Pinterest Challenge: Reuben Roll-Ups

After such a high stress, high work couple of months, I can't even remember the last time I was the one who cooked. Greg has been absolutely spoiling me, handling just about every meal we've had at home recently. So, when it came time to whip something up for the family reunion picnic dinner, I was completely out of ideas -- and practice.

Fortunately, I had good old Pinterest to turn to. Seriously, what did I ever do before Pinterest?

I had pinned some Reuben Roll-Ups and restumbled upon the idea while scrolling back through my Food board. When I saw how easy the recipe looked, few ingredients and not a lot of work time required, I knew I'd found the right thing to make this year.

The pin lead me to the recipe for Reuben Roll-Ups at Taste of Home.

I followed the directions -- though I forgot to half the corned beef slices, so I guess each roll up had about double meat compared to the recipe -- and in 20 minutes, 30 if you count draining the sauerkraut, I had delicious looking roll ups just begging to be eaten. For the sake of testing, we had to try one before we took it.

The result? So good. Honestly, when we got there and there wasn't enough room on the table for our food, I was not going to complain. Eventually, I did share, but I had a couple other people spot them and ask me to hold some aside for them - and they came back for more after that too. For people who like the flavors of a Reuben sandwich, I think this recipe is a real winner. Kind of a pig-in-a-blanket kind of take on a Reuben.

I think this was a total 10 out of 10, will absolutely make again kind of recipe. Hurrah!



On a personal note, we're obviously still adjusting to the new-to-us electric oven instead of the gas one we've had for the last 4 years. I'm still happy with the change, but the rolls aren't quite as pretty as I think they would have been in our other oven. But looks don't matter when something is this yummy.

Pnterest Challenge: 2 Ingredient Brownies

My second new recipe for the month was 2-Ingredient Nutella Brownies, from thekitchn.com. These went immediately into my 'make it soon' board, despite having spent nearly two months working hard to reduce the amount of sugar I've been eating. I knew if I made these while we had company, I wouldn't be faced with eating half the pan -- both my husband and one of our regular guests are huge chocolate fans, maybe more than I am or ever was!

Since the recipe suggests it should take 7-8 minutes to whip the eggs into the right size, color, and consistency, I didn't have Greg start working the Nutella right away. This was a mistake. I was using an old electric hand mixer, and the eggs were easily triple their original size within three minutes. I think by the time the Nutella was melted and ready to add to the mixture the eggs might have been larger than that!

My baking pan was small enough that I was able to completely line it (roughly) with baking paper. It wasn't pretty - but it seemed to do the job well enough.

In my gas oven, it did take longer than 30 minutes for the toothpick test to come out clean, I'd say more lie 40-45 minutes. I know some people really like gas ovens, I'm just not one of them I guess; I can't seem to adjust to the differences -- though if I ever get another electric I don't know what I'll blame my issues on... Maybe the high altitude has something to do with the differences I sometimes encounter when baking or cooking...

After letting it cool for 40 minutes (during which we all had to leave the house to avoid temptation), we cut in to it. Sine it was fully surrounded by the paper, I was able to lift it out of the pan completely before cutting and serving. This helped keep the pieces neat rather than looking like I dug them out with my fingers...

I almost forgot to get a photo before they were all eaten!

All six of the tasters agreed that the brownies needed nuts - both for a little more flavor and a little more crunch. I really enjoyed the mellow flavor, and thought that both the fudge style inside and the crispy top were fun textures. My husband and I both were impressed with how easy this was to make, despite the wait time to allow for cooling (something I am never patient enough to allow for). These did all disappear quite quickly, before our seventh would-be-taster even had a chance to try them. I'll let him try again next time I make these -- which might be tonight!

Pinterest Challenge: Bubble Up Bakes

Dinner: Taco Bubble Up Bake
Inspiration recipe from The Seasoned Mom, found via Pinterest

Canned biscuits, taco sauce, ground turkey, taco seasoning, and a little cheese.
Result: All four testers thought it was pretty good - but I think it needs a little something more. Sour cream or guacamole would have been an interesting addition, but I don't think it's what I wanted. I think I wanted something more like olives or lettuce.

