Blog - Inside BruCrew Life

Frosted Eggnog Bread

Eggnog in the bread and eggnog in the glaze makes this Frosted Eggnog Bread the perfect sweet bread for the eggnog lovers in your life. It is the perfect holiday breakfast or afternoon snack. Just add a cup of coffee and you are good to go.

Two times the eggnog makes this frosted bread an awesome holiday breakfast or snack choice

Well, it happened.

Winter came early this year. The past 2 days have been 28*, and both days we woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground and the roof looked like it was frosted with powdered sugar.

I am so not ready for this. It has been years since we have had snow here before January. Everyone is predicting a bad winter this year. I really thought last year was bad, so I'm not sure how it can get worse.

Becoming a hermit for the next 5 months is looking better and better. As long as I have a loaf of this Eggnog Bread each week, the confinement will be totally doable.

The recipe for this bread came from a plastic recipe box that has been hiding up in my cupboard since we moved to this house 5 years ago. I wish I know where the recipe came from, but unfortunately I wasn't so good at documenting that stuff. I think that's probably how a lot of family favorite recipes happened. Someone copied a recipe, stuck it in a box, and over the years it became "grandma's recipe" because she always made it.

When we first got married, I used to collect recipes from magazines and cookbooks and write them on notecards. The funny thing is we only ever tried a handful of these recipes, but I still kept writing more recipes on the cards. Then we started having kids, and I haven't really used those boxes of recipes in I don't know how many years. They just sat there until this week when I saw them hiding behind the big box of cupcake liners.

I pulled them out and flipped through all the cards. Some I pulled out, read the recipe, and promptly threw it away. I'm not sure what younger me was thinking about when she copied some of these down. There is no way I would ever make some of the stuff that was in there. Probably another reason why the box has been sitting forever.

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Peppermint Mocha Cookie Dough Truffle Bars

These easy no bake Peppermint Mocha Cookie Dough Truffle Bars are just what your holiday cookie trays need this year.

No bake mocha cookie dough with a white chocolate and peppermint topping will be a fun addition to your holiday cookie trays.

Do you know what time it is? It's peanut butter jelly time...wait a minute? That's not right.

Ok, how about it's all things peppermint time!!! Oh, yeah baby! Time to bake those holiday treats like there is no tomorrow. I have been anxiously waiting for this day to get here. I mean if Hobby Lobby can decorate their stores in July for Christmas, it's ok if I start cranking the peppermint treats now, right?

We always wait until the Saturday after Thanksgiving to decorate our house for Christmas. It has been our family tradition to get the tree that day and start to pull out all the boxes from storage.

This year though, I am ready to put it all out now. The other day I was at Target (surprise, surprise) and I was going crazy over all the cute holiday stuff! I found these cute lanterns to make a centerpiece for our table. I figured why not put them out...no one will even notice if I start putting one thing out at a time, right?

Wrong! My husband walked through the room that night. He got all the way through, then stopped and said, "Wait!". He turned around and walked right to the table. He says the decorations are not allowed out yet. But the lanterns are still there. I'm just waiting for him to notice that I added a snowflake table runner to the table. (Hey, babe...did you notice it was there yet?)

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Brown Butter Blackberry Crumble Bars

These Brown Butter Blackberry Crumble Bars are a delicious way to end any meal. The glazed spiced crumble on top of sweet jam will have everyone asking for more.

Is anyone else looking at their calendar and wondering where the year went?

I kind of feel like the holidays are speeding toward us at an alarming rate. I haven't started any meal lists or holiday shopping. Of course, that isn't really anything new. We tend to do those kind of things last minute. Although every year I think this will be the year of planning...and then it is over before I can even start.

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Chocolate Fudge Turkeys

Different candies transform these little chocolate fudge bites into Chocolate Fudge Turkeys. These are such a cute and easy treat for the Thanksgiving Day food table. They would even make adorable place card settings.

These easy no bake chocolate fudge squares topped with a cute candy turkeys make perfect Thanksgiving day treats!

Does it seem like Thanksgiving seems to get shoved by in our attempt to get to all things peppermint and eggnog each holiday season? Oh, I admit I am right there too.

This week I bought Peppermint Oreos, Peppermint M&M's, Peppermint Crunch chips, and a few other holiday things. I'm already plotting what decadent treats these candies and cookies will become...that is if they last that long. I also just had a great idea for eggnog, so guess what I'll be buying tomorrow? Yup, eggnog is coming home with me.

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The 47th Pillsbury Bake Off

Last weekend, I was given the awesome opportunity from Pillsbury to attend the 47th Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest! No, no, not as a baker, but as a blogger. Yup, this girl got a press pass and everything. How cool is that?!? I seriously love my job!!!

