My favorite Christmas recipe/Rivalry Weekend!

With Thanksgiving comes Rivalry week in college football! I was able to watch the Auburn-Alabama game on Friday (Go Auburn!) as well as Boise State-Nevada. Both were great games to watch. As y'all know, my Florida Gators play the Florida State Seminoles during the rivalry week...

Obviously, I am NOT a fan of Florida State Noles...or the ending to the season they gave my Gators...
I still believe in the orange and blue! In all kinds of weather we all stick together for F-L-O-R-I-D-A! Go Gators! At least we are still bowl eligible...I just hope Coach Urbs gets it together for next season...maybe with a different quarterback? Just sayin'

In better news, my Mississippi State Dawgs played Ole Miss (known as TSUN-That School Up North in Starkville) at the Egg Bowl. This year the game was in Oxford.

And the Dawgs shut down Ole Miss!!

DAN THE MAN!! (It's b/c he used to be a Gator :) haha )

Hey Ole Miss! We just beat the hell outta you! :)

Mississippi State is also Bowl Bound this season!

And now for one of my all-time favorite holiday recipes:

Tollhouse Pie!

Ingredients:

9" deep dish pie shell

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup butter (=1.5 sticks, softened)

1 cup (or more!) Nestle toll house semi sweet morsels

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

Beat the eggs until foamy

Add flour, sugar, brown sugar, and butter. Beat.

Stir in the chocolate chips, and pour into the pie shell

Bake 55-60 minutes

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream!

We store the pie in the refrigerator

Enjoy!

It's that Caramel Apple time of year!

Nothing to me screams fall more than caramel apples and other apple desserts. Since I'm planning on making some caramel apple treats this weekend, I thought I'd share some fabulous caramel apple ideas with y'all!

First and foremost, caramel apples themselves...this picture just speaks for itself. I have a recipe further on down the page!

Next, caramel apple cider. This is the perfect drink for warming up on cold autumn nights! Here's how I make mine:

I use apple cider (not apple juice) and add some caramel candies in a saucepan. I heat on medium heat and stir until the caramel melts and its hot. Then I pour it in a mug, top with whipped cream, and drizzle some cinnamon or caramel sauce on top. Adding spiced rum like Captain Morgan or Sailor Jerry's is also amazing!

Have y'all ever had a caramel apple martini?
If not I strongly recommend them! Here's how to make these at home:

Rim glass with cinnamon sugar mix (I wet the rim with apple cider first so it sticks)

Combine 1 ounce of Butterscotch schnapps, 2 ounces of vodka, and a splash of apple cider, shake over ice in a shaker, strain into glass. So delicious!

Speaking of amazing caramel apple treats, have y'all seen these yet:
Caramel apple Hershey Kisses! I saw them at Target in Knoxville when I was visiting Jim and actually picked up the Pumpkin Spice flavor, but after seeing how amazing they look I will definitely be trying these.
The pumpkin spice flavor was really good! They were very sweet so I only had a few at a time but absolutely helped my craving for pumpkin sweets.
They also make Candy Corn flavored Kisses also! I'm not a huge fan of candy corn but I bet these are great for those of you who do!

If you don't have time to bake any apple treats, your house can still smell like you just had an apple pie come out of the oven!

I bet if you combine this candle:
With this candle:
You would have a caramel apple scented home! I know Walmart actually sells a caramel apple scented candle (that smells amazing) but I couldn't find a picture of it.

Last fall, my roommate, her Pi Phi sister, and I made caramel and candy apples...
We used the caramel apple kit instead of making the caramel ourselves (which I do not recommend...the recipe I have below is simple and the results are much better).
Here's Randall and Katie Jo making candy apples!

Hahaha :)

Paula Deen's Caramel Apples!

6 apples with stems removed

14 oz package caramel candies, unwrapped

2 tablespoons of milk

Press a craft popsicle stick into the top of each apple. Butter a baking sheet (or use wax paper) and set aside. Either microwave the caramels and milk or heat by stovetop (I prefer stovetop), stirring occasionally. Coat the apples with a thick, even coat of caramel and set to harden on baking sheet. If you want to add chocolate chips, peanuts, pretzel pieces, anything to your apple, roll in topping before the caramel sets.

Super easy and really delicious!

