Happy Day Before Thanksgiving Baking Day Everyone! 

    I love the day before Thanksgiving!  It is a day dedicated to making all of the wonderful baked goods that we will enjoy stuffing ourselves with on Thanksgiving Day!  The rolls, the pies, putting together the stuffing...whatever our family loves to eat on the day that we give thanks for all that we have. #givethanks

    BUT, let's face it.  Sometimes, time gets away from you and maybe you need something quick for an appetizer or the rolls burned or you just need something quick to tide your family over until they can eat all of the great stuff that will be on the menu on Thursday.  There are a myriad of reasons that refrigerated crescent rolls might come into play during this busy season.  The great thing is that these crescent rolls are easy to get into the oven and they taste pretty good!  And the BONUS is that you get to pop that cardboard tube open! Who doesn't get a kick out of that? 
    Instead of plain crescent rolls right out of the tube, it's easy to make them just a little more special.  Here are a couple of ways that we have found to take the normal refrigerated crescent roll over the top! 

Pumpkin Butter Crescent Rolls

    A few weeks ago, Lindsey shared her recipe for Crock Pot Pumpkin Butter.  It is really delicious stuff!  Maddy figured out that Pillsbury Original Crescent Rolls are vegan, so she told me that a great way to eat them is to spread the Pumpkin Butter on them and bake them like that.  I gave it a try!  They were eaten up in no time! (Not just by me!)

    If you haven't made your own pumpkin butter, you can alwayspurchase some! 
    When I filled these rolls, I didn't always roll them in the traditional way.  Sometimes I rolled them backwards and made a bundle, trying to keep the filling from leaking out.  They seemed to work either way. 

     Here are some other spreads that I think would be delicious spread inside a crescent: 

• Nutella
• Apple Butter
• Any jam or jelly
• Any nut butter

​    When spreading on a filling, I baked the rolls just a couple of minutes longer than originally called for, to make sure they were done in the center.  Let me know in the comments if you've tried any of those and how you liked them. 
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Apple-Brie-Rosemary Crescent Rolls

    If you have a little more time to whip out these rolls, you will love them!  They make a great appetizer or addition to a simple meal like soup. 

​Apple-Brie-Rosemary Crescent Rolls

Have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We will see you back next week! We have a lot of wonderful holiday projects and recipes in store.

Also, don't forget our Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale on the Etsy Shop!  Don't miss the bargains! 
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     Here is another recipe that adds merit to the old saying, " Necessity is the mother of invention!"  
     I had purchased a produce box from my local produce guys.  There was a small package of quinoa inside.  I had never cooked quinoa except in packaged rice and quinoa mixes and the jury was out on how I liked it.  I know that it is a super food, very good for you.  So, I decided to see what I could do with it.  
      Of course, I searched the web to find out how to cook the quinoa in the best possible way.  I found the answer on Cookie and Kate! I was so pleased with the results when I followed their advice!  Before that, I had no idea that:  #1 Quinoa has to be rinsed or it will be bitter. #2  Quinoa should pop open into little tiny spirals! Look at my bamboo stirrer! 

     The results were spectacular, so if you want to try quinoa the way it is supposed to be cooked, go to their site! 

    To go with the quinoa, I decided to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs that I had.  I've read recently that chicken thighs are more healthy than the breasts!  I don't know if that is true, but I do like the serving size of the thigh and my husband like dark meat best.  
      I didn't want to do an oven baked chicken because of the summer heat, so I decided to try something on top of the stove.  I was so pleased that it came together so quickly!  I used the Crog Salt that I made and told you about on this post.  If you haven't made our own yet, I listed the ingredients separately in the recipe.  I also added thyme.  The tomato-chicken bullion is widely available in grocery stores.  My friend Neomi turned me on to it and now I use it in recipes frequently.    Here are a few tips to easily make this recipe: 

• Use 2 skillets to fit in all of the chicken, plus it makes it easier to get the sauce done in the end.  
• Be sure to cook your chicken without turning it for 5 to 6 minutes on a side.  When it is crisply cooked, it will release from the skillet easier.  I used cast iron for this recipe. 
• Simmer the sauce for a couple of minutes before add the chicken back into it.  Then add the chicken and let simmer a couple of minutes more. 

     It is as easy as that!  Spoon some of the sauce over the chicken and quinoa to serve!  My husband loved it and so did I!  I could hardly wait to tell you about it.  Here is the recipe, enjoy! 

​**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. ​  But, all opinions expressed are my own.

