I got awards!! I recently met my friend Ashley from doing a Valentine's Day blog swap and she was my lovely partner! It was so much fun and now we are continuing to get to know each other! She has so kindly passed these awards on to me!

The first one I am supposed to write about where I want to be in 10 years!


In 10 years I would love to have visited Paris, finished my bachelor's in business (maybe changing), have gone to pastry school, and hopefully be working with some sort of pastry or catering company. I would also like to have figure out where my husband and I will be living and have bought a house! Those are some pretty lofty goals but I think I can achieve most, if not all, of them!

The second award is the Sunshine Award.

So cute!

Thank you so much Ashley! You are amazing!

Everyone check out her blog at http://justagirl-ash.blogspot.com

Lastly, I want to pass on these awards to a few of my friends!

Malorie

Catherine

Vanessa

LOVE YOU GIRLS!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

I think it was yesterday I was just sitting around and I thought..."PUMPKIN SPICE COOKIES!" I love pumpkin anything and i've yet to try a pumpkin cookie so I decided to search for some regular sugar cookie recipes and add things to make them pumpkin spice cookies. While I was searching for the right recipe I stumbled upon a recipe for Super Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies from Joy the Baker. I decided to use this recipe and tweak it a bit to make it what I really imagined. The only things I changed were instead of adding cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, I just used pumpkin pie spice instead and then I left out the chocolate chips.

They came out really good. I was a little surprised since this is the first time I've actually strayed from an exact recipe and made adjustments of my own. They are more like muffin tops almost rather that cookies but I love them!













Pumpkin Spice Cookies
adapted from Joy the Baker


2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Position a rack in the middle of the oven . Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper or lightly spray sheets with baking spray.

Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice together in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it.

Using an ice cream scoop with a 1/4-cup capacity, scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2-inches apart. You could also simply use a 1/4-cup measuring cup if you don’t have a scoop. Use a thin metal spatula to smooth and flatten the rounds.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 16 minutes. Cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool cimpletely.

Dust the cooled cookies lightly with powdered sugar. The cookies can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Valentine's Day Blog Swap!!

I recently got my package from my partner in the Cupid's Blog Swap from a fellow blogger's site.
www.jerricapuck.blogspot.com

My partner was Ashley from www.justagirl-ash.blogspot.com

I love her blog! She is such a sweetheart and she sent me some amazing things! It was so much fun getting to know her and we have decided to continue being pen pals! It's going to be fun! I love pen pals!

Here are the goodies I got!






I got a super cute little box of candy, a bookmark, cute little pens, SPRINKLES!!!, cupcake papers, a heart shaped cookie cutter, the cutest little ducky soap, some homemade brown sugar face scrub (which I can't wait to try), a little heart candle, and the neatest little vintagey looking Valentine card. I love all of my gifts! They fit me perfectly! I love hearts, I love baking, I love cute things! It was great! I can't wait to do more swaps they are sooo much fun!

Speaking of Valentine's Day, my amazing husband has been sneakily leaving me cute little cards each day. He is leaving me pieces of one of my favorite bible verses. 1 Corinthians 13. So far this is what I have.

I made the little "Je T'aime" sign at the top but the rest are the cards my husband has left for me. I love it! It's so fun and cute! He's amazing!