Five Things Friday: 5 Things I Love about Fall

Ah, Fall. Or, "Ah, Autumn," depending on how fancy you're feeling. Today, I'm not feeling so fancy, so "Ah, Fall."

Now that we've solved that issue...

1. Apple cinnamon... everything. I love apple cinnamon. I really, really do. I like it so much that there was a sale on Apple Cinnamon instant oatmeal, and I got a ton. And then I got really sick of oatmeal.

Here's my new favorite apple cinnamon cookie recipe...

Little Wife's No Bake Apple Cinnamon Cookies

1 1/2 cup instant apple cinnamon oatmeal, uncooked

1 1/2 cup regular oatmeal or rice crispy cereal

5 Tbs peanut butter

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

Stir butter, sugar, and milk together in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, and then full boil for one to two minutes. Add the peanut butter, stir well to combine, then add the oatmeal (or oatmeal and cereal) and stir to coat well. Scoop out about a tablespoon and place on a greased cookie sheet. These may take a while for these cookies to set up- stick 'em in the fridge to set them up quicker. Yum!

2. Perfect weather. Summer in Iowa can be pretty hot and muggy, and of course, winter in Iowa is a lot like this...

Actually, this picture was taken in May. So yeah. Poor robin.

Fall is the best season here in Iowa- not too hot and muggy, and not frigidly cold. 

3. The tourists go home! We live in a very touristy area, and while I know it's great for our local economy, and even though I look forward to tourist season as soon as March rolls around, it's pretty wonderful to see the tourists go. Traffic is so much better in the Fall!

4. This. Just this. 
 

5.  Sweaters and scarves and warm socks and flannel! Fall is the start of comfy cozy season! Pulling out those flannel sheets and getting all snuggly in a big sweater... wonderful.




What are your favorite Fall things? (Or Autumn, if you're feeling fancy)

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins!

In camp's large and often overlooked pantry of donated food, I've found many, many oddities. Oddities that would be difficult for our camp cook, who we lovingly refer to as "Chef," to use because he can't use anything in such small quantities. Like, 3 cans of pumpkin puree. I've been eying those cans for about a month now.

I saw these 3 cans of pumpkin and thought, "Hey. I could probably use those."

And I finally did.

Thanks to Sweet Escape Bakery! Thank you very much for posting this recipe!!

Here it is, with a couple of (mostly need-based) modifications...

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins  

(Based on Sweet Escape Bakery, modifications by Little Wife)

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar

For the muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ cups vegetable oil

For the topping:
½ cup sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter. It's kind of sticky, so this might be a little tricky. Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours.

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. This recipe makes 24 muffins (and I only had a twelve-muffin pan... so I had to bake these in two batches.) In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. 

These muffins were so delicious. I got rave reviews from everyone who tried them, and I definitely passed them around (Zeke and I couldn't possibly eat 24 of these babies, as much as we may want to!) I'll definitely make these again around Thanksgiving!

I noticed that some of my cream cheese was poking through on top, but I didn't really mind that so much. Too delicious to care!

Bad Joan Bars

Before Zeke got his job at this camp, he worked at a camp in Minnesota. I did, too, actually, but he worked there much longer.

Anyway, there was a cook at the camp named Joan.

She's a very talented little woman. And I mean little. She's about my height (five foot), thinner than me, and about eighty years old. And hard of hearing, which makes it interesting to work with her.

Like, there was this one time, when I was hosting a retreat group, and the ice maker door fell on my face, smashing my nose pretty good. Joan was about three feet away. Didn't hear a thing. Which was probably a good thing for my pride.

Joan makes these amazing peanut butter bars. A-maze-ing. And she makes them pretty often. Every time she does, I end up eating like, seventeen of them. I hated when Joan made those bars. The workouts and dieting were all for naught.

Hence the name, Bad Joan Bars. They're just too irresistible. When she'd make them, we'd all say, "Bad Joan!"

