Candy Apples

(scary like hot lava... be very careful)

Dear daughter said she likes candy apples not caramel apples.  Well, I've never made candy or candied apples and thought it would be a fun project.  My dear father picked and gave me 40 pounds of apples and thought "perfect" won't have to decide what kind of apple to use.

I searched the Internet for recipes and they are all basically the same.... sugar, corn syrup, water and food color.  Some add cinnamon flavoring, but DD said no to that.  Cook with a candy thermometer to some where between 280 degrees to 310 degrees depending on the recipe you go with.  I went with the "Mom's Who Think" recipe.  They suggested clove oil and that sounded good to me, but DD said no to cinnamon I better say no to clove.  Easy recipe as I had all the ingredients and supplies at home.  No shopping to do.  Win win.

I had cookie sticks and decided to use them.  Everything from Popsicle sticks to bamboo skewers were suggested.  One thing I didn't even think of as I chose my apples for this recipe was do they stand up straight when sitting on a flat surface.  I had 3 that sat at a strange angle and one that wouldn't stand up at all unless on an angled surface.  Thank goodness for the lip of my pan as you can see the apple on the far left in the back is using it to stay upright.

One thing I noticed most pictures I saw the candied apples had bubbles.  I thought it was the bubbling candy mixture that left bubbles, but I found out that when I put an apple into the hot candy the apple exuded bubbles.  Nothing I could really do about that.  Honestly, I didn't think anyone would say, "That candied apple has bubbles I'm not eating it!"  I did find that the cooler the candy got the less bubbles, but the candy was thicker and it wouldn't swirl on a apple very well.  If I were to do this again that is something to experiment with.

Since I've made candy the recipe was pretty cut and dry.  Cook sugar, corn syrup, water, food coloring mixture until it reached 290 degrees F.  Hard crack on my candy thermometer.  I must say watching the candy bubble and boil til it reached the heat it needed I could see where the candy apple red color comes from for cars.  It's a GORGEOUS color.  After bubbling subsides swirl apples that have been placed on a stick in candy and set on a nonstick surface.  My apples were small so I got 12 covered.

They cooled quickly and DD couldn't wait to try one.  They were as I remembered hard as a rock.  My comment to DD before she bit into one was "don't break a tooth."  She tried cutting the apple into slices and eating it, but still the candy went straight to ones teeth and got stuck.  With lots of saliva and picking one could get it off, but didn't make for a very enjoyable eating experience.

Our verdict... candy apples are beautiful from a far.

Zombie Loves Kit Kat

Busy today making some freaking cute cupcakes for my son's birthday.  I started on a Kit Kat theme 2 years ago.  Kit Kat's are my son's favorite candy.  First year I made a Kit Kat cake.  It was a big hit.  The next year I wanted to top the cake and I made a giant Kit Kat.  Again he was very impressed.  Wondering what I'd do this year I saw the cutest book at the craft store.  It is called "Zombie Cupcakes" by Zilly Rosen.  It's quite an adorable book for people who like Halloween and/or Zombies.  While thumbing through it I saw the zombie hand cupcake and knew what I'd do this year.  I'd combine my son's love of Zombies and Kit Kats.  These were very easy to make.  The supplies were easy to find at Michael's.  Then I just followed the directions in the book.  It has cupcake recipes and then decoration directions.  This cupcake was a chocolate oreo cupcake recipe with a chocolate ganache frosting.  It's going to be delicious in addition to adorable.

 

I really liked the lighting of the first picture, but it also made me see I needed to make the hand look more like it came out of the ground.

 

 With cookie crumbs around the bottom of the zombie hand I got the look I wanted.

A whole tray of zombie hand cupcakes.  They are going to be so much fun.

Best Craft Show Ever!

Being a crafter I've been to many craft shows over the years and I've been really discouraged going to them the past 10 years.  Not by the quality of crafts necessarily, but by the junkie dime store booths that they are letting in probably to help cover the cost of putting on the craft show.  I find it a real turn off.  Less craft more junk.  I can go to the flea market if I want to buy cheap sunglasses and junkie toys.

