Texas Cottage)

7 whole graham crackers (1 cup finely crushed)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

6 tablespoons butter, melted

4 bars (1.55 oz each) milk chocolate candy, divided

12 large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place graham crackers into a large resealable plastic bag. Finely crush into crumbs. Combine graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and butter in a small bowl.

Place 1 tablespoon of crumb mixture in each cup of a mini muffin pan. Firmly press crumbs to form shallow cups. Bake 4-5 minutes or until edges are bubbling. Meanwhile, break two of the candy bars into rectangles. Remove pan from oven; place one rectangle into each cup.


Cut marshmallows in half crosswise using shears dipped in cold water. Place one marshmallow half, cut-side down, into each cup. Return to oven 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows are slightly softened. Remove pans from oven to cooling rack; cool 15 minutes. Carefully remove cups from pan. Cool completely.

Break remaining candy bars and place in small microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring every 20 seconds. Dip the top of each marshmallow in melted chocolate. Turn top-side up and let stand 40 to 60 minutes or until set. Makes 24 cups.

I know s'mores are more of a summer treat and its almost fall, but I plan on making these all year round! I am so ready for fall - how about you guys? Bring on the pumpkin recipes!!

Airport Survival Kit

As I mentioned in my last post, Shannon and our Dad are off visiting Kelsey in Australia. Kelsey has been there since the end of June, "studying" abroad for a semester in Geelong. She's been doing some travelling, met some great friends and is having an amazing time. I am sure she is doing a little studying here and there as well. We miss her (especially JJ since she was babysitting for him before she left), but we are so happy she is living it up and having the experience of a lifetime.

Anyway, before she left, my mom had our local family over for dinner to wish her off. The travel time from NJ to where she is in Australia was about 24 hours. I know I would go nuts being by myself and stuck on a plane for hours on end to a strange new place. To help her survive her long journey, I put together a little "survival kit". I have pinned a couple "kits" here and there - but never found quite what I was looking for, so I just gathered some of her favorite things and put them together for her.

I got some magazines (to help kill some time) and some other "toiletry" items I know I like to have on hand: chapstick, lotion, gum and some whisps. I made sure they were under 3oz so she could carry them on. I bought some of her favorite candy and rounded it out with a batch of my chocolate chip cookies (she loves them and I figured a taste of home might be nice once she arrives). Lastly, I included a card with a couple pics of her and her niece and nephew so she could hang them up in her room.

Although the travel was rough, she said the kit helped (especially the candy). We miss you Kelsey - can't wait to see you in November!

100th Post!

I can't believe I am typing up our 100th Post! What started as a silly idea between Shannon and I has turned into a pretty decent display of all our attempts at pinterest/internet recipes, crafts, and baking. I just wanted to thank our readers - despite our slow down in posting this year, we still have a steady stream of over 100 pageviews a day! Below are our most popular posts to date:

#3 - Wine Cork Letter

#2 - Caprese Skewers

(This was actually our first post and Shannon snapped the pic from her phone!)

and our #1 Most Popular Post (by far) - Cake Batter Dip

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We started the blog on September 28, 2011 - so we are close to our 1 year blogiversary as well. We are going to hi light our favorite posts for that. In the meantime, I have a couple things to type up and hopefully post while Shannon is visiting with our other sister Kelsey in Australia. I am super jealous but can't wait to see the pics of them from the bridge climb! Have a great week!

Button and Bow Tie Garland

The Diaper Trike was not the only thing I attempted to make for our cousin Katie's Baby Shower. The overall theme for the shower was "Buttons and Bow ties" - inspired in part from this pin:

From The Hostess with the Mostess Blog. The shower they threw was adorable, and I loved the bow tie garland they made with diapers. Since I had the diapers taken care of with the trike, I tried to replicate with onsies.

It was pretty simple, I just folded over the sleeves to make one long strip, then folded the ends in and secured with a rubber band and covered the rubber band with ribbon:

I thought they came out cute, but thought they needed a "little more". I was brainstorming ways to add buttons to the garland without looking cheesy. My first attempt was using a simple salt dough and cookie cutters to make a couple. I was inspired by this pin for sugar cookies:

And this recipe for salt dough. I mixed all the ingredients and added some blue good coloring:

And kneaded and kneaded and kneaded. After 10 minutes, I rolled it out and used two different sized circular cookie cutters and a straw to make them look like buttons.

