Pumpkin Pie at the Yeuletts

Rebecca and Daniel Yeulett with their first pumpkin pie and Smartie bars

The pastor of the church we're attending in Shrewsbury, Paul Yeulett, and his family - wife, Ruth, Rebecca(6), Matthew(5) and Daniel(4) - invited Jeff and me over to their house Saturday evening for a post-Thanksgiving dinner. A couple weeks ago, Rebecca asked me what a pumpkin pie was, since she had seen it in a movie she watched the night before. I explained that it's made out of pureed pumpkin with spices, it's my favorite pie and said I'd bring one with us to dinner, especially since I hadn't even had one this fall yet! I also brought Smartie bars for the kids just in case they didn't like the pumpkin pie... though Daniel asked for a second sliver, Rebecca and Matthew preferred the Smartie bars.

Rebecca and me with the Smartie (like plain M&Ms) bars
After-dinner entertainment: Paul performing the "wedding" of Rebecca (hence the princess dress) to Daniel (hence the button-up shirt and nice trousers) followed by a family-friendly word game... and all before 8pm!

Classic Pumpkin Pie
source: Eaglebrand.com

Ingredients

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin (about 2 cups)
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust (I used this recipe)

Instructions

HEAT oven to 425°F. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust.
BAKE 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F; bake an additional 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1-inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish as desired.


Smartie Bars
source: ww-recipes.net
Makes 16 squares

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup M&M or Smarties candies (couldn't find plain M&Ms at Sainsbury's)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (I didn't add these for the kids)
1 egg
1/3 cup margarine (I used butter instead - worked just fine)
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar, granulated
1/3 cup sugar, brown packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Beat the margarine and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add the walnuts and flour; mix well.
4. Reserve 1/2 cup of the crumb mixture; press the remaining crumb mixture into bottom of a 8″ square pan.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.
6. Combine the softened cream cheese, granulated sugar and vanilla; using an electric mixer, mix at medium speed until well blended.
7. Add the egg; mix well.
8. Layer 1/2 cup of the Smarties or M&M candies over the crust; top with the cream cheese mixture.
9. Combine the remaining candy and reserved crumb mixture; mix well.
10. Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the cream cheese mixture.
11. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
12. Let cool completely before serving.

Palmers Visit

Having not seen them in over a year, we thought it was time to invite David and Sharon Palmer down to our house. After they arrived on Saturday, we ate lunch in town, had a walk around, and then went back to our place for raclette. Sunday morning, I made (American-style) pancakes for breakfast before going to church. They stayed until the afternoon... and finishing off my salted caramel brownies! I'd love to say that they are the same ol' Palmers: Sharon being her sweet, fun self (which she still is) and David taking any chance to tease me (which he still does), but David has changed ever-so slightly, not that you'd notice at first since he still only wears black. As you can see, we managed to get a picture of him and Sharon AND there's even a slight grin on his face. I even caught him humming a wee tune every now and then! Of course I'm just teasing him back in love, because I know he'll be reading this blog, since he likes to keep up-to-date with my baby bump and recipe of the week.

Salted Caramel Brownies

Another recipe to add to my sweet and salty recipes - Salted Caramel Brownies - but I won't get to enjoy these sweet and salty treats, because they're for a bakesale at Jeff's office in aid of Children in Need, BBC UK's corporate charity that has it's largest fundraising evening on Friday across the UK. So, hopefully these brownies will raise a few pounds to go to a good cause.

Source: MyRecipes
Ingredients
Brownies:
3/4 C. all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons (85g) butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray
Topping:
1/4 (57g) cup butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons evaporated fat-free milk, divided
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/8 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare brownies, weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through baking powder) in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Combine 6 tablespoons butter, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add butter mixture to flour mixture; stir to combine. Scrape batter into a 9-inch square metal baking pan lightly coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 19 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a wire rack.
3. To prepare topping, melt 1/4 cup butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons milk; cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and powdered sugar; stir with a whisk until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over cooled brownies. Let stand 20 minutes or until set.
4. Combine 2 tablespoons milk and chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave at HIGH for 45 seconds or until melted, stirring after 20 seconds. Stir just until smooth; drizzle over caramel. Sprinkle with sea salt; let stand until set. Cut into squares.

Week 22 Bump

At 22 weeks, the bump is slowly, very slowly growing. BeeBee moves around mainly in the morning and in the evening when we're watching telly. Other than that, I don't feel her move much. But saying that, she did move around a bit at church this morning when we sang the first hymn. That was quite sweet.