We've tried it twice now and I'm still not certain I like it. Sometimes the biscuit seems to work well, other times I feel like it's just a little too sweet for my (very picky) taste. It's an easy enough recipe to make, and doesn't call for much in the way of supplies, which I like, but I feel like it needs a little bit more refining or something before I'm 100% happy with it. I wonder how it would taste with cornbread instead.... Hmm... Maybe I'll try that next!


Dessert: Apple Pie Bubble Up Bake

Inspiration recipe from Recipes for My Boys, found via Pinterest

Frozen rolls (defrosted and allowed to rise), apple cider, apples, brown sugar, and a powdered sugar glaze.

Result: While one person thought it could have used more apples, the rest of us thought that the issue was that as the dough cooked, it rose and pushed the apple pieces to the bottom rather than staying quite as well mixed as we'd have preferred. That said, the flavor was amazing and I am already thinking I should make it again tonight. Much easier than making pie, and so, so delicious.

I did use a little bit of apple cider mixed with powdered sugar to make a quick glaze to pour over the top of each serving. I like to give everyone the chance to control how much sweeter their own portion is - and I wasn't certain if we'd have leftovers or not (we didn't, but if we had, I think things store slightly better without glazes and frosting).  I think I might cut the rolls into slightly smaller pieces next time, which might help them mix with the apples better. I may also try keeping a small part of the apple mixture to pour over the top just before baking. I am definitely trying this one again though.

Nope...

Attempt at making angel food pumpkin loaf: 

Not quite so successful. Turns out, despite the directions saying just two ingredients, it actually takes more than that. Not that it's bad stuff, just a little bland, and a little denser than expected. Will try again, but maybe next fall.

Pinterest Challenge: Spinach Artichoke Bubble Bake

The Inspiration Pin: Spinach Artichoke Bubble Bake

The Reaction:
I swear I followed the directions - but not only did mine not look like the inspiration recipe, it can't have tasted like it. All three of my taste testers said that it was rich (the cream cheese probably) and a little too much spinach. The artichoke, cheese, and seasoning basically disappeared under the spinach. Extra disappointingly, most of my pieces of biscuit didn't bubble up - even after an extra 20 minutes in the oven. The edge pieces that had bubbled up were pretty delicious, even with some (about half of what wanted to be there) of the spinach artichoke mixture on them - but the majority of the dish was a soggy spinach flavored disappointment. We did eat half the pan, but no one was interested in seconds or keeping the leftovers.

Probably some of the problems would have been avoided if I had taken the time to really press the fluid from the defrosted spinach instead of assuming that since I didn't see that line in the directions that it was okay to skip putting much effort into that.

The recipe really had promise, but the result was highly disappointing. I may try it again - with some serious changes and reduction in the spinach amount - but it'll be a while before I'm feeling that brave again.

Green Food

1) I raided the garden last night and grabbed a little bit of what I found to throw in to this salsa/salad:

The avocado and black beans came from the store, but the corn, cilantro, jalapeno, and zucchini all came from the garden. I added a little lime juice and some salt and wound up with a bright, spicy salad/salsa to go with our burritos. (I had intended to add one of the onions the elk spared this time around, but the jalapeno was so hot I didn't need the extra heat - and yes, our onions are hot!)

2) Okay, mine didn't turn out nearly as cute as the ones I pinned, but I tried to follow the general recipe from ShakenTogetherLife.com for Key Lime Cookie Cups.

I guess I didn't let that one cool long enough before frosting it... or removing it from the pan...

These two look less melty - but no where near as appetizing as the ones I pinned!

Looks aside, they were delicious. I could hardly get them out of the oven, slightly cooled, and frosted quickly enough to suite myself (or the company I had over for movie night). Next time, I think these might be a cook in advance kind of thing so I have no excuses and will let them cool first.

