October 2014 Wrap-Up

I remember clear back in September, which was ages ago, people told me they were excited for October.  For the pumpkin, and the fall weather, and the soup.  And, while September might be my favorite of all months, and October isn’t too bad itself, I’m sort of dreading November.

Why?  I had to turn on the heater.  Just this week.

I don’t know why I live in one of those places that can host the winter olympics.  I love warm weather and sunshine.

On the other hand, I love warm desserts and Christmas cookies, and OHHHHHH how I love Thanksgiving.  It might be my favorite holiday.

So while I’m dreading scraping snow off my car and wearing gloves and putting extra blankets on the beds, I’m looking forward to baking up some lovely holiday inspired treats for you.  I actually have some awesome stuff planned for November, but before we dive into that, let’s take a quick look back on October.

You know, just in case you missed something.

	Chocolate Buttermilk Donuts (With a chocolate milk glaze!)  These beauties represent my first donut making attempt.  And I have concluded that I need to make more donuts!
	Baking Essentials for Your Pantry After cleaning out and re-organizing my pantry, I thought I would share some essential ingredients every baker should have in their own pantry.
	Chocolate Sugar Cookies Simple sugar cookies cut into circles can be decorated a variety of ways.  Here I show 5 Halloween decorating ideas involving chocolate.
	Almond Shortbread “Fingers” (With “Blood” Vanilla Pudding)  Another Halloween cookie idea, this time I shaped shortbread into fingers and used colored pudding as a dip.
	Caramel Layer Cake with Caramel Buttercream My sister’s recipe this month is this gorgeous caramel layer cake.  Don’t let the simple flavor profile fool you, this cake is one you will remember!
	Peanut Butter Cup Cookies Peanut butter lovers unite!  These simple cookies are stuffed with peanut butter cups.  It gives them an unexpected shot of extra peanut butter flavor!
	Roasted Red Pepper Hot Cheese Dip I roasted both red and jalapeno peppers, and married several kinds of cheese, to make these delicious hot dip.  Great served with crackers or bread.
	Peanut Butter Brookies More ideas for you peanut butter lovers!  These brookies are a layer of chocolate brownies and a layer of peanut butter cookie. What could be better?
	Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies This “sweet milk” has such a wonderful rich caramel flavor!  I used it in the cookies, and as a spread to sandwich them.  They are great plain or sandwiched!
	Samoas Brownies Building of my love of the Samoas Krispie Treats from several months ago, this time I use the chocolate-caramel-coconut combination on a brownie!

In other news, my Pumpkin Favorites board was featured in the Pinterest newsletter.  I’m pretty proud of this board.  I’ve worked hard to find some amazing pumpkin treats and meals to share with you there.  If you are looking for Thanksgiving dinner ideas, you can also check out my new Thanksgiving Favorites board.  This has a lot of savory and sweet ideas totally perfect for Thanksgiving.

Want to know what’s coming up in November?  First of all, Cookie Week!!  Lots of bloggers get together to share their favorite cookies, most of them holiday friendly, and there’s no way I’m missing an event like that.  I’ll be posting some great new cookie recipes I’ve developed for this holiday season, as well as some fun ideas from the other bloggers.  That will be happening next week, so stay tuned.

I’ve also been in talks with some of my favorite brands about bringing you some great deals, not to mention recipes using the products I love.  I’ll be keeping my eyes open for great deals on baking supplies too.  The best way to stay up to date on all this is to follow my Facebook page.  I post about 3-5 times a day there, and love to share relevant recipes, collections, and baking deals.

Also?  Pie.  That’s right, Thanksgiving pie.

Chime in!  Tell me what you love the most about these last two months of the year.