Heavenly Pumpkin Bars

I am waaaaaay behind on my food blogging so here goes...

These little beauties are beyond words. They are moist, pumpkiny and plain old delicious. We LOVED these!

Pumpkin Bars
Paula Dean


Bars:4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (can substitute 1/2 cup applesauce for 1/2 cup oil)
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

My love...

We are slowly but steadily approaching our 8th Wedding anniversary and one of the things I love most about our love is how we miss each other all day. When Brad comes home, I still run to the door to greet him and he still puts his arms out to catch me and throw me in the air as if I were weightless. He is my best friend, my confidant, my hero and my favorite person in this whole world (well its a close one with my Gabe of course). We share dreams, aspirations, hopes and fears. He understands me like no one else does and accepts me for both my strengths and my weaknesses. He challenges me and helps bring me and keeps me in check. He cheers me on and is my biggest fan. He is my love and I am eternally grateful.

Baby car seat cover

I love these baby car seat covers. I see mothers carrying their car seats covered with them everywhere and I always find myself checking them out. I wish I had of had one for my son. I love that you can personalize them using the fabrics you like and that you can add little decorative trinkets to them to make them personal. I was thrilled to be able to make and deliver this one to my new niece this weekend. I was so happy with the way it turned out and I love love love the fabric. I am currently working a second one for her and can't wait to see how it looks all put together. I love knowing that my little niece is all warm and snuggly under her new car seat cover that her favorite Aunty Nat made her with love.





To make my cover, I followed the tutorial found at the link below:

http://oopsey-daisy.blogspot.com/2010/05/carseat-cover-tutorial-small-fry-and-co.html

Things I would do differently next time:

-If you have access to the car seat for which you are making the cover you may want to make sure that your pieces which connect to the car seat handle are the right distance apart. I followed the pattern on the tutorial and had I of known (or thought of this) I would have had my handle pieces be closer together.

-Next time I think I will add some more strips of velcro to the handle pieces so that I can have the handle pieces be as loose or as tight as I want them.

-On the next one, I think I might try adding some more fun accesories to it to fancy it up a little more. Perhaps some buttons or aplique or something like that.

Overall I found this tutorial helpful and easy to follow. Especially for someone as clueless and inexperienced with a sewing machine as I am.

Happy New Year