See's Candies at Fashion Island and a Giveaway!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Since today is a day filled with delicious foods and being thankful, I thought it would be the perfect day to talk about chocolate.  I mean, I don't know about you, but I am thankful for chocolate!

Recently I was invited to a media event to check out the new See's Candies store at Fashion Island the day before it's grand opening.  If you can't tell, I L-O-V-E dessert so I was super excited to go.  To make it even more fun, I went with one of my very good friends and fellow bloggers, Amy.

Not only did I get to check out the new store, I got to sample to my hearts content, and did I ever.  If you have ever been to See's, then you know that you get a sample every time you go.  I'm not going to lie, sometimes when I'm running errands I decide I should pick up a Scotchmallow for Josh (those are his all time favorites and one of See's top 5 sellers).  Even though I tell myself it's for Josh, I'm the one who gets a yummy sample to eat right then so we both win.  This night I was welcome to enjoy unlimited samples...I was in heaven.  We also had a fun little head to head race where we packed our own 1/2 pound boxes.  We had two types to choose from but I filled mine with all Dark Butterchews.  If you haven't tried this one yet, I highly recommend it.  The Dark Butterchew is a chewy vanilla brown sugar caramel covered in dark chocolate and it is one of my absolute favorites.

I love dessert and I will happily eat the leftover Halloween candy in our house but there is no comparison between the preservative filled stuff in our Halloween bucket and the preservative free, aged chocolate heaven that you get at See's Candies.  See's make 100 delicious varieties of treats and sells over 1 billion pieces a year.  In addition to their standard fare, See's also has special seasonal candies and packaging.

I love the fall leaf on this packaging and don't even get me started on the seasonal pie truffles.  I'm not usually a fan of white chocolate, but the pecan pie truffle was OUT OF THIS WORLD!

See's makes it easy to celebrate any holiday.  Of course they have lots of great Christmas products, but they have Chanukah too!  Since we celebrate both holidays in our family, I love it when a store gives me one stop shopping like this!

While I was there the store manager brought this out for us to try and instructed us to eat it the way he handed it to us.

It was the See's Candies version of a peanut butter and jelly.  Seriously you guys, MIND BLOWN!

I'm not usually a fan of fruity chocolates so I never in a million years would have bought the Strawberry Cream but I am sooooo glad that he gave us this to try.  If you can't tell, it's paired with a peanut butter patty.  This combination was unbelievably good.  If I wasn't already super full I would have asked for another.

Now that I have you drooling over all of these delicious treats, See's and I have a little Thanksgiving treat for you.   Enter below for a chance to win a $25 gift card to See's Candies.  This can be used in any See's Candies store, the new Fashion Island location is great because it is located on the outside edge of the mall (near Macy's) so you can just run in and out.  You can also use the gift card online with FREE shipping, score!



 a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was a guest of See's at this media event and received some See's products to take home.  The gift card for this giveaway was provided by See's.  All opinions are my own. 

Casual & Inexpensive Thanksgiving Tablescape

As you most likely know by now I am not a fan of dishes.  I love decorating, cooking, and entertaining, but I do not like cleaning up after it all.  So this year I decided to keep it simple and disposable.  I used this tablescape for our annual Friendsgiving and I'll be using it again with our family on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving and Autumn tend to bring to mind orange and burgundy but I wanted a more neutral palette this year.  I started out with a basic white tablecloth (I bought two at Bed Bath & Beyond recently for $12 total!).  Then I added this burlap runner that I picked up at Michael's (with a 50% off coupon naturally).   I wanted to be able to reuse it so instead of cutting it to the length I needed, I had it go off the edge of the table and used binder clips to clip the excess to the bottom of the table.

I had originally planned to make my white pumpkins into votive candleholders.  I have seen this idea all over Pinterest but when Josh busted out the drill to make one, the practice pumpkin exploded.  Needless to say we decided to just leave them as is.  I spaced them evenly on the burlap runner and then sprinkled some mini pinecones in between.