Most people know what the Million Dollar Bake Off is, but let me just recap the requirements. Anyone can enter (unless you are a food professional) a recipe. Now the recipes have requirements. They must have only 7 ingredients and include a Pillsbury dough product and a sponsor product.

Then the judges narrow the submissions down to 100 contestants, who come to bake their recipes for a panel of judges.

As you look at this picture of contestants marching around the room, imagine you hear the country music that accompanied them. The room was so full of excitement as these 100 awesome bakers made their way around the room.

I remember watching this happen on TV when I was younger, so experiencing it live was amazing. Seriously, I had to will myself not to cry as I watched these proud contestants make their way to their stations. It was a dream come true moment for sure.

The bakers got started right away on their recipe. They are given enough ingredients to make their recipe 3 times. Then they can decide which batch looks the best to submit to the judges. After they had been baking for about 30 minutes, they opened the floor for the press to wander around.

It was so fun to be right there in the middle of all the excitement. At times, we worried we were in the way, so we tried to stay back and not bother them too much.

The contestants have 3 hours to bake their recipe and get it to the table for submission. Each baker had a "runner" who would get them ingredients or pans, or clear the floor, as they walked their recipe to the table. As time went on, you could see the nerves start to disappear from the contestants.

I was able to chit chat with a few of them about their recipe, how many times they had been there before, and how many recipes they entered to make it here. I was in awe at the number of recipes people submit to contests like these. We are talking like 20-30 recipes, sometimes more. That's a lot of recipe testing!

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Cinnamon Pumpkin Spice Muddy Buddies

Make a double batch of this Cinnamon Pumpkin Spice Muddy Buddies because it will disappear in a hurry this fall. The pumpkin spice chocolate and sweet candies make this snack mix so irresistible!

I'm kind of in shock right now...it's already a week into November.

Can we all say WHAT? Where did the entire year go? Maybe it's just old age setting in because seriously where did the rest of the year go? It's probably time to cut back on things like these little pumpkin spice latte cheesecake bites and these pumpkin spice pop tarts because I'm losing some time here while I'm busy snacking.

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Butterfinger Blondies

Looking for a way to use up all those bowls of candy from the past weekend? We used some of ours to make Butterfinger Blondies. Blonde brownies, candy, and chocolate will make these yummy bars disappear in a hurry.

Are you still recovering from the sugar rush of the past week?

Our kids made out with a huge bag of candy, and they put a pretty good dent in it over the weekend. I take no responsibility for the sugar comas that might have happened because I was traveling.

I guess devouring your candy at lightening speed is one way to get rid of it. [Read more...]

Pumpkin Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

These easy no yeast Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls can be made and on the table in under an hour. Perfect for enjoying with coffee today!

Cinnamon rolls made with no yeast are my favorite way to do rolls. I could do a yeast version, but so far I just haven't felt the need to.

I love how easy it is to make these rolls. Roughly about 25 minutes of dough making and rolling and then 16 minutes in the oven and these rolls can come to life in your kitchen. Seriously its that easy!

With fall being here and pumpkin everything going on in my life, I knew that I wanted to make a pumpkin version of this roll.

After all the Banana Nut Cinnamon Rolls were an amazing new version, why not add pumpkin?

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Pepperoni Alfredo Pizza Dip

Pepperoni Alfredo Pizza Dip: Layers of cheese, Alfredo sauce, and mini pepperonis makes a fun and delicious dip for game day, for parties, or as an after school snack.

Are you completely candied out right now?

I figured after a night dedicated to all candy, you could use a cheesy dish of goodness. Was I right?

Last night our younger two decided that they still wanted to go trick or treating in the cold. We let them and a few friends go up and down our street by themselves. They are still young enough that I didn't want them going any further by themselves.

Although with the rain and cold, they were perfectly content to let us drive them from house light to house light after they realized just how chilly it was to walk around at night.

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Frankenstein Marshmallows

These Frankenstein Marshmallows are a quick and easy treat for Halloween parties. They are easy enough that your kids could even dip them on their own. The paper straws make them perfect for serving alone or for topping festive cupcakes.

Square marshmallows dipped in green candy melts make a cute Frankenstein treat for Halloween. The googly eyes are too cute!

Oh, I knew it was coming up quickly, but I kind of lost track of the weeks and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" it was here. As I was deleting old pictures on my computer, I realized that I never shared these fun and easy chocolate covered marshmallows with you this month. What was I thinking?

And they have googly eyes which are my absolute favorites, so right then and there I decided you needed to see these treats ASAP!!! Yay for extra blog posts full of cuteness, right? I knew you would be as excited as me.

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