And here's the recipe. I'm sorry.

Bad Joan Bars

1 c melted butter

2 c graham cracker crumbs (fine)

2 c powdered sugar

1 c peanut butter

Topping: 

4 Tbs peanut butter

1 1/2 c chocolate chips (or white chocolate chips)

-Mix graham cracker crumbs, melted butter , and powdered sugar

-Add 1 c peanut butter, mix until well blended

-Press into ungreased 9x13" pan

-Melt chocolate with peanut butter, stirring often

-Spread melted chocolate over the graham cracker layer

-Refrigerate at least one hour before cutting.

I tried to get a picture before sneaked a bar away, but that didn't work out so well... Like I said, they're pretty irresistible.

We didn't have any milk chocolate, so we used white chocolate instead, which I'd never tried, but they turned out just as irresistible!

Peanut Butter Cream Pie!

I started thinking about Thanksgiving yesterday. I know, I know... it's like, 400 degrees outside and everything, but Thanksgiving is just around the corner!

Given that I have a ton of peanut butter, I thought I'd look at some kind of peanut-butter-pie-something for Thanksgiving. So here it goes!

Peanut Butter Cream Pie  Little Wife

Crust

1 Sleeve (about 9) graham crackers

4 Tbs butter, melted

2 Tbs peanut butter

3 Tbs sugar

Smash the graham crackers (or use a food processor to turn 'em into crumbs). I just used a plastic bag and my pent up frustration. Just kidding about the frustration.

Put the crumbs in a mixer. Add butter, peanut butter, and sugar. Mix until the crumbs are well coated. 

See my pretty KitchenAid mixer?? It's beautiful!

Pour into a prepared pie dish and press around the edges. Bake for 10 minutes at 360 degrees. Make sure to cool the crust completely.

Filling

2 1/2 c milk

2/3 c sugar

1/4 c cornstarch

1 egg

1/2 c peanut butter

2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbs butter

In a medium saucepan, whisk milk, egg, sugar, and cornstarch over medium heat until mixture gets warm. 

Not warm yet! The milk will start to bubble slightly.

Add the peanut butter and whisk until the mixture thickens. Then remove from heat. Note: When the mixture begins to thicken, it thickens fast. When you start thinking, "Hey, I think it's getting thickened... yay!" take it off the heat!

Adding peanut butter...

... and now it's definitely thick enough.

Add the vanilla and butter, and whisk until incorporated. If you cut the butter up into smaller bits, it will incorporate better. 

Pour the mixture into a prepared crust. The original recipe calls for the mixture to be poured through a strainer, but I didn't do that. 

Smooth the top, and then lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on top. Chill for four hours, and then serve with whipped cream. 

Yummy!

Peanut Butter Balls!

The adventure continues! I'm still trying to find yummy and creative ways to use up what we've got around without buying a ton more stuff. This week's project? Use up the two huge containers of quick oats (both of which were open), and some of the unlimited peanut butter we have around here!

I found this super easy, four-ingredient, no-bake recipe for "Peanut Butter Balls."

Peanut Butter Balls  Little Wife

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

3/4 cup powdered milk

3/4 cup quick oats, uncooked

Add a topping if you'd like...

We used melted chocolate, but you could be creative with it! 

(Jelly dip? Oohh. Peanut Butter and Jelly Balls!)

And you only need four ingredients!

Mix all of your ingredients together in a bowl.

Roll the mixture into balls with your hands, and place the balls on a baking pan (or whatever you've got, really. Something flat).

After you've finished rolling, put the pan into the fridge for at least 20 minutes to let them set.

This is two batches, actually.

As an added touch, I had a couple of chocolate bars in my pantry, so I melted those with a little vegetable oil... and dipped the peanut butter balls in the chocolate.

All done!

Zeke's Hunky Husband consensus: So. GOOD. The only thing I'd change is that I'd make them a little smaller, so they're bite sized. 

We ate all of them within a week.