In order to break up all the white I bought some craft paper and cut placemats out of it.  I'm not going to lie, this was more of a pain than I thought it would be.  Cutting them out was fine but since my craft paper was on a roll my placemats wouldn't stay flat.  I ended up ironing them with a burp cloth between the iron and the paper.  Even though it took a little more effort the result was exactly what I wanted.

As you can see in the pictures we used disposable everything; napkins, plastic silverware, plastic cups, and plastic plates.   This tablescape ended up being casual yet festive, rustic yet elegant, and most of all easy to clean up.  If you haven't figured out how you plan to decorate your Thanksgiving table, give this casual and inexpensive tablescape a try.


I'm linking up with Thrifty Thursday, Creativity Unleashed, Pin Junkie, Link Party Palooza, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Best of the Weekend, Weekend Potluck, Bakerette, PinWorthy Projects, Happy Holiday Linkup, Saturday Night Fever, Moonlight & Mason Jars, and The Weekend Social.

Salted Caramel Blondies

We have officially entered the season of potluck celebrations and homemade gifts.  If you are like me and love to bring desserts to dinner parties or give baked goods at the holidays, you NEED to add these blondies onto your list of goodies to make.  They are out of this world good, unbelievably easy, and are made in one bowl, well actually one saucepan.  Every time I make these, I set a couple aside for myself before I serve them because otherwise by the time I go to eat one they are already gone.  You will definitely be asked for the recipe, though you may not want to share because then people will know that they aren't nearly as fancy as they look. 

Start out by melting 2 sticks of butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Once the butter is melted, turn off the heat and add in some brown sugar, white whole wheat flour, eggs, and vanilla.  Stir it all together until its completely combined.  Then pour the batter into a baking pan sprayed with baking spray.

Now for the tricky part, just kidding, there is no tricky part.  Sprinkle some Maldon sea salt all over the top.  You want to use a nice flaky salt for this.  Table salt is not nearly the same thing.  The Maldon salt is so worth the price.  If you want another use for it, try these Salted Caramel Brownies.  Better yet, make both and serve them together as two sides of the salted caramel coin so to speak.

Anyway, back to the blondies.  Bake the blondies at 350 for 15-18 minutes.  These were baked for 17 minutes.  Let them cool completely before you cut them into bars.  These Salted Caramel Blondies are deliciously rich.  I recommend enjoying them with a tall glass of cold milk.

Salted Caramel Blondies
Recipe adapted from iVillage

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp. Maldon sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray an 11 x 7 baking pan with baking spray.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
3. Turn off heat and add sugar, flour, eggs, and vanilla.  Stir together until completely combined.
4. Pour into baking pan and smooth with a spatula.
5. Sprinkle sea salt all over the top from high above the pan.
6. Bake for 15-18 minutes.  Cool completely before cutting.

I'm linking up with Two Cup Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays, Moonlight & Mason Jars, Whimsy Wednesdays, Wednesday Whatsits, Create It Thursday, and Pin It Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Cook it Craft It Share It, Weekend Social, Best of the Weekend, Link Party Palooza, Best Recipes, Weekend Potluck, Celebrate It, and Pinworthy Projects. 

Maple Glazed Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

The other day at Costco I saw Krusteaz pumpkin spice quickbread mix and I snapped it up.  I love pumpkin bread and since Halloween marks the start of my busy season (Halloween, Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, and all 4 of our birthdays in a 74 day period) I like to make things easy when I can.  As a teacher myself, I know that it's always nice to get a little token of appreciation from the parents so when I volunteer in Jake's class I like to bring treats for the teachers.  This pumpkin spice bread was the perfect seasonal treat, but I wanted to make it a little fancier.  I decided to make it into a bundt cake and add a maple glaze.

