Pray for Gatlinburg

I'm sure by now most of you have heard of the devastating forest fires that have ravaged Gatlinburg, TN.

Gatlinburg is a place that is very near and dear to me. My husband asked me to marry him in Gatlinburg. I had my honeymoon there and have been back countless more times. I know that place like the back of my hand and almost consider it a second home. It is my special place.

I am absolutely heartbroken over what has occurred there over the past few days. Thankfully, it seems that much of the parkway strip was spared, but there are conflicting reports over the Mysterious Mansion and Hillbilly Golf, among others. I keep checking in on the different news reports hoping for an update.

Even more disturbing are the reports of all the missing people. Please pray for these families that they are reunited soon and that they receive nothing but good news about their loved ones.

Sorry to bum everyone out, but this is what is on my heart and mind today. Pray for Gatlinburg!

Thanksgiving Disasters and Black Friday Deals

How did everyone's Thanksgiving go?!? Any baking disasters? I'd love to hear about them!

Mine started off so good. I was positive this year everything was going to go smoothly and everything was going to turn out perfectly! Who am I kidding? I always think that. I think you have to start out optimistically otherwise you'd probably never even begin.

My first downfall was that I started my baking too late in the day. Like 8pm too late. I always do. Hopefully now that I have it written in stone I can look at this next year and remember to start earlier! (haha, yeah right!)  All I had to make was a classic pumpkin pie and some super delish cranberry fluff. Piece of cake! I wanted to make a pumpkin pie simply because I found some really cute tiny leaf cookie cutters last year and I wanted to try and replicate all those beautiful pies I see on Pinterest with all the fancy leaf work on them. It almost worked.

Libby's Pumpkin Pie (my family's go to) is super easy to make so that part was no hassle. Even doing the leaf-trimmed crust was pretty smooth sailing, especially since I didn't follow anyone's directions, I just made up my own way to attach the leaves and prayed it worked out (It did, for the most part.)

The trouble started when I sliced my finger open trying to make an aluminum pie crust protector since I couldn't find the ones I know I had somewhere. Then, as I was trying to attach it to my fragile pie crust, some of the leaves fell off into no-mans land at the bottom of the oven and immediately started burning-which I somehow promptly forgot to remove and my whole house smelled like it was on fire for two days. Then, I forgot to turn down the heat part way through the baking of the pie so the crust leaves drooped and got charred and the pie itself was looking pretty dry. At least the leaves in the middle of the pie turned out pretty good! Thank goodness I also had a Patti LaBelle Sweet Potato Pie from Walmart to soften the blow. Those things are AMAZING!

I bet even Martha Stewart has had a few baking/cooking disasters in her day. They say practice makes perfect so maybe when I'm 80 I'll have this all down pat!

I removed some of the more burnt leaves on the crust and added my pre-baked leaves for the middle. Those turned out really well! I tried to strategically place them to cover all the cracks! It didn't really work but it actually tasted really good!

Speaking of Martha! I got some awesome Martha Stewart fall appetizer plates at Macy's! They were a steal! At $15 and $17 a piece normally, I only paid about $12 for them both! They had some other really cute items in the collection (like a white and gold pumpkin covered soup bowl!) but I had to limit myself to just these two. I love them and they made up for the fact that nothing else I set out for on Black Friday worked out! The silver (or gold in this case) lining of my Black Friday shopping excursion. Best purchase of the 2016 fall season for sure! Thanks Martha!

Easy Pumpkin Pancakes!

I love IHOP's pumpkin pancakes! I've tried to recreate them at home using several different recipes and nothing ever comes close. Plus, pancakes are really hard to make! It seems like they either don't get done enough or they get burned. Well, fear no more. I have found the best tasting and easiest pumpkin pancakes to make at home-and they may even rival IHOP's!

I was at Meijer the other day and came across Hungry Jack Complete Pumpkin Spice Pancake mix! Yes, complete. As in, just add water. You know I had to try them! I also picked up some sugar free butter flavored syrup, which also just so happened to be made by Hungry Jack, to go with them since we are now doing Weight Watchers (more on than later!)

I usually don't like anything "sugar free" for several reasons, but my husband insisted we try it since it was only one Weight Watcher point for a quarter cup. One of the reasons why I don't normally do sugar free anything is because it usually just tastes so fake and has a bad after taste. This syrup proved me wrong. It was good! Just make sure you heat it first. I had some cold and some heated up and it was way better hot. And the pancakes...OMG. Delicious! Maybe even better than IHOP. Certainly better than any I've made before! I highly suggest picking some up! It was the perfect fall Sunday morning breakfast! Now I wish I had a waffle maker so I could use it to make pumpkin waffles!

For all you "weight watchers" out there, throw on some whipped butter and (zero point!!!) Fat Free Reddi-Wip for an awesome low point breakfast! Heck, it's perfect this way for anyone, not just fellow WW followers!

And just an FYI...this post is NOT brought to you by anyone but me, myself, and I! Just in case you were wondering! I just like sharing things that make my life better!