Halloween Pops

I saw this idea on Women's Day, Oreo Dipped Pops , and decided to make them to fit into a Halloween theme.  I used white chocolate bark and added food coloring to make it orange and deocrated them with orange and black sprinkles.  The kids are going to love eating these decked out Oreos on a stick! 

So as if Oreo cookies aren't good enough, I dip them in chocolate and add sprinkles! 
That should have been enough...it should have been, but it wasn't.  Why you ask?  Because I'm in love with peanut butter.  I figured, why not spread peanut butter on the Oreo's before dipping them in chocolate...sounds simple...a perfect idea, perhaps?  Not. So. Much.  It was a mess!  The heaviness from the peanut butter made the sticks fall out of the cookie when they were being dipped in the chocolate. Spreading the peanut butter on the cookie broke a lot of them.  Just one disaster after another.  It was quite sad.  Again this is why other people make up recipes and I follow them. 
These are the 'lucky ones' as I like to call them that sort have survived the whole process... Even though they weren't as pretty as the others, they were totally worth the mess!  YUM-O! 

Carbs done right!

We don't eat a lot of carbs in our day to day meals, so when I'm craving bread, I make it a worthwhile treat! And what better way to eat bread than to have it drenched in butter, sugar, cream, and rum! Mmmmm...bread pudding!  I have to say, I never ate this dessert growing up in the Northeast but when I met my southern grown husband :) and found out it was his favorite dessert, I knew I better find a good recipe!  The recipe I use today comes from my MIL and it has become my favorite way to eat carbs!

Dry out the bread in the oven at 350 degrees for about 8 or 9 minutes.

Into the oven it goes!

The sauce is totally my favorite part!  How can you go wrong with butter, cream, sugar...and than a splash of rum!  

He LOVES to watch things bake in the oven!

Perfection!  Can you see the ooey gooey moistness?!  It's awesome even without the rum sauce!

Bread Pudding

* 1 loaf french bread; cubed and dried out in the over (8 or 9 minutes at 350)

*1 quart milk

*4 eggs, beaten

*2 cups sugar

*1 Tbsp vanilla

*1 Tbsp nutmeg

*1 Tbsp cinnamon

*4 Tbsp butter

*1 cup raisins (optional)

Mix all ingrediants together and pour into 3 quart casserole dish.  Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Rum Sauce

*1 cup heavy cream

*2 sticks butter

*1 cup sugar

*1/4 tsp salt

*1 tsp. vanilla

*2 Tbsp. rum (optional)

In saucepan, simmer cream, butter, sugar and salt until it begins to boil.  Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and rum.  Serve warm.

Candy corn and a wreath...Yes! It's true!

This is just the cutest thing in the world!  And if you are like me, decorating for holidays is something I LOVE to do, but it's not always as budget friendly as I would like.  This wreath is the perfect combination of affordability and fun!  I will make this soon, I'm just a little on the cautious side right now.  Being that we are in the worst drought in forever, the creepy  crawlers have been making their way to places they should never go, like my house!  Me and my bug guy are the bestest of friends lately, as it seems I call him on a weekly basis to come take care of some buggy situation.  Yikes! and Yuck!  I'm not found of bugs.  Since this is made of sweet, yummy candy I do not want the bugs to get any ideas that my house would be a good place to stay for the winter :)
I did find the foam wreath's at Hobby Lobby, and when my husband attempted to take me there yesterday, we quickly discovered that they are closed on Sunday.  Great for them!  I'm always in support of a business closing to allow time for worship and family! Now I just need to convince my husband to take me back sometime soon.  I also need to make my way over to Michael's this week for a glue gun...which I have to say, I'm a little excited about ;)  (It's the small things in life)  Just to clarify, Hobby Lobby is in an area that I will not drive too which is why I have to rely on my husband but Michael's is in a much better area and therefore I have no issues bringing myself and my two kiddos.
Here is the link!  I'll post a picture once mine is created!  Happy Fall decorating!
Candy Corn Wreath

Am I the last one on Earth to make these?!

I really think I am....the last one to make these, that is.  As we were preparing the kids for nap time, I mentioned these 'quick oat cookies' to my husband, and he proceeded to tell me all the ingrediants that went into them.  Ummmm, what?!  He knew exactly what I was talking about and I didn't even say much!?  That's a rare occurance!  So I ran into the kitchen (literally!) and began putting these together.  And hello! Anything that can be made and cleaned up in less than 15 minutes is a friend of mine!  I mean come on!  I had these things cooling on the tray and my kitchen spotless and the kids weren't even half way through nap yet... it's already the perfect cookie for me!  Not to mention they have peanut butter - that's right I said it!  Peanut butter!  End of story...I'm sold. Doesn't take much for me to fall for a cookie...did I mention they are no bake??! 
The recipe I used was found here --> no bake oatmeal cookies  from the Girl Who Ate Anything, but I'm sure these are posted all over the blogging world.