This couldn't be easier.  Take 2 packages of Krusteaz pumpkin spice quickbread mix (the Costco box comes with 4) and mix it up with some water, vegetable oil, and four eggs.  Then stir in some chopped pecans because they are oh so good.  Pour the batter into a bundt pan sprayed with baking spray and bake at 350 for about an hour.

Let the cake cool in the bundt pan for about 10 minutes and then put it on a cooling rack to cool completely.  Once your cake is cool, whip up your maple glaze.  In a small saucepan melt together 2 tbls. of butter and 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup.  Once your butter is melted, whisk in a cup of powdered sugar until combined.  Pour immediately over your cooled bundt cake.  I recommend pouring the glaze on once it is on the serving plate.  I did it on a separate plate and then moved it once the glaze had set.  This left me with a few cracks in the glaze but it still tasted delicious. 

If you aren't feeling the maple glaze, I also made this quickbread as a snack cake for a little Halloween party (1 package of mix and 1/4 cup of pecans baked in an 8 inch pan).   To make it more festive I used my silhouette cameo to cut out a little pumpkin stencil.  After cutting my snack cake into squares I laid the stencil on each and sifted a little powdered sugar over the top.  Lift off the stencil and you have pumpkin decorated pumpkin bread.

 

Maple Glazed Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

• 2 packages Krusteaz pumpkin spice quickbread mix
• 1 cup water
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
•  2 tbls. butter
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup powdered sugar

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 and spray a bundt pan with baking spray.
2. Mix together quickbread mix, water, oil, and eggs until combined.
3. Stir in pecans and pour into prepared pan and bake for 50-65 minutes (until a tester comes out clean).
4. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.
5. To make glaze melt together butter and syrup.  Whisk in powdered sugar until smooth.  Pour onto bundt cake and let set.

I'm linking up with Two Cup Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays, Moonlight & Mason Jars, Whimsy Wednesdays, and Wednesday Whatsits,  Thrifty Thursday, Cook it Craft It Share It, Weekend Social, Best of the Weekend, Link Party Palooza, Best Recipes, Weekend Potluck, and Pinworthy Projects. 

Fresh Cranberry & White Chocolate Chip Blondies

I've never been a big fan of white chocolate because it is overly sweet to me, but I heard that the white chocolate chips that Trader Joe's has at holiday time are really good so I picked up a bag.  They've been sitting in my cupboard waiting for inspiration to strike.  A bunch of people have been posting copycat Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bars and they got me thinking.  Those usually use dried cranberries, but I thought that might be a little too sweet for my taste with the white chocolate.

Since I bought the big bag of fresh cranberries at Costco I decided to make my own version of Cranberry Bliss Bars but with fresh cranberries and no frosting.  I started out with a plain blondie base, kicked up the vanilla flavor by using vanilla paste, if you haven't tried this stuff it is basically vanilla extract on steroids, and then stirred in some fresh cranberries and white chocolate chips.

I bought mine at Sur La Table but Williams Sonoma and Amazon have it too.

It comes together really quickly, all in one bowl, so you can have a delicious holiday treat with minimal effort and minimal dishes.  The sweetness of the blondie and the white chocolate with the tart bursts from the cranberries are the perfect balance for each other and leave you with a delicious, seasonal treat.

Start out by creaming your butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy.  Then beat in an egg and the delicious vanilla paste. (If you don't have vanilla paste you can use vanilla extract instead.)  Once that's all mixed together, add in some flour, baking powder, and a little salt.

Stir in the cranberries and white chocolate chips and then spread the batter in a square baking pan sprayed with cooking spray.  The batter is very thick so you will need to spread it around.  I forgot to take a picture before I put it in the oven so I pulled it out after about 3 minutes so you can see how thick the batter is.

Bake at 350 for about half an hour or until the top is golden brown and it's puffed up.  You want it to be fully cooked, but think of this like a giant cookie, keeping it a little bit underdone when you pull it out will keep your blondies soft and chewy.  They will continue to cook a bit after removing them from the oven from the residual heat of the pan.

