The Annual " Great Fall Festival "

A few weeks ago my girlfriends and I hosted our annual " Great Fall Festival" once again. We hold this event every year in late October. It started several years ago as a simple day with me and a friend of mine spending a day with our other girlfriend's daughters baking & carving pumpkins. I blogged about it here and again here.

Over the years it has evolved and gotten bigger and bigger. Each year we have invited a few more children here and there and now we just turned it into a full fledged party ! You know how we do.


So now we have costumes, games, giveaways, food....the whole nine yards.

Here are some pics from this years event


I got some really good ideas for treats for the kids from Pinterest. They were simple & fun to make. We had a "Prep Party "AKA "Adult Baking party"  the night before to decorate & setup for the event which included lots of wine LOL

Treat Table

We kept the food menu very simple since it was just kids: Hot Dogs, Chili & Cheese for the Hot Dogs & to make Frito Pie, chips & drinks.  One of my girlfriends also made candied apples the night before.

Food Table

The big surprise this year was we hired a Clown. She came about an hour into the event & surprised the kids with some games, songs, dance contests, face painting, balloon animals, popcorn and snow cones. It was quite a hit.

Clowning with the kids

Games

Dance Contest

Face Painting and Balloon Animals

Of course we had Pumpkin Carving this year too.....

Seriously focused on those pumpkins

Mommy can you help me ?

We also had a costume contest and lots of participation too. We had several winners: Ike & Tina Turner & Old Lady &  a Boxer. People were so creative this year !

Ike & Tina & their little ones !

Beautifully Complex as Bat Woman !

This Little Old Lady on a Walker..........

...actually looks like this in real life !

Our Little Boxer was one of the winners !

My girlfriends and I have grown this into an anuual event that we are really proud of and look forward to each year !  The guest list continues to expand. We love traditions, we love making memories and we love partying and having fun. We are blessed to be surrounded by so many beautiful children and it has been a pleasure to watch them grow and learn and develop.

The other 2  Hostesses with our Suprise Guest the Clown !

How do you celebrate the Fall Season or Halloween ?

Parties ? Family Gatherings ? 

Did you Host or attend and fun events this year ?

Did you see any creative costumes ?

Thoughts ? Comnments ? Questions ?



Beautifully Complex

Cooking with Beautifully Complex : Strawberry Dream Cake

If you like Strawberries and are looking for a nice cool Spring or Summer dessert this is quick and easy to make. I am pretty sure it's not low calorie though, LOL.  It is very moist and has a lot of flavor.  I recently made this for Easter Dinner. I got the recipe from my mother several years ago and thought I would share it on the blog.

Cake mix & jello powder

Beat eggs & add to mixture

Split mashed strawberries in half

Add 1/2 berries, oil & water, mix for 5 minutes

Pour into pan & bake for 30-35 minutes

Poke holes using a straw while cake is warm

Poke holes all over the cake

Add sugar to berries, stir and spread over cake

Let cool completely & add whipped topping

COMPLETE RECIPE

1  box Yellow or White Cake Mix ( I prefer Duncan Hines Butter Golden)
1   3 ounce package Strawberry Jello
4   eggs
1   cup vegetable oil 
1/4  cup water
1   16 ounce package of frozen strawberries (completely thawed, smashed & halved)
1/2  cup powdered sugar
1  medium container of Cool Whip

Combine cake mix, jello powder and eggs. Mix well.

Add oil, water and 1/2 of the smashed strawberries. Beat with mixer on medium for 5 minutes.

Spray a 9 X 13 pan or glass dish with non-stick spray.  Pour batter into pan & bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While cake is warm use a straw to poke holes all over the cake. Mix the other 1/2 of the mashed strawberries with the powdered sugar. Spread over the top of the cake, allowing the mix to fill in the holes in the cake. Let cake cool completely.

Once cooled. Spread cool whip over the top and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
You can place a few fresh strawberries on top in the center for a nice presentation. 


