Oh fall, I love thee & your Pumpkin Spice Lattes

I have returned to serenity.

By this I mean I can now get a Pumpkin Spice Latte with no problems. This makes me one happy girl! (& that is an understatement!)

I also have discovered that I can make them at home, perhaps.

Thanks to fellow blogger at a Year of Slow Cooking, for providing a recipe for this deliciously decadent divine piece of fall!

I plan on trying these this weekend with my parents!


THE recipe:
2 cups milk (I used 1%)
2 T canned pumpkin
2 T white sugar
2 T vanilla (not a typo. it asks for tablespoons)
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice OR 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, and a teeny tiny pinch of ground ginger
1/2 cup brewed espresso or 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee

garnish with whipped cream (optional) (SHE SAYS OPTIONAL, I say go for it!!!)

This will make enough for 2 people to have a big mug with a bit leftover. If you are having friends over, adjust the recipe accordingly. I used a 4-quart crockpot, but as small as a 1.5 quart will work with these amounts.

Add the coffee/espresso and milk to the crockpot. Whisk in the pumpkin, spices, sugar, and vanilla.

Cover and cook on high for 2 hours if everything is cold. Whisk again.

Ladle into mugs, and garnish with whipped cream and additional cinnamon. I added a cinnamon stick to be fancy.

Cheese Straws

Any Southerner has been to a party where they served Cheese Straws. For some reason the other day, I must have felt like a party because out of no where these lil tasty tid bits popped into my head.

Which made me wonder, why hadn't I tried to make them before?

Which lead to a search online for a recipe & a trip to get supplies. I found a simple sounding recipe at Recipe Source.

2 c  UNBLEACHED WHITE FLOUR
1/2 ts SALT
1 ts CAYENNE PEPPER
8 oz SHARP CHEDDAR CHEESE (GRATED
5 oz MARGARINE (MELTED)
1/4 c  FLOUR (FOR ROLLING DOUGH)
1 ts OIL (FOR BAKING SHEET)

Preheat oven to 400 F. In a large bowl, mix
flour, salt, cayenne pepper, and cheese
thoroughly. Add melted margarine and mix.

Chill dough in refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Place dough on a large, floured board. Place
a large piece of waxed paper on top of dough
or use a heavily-floured rolling pin.

Roll dough to 1/4-inch thick. Remove wax paper.

Holding a fork upside down, draw the prongs
vertically along dough from top to bottom,
making ridges. With a wide, flat knife cut dough
into rectangular shapes 3 x 1 inch.

Oil a cookie sheet and place cut cheese on it.

Bake in 400 F oven for 10-12 minutes until
cheese straws look dry but not brown. Let cool.
Repeat procedure until all of dough is baked.

Serve at room temperature.

Course I don't tend to do much by the book
cooking wise, my Grandmother taught me
that sometimes recipes are just nice suggestions.

She also taught me to share (that way you
don't end up eating them all!). Since I was
planning on taking them into work, I made
this batch Gluten Free by using Bob's Red
Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour instead of
regular flour.
I also sort of eye balled the cayenne pepper
measurements.  I cut the "oil" for
the pan by using a cooking spray.
The mixture didn't seem like it was going to go
together at first.  Seemed like there was too much
of the dry ingredients and not enough wet to mix.
Thankfully I have experience with Sausage Cheese
Balls that are similar. Its only when you think it will
never work & you should just give up that it actually
starts coming together!
So I had to use my MANual mixer.

Its a Good Guy brand & runs on beer.

After it all got mushed together, I placed the mixture into the fridge & enjoyed a good Chinese dinner & some TV, courtesy of the Good Guy mixer!

Next step was to roll the mixture out into 1/4th inch thickness. I used two sheets of parchment paper without the additional flour. I don't even own a rolling pin, so I used a round glass over the parchment paper to press/roll it down to the correct thickness.

Then you take a fork to rake out the signature stripes & cut them into nice size pieces (eyeballed 1 inch to 3 inch). Popped them into the oven & after a bit they were done!

I think next time they need more cheese & more pepper. They are mild in flavor which would be nice along side plenty of other stronger flavors at a party.

All in all these are a nice treat & I would make them again... maybe next time I will try them with the regular flour to see if that makes a difference at all.

Have to see how they go over at work tomorrow!