Category: Food

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Mini Caramel Apples

One of the lovely things about this Halloween-ish time of year, is that glorious treats like molasses cookies and candy corn are everywhere–well, at our house anyway–which is just how it should be in a well ordered kingdom {ahem}.

Being surrounded by little people–as we are, creates a particular challenge when making caramel apples–because they are just too big for the short folk to manage. Slicing them helps, of course, but still–I can’t bear the waste…it pains my tender, caramel-apple-loving soul.

So look what we’ve discovered on the pages of Disney’s Family Fun magazine—Mini Caramel Apples–and zero percent blasphemous waste!! Wa-flogging-hoo!

This is simple stuff here too. You’ll need butterscotch chips, sucker sticks, sprinkles, a good melon baller…

and of course—apples. You, my darlings, are going to love this.

Scoop the apple into tons of teeny, tiny little balls. This was so fun and you can actually get quite a few out of one apple–which is what I did.

Break the sucker sticks in half and poke them in the skin side of the apple. I made a tiny cut in the peel with a paring knife first so that the sticks went in easier.

Melt the butterscotch chips over medium heat and dip the apples in. You can roll them around and cover more of the green–

but I kinda liked how it looked with this much color showing. Do whatever floats your boat–it’ll be fine.

Before they set, dip the bottoms in your favorite sprinkles, toffee, or chopped nuts….

and let them set in the tiny paper cups–if you want. Now just try to tell me these bite-sized sweeties aren’t the cutest thing you’ve ever seen…go ahead try.  I triple dog dare you.

See? You can’t.

I told you.

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Iced Molasses Cookies

At our house, the whole “holiday season” starts with all this Halloween stuff. We decorate the house, we watch the spooky movies–nothing too scary, and we always, ALWAYS make Molasses Crinkles.

It’s important I tell you—a tradition you might say,  and as such, must not be taken lightly. If done properly you would make royal icing and glue candy on to make a Jack o’ Lantern face on it. They were always kinda ugly, but fun to make. Trouble is, I never actually liked royal icing because I think it tastes like dirt–

so I devised a plan.

I kinda figure that a tradition is only good if…you know…you actually like it. So I…changed it just a tad. I made a fluffy cream cheese frosting and tinted it a pale orange and swirled it on each and every cookie.

Yum–now we’re talking.

Oh, don’t worry–I could still make them as ugly as ever…without hardly trying. Here’s proof.

It is a tradition…after all.

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Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy.
  2. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually blend in the confectioners’ sugar.
  3. If it’s too stiff or you’d like it a bit more light, add 1 T milk and mix well.
  4. Store in the refrigerator after use.

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually blend in the confectioners’ sugar. If it’s too stiff or you’d like it a bit more light, add 1 T milk and mix well. Store in the refrigerator after use.

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Sweet Pumpkin Babies

To look at these–you might be fooled as to what they used to be in their former life–you know, before they became the cutest little pumpkins on earth. Brace yourself…

Take a handful of Circus Peanuts–can you believe it?—and a couple of small green gumdrops….

then, cut the peanuts in half with a pair of scissors. Trim the sugar coating off the gumdrops–and keep all the pieces, just set them aside.

Slice a piece of the sticky gumdrop and “glue” two peanuts, bottoms sides together with it in the middle. Then, roll the little blobs in the palms of your hands until they are more rounded. Shape them into pumpkins–it’s easy because they are soft and pliable.

Fold a tiny slice of the sugary part of the gumdrop in half to make a stem. Stick it on the top in one of the creases. I actually scored these dudes by pressing a tooth pick down the sides for that real “pumpkin-type” look.

And there you have it–

the sweetest little Pumpkin Babies you’ve ever seen!

In case you need a synopsis of the process–here you go. Happy pumpkin-ing my friends.

So glad you’re here!

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Rose Petal Jelly

No, no–I’d never heard of such a thing either. But the idea intrigued me.