It's FINALLY Fall Y'all! Recipes, weather and football!

I was absolutely delighted to wear a sweatshirt on my drive to campus this morning. This was the weather we had in Mississippi this morning:

I could not be more thrilled!!! I am really glad it looks like it will be cooling off some this week. It doesn't feel right making pumpkin baked goods and drinking cider when its 85 degrees out!

Speaking of pumpkin...since we are having an 11:00 game this weekend, I am making muffins for the tailgate before the game. I wanted to share this recipe with y'all early this week in case you want to make some too! Starbucks makes some pretty amazing pumpkin cream cheese muffins, and now you can make them at home!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

1 cup of canned pumpkin

1 cup plus 2 tbsp of sugar

1/2 cup of packed brown sugar

4 egg whites (3 in one cup, 1 in the other)

1/2 cup milk

1 cup of canola oil (I've used vegetable-works fine too)

2 cups of flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp salt

1 pkg cream cheese, softened

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin pans (or use paper cups with Pam) and set aside.

Mix pumpkin, brown sugar, 3 egg whites, milk, and oil. Next stir in flour, pie spice, and salt. Set aside.

In second bowl, mix cream cheese, last egg white and 2 tbsp of sugar. Use a beater.

Spoon some pumpkin batter into each muffin tin, then add some cream cheese mixture, and spoon a little more pumpkin mixture on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until toothpick in center comes out clean.

Enjoy as they are or add something extra to them! I like to put some chai frosting on top, which I make by adding some chai concentrate (I use Tazo brand, other brands would work also I'm sure) to cream cheese frosting and sprinkle some candied pecans or pumpkin seeds on top. So good!

I had a pretty dang good weekend! Friday night Mary Catherine, Kevin, and I went up to Tupelo for the Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean concert. We ate a great (but very quick!) supper at The Grill in Tupelo and walked over to the arena. We had so much fun! Both of them were really great live!

Here we are at the Bankcorp South Arena waiting for the show to start!

Saturday started bright and early for tailgating for the Mississippi State vs. Georgia game.

Kevin and Andrew playing corn hole. Hadn't seen Andrew in forever! Glad to see him!

Matt with a bulldog!

Casey, Jesse, and Kevin cooking ribs!

Jesse had spent hours making these ribs for the tailgate. They were so so good!

Caitlin and Dan finally made it to a game! Caitlin has been busy writing/defending her thesis and Dan just came back from deployment so we were really glad to have them join us for a game before the head to Oklahoma. Definitely going to miss them a ton!

Caitlin and I in the stadium!

The East side of the stadium wore white and the West side of the stadium wore maroon. Go State!

The group waiting on the game to start. Liza had to work so she wasn't there :( It wasn't the same without her!

The game was an incredible game to watch. The score was 7-6 State for most of the game. Finally the game picked up and the MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS BEAT GEORGIA 24-12!!!

Hey GEORGIA! We just beat the HELL OUTTA YOU! Maroon! White! Fight Fight Fight! Mississippi State!!! Damn right!!

We all celebrated out at the tailgate for hours after the game. Caitlin and I took a picture with the huge cowbell!!

And of course, my FLORIDA GATORS also won vs. Kentucky this weekend. Go Gators!!

Tailgating Recipes!

I thought I'd share some of my favorite tailgating recipes with y'all. I have lots in my recipe book, so if you like them/want more let me know!

Sausage Balls (from Mary Catherine!)

1 lb sausage (Jimmy Dean sage works best)

2 cups finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 cups Bisquick

Mix by hand, roll into balls and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

Brownie-Cookies

Really easy and really delicious! Make brownie mix like you normally would (I use chocolate brownie mix from a box). Spoon mix into paper-lined cupcake pan about halfway full. Then add a piece (either a whole square or half a square) of frozen chocolate chip cookie dough. Bake at whatever temperature and time the brown recipe calls for. SO GOOD!

Another good idea for tailgating I'm going to steal from MC:

Making Crystal Light lemonade or any other type of Crystal Light drink and adding vodka- serve using one of the drink dispensers.

This was a great idea for a tailgate and also low calorie! I think I'll have some of this next game!

I'd love to know some of y'alls tailgating recipes!

Go Dawgs and Gators!