Slice & Enjoy !


Have you tried any new recipes lately ?

What is your favorite cool dessert ?

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?


Beautifully Complex

Fall Festival Once Again

Every year, myself and a couple of friends get together with the kids (and now some grand kids) to carve pumpkins and do some baking to celebrate the kickoff of fall. It usually turns into a party later in the evening and this year we added some new folks to the mix. We let the girls invite some of their friends to participate and some of our other friends and their children came to join in on the fun.....

They were really concentrating on those pumpkins !

The little guy trying to get in on the fun too !

We made two recipes one for the younger girls was pretty simple. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars. I found both on Pinterest of course ! LOL

Prep work

For the older girls, I picked a recipe that was a little more involved and let me tell you, it was a great choice. Pumpkin Creme Cheese Muffins were well worth the extra steps.

* If you make this recipe, let me offer you a time saving & convenient tip: For the creme cheese filling, instead of using the plastic wrap & cutting into pieces, just mix the creme cheese and sugar and put it into a piping bag & pop it in the freezer while you mix up the batter, then just follow the same instructions except just squeeze the cheese out using piping bag. It is quick and much for convenient than the steps listed in the recipe.

Voila !

My friends daughter did a phenomenal job with this recipe, all I did was supervise and direct. She is quite the little baker and really enjoys it and it is fun for me too. Let me tell you, those muffins tasted so.dang. good ! Seriously I did not know pumpkin could taste so good.  You will really enjoy this recipe.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown !

It was a fun Saturday afternoon/evening &I think we adults enjoyed it as much or more than the kids did.




Do you have any fall traditions ? 

Do you have any really good pumpkin recipes ?

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?

Beautifully Complex

Cooking with Beautifully Complex : Twisted Banana Pudding

I got this recipe from a girlfriend about 7-8 years ago. It's called Twisted Banana Pudding because it has a little different twist to it and all of the ingredients are fat free. I doubled the recipe when I made it for Mother's Day (in the pics) which is why it looks so big, but I am going to post the standard size recipe.

INGREDIENTS 8 oz. fat free cream cheese (softened) 8 oz. fat free cool whip ( or larger depending on size of dish ) 1 can fat free Eagle brand condensed milk 1 box fat free instant vanilla pudding 1 box fat free instant banana cream pudding 1 box vanilla wafers  (I like the bite size mini wafers) 6 bananas 4 cups 2% low fat milk  (to mix the puddings with)  Mix the puddings per the directions on the box add 1/2 of the cool whip, the condensed milk and the cream cheese, mix together with mixer or heavy spoon. Lay wafers in the bottom of the dish

Pour the pudding mixture on top of the wafers, top with sliced bananas.

Top with the remaining cool whip add wafers around the edge. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours before serving.

* Optional sprinkle top with a few chopped nuts & a little cinnamon.

Viola ! A twist on an Ol' School Favorite.

I rarely tell anyone that this recipe has cream cheese in it or that all of the sweet ingredients are fat free. I let the pudding speak for itself.

Hope you enjoy it.

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?

Beautifully Complex 

The Great Pumpkin

This past weekend, I spent some quality time with my best girlfriend's two daughters. On Friday night the girls came over while their Mom went out. We ordered Pizza & played Monopoly which I haven't played in forever. Why oh why did Mr. Mixologist beat us mercilessly ? LOL I mean it was really bad. He had property on every side of the board with Hotels on half of them. It was a whipping to remember. He talked a lot of noise while he had us all on skid row which made it worse. I was the first one to go bankrupt. The girls got a lesson on how to lose gracefully, even when its hard. LOL  He has promised to give us another opportunity to redeem ourselves.

Sunday afternoon, I went over to the their house along with another girlfriend to have our annual  Halloween Craft and Baking Day. My best friend is sooo not into crafts OR cooking so she recruited us years ago to fill in with these types of activities with the girls. Our other girlfriend always handles the pumpkin carving & I handle the pumpkin inspired baking.