A sweet, delicate jelly with the essence of…roses. It sounded so like something the ladies would eat on teeny, tiny toast corners in Pride and Prejudice that, well, I couldn’t help myself. Absolutely had to try it.

Here’s how it works:

Ingredients

4 cups rose petals

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 pkg. pectin

4 cups white sugar

Stroll right out to the yard and carefully pluck about 4 cups of rose petals from the poor, unsuspecting bushes. Trust me, they’ll get over it.

Rinse them off, you know, just to make sure that petals are the only thing in the basket–if you get my drift.

Boil the petals in 4 cups of hot water—your house will smell incredible! Strain out the petals reserving all the liquid. Isn’t it amazing how ugly and colorless the sad little petals are now?

Add enough water to make four cups of juice again. It’s an interesting cider color…but just wait.

Next add 1/4 cup lemon just and watch what happens. The juice turns a lovely shade of pink–much prettier than it looks here.  Amazing!

Stir in 1 package of pectin till perfectly blended.

Now then, cook over medium heat until it does that rolling boil thing. Now add 4 cups of white sugar stirring till dissolved and bring it all back to a rolling boil again. Watch it carefully because it needs to boil for about 15 minutes to reach it’s setting point–but it can bubble over real easily. We know this, so if you don’t want to spend the afternoon scrubbing jelly out from under the stove burner—stay near by.

With a small strainer, remove the foam from the top.

Pour into tiny, little hot, clean jars and seal.

Scurry off now, and make some crumpets. Elizabeth Bennet will be stopping by.

{ hee hee }

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Rose Petal Jelly
 
Print
Ingredients
  • 4 cups rose petals
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • 1 pkg. pectin
  • 4 cups white sugar
Instructions
  1. Pick about 4 cups of rose petals from the bushes. Rinse them.
  2. Boil the petals in 4 cups of hot water.
  3. Strain out the petals reserving all the liquid.
  4. Add enough water to make four cups of juice again.
  5. Next add ¼ cup lemon juice.
  6. Stir in 1 package of pectin till perfectly blended.
  7. Cook over medium heat to a rolling boil.
  8. Add 4 cups of white sugar stirring till dissolved and bring it all back to a rolling boil again.
  9. Watch it carefully because it needs to boil for about 15 minutes to reach it’s setting point.
  10. With a small strainer, remove the foam from the top.
  11. Pour into tiny little hot, clean jars and seal.

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Bountiful Baskets

Have you ever heard of Bountiful Baskets? If you have and you know all about it then you  have my permission to ignore me…well, wait, not entirely…but go check out the Crafting Tutorials or something.

 

But if, like me, you are new to the idea of a food co-op then you may just want to check this out.

Here’s how it goes. You go to the Bountiful Baskets website and scope it out, click around and read the rules.

Next you follow the directions for signing up for the baskets at your location.

Then, on Monday evening at about 8 o’clock–times may vary in your area–you log in to the site…

and order a basket and whatever else you want that they are offering that week–and pay right there online.

The basic basket is $15 and is 50% fruit and 50% vegetables—totally random stuff, differing from week to week.  This week’s also included celery, lettuce and broccoli–but they were already put away–so no picture.

The items you can order separately could be tortillas, 9 grain bread or chewy granola–to name a few.

Then the following Saturday you show up at the prearranged site—with your own empty box or basket and pick up your loot. It’s very cool and kind of exciting to see what will be in the basket each week.

I do, however, have a word or two of warning.

Do not, under any circumstances, push the “ORDER” button more than once–not even if it says the server is down and come back later. Don’t think that you’ll just push the “ORDER” button, oh, say FOUR times because it doesn’t seem to be moving fast enough, or because you want to make sure that it is really, truly working.

Just don’t do it, or you–my friend–could end up with a bigger busload of  fruit and vegetables than even Farmer MacGreggor would know what to do with. And then, you’ll have to figure out how to eat it all…fast.

Don’t bother asking me how I know this…

that would be humiliating.

But if anybody needs a fruit salad–
I’m your girl.