Hi Everyone! Happy Weekend! It’s a cold, windy day here, the trees are beginning to lose all their colorful leaves and we are supposed to get our first snow next week. It seems like winter is almost here! And since the holiday season is just around the corner, I wanted to share this recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge with you today! If you will be making lots of goodies in the kitchen this year either to give away as gifts, to bring to parties, or for your family to enjoy, this is the perfect sweet treat to add to your list! If you are a peanut butter lover, you will love this super creamy fudge!

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup milk

2 1/4 cups brown sugar

3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Optional: add chopped unsalted peanuts for extra crunch

First, measure out all your ingredients, because you will need to have them on hand, as the fudge comes together pretty quickly. Place the confectioners’ sugar in your electric mixer bowl. Then, in a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, making sure that it doesn’t burn. Once the butter has melted, add in the milk and brown sugar and whisk until you have a smooth mixture. Constantly whisking, bring it to a boil, then cook for another two minutes, continuing to whisk. Remove from heat, and add in the peanut butter and vanilla extract and stir until you have a thick, creamy sauce. Pour it into your electric mixer with the confectioners’ sugar, and mix until completely smooth and creamy. Pour into an 8×8 inch pan (line the pan with parchment paper) and let chill until the fudge is firm, then cut it into small pieces using a sharp knife. (*Note: I cut the recipe in half and made a smaller batch, and it was still a lot of fudge!)

Hi Everyone! Happy November! I hope you are all having a good weekend so far, and that the month has started off well for you. I wanted to stop by and show you a couple of pictures from my walk around the city this afternoon. We’ve had such a beautiful fall here this year, and have been doing so many fun things to enjoy the season this year… going to different national parks in the area, getting our pumpkins from the Amish country in Pennsylvania, doing lots of fall crafts and decorating, and some fall baking too, of course! I took a walk around the city this afternoon and walked by the Potomac river, near all the monuments, which is one of my favorite areas, and the view of the Jefferson Memorial was just so pretty with all the colorful leaves, that I had to show you all!

The pretty walk by the river

The leaves looked like they were on fire as the day’s last rays of the sun were hitting them.

I hope you enjoyed this little “walk” by the river with me, and that you have a wonderful weekend and enjoy all the beauty of this season wherever you are! Thanks for stopping by today!

Hi Everyone! One of my favorite things about the whole holiday season is gift giving. And not just because I love to shop! I love finding the perfect gift for someone to show that you love and care about them, I love cute and creative gift wrapping ideas, and I love homemade gifts from the kitchen! I wanted to share this super quick and easy idea for little burlap treat bags to fill with candy, cookies or any other goodies you can think of! I love burlap for fall, but you could really use whatever material you like or have on hand to make these, and then just embellish them with some ribbon and little decorations!

Burlap

Sewing machine or hot glue gun

Iron and Scissors

Cellophane treat bags

Ribbon and decorations

To make these, start by cutting your burlap. You will need to cut two rectangles, make them as big as you like, mine were about 5×9 inches big. Iron the burlap on low to get it all straightened out, place the two pieces that you will need for each bag on top of each other, and either stitch the three sides (two long sides and one short side) together using your sewing machines, or if you don’t want to do that, simply use your hot glue gun! Then, turn the bag inside out, and line the inside with a small cellophane treat bag (you don’t have to do this, if you’re putting wrapped candy inside it doesn’t matter that the inside is fuzzy!) Tie with ribbon and add some little seasonal decorations and you are done!

