3 Ingredient Pumpkin Cookies

Fall baking means one thing to me: PUMPKIN! I've been meaning to make some pumpkin cookies and friends coming over for lunch in between General Conference Sessions was a great excuse. I found the idea of making pumpkin cookies with only 3 ingredients all over and I knew I had to make them myself.

3 Ingredient Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients:

1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1 cake mix (I'd recommend Spice Cake)

1 bag (2 cups) of chocolate chips (I'd recommend dark chocolate chips)

Optional: Pumpkin pie spice. Really you only need this if you use a regular cake mix, rather than spice cake.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Mix together pumpkin and cake mix using a mixer.

 

2. Stir in chocolate chips

3. Glob 2 tablespoon sized cookies on a greased cookie sheet.

4. Cook at 350 for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

5. ENJOY!

What excuse can you find to make these babies?

30-minute breadsticks (from scratch!)

I don't shy away from making my own bread, but the time commitment of rising the dough does often mean we don't have it in time for dinner. But last year, I came across Fast, Easy Bread via I'm Topsy Turvy. Fast, Easy Bread offers recipes for homemade bread, rolls, and pizza dough in less than an hour (including baking time!).

Last night, I realized I had no bread in the house to go with my baked ziti (adapted from this baked ziti recipe, but with cottage cheese instead of ricotta and homemade tomato sauce—this is why I'm a slow cook!). If I'd had two hours, I would've made French bread. But I had <30 minutes, so I turned to Fast, Easy Bread and put the fastest of their free recipes to the test: breadsticks.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp SAF-instant premium yeast - (available in FEB's Homemade Pizza Bundle; I use regular yeast)
• 1 tsp Liquid Soy Lecithin - (available in FEB's Homemade Pizza Bundle; I got mine at the grocery store)
• 1 cups hot/warm water

Instructions:
1. Mix dry ingredients, including yeast.
2. Make 1 dimple in dry ingredients with tsp. Squeeze lecithin to fill the dimple. Add water slowly, add 3/4 cup and then the remaining 1/4 cup [I'm bad and just dump the whole thing in, aiming for the lecithin to try to break it up]. Mix for 1 minute and check consistency. The dough mixer should be sticky and pull itself off bowl.
3. Mix/knead in mixer on medium setting for 5 minutes or knead for 5 minutes by hand.
4. Spray counter and hands with cooking spray and knead for a few seconds to form smooth ball.
5. Roll dough out into a circle if using pizza stone or into a rectangle if using a cookie sheet
6. Spray cookie sheet and place rolled dough on sheet or pizza stone. [The recipe says it should rise for 10 minutes but doesn't say when to do that. I recommend doing it here, but I skipped the rising and they turned out fine.]
7. Cut dough down the center and into inch strips
8. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

I'm generally a very slow cook, so I'm the ultimate test for this recipe. But within fifteen minutes I had this:

I skipped rising because their pizza dough recipe doesn't require rising, and I didn't need them much fluffier than that. I left them in the oven for about 20 minutes (getting other things ready for dinner).

Yum!

Potholder Purse Packet

At our church's Women's Day, which I wrote about last week, a sweet little elderly lady wanted to show me something she had made. I was kind of busy making sure that everyone was transitioning to the next activity, but since I love this little lady, I stopped to look.
Her idea was really quite cute. She insisted that I keep it, and the extra buttons to make more. I let one of the people I was working with take it home, so I had to make one to share with you today.

It is so fast to make! Just start with an ordinary potholder.

Next layer 8 - 10 ziplock type sandwich bags on the backside of the potholder. Alternate which side the zipper is on. (You could use snack size, but I was afraid they wouldn't be roomy enough.)

Notice how the zippers alternate, one on the left the next on the right.

I clamped my bags with clothespins, then drew a line in the center. Just make sure your bags are straight and that they are not hanging off any edge.

Now you are ready to sew. Be sure to back tack both ends.

Trim off the part of the bag that cannot be opened. (If you use snack sized bags you can skip this step.)

Sew on a button that opposite of the hanging loop already on the potholder.

That's it!
You can fill the baggies with whatever you will need: medicine, bandaids, pencil and paper, sewing kit, wet wipes, change.

This could be a great little quiet activity for kids-- fill the baggies with kid-friendly things like crayons, gum, tiny books, etc.

Homemade Costume Ideas

It's about time to decide on a Halloween costume. We love great costumes. Here are some ideas we've shared:

Brooke, her husband, Jasmine and PB were X-Men:  

Storm, Cyclops, Rogue and Professor Xavier 

 

Brooke made that little suit! Cute huh? 

 

Jordan's clan also did family costumes, and she made her daughter's princess dress:

Jaime and her husband were characters from Harry Potter: Professor Trelawny and Snape. 

On Jordan's personal blog, she also has an AWESOME list of family costume ideas. Plus more great costume ideas if you are expecting. Look, they're Phineas and Ferb!

