Pumpkin Bread

I tried out a new recipe and it turn out really good so I wanted to make sure I kept this one.

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup vanilla pudding (I prepared a box of instant pudding)
4 large egg whites
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Spoon batter into 2 (8 x 4-inch) loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack, and remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Strawberry and white chocolate pie

I wanted to make sure I had this recipe saved.  It was pretty simple and super good! 

CRUST:
1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs
5 T butter, melted
dash salt
FILLING:
12 ounces cream cheese, softened (1 1/2 packages)
2 C powdered sugar
1/2 C white chocolate chips
1 1/2 T orange juice (fresh please)
2 C cool whip
dash of salt
TOPPING:
1 pound strawberries, sliced
3 T white chocolate chips
1. Grab some graham crackers (a little more than one package should do it) and toss them into a small food processor (I used my Ninga blender). Grind them into fine crumbs. You need 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs.
2. Pour 5 tablespoons melted butter over the top of the crumbs. Add a dash of salt and blend the butter into the crumbs.
3. Pour the buttery crumbs into a regular sized pie dish.
4. Using a small measuring cup form the crust to the pan, pressing firmly both along the bottom and along the sides.
5. Pour 1/2 cup white chocolate chips into a small bowl. Pop it into the microwave and melt the chips for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each cooking interval. Once the chips have melted, set the bowl aside allowing the chocolate to cool just a bit.
6. Into your stand mixer, or large mixing bowl, place 12 ounces softened cream cheese. Beat the cream cheese until its smooth. Add 2 cups powdered sugar and mix until the two are well combined.
7. Add 2 cups of cool whip, 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh orange juice, and the melted white chocolate. Add a dash of salt and then mix well, until the ingredients are nicely combined and the mixture is creamy and smooth.
8. Carefully spoon the filling over the crust.
9. Wash and slice 1 pound of strawberries. Then lay them on top of the filling. It works best if you start along the outside edge and work your way in to the middle.
10. Melt 3 more tablespoons of white chocolate in the microwave. Make sure to only heat them for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each cooking interval.
11. Drizzle the chocolate over the top of the berries.
12. Pop your beautiful pie into the fridge to chill for 1 hour before serving.

Rainbow quilt for Maddy Bean

This quilt took me quite awhile.  I started back in March, took a really long break from it and finally finished the end of December.

I got the idea from this quilt from pinterest.  They had all the colors randomly but I liked the rainbow look so I made the colors in rows and I like it better this way.

For the binding I used a rainbow striped fabric to tie in all the colors together.  I really like how it looks.

I've learned I'm definitely not a perfectionist but at least from far away you can't tell too much.  Hopefully Maddy's happy with it. 

Ryan's Quilt

My sister has asked me to make a quilt for each of her kids.  The first one is for Ryan. The hardest part of this quilt was finding fabric he liked.  Couldn't be babyish or girly.  My sister had to even convince him red was not a girl color.  Here is how it turned out.

I found a blog that gave easy instructions on how to do a chevron pattern.  I would definitely do this again.  For the back, I used a dark gray minky.  I liked how it turned out, next up is Maddy's.

Christmas Quilt

Here is the quilt I made my parents for Christmas this year. It was large enough and heavy enough, I had a hard time getting a good picture of the full blanket.

For the back I used my new favorite fabric called cuddly rose minky.  It is so silky.  I love it!

This was a pretty easy quilt to make, and I sent it to a place down in Utah to get the quilting done.  I think it turned out pretty good.

Argyle Baby Quilt

My friend Amy is having a baby boy so I decided to try something different than the other quilts I made and went argyle. Here is a finished picture.

The diamonds are definitely more challenging than squares but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I like how easy this pattern is to change it up by choosing different colors for the diamonds and any patterned fabric for the strips. 

For the back I used minkee.  It is so soft, I loved how it looks.

On the strips, I did a raw edge so it has a frayed edge.  It was fun doing something that was a little harder.  She seemed to be happy with it, hopefully it gets a lot of use.

Finished Quilts

I thought I would post an update on the finished quilts I did.  Here's my very first quilt.  I chose to do a dark purple background and for the binding I sewed together scrapes of the fabric from the squares.  I really like how it turned out and I like the white thread against the dark fabric on the backing.

Here is the second quilt.  For the back I just used some of the brown fabric that was in the corners of the quilt.  This is a very busy looking quilt but I'm still very happy with how it turned out.  For the binding I used a solid green color. 

I'm still learning as I go but it's been fun figuring it all out.  So now to figuring out what the next one will be.