I got a little tired of working with only 16 at a time (the size of my mini muffin tin), so toward the end of the evening I took the left over ingredients and super sized it:

Again, I know it doesn't look like much, but it was delicious. Don't take my word or my pictures for it, click over to the recipe, buy the ingredients, and give it a try yourself. If you like key lime, you will not be sorry.

Pinterest Challenge: Fails

Keeping it real around here. I am not always successful at making Pinterest Challenges. Not even when I follow the directions. Rather than take up a whole post on each of these failures, I thought I'd lump some of them together.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownie Pie.

The original photo looks so good. My version? Not so much.

This is the before I tried to cut it but after I let it cool for 1 hour photo. I'll spare you the after being cut photo. Pudding, and not in a good way.

What went wrong? It didn't bake enough. I knew the brownie part wasn't done, but I thought it would continue to bake even after I put the cheesecake layer on top. And okay, it probably did, but it wasn't enough. I'm not certain if this is another illustration of my oven not baking evenly, or if I should simply have added some cook time for each layer.

Would I try it again? Kind of. I figured that much time in the oven probably meant I wouldn't get sick from eating it, so I tried a slice couple spoon fulls. The flavors were good - but quite rich. I think a slice would have been overwhelming. So, if I try it again, I will swap out the pie plate for a square cake pan and hope that I can cut it into small bars instead of slices. And that I can cut it at all.

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This would have been a Pinterest Challenge, if the delicious looking potatoes I pinned had led anywhere. Instead of a recipe, I got tips on how to lose weight. Searching for the image led me to my own pin. Searching for the source of the watermark led me to error messages.

So, instead I found a different recipe HERE at Epicurious.com for roasted potatoes with garlic, lemon, oregano, and chicken stock. It wasn't quite what I was looking for, but I had all the ingredients and figured I'd give it a go.

And the potatoes have now been in the oven thirty minutes more than called for - and still aren't done. They smell amazing... but I'm beginning to question if potatoes cook differently at different altitudes? It's not my oven, since the chicken is done (and eaten).

Later: Two hours of bake time and I gave up. And no, the potatoes never got done, never got fluffy, never even approached soft.

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I'm not going to link anything for this one, but I assure you I only tried it because Pinterest was making it look so good. 

One grapefruit, about to be broiled, half with brown sugar, half without. 

Yeah, that was more of a mess than it was worth. I will continue eating them my way (like an orange) and leave the fancy bits to other people... 

Pinterest Challenge: Pudding Poke Cake

Pinterest introduced me to this recipe: The Country Cook Oreo Pudding Poke Cake

But my attempt leaves a bit to be desired...

Hmm... Looks more like a 'no-poke' cake, doesn't it? Yeah. I didn't find a single one of my pokes where the pudding actually went into the cake. The pudding only sat long enough for me to put the whisk in the sink and then pull the cake out of the oven. But I noticed even as I was pouring it that it seemed too thick to really go into the holes. I tried to use a spatula to force it into the holes, but obviously that didn't work. So it was more like pudding frosting.

I guess I should have gone with a more intense chocolate cake; everyone who tried it wanted a stronger chocolate flavor. One of them said it should have been topped with chocolate ice cream, chocolate shell, then some hot fudge. Out of the six people I had over, one person refused to try it, three people ate one slice (but said they wouldn't eat another slice, even the next day), one person said they'd have seconds (but didn't), one person said they'd have seconds (and did).

Even more telling, we only ate half the cake the first night - and the rest is still sitting in my fridge. Not for long though, I think I'm going to chuck it today. On the third day, the pudding cracked and stopped looking even remotely appealing, and there's no use taking up that much room in the fridge with something we're clearly not going to eat.

If we try something similar again? More intense chocolate flavored cake to start, and either pour the pudding directly onto the cake with no wait time or intentionally make slightly liquid-y pudding. I don't think there's anything wrong with the recipe, but my ingredients didn't do what they should have, which was very disappointing.

Color me not impressed - mostly with my pudding making skills. On the other hand, now I have some milk (which we usually don't buy) and a box full of cookies (which we usually don't buy) that didn't get used as extra topping, so I can eat those instead. Not worth it... but I'm looking on the bright side.