Of course, once again, I did not read the directions all the way through and only gave myself an hour to bake them at 200 degrees before I was falling asleep on the couch. "No biggie", I thought to myself. It says you can also let them dry out for 48 hours. I figured I could throw them back in the oven the next day for a couple hours and they would be as good as gold. Unfortunately, even after drying out all night, and being in the oven the next day for 4 hours, and then drying for a week, they never hardened up. In fact, by the end of the week, they were even more "pliable" then they were when I started. I don't know why - maybe I added too much water, maybe it was just too humid out (we don't have central a/c so it can get sticky because we turn the window units off when we aren't around) - who knows. I am super disappointed though because I would like to use salt dough for Christmas ornaments in the future.

So, the Friday night before the shower, I whipped up some faux buttons using some scrap book paper, foam board, and my Creative Memory circle cutters circa 2002. Not my best work, but they did the job.

Here is the garland on the candy bar:

Some tips if I were to attempt this garland again:

• I would get some fatter ribbon for the bow ties. What I had looked a little thin.
• Seek some alternative for the button - painted wooden circles? painted paper plates?
• Find a better way to secure them. We didn't hang it on the wall because the weight of the onsies sort of twisted the ribbon string down and you saw the ugly side. Perhaps this is why the ladies from JL Designs used diapers instead (much lighter).

The mom-to-be seemed to have a great time and was very blessed with all the gifts her friends and family brought - check out this haul!

Baby Salvatore is due October 5th, but we all know he can come whenever he decides - so we are patiently waiting for him!

Hope everyone has a great week!







Housewarming Gift

A friend of mine recently bought her first place. She just moved in 2 weeks ago and I went to go check it out the other night. And of course I wanted to bring a little something when I went. I decided to forgo the usual bottle of wine because I figured that's what everyone else who visits will bring her. So I turned to this pin for inspiration.  

Martha Stewart

This housewarming gift is from Martha Stewart. Unfortunately, Martha’s site does not list what items are in the bucket.  I decided to just use the pin as a general inspiration and do my own thing. I went to Target and tried to think of things that you can always use when you first move to a new place but can never find packed away in your boxes.

Here’s what I bought:

• 2 pack of Flashlights – (in Boston we’ve been losing power quite often with the blazing heat so these may come in handy!)
• Batteries – always useful!
• Scissors
• Extension Cord– a must in a new place
• Candle
• Gorilla Glue- not exactly sure what that is but I liked the sound of it
• Basket – I decided to do a basket instead of the bucket I think she’ll get more use out of it.

I used some Styrofoam in the bottom of the basket and covered it with tissue paper to lift the candle up a bit and give it a bit of dimension.

I think if I was to make this gift again; I would include a hammer and/or some picture hanging supplies. The possibilities are really endless with what you can put in here.

I think it came out cute. Just a simple little “congratulations on your new home” gift.

Update: Need another housewarming gift idea? Check out these "Now & Later Cookies."

Beach Themed Centerpiece

Remember that beach themed party I mentioned a few weeks ago? Well I wanted to share some photos of the centerpieces we did.

The inspiration was this photo I had pinned:

poolfunforeveryone.com

We did basically the same thing with just a few tweaks.

The beach balls I ordered were a lot smaller then I anticipated, but we made them work.

Here’s a break down of the cost:

• Beach Balls –12 for $11 from Oriental Trading
• Buckets - 12 for $19 from Oriental Trading
• Grass –12 for $6.25 from Oriental Trading
• Flip Flops - $2.50 a pair from Old Navy & Target
• Starfish – We had on hand.
• Smaller Shells – big assortment from the Dollar Store. I bought two.

Total Cost for 12: $68.25 or

Total Cost for 1: $5.69 a piece. Not too shabby!

We also spread fish nets over the table tops to really drive home the beach theme.