The Renegade Craft Fair sat right on the line of crafting and artistry.  No junk at this fair.  Yes, there may be some handmade items that are not your cup of tea, but everything was handmade and slaved over.  I enjoyed looking at each booth and talking with a few of the crafters/artists.  I bought a few things.  An adorable gold fish dish towel,  note cards with an adorable poodle on them that looks just like my Little Star, a T-shirt with a T-Rex and a Robot fighting for my son, garden bon bons for my daughter and last but not least a brain ring to help with my Halloween fetish.

I found out about this show from Twinkie Chan.  Who the heck is she?  She's a creative crocheter that specialized in food related items I found out about on Ravelry.  I liked her patterns so much I asked hubby for her book for Christmas (makes things so much easier for hubby.)  She has a blog I like to follow called Twinkie's Blargh.  She mentioned she was going to be at this craft fair in San Francisco and I knew I wanted to go to the fair and to meet her.  So, off I drove in hubby's gas economical car.  It took my 2 hours to get there and park.  It really was a beautiful drive.  No traffic.  No fog.  No agendas other than mine.  Gorgeous views.  Great cheap parking.  It was a day made in heaven.

I found Twinkie Chan's booth at about the hour and a half mark.  Despite being harried from preparing for this show she was friendly and sweet as can be when I asked her to sign my book.  She was just as adorable and cute as one would think.  Just as the food she likes to capture in crochet I wanted to capture her and sit her on a cake.  Oh OK maybe I do sound like a weird stalker.  Really I'm not.

I'm in the middle of making two patterns from her book the Pepperoni Pizza Scarf and Gingerbread Man Scarf.  I bought myself a Twinkie handmade original coffee cup cozy too.  It's done and ready to make me smile.  So, if you don't want to make something yourself you can buy some of her handy work.  She did a beautiful job on the coffee cozy, which reminds me of a Red Velvet Cupcake.

Outdoor Movies and Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

My brother started outdoor movies in the 90's at Halloween.  He'd affix a bed sheet tautly to his porch for a screen.  Then project a movie of his choosing in the Halloween genre, but G rated since is nephew and niece were quite young.  "Mad Monster Party" was a particular favorite (see movie trailer at link.)  After "Trick or Treating" we go back to his house for a movie. We'd bring our sleeping bags and lay down on the lawn.  We'd mostly watched the movie, but sometimes we'd fall asleep.  It was all apart of the fun.

Ever year at the same time I was having a Halloween party for my friends.  Kids were not invited for many years, basically because they were too young to stay up that late.  They would go to Grandma's and Grandpa's.

Then the year came when the kids wanted a Halloween party of their own.  So, I combined the parties and invited all my adult friends to bring their kids.  I asked my brother that year if he'd do an outdoor movie at my house.  We showed "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  It was a big hit.

We had many outdoor Halloween parties, but one year my daughter asked if we could do an outdoor movie for her birthday.  Having a summer birthday it sounded like a great idea.  That's how the summer outdoor movies started.

We tape a white sheet on to our garage door and project the movie on to it.  We make quite a night of it.  I have 2 portable fire pits we roll out for warmth and s'mores.  I pop lots of popcorn.  We encourage everyone to bring a chair if they like.  Definitely bring a blanket and pillow.  As with tradition someone always falls asleep during the movie.  The blanket serves to keep one warm, because even though it's summer we get what's called "The Delta Breeze" in the evening.  It takes a 100 degree summer day and brings the temps down to the 60's nearly ever night.

This years snacks included chocolate dipped strawberries and I made some peanut butter cookies with the chocolate kisses.

Chocolate dipped strawberries are simple and yet very impressive looking.  Not to mention they just taste great. 

What I do is I put 2 cups of chocolate chips in double boiler.  A double boiler consists of a pot that holds hot water and a bowl or another pot that sits securely over this pot. The top bowl or pot holds the chocolate while it melts over the indirect heat.  Do not boil the water.  Keep the heat low.  Also don't let the water touch the bottom of double boiler.  The chocolate chips melt fast like this.  Once melted I turn off the heat.