Pinterest Challenge: Grilled Cheese Pull-Apart Rolls

There is nothing remotely healthy to be found here today. You might not believe it, judging by the kind of recipe adventures I share here, but this one called for me buying two things I try never to buy: canned biscuits (the part you might not believe) and Velveeta cheese (which is probably more believable).

But seriously, when you see a picture of something as yummy looking as Oh Bite It!'s Grilled Cheese Pull-Apart Rolls, you might be more than a little tempted to go pick up both. Obviously I was.

This seems easy enough: wrap Velveeta in biscuits...

Pour some melted butter over the top...

And bake.

Only in our case, that turned into: and bake, and bake, and bake.

After more than twice the suggested cooking time, we pulled them out anyway. There were still some raw looking bits - especially on the center ones, so we ate around the edges and put the center ones back in for longer.

I only managed to eat three. Two of them were amazing, one was a little under cooked. But ultimately, it was more Velveeta than I can handle (this being only the second time in nearly three years of marriage I've willingly eaten Velveeta).

So, here's my thought for next time (because the husband was a huge fan): less cheese, more edges to the pan, and maybe add a little something to go with the cheese. I'm thinking a pickle slice (or perhaps relish style cut would work better?). My husband wants hamburger. So, even though things didn't work out quite as quickly as planned (and mine don't look nearly as delicious as the original inspiration), I think we'll be trying something similar again soon - though maybe with the idea of hamburger pull-apart rolls instead of grilled cheese... And certainly when there are more people around to eat it than just the two of us!

Pancake

Although our evenings are less regular now that one of the guys has moved to a new job and a new city, we still have the crew over a couple times a month for movies and food. I usually choose to make something for dinner that night, which can sometimes be a challenge. Since I didn't feel like being too challenged by eating restrictions, I went with something easy: breakfast for dinner.

I really wanted to make pancakes - but we've yet to be successful making good tasting pancakes on our gas stove. So, I got a little creative - though as usual, I have to give credit to an idea I saw on Pinterest, namely Pancake Squares from Big Red Kitchen. Since I know the guys don't care for my wheat flour, I didn't want to follow the recipe and make it from scratch (yet). However, sitting next to my wheat flour is a massive bin of waffle/pancake mix.

Just 4 cups of pancake mix, 3 cups of water, and a lightly greased 9x13. Oh, and 20 minutes at 350.

It looks a little like very pale corn bread - and I thought it could have used a little more sugar added to the dry mix - but it tasted just like pancakes. And the guys must have agreed. Not only did we eat it all - but everyone said it was good. Trust me, when my brother says 'good' instead of shaking his hand back and forth in a so-so motion, it's a winner.

I suspect with the addition of that little bit of sugar, I might have a new favorite plan for my birthday.

For a house that's gone without pancakes for almost three years after our very first pancake making disaster - this pancake cake is a very welcome addition to the rotating recipes.

Pinterest Challenge: 4 Ingredient Tart

Are there recipes on Pinterest that fall between super easy and super difficult? If there are, I can't find them. In case you didn't guess from the 4 Ingredient bit, this is one of the super easy ones.

The recipe can be found here (note: the photos at the link are much more appetizing than mine are!) 

Since I didn't have any fresh fruit, I went with frozen. That did cause a little sogginess where the ice/water trickled into the dough, but I don't think the overall flavor was hurt by my cheap/lazy turn. 

I also went with mixed berries - again, because that's what I had. 

I didn't think these were anything special, but my husband said they just might be the best thing I've ever made. I'm not sure how I feel about that one, but he meant well, so I'll try to take it that way. 

I'm alive, but work is all consuming this week. Maybe over the weekend I'll have time to sit down and make a little recent progress on things. If not, next week is going to be a little quiet... 

Angel Food Apple Cake

I've enjoyed the angel food cake + fruit cakes I've made in the past - so when I saw someone try it with apple pie filling, I knew this was going to happen. The sooner the better.

