More Halloween treats

The Halloween countdown has begun.  Even though I don't usually put on a costume or decorate with scary decorations, I still love the excitement that this holiday generates in my house.  The kids have been busy planning their costumes for Monday night.  Last year was rather unusual because I actually made myself a Halloween costume - I was a smore.  I have no plans yet for a costume this year but I'll let you know if that changes.

I love to make sugar cookies and I make them for just about every holiday.  I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe to make some pumpkin cookies last week.  This recipe came from a Williams Sonoma kids baking cookbook.  I've used it for years because it makes beautiful (and delicious) sugar cookies.  

Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter                            2 ½ cups flour
¾ cup sugar                          1 teaspoon baking powder
3 egg yolks                             ½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla

Beat butter and sugar for 4 minutes.  Add egg yolks.  Add vanilla.  Combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture.  Divide dough into 4 portions, wrap and refrigerate overnight.  Preheat oven to 350.  Roll dough to ¼“ thickness and cut with cookie cutters.  Place on baking sheets and bake 8 minutes.





I use my silpat sheets to bake all of my cookies.   I am so used to using them, I don't think I could bake without them anymore.











I frosted all of the cookies orange first.

 

Then it was time to get creative and add faces.  I made some boy pumpkins and some girl pumpkins.

Normally when I start decorating cookies my kids jump in and help.  Both of my kids love to decorate sugar cookies and it usually turns into some sort of decorating competition.  Unfortunately, while I was decorating this batch, both kids were busy with homework.  (At least that's what I am led to believe.)  I decorated these by myself which isn't nearly as much fun as watching the kids decorate but it won't be long before I'm baking turkey cookies for Thanksgiving.  I'll make sure to include them in the turkey cookie decorating.

 

If sugar cookies aren't your cup of tea, maybe you will like the pumpkin roll ups that I made last weekend.  A super easy snack, lunch or appetizer that you can customize your own tastes.

I used sundried tomato wraps and filled them with American cheese.  I rolled the wraps and then sliced them into 1" rounds.  I secured each with a toothpick and a sprig of fresh parsley.

These would make a great treat for any Fall party.  You can fill these pinwheels with almost any filling.  (lunch meat, spinach dip, shredded carrots, hummus)  Send me a comment with your best filling ideas because I have more tortillas to fill. 

Bon Appetit!

Popcorn and Pretzels

I must be feeling nostalgic this week because I found another Halloween photo that I just couldn't resist sharing.  This is my son (a bunny) and my daughter (a tulip) on the front porch of our home in Pennsylvania.  It was my daughter's first Halloween.    

My husband loves chocolate covered pretzels so I made some Halloween themed chocolate pretzels last week.  I took my cue from one of my kids favorite Halloween candies - candy corn.

I melted some orange chocolate in the microwave.
I dipped each pretzel in the chocolate and then let it harden.
I melted some white chocolate and dipped each pretzel halfway up the rod.
Lastly, I sprinkled yellow sugar on the end of each pretzel before the chocolate hardened.





My family loves these pretzels and I change up the colors and the sprinkles to suit whatever holiday or season we are celebrating.  At Christmas time, I dip pretzel rods in melted caramel and then in milk chocolate before I roll them in crushed peanuts.  They are always a crowd pleaser.

Another snack that I make for just about every holiday is chocolate popcorn.  There is such a wide variety of chocolate colors available now that it is easy to change it for every season.   I have made this treat for school parties, team snacks and holiday parties.  Last week I made the Halloween version of chocolate popcorn of course.

This recipe is so simple, I start by making a bag of microwave popcorn.  (I like Orville Redenbacher's Tender White popcorn.)

Spread the popcorn out on a baking sheet.  Remove any unpopped kernels.

 
Melt the chocolate in the microwave.  (I used the leftover orange chocolate from the pretzels.)
Pour melted chocolate into a ziploc bag, snip the corner of the bag and drizzle over the popcorn.
You can use more than one color of chocolate on the popcorn to make it even more colorful.
I sprinkled a few autumn jimmies over the warm chocolate as well to make it more festive.
Let the popcorn sit until chocolate hardens and then put it into bags or in a bowl for serving.

