October Challenge and a short absence

Rach's October Baking Challenge was something Halloweenie that is baked so here we go-
This was going to be a Green cake with a cute little orange pumpkin on top, Miss M last minute decided she wanted a blue cake with a pink pumpkin so there you go-

Pear Butter (with pears from my pear tree) I peel and cube the pears add sugar brown sugar and spices and bake on 300 for about 1-1/2 hours then blend- yummy.


Our Chili with spiders from this post-

And Miss B's MummyDogs-


I am going traveling for a couple weeks and may or may not be able to post and I may or may not be able to keep up and comment with all of your great Blogs, but I am going to try!
I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!

Gourmet Popcorn Remix

I received 2 more awards, I am such a lucky girl :)
There is this one-From Holly at 504 Main she also has a wedding design blog that is Wonderful if any one is looking for ideas.
And this one-
Also from Holly and from 5th Sister who's Wonderful Blog never fails to uplift and inspire me.

I am passing these on to, again, all of my commenters who I hope grabbed that last one from the previous post as well! I am going to list you all just to be safe :)
Kys- from Stir-fry Awesomeness
5th Sister
Kim- from Stirring the Pot
RG- from Who's got the Thyme?
Betty- who no longer is posting about her Corgi :(
Holly- from 504 Main
Purple Hoodie Chick- from Bashful Toast
Willoughby- from This Stop Willoughby
Holly- from In the Kitchen with Holly
Nonna- from Mom's Loot
Chicago Mom- from What's for Dinner?
Lee- from HHH
Kristina- from Pulsipher Predilections
Monica- from Lick the Bowl Good
Donna -from My Tasty Treasures

Thank you ALL for your support and kindness to me, you are all such Wonderful Blog Friends :)


Today I did a remix (make) of my Gourmet Popcorn and 5th Sister this one is for you :)

Gourmet Andes
Chocolate Mint Popcorn
Ingred;
Andes mints- about 1c. before melting
1/2c. white almond bark
green food coloring
4c. popped corn

Here we go-

Folks , the arm is just a decoration, not a missing ingredient so please disregard.
Enlist a helper or 2 to unwrap all the mints- make sure you watch them though to keep pilfering to a minimum.

How many of these do you think ended up in her mouth?

I'm not sure, I looked away for a minute, my bad.
Melt your Andes Mints first, pour over the popcorn while stirring. Spread out onto wax paper. Melt the almond bark and color it with your coloring, now the almond bark doesn't pour, it blops. So I put it into a small baggie, snipped off the end and squiggled it over my popcorn.
There you go, very VERY tasty and beautiful too and it took me less than 10 minutes.
Now if you will excuse me, I need to go pick the popcorn hulls out of my teeth.

Late I'm late

Sorry it took me so long to post this, I didn't forget I'm just late :)

I was passed this award-

By 2 very sweet blog friends-
Raouly's Girl at Who has the Thyme?
and
The Fifth Sister

I'm not really clear on the rules for this award But I want to pass it on to all of my commenting readers. Thank you all for your thoughtful and beautiful comments this award is for you guys.

Also wanted to mention that I am not getting updates on some of the blog I'm following-
In the Kitchen with Holly and Bashful Toast are 2 of them that I know of, I feel badly and don't want you to think I'm ignoring your blogs I just can't get to them!

I probably clicked something I shouldn't have, i don't know. I am trying to get it figured out though.

Some great recipe finds

I needed a of couple recipes yesterday so I went on a recipe hunt on AR.
I came across these 2-
Banana Crumb Muffins
Danish Pastry Apple Bars

Both were WONDERFUL, I only tweaked the muffin one and it was a tiny tweak :) :) :)

Danish Pastry Apple Bars
Ingred;
2-1/2c. flour
1c. shortening
1 egg, separated
1/2c. milk
10 apples, peeled, sliced thin
1/2c. brown sugar
1/4c. white sugar
1/2t. cinnamon
1/4t. nutmeg

Heat oven to 375
In a large bowl combine the flour and salt, cut in the shortening.
Beat the egg yolk in a 1 c. measuring cup, add in the milk till mixture reaches 2/3c.
Mix into the flour mixture.
Divide dough in half.
Using wax paper under and on top roll out half of the dough and place on the bottom of a 9x13 pan.
Combine the apples, sugars and spices, spread out evenly over the dough.
Roll remaining crust and place on top, seal edges.
Cut slits in the top brush with the beaten egg white.
Bake fore 50 minutes.

Banana Crumb Muffins
Ingred;
1-1/2c. flour
1t. baking soda
1t. baking powder
1/2t. salt
3 banana's mashed
3/4c. white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3c. butter, melted
1T. vanilla
1/2c. brown sugar
1/4c. flour
2T. butter

Oven 375
Mix together the banana's, white sugar, egg, butter and vanilla.
In a separate bowl sift together the flour, salt,baking powder and soda, mix into the banana mixture.
Place into you muffin cups- makes 12 regular- Mix together the remaining ingredients to make your crumb topping and sprinkle on top of the muffins.
Bake for 18-20 minutes.

