Happy Homecoming

This past weekend, I took a trip down to Winona to celebrate my first homecoming as an alumni. It was a great weekend filled with fun friends, laughter, and drinks. 

                       All smiles 

              My "vest" buddy :)

      Reunited with my best friends <3 

And although I've never made it to the actual homecoming game.. Winona won against Wayne State, with a final score of 45-41. Go warriors!!

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I'll leave you with one of the best quotes of the weekend...

"You wanna do a keg stand??! We don't have any keg left, but we have apple pie!" -Hermes

 

We Day

I had the opportunity to volunteer at an event last Tuesday at the Excel Energy Center called We Day. It was a huge event inviting school-aged children who have contributed to making a difference to celebrate their achievements in making local and global efforts to improve the world.

We Day MN 2013

We Day is an event where a student must get invited to attend, there is no way to buy a ticket, as it had to be earned. The event was made possible by two organizations "Me to We" and "Free the Children."  We Day Minnesota was a successful event with over 18,000 students involved to celebrate creating positive change in local communities. They could be agents of change from raising money for water for people in Africa, to stopping people from getting bullied at their own schools.

18,000 students from all over Minnesota

There were so many famous people that spoke or did a performance for this great event- including Martin Luther King the 3rd, Mark Dayton, The Jonas Brothers, Carly Rae Jepsen, Barbara Bush, Demi Lovato (over skype), Jack Jablonski, the Vikings, and many more!

Jonas Brothers Live

To read more about this amazing event, and what their goals are, visit their site:

http://www.weday.com/

http://www.freethechildren.com/

If you want to see a change, be the change you want to see. 

#WeDay #FreeThePeople

Pumpkin Cookies

For years, my wonderful friend Alyssa has a tradition where she makes pumpkin cookies in October...I have had the benefits of eating those delicious cookies throughout my last few years in Winona. However, now that we do not live in Winona anymore, I made those cookies on my own this year to bring in October and the fall season.

For my birthday last year, Alyssa made me an awesome recipe box with some recipe cards inside. This was one that she was nice enough to share with me so I could continue this yummy cookie making on my own!

I posted some pictures on instagram, and several people have asked me for the recipe. So, here it is, enjoy! It is a two part process with making the frosting separate. 

Pumpkin Cookies

2/3 c sugar

2/3 c brown sugar

3/4 c butter or margarine, softened

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

2 eggs

2 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla extract with electric mixer on medium speed, until well blended. Beat in pumpkin and eggs until well mixed. On low speed, beat in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. 

2. On un-greased cookie sheets, drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls.

3. Bake 10-12 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched in center.

4. Immediately remove cookies from cookie sheets to cooking rack. Cool completely, about 45 minutes before frosting.

Browned Butter Frosting

3 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3-4 tbsp milk

1/3 c butter (not margarine)

1. In medium bowl, place powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and 3 tbsp of milk.

2. in 1 qt saucepan, heat 1/3 cup butter over medium heat, stirring constantly, until just light brown.

3. Pour browned butter over powered sugar mixture. Beat on low speed about 1 minute or until smooth. Gradually add just enough of the remaining 1 tbsp of milk to make frosting creamy and spreadable.

4. Generously frost cooled cookies. 

Some things I did/suggest:
-For the cookies, I used tablespoon size heaps of dough for a more larger cookie :) Also, because of this, my cookies needed to be in the oven for longer- I would say an addition 3 or 4 minutes so about 16 minutes total per cookie sheet.
-For the frosting, I did not end up needing to use an additional 1 tbsp of milk, as the frosting was already creamy for me!

Final product

Please make these at home :) I highly recommend! They are an absolute favorite, and I will continue this tradition year after year.  What is your favorite thing to do or make in the fall?? 

“Autumn...the year's last, loveliest smile.”- William Cullen Bryant

Hello October.

Happy October! I'm back in business :)

I've been wanting to work on my blog and never found the time...but I'm excited and committed and cannot wait to start blogging again! I love reading blogs and I make time for that, so there will be time for me to write blog posts too.

I took this photo in my neighborhood, today is October and with the temps in the high 70s you can't beat that. I love living in Minnesota :)

Now I am planning on revamping my blog....meaning I need to create a blog name and that has been so difficult for me to try to think of something creative that fits with me. So if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to help me out.

 Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, etc…