It's the same as ever: 1 box angel food cake mix, 1 can of pie filling.

Because the apple slices were so larger, I debated putting the apples through the food processor first. Ultimately, I was too lazy. The larger pieces were a bit tricky to mix with the cake mix, but nothing too complicated.

Slight golden color to the exterior...

White and fluffy - around slices of baked apple - in the interior.

As for the taste? I liked it, more than the berry versions I've done in the past. It was certainly the right flavor for Thanksgiving season. I did still wish I'd chopped the apples into smaller pieces though. My husband wanted to know if it was a different brand of cake mix than usual (no) because he thought the contrast between the tart/cinnamon of the apple and the sweet of the cake was too great.

So, one fan, one on the fence.

But the biggest problem came the next day when I went back for another slice. There was no slicing involved. The left over cake was beyond moist, beyond damp, and can only be described as wet. I hadn't anticipated it needing any more overnight care than the other versions, so I had only covered it (as I have with all the others) and left it on the counter top. Disappointingly, it was beyond saving.

I thought the flavor was good, and it's still just about the easiest thing to make, so I think I'll try it again. But with smaller apple pieces. And I'll try to use more than two slices on the first day, just in case I haven't figured out how to keep it overnight.

Banana Muffins

Bananas get used in phases around here. If I buy only three, they get eaten immediately. But if I buy five or six, half of the bunch sits on the pantry until I finally decide to bake something with their brown remains.

This is my go-to baking with bananas recipe. It's slightly adapted from a recipe I found in my unofficial family cookbook. (Multiple people I know and/or are related to contributed recipes to the book, and I'm fairly certain every woman in my mom's family has this cookbook.)

Banana Muffins

3 peeled, mashed bananas
1 egg
2 cups Bisquick
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp butter, melted
2 Tbsp sugar
Cinnamon to taste
Chocolate chips to taste

Stir together until just mixed. Drop into muffin papers or greased muffin pan.

Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until beginning to brown on top.

Makes about 12 muffins.

I like them best hot from the oven (just cool enough so the chocolate chips don't burn my mouth) but they're also good cold - especially if you used mini-chips. Most Half of this batch went into the freezer for breakfasts next month.

Note: the recipe originally calls for 1/4 cup sugar and no chocolate chips, so if you skip the chocolate, you might want to adjust the sugar.

Another Pizza Adventure

Sometimes, I get creative in the kitchen. It's rare, but it happens.

Usually, I've either got a plan or no plan whatsoever and I make whatever I think I can pull together.

Last night was one of those pull it together nights. I hadn't been grocery shopping in too long, and we just had a few odds and ends left over. Eventually, I wound up pulling out a premade pizza crust and some chicken fingers that needed to be eaten. From there, it wasn't much of a jump to mix Ranch dressing with buffalo sauce to make a pizza sauce - just like my favorite buffalo crescents.

I thought it could have used more cheese, but we used all we had, so in to the oven it went.

And almost too long later (I got distracted reading a great article about World of Warcraft's new Mists of Pandaria expansion), out it came.

I know it's very orange. Like school cafeteria nacho cheese orange. No, it isn't because of my limited photography skills. The picture looks about the same as the real deal.

Frightening orange-ness aside, it was actually pretty good. I think I'll try it again with a different crust, but it could easily become another one of the regular dinners around here. And it wasn't even from Pinterest (that I know of).

Experimenting...

I'm running out of things to make with pumpkin puree. And there's a lot more of it in my fridge. And soon to be more of it in my freezer. 

cinnamon swirl bread

So, I'm experimenting with putting pumpkin in place of bananas in bread recipes.

So far, it's alright. Slightly less flavorful than I'd hoped for (better double the spices) but working out fairly well.


The picture is a cinnamon swirl bread slightly adapted from the recipe found (via Pinterest) at Sally's Baking Addiction. My pumpkin version was good, but a little bland. I've got my eye on a couple bananas that are about to turn brown if my husband doesn't eat them, and if he doesn't, I'll be trying this one with bananas asap.