Hey Alicia here.

We originally posted this recipe last year in May, but I live in a different state and didn't get to try the cake the first time around. So, I made it recently with a giant zucchini my friend gave me from her garden and it was seriously THE BEST CAKE I'VE EVER HAD. It was fluffy, moist, soft, chocolatey, deliciousness. It was light and airy. I wanted to make this cake again before it was even  all gone. I especially love that this cake doesn't  need frosting. The brown sugar chocolate chip topping was PERFECT! 

I decided we need to share this recipe again because now Is the time of year when people start finding huge zucchini in their yards that are perfect for baking. Try this, you will NOT regret it. Seriously, I'm considering not eating zucchini any other way from now on.

To really make your cake fluffy make sure you cream the butter and sugar really well, until they are light and fluffy and almost increase in volume. Doing this helps to trap air into the batter. Then I repeated this process when I added the egg in (beating it for a little longer to fluff up the wet ingredients). It made it amazing. Go and make this cake and  be amazed at the results. You won't regret it!

​Original Post Below:

    My DIL's mom, Anita gave me a giant zucchini.  Yes, we know that the smaller ones are the ones you are supposed to pick to cook up for a delicious dinner veggie.  But, if you have ever grown zucchini, they somehow have a way of hiding until finally one day there is a giant one laying there taunting you to do something with it.  Anita found this particular one before it had a chance to become extraordinarily huge, but it was big enough for me to make 2 recipes out of it!  Today I will share with you the first thing I made with it.  It is The Best Chocolate Zucchini Cake Ever! 

    When Anita handed me the zucchini, she said, "Here! Make some zucchini bread!"  I had every intention of doing that and taking her a loaf.  But then one afternoon a couple of days later, I looked in the fridge and realized that I needed to use that zucchini and the idea of a chocolate zucchini cake came into my head.  I had heard about them before but never made one.  I as so glad that I did because this cake came out so moist and delicious, much better than any zucchini bread I had ever made!  This particular recipe was adapted from an old church recipe compilation.  It doesn't need frosting because it has a brown sugar, chocolate chip topping that is perfect!  
     Now, here is my secret "oops" moment that caused this cake to be so moist, I believe.  I used my food processor to grate the zucchini.  I accidentally left the chopping blade down in the bottom of the food processor!  What I ended up with was coarsely chopped, slightly pureed zucchini.  It was almost like a very thick applesauce, only zucchini.  Well, I couldn't waste it, so I went ahead and made the cake anyway! It was an amazing success.  I took it to our church choir practice to share it.  It was a hit!  

​3winksdesign's Moist Chocolate Zucchini Cake

   Even if you don't have a giant zucchini, you can use regular sized ones for this recipe.  Later, I will give you the recipe for what I did with the rest of the zucchini! 
   Have you ever made a silly mistake that ended up making your recipe more delicious?  Let me know in the comments! 

     If you don't have any zucchini at all for this recipe, here is one that Lindsey made for Memorial Day last year! 

Find that pie and many others, not included in the blog, in our Pie Book, available on Etsy! 

This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. We do not share your information with other sites. All views expressed are our own.  Thank you for your support!

      It is very much summer here in Phoenix and I have 2 grandchildren staying with me for most of it.  We went shopping for foods that they will eat when they got here and one of the things my granddaughter went crazy about was when she saw the Magical Mermaid ice cream, which we of course purchased.  Later, at home, we realized that we had Fruity Pebbles with Marshmallows and Rice Krispys and we decided that we had to make Magical Mermaid Rice Krispy Treats to go with the ice cream.  Let me tell you, the Magical Mermaid treats tasted much better than the ice cream, in my opinion.  My granddaughter was in mermaid heaven!  Not only that, she loved making them with me.  Bonus points for Grandma! 
     I think the mixture of the 2 cereals give these treats a more magical look because the color looks more scattered, plus there were the little bits of cereal marshmallows that were a surprise treasure every so often. Plus, I feel like the fruit flavor from the Pebbles doesn't overpower as much as a recipe with only Fruity Pebbles would.  If you want to take the mermaid theme over the top, you can sprinkle on little pearl sprinkles before the treats cool. 
     If you aren't able to see your grandchildren yet, like I am able to at this point, these Magical Marshmallow Treats are the perfect surprise to drop off at their door.  They might soften in the heat, but will last pretty well and not spoil. 
      If you have a mermaid lover in your family, make them Magical Mermaid Treats.  They will love you for it. 

Magical Mermaid Rice Krispy Treats