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all having a great weekend and enjoying the last couple of days of October! It’s been a beautiful fall weekend here so far, with clear, sunny blue skies and crisp, chilly air, making it feel like it won’t be too long before winter comes around again… but I’d rather not think about that just yet! I wanted to share another simple and easy fall craft and decoration with you today. This Pumpkin Flower Centerpiece is a classic and elegant fall decoration that’s very easy to make, and yet makes for an a beautiful and impressive centerpiece for your fall table. Here is how you can make your own…

Pumpkin

Fresh flowers

Small vase/bowl/flower pot

Sharp knife and large spoon

Floral foam ball

Pencil and scissors

1. First, gather all your supplies. I used a large Cinderella pumpkin, but you can use whatever size and kind of pumpkin you want, and whatever flowers you like. I used a bouquet of fall themed flowers with some beautiful sunflowers, roses and mums. Next, cut off the top of the pumpkin where your opening will be, by tracing around the rim of the vase (I used a small flower pot) on top of your pumpkin (so you can fit the vase inside afterwards). Once you have cut the top off, take out all the seeds and insides of the pumpkin, until nice and smooth.

2. Then, place your floral foam ball inside your vase, add some water and place it inside the pumpkin. Cut your flowers to your desired length, and begin arranging them in the vase you created inside the pumpkin, making them into a round, shape to mirror the shape of the pumpkin. Once you have arranged all the flowers inside the vase, you can go back and pull out/tuck in any flowers that you need to so you get a perfect arrangement!

For other fall crafts and decorations, check out THIS Monogrammed Pumpkin Fall Table Setting or THESE Pumpkin Candle Holders!

Hi Everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week so far and that you have a great weekend waiting for you! After a busy couple of days, we decided to go down to Virginia and drive down Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park to enjoy this beautiful fall weather, and we really couldn’t have picked a more perfect spot for that! Skyline Drive is about an hour away from Washington DC and is a 105 mile long road that leads through Shenandoah National Park, with over 70 overlooks that give you the most beautiful views of the area. It’s an absolutely beautiful drive, especially at this time of year when it feels like you are in a fall wonderland, surrounded by beautifully golden and fiery red trees everywhere. I loved all the amazing views of the all the woods and fields, with little cabins and farms scattered across them, and all the gorgeous fall colors being illuminated by the sunshine. It was the perfect fall day!

I hope you enjoyed this little “drive” down Skyline Drive with me, and hope you get a chance to visit yourself sometime if you’ve never been there! If you want to find out more about it, you can visit the Skyline Drive website HERE! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, come back soon again for some delicious recipes and fun projects! Thanks for stopping by today!

Hi Everyone! Happy Weekend! I have a delicious recipe to share with you to start this weekend off! I almost feel a little guilty sharing these donut muffins with you because of their butter and sugar content, but they are so ridiculously good that I couldn’t not share them! If you are looking for a healthy, nutritious sweet treat, this is definitely not the recipe to make. But if you are looking for something melt-in-your-mouth, out-of-this-world delicious and super indulgent, and let’s face it, sometimes nothing else will do, then this is the dessert for you! One bite of these will instantly turn a bad day into a much better one. These little donut muffins would be delicious with some hot apple cider and they would make a perfect addition to any brunch table or holiday gathering!

DONUTS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 1/4 cups milk

2 tbs unsalted butter, melted

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

TOPPING

6 – 8 tbs unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

.

DIRECTIONS

1. First, preheat your oven to 350 deg F and grease your muffin pan. Then, whisk together the milk, melted butter, vanilla extract and egg in a large bowl. In another, smaller bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, ground cinnamon and salt. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well until you have a smooth batter.

2. Pour the batter into your prepared muffin pan, filling each muffin cup until it’s about 3/4 full. Bake for 15 – 17 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Once done, let the muffins cool for a couple minutes, while you prepare the topping. To make the topping, melt the butter and pour it in a small bowl, and combine the sugar and cinnamon, and place it in another bowl. Once the muffins have cooled a little bit, coat each muffin in the butter first (dipping it in the butter or brushing it with butter using a pastry brush), and then in the cinnamon sugar. (You could also just cover the tops of the donut muffins with the butter and cinnamon sugar).

