a drive through the mountains

Pumpkin Monkey Bread

Ingredients:

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 Tbsp melted butter

1/2 cup warm milk

1/4 cup warm water

2/3 cup pumpkin puree 

1/4 cup sugar

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Coating/Layering:

1 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1 stick butter, melted

1 block cream cheese (not softened)

12oz pecan pieces

Whisk together the flour, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, water, pumpkin, melted butter, sugar, and yeast. 

Add wet ingredient to the dry and mix together

Once both wet and dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed, it’s time to knead the dough. You can either turn the dough onto floured surface and knead by hand until elastic (about 8-10 minutes) or using a kneading attachment for your mixer. You’ll likely have to add flour a little at a time during the kneading process in order to get the elastic consistency that is the mark of good bread dough.

Once the dough is elastic, transfer to a bowl sprayed with cooking spray. Flip the dough over so that the top is coated and won’t dry out. Cover with a towel and allow to rise until double in size or about an hour.

While the dough is rising you can go ahead and do a little prep work for the assembly process. Cut a block of refrigerated cream cheese into tiny cubes. You’ll need to get 20-30 cubes out of one block so slice small. You can also mix together the cinnamon and sugar for rolling the dough balls and if you feel really ambitious you can melt a stick of butter.

Once the dough has doubled in size, it’s ready to be divided into small balls. 

Pinch dough into balls that are 1 1/2 – 2 inches in diameter and tuck a cube of cream cheese inside. Dip each ball in the melted butter then roll in sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Place one layer balls in a Bundt pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle pecans on top then add another layers of balls. Repeat dough ball/pecan layers until Bundt pan is a little over half full.  A tighter packed pan makes cake-like, sliceable monkey bread whereas a lightly packed  pan (ie just laying the balls in the pan) makes for pull-apart monkey bread.

After layering is complete, sprinkle any leftover butter and cinnamon/sugar mixture on top, cover, and allow to rise again for about an hour. Once the dough has risen for the second time, bake for 30-35 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

After baking, let the monkey bread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes (no longer or it will get stuck!) then flip onto a serving platter. 

Enjoy this yummy treat. It is really good for breakfast! 

Original recipe found here.

Cascade Springs Drive

A couple weekends ago we took a drive with Bear's parents up to Sundance and back around through Cascade Springs and into Midway (personally, I think that this is the prettiest drive to take to see the fall leaves).  It was breathtaking. The bright reds on the tree leaves were covering patches all over the mountains. And yellow was just starting to peek through. This is truly my favorite time of year. And taking drives through the Utah mountains is something that I am grateful that we get to do now that we are back. 

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs, lightly bean
• 16 ounces canned unsweetened pumpkin
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves
• 2/3 cup water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 9x5 loaf pans. Stir together sugar and oil. Stir in eggs and pumpkin. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Blend dry ingredients and water into wet mixture, alternating. Divide batter between two loaf pans. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. 

Baking Tip: The bread bakes more evenly if it's baked in a glass bread pan. Get creative with ingredients... Add chocolate chips or nuts to add a little texture and yumminess. 

This recipe made me an awesome housewife. See, recently the amount of cooking and baking has decreased due to our living circumstances.  Husband loves baked bread and used to always ask or beg for me to bake pumpkin or banana bread. The other day I exceeded his expectations and baked scrumptious pumpkin bread.  My mom and I got together (because we can do that now that I don't live across the country)  and decided that a fall cooking/baking party was in order. And whala... that is how pumpkin bread in the Brooks home came to be! 

out my window

oh my, i love this time of year. the leaves are beautiful, the weather is perfect, and the aroma of pumpkin spice is all around. i feel giddy inside just thinking about it. i intend on enjoying as much of this fall beauty as i possibly can. do you have any wonderful plans for the weekend? i was thinking a hike or drive up in the mountains! i am sure it is beautiful way back there. and tonight i will be cheering on my amazing tennis player hubby in a woody tennis tournament. i am pretty excited to watch everyone play with the old wood tennis rackets. i am going in hopes of making new friends. because we all know, we could use some friends here in Utah! have a wonderful weekend. i will be back in october.. ha ha ha - wednesday to be exact. 

Friday Picture

taken on my porch
at 8:00 a.m
on the first day of fall

Go see last week's picture here. 

Happy Friday and Happy Fall

The leaves are really starting to change colors here in Park City. It feels like summer went by too quickly. I think all the moving and stress made us not fully enjoy the summer months. Oh well, I am super excited for fall and have a list of things that I am delighted about. Apple picking, Sunday drives through the mountains to see the colorful leaves, hot chocolate, oversized sweaters, cuddling by the fire, knee high boots, and anything that smells like pumpkin.  My Grandma just bought me a pumpkin spice scented candle and I already have it burning. The smell is wonderful! 

I had an idea, something that i regret not doing in New Jersey, so I decided that I am going to start it here. Every week, I will be taking the same picture at the exact same time. I want to see how quickly and drastically the seasons change. I started today. At 8:30 a.m. I went outside and snapped the pictures below. Do you see the spots of color? 

The Pumpkin Patch

Chit-Chat

Saturday morning we got to sleep in together and when we woke up Bear decided that he would take half of the day off to hang out. It was wonderful! We started the day with a walk on the river path. It is so disappointing because the leaves never got to be the really bright colors that the east coats is use to seeing. It was still pretty and the cool air is so refreshing. Every time we go on walks Bear and I get chit-chatting. It is our uninterrupted time that we can dive deep into serious conversations or not so serious, whatever we choose. It is our time when we find out how we are doing and what we are feeling about certain things. This particular walk we talked a lot about school and Bears proposal (which will be completed and turned in tomorrow..yeah) and how time is going really fast. This season has gone by so quickly. I remember putting Halloween decorations up and thinking that I was jumping ahead a little with putting Pumpkins up at the end of September. That seems like yesterday and it feels like we have not enjoyed those pumpkins enough. I hope that time will slow down. Although, I am getting really excited for the Christmas season.

A walk into the woods

One of our favorite places here in New Jersey is Rutgers Gardens. It is 50 acres divided into maintained gardens and untouched woods.  It is beautiful, quiet, and an ideal place to bring the puppy for a morning walk. Before we started our hectic week of running here and there, we started it off Monday morning with a peaceful journey into the woods. There is something about the atmosphere of these woods that makes me feel like a kid in an imaginary world. Running from bad guys, hiding under huge tree stumps, and of course, the prince charming by my-side to guide and protect me. Yes, these woods have a magical feeling to them. If you ever come to visit, I will prove it to you.  The walk curves along the river and over streams, eventually leading you into a tree forest. The trees are so tall they cover the sky above, making it dark and cool. The puppy is quite found of playing hid and seek here in this forest of trees. One of us will tell him to sit and we stay with him. The other will go and hide behind a tree. After a couple second we tell the puppy to go find "insert name". He starts to search, then panic, then search some more until he finds us. We (meaning Bear and I) start to laugh and we do the game again. I find that the simple things entertain all three of us :) This was a wonderful way to start our week. Thanks to the woods for being so magical and thank you to "my" prince charming for coming along.