Cinnamon Rolls

My husband kindly brought it to my attention the other morning that he had been waiting for about 4 years for me to make him cinnamon rolls. Four years ago or so, our friend, Diana Graalum, baked these cinnamon rolls for a BICF church potluck, and she was so kind to send me her recipe. Although I've intended many times to bake her cinnamon rolls, due to the time commitment (2 1/2 hrs) and the fact that, well, I'm kind of scared of using yeast and the whole bread making process, I've shyed away from making things with yeast. But I decided this is the time to face my semi-fear of baking with yeast so Jeff doesn't have to wait any longer.

Cinnamon Rolls
Makes 24 small rolls

Ingredients
4 to 4 1/3 C. all-purpose flour
1 pkg (.25 oz) active dry yeast
1 C. milk
1/3 C. sugar
1/3 C. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
3 Tbs. butter, melted
1/2 sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Instructions
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of the flour and yeast; set aside. In a medium saucepan, heat and stir milk, the 1/3 cup of sugar, the 1/3 cup of butter and salt just until warm (120 to 130 degrees F) and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture to dry mixture along with the eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as possible.

2. Turn dough onto a floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (3 to 5 minutes total). Shape dough into a ball. Place dough ina lightly greased bowl, turn once to grease dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1 hours).

3. Punch down dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Lightly grease two 9x 1-1/2-inch round baking pans.

4. Rolls each portion of the dough into a 12x8-inch rectangle. Brush the 3 Tbs. of melted butter over the dough. Combine the 1/2 cup of sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over dough. Roll up into a sprial, starting from a long the side. Seal seam. Slice each roll into 12 equal pieces. Place in prepared pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double (3o minutes).

5. Bake in 375 degree F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden. Cool slightly; spread on icing (if using).

Butter Cream Frosting
Makes enough to frost tops and sides of two 8- or 9-inch cake layers
(12 servings)

Ingredients
1/2 C. margarine or butter
1 tsp. vanilla
4 C. sifted powdered sugar
1/4 C. milk

Instructions
1. Beat margarine or butter and vanilla until fluffy. Gradually add sifted powdered sugar alternating with milk, beating well after each addition.

2. Beat in additional milk, if necessary, to make into spreading consistency.

Cinnamon-Apple Cake

Whoops... I thought I had posted the recipe for the Cinnamon-Apple Cake I made last week. My friend, Kate, gave us a bag of apples a couple weeks ago, and I asked Jeff what he thought we (I) should do with them. His suggestion was an apple cake, so that's what I baked.

This Cinnamon-Apple Cake was very easy, very moist and very good... and with three cups of apples and not too much sugar or fat, I'd like to consider it to be a "skinny" cake as well.

Cinnamon-Apple Cake (from MyRecipes/Cooking Light)

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup stick margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened (about 3/4 cup)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups chopped peeled Rome apple (about 2 large)
Cooking spray

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, margarine, vanilla, and cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 4 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, beating at low speed until blended.
• Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Combine 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixture* and apple in a bowl, and stir apple mixture into batter. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan** coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.
• Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.
• Note: You can also make this cake in a 9-inch square cake pan or a 9-inch springform pan; just reduce the cooking time by 5 minutes.

*Another whoops... when I made this, I accidentally added all of the cinnamon sugar to the apples, so I didn't have any for the top. Actually, I think this added cinnamon flavor to the whole cake, rather than to just the top.
** I don't own an 8-inch spring form pan, so I used a 9-inch square pan, sprayed the bottom of the pan with vegetable oil and lined the bottom with non-stick baking paper... worked a treat.

Week 20 Bump

A picture of my (non-existent) bump has been requested. Honestly, I just look like I've put on a lot of weight, so no real bump is visible. I plan to post bump pictures on the 1st and 16th of every month, so hopefully I'll start to look like I'm actually pregnant in the next month or so. It's still early days, but I would like to look more pregnant so that people I meet aren't so surprised when I tell them that I'm pregnant if it comes up in conversation.

My grandpa, Avery Dean Marshall, passed away at the age of 96 two days ago. My wish for YEARS was to make him a great-grandfather. Even though BeeBee hasn't been born yet, my grandpa did know that I am expecting, and since we like to think of ourselves as parents already, that makes my grandpa a great-grandfather. Grandpa said to me on the phone when I told him I was pregnant at the beginning of September, which is the last time I spoke with him, that if BeeBee is a boy, I'd have to name him after him. Grandpa was very pleased to hear of my pregnancy and that's the treasure I'll hold onto.