Hope you've gotten a little inspiration!

What are you going to be?

The Saturday Pants- Sweatshirt to Shorts

Since I moved last week I have been reacquainted with a lot of my stuff. I found an old sweatshirt from far too long ago that doesn't have a hood, so I don't ever wear it. I decided to turn it into shorts. Looking back it would have worked better if it was a tad bit bigger. The weather right now is kind of in between here in the south. We have cool(ish) nights but the days are still in the 80's. I wanted some comfy pants that didn't make me too hot.

Here is how I did it:

1. I cut off the collar, the sleeves, and the waist band. I opened it up and matched the sides together. The arm holes became the inside of the legs. I then found that it was too skinny for my legs so I cut a couple inch wide piece and added it to the inside of the legs.

2. I used a pair of shorts to see how high up to sew between the legs. I snipped and sewed. I cut off the bottom even with how long the shorts were.

3. I cut the seam off of the waist band and measured around my waist. I pulled it tight so it will hold the pants up. I cut 3 skinny pieces from one of the sleeves and sewed them together so I had one long piece. I folded them in half lengthwise and zig zagged it to make the drawstring. I cut two holes in the middle of the waist band through one layer. I laced the drawstring through one hole and out the end and into the other end and out the other hole. I evened them out and sewed the back to create a circle with the seam facing in. I then sewed it onto the top of the pants.

4. I added an edge to the bottom and was comfy all day :)

General Conference Kits

So, as I've mentioned, all of us Wayward Girls are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes called "Mormon," One really neat thing about our church is that twice a year we get to hear from our church leaders in a worldwide broadcast. This includes a living prophet, just like Noah and Moses.  We call this meeting General Conference.

 

I wanted to prepare a goodie bag for the sisters I visit teach in preparation for Conference. Visiting teaching is another program in our church, set up to take care of every individual. Two women are assigned to visit another woman monthly and share a spiritual message. They are also directed to pray for this sister throughout the month and help minister to her needs. I wanted to help the sisters I visit teach gear up for conference. I put together these little kits to help.

Here are the contents: 

A notebook and nice pen to take notes

Hot Tamales to help you stay awake!

M&Ms to much on

Tissues, in case you tear up

Cost break down:

Notebook: $1

Pen: $0.50

Tissues: $0.15

Hot Tamales: $1

M&Ms: $0.79

Bag: $0.50

Total:  $3.94

I also plan to write a little note about conference, maybe something like this. I'm really excited for General Conference, and invite you to check it out. 

What would you put in this kit?

Pear Pie

Happy October! It's a great time to celebrate the harvest, and one of those harvest fruits today: I love pears! This week there was an article on pears in our newspaper with several recipes. When I saw Bartletts on sale at the grocery store, I grabbed enough to make the pie listed in the article, because I'd never had a pear pie before.

Unfortunately, the newspaper editor apparently thought the attribution for the recipe was a waste of space, so I don't know where this recipe comes from. Some important little steps are missing as well, so I'm adding corrections and extra information here to ensure your pear pie results are fantastic. My additions are in blue.

Pear Pie

• Double-crust pie pastry
• 5 cups firm, ripe Bartlett pears (about 6 or 7), peeled, cored and sliced 

Yeah, you'd think they'd include that information. Unless this is the intended result:

Note: Bartletts work all right, but the results would most likely be a little better with a firmer-fleshed variety like Bosc or d'Anjou/Anjou. Or at least you'd be able to find fruit that is both firm and ripe.

• 4 Tbsp apricot preserves
• 1/3 c granulated sugar
• 1/3 c brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 2 1/2 - 3 Tbsp quick-cooking tapioca (or tapioca flour)
• 3 Tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line pie pan with bottom crust. You can layer the pear slices in the crust now, or combine them with the filling ingredients before pouring them in.

2. Melt apricot preserves in the microwave or on the stovetop. I just don't see this:

mixing with whole pears and sugar really well.

3. Add the sugars, spices and tapioca to the melted preserves and stir until combined. If you haven't already placed the pear pieces in the crust, mix them in with the filling and pour into the crust. Otherwise, pour the filling mixture over the pears in the crust. 

It's okay if it doesn't get everywhere right now. It will.

4. Dot the pears and filling with small bits of butter. Cover with the top crust, seal and cut steam vents. Bake for 40 - 50 or 60 minutes.

I had to look on the Internet to make sure the pears needed to be peeled before making this pie, and I came across a couple pear pie recipes that "taste just like apple pie!"

This pie does NOT taste like apple pie--and that's a good thing. It keeps the natural sweetness, flavor and texture of the pears. They become softer but don't break down so much that you can't pick them up with a fork. It's definitely a pear pie, and the filling complements the pears perfect.

What's your favorite way to eat pears?

My favorite way to eat pears is actually dried, like our grandma made them. I've tried drying some but I haven't been able to replicate her wonderful, chewy results yet.