Once they are baked, let cool for a half hour or so before you cut into it.  If you let it cool completely, it will cut even more neatly, but if you are impatient, 30 minutes is enough to be able to get a piece out without it falling apart and you won't burn your tongue.

Fresh Cranberry & White Chocolate Chip Blondies

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla paste 
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt 
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup white chocolate chips (depending on how sweet you like it)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 and spray an 8 x 8 in. pan with cooking spray.
2. On medium-high speed, beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
3. Beat in the egg and the vanilla paste.
4. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until just combined.
5. Stir in cranberries and white chocolate chips.
6. Spread in the prepared baking pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.
7. Cool at least 30 minutes before cutting.

I'm linking up with Whimsy Wednesday, Moonlight & Mason Jars, Less Laundry More Linking, Pin It Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, Create It Thursday, Pin Junkie, Link Party Palooza, Show Stopper Saturday, Future Expat, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Marvelous Monday, and Whimsy Wednesday.

Vanilla Chess Pie

A couple of weeks ago we had our annual Friendsgiving dinner and I made this delicious Cranberry Chess Pie.  It was amazing so I wanted to make it again for Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, my father-in-law doesn't eat fruit, or vegetables for that matter, but that's not important to this story.  In an effort to be a nice daughter in law I decided to make it without the cranberries or the orange zest so that everyone could enjoy it.

Because I was taking out two strong flavors, I added more vanilla paste to amp up the vanilla flavor.  This pie was A-MA-ZING!  This was only my second experience with a chess pie (the cranberry version was my first) and all I can say is, "where have you been all my life?!"  If you are a fan of custardy desserts then this pie is for you.  It is also super quick and easy to whip up.

Start out by preheating your oven to 350 and putting a pie crust into a pie plate (I used a refrigerated one because it's faster and easier for me).

Put some unsalted butter and sugar in your stand mixer and mix on medium until it is nice and fluffy.  Doesn't that look good?  I could seriously eat it like that (pregnancy makes these feelings totally normal).

While your butter and sugar are getting friendly, in a small bowl combine some flour, cornmeal (I used polenta because that's what I had), and a little salt.

In a measuring cup combine some buttermilk and the vanilla paste.  Look at all of those beautiful specks of vanilla in there.  Whoever created vanilla paste deserves a holiday, or at the very least some sort of plaque acknowledging their contribution to mankind.

Once your sugar and butter are ready, add in your eggs, scraping the bowl between each one.  Then alternate adding in the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture.  Give it one last stir/scrape and then pour it into the pie crust.

Bake it for about 40 minutes, rotating it after 20.  I loosely covered mine with foil 30 minutes into the baking time so it wouldn't get too brown.   Let it cool to room temperature.  You can serve it like that, but I like mine cold so I refrigerated it and then just pulled it out of the fridge about an hour before we were going to eat it.

I seriously cannot get enough of the vanilla bean flecks.  I have a small obsession with the vanilla paste if you can't tell.

This pie is also really yummy for breakfast but don't tell anyone I said that.  I never eat dessert for breakfast.

Vanilla Chess Pie

• 1 refrigerated pie crust
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 7 tbls. flour
• 1 tbls. cornmeal or polenta (not quick cook)
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 - 2 tbls. vanilla paste

1. Unroll pie crust into a pie plate and preheat oven to 350.
2. Beat butter and sugar in stand mixer on medium until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. 
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping after each.
4. In a small bowl whisk together flour, cornmeal, and salt.
5. Measure out buttermilk and stir in vanilla paste.
6. Add flour mixture and vanilla buttermilk to sugar mixture, alternating between the two, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
7. Pour into the pie crust and bake for 40 minutes rotating halfway through.  If the top starts to get too brown, loosely cover with foil for the last 10 minutes.

