This - n - that

I had forgotten that I'd taken a picture of this yummy cake I made a couple of weeks ago when we had snacks at church.  It's called "Cookies and Cream Snack Cake"  - I found it on a foodie blog that I enjoy called Baked Bree - (if you click on the blog name, it is linked to the recipe for this cake.

She has a lot of recipes that are fun to do with kids and good ones for family dinners too.   


Truthfully, I just used a Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate cake mix - It was just delicious and the frosting? 
Check out the list of ingredients!  :  (go to her website for the directions)
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3-4 cups powdered sugar
 3 Tablespoons heavy cream
16 Oreo cookies

You beat the butter and the marshmallow cream up together - how decadent is that and then you start mixing in the powdered sugar.  After you get it all mixed up and creamy, you add the smashed cookies - really - who needs cake - just eat this stuff with a spoon.  The whole desert is very sweet, so I cut it in about 2 inch square pieces - you really can't eat much more than that.

I was going to take it for our Halloween potluck at work, but so many other people were bringing sweets, I decided to organize cooking hotdogs instead.  Using a couple of crock pots and "Bun Buster" hotdogs from a local company called HEMPLERS, one crock pot will include sauerkraut (yum) and the other will be plain - Everyone is pitching in a buck for their "dog" and I've bought the buns. It should be really fun - I think everyone is looking forward to it.    


Fall is finally in full swing - all of our maple trees are just a blaze with color.  this is just coming in the driveway - I love how The Shepherd has arranged the different plants to take center stage at different times of the year.

In fact I spent about an hour wandering around in the yard on Saturday - Gracie will have a Caturday report for you this weekend with pictures of sheep and more from The Shepherd's beautiful fall gardens!

And, finally - a pretty bauble that I thought you'd like to see - It was made by our friend Allen - I showed you some of his beautiful crochet hooks back in April - I traded some more computer work (I designed and printed out some business cards for him) Besides the crochet hooks and buttons, he also makes wooden knitting needles and sweet little drop spindles for spinning.  He doesn't use power tools, everything is carved by hand - he also only uses recycled or locally harvested wood - he had a whole bunch of knitting needles made from lilac bush wood (creamy white with occasional spots in it) 

I think it's too big to really be a usable button, but would make a very nice accent piece on a hat or a shawl, don't you think?

I found a Mardi Gras mask to wear for work tomorrow - I'll probably make it about an hour then push it back up on my forehead to get it out of the way.  Oh well.  Hope your Halloween was howling good!

PS - here is a scarier than scarey thing for Halloween - are you a "Twitter" person?  I'm not much with social media, and frankly, I think most of it is a waste of time - but did you know that if you have a Twitter account, they track everything that you do and everywhere you go on the web?  Yikes!  No thank you! 



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