Spiced Apple Cider

When all the kids are out trick or treating with the dads, the moms are left at home to hand out the candy. You can choose to sit on the porch but you might be cold, here is a great remedy hot spiced cider. If it's extra cold you should add a little spiced rum. We love Appleton.

6 cups apple cider
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2 cinnamon sticks
6 whole cloves
6 whole allspice berries
1 orange peel, cut into strips
1 lemon peel, cut into strips
Pour the apple cider and maple syrup into a large stainless steel saucepan.
Place the cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice berries, orange peel and lemon peel in the center of a washed square of cheesecloth; fold up the sides of the cheesecloth to enclose the bundle, then tie it up with a length of kitchen string. Drop the spice bundle into the cider mixture.
Place the saucepan over moderate heat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cider is very hot but not boiling.
Remove the cider from the heat. Discard the spice bundle. Ladle the cider into big cups or mugs, adding a fresh cinnamon stick to each serving if desired.

Candy Corn Bark

One of my favorite things about holiday is the theme candy. I have a serious candy corn problem & I count the days until Williams Sonoma puts out the peppermint bark. This is a great Halloween treat! Hope you love it like I do.

16 Halloween-colored Oreos, chopped
1 1/2 cups broken small pretzels
1 1/2 pounds white chocolate, broken into squares
2 cups candy corn
orange and brown sprinkles

Spread the cookies, pretzels and raisins evenly onto a lightly greased small baking sheet. Melt chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave, stirring frequently until melted. Remove from the heat while there are still a few chunks, and stir until smooth. White chocolate burns easily.

Drizzle chocolate with a spoon over the goodies in the pan, spreading the top flat to coat evenly. Top with candy corn and sprinkles. Let cool until firm. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

Mother Green's Gooey Goobers

My friend from High School, Marianne's mom, who we called Mother Green, used to make us Gooey Goobers. We loved our goobers but not as much as we loved Mother Green! Again if you know the kids that live by you this would be a really fun treat. Hope you enjoy these.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup unpopped popcorn
6 tablespoons butter
5 cups miniature marshmallows
Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Set aside.

Add vegetable oil to a 4 quart saucepan, and heat over high heat. When oil is hot, add popping corn. Keep pan moving constantly. When corn stops popping, remove from heat. Put popcorn in prepared pan.
Melt butter In a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in marshmallows and cook until melted, stirring constantly. Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn and mix with spoon to coat evenly.
Let mixture cool slightly. Smear butter on your hands or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Mix popcorn with your hands so that it is evenly coated.
Form popcorn into 8 balls.

Sweet and Salty Caramel Apples

If you live in a neighborhood where you know the kids, it would be really fun to be old fashioned & hand out caramel apples. I love caramel apples they remind me of Park City. These are the perfect sweet with a little salt. Enjoy!

6 Granny Smith apples
6 wooden sticks
1 (14 ounce) package individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons coarse sea salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Insert wooden sticks 3/4 of the way into the stem end of each apple. Place apples on a cookie sheet covered with lightly greased aluminum foil.
Combine caramels and water in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring often, until caramel melts and is smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Dip each apple into the caramel and gently run apples around insides of saucepan to scrape off some of the caramel. Scrape excess caramel from the apple bottoms using the side of the saucepan. Place on the aluminum foil. Sprinkle lightly with the coarse salt and chill. Put the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl. Cook in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until melted and smooth. Drizzle over the apples and return them to the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Make your own Rally Pie

The Red Sox nation extends to Morocco! My mom's neighbors growing up in Medway, Massachusetts were the Sia Family. Jessica (pictured on the left) is one of the Sia's granddaughters. She lives & Morocco with her husband. She made her own Rally Pie for game 3, here is what she wrote:

Well it was a bit of an adventure making the rally pie over here. No cool whip, and no heavy cream (at least not that we could understand)- but we found some whipped cream in can and mixed that in instead. I also had some issues with the cake coming out of the pan and then cutting it in half, so I had to just kind of merge things together- then I went a little overboard with the filling and after putting the top layer and chocolate on, it kind of over flowed. Anyway, all that to say, it may not look great, but boy is it delicious!

We are all sitting around in our Red Sox shirts, and we just watched Carrie Underwood sing, and here goes game 3!! We'll probably only make it a few innings given the time difference, but who knows!!

Anyway, thanks again for the great recipe. I will definitely be making this again. I hope you enjoy the photo- again, it looks really bad, but it sure was good.

Jess

Jessica-
Thanks for sharing your Rally Pie adventure & photo! Way to improvise!!! :)

Other readers, if you make a recipe send me a picture & I will post it. Have a great weekend!

Jessica & Terry's AMAZING Sugar Cookies

I would love to tell you that I personally have all the best recipes for everything, but I don't. So I email people that I know have the best recipes & ask for them very nicely. I am so excited to bring you this recipe from Jessica Waldron & Terry Abend in Idaho. Jessica was my roommate when I lived in Salt Lake. Her mom Terry is a spectacular cook, even making me homemade soup when I ate too many funnel cakes & rode the tilt-a-whirl at the Idaho State Fair, I know too much information but we have all been there! When Jess would go home Terry would make us the best Sugar Cookies, always shaped like the season & iced beautifully. I would anxiously wait for Jessica to get back so we could watch 90210 & eat cookies! Here is the recipe & I guess you could watch 90210 on the Soap Opera network or substitute a more current show :)

This adorable cowboy is Jessica's son Jaxon, such a cutie! This is his Halloween picture from last year, his mom said he won't let her pick his costumes anymore so he is going to be a Transformer this year.

Sourcream Sugar Cookies

2 cups sugar
3/4 cups shortening
3 eggs
5 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. of baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Cream the sugar and shortening together. Add the baking powder, eggs, and flavorings. Then mix the baking soda into the sour cream in a seperate container. Add the sour cream mixture and flour alternating to the batter. Chill Dough for 1 hour. Roll out and cut out shapes. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Frosting

1 8oz package of cream cheese
1/2 stick of butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 box of powder sugar

Mix all the ingredients together and add food coloring as you like.

Wedding Time

It is finally here, wedding time!
Matt & I leave tomorrow for beautiful Cancun.
The picture is obviously not of us (we aren't married yet!) but of my lovely sister & her hubby from their amazing Jamaican wedding. Which is why I sometimes talk about Jamaica.
I have a bunch of great recipes prepared to share while we are gone, just forgive me if I am not timely with my postings!
Have a great week, I know we will!