Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes w/ Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

These cupcakes sound as sinful as they sound. I'm telling you -- they are amazing.

For the cupcakes:
I started with lining 12 muffin tins with paper liners. You could use foil or not use any liners just as long as you use non-stick spray.

I emptied one 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree in a large bowl.

To the pumpkin, you want to add 3/4 cup of evaporated milk. I didn't have any on hand, so I made my own by mixing dry milk and water (what a neat trick!).

I made a little too much, so I poured the right amount into another measuring cup.

I added 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar...

... and a 1/4 cup of brown sugar.

I added 2 large eggs to the pumpkin mix.

I also threw in 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

All mixed together! Now for the dry ingredients!!

In a separate medium bowl I added 2/3 cup of all-purpose flour.

I added 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice (which also made the kitchen smell amazing!).

To the flour mix, I added 1/4 tsp of salt...

... a 1/4 tsp of baking powder...

... and a 1/4 tsp of baking soda.

I mixed the dry ingredients together and added it to the pumpkin mix.

Everything is combined!

I grabbed my cookie scoop (because I'm obsessed with it) and put 2 scoops in each cupcake liner.

I baked them in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

For the frosting:

This made a bit too much frosting, so next time I would make a 1/2 batch.

I added a 1/4 cup (half a stick) of softened unsalted butter to 1 package of softened cream cheese.

I beat them together until they were smooth. 

I added 3/4 cup of powdered sugar to the bowl.

I also added 3/4 tsp of vanilla extract.

Lastly, I added 1/4 cup of maple syrup.

All ready for our pumpkin pie cupcakes!

Putting it all together:
After I pulled the cupcakes out of the oven, I let them rest for 20 minutes and then put them in the fridge for 30 minutes.

30 minutes later, I placed them on a platter...

... and frosted them!

I garnished them with a little pumpkin pie spice!

These were so creamy -- much like the texture of pumpkin pie. 

Tip: Keep Refrigerated :)

>> If you end up making this for dessert, tag me in an Instagram post -- @marriedtodavis or #marriedtodavis

Sweet Potato Fries

This is one of my favorite recipes -- mostly because it's simple and so tasty! 

To make the sweet potato fries:

• I preheated the oven at 425 degrees
• Rinsed and hand-cut the fries and placed them on a large baking sheet
• Drizzled them with EVOO, salt, and pepper
• I threw them in the oven and at 20 minutes in, I tossed them around and put them back in the oven for about another 10-20 minutes

Baking time depends on how thick the fries are. 

I love to serve these fried with Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce. The sweet tangy flavor pairs so well with the sweet potatoes.

Enjoy :)

>> If you end up making this for dinner, tag me in an Instagram post -- @marriedtodavis or #marriedtodavis

DIY Bedroom: Design & Paint

Will and I knew right away that we would want to re-paint the master bedroom. The pea soup green wasn't working for us -- especially for my gray/blue color palette.

I have 2 pictures of the room with the green walls. Will and I had already added the chandelier and some decorative touches.

We chose a dark slate blue for the sitting area and the wall with the windows. We thought it would be nice to have an accent color to the gray. The pictures below show the finished gray color.

I managed to snap some pictures of Will painting the sitting area.

Here are the after pictures of the bedroom:

These amazing chairs and pillows are from Big Lots. 

On the left is Will's side, and has a Valentine's Day gift I gave him and his place card at the wedding.

On the right is my side, and has a date night jar that we received at one of our showers and my place card at the wedding.

I love the different patterns in the room. I heard once that you should have 5 different patterns in a room, and I think I have 7 patterns (whoops!).

We bought the bed and side tables at Big Lots and inherited the beige bedroom furniture from Will's parents.

I picked up these lamps at Kirkland's.

This hanger that I got for the wedding hangs next to the closet. It was one of the first things we hung in the room.

We scored the sign above our bed from Hobby Lobby. It has one of our favorite verses from Song of Songs.

We absolutely love how our room turned out!

Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Will loves the chicken gnocchi soup from Olive Garden, so I wanted to re-create this satisfying soup for my hubby!

I used about 1/2 a yellow onion and 2-3 cloves of garlic...

... and minced them.

Will pulled the chicken meat off of the rotisserie chicken -- it yielded about 2 cups of meat.

I melted about 2 tbs of butter and 1 tbs of EVOO in a large pot.

I cooked down the onion and garlic mix until the onion was translucent. 

While the onion and garlic was cooking, I took 5 stalks of celery and sliced them pretty thin.

I then added the celery to the pot.

Once the celery was cooked down, I added 2 more tbs of butter and 4 tbs of flour to make a roux. 

When making a roux, it's important to continue to stir the mix so that it doesn't burn and thickens correctly.

After the roux is ready, I added a quart of half & half and the chicken.

While the soup was warming up, I gathered enough carrots to make about 1 cup of shredded carrots.

I peeled the carrots...

... and continued to use the peeler to make nice shreds of carrots.

I then added the carrots to the soup.

At this point, I got the seasonings ready. This soup needs 1/2 tsp of salt, thyme, and parsley. And lastly, 1/4 tsp of nutmeg.

After adding the seasoning to the soup...

... I grabbed the package of potato gnocchi from the pantry.

You just add them to a pot of boiling water. They don't take long to cook!

When they're done -- I added them to the soup.

I then added 14 oz of chicken broth (no sodium!) to the soup. You could add more top make the soup less thick.

All done!! And I swear it's better than Olive Garden!

I paired this amazing soup with a garden salad filled with romaine, artichokes, heart of palm, red onion, green pepper, shredded mozzarella, and croutons.

>> If you end up making this for dinner, tag me in an Instagram post -- @marriedtodavis or #marriedtodavis