Tag: Halloween

Last Minute Halloween Treats

Kim

I pretty much do everything last minute. So…everything I do has to be quick and easy. If you are like me and really don’t have things planned out for this little holiday weekend we have coming up, or you just need another idea or two, here are a few Halloween treats I have done in the past…

Halloween Chicago Mix – I’m a huge fan of the sweet and salty combo.


Pumpkin Spice Chex Mix

Halloween Muddy Buddies

Halloween Candy Bark

Soft Batch Double Fudge Brownie Cookies or you could add Halloween candy or chocolate chips to my favorite chocolate chip cookie base

Cereal treats with fun sprinkles and/or candy mixed in – these are Rolo Cereal Treats with Brownie Mix


Homemade Caramel Apples – a little more labor intensive, but the kids love to decorate them.

Exhibit A

And I made all this for my son’s preschool Halloween party a couple of years ago (except for the pumpkin veggie tray). There isn’t a link for them, but the are pretty self explanatory – the gift bags have tags made out of foam sheets (from the dollar store). I traced cookie cutters and cut them out. Upper right – Popcorn Hand: plastic glove filled with popcorn with candy corn at the finger tips, Below that are Lollipop Ghosts: Tootsie Pops wrapped in a white napkin, tied with ribbon and ‘googly’ eyes stuck on (they had adhesive backs, but could be glued as well; the ‘witches hats‘ are fudge striped cookies (upside down) with Hershey Kisses on top (held on with melted chocolate) and decorated with green cookie icing, Pumpkin veggie tray – broccoli, carrots, cucumbers with dip for “eyes”; Cookie Spiders: Oreos with green apple twizzlers as ‘legs’ and mini green MandM candies for eyes.

And these are one of my favorite creations ever…the recipe for the cookie wasn’t that good, so I’m going to try to find another one that works. You need something that will not rise or spread a lot, like a shortbread recipe. I added green food coloring to the dough, shaped them, and decorated as creepy as possible. The kids wouldn’t eat them the year I made these! The fingernails (sliced almonds) are held on with strawberry jam, which gets oozy and gross while cooking. They are so awesome to look at…now to work on making them taste good 🙂 {They weren’t bad, just really bland.}

So that’s it. I’ll be taking my crew to a friend’s house to trick-or-treat and I plan on bringing chips and Restaurant Style Salsa; a variation of one of the above snack mixes, and if time permits. the creepy finger cookies! Oh, and an adult beverage or six, Ha! Have fun and be safe.

© copyright 2013 – All rights reserved

Makin’ it Mo’Betta

Homemade Caramel Apples

Kim
Caramel Apples, or in our case, hurricane preparation. The weather has been super yucky…days of wind and rain, so to help entertain the kids, and have something yummy to eat, we decided to make our annual caramel apples.  The kids always love doing this!
My 4 y/o was so funny, he meticulously placed individual sprinkles and M&M’s on his apple!  While the rest of us rolled ours in pretty much everything available. 
We used crushed Whoppers, M&M’s, sprinkles, pretzels, and chopped dark chocolate.
And then, of course, even better than decorating the apples…is eating them!
The caramel recipe is SO easy, and has 3 ingredients!

Caramel Apple Recipe 
from


6 – 8 small apples, unwaxed, cold   (*I used 4 large Granny Smiths, and have a little caramel leftover)

 1 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup honey

Special equipment: candy thermometer, and lollipop sticks

Line a baking sheet with parchment/wax paper.
Push a lollipop or popsicle stick deep into each apple (through the stem.)
Fill a large bowl 1/2 full with ice water and set aside.
In a medium, thick-bottomed saucepan heat the cream and salt until tiny bubbles start forming where the milk touches the pan – just before a simmer.

Stir in the honey. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to an active simmer and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for about 15-20 minutes minutes or until the mixture reaches about 255-260F degrees on your candy thermometer.
To stop the caramel from cooking, carefully set the bottom of the saucepan in the bowl of cold water you prepared earlier – taking special care not to get any of the water in the caramel mixture. Stir until caramel begins to thicken up – you want the caramel to be thin enough that it will easily coat your apples, but not so thin that it will run right off. If the caramel thickens too much simply put the pot back over the burner for 10 seconds or so to heat it up a bit.

Place each apple on the wax/parchment lined baking sheets and allow the caramel to cool, but get your decorations on before it sets.

 
As far as Hurricane Sandy, we were fortunate where I am in eastern NC. Some localized flooding, but nothing unusual. I hope everyone  is safe wherever you are!
 
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© copyright 2013 – All rights reserved

Makin’ it Mo’Betta