My Fall Swap!

I participating in a fall/halloween swap hosted by Lori at Morning Glories and Moonflowers and once again, I had a great time shopping for my new friend Valorie from Wisconsin! Hi Valorie! She sent me the most wonderful things. She is a very talented lady. The outside of the box was so pretty and I can tell she spent alot of time on it. She has really great handwriting and it looked awesome.

Look at the great pumpkins she put on the outside of the box!

It was so cute!



My pictures are not so great and didnt do the goodies justices but I really wanted to share these with all of you.

This was how it looked before all the unwrapping. I was so excited!

This is a vintage cone I hung on the front door knob. I am going to fill it with some delicious something!

She include some candles that are making my house smell awfully good. And also some very cute coasters that I dont even like to put drinks on because I dont want to mess them up!

Thanks again Valorie, for making this fall season so special!

A yummy treat for the extra pie crust!

When I was growing up and even after I was grown my mother always like to make pecan pie whenever we had a family get together. My mother makes wonderful pecan pie. When we would make the crust she would always have a little bit left. She never liked to throw it out so this is what she would do with it:

Here are the scraps leftover.

Roll it out a little bit without handling it too much so it doesnt get tough.

The put little pats of butter on it and sprinkle it liberally with sugar and cinnamon. Bake this for about 10 minutes and it is so good and you dont feel like your wasting anything. Neat!

Fancy Lemon Pound Cake with Glaze!

I cant tell you guys how much I am enjoying my Debbie Macomber Cedar Cove Cookbook. It has the best recipes in it. And so so easy! I didnt take many pics because I got caught up in baking and before I could catch myself I would be moving on to the next step. I served this cake to a group of my friends and it got rave reviews. Lemon flavor is a funny thing, some like it and some dont, there is usually no middle ground. This has all fresh lemon in it so it has the crisp tartness to it and it turned out beautifully. Here goes:This calls for cake flour which seems to give it a smoother texture. And also, sugar, butter, baking powder, fresh lemons, vanilla and salt. Oh and lemon zest. Missing ingredient: eggs. Like I said, I was moving on.
I did take of pic of the lemon zest because I think its pretty. Undetectible in the cake because it will go through the food processor with the sugar.

Look at this texture. It is great with coffee. The glaze gives it just the right sweetness!

Fancy Lemon Pound Cake with Glaze

1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self rising)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 tablespoons lemon zest

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup unsalted butter, melted plus extra for greasing the pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set oven rack to middle position. Light butter your 9x5 loafpan. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt. In a food processor pulse granulated sugar and zest until combined. Add lemon juice, eggs and vanilla. Process until combined. With machine running add 1 cup melted butter in a steady stream. Transfer to a larger bowl and fold i flour just until combined. Pour batter into prepared batter and smooth top. Bake 60 to 70 minutes until golden and a pick stuck in the center comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack and cool 15 minutes. Invert cake onto rack and cool completely.

Glaze:

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup confectioners sugar

In a small bowl whisk all ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over cake.