BBQ Chicken Pizza "Braid"

This also is from when Pinterest and I were fighting. It's better now. And I'm happier. 


I am not good at braiding dough.

After the cookie problems, I didn't even try to search out directions for this pizza braid that I've had pinned for ages. I completely winged it. And this time, I think it turned out just fine.

Pizza dough plus Famous Dave Texas Pit BBQ Sauce (the only kind of bbq sauce I've found so far that I can stand, which of course requires a trip to another town because it appears to only be in stock at Super Target stores) plus baked chicken breast. Top it with shredded cilantro, extra sharp white cheddar, and a little more bbq sauce.

Bake as directed for pizza.

Cut and eat as soon as it's cool enough, which was longer than I thought.

Ignore comments from guests about how the appearance of the crust had them thinking about dessert.

Plan to make again.


Yes, I have Christmas lights up in my dining room. These ones have been up since we moved in - and they aren't coming down any time soon. They're blue. And they're one of my favorite things in the house. I use them all winter long to keep my spirits up when it's dark too early. And no, they don't match the Christmas lights that have been up in our bedroom since we moved in - and are also staying up. Yes, my decorating is currently stuck somewhere between college dorm and craigslist finds. Someday I hope to mature a bit more - but my pocketbook will have to mature along with my taste. 

Pumpkin Weekend

Well this is old news for anyone who follows me on facebook, but I feel like I spent my entire weekend thinking about and working with pumpkins. The little patch in my parents' garden put out twelve small pumpkins. Although my parents, the ones with gardening know how, were gone for the weekend (on their first vacation alone since before I was born!), one of the things they asked us to do while they were gone was to pick the pumpkins, haul them inside, and work on turning them into something other than decorations.

We did our best at picking them - though two got left behind as they were a little iffy looking. Thankfully, Mom and Dad will be home tonight to let us know if they're still okay or if we should do something else with them. Five came to my house, and five are still sitting in my parents' garage waiting for me to get to them.

Freshly washed

The first several posts I found about making pumpkin puree said the best thing to do was to wash them, cut them in halves or quarters, then bake them with a little water for 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees. So, that's what I did.

But after 60 minutes when I checked to see if the pumpkin was easily pierced by a knife, the answer was 'not really.' So, I let them cook longer. And longer. Until after two hours, when I gave up and pulled them out.

Even though things weren't going quite according to plan, I kept following the directions. Allow to cool turned in to 'watch two Star Wars movies with the guys,' so even though I scooped the pumpkin out of the skin before going to bed, things like running the food processor got put off overnight.

Looking in the blue bowl, it seemed like those two little pumpkins were hardly worth the effort... but I was determined to finish the process before passing judgement.

My food processor is fairly small and old, and up until this weekend I've only used it when making salsa or watermelon sorbet, so this was a bit of a test for it.

(I had to switch to my cell phone as this was the moment my camera battery ran down. I really wish it would make a sound at some point in the running-low cycle instead of relying on me to pay attention to the little battery indicator. Despite the fact that I'm usually more visual, I never think to check unless we're getting ready for a weekend out or something big.)

I had to add some water to the pumpkin in order to get it really pureed (but the directions I was following had prepared me for that), but I think it turned out alright.

So, I went ahead and cut up a third pumpkin and started it baking. And a couple hours later, while it was cooling and awaiting a trip to the food processor, I decided to finish my pumpkin puree test run the only way that seemed right - baking with it!

A Google search of pumpkin bread took me to this Pumpkin Gingerbread Recipe from Simply Recipes. I've been wanting to make gingerbread cookies ever since Offbeat Home shared a recipe for Gingerbread Bats (which looks amazing, but more intensive than my usual kitchen endeavors), so the idea of pumpkin + gingerbread was perfect.

Except I don't have molasses.

Google to the rescue again. Turns out honey is an acceptable substitute (though obviously a honey version would lose some of the flavor needed for real gingerbread). This was great for me, since I'd just discovered our honey was getting a little grainy (which I don't like on waffles or sandwiches, which makes me use less of it, which doesn't help the problem). So, honey it was.