I also wanted to share with you one of my favorite kitchen tools-



The Apple Peeler Corer Slicer

I got mine from Pampered Chef but I have seen them in other places. This handy dandy tool helped me peel,core and slice 10 apples in under 5 minutes. I have had this for about 8 years I think and it gets a lot of use around here :)

Gourmet Popcorn the Easy way

Miss M and I went to a craft fair the other day and suffice it to say that I spent WAY more money than I should have! In my defense there was a lot of really neat things so see, and touch and smell and eat. I didn't expect to see so many food type things, and we were hungry, not a good combo :)
One thing that we tried that I thought I could make myself was some Gourmet Popcorn. There were lots of different flavors but my favorite one was a Peppermint popcorn, which was very odd because I don't like white chocolate or peppermint flavored things. But I LOVED this. So later that afternoon I picked up some ingred. from the grocery store and begin my experimenting :)
Here we have our ingredients-

I used half a pkg of almond bark, it melted down to about 1 c.- I melted it in the microwave. and used about 1-1/2c. of peppermint candies and ran them through the food processor until they were a powder.

I cheated for the popcorn because I hate how the kernels get stuck in you teeth and hey this is an experiment remember??

So I mixed about 1/2c. powdered peppermint candies into the 1c. melted white almond bark and divided 6 cups of my (fake) popcorn into 2 gallon zip baggies. I poured in half the chocolate mixture into each and shook and gently smooshed each one around until it was mixed.
Then I dumped them both onto a cookie sheet and spread out to dry.

This was YUMMY, I think it would be better with regular popcorn, this had a really strong butter flavor that was a little odd, but not bad. I can't wait to experiment with this further : )

Does it get any better???

Than Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Pretzels?
I saw a recipe for these tasty little goodies on a blog a few months ago, but of course last night when I went to look for it..... POOF! It was no where to be found, and I can't for the life of me think of where I found it, soooooooo if any of you remember seeing them or posting about them I would love to know. I made up my own filling for them but am really wanting to know what the original filling for them has in it. Ugh, you all know who I blame my memory loss on right??

No, not Aliens!!! Geezzzzz.

I blame it on my kids, have you ever noticed that kids NEVER forget anything?!?! Unless it pertains to chores or homework, but I am convinced that is voluntary forgetfulness. But say you tell them- Sure, I will wash your blue and white striped shirt for you to wear tomorrow, and you forget (big surprise) and they remember right before they are heading out the door next day for school!!! And the only reason they remember is because the little stinkers took YOUR memory and are hoarding it all!!!!!
Anyway the only help for Memory loss is Chocolate of course. So a few of these little treasures ought to fix me right up, for a little while anyway :)


Chocolate PB Pretzel Bites
Ingred;
1 bag Pretzel Butter Snaps
1/2c. chocolate chips
2c. peanut butter
1/2c. graham crackers
1/2c. saltines crackers
2c. powdered sugar
2t. vanilla

Run the crackers through a food processor until they are finely ground, then mix them together with the peanut butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Place chocolate chips in a glass bowl and heat in the microwave in 30 sec. intervals until melted. Roll the peanut butter mixture into small balls and press in between 2 pretzel squares. Then dip one end in the chocolate and place on wax paper till dry.

All of my Halloween Goodie Secrets are out of the Bag

A few of you have asked where I find all the idea's for my fun Halloween treats and food. So I am posting some links for you to some of the sites I really like. I have gotten ideas from lots of places, blogs, cooking sites, magazine sites, magazines, cook books, my daughter :)

So here we go-

For some awesome Halloween crafts and other great stuff I am hooking you up with a link to- Lee's I want to make that- Blog

This one has Halloween crafts, food and treats recipes, also games and costumes- Family Fun

And of course Ms. Martha has some wonderful ideas, she even has some that are easy enough for me to make :)

There are some great crafts here at Fave Crafts.

Of course Kraft Foods has some great recipes

Family Corner has a little bit of everything.

Halloween Central is a great place to find TONS of good stuff.

Everyone needs a few good brain recipes-
Igors's pickled brain
pumpkin nook
Fingers and brains
Some creepy food recipes
Great cake and cupcake ideas
Fun decorating ideas
Halloween Online Magazine

And of course there is Halloween.com

There you know all of my Halloween cooking and crafting secrets : ) :) : )

Welcome! Come on in and Enjoy...

a nice slice of my Mommers Apple Bread. She didn't make this loaf, sadly, but I used her recipe which is as good as I get with her being a few states away from me now :(

Last weekend the kiddos, some friends and I went apple picking

and came home with these-

Some beautiful Rome and Yellow Delicious Apples, that are frankly- Delicious. I had no idea Yellow delicious apples could be sooo good. These look (taste) nothing like the ones in the store!
OK, on to the recipe :) :) :)

Mommer's Apple Bread

1c. oil
3 eggs
2c. sugar
1t. vanilla

Mix these together than add in-

3c. flour
1t. cinnamon
1t. soda
1t. salt

When this is all mixed together stir in 3c. of diced apples, pour into 2 greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for about 1 hour.