While the chocolate chips are melting I wash the strawberries.  Making sure to get the dried blossom off the end and little seed flakes off of the strawberries.  Don't know what else to call them, but if you rub each strawberry gentle under water you'll have a clean strawberry ready for dipping.  I like to find large strawberries, but no one has ever turned their nose up at a small chocolate dipped strawberry.  Make sure strawberries are completely dry.  Since I don't make a lot of them I dry each strawberry individually.  You don't want water in the chocolate or it will cause the chocolate to seize and makes it completely unmanageable.

I cover a cookie sheet with wax paper and begin dipping.  I pinch all the stem leaves in my fingers to use as sort of a dipping handle and to keep them out of the chocolate.  Then I lay the strawberry on it's side in the chocolate (probably a 45 degree angle) and twist it until strawberry is coated to my liking.  I've found you don't need the chocolate really close to the stem as it's a part of the strawberry one does not eat.  Lay dipped strawberry on wax paper.  When all are dipped I find a flat spot (or make one) in my fridge to let the chocolate set.  If you don't get the sheet flat all the dipped strawberries will slide off cookie sheet if there is no rim or slide to rim and set in one giant aggravating clump.  So, flat is the key.  Once set peel off wax paper and put on serving dish.

Halloween Cake Pops

Or Cake Pops Redux.  My first cake pops were successful in that everyone enjoyed them.  I on the other hand felt there were a few tweaks that could be done to make them more successful in my eyes.  Last time the cake pop dough was very moist and keeping them on the stick was difficult.  Good thing I didn't have any Styrofoam and stood them up as they probably would have all slide down the stick.  This time I decided on a less gooey dough and a smaller dough ball.  I call it dough, because it reminds me of cookie dough in it's consistency.

I baked a Duncan Hines Devil Foods cake in a 9X13 inch pan.  I then crumbled the cake into tiny little bits in a large bowl.  I had bought some store bought chocolate frosting.  I added 1/2 the plastic container to the crumbled up cake bits.  I found no easier way than just sticking my freshly washed hands in the bowl and squishing away.  The amount of frosting I thought was just right.  Not too gooey this time.

After washing the chocolate goo off my hands I got out my cookie scoop and portioned out the dough.  This time I made balls that were more quarter size as Bakerella suggested and I ignored the first time.  I rolled each ball by hand to create a nice smooth round ball.  I thought the smaller ball wouldn't be much of a treat, but it takes me 3 bites to eat one.  So, even someone who put the whole thing in their mouth would find it to be a delicious mouthful.

This time I had the chocolate melted in a double boiler and ready to go when it was time to put the candy sticks in the cake balls.  I dipped the stick in chocolate and then into ball.  The chocolate did pool up around the bottom of stick.  This concerned me that there would be a lump on the bottom of each Cake Pop.  Once I started coating the Cake Pops with melted chocolate I quickly found out it wasn't a concern and covered up quite nicely.

When I dipped Cake Pop in melted chocolate one wants it in the hot chocolate as little time as possible.  I found it faster to use a spoon.  I would dip the pop into the chocolate.  I then rotated it quickly as I pushed the chocolate up on the Cake Pop.  I then pulled the Cake Pop out of the chocolate shook it gently to remove any excess chocolate that might drip down the stick once standing in Styrofoam.  Next I quickly pushed a small piece of pretzel stick into the top of my Cake Pop.

To get a smoother look to the chocolate I ended up adding a small about of Crisco.  This made the chocolate smoother and shinier on my Cake Pops.  When I say small amount I used about 2 T to 1/2 a big of Wilton's Candy Melts.  I find the candy melts in the Wilton section of either Michaels or Joanns.

I had precut the pretzel stick bits to have ready when it came time to push them on top of Cake Pops.  Bakerella had used green Tic Tacs for the top of hers.  For some reason I got it into my head that lime, spearmint whatever flavor green Tic Tacs would be just didn't appeal to me with a chocolate cake pop.  Now pretzels and chocolate is a great combo.

