Pumpkin Pie "Cake bars"

These are super yummy and easy!! Its like pumpkin pie without all the crust work. .

Crust:

1 yellow cake mix

1/2 C butter, melted

1 egg

Filling:

1 29 ounce can pumpkin

1 1/2 C sugar

1 t salt

2 t cinnamon

1 t ginger

1/2 t cloves

4 eggs

2 12 ounce cans evaporated milk

Mix the cake mix, butter and egg. Place in a greased sheet pan (10x15) and press out into the pan.

Combine the filling ingredients together and mix. Pour gently over the crust. You may want to set the pan in the oven and pour it there because the pan will be FULL. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Serve with Cool whip.

Rainbow Cake

For my daughters birthday I decided to do a Rainbow cake for her. It was really actually fairly easy. Not as time consuming as I expected. For her cake I made 2- 12'' round pans and 2- 8'' round pans. I used 3 boxes of Duncan Hines Butter recipe yellow cake mix, it was a really moist cake! I highly recommend it.
I used 1 box divided between the 2 small rounds and 1 box in each large round pan.
Mix the cake mix according to the package and divide the batter into 5-7 bowls. Depending how many colors you want. I used 5 for the small pans and 7 for the large. Pour some food coloring into each bowl. I used blue, orange, green, yellow, red, pink, purple. To make the rainbow design- grease your cake pans and drop spoonfuls of the color you want for the outside in the center of the pan. Go to the next color and drop in the center of the last color. . .repeat. The batter will spread out. For the small cakes I swirled it with a toothpick, but for the large ones I just let it go. Bake as normal.

The finished product!

Fried Pickles

These were ok. I still need to tweak it a bit , the breading needs a little something yet. It was good but needs either some more salt or some seasoned salt to give it a little spice. Its a great base recipe though!
(Recipe from allrecipes.com)

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (32 ounce) jar sliced dill pickles, drained
• 1 quart vegetable oil for deep-frying

1. In a small bowl, mix together the egg, milk, 1 tablespoon of flour, and Worcestershire sauce. In a separate bowl, stir together the remaining flour, salt, and pepper.
2. Heat oil to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) in a deep-fryer or heavy deep skillet. Dip pickle slices into the milk mixture, then into the flour mixture. Repeat dipping.
3. Place the pickles carefully into the hot oil. Avoid over crowding by frying in several batches. Fry until pickles float to the surface, and are golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels.

Cinnamon toasted Almonds

(Photo from Taste of Home.com )

These are really good. I love the ones you get at Trader Joes or Whole foods but they are expensive and well, we dont have either one of those close by. These are just as good as those are!! And easy to make!

• 2 egg whites
• 6 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups unblanched almonds
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• In a large bowl, beat egg whites until frothy; beat in vanilla. Add almonds; stir gently to coat. Combine the sugars, salt and cinnamon; add to nut mixture and stir gently to coat.
• Spread evenly into two greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pans. Bake at 300° for 25-30 minutes or until almonds are crisp, stirring once. Cool. Store in an airtight container.