I also want to say Welcome to anyone joining me from Willoughby's Cocktail Party, and a big Hello and Thank you to all my regular Blogging Buddies- you guys are wonderful :) :)

My first Guest Blogger-

I am so excited to have my first guest blogger! It's someone you all know, and it's someone I like (love) a lot! It's Miss B! My very own little mini-me! We like a lot of the same things and I thought she might like to guest blog, when I asked she very excitedly said yes! So here you go Miss B-

We made Frankensteins! They were yummy. First you take a pretzel stick and squish a marshmallow on top. And then you dip it in melted white chocolate with green food coloring. And put two bigger chocolate chips for the side things. And two small chocolate chips for the eyes. Then you put it on a cookie sheet and leave it there for 10 minutes until the chocolate hardens. And then my favorite part.....EAT 'EM!!!!

This is me and my sister making the frankensteins....

Miss K used a butter knife to spread the chocolate on her's, I didn't.....

K only made one but Me and Miss K made LOTS....

This is Miss M and her's named chocolate Frankin.......

This is me and mine named Frankie....

This is Frankie up close, isn't he cute?
We had fun, Bye!

Thank you Miss B for being my Guest Blogger!
These were a lot of fun to make, I used white almond bark and melted it in the microwave. Then I stirred in some green food coloring and Miss B took over the project, she did an awesome job :)

BBQ Worm Sandwiches

We couldn't call these by their name or even mention the word -WORM- while eating them because it grossed Miss K out, K got quite a kick out of until I made him stop teasing her.

They were quick, easy and Worm-a-licious!


BBQ Worm Sandwiches
Ingred;
1 pkg hot dogs
1 pkg hamburger buns
sliced cheese
1c. bbq sauce
1/2c. ketchup

Slice all the hot dogs in half length-wise then cute those pieces in half length-wise so you have 4 strips per hotdog, put them in a pan over med high heat until they start to curl up, pour the ketchup and BBQ sauce over top, stir and heat through.
Serve with a slice of cheese in a bun.
You can use all bbq sauce and no ketchup if you like it spicier, Miss M doesn't do spicy so we always tone stuff down around here :)

Also my sweet friend Nonna crowned me yesterday :) :) :) I am now a-

Coupon Princess

Yay! Thank you Nonna! My girls and I are loving that :) :) :)

Coupon Craze

I have been trying to figure out the whole couponing business, there are people out there who make it look so easy. I was super excited when I was looking through the food ads and remembered I had some coupons that matched with the sale items! So I had to post about, this is my first Great couponing experience & I can't wait for more :)
Safeway was having a sale on Classico Pasta Sauce+ were offering 2 free pkgs of pasta when you buy 2 jars of the sauce. I also had coupons for the sauce and the pasta- double whammies :)
The soups were on sale 3/$5 and I had 2 coupons for $1.10 off when you buy three. Cookie mix- on sale + coupon. Milk I had a coupon and was needing it. So-

I bought 18 Items for $16.23!

Isn't that awesome?!?! That equals out to each item costing .90 cents! Can you tell I'm a little excited? A family size can of Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa Mix for .90 cents! So cool :)

This one wasn't quite as exciting but I still did pretty good-
1o Items for $8.28- It equals out to about .80 cents an item.

My biggest inspiration for all this has been Nonna over at Mom's Loot, she has helped me figure out all the lingo, and posts such awesome deals, so I wanted to give her a big Thank you :)

Ghostly "Ghoul"losh

The kiddos really got a kick out of this one, Miss B thought her ghost was so cute I almost couldn't get her to eat it. I had to threaten to put him in the garbage disposal before she reluctantly ate her little friend.
Remember when I told you she made me a list of Halloween foods to make?? Well here is a picture of it-


111 things!!!!!
It would take me 3 or 4 months at least! Little stinker :)

Ghostly Ghoulash
Ingred;
1 lb extra lean ground beef
5c. mashed potatoes
1 can each corn, peas and green beans
1 lg can cream of chicken
1t. onions powder
salt and pepper
1c. shredded cheese

Cook the beef, add in the onion powder and salt & pepper. Add in the corn, beans and peas- reserve a few peas for eyes, and the soup. Mix well. Heat oven to 350. Spread a layer of potatoes in the bottom of a 9x13 pan, top with the beef mixture.Sprinkle with the cheese. Using a zip baggie pipe potatoes around the edges and pipe on your Ghosts. Press in their pea eyes. Bake for about 20-25 minutes.

Krafting with Miss K (and the girls)

We found this craft on Martha's website,
Super easy, Super cute. I got all my supplies at the dollar store, a pkg of balloons and a pkg of glow sticks.
Blow up the balloons- white works best- let the air out. Get your glow sticks glowing- we used 2 per balloon but I think that more would be great! Blow up the balloon again and slid in the glow sticks, tie shut, draw a face on your balloon and there you go-

Oh wait, I forgot to turn off the flash, hahahha......... OK-

Excuse the blurriness, it took the camera a long time to process the picture and the girls got antsy.

BOO!!