I didn't have cocoa powder (do people actually have this as a standard in their pantry?  If so, I guess I'm really missing out on other recipes that call for this ingredient!) So I went to a great site for baking substitutions The Joy of Baking.  I replaced the cocoa powder with 1 oz of unsweetened chocolate (Ok, I'll be honest, I used semi sweet because that's what I had) and 1/8 tsp baking soda...worked like a charm!  I love easy substitutions!
A perfect after nap snack... and good thing because I hear one crying now!

Cucumber salad

So much for Fall!  Here in Central Texas the thought of a cool brisk day in September is just that, a thought.  Wild fires are burning thousands of acres around these parts and summer keeps rolling on.  Cucumber salad was something my mom always made in the summer time to go as a side to hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill.  These days my hamburgers are lean turkey burgers and my hot dogs are fat free turkey dogs, but cucumber salad has remained unchanged.  Since cucumbers were on sale at my local grocery store, I picked up a few.  (good thing after eating all those cake truffles!)  It's an easy recipe but best of all it's healthy. The cucumbers get a zesty taste without adding calories or fat - which means I can do some baking later on ;) 

Recipe Ingrediants
* 2 large cucumbers (or 4 small ones)
* Salt
* Apple Cidar Vinegar
* Sweet onions
* Paprika

1. Thinly slice the cucumbers and put into bowl.  Sprinkle graciously with salt and put in the refrigerator overnight. The salt will draw out all the water from the cucumbers and make them soft so it's important you use enough.
2. The next morning, rinse the cucumbers under water to wash off the salt and squeeze the water out.
3. Cut up an onion and add to bowl.
4. Use enough vinegar to almost cover the cucumbers (if the vinegar taste is too much for you, you can always dilute it by draining some out and adding water).
5. Sprinkle enough Paprika where it makes the vinegar a nice orange color.
6.  Chill & enjoy!

Hope Fall comes soon around here!

Cake anyone?!

Where has the week gone?!  I mean I know it was spent dealing with sick children, doing enormous amounts of laundry, trying to keep my house semi clean, and thinking of budget friendly ways to decorate for Fall but other than that... :)
I've lacked in my posts but not in my baking!  I don't know why I didn't make these sooner as I knew they would be amazing the moment I saw the picture!  (okay, okay, MAYBE becuase peanut butter wasn't an ingrediant ;) but that shouldn't have stopped me!)
I have to say that my husband is a sucker for raw cookie dough, any kind really, in fact it doesn't even have to be cookie dough....he eats any dough...it's really a little disturbing.  So, when I read that these were like eating cookie dough I just knew it was the dessert for him!  I was right!  There were only a few left for him to bring into work (and that was after I doubled the recipe)! These were down right tempting and incredibly easy since there was no baking involved.  Totally thinking that this is what I'll be making for my cookie exchange in December....but I'm thinking red velvet cake and green food coloring in the white chocolate bark..YUM!

I LOVE sprinkles! putting them in the truffle made it the perfect 'icing' on the cake LOL get it?!   I ran out of sprinkles so there wasn't any on the outside but it's on my grocery list to get more for the next time I make these.  Which I'm thinking will be very soon!

I found the recipe on Sweet Escapes (but I believe they got it from The Girl Who Ate Anything...you know how the blogging world goes) cake mix truffles.  We orginally thought that the white chocolate bark was going to be too sweet as we submersed the delicously doughy cake balls into the bowl of melted goodness but it surprisingly turned out to be the perfect coating!  That's why other people come up with recipes and I just follow them ;)  Asking my husband to wait until they were cooled in the refrigerator for a an hour was pure torture for him, but he held up well (I gave him a taste test to hold him over)!  What can I say? These were out of this world awesome and you really can't eat just one!

I've seen a lot of posts on cake balls for the holidays...if you make these around Halloween, use orange food coloring for the coating and put some popicle sticks in them... truffle lolipops!  Perfect to tie an orange bow around and hand out to your neighbors.

Heath Peanut Butter Cookies - You decide

I had this bag of Heath bar candy in my pantry and they were calling me to use them.  Lucky for me, the recipe on the back of the bag called for peanut butter (my fav! Thanks Hershey!) in addition to the Heath so I figured I couldn't go wrong.  Now, I have to say that I only thought the cookies were marginal but at the request of my husband, the recipe has made it to the blog.  Apparently he thought they were more than just "good" and his co-workers shared the same belief (of course, I sent the cookies into work with my hubby), so here it is!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cupshortening
• 3/4 cupREESE'S Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1-1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoonsmilk
• 1 tablespoonvanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1-1/2 cupsall-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoonbaking soda
• 3/4 teaspoonsalt
• 1-1/3 cups (8 oz. pkg.) HEATH BITS 'O BRICKLE Toffee Bits, divided

Directions

1. 1 Heat oven to 375°F. 
2. 2 Beat shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add egg; beat just until blended. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture. Stir in 1 cup bits; reserve remainder for topping.

3.   Drop by heaping teaspoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet; top each with reserved bits.  
4. Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until set. Do not overbake. Cool 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack. Cool completely. About 3 dozen cookies.

Not sure about your oven, but the bottom cookies in mine totally got burnt so now I know to only bake one tray at a time :)