Banana Streusal Muffins w/Caramel Glaze

I'm pretty sure I've already stated several times that using bananas in baking is one of my favorites and banana-themed recipes are becoming sort of a trend in my blog. Soooo..why not add another! This recipe comes close to a tie in my book for being as good as the banana bars recipe I have posted. (Close and not equal only because my mom always makes the banana bars, so they are extra special:)) But, these are definately my fav muffins now!

This recipe comes from over at Krista's Kitchen blog. Which, by the way, is an awesome blog that you should really check out! (She's great. Has meal plans and everything with simple, but really, really good recipes!) Anyway...she said she based the glaze for this recipe off of a glaze she uses for her banana bars. After making these muffins, I can't wait to try making her bars!

I'm just going to post my pictures below and you can click here to get the recipe!
Oh! PS: Try to resist completely scraping the glaze bowl clean and licking the spoon, spatula, or anything else that the glaze is on...I couldn't! It's THAT good :P

Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes

Once again, my photographer skills are lacking in this one, but I made this yummy sweet potato casserole last night to test it out before Thanksgiving. I wanted to make this recipe beforehand to see if it passed approval for the Thanksgiving Day menu. It definately did! The dish has a sweet potato base and is topped with a brown sugar, cinnamon, pecan topping.
**Update: made this for our Thanksgiving crowd of 18 people and it received rave reviews..It's a keeper!

The recipe listed fills a 9x13 in pan. (I only made half in the pictures)
Ingredients:

• 5-6 sweet potatoes
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 c unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 c sugar
• 3 T milk or heavy cream (I used milk)

For topping:

• 1/4 c butter, softened
• 3 T all-purpose flour
• 3/4 c packed brown sugar
• 2/3 c chopped pecans
• (Feel free to add more of this topping mixture..it's the best part!!)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 deg F
• Lightly grease 9x13 in bakin dish. Bake the whole sweet potatoes for about 35 mins or until they are soft. Check softness with a fork. (Mine were not completely soft, so I put them in the microwave to finish cooking). When done, cool slightly then peel.
• In a large bowl, mash the peeled potatoes and mix in salt, 1/4 c butter, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar, milk. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
• In a medium bowl, combine 1/4 c butter, flour, b. sugar, chopped pecans. Mix until the consistency of course meal. Spread it over the sweet potato mixture.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until topping is crisp and lightly browned. Enjoy!

The Ultimate Cookie Recipe

MMMmmm...Chocolate Chip Cookies = my favorite thing ever! I sought out a perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe, and came up with (what I think is) the ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe! As far as cookies go, I consider myself an expert...second only to my father:). There are many different preferences when it comes to cookies. Some like crispy, some like chewy, some like cakey. Personally, I like soft & chewy with lots-o-chips. I searched the net for 'ultimate cookie' recipes and combined three different finds (1 from Food Network's Giada de Laurentiis, 2 from fellow bloggers). After these turned out so well, I'm never going to buy pre-made cookie dough again.

Here is what I came up with:
This cookie is soft and chewy and it contains dark chocolate chips, toasted walnuts, and oats. From Alton Brown's advice, I used 1 whole egg and 1 yolk, as he says egg whites lead to a more dry cookie. I added some nuts and oats from Giada's recipe (although she used hazelnuts) and opted to use Hershey's special dark chocolate chips because of my own preference. Next time I would like to try chopped dark chocolate.
Ingredients:

• 3/4 c butter, soft
• 3/4 c sugar
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 c flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 c quick oats
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 12 oz dark chocolate chips
• 3/4 c toasted, chopped walnuts
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325degrees. Toast walnuts for a few minutes on baking sheet, then chop.
Meanwhile, cream sugars and butter with mixer in large bowl. Add egg, egg yolk, vanilla; mix.
In seperate bowl combine flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt.
Add half of flour mix to wet mixture. Mix. Add remaining half of flour mixture. Mix.
Fold in chips and nuts.
Drop by rounded spoonfuls on to parchment paper lined cookie sheets or sheets sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
Bake @ 325 degrees for 14-17 minutes or to desired doneness.
*Also, can roll dough into logs and freeze to have cookie dough ready whenever it strikes you:)

Here are some alterations to form YOUR ultimate cookie:

Peanut Butter:
Add 1 cup peanut butter to butter and sugars. Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups. Decrease salt by half.

Hazelnut + Toffee chip:

This is more similar to Giada's recipe. Add 3/4 c chopped, toasted hazelnuts instead of walnuts. Add 4 oz chopped chocolate-toffee bar(like Heath). Only use 3/4 bag of chocolate chips.

Oatmeal Raisin:

Decrease flour to 1 1/3 c. Increase quick oats to 1 cup. Add 1 cup raisins to chocolate chips. (or can eliminate chocolate all together and increase raisins). Add 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon-optional.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

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Pumpkin is everywhere these days! Candles, food, in coffee, I've seen pumpkin ice cream, in cappuccino, on clothes, on porches..haha, so why not put it in your cheesecake? :) I recently became a huge fan of pumpkin and am finding ways to put it in more things. I love putting pumpkin spice in coffee, canned pumpkin in oatmeal, and trying this new pumpkin cheesecake recipe. Hands down, I WILL make this again! The good thing about this recipe is it doesn't take as long as some cheesecake recipes. Trevor and my parents loved it and it was gone waaay too fast, so that is a good sign:)

The original recipe called for chocolate chips sprinkled on top of the batter before baking. I left the chips out this time, but may add them next time to try it out. Also, the original recipe called for a crust made with gingersnaps, but I opted for a more traditional graham cracker crust. However, I guess it wasn't completely a "traditional" graham cracker crust (at least the ones I'm familiar with) because I found a 'heart healthy' recipe made with oil instead of butter, and with a little honey and cinnamon. Sooo here it is..!
Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 c finely crushed graham cracker crumbs (used food processor)
• 2 T honey
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Cheesecake:

• 8 oz cream cheese, slightly softened (I used 1/3 less fat)
• 1/2 c plain yogurt or plain Greek yogurt
• 1 c canned pumpkin puree ( NOT pumpkin pie filling)
• 3/4 c granulated sugar
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 large egg
• 2 egg whites

Directions:

For crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In medium bowl, combine all ingredients and mix with fork until well combined.
Press mixture into a 9 in round pie pan, coated with nonstick spray.
Bake for 8 mins @350 degrees. Set aside to cool
For cheesecake:
Lower oven temp to 275 degrees
With electric mixer, beat cream cheese and yogurt until smooth
Beat in pumpkin, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, egg.
In separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
With a spatula, fold the eggwhites into the pumpkin cheesecake batter.
Pour into prepared crust. (This is where you could sprinkle the top with chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, or pecans if desired).
Bake 60 mins. Turn off oven. Let the cheesecake remain in closed oven for 1 hour (prevents cracks).
Remove from oven and let cool completely.
Tranfer to refrigerator, chill @ least 3 hrs before serving.