Cinnamon Roll Bread

A month ago, while visiting my parents, I went to one of the largest grocery stores I have ever been to. They have just about anything you could ever want. While there, I picked up a loaf of this amazing cinnamon roll bread. The loaf I purchased lasted less than 2 days, so I had to find a recipe to make this at home.

This is the BEST cinnamon bread EVER. It is delicious toasted. However because of the way it is made, you must slice it thick and put it in the oven or toaster oven to make toast. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get out of the toaster.

Baked French Pear Pancake

After an insanely stressful week, it is nice to be able to prepare a very fast, easy, and completely satisfying breakfast for my parents before I have to head home to NC.

This is one of the quickest breakfast I know how to make. It takes less than 4 minutes to put together, then the oven does the rest of the work.

Pumpkin Crepes

Growing up, I was never a fan of pumpkin. That is mostly because once a year my mom bought a can of pumpkin puree and turned it into a pumpkin pie, using store-bought pie crust. To this day I still dislike traditional pumpkin pie.

Until the pumpkin spice latte crazy began, I had no use for pumpkin anything. Even though it is a challenge to find pumpkin recipes I actually enjoy, there are several now that I make every fall. Pumpkin crepes is one of those. These are simple to make and taste delicious. However I am at a loss of what to fill them with.

Several recipes I have viewed filled pumpkin crepes with either a pumpkin cream cheese filling or use pumpkin pie filling. I tried the pumpkin cream cheese filling, I didn't like it. It tasted like pumpkin pie.

I just drizzled mine with caramel syrup and topped it with some whipped cream. If you have a delicious filling for pumpkin crepes, please let me know!

Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Rolls

This morning's breakfast is the result of a quick look on Pinterest for some inspiration.  One of the first pins that popped up when I looked at the site was for Pumpkin Pie Cinnamon Rolls. Since it is a chilly and rainy day, I had no hesitation with turning on the oven and baking up these delicious little treats.

Mulled Apple Cider

I grew up in Winchester, Va. The home of everything apple on the Eastern side of the country. There is the huge Apple Blossom Festival in the late spring. White House Foods is based there. I grew up going to Richard's Fruit Market to buy local apples. I still remember their huge pot over the fire in the back where they were busy cooking down their delicious apple butter. My best memory was of buying fresh cider at Virginia Farm Market, where they always had free samples of the mulled cider.

Over the years since having moved from Winchester, I have tried countless recipes for mulled cider, wanting to find the perfect combination that brought back those fond childhood memories.

Ambrosia Cheese Ball (Giant Eagle Copy Cat Recipe)

When I go to visit my parents, my mom thinks that I am starving to death here in NC, so she makes it her mission to drag me to the grocery store and load me up with things that she thinks I need to have to eat. She does not seem to understand that  I would much rather make my own foods fresh at home versus buying premade/premixed items.

The latest item that I was sent home with was an Ambrosia Cheese Ball from Giant Eagle. I have to admit that the cheese ball was insanely delicious spread on graham crackers. I have searched the internet looking for the recipe but have come up empty handed for a copy cat recipe.

I told my mom about this and her solution was trying to buy me like a dozen of them. I'm not sure how she thought I could possible eat so many at one time. Yes they are delicious, but really?! I swear my mom is greatly lacking in common sense some times.

After talking her out of buying a ton of them, she said that she'd ask for the ingredients for what goes into them. She found a nice, older lady at the local store who very willingly slipped her the recipe. Yippee!

Carrot Soup with Crispy Chickpeas

Once in a while you come across one of those recipes that the pictures look amazing but the actual recipe sounds kind of questionable. I came across this recipe at Smitten Kitchen when searching for some good fall recipes to try out. I didn't think the recipe sounding too appealing but the pictures were so pretty, I had to give it a try.

Although there are multitude of subtle flavors in this soup, the fresh carrot taste is what shined. Paired with some creme fraiche and pita bread, it was a perfect end of summer meal.

Slow Cooker Apple Butter

Saturday was one of those days that reminds you that summer is slowly slipping away, giving way to the crisp, cool air of autumn.  I spent an amazing day with a great friend at the Apple Festival in Wilksboro, NC. Walking around I saw amazing crafts and all sorts of local vendors selling apple everything.

After seeing all the vendors selling apple butter, I came home and had to start chopping up the apples that I brought back from my parents' place last weekend. I stuffed my slow cooker beyond full with a little over 6 pounds of apples, sprinkled a ton of spices and sugars over the top and left it go for the next 12 hours.

Squash & Chickpea Moroccan Stew

When searching for squash related recipes to try out this fall, I came across variations of this recipe on multiple blogs. It sounded interesting so I figured that I would give it a shot. I was shocked to find that, minus the olives, it was a delicious vegetarian dinner.

Not only was it delicious, it was easy to put together and made for a great weeknight dinner.