Easy Pear Butter

INGREDIENTS:

3 lbs. ripe pears, peeled, cored and diced
3 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch of groud nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves

DIRECTIONS:

Stir all ingredients together in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about 50 minutes, covering so that the lid is slightly open, and stirring occasionally. Keep an eye on the mixture so that the bottom does not burn. Once it has reduced slightly and thickened, remove from heat and transfer to a food processor. Pulse until smooth. (Or you can skip this step and keep the pear butter chunky.)

Transfer to canning jars or a heat-proof container, seal, and refrigerate until ready to use. Keep for up to a week.

*If your pear butter is too thin, feel free to run the mixture through a strainer to remove extra liquid. Alternately, let the mixture simmer on the stove longer to reduce more.

Carrot Cake Roll

Ingredients (cake):

3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 cup flour
2 cups shredded carrots
Powdered sugar, to aid in rolling

Ingredients (filling):

6oz cream cheese, room temperature
4 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a jelly roll (10x15) pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. Beat eggs at high speed for 5 minutes, until frothy and dark yellow. Beat in sugar, oil, and vanilla extract.
3. Whisk together salt, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and flour. Stir into wet ingredients just until blended. Stir in carrots.
4. Spread in prepared pan. Batter will be in a very thin layer and you will need to use a wooden spoon or spatula to spread it to all the corners of the pan. Bake for 9-11 minutes.
5. While the cake is baking set a clean kitchen towel out on a large work surface. Sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar (about 1/4 cup). As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, turn it over on the kitchen towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Remove foil carefully.
6. Working at the short end, fold the edge of the towel over the cake. Roll tightly, rolling up the cake into the towel. Let cool completely while rolled, at least one hour.
7. While the cake is cooling, make the frosting. Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla.
8. When cake is cool, carefully unroll the towel. Spread the filling on the cake evenly, and re-roll tightly. Chill until it firms up a bit, at least thirty minutes to one hour. Dust with powdered sugar, then slice and serve. Cake can be wrapped in plastic and frozen for up to one month.

Hot Buttered Yum Chex Mix

Ingredients:

2 cups Cinnamon Chex cereal
4 cups Honey Nut Chex cereal
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon rum flavoring
2 cups miniature marshmallows

Directions:

In large microwave now place cereal. In 2-cup microwaveable measuring cup, microwave butter, brown sugar and honey uncovered on high for 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute, until mixture is bubbly. Stir in spices and rum flavoring. Pour over cereal mixture, stirring until coated.

Microwave uncovered on high 3 minutes, stirring and scraping bowl after each minute.

Cool slightly; about 5 minutes. Stir in marshmallows. Spread on wax paper. Store ok airtight container.

Perfect Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 (9in) unbaked pie crust

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices, and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into pie crust. Bake 15 minutes.
2. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread

Ingredients:

Before going into oven

Dough:
2 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 packet)
1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1/4 cup water
2 eggs (at room temperature)
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Filling:
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
4 Tbsp. butter, melted

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, mix 2 cups of flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Set this flour mixture aside.
In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and milk. Once the butter is completely melted take off the burner and add the water and vanilla. Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.
Pour the milk mixture into the large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well. Whisk together the eggs and add to the batter. Keep mixing. Add 3/4 cup of flour and mix well. The mixture will be very sticky which means it's perfect. Place the dough in a medium greased bowl. Cover with wrap and let it sit in a warm place to rise for about 30-45 minutes. Once the dough has doubled its size, knead in 2 tablespoons of flour. Cover the dough again for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, start on the filling. In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl. Set aside. Once the dough is ready, roll it out on a floured surface. Brush the melted butter on the dough and add the sugar mixture. Make sure everything is covered. Using a shape knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into equal sized strips (about 2 to 2 1/2 inches wide). Then cut the strips into equal sized squares. Stack the squares on top of each other to make 3 to 4 piles. Don't make stacks to high or your will be cussing when you try to place them into the pan. Also, your bread will come out prettier if you don't stack the squares perfectly aligned. Place squares in the greased bread pan. Take any sugar that fell off squares and sprinkle over the top and around the sides of dough. Cover the dough for another 10-15 minutes to rise. While dough is rising, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Place a cookie sheet under bread pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until outside of bread is golden brown.