(Only one casualty this year slid down the stick)

I had wanted to draw Jack O Lantern faces on the pumpkins, but the Wilton's FoodWriter Edible Color Makers Fine Tip totally suck.  Suck suck suck.  I know you're saying, "Come on Lynne don't sugar coat this tell us how you really feel."  They did not work at all.  This was all that was available in the stores around me.  I will find my receipt and return these as we found them to be a complete waste of time.  I really don't know what they could be used for. 

Fortunately, the pumpkin look of these Cake Pops was good enough to amaze and treat all our friends to some Halloween fun.

(Do we really need to show the empty stick?  Yum!)

Making a costume

My daughter's friend loves ketchup, so much so she wanted to BE ketchup for Halloween. When she was over helping my daughter make a piñata for their ROTC Halloween party she asked my daughter if she could be French Fries for Halloween. My daughter says, "I don't know.... mom can we make a French Fry costume for Halloween?" I said, "Sure." As I always think I can do something even before I try to do it. Why not. One doesn't know until you try. I have to say I don't think I've tried to do anything that hasn't turned out. Sometimes it's WAY harder than I thought and I'll never do it again. BUT a Halloween costume was right up my alley. I've made many.



I knew we wouldn't have a lot of time to spend making this costume. I knew we needed to make the traditional McDonald's fries for this costume to be truly recognizable and cute. I bought 4 sheet of red poster paper and one sheet of yellow. What was a bit annoying and I know the company must do this to be frugal, but the poster board is one color on one side and another on the other. The red was red on one side and green on the other. The yellow was yellow on one side and blue on the other.



First thing I did was find out how big my daughter wanted the costume. She said the width of the poster paper would be long enough. So, I cut it wide enough for here body. I then used the piece I cut as a template to cut the matching back piece and the piece I needed to line the back piece. Since it was green on the back I needed to cover the back with red, because it would show. I could use the pieces I cut off of the front and back to use for the side panels.



Then I cut a semi circle off the top edge of the front panel. I taped it to the back panel. This made it look like the McDonald's French Fry container. I used clear packing tape to tape the panels together and the half circle pieces.



At this point I had my daughter put it on and we decided where to cut the arm holes. Once they were cut I made straps for her shoulders using the clear packing tape. I stuck on piece to the front and back with sticky side up. Daughter being careful to keep her hair out of the way. I then stuck a similar length piece of tape sticky side down on top making a perfect strap. I did the same thing to the other shoulder. This way she wouldn't have to hold the box up all night.



We pre cut the French Fry strips. Folding them in half to cover up the blue color on the reverse side. We used hot glue to keep these permanently folded. Again my daughter put on the costume, so I could glue on the French Fries. She didn't want to put on the costume for this. TEENAGERS! But I made it clear she didn't want any fries sticking up in her face and annoying her all night. With it on we could put the fries on in a way that made it comfortable. With hot glued I added the fries.



We had pre cut the "M" out of the yellow before the fries. This worried me a bit. I didn't think we'd have enough yellow poster paper for the fries. We had just enough. Not a scrap was left. The fries didn't have to be too big. Just enough to peek out the top.



The "M" was all my daughter. She free handed the drawing of the "M." I hot glued it on the front. Then my daughter did the shading and trademark logo. This I feel really made the costume in the words of fashion designers "pop." It suddenly took on a cuteness all it's own.



What was great about this costume being put together with packing tape was it was very strong and flexible. The costume folded flat to be tucked away when one got too hot or wanted a break from the costume.

"Receiving an award for costume that is folded up in background. She needed arms to operate the piñata she had made. "

It held together great. I thought she'd lose French Fries, but she didn't. The only danger was at lunch at school on Friday she was chased around with teenagers wanting to bite her costume and one friend actually did.

Pumpkin Carving

I got a free stencil from the Better Homes & Garden website. They had the most adorable pet stencils this year. I altered the poodle template to look more like my poodle Little Star. We all enjoyed our carved pumpkin. It's in the house right now, so some hoodlum won't smash it on the road tonight.

