Pumpkin Cheese Cake Muffins and winners announced!

Pinterest wins again.

Last night I went on a bit of a cooking binge. Made supper, pumpkin muffins and raspberry cookies. I took most of it over to the grain elevator so the guys doing harvest could have a treat. One of them asked the Boy how do you get your wife to get start cooking as soon as she gets home from these trips. The Boys response was it just happens! She likes cooking and since she can't when she is on the road she makes up for it when she gets home.

Pumpkin cupcakes are delicious. That is a fact.

The recipe I want to first share with you is a pumpkin muffin/cupcake. I have really been craving pumpkin and since this recipe only had two, I repeat two ingredients I thought they would perfect.

Ingredients needed:
1 Box of yellow cake
1 Can of Pumpkin (15 oz).

Instructions:
Blend two ingredients. Put into muffin wraps and back for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. I felt like my muffins definitely needed the full 25 minutes.

As an added touch I topped my muffins with some cream cheese icing. I'll admit it, I bought store ready made icing. And it was delicious I might add. I guess this is a pretty popular Weight Watchers recipe. That means healthy right? And it was no big deal that I had two?

Now onto announcing the winners of the Boot Barn Cody James contest and the Cowgirl Crush Earrings.

Emily Writer you won yourself a pair of Cody James or Shyanne Cowboy Boots from the Boot Barn and Sara Wall you are the winner of the Cowgirl Crush earrings! Please find my email under the About tab and email me with your contact information.

Hunk of Meat Monday: Jalapeño Popper Pastries

This weekend we had a few friends over to watch the Kentucky Derby. The Boy made his first Mint Julep ever, which if you like whiskey you'll like, if you don't don't bother trying them. The food portion of our evening took on a much more Cinco De Mayo feeling including my Baked Tacos and a new recipe Jalapeno Popper Pastries, which I'll definitely be making again. 

I found the original recipe on Pinterest from Lady Behind the Curtain. She put hers on popsicle sticks. Here is my recipe below with a couple of suggestions. 

Ingredients

Pre Made Pie Crust Dough - 2 sheets (usually there are 2 sheets in a box)

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons picked jalapeños, chopped

1 table spoon pickled jalapeno juice

6 bacon slices, cooked and chopped (I didn't have any bacon on hand so I used those precooked bacon pieces and did 1/2 cup. They were great this way, but I think would be better with real bacon.)

1 egg

salt and pepper

2-1/4 to 3 inch biscuit cutter

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside. 

Mix together cream cheese, jalapeno jucie, jalapenos and bacon until cream. I think you can best control the hotness of this dish with the jalapeno juice. Add a little more if you like hotter, take away if you don't like as much heat. I would stay as is these are mild to medium hot. 

On a lightly floured surface lay out your pie crust and roll out any edges if necessary. Using your biscuit cutter cut out as many circles as you can. Mine was probably around the 2-1/4 inch size and I was able to get 26 circles out of my two pie crusts to make 12 pastries. 

Place half of the circles on the cookie sheet, and spoon in about a tablespoon of mixture. Mix up your eggs with a tablespoon of water. Using your finger dab the wash around the outside of the circle. Place your other circle on top of the mixture and using your finger to gently press together the two pieces of dough. 

Use a pastry brush to brush egg wash onto pastry, sprinkle with salt and pepper. I like the course ground pepper. Using a sharp knife cut a little slit in the top to make an air vent. 

Bake for 23 minutes, let cool and serve! 

You'll definitely want to serve these at your next get together or they would make a great side to some grilled steaks or hamburgers. 

More more Hunk of Meat Monday recipes visit the Beyer Beware Blog and link up. 

I have fluffy cows too!

Have your heard the Fluffy Cow buzz? It started of Reddit, and then stories showed up on Yahoo.com, and Today.com.

This is the orginial Fluffy Cow. He is actually a bull named Texas Tornado owned by Lautner Farms in Iowa. 

My family also owns some Fluffy Cows. 

This heifer (female cow that hasn't had a baby yet) is named Symphony. We sold her to some people in Tennessee in an auction last February. If you've heard me talk about Parker the Bull Calf, Symphony is his aunt. Yes, cattle can have aunts and uncles. 

So what makes Fluffy cows different from regular cows? Well Symphony was halter broke (broke to lead) when she was a baby so we could show her at the Iowa State Fair. We spent a lot of time washing her, blow drying her (with a giant hair dryer just for cows), adding conditioners to her hair and even giving her hair cuts. The people that now own Symphony are continuing to show her.

So why do we show cattle? 1. It is a great way for us to market our cattle. Obviously by showing Symphony and making sure she looked her best we were able to attract a great buyer for her. 2. Symphony is a breeding heifer so her purpose in life will be to produce other top of the line genetic offspring. 3. Sometimes we do eat Fluffy Cows, these are mostly steers that are shown in 4-H or FFA. These two youth programs teach a lot of responsibility and that hard work is one of the most important pieces to success. 

In this picture you can tell where the different cuts of beef come from. If you are looking for a great beef recipe we dug up this Beef Kabob one that we found last year. The combination of beef and vegetables with the honey & soy sauce glaze is amazing!

Best Recipes of 2013

Each year I like to give a little recap of what your favorite posts were. Since New Years Eve is right around the corner and I know some of your are still looking for appetizer or meal ideas I thought I would start the recap off with your favorite Crystal Cattle recipes.

5. Apple Cookie Recipe 

This was another new recipe this year that I got from Jent's Front Porch. I have made these cookies quite a few times and they are great for breakfast or a treat.

4. Best Tailgating Dip Ever 

Otherwise know as Ugly Dip, I am very thankful that one of my good college girlfriends let me in on this recipe

3. Best Pumpkin Pie Recipe

I love pumpkin pie. This recipe is pretty much fool proof. It's not fancy by any means, but it sure is delicious.

2. Flat Iron Steak with Green Peppers

This is seriously one of our favorite recipes and it hardly takes any time to make. I also really like that you can make this with a variety of cuts of beef from more expensive sirloins to less expensive round steaks.

1. Baked Tacos

These tacos were a brand new recipe I tried this year. Lean ground beef is easy on the budget and the taco seasoning that goes with this recipe is to die for. I make the seasoning in big batches now to save time.