I'm linking up with Thrifty Thursday, Pin It Thursday, Less Laundry More Linking, Showcase Your Talent Thursday, Pin Junkie, Link Party Palooza, Show Stopper Saturday, and Inspiration Monday.

Brownie Batter Pecan Pie

 

I grew up disliking nuts so I never really got into pecan pie.  Then a couple of years ago I discovered that I actually like a few types of nuts (walnuts still gross me out) and pecans were one of them.  When I saw Bakerella's Brownie Pecan Pie I knew I wanted to try it.   Our annual "friendsgiving" was the perfect excuse.  Since this makes two pies, I froze one for Thanksgiving.

This was so good that I barely rescued this last little piece to take pictures of.  I will try to update the pictures when we eat the one that is currently in my freezer.

Bakerella has two versions, a super gooey version that looks like brownie batter and a more baked brownie version.  I decided to split the difference and make a version that fell in the middle of the two.

Start out by making your pecan pie filling.  Mix together brown sugar, flour, corn syrup, vanilla, melted butter, eggs, and pecans (I used raw pecan halves).

Then make your brownie batter.  I used my favorite Ghiradelli mix, the same one I used in my Salted Caramel Brownies and then because I LOVE chocolate, I threw in an extra 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.

Divide your brownie batter evenly between two still frozen deep dish pie shells.  Then pour the pecan pie filling on top, gently spreading it around to cover but trying not to mix it in with the brownie batter.

Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes or until the center of your pie is set, but still a little wobbly.  Then cool completely on the counter.  You can serve it room temperature but if you refrigerate it the brownie layer will be a little more solid.

Because the pecan pie filling is gooey, it seeps down into the brownie layer giving you the consistency of brownie batter without the unsafe, uncooked eggs part.  All I can say is YUM!!!

This was my first attempt at a pecan pie of any type so I wasn't totally sure what it was supposed to be like.  According to my scientific research (googling it) pecan pie should still be a little wobbly in the center and then the residual heat will finish baking it.  Evidently overbaking pecan pie is a cardinal sin so I didn't want to do that for my first effort.  I found that even with baking it for 50 minutes it was still super fudgey and gooey so if you want it a little more done, I think you could bake it another 5 minutes or so.  Those of you experienced pecan pie bakers, what do you think?


Brownie Batter Pecan Pie
Adapted from Bakerella's Brownie Pecan Pie

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tbls. flour
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 cups raw pecan halves (8 oz.)
• 1 package brownie mix (I recommend Ghiradelli) and the ingredients you need to make it
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 frozen deep dish pie shells

1. Preheat your oven to 350.
2. In a medium bowl combine brown sugar and flour.  Then stir in the corn syrup and vanilla until combined.
3. Add in melted butter and stir until combined.  Then mix in eggs.
4. Gently fold in pecans.
5. In a separate bowl, make brownie mix according to the instructions on the box, adding in a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips at the end.
6.  Take your pie crusts out of the freezer and divide the brownie batter evenly among the two.  Then top with the pecan pie filling using a spatula to gently cover the brownie batter, being careful not to mix the two layers together.
7. Bake for 50-55 minutes covering loosely with foil if the crust starts to get too brown.  (I had one on each shelf of my oven so I switched them halfway through.)
8. Let cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

*To freeze, bake and cool to room temperature.  Then wrap in a few layers of plastic wrap and then put in a ziploc bag.  Let thaw completely before serving.


I'm linking up with Mad Skills Party, Tasty Tuesdays, Made By Me, Wonderful Food Wednesday, Whimsy Wednesday, Wake Up Wednesday, and Wednesday Whatsits, Moonlight & Mason Jars, Real Creative Life, Create It Thursday, Less Laundry More Linking, Thrifty Thursday,  Pin It Thursday, Pin Junkie, Best of the Weekend, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Weekend Potluck, Super Saturday, Show Stopper Saturday,  Sunday Linky, Marvelous Monday, and Inspiration Monday.