A Season of Thanks

With November right around the corner, my mind has been twirling with baking ideas for the family gathering! I love everything about baking...wearing a fun apron (yes, that comes first :), rolling the dough, frosting, sprinkles, the scents...yum! Why I can't seem to translate this love into regular cooking I'm not sure.

I've been trying to come up with some new recipes to try instead of the same old traditional pies (don't get me wrong, I love those too!) when I stumbled upon this fun Acorn Cake from The Celebration Shoppe!! I'm so excited, I can hardly wait! The ingredients are so easy and it calls for Snickers and Twix, my fave candy bars, so what could be better!!! I think I must give it a trial run this weekend just to make sure it goes without a bump for the actual thanksgiving feast (good excuse, right?). AND, Grace has the cutest little acorn smocked dress for Thanksgiving, so I got even more excited when I found this cake (cheesy, I know :)

While I was browsing their blog I also found a recipe for these adorable bite-size Mini Caramel Apples Now this is definitely a Grace and Mama project! These make me think of old county fairs, cute church bake sales, neighborhood yard sales and just simpler days in general!

I'm not sure what it is about caramel apples, but they make me think of peanut butter (PB + banana sandwich = YUM!!!). So I think we'll do a double project and make the caramel apple lollies along with Peanut Butter Play Dough - how fun! My little pumpkin will definitely love that!!! I'm sure PB play dough has been around for a really long time, but I just heard of it recently while watching Jon & Kate Plus 8. And just in case like me, you're one of the few who's never heard of it, here's the super easy recipe:

1 cup PB
1 cup Honey
1 cup Powdered Milk

In a large bowl, mix PB, honey, and powdered milk together.
Knead until smooth (add more powdered milk if you need to, or even a little flour).
Mold dough into any shape you want.
That's it! Now get out those cookie cutters and have some fun!

We're off to the Annual Pumpkin Shine tonight so that's it for now. I'll leave you with Grace's new favorite phrase, "Okay, okay, let's go, let's go!" hmmm...wonder where she's heard that before ;0