Concentrating to get it just right ! 

This year I decided to let the 9 yr old make some Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting. I found the recipe on one of my favorite sites, A Taste of Home Cooking. I also located a recipe & video for a Pumpkin Cheesecake for the 13 yr old to make.

Finished Project 

I packed up the equipment from my kitchen, grabbed my laptop & hit the store & headed on over. When I arrived they were already focused on getting their pumpkins just right.

Mixing it up !

The 9 yr old got started on her cookies which were very simple & extremely tasty. The brown butter frosting was sooooo good that we were all  licking our fingers ! If you decide to  make them I promise you won't be disappointed.

Ta Da ! Ready for the Frosting

Both girls enjoy cooking and baking and I always have a good time planning cooking with them & they always appreciate it and have fun doing things in the kitchen.






                                                                                                                                                              

Getting it just right

The 13 yr old is a pretty good baker so I picked a cheesecake since it was a bit more challenging. She made her own crust from scratch using graham crackers & ginger snaps. I just delegated, reviewed the recipe with her & pretty much just supervised.

Final touch before bedtime

Cheesecakes take a long time to bake & many hours to set, usually overnight, so I didn't get to see the finished product on Monday morning, but I heard today that it was yummy.

Pumpkin Carvers Extraordinaries ! 

Beauty & Baking Skills

The Girls & their Mom

Have you had any Fall Holiday Fun ?

Got any good recipes to share ?  If so drop the links in the comments.

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?


Beautifully Complex 

Christmas Cooking

I have spent the last couple of evenings doing some Christmas baking before we hit the road on Wednesday to see Mr. Mixologist's family for Christmas. After discussing it with my mom, I decided to make one of her classic recipes to share with them.  It's called Gooey Butter Coffee Cake and it's a really simple to make and boy is it scrumptious ! My mother has been making this for years. I can remember her sending it to me in care packages when I was in college. In fact, me and my sister still fight over the corner pieces cause they taste the best for some reason. I found some really nice inexpensive Christmas Tins at Big Lots. We intend to give them to the relatives that we didn't actually purchase gifts for. The recipe is so simple:

This first layer is just a yellow box cake mix (dry mix only), a stick of butter melted, and one beaten egg. Stir out the lumps and spread mixture into the bottom of a 9 X 13 greased baking dish. This will be the crust. The best cake mix powder to use is Duncan Hines Butter Golden flavor.

For the next layer, mix 8 ounces cream cheese, a box of powdered sugar (16 oz) and two beaten eggs, using a mixer, beat  until smooth & then pour on top of the first layer.

Sprinkle the top of the second layer with chopped pecans. They were out of the pre-chopped ones at the store yesterday, so I had to use one of my favorite kitchen items......

My Zyliss Chopper can chop up any and everything in no time flat. It is such a breeze, very sturdy and dishwasher safe.  I love using it !

I chopped these pecans up in like 10 seconds ! LOL No joke.

This is what it looks like before going into the oven at 350 Degrees for 50-60 minutes.

This is the final product. It is best to let it sit until it is completely cool. Honestly, its best to make a day ahead, because it's easier to cut into squares once it has settled & cooled really good. The middle will fall in a bit as it cools down so don't be alarmed when that happens, its supposed to.  My opinion is it actually tastes better after a couple of days. It seems like they get more chewy and gooey ! LOL

I made 4 of these and after cutting them all up into squares. I actually ended up having enough to fill up six Christmas Tins to share with my beau's family !  My mom is the one who got Mr. Mixologist hooked on the Gooey Butter Coffee Cake a few months back, so I am hoping that his family enjoys it as much as he does,  and yes I am hoping to make a good impression  too :)

Hope you get a chance to try the recipe, so simple and so delicious.

Are you doing any holiday baking ?         What are some of your favorites from childhood ?

Thoughts ? Questions ? Comments ?

Beautifully Complex