I was skeptical of chocolate popcorn when I first heard about it.  I'm usually not a fan of salty and sweet together.   I really do like this combination though.  For some reason, I can't seem to stop eating it once I start - it's just that good.

I want to know - what is your favorite Halloween treat? 

Bon Appetit!

Spiders have taken over the blog

With Halloween less than a week away, I thought I would post some pictures of past Halloween's at our house.  This is a picture of my son on his very first Halloween.  We were living on Hill Air Force Base in Utah.  I made this dinosaur costume for him so that he could help me pass out candy to all of the trick or treaters.  

I had a couple of cake orders to fill last week and I also needed to make a batch of cupcakes.  I made 3 smore cakes and a batch of smore cupcakes.  I didn't really have a good plan for decorating my cupcakes before I started which is usually a recipe for disaster.

I tinted the marshmallow meringue frosting orange and then frosted the cupcakes.  My original idea was to turn them into pumpkins.

They cupcakes still looked like they were lacking a little something and I couldn't really come up with a good way to make them look more like pumpkins so I decided to decorate them with spiders.  I used Hershey's drops for the bodies and I found some candy eyeballs in my pantry - yea. 









I melted some chocolate chips, put them in a ziploc baggie and snipped of a corner of the bag. I piped little legs on each spider and then used drops of chocolate to secure the eyes to the body. 

They didn't turn out exactly like I had pictured them in my mind but they were pretty cute anyway.  





If you're looking for something a little less sweet to balance out the sugary snacks, try a batch of these peanut butter spiders.  I had my daughter help me make these - it's a great project for kids. 

The directions are really simple:
Spread peanut butter on a round butter cracker.
Break 3 pretzel sticks in half and place on peanut butter for legs.
Top with another cracker.
Add eyes with a drop of melted chocolate.
        I used mini reese's pieces because that is what I had on hand.  You could also use raisins or mini chocolate chips.

 These spiders make a great after school snack - even for teenagers.

Bon Appetit!

It's theme week

Hi friends.  I have big news - today we begin the first ever "theme week" on the blog.  (I know your excited - try to contain your enthusiasm.)  I have been overwhelming my family with Halloween treats this month so I decided to dedicate an entire week on the blog to Halloween fun.




With all of the Halloween preparations that are going on at my house this past week, it was reminded of the very first Halloween that I spent with Ben.  The year was 1988 - I was a duck and he was  - a girl!


This was one of our first dates.  We went to the Halloween dance at school.  (Ben was voted best dressed girl at the dance.)  You can imagine how surprised my dad was when my date showed up at the door - in a dress.  Luckily, he let me marry him anyway. 









I've already blogged about some of our Fall treats like apple nachos and caramel apples.  That was just the beginning of the Halloween treats.  A couple of weeks ago, we had tomato soup and grilled cheese on the menu - my son's choice.  I decided to make it more festive by adding a pumpkin shaped cheese slice. 
 

I heated up some Trader Joe's organic tomato soup and then topped it with a slice of American cheese cut into a jack o'lantern.  I cut the pumpkin shape with a cookie cutter and I used a small paring knife to carve the face.      

After the soup sits for a couple of minutes, the cheese will start to melt into the soup.  

I also used my cookie cutter to cut the grilled cheese into pumpkin shapes - something that impressed my kids much more before they were teenagers.

I also made jack o'lantern quesadillas for the kids last week for a snack.  

Directions:

Cut a face in a flour tortilla with a paring knife. 

Put a whole tortilla on a warm skillet sprayed with Pam.

Sprinkle cheese on the tortilla.

Top with the cut tortilla.

Cook until cheese melts.

Flip and brown on other side.

One last idea for today - a jack o'lantern carved out of an orange.

Super simple and yes, I still make them for my kids.
Carve a face into the skin of an orange with a paring knife.  Add a pretzel stick stem and voila - a jack o'lantern.








Send me a comment with your favorite Halloween treat.  I would love to hear your ideas.

Bon Appetit!

Good Living

My daughter had a soccer game yesterday and my son ran in another 5K.

He came in 2nd overall in his race. (21 minutes 15 seconds - a great time for a hilly course on a chilly morning.)




