Pretty Things: Fall Favorites

The cold rain finally came and with it out went my motivation.  We leave tomorrow for a retreat in Charlottesville and I should be running around, doing laundry, packing and cleaning and preparing for our road trip. But here I am, snuggled up with a blanket on the couch waiting for the sun to come back. I also attribute the fact that I woke up this morning to make coffee and much to my horror, we were out of k-cups. Goodbye cruel world, kill me now. I'm not sure how I'll make it through the day let alone get anything done. Something I can do without coffee is make a list of all the pretty things I've been seeing for fall. I'm about ready to retire all my summer clothes and ready to stock up on blankets and boots to get me through this season as gracefully as possible.

1. Bandolino Calliope Riding boots 99.95

I love a good cognac colored boot. These have enough of a heel to feel fun and flirty but are short and solid enough to use every day.

1. Coeur Pullover-158

I love a good graphic print, but add the softness of cashmere and angora and I'm likely to never take off my new favorite sweater.

3. buttermilk biscuit cardigan-168

I'm channeling my inner 90s cable knit, grungy flower chid with this sweater. But it just looks so incredibly cozy, I can picture wearing this on the warmer days with a dress and boots and being perfectly fashionable and not completely freezing.

4. pumpkin stuffed with everything good

I have all sorts of sweet pumpkin recipes in my arsenal, the one thing I am missing is a savory pumpkin recipe that I would actually enjoy. Pumpkin is something I'd like to embrace for dinner but most of the recipes seem a little to exotic for my simple palate. This has bacon and cheese so there's really nothing more to talk about.

5. heirloom variety needle felt pumpkins-17.50

Needle felting is still one of those things I long to learn. With so many adorable, tiny little things to make, Fall is ever more the reason for me to learn how!

No Bake Recipe: Eclair Cake

Sometimes I get in the mood to bake and there is nothing that will stop me, well, except for a lack of ingredients or a scorching 100+ day. 

Other days, I crave dessert but I just don't feel like going through the process of measuring and mixing and scooping and fitting into cupcake liners. If you have any days like that, this is the perfect recipe for you!

The first time I had chocolate eclair cake was at Shaun's parents house for Christmas. I'm not much of a regular eclair or Bear Claw or even cake type person so I took my small slice hesitantly. 

What I was expecting was the typical custardy filling with a "chocolate-flavored" frosting on top. Boy do I hate artificial chocolate flavor!

But to my surprise and delight, the eclair "cake" wasn't much of a cake at all. There were no spongy layers or bright colored frosting that made me gag at every childhood birthday party (including my own).  This cake is cool, soft, delicate yet rich in flavor. Pretty much everything I needed at that exact moment.

Luckily I was able to recreate that recipe so I don't have to wait for that one time of year when it is served during the holidays!

If you're looking for a recipe that is perfect for those days you'd like to leave the oven off, I suggest you try this. Even if you're not a chocolate lover you'll appreciate the flavors that go into this beauty!

What you'll Need

Box of Graham Crackers (I used the basic honey flavor, but cinnamon might be delicious too!)

2 packages of French Vanilla instand pudding

1 8 oz tub of Cool Whip (fridge temp)

3 1/4 cups milk

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup white sugar

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

9x13 baking dish

small to medium saucepan

The other wonderful thing about this recipe is that you might already have all these things on hand. At most you might have to go out and spend $2 on the instant pudding or Cool Whip but otherwise you've got an in-stock pantry dessert ready to go!

What you do

1. In a large bowl or stand mixer, mix up your pudding mix and 3 cups of the milk. 

Once this is smooth and free of lumps, fold in your cool whip and mix until completely blended

2.  Butter your baking dish and add one even layer of graham crackers to the bottom. It doesn't have to be perfect!

3. Gently spread 1/2 of your pudding mixture onto those graham crackers being sure not to overlap the graham crackers in the process. 

Rub this layer with the back of a spoon or a spatula until smooth.

4. Add another layer of graham crackers and repeat with the other half of the pudding mix.

5. Finally top of with a layer of graham crackers. This is the only layer that I like to focus on to make sure everything is even.

6. In your saucepan heat your 1/4 cup milk, sugar and cocoa over medium-high heat allowing it to boil for 1 minute. Make sure you whisk or stir while it is cooking so it doesn't burn!

7. Remove pan from heat and add butter and vanilla. Continue to whisk until evenly combined. Allow this to cool for several minutes.

8. Before the chocolate topping solidifies, pour over top of the last layer of graham crackers and distribute evenly. You can use a spoon or spatula to smooth over the cracks and crevices. 

9. Allow this to cool in the fridge for at least an hour or until the chocolate topping has set. 

10. Enjoy! This cake only gets better with time, so make sure to leave it in the fridge for a couple days and come back to it when the graham crackers have soaked up all that french vanilla goodness.

Crock Pot Sunday-BBQ chicken sandwiches

What's that you say? You love BBQ chicken? Well of course you do! It's one of those universal things that everyone likes, like sunny days, pay raises and dogs.

If you meet someone who doesn't like dogs or sunshine or bbq chicken, they are not to be trusted. Got it? Ok, enough of the life lessons.

Today I'm making BBQ chicken sandwiches for the sunday slow cooker and I am excited to share it with you! This recipe is one of those things that will stretch the whole week long. After Sunday you can still wrap up that deliciousness in a bun or sub roll, you can top a pizza with it, throw it in a salad, wrap it up in a taco shell, eat it on ice cream, whatever you like. It's that good and you can never get too creative with leftovers!

