Caramel Apples

I decided to make chocolate turtles from our Walgreen's 1/2 price Halloween caramels, and my stash of 20 lbs. of fine Georgia pecans I am trying to eat up. I didn't quite make the caramel right, it was too runny for the turtles, but perfect for Miss L to make a caramel apple, which is a perfect project for her age. It tasted DEVINE. Good thing I have another bag tucked away another project next month.

Local fruits

Gary grew up somewhat in Oregon and talks non-stop about the blackberries. But our Tejas neighborhood gets blackberries this time of year -not Oregon berries- but nonetheless fun to pick with Miss L and then make something out of. We went picking out at the soccer fields and nearly got eaten alive by mosquitoes despite the bug spray last night, and then our FHE treat tonight was cobbler, and it was delicious.

I think I may have to go back to park and get some more for jam. We'll see.

Fun with Cake

I was so discouraged by the appearance of my first round of petit fours, I attempted to do it again. What can I say...I am a perfectionist. I used the same cake recipe as last time. But for the poured fondant, I found this website to help me. Here is a another cool website. I think it would be fun to design cakes for parties/graduations. But we're still on a budget, and I am still an amateur, besides my family is ready for me to stop baking (except for tea parties) Definitely prettier this time. I think the secret is to have a perfectly square little cake before attempting the poured Fondant. I tried White poured fondant and Burgandy.



This one is my favorite.


I made this little cake from the leftover's for Miss L's tea party. I love pretty things.


She loved it too.

Birthday Follow up

So my petit fours did not turn out so well. Very tasty, but not so pretty. Oh well. We still had a lovely tea party for Grandma.

Petit Fours

We had another little tea party today with some leftovers from my friends party. They are beautiful...I am still gathering ideas for Miss L's B-day.

Jalapeño Poppers

This is my Saturday project that took WAY too long. I feel for the catering business. Appetizers take just as long as meals, and the portion size is WAY smaller. However, my jalapeños from last year reseeded themselves among my beans this year and gave 4 nice size plants. So what to do with 100+ jalapeños? (Especially when 'mild' salsa is usually too hot for me?) Here is my remedy and they are actually really good. The filling has cumin in it, but no hot spices, so I can stand to eat 5-6 before my mouth is ready for water. The best part of these is they are great to freeze and pull out for a mid afternoon snack.

Cooking

In my quest to find more interesting foods for dinnertime, I have been on a cooking kick.

Here are my finds:
1) Baba Ghanoush with that eggplant I got for $29 cents, I still have another eggplant left too.
It was really good, I served it at playgroup today with slices of tortilla, everyone loved it.

2) Bombay Potatoes I made this for dinner. Too greasy for us, I think I am on a little of bit of a low spice diet right now to ward off heartburn, and although the bacon fat smells great in the dish, it was a bit too much for my stomach.

3) Chicken tortilla soup, which was really yummy, and used up almost all of my zuchini.

4) Guacamole Mountain- who doesn't love that. I have really loved avocados lately

5) Twice Baked Potatoes- yummy, although I usually do stay away from sour cream for Gary's sake, but I had some leftover from the Guacamole mountain (because he didn't want any on his half.

The key to success is to see how many people have voted for it on Allrecipes.com. If it is over 100 you know it is probably pretty decent.


I have also been on a chocolate kick, but I haven't made anything to die for, I'll let you know when I do.