Pumpkin Anyone?

I know I've said it before, but Fall is my favorite time of year! Today, while getting my Twitter fix, I stumbled upon a few recipes I thought I'd share ... of course, they give a shout out to fall with their pumpkin flavor. Enjoy and let me know if you make any of these!

Here's the link to the original post on The Plunge Project.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling

{Recipe & photo via The Pioneer Woman}

Yield: 12 muffins
Ingredients:
Muffins:

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 4 Tablespoons Butter, cut into pieces
• 1 cup (heaping) Pumpkin Puree
• 1/2 cup Evaporated Milk
• 1 whole Egg
• 1-1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1/2 cup Golden Raisins (optional!)

Topping:

• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg

Frosting:

• 1/4 cup Softened Butter
• 4 ounces, weight Cream Cheese
• 1/2 pound Powdered Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease 12 muffin tins.
2. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.
3. Cut in butter with two knives or a pastry blender until it is fully incorporated.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla.
5. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture.
6. Add raisins. Fold gently until mixture is just combined.
7. Pour into a greased muffin pan—batter hardly ever fills all twelve unless you keep it down to 1/2 full.
8. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg mixture over the top of each unbaked muffin.
9. Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and allow to cool.
10. To make the frosting, mix all ingredients on high until soft and whipped. Spread onto completely cooled muffins, or place into a large pastry bag with a large star tip and go crazy! Store in the fridge, as icing will soften at room temperature.

Pumpkin Spice Spread

{Recipe & photo via The Neuff}

Ingredients:

• 1 Pkg Cream Cheese
• ½ C Canned Pumpkin
• ½ C Sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp maple flavoring
• ½ tsp Pumpkin pie spice
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 carton frozen whipped topping – thawed

Directions:

1. Whip the cream cheese, pumpkin and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Beat in cinnamon, vanilla, maple flavoring, pumpkin pie spice and nutmeg.
3. Fold in whipped topping and refrigerate until serving.

I'm Starving

No, seriously. For the last two days, I've been hungry all day long! I'm eating. Trust me. I'm just trying not to "eat for two." That old saying is not accurate. Women who are expecting are only supposed to eat an extra 300-500 calories a day, according to my doctor. So, I've been trying to do that ... and mostly healthy foods. So, why in the world am I still hungry? I eat breakfast, and 30 minutes later, I'm hungry again. Same goes for snack time, lunch time and dinner time. This can't be good. My child is already growing like a weed. My baby bump is looking more like a baby mountain. Any suggestions from those of you who have "been there and done that"?

Another new address for the Edwards!

Well, it's official ... we've moved into our new house! Are we excited? Well, let's see ... We've been living in an apartment with a whopping 1,000 square feet for over a year ... with an 80lb dog! So, that's a big fat YES filled with loads of excitement! We may not have all the boxes unpacked or all the furniture we need, but we're in. The bed is made. The dishes are washed and put away. The fridge, freezer, extra freezer and pantry are full. We can live there comfortably and easily. All is well in the Edwards new casa. (And, don't worry, next spring we're planning on giving our shrubbery and flowers a facelift. They aren't very attractive right now.)

I have a feeling this house is going to be extra special to us. After all, this is the home where Baby E will come after he or she gets here. The room is picked out for the nursery. We've been looking at nursery furniture, and we know exactly where it will all be placed. I've opened the closet doors and imagined all the sweet little clothes that will hang there. Oh it's just so exciting! We are tickled pink ... or maybe blue ... over our new house and all the exciting things we have going on! God is good AMAZING!

And since we got a new house, Dolce did too! He's not sure if he loves it or not yet, but I'm pretty sure he will learn to. How could he not? It's a beautiful cedar cabin!

Right now, Dolce is protesting a little. See, he's been living inside for the last year. But when we lived in Alabama, he lived outside. BUT, before that, he lived inside with me in Knoxville. Since he's experienced both the indoors and outdoors, I think he's decided he likes indoors best. What he doesn't realize is that he sheds a full coat every day. Did you hear that? A. Full. Coat. Every. Day. That may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it doesn't feel like it. And, with the new house and Baby E on the way, I just don't want all that hair floating around. Who knows. Maybe we'll get him a friend to keep him company so he'll like living outside. Because, unless it's snowing, my sweet Dolce is staying outside.

Well, that's all for now. Hope everyone is having a great week!

New Blog Name?

I started this blog about a year ago as a means of keeping our family and friends updated on what's going on in our crazy, busy, sometimes boring, sometimes exciting lives. We have so many people we care about who live in different places, and to be honest, life always gets away from us and phone calls don't happen as often as they should. So, this was a great outlet for updates on our adventures after our big move from Alabama to Kentucky. One of my friends from my hometown helped me come up with our blog name, Tiger Fans in Cat Country. It was a cute fit ... at the time. Now that the whole "living in a new place" has kind of passed, and we're moving on to new adventures that include diapers, bottles and super cute onesies, I'm thinking we need a new name for this blog. Since most of my creativity is used up at work, I need help from you all to come up with something cute and fitting for this new phase of our lives. If you have any good ideas, share them in the comments section. I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Big Hair

So, my flat iron decided to pucker out die. I woke up yesterday morning, washed my hair, plugged in my flat iron and nothing. No red light. No heat. Nothing. Since we're packing for our big move this week, all my other handy dandy hair necessities are packed ... except a random set of hot rollers. So, for the last two days, I've had big hair. Not the kind of volume everyone likes. I mean BIG HAIR. 80s hair. It's awful. So, it's looking like I'm in the market for a new flat iron (and a breakfast room table, but that's another story). Anyone have any suggestions? My last one was a Chi (RIP). I liked it, but I didn't love it. It kind of pulled my hair out. I don't want to spend a lot of money, but I really don't want to buy a cheap one either. Help! My hair needs you!