I love how stupidly simple this is and how all of the ingredients were here at home in my pantry or fridge. Except the main one, are you ready for this? BBQ sauce.

Yep.

It seems Shaun threw away all of my perfectly good BBQ sauce I had acquired when we lived next to Whole Foods. I'm not surprised. That guy has a tendency to throw away anything he thinks has been lingering for a while. Even if the expiration dates speak otherwise.

But it was ok because I had to run to Target to return a lampshade anyway so I grabbed BBQ sauce and managed to only purchase 1 other thing I didn't really need. How's that for resisting that bug-zapper like pull that Target has on people? Because I don't know if you're anything like me, but I'm assuming everyone gives in to that red bullseye once inside.  Kinda like this:

source

Without further ado or talk of all the things I've wasted money on in Target, here is the recipe!

Zesty Crockpot Chicken BBQ sandwiches

Ingredients

3-6 chicken breasts (recipe will cover 6 but I only had 3 large ones on hand)

3/4 bottle of BBQ sauce  

1/2 cup italian dressing

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp worcestershire sauce (could someone please let me know what the correct pronunciation of that word is?)

3 minced garlic cloves or 2 tsp garlic powder.

salt and pepper to taste

hamburger buns

Cheese or whatever else you'd like to top your sandwich with

Directions

Are you ready to do work? because WOW this recipe is so labor-intensive

Turn your crockpot on low for 5 hours

Take your BBQ sauce, italian dressing, brown sugar, worcestershire, and garlic and throw it in your crockpot. 

Mix this all up with a spoon.

Add your chicken.

Flip the chicken a few times to coat and spoon some of the sauce over top of the chicken.

Walk the dog, catch up on your favorite show, water the plants (you're welcome!), make fun of your pet bunny, whatever you want. You just freed up several hours of your afternoon and by the time you're done doing your previous activity of choice your food is delicious and ready to serve!

A few minutes before serving, gently shred the chicken and mix it all around in the sauce again so that it's all nice and mixed and coated and delicious. 

You can top your BBQ chicken with whatever you like! 

It's nice on days like this, the first real warm weather day of the season, to just sit back and catch up on your favorite magazine or catalog, open the windows and let the sounds of the neighborhood float in on the breeze. Then ending it with an easy, delicious and hearty meal and snuggling up with your loved ones to watch people kill zombies on your favorite show. 

Yes, this is what sunny Sundays are all about.

Impossibly Easy No Knead Bread

So yesterday I was chatting with Lenita online and she shared a new blog with me. I am always 100% excited to learn about new blogs, learn new recipes, view home decor and see all their beautiful pictures.

But what makes me even more excited is when I see something that is super easy, can be done with things I already have and looks professional when it's done.

My problem with cooking is that I get too emotionally involved in it. I take on extraordinarily detailed and somewhat complex recipes while working on 3 different side dishes and end up completely devastated if something comes out less than decent.

So I decided to try this great recipe because it seemed idiot-proof and every now and then, I need one of those!

The problem was this recipe and all others like it used cast iron dutch ovens, of which I did not have.  So I decided to try something that I've never tried before: pyrex.

You may think since I'm such an avid Pyrex lover/collector that I have baked or cooked with it before, but in all honesty I usually use them only for mixing or serving and have not yet used them in the oven. I've used the corningware casserole dishes to bake things in but I don't have as much of an emotional attachment to those.

So here it was, the moment of truth,  I busted out my thrifted crazy daisy Pyrex casserole dish.  The thing I was a bit apprehensive of with this particular dish is that the recipe called for a 6-8 quart dish and all I had that was deep enough for this bread was my little 1 1/2 qt. (which of course I didn't measure until after I was done because...you know...that would take planning and such.)

So here's the scoop, you gather your ingredients, are you ready for this?
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
3 cups AP flour plus more for work surface
and
1 tsp salt

That's it. Fabulous, isn't it?  So with 4 things I already have on hand I can make bread?! Why didn't someone tell me this 5 years ago?

So what you do is dissolve the yeast in the warm water then mix in the flour and salt.

After you have a nice sticky dough, you cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for at least 8 hours but preferably 12-18 at room temperature. The great thing about this is that you can make this the previous day, set it and forget it. Yeah, I went there.

So the next day after it looks like this with bubbles beginning to form you want to take it out and fold it over itself a few times on a well floured surface.

Then shape it into a ball and cover it again with a clean, floured kitchen towel. You're supposed to let it sit for an hour but I only waited about 45 minutes.

 So 45 minutes in you heat your oven to 475 with your oiled dutch oven or alternate (oven safe) covered dish inside.  After the oven is preheated you place the dough inside, bake for 30 minutes then remove the lid and bake another few minutes. The recipe I had called for baking it uncovered another 15-20 minutes but I checked mine about 7 minutes in and it already had a nice golden crust, so I snatched it out of there.

When I pulled it out, this is what I had.:

 Looks like bread, right? Of all the things I have baked in my lifetime, and there have been a lot, I haven't been this excited for anything since the first time I successfully baked cupcakes which seems like an eternity ago.

So here it is, a great, rustic loaf that couldn't be any easier to make with ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry. The wonderful thing is it's got a nice thick crust and a smooth, soft inside, perfect for spreading on butter and jam. I can imagine this being great for those unplanned dinner guests or for a nice chilly weekend in need of comfort food!

With how easy this is, I'm planning on baking another loaf tomorrow with fresh rosemary from my little countertop herb garden. This is definitely a recipe I can see myself recreating many times in the future!