Livin' the Dream in Lima

Time for this week's rockin' pumpkin recipe! Have you ever tried a recipe for a cookie, but it turns out like a little baby cake? It seems like every pumpkin cookie recipe out there turns into a miniature pumpkin cake once it's baked. Or a whoopie pie. If I wanted to eat cake, I would make cake! However, Jessica over at How Sweet It Is has perfected the chewy pumpkin cookie with crispy edges. The secret? Pumpkin butter, not pumpkin puree.  You still get that sweet pumpkin-y flavor, but none of the puffiness. (Real scientific, I know.) I had some leftover cheesecake from making Red Velvet Cheesecake cupcakes earlier this week, and I wondered how it would taste inside the cookies. You know, instead of chocolate chips or white chocolate chips? I diced up the leftover cheesecake into super small chunks. And froze them for about 20 minutes before folding them into the dough so they wouldn't get smooshed too much. The verdict?  De...

From kindergarten to eighth grade, I attended a parochial school called St. Patrick's School. One of the absolute best days of the year was St. Patrick's Day . Why? Because we always got school off! We'd be off school while all the public schools around still were in session. I felt so cool! And the city closest to us always had a huuuuuge St. Patrick's Day parade , and I'd get to walk/march in it one way or another, usually for band. One year I was a cheerleader, and we got to lead the parade! It was so awesome. (For a 13-year-old, leading a parade was such an excitement. Now? Not so much... everyone staring at me? While trying to carry a banner and keep it straight? No thank you.) Anyways, when I first got into baking, I was on a big cheesecake kick. I probably made a different type of cheesecake every two or three weeks for a year. I even donated "A Cheesecake Each Month for a Year" to a silent auction to benefit a local charity. I would call...

The sun came out today! This left me smiling from ear to ear all day. Ironically, though the sun was shining strong, we had Snow Day #3 of the week. (I guess the roads were really icy this morning. They actually were pretty bad when I headed to the gym around 10am.) Fingers crossed we'll be back at school tomorrow, because now we're at the point where we will be adding days to our school year in June! Anyways, I've pretty much exhausted myself of ways to entertain myself outside the baking world. I've watched TV, read blogs, read books, organized closets, dusted, changed sheets, and even cleaned the bathroom. I haven't touched a lick of schoolwork, but that's beside the point. I finally broke down and got busy in the kitchen today, preparing a special treat for my Business Man. I discovered a recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies while browsing the interwebs this morning. Now, most recipes that I find on the internet, I usually file away on my...