Hi Everyone! I have another fun fall-inspired craft and fall table setting to share with you today! I love the elegant and personal touch that monograms add to things, and thought they would look great on little white pumpkins to use instead of place cards, whether for a casual fall dinner or a fancy Thanksgiving table. They are so easy to make, all you need are some small pumpkins of whatever shape or color you like and some paint (I used multi-surface acrylic craft paint). You can either draw the monogram on the pumpkin free-hand, or simply print out the letters you need, carefully cut them out, then trace around them onto your pumpkin using a pencil, and then paint the letters using your paint. Let the pumpkins dry completely and they are ready to use! So simple and so pretty! Happy Fall, Everybody!

And for another fall table decoration using pumpkins, learn how to make these Pumpkin Candle Holders in my tutorial HERE.

Hi Everyone! I can’t believe we are almost halfway through October already! This fall is flying by so fast! It’s been a wonderful one so far, I’m always so happy when this time of year finally comes around again. I wanted to share a fun fall-inspired idea with you today! I made these Pumpkin Candle Holders using some of the pumpkins I got at the Amish pumpkin farm that I told you about a couple of days ago (read about it HERE) and wanted to share a tutorial with you today. They are very easy to make and you only need a couple of things to make them, but they make for beautiful fall decorations that you could put on your coffee or dinner table or add to your Thanksgiving table! Here is how you can make your own…

Pumpkins (real or plastic)

Flowers (real or silk)

Hot glue gun & Scissors

Knife and Spoon

Taper Candles

1. First, make sure your pumpkin is clean on the outside, if not, just wipe it with a damp paper towel, you don’t want to get it too wet. Then, break off the stalk, and using a small sharp knife (be careful!), cut out a hole around where the stalk was, making sure it’s slightly bigger than the candle that you are planning on using (make sure you don’t cut the hole too big or too small). Once you’ve cut the hole, take out all the seeds out of the pumpkin using a spoon and discard them.

2. Next, gather all your supplies. You will need a hot glue gun, a taper candle and some different flowers and embellishments. I used silk flowers because I wanted the candle holders to last as long as possible, but you can definitely use fresh flowers if you prefer those.

3. Then, using your hot glue gun, begin arranging and attaching the decorations around the outside of the opening you cut into the pumpkin.

Hi Everyone! So, inspired by our recent trip to an Amish pumpkin farm (read about it HERE), I decided to make some Pumpkin Sugar Cookies this weekend, and I wanted to share them with you today! I love decorating cookies, I’m definitely not a professional by any means, it’s just something fun that I love to do! I love that with one simple cookie recipe, a couple of cookie cutters and different colored icing, you can make so many different creations! They are the perfect little treat to make for different holidays or great little gifts if you package them in pretty little bags with cute ribbon and gift tags!

Good morning, Everyone! Happy Weekend! I hope you all have a fun and relaxing weekend ahead! It’s a cold and rainy one here, and after the seemingly endless months of summer heat, I couldn’t be happier to put my jacket on, pull my umbrella out and step out into the fall weather! Although, I’m sure that experiencing this weather for days on end will soon change my opinion. Is everyone always content with the weather? No, I don’t think they are. But I’m sure you can see why I’m saying this after a wonderful summer full of heat. Now, don’t think that I’m complaining because I’m not. This summer has been amazing. There haven’t been many days that there wasn’t any heat, so we were very lucky. My friend begged to differ though. Her AC was broken, and as you can see from this ac tune up in indianapolis information, you are meant to schedule regular maintenance for your system to guarantee its lifespan, and that was obviously something that she didn’t do. It didn’t take her long to get fed up with not having any air conditioning, so she was straight on the phone to get it repaired. That’ll teach her! She’ll never skip an AC tune-up again. We, on the other hand, enjoyed the summer that much that we didn’t want it to end, but I think that was because we had a decent HVAC system to hand. Even though I enjoyed it more than I could ever say, I’m just welcoming the change in seasons. So, I can’t wait to see what this time of year has in store for us.