Other than that small change, I followed the recipe (omitting the raisins and minced candied ginger, because I learned only after putting it in the oven that my husband actually does like candied ginger) and 60 minutes later a dense looking loaf of bread was cooling on my counter top.

Yes, it's a little dense - I probably should have made some high altitude adjustments. But. It. Is. Delicious.

Around my house, it is next to unheard of for something to actually cool the suggested amount of time before I'm cutting in to it. I made it ten minutes after taking it out of the pan (so twenty total) before I could no longer resist. So worth it. My husband's response? "Forget Level 90, I want to make another loaf!"

Now that it's cooler, it's still good - but I think in our next loaf (Monday evening if all goes well), we'll try using 3/4 or 1/2 stick melted butter instead of a whole stick. It's not bad, but it's just slightly more buttery than I want it to be - especially since I want to spread butter on top. Oh, we'll also be adding that candied ginger.

But in terms of homemade pumpkin puree performance? Excellent. Also, in terms of taste? Excellent.

I don't know how I'll keep working on the pumpkins with work this week, but I'm going to keep picking away on them as best I can. Which probably means I can expect the kitchen to remain in its current state of being more or less orange for the rest of the week, but there are worse things than a sink full of pumpkin-colored dishes to wash. Like letting pumpkins go to waste in the garage!

Pumpkin/Chai/Kiss Cookies, and Crescents Too

These are a little late in getting shared online. Pinterest is working fine for me now. 

I wanted to make cookies the other weekend. And I wanted to make very specific cookies. But Pinterest was really fighting with me and even though I had the picture of the cookies I wanted to make, I couldn't get to the recipe. Google turned up a few alternatives, but not quite what I was hoping to make.

So, I thought I'd make my own version of what I wanted by making a few changes to a recipe I already know I like.

A box of cake mix, some powdered chair mix, a can of pumpkin, and some Hershey Pumpkin Spice Kisses.

All things I happened to have in my pantry. Although, I had to hide the Hershey Kisses from myself to ensure I had them in the pantry when I got around to making cookies.

I added some chai mix to the cake mix. And by some, I mean two heaping containers of the little scoop inside the can. I'd guess that was something like 5 tablespoons.

Once the dry cake mix smelled sufficiently like chai - to the point I began to wonder if I would be able to convince my test subjects guests to try the cookies - I added the can of pumpkin. And just like last time I used this brand of canned pumpkin, it immediately seemed too moist (I generally use Libby's and have much better success with that brand, I'm not sure why). Still, I followed the directions and baked the cookies as usual.

Upon pulling the warm cookies from the oven, I topped each one with a Hershey's Kiss.

And tried to wait for them to be cool enough to eat.

The instructions said not to touch them after adding the Kisses. Directions about what not to do usually make me curious. In my case, they just kind of collapsed a little.

They don't look quite as good collapsed, but I found them easier to eat that way. 

My cookies turned out nowhere near as cute as the ones I wanted to make. I'm guessing they didn't taste nearly as good either. All of us ate one, and collectively agreed we'd rather have the usual pumpkin/chocolate chip - so I dumped some chocolate chips into the dough and went back to eating the Hershey Kisses plain. Which really, was a win-win. 

It also means I had some Kisses leftover the next morning when I was making breakfast. 

I'd hoped for doughnuts, but when time ran short, I pulled out my favorite crescent rolls, the jar of crunchy peanut butter, Nutella, and those extra Kisses. Eight crescents turned into 2 plain, 4 peanut butter/Nutella, and 2 Pumpkin Spice filled. All of which were better than the cookies from the night before. And yes, the peanut butter/Nutella crescents were another Pinterest idea. The Hershey Kiss crescents only happened because I was tired of spooning out Nutella, and they happened to be sitting right there. The plain ones? Those were in case the other experiments turned out terrible and we needed something to chew on while I scrambled for another breakfast idea. 

I'm relieved Pinterest started working for me again - because as interesting as it was to use only a photo for baking inspiration, I think having the right recipe is a little better for me.