After the game and the race, we came home to do some yard and housework and then each child had a party to go to yesterday evening.  If you follow my blog regularly you already know that I'm a big believer in replenishing our bodies with good food especially after a busy day like yesterday.  That is so important to a healthy lifestyle and to good living.

I also believe that food that is good for you should also taste good.  The most healthy food is only good for us if I can get my family to eat it.  Believe me, my family is not willing to compromise on taste.  When we have really busy days like yesterday, I think I like to have healthy foods on hand that we can grab and eat while we run between activities.

I started with a recipe from my Williams Sonoma baking cookbook for Oatmeal-Raisin Bread and altered it to create my version of an Oatmeal Yogurt Bread.  Sometimes when I alter a recipe, it doesn't turn out quite like I envision it but this one was absolutely delicious.

Oatmeal Yogurt Bread
1 1/4 cups Fage yogurt
1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs






Stir together yogurt and oats.  Let sit for at least 30 minutes.









Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a loaf pan.
Stir together flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, baking powder and salt.









Add the sugar, butter and eggs to the yogurt-oat mixture.  Beat until in mixer until well blended.











Fold in the dry ingredients.
Scrape batter into loaf pan and bake 55 minutes.













Let cool in pan for 30 minutes.











This bread smelled so delicious - I had to slice a piece as soon as it was cool enough to get out of the pan.  It was amazing.  Just a hint of sweetness with a nice subtle blend of spices.  The yogurt really made it a nice and moist.

My family gobbled up the bread.  I did save a couple of slices for my breakfast this morning along with a dish of yogurt.  I toasted my second slice of the Oatmeal Yogurt bread - it was really good warm and toasted. 

As part of the Foodbuzz Featured Publisher program, I have been entered for the chance to win a trip to Greece courtesy of FAGE. You too can enter to win one of three trips to Greece by entering the FAGE Plain Extraordinary Greek Getaway here: http://www.fageusa.com/community/fage-greek-getaway.

Bon Appetit!

A change in my perspective

There is so much about Fall that I love; the colors on the trees, the smells in my kitchen and crisp cool evenings just to name a few.
 

There is one aspect of Fall that I don't look forward to however - raking leaves.  Cleaning up the leaves in the yard seems like a neverending task and when we're busy with our jobs and sport schedules, the last thing we need is another task added to our "to do" list.  






Last week, my daughter and I were pulling out of the driveway on our way to soccer practice when she said "look mom the leaves are falling."  The excitement in her voice and the joy in her face took me back to when I was a kid and I could hardly wait until their were enough leaves on the ground to rake into a pile big enough to jump in.  Even at the age of 12 she still sees the falling leaves as an opportunity and not as an inconvenience. 

My daughters enthusiasm about the leaves was so contagious that I decided I needed to change my perspective about the leaves and appreciate them both on and off the trees.  I made a commitment to take advantage of the beautiful Georgia Fall days and spend some time outside in the leaves this year.  Who knows, maybe the trees will drop their leaves soon so we can start raking them into the perfect pile for jumping.










One of my favorite things about Fall are the wonderful flavors that the season brings to my kitchen.   I love to make Cider Glazed Chicken with Dried Cranberries at this time of year because it has all of the wonderful flavors of the season - apple cider, cranberries and allspice.  (I also had a 1/2 gallon of apple cider to use up from my Cider Glazed Pork Tenderloin.)  I love this recipe and it's super simple to make. 

Cider Glazed Chicken with Dried Cranberries
1 ½ Tablespoons flour            1 Tablespoon butter
¾ teaspoon salt                        1/3 cup dried cranberries
¼ teaspoon allspice                 ½ cup apple cider or juice
4 chicken breasts                      1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar





Combine flour, salt and allspice in a shallow pan.

Add chicken and turn to coat.









 
Melt butter in skillet.  Add chicken and cook 15 minutes.

Turn.  Add cranberries, cider and vinegar.











 Cover and cook 15 minutes longer.







As I suspected, the kids scraped the cranberries off immediately.  They really liked the sauce and the chicken.  I eventually talked my daughter into tasting the cranberries - separately of course.  She admitted that they were pretty good and then went on to eat 4 or 5 more.  (Yea - we're making progress.)  With or without cranberries - Cranberry Cider Chicken is a great meal.

Bon Appetit!