Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake is a yellow cake crust topped with a creamy pumpkin layer and the most popular pumpkin dessert at our Thanksgiving table.

This is the very first recipe I had ever made from the Food Network. Paula Deen inspired something in Cade and I and that is the only reason this blog exists.

Cade’s from the South and as super poor newlyweds we didn’t have much entertainment that didn’t cost money and since cable was free in our apartment we would watch Paula cook up delicious foods and I got to learn about Cade’s Southern side.

It was so fun to surprise him with classic southern dishes like, Fried Chicken, Southern Macaroni and Cheese, Perfect Pecan Pie and Tomato Basil Pie. But then we saw a few pumpkin recipes using pumpkin puree like, pumpkin cake, pumpkin gooey butter cake and other pumpkin dessert recipes.

We just knew Thanksgiving was going to be extra special.

Our First Thanksgiving Home as Newlyweds

Cade and I had been married for just shy of a year and we had gone home to Washington for the holidays. It felt so special to finally be a married couple enjoying the time with family. We had been thinking up pumpkin ideas for weeks.

I can’t remember why I was making pumpkin recipes, it must have been that we decided to not do pumpkin pie or something but either way this gooey butter cake ended up being what I chose and my whole family has been hooked on Paula Deen’s Gooey Butter Cake recipe ever since.

Now, I’ve waited this whole time, choosing to not post any Food Network recipes because I totally get how hard those chefs work, but after almost 12 years I decided that:

• it’s one of our favorites
• it’s already all over the web
• you want to know the recipes that people are obsessed with so you can make it a family favorite too!

What Ingredients for Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake Crust

• Egg
• Butter
• Cake Mix

Start off by making the crust with the above in

This is beyond any doubt the BEST ham I have ever tasted – and the secret is all in the 3 ingredient ham glaze. (The ham recipe I’m sharing today is so completely worthy of hyperbole; I’ve given up attempting to write this post without it.)

You know how sometimes you make something that’s so good that even after you’re done with dinner you find yourself snacking on little bites as you put it away later? That was this ham for me the first time I made it.

It is tender and juicy, covered in a slightly crisp, sweet, tangy glaze that makes every mouthful tastier than the last. 

The balsamic dijon glaze is a fantastic compliment to the ham. Just a few ingredients and almost no real effort gets you an extraordinarily impressive meal that’s as suited for special occasions as it is for an everyday dinner.

3 Ingredient Ham Glaze

Because the glaze requires only three ingredients, for years, I’ve recommended using the best quality ingredients you can manage. I’ve gone so far as to use a high-quality aged balsamic whenever I have it on hand.

Guess what I’ve learned? It absolutely does not matter which balsamic vinegar you use to make this ham glaze. As long as the balsamic tastes good on its own, it will work fine.

Last Thanksgiving when I was roasting a ham, I was out of my fancy balsamic, so I grabbed the store-brand that I use for salad dressings. I’m happy to tell you that the ham turned out every bit as good as any of the glazes I’ve made using pricier vinegar.

For the dijon, just choose one with plenty of tang and flavor. It doesn’t need to be the most expensive dijon on the shelf but it should be tasty all on its own. You definitely do not want to substitute basic yellow deli mustard here.

You can use either light or dark brown sugar in the glaze. A darker brown sugar will yield a bit more of a molas

Crisp baby spinach, spring mix lettuces, tart apples, sweet raisins, crunchy almonds, and the ultimate honey cider salad dressing are combined to create a fantastic Spinach Apple Salad.

I made this salad three times within a month the first time I made it. And in the years since then, this salad has made frequent appearances in my home.

Spinach Apple Salad

The Honey Cider Dressing is wonderfully tangy and sweet and the combination of those flavors with the rest of the Spinach Apple Salad immediately made this one of my all-time favorite salads.

And that says something because this parsley salad with oranges and the apple walnut salad with blueberries are big favorites too. There’s just something unforgettable about a fresh salad filled with fruits and tossed in a tangy sweet dressing.

I was determined to serve this with my Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago. So, I played with several different ways to make the salad in advance and still keep the apples fresh.

(Like most people I know, making as many of the Thanksgiving dishes as possible in advance keeps me the happiest!)

Everything I tried initially, changed the flavor of the salad too much. Fortunately, apple cider vinegar did the trick and after 36 hours in the fridge, the salad still had apples that were crisp, white, and tasting like fresh apples.

Honey Apple Cider Vine

Mom’s Lemon Meringue Pie

My mom was famous for her Lemon Meringue Pie growing up. In fact, she still is!  It was often requested for parties or sick visits. (Really, I remember people asking my mom to bring this pie instead of chicken noodle soup when they were sick!)  I often forget how good it is until I make it-then I just can’t stop eating it!

This recipe starts with a flakey homemade pie crust that is filled with smooth and creamy lemon filling and topped with toasted meringue. It is totally irresistible!

Read more

Classic Cranberry Sauce Recipe

We got so many requests for a cranberry sauce recipe last year that I finally wrote mine down and photographed it! It is simple and completely homemade.

Growing up was all about avoiding the cranberry sauce around the holidays. My mom wasn’t a huge fan and my dad liked it straight up from a can, so she opened one up every year to please him but none of us partook of that congealed mass of canned fruit. In other words, I never even considered that cranberry sauce could be delicious until a random sandwich shop in town served up a leftover Thanksgiving sandwich that sent me on the most wonderful journey ever. I’ve been sold ever since.

It doesn’t matter if you’re going with a smoked turkey or a roasted turkey, cranberry sauce goes with all of them and it’s a Thanksgiving must-have for our family! Forget the canned stuff and make it from scratch! We use fresh whole cranberries, orange juice and a little sugar to make the most delicious homemade cranberry sauce.

It can be made weeks ahead of time so that it’s ready for the big day.

Ingredients for Homemade Cranberry Sauce

You only need 6 ingredients for this homemade cranberry sauce and I’ll bet you have 4 of them already in the house…maybe 5! Here is what you will need:

• Cranberries – fresh is best, but you can use frozen
• White Sugar – adds sweetness and cuts the tartness of the cranberries
• Brown Sugar – I love the richness of flavor a little brown sugar adds
• Fresh Orange Juice – this is the key to the whole recipe imho, it wakes the whole dish up!
• Cinnamon – adds warmth and flavor
• Cloves – just a hint of cloves adds so much flavor

The measurements for each are listed in the recipe card at the end of this post.

How to Make a Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Recipes just don’t get easier than this! Combine all the ingredien