White Chocolate Pumpkin Biscotti

Yes. This is a real thing I made.  And it was SO good. And so super easy! You can make them too.
I made a batch of these and gave them to my two roommates and my fiancé for Valentine's Day.  They were pretty impressed. (So was I.)

You'll need:
2.5 c. flour
1 c. sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. allspice
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 c. pumpkin puree
1 t. vanilla
8 oz white baking chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and baking powder.
Separately, combine the eggs, pumpkin and vanilla.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until a dough.
Place the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper.  Form a large rectangle that extends the length of the baking sheet but is only about 4-5 inches wide (and about an inch thick).
Bake about 30 minutes.  Remove to cool for about 10 minutes.
Cut into the log diagonally to make about 1/2 inch wide pieces with a serrated knife.  Put them bak onto the baking sheet with one of the cut sides down and bake for 10-15 more minutes until firm.
Melt your white chocolate over low heat.  It should thicken to become a texture similar to frosting.  Use a knife to spread the melted chocolate onto one side of the biscotti.  Chill until set, about 30 minutes.
THEN EAT THEM. because seriously they're so super good.

Date Night for the Indecisives

My fiancé and I have a really bad habit. Because we are long distance, we have fallen into this habit where we feel like its necessary to go on some super expensive dinner date every time we see each other, which turns out to be just about every other week. Not only has this gotten really expensive, it also has started to feel like a bit of a rut.  We aren't adventuring as much as we used to, and we're spending a lot of money that we need to be saving for stuff like weddings, honeymoons, and our future life together.. You know, just trivial things. Not.
SO, I got the idea from various blogs to come up with 75 dates in varying degrees of cheapness (some are a bit more expensive) to help us continue our dates while sprucing them up a little.  And to help with the fact that Jake and I both are extremely indecisive, I put them in a mason jar to pick out at random.  It was a fun little afternoon of crafting and I wanted to share it with you!!

You'll need:
A list of dates (can be found on various blogs/probably pinned to one of your boards)
A jar
Ribbon
2-3 colors of spray paint
Popsicle sticks
Sharpie

First, you'll need to divide your list into 3 sections: easy free/extremely cheap dates, medium range cost dates, and more expensive dates that require a bit more planning.
Then figure out how many of each category you have and set aside however many popsicle sticks for each and decide which color should represent each.  I left the cheapest category plain, the next cheapest were blue and the expensive ones gold.
Then spray paint your sticks, front and back.
While you let them dry, decorate your jar.  I hot glued ribbon around it. (It's all the same roll, but I flipped one over.)
Once the sticks dry, write a different date on each one in the corresponding color, and voilé!
Our first date from the date jar was ice cream sundaes. We got all the supplies and made banana splits at home and snuggled (after meeting our wedding planner for the first time!).  It was lovely!

Cake Balls

For Valentine's Day, I wanted to make something sweet.  I chose to try out some cake balls.  They're super easy and really fun to decorate :)

What you'll need:
a box of chocolate cake mix (and whatever it says you need to make the cake)
a tub of chocolate frosting
a LOT of dark chocolate chips (probably two bags)
icing in a the color of your choice

Bake your cake according to the box instructions.
Once it's cooled, crumble it into fine crumbs.  Add the entire tub of frosting. (Yeah, that's right, the whole thing...)  Mix it together as best you can with a fork (or your hands...).

Roll into little balls.
Heat up your chocolate to 120 degrees in the microwave, and then let it cool to about 95 degrees. (This is called "tempering;" it makes the chocolate harden a little more cleanly.)
Dip the balls in the chocolate and then set them on wax paper to cool and harden.
Once dry, decorate!

Bizcuits.

It's a Southern thang - ya know?
Nashville is the home of the world's best biscuit (at The Loveless Cafe), but unfortunately that's like 30 minutes away from where I live so I just don't have time to eat those biscuits whenever I'd like.  So I thought I'd try to make my own.  I tried a couple of recipes, but these are the ones I like the best:

You'll need:
1 1/3 c. flour
2 T. sugar
3 t. baking powder
a dash of salt
5 T. cold butter cut into pieces
1/2 c. milk

Preheat your oven to 425 and grease a baking sheet.
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl so your biscuits will be nice and fluffy
Cut in the butter with a pastry blender (or crumble it together with your hands) until the mixture makes course crumbs.
Pour in the milk, stirring with a fork as you go, and soon a soft dough will form.
Roll out the dough about 1/4 inch thick and cut circles into it, either with a cookie cutter or a knife.
Bake until golden, about 10-12 minutes.
Enjoy with butter or jam or even mixed fruit and whipped cream!

Easy (and Skinny) Cookies and Cream Shake!

I'm indulgent and I love Oreos.  So here you go.
What you'll need:
2 c. fat free vanilla fro yo
1/2 c. skim milk
6 oreos

Throw the fro yo and the milk into a blender for a few seconds until creamy, and then add in the oreos and blend till thoroughly distributed.  If you want to spice it up, you could add mint extract or maybe even almond!

It's delicious.  It makes either one VERY LARGE glass, or 2 smallish glasses!
Throw some cute straws in there and you've got a precious treat for two. :)

Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

While fall is rapidly approaching, I thought I'd sprinkle in another warm weather recipe that might be nice on those beautiful 70 degree days we've been experiencing.
It sounds a bit involved, but it only took me maybe 15 minutes to prepare and then you're enjoying it in no time.
You'll need:
1 full c. chopped strawberries
2 T. sugar
1 t. lemon juice
a pinch of salt
2 T. cold water

and separately:
2/3 c. sugar
1 c. very hot water
1-1 1/4 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
4 1/2 c. cold seltzer

To make the strawberry component, combine those first five ingredients in a blender. (I used my magic bullet.)  Puree until smooth.
For the lemonade, combine your hot water and sugar in the pitcher you intend to use (the water being hot will help the sugar to dissolve more rapidly).  Add the lemon juice, strawberry mixture, and seltzer.
To make a fancy glass, I used one of my squeezed-out lemon wedges and rubbed it around the rim of a wine glass and then dipped it in sugar.
Serve on ice or chilled.
Enjoy!

Orange Cranberry Scones

I promised a more exciting scone... and I'm delivering!
Okay, seriously, these were delicious.  So make them.

Here's what you need:
2 not quite full cups of flour
1 1/2 T. baking powder
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 t. salt
5 T. butter, cut up
5 T. margarine, cut up
grated rind of 1 orange
1/3 c. craisins/dried cranberries
a little more than 1/2 c. buttermilk.

Preheat your oven to 425.  Grease/flour a large baking sheet.  Combine your dry ingredients in a large bowl and cut in with a pastry cutter until you have crumbs.

Add the orange rind and craisins.  Gradually stir in your buttermilk.
The mixture should be very moist and sticky.  It will be kind of hard to work with, but so worth it... your scones will be incredibly moist and tasty!
Roughly make triangles with the dough/batter on your cookie sheet and bake until the tops are hard, about 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!!!