I'm getting excited!

My baby brother is getting married a week from Saturday! I can't believe he's old enough to get married all ready! It seems like we were just kids not that long ago! I'm so happy for him and his fiance Aleyta. She's a great gal and they are so lucky to have found each other. I know they'll be happy together!


They'll be getting married in San Juan Bautista, CA so we'll be flying out to my parent's house next Wednesday! I'm really excited to see everyone! They haven't seen Adam walk yet! And can you believe that they asked Brandon to be the ring bearer!? I think they're a little crazy, but I'm sure he'll be super cute and add some....um, excitement to the wedding. haha... Anyway, I can't wait to see everyone and see my Matty get married! I love you guys!

Got Apples?

Our apple tree is overflowing with apples! We just started picking them this week and today I made my first pie of the season! It sure does look yummy!! I made this one for a neighbor of ours that brought us over a strawberry pie a few days ago. So, to bring back her pie pan, I made her an apple pie! I'll be making another one tonight for us for dessert. I would be sure to hear it from my husband and kids if I didn't make one for us! Here is the yummy recipe!

Dutch Apple Pie

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl. Combine 6 cups of peeled and sliced apples with ¾ cup sugar, 2 Tbl. Flour, 1 tsp. cinnamon and 1/8 tsp. nutmeg. Mix well and pour into a pie shell (store bought or homemade).

Mix ½ cup flour and ½ cup brown sugar until it is a fine mix. Cut in 3 Tbl. Soft butter with a pastry cutter. Sprinkle mixture over pie and bake for 40 minutes. Check and if it needs to be covered with foil, do so and bake another 10-20 minutes.

Another Giveaway!

I'm doing another giveaway over at my other blog! Come enter for your chance to win one of two prizes! Yep, two winners! Each winner will get a set of soap and matching bath salts from Heathen's Hearth! You can enter to win, even if you know me, or the shop giving the prize away! Go enter today!

The Etsy Sixteen

Go check out The Etsy Sixteen at Sunny Day Happy Face. Alicia made an etsy quilt and I'm featured in it! Go see!!

I'm ready for Fall!

This summer hasn't been too bad, but for some reason I'm just ready for it to be fall! Not winter, I'm not ready for long snowy days, but I am ready for the cooler weather of fall and all of the yummy things that fall brings. Thankfully it has been cooling off a lot lately and this morning I decided to make it official that it's fall, at least in my house!

I made a huge breakfast today, at least huge for a weekday! I found a recipe for pumpkin patch pancakes with apple cider syrup over at Real Mom Kitchen. I made these along with bacon and eggs. If I didn't make the eggs I was sure to hear it from my kids, they think they need to eat eggs every morning. As long as they eat, I don't really care, so I made eggs too. Anyhow, the pancakes were really really good and the syrup was to die for! So yummy! I only made a half batch of the syrup and I'm glad I did, we still have lots leftover. Probably enough to make pancakes another five times! But we don't eat a lot of syrup with our pancakes so maybe normal people could go through it faster. I would highly recommend these recipes! Go try them!

Pumpkin Patch Pancakes

Mix up your favorite pancake mix according to package directions. For every cup of dry mix used, mix in the following:

¼ cup canned pumpkin

½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice (If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice on hand you can make your own. See recipe below.)

Cook pancakes as you normally would.

Apple Cider Syrup (this is the full recipe)

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

4 cups apple juice or apple cider

In a sauce pan mix together, sugar, cornstarch, and pumpkin spice. Stir in apple juice or apple cider. Bring to a boil, remembering to stir occasionally. Boil until desired thickness. Remove from heat and serve over Pumpkin Patch Pancakes or give it a try over regular pancakes.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix and store.

Hey Ya'll

I just wanted to let you all know about my etsy shop feature and giveaway over at my other blog! Come enter to win a 5x7 print of your choice from photoamato! She has some great pictures!

The Prize Winner

As requested, here is my prize winning Red Raspberry Cheesecake Squares recipe! I hope you all love it! It is really really yummy!!


Red Raspberry Brownie Cheesecake Squares

1 box fudge brownie mix plus ingredients to make
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/3 cup seedless red raspberry jam
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 in baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray and set aside. Prepare brownies as package states, pour into baking pan and bake for 15 minutes. While brownie layer bakes, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar, flour and vanilla, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. When brownie comes out of oven, spoon cheesecake mixture over brownies, spread as evenly as possible. Dot with jam and swirl with knife. Top with chocolate chips and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cheesecake looks set but still a little wiggly. Cool for 10 minutes, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours. When ready to serve, remove from pan using aluminum foil, peel away and place brownie on cutting board. Cut into 24 squares, making sure to wipe knife between each cut. Place on serving tray and enjoy! Make sure to refrigerate any leftovers!

A Fun Day!

We had lots of fun yesterday! In the morning Todd took Brandon out Dove hunting. They came back with lots of dead birds.

I wasn't too thrilled with the fact that Todd let Brandon hold them, but he was having fun and had a bath right after these pictures were taken.


Then we went to the Eastern Idaho State Fair, where I had entered a few things into the baking section. I got a few honorable mentions and two first places!! Here are my flour tortillas! Which were hard as a rock at that point!

And here are my Red Raspberry Brownie Cheesecake Squares. Not only did they win first place in their division which was cookie-other, they also got the Superintendent's Award for cookies! I was so excited!! This was a recipe that I created last year for the Pillsbury Million Dollar Bake-Off that didn't get chosen. So I was so happy to see them get recognized for how yummy they really are!! I kind of got teary eyed, I know, I'm a dork!

Among other things we did at the fair, Brandon rode the mechanical bull!! He had lots of fun!! He wasn't scared of that thing one bit!!

He is a true cowboy for sure! But you wouldn't be able to tell with this mohawk and vans. hehe.

Etsyversary Giveaway and Sale!!!

Today is my one year Etsyversary!! I'm so excited!! I'm having a huge sale!! Come check it out! Then head on over to my other blog mycozycreations.blogspot.com and enter my giveaway!!! And don't forget to go over to Love Etsy Feedback for the other giveaway!! You have two chances to win a crayon cozy this week!! Yay!