Thanks to my Internet friend Jan at "The Poodle (and dog) Blog" for bringing these templates to my attention. I've never been one to dress up my dogs, but I'll most certainly carve their likeness on to a pumpkin.

Off to try and hide the candy from the poodle. That dog amazes me every year what she can find and how the heck did she get it.

Happy Halloween!

Don't bother hiding the candy. I'll find it.

It's the little things...

It's October and my favorite hokey decorative items come out. My candy corn guys really make me smile. I love candy corn and I love October. I love fall and I love Halloween. It might be because my birthday is in October.

I saw these little guys hanging in my local Beverly's craft store many years ago. I took one look at them and had to have them. It was a craft project that looked like it would be fairly easy to do. So, I took pictures of each guy with my Palm Pilot. Yes, these guy have been part of my house for quite a few years. Cell phones did not have cameras at the time. With pictures in my purse I bought 3 (3 1/2"X 3 1/2") pots, some jute and came home to see what paints I had. I was pretty sure I had all the paint I needed and I did.

I painted each pot with stripes of white orange and yellow. I then used a sponge with the orange paint to blur the lines between the colors a bit.
After the paint had dried I went in with red paint and painted those adorable noses and cheeks. I then let that dry.

I was going to paint the black details on when I got to thinking I wonder how a Sharpie would work. I figured if it didn't work I'd paint over it with black paint. As you can see the details I put on with black Sharpie are and crisp and clean as the day I put them one. So, it worked out great. After the Sharpie was dry I went in and put a little dot of white on their eyes to complete their cute look.

Next I cut jute in three different lengths. I knotted each length at one end and pulled it through the hole in the pot. After jute was pulled through each pot and I knotted the 3 jute cords together at the top.

For their legs I had some scrap yellow cotton fabric that I torn in lengths long enough to have a knot at each end and hang down from inside each pot. I hot glued the legs to the knot inside the pot. They are hanging in my kitchen. They make me smile every time I see them, which is probably about 50 times a day.

Lions, Indians and Halloween... OH my!

There are a lot of things that keep me from doing the amount of scrapbooking I'd like to do. I've been making cards most of the year so I'll have handmade Christmas cards for this season. Enough for everyone and then some. I usually make cards every year and I just don't have enough to go around. This year I've neglected my scrapbooking, because I've really enjoyed card making. I have time for both just haven't done the later.

In my RCS group a challenge was proposed to get us all doing at least one page a month. There is also a challenge of some kind to go with it. I volunteered for October. I suggested doing Halloween pages. Lord knows I'm probably 15 years behind on those photos. Now I'm only 14 years behind with the above LO done. I really had a lot of fun doing it. I did get confused on whether or not they were taken in 1996 or 1997. That almost stopped me from scrapping too. I decided to just commit to a date. 20 years from now will one year or the next really matter. Hardly! Remembering the fun my DH and I had getting them ready for Halloween. It was a year where everyone had their own idea of what they wanted to be. Erik wanted to be an Indian. I sewed him an Indian costume. That reminds me .... that's a tidbit I'll want on the LO. As I got my daughter dressed in the lion costume she wanted to wear I asked DH to put some war paint on Erik's face. 15 minutes later I joined the boys and to my shock my son's WHOLE face was covered. I wanted to scream. From a mom's point of view I'm thinking... paint everyone... on the car... on me ... on the couch... in the eyes! I calmed down and asked, "What's with the whole face painted?" DH said, "He wanted his whole face painted." I said to Erik, "You sure look fierce" and left it at that. He had a ball. My daughter really enjoyed roaring at everyone and everyone did the obigatory "cringe in fear" response to meeting a lion in person. So, she had a great time too.

With the Halloween photos were these pumpkin patch photos, so I thought I may as well knock them out too. Seeing my sweet children having such a good time... that is what scrapbooks are for! I have a Christmas news letter some where with my kids driving this tractor. If I can find a copy of it around here some where... I'll be able to pin point the year of these photos. Yes, I commited to getting them done with a date on them. I didn't say I'd stop researching to find the correct date. I'm crazy like that.