Gourmet Carmel Apples

I made these guys to sell at a craft fair and for my first ones I thought they turned out wonderful!

So I started by getting a clam shell of granny smith apples from Costco.  Then I washed and dried them really well.  I had one package of caramels leftover from Halloween so I was planning on using those but when I read the package it said that it would only do five apples.  UGH I had 12 apples to do and I REALLY didn’t want to run into town just to get a package of caramels.  Then I remembered that my lovely mother makes the best caramel popcorn balls ever.  So I pulled out my recipe for her caramel popcorn balls and made that caramel for my apples.  WOW it was perfect and WAY better than the store bought kind of caramel.  It was really easy to use and it coated the whole apple beautifully and it was edible without being totally sticky and it didn’t cement your teeth together.  YEAH!

  

After I dipped the apples in the caramel I let them sit in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to an hour.  After an hour I took them out and dipped them in milk chocolate.  (sorry I forgot to take pictures of that part) Then I rolled them in, nuts, Oreo cookie pieces, toffee bits, or mini chocolate chips w/chopped peanuts.

      

Then I wrapped them up and added a little tag.

  

Caramel Recipe

1/2 cup of butter

2 cups of brown sugar

1 cup of corn syrup

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

Stir on medium high heat until it gets to a very soft ball stage then add 1 tsp. of vanilla.

* For 6 apples I made 1/2 a batch and I had leftovers.

IF YOU WANT TO TRY THE POPCORN BALLS MAKE THE FULL RECIPE AND POUR IT OVER 8-12 QUARTS OF POPPED CORN.  STIR AND FORM INTO POPCORN BALLS. WRAP IN WAX PAPER. 

SAMM- Japanese Style Curry

I was lucky enough to marry a man who make the best Japanese Curry EVER!  It’s so YUMMY and EASY you should try it.  As always I’m linkin’ it up here.

First you’ll need to find these.  Curry Sauce Mix, they are sold in the Asian section of most supermarkets.  They usually come in three degrees of heat, mild, medium hot or hot.  We usually like to mix a medium hot and a mild together.  We make 2 boxes of Curry for our family of 7.  (6 of which are currently curry eaters) I suggest you do the same because this curry is one of those things that gets better with age it’s always so good as leftovers.

Then you decide what you want to go in your curry, we always do the same things.  Carrots, potatoes, onions and chicken. You however can add whatever you would like.  ( If you are now looking at the pictures and are a little concerned I just wanted to let you know, YOU DO NOT NEED THAT MANY CARROTS, POTATOES, ONIONS OR CHICKEN.  We were making a mega batch so my hubby could bring some to work for his Thanksgiving holiday lunch) What you really need is enough veggies and meat to fill up 5 cups of water, (that’s for two boxes of curry sauce.)

After you have all of your veggies peeled and diced, cube your chicken and cook it up in a skillet with your onions and a little bit of oil. 

While that’s cooking bring your vegetables to a boil in a large pot.  When the vegetables are just tender and your chicken is completely cooked add the chicken and onions to your veggies.

Then you add your curry.  It comes in these little blocks that you just drop into the water

As it dissolves it makes this really lovely curry gravy. 

Then you serve it over, or next too some rice.  I would recommend a Japanese style short grain sticky rice, but really you could serve it on whatever rice you have.  Try it I know you’ll love it!

ENJOY!!

Pie # 25 Mrs. Sigg's Fresh Pumpkin Pie

HERE IS THE LAST RECIPE!! Mrs. Sigg's Fresh Pumpkin Pie

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

Pie # 24 Sweet Potato Pie I

Here is the recipe for today’s pie Sweet Potato Pie I

and the verdict on yesterdays Golden Pecan Pie.  Super fast and super easy this pie gets a 5 stars for ease of preparation.  It gets a 4 stars for taste.  It’s a pretty good little pecan pie.  I would make it again.  This one is also going to someone who won’t be able to rate it, sorry… but it’s for a good cause.

Thankful Turkeys

Another activity for the kids.  The kids did this activity at church and I thought it was a great idea and I wanted to do it for our family too.

You will need

• 1 jar
• 1 brown lunch sack
• construction paper
• 1 short wooden spoon
• google eyes
• red felt
• orange ribbon

Directions

First you’ll take your jar and place it inside your brown lunch sack.  I weighted my jar with a little bag of rice. 

Then I made feet with some orange ribbon and hot glued them to the bottom of the lunch sack.

Then I found a super short wooden spoon that I have been hanging onto forever, I believe it originally came in a pack of 3 from the dollar store.  I added google eyes and a construction paper beak and a red felt waddle.

Make some construction paper feathers.  When you are done with the feathers everyone takes as many as they need and then they write what they are thankful for on the feathers and then you tape them to the back of the turkey.  Now you have a cute, fast, easy, kid friendly display for all of your blessings this year!

The Original “Please Restrain Me” Dinner Rolls

Here is the recipe for my rolls in all their calorie packed glory. 

The Recipe
2 cups of warm water (110 degrees)
2 TB of yeast
3/4 cups of sugar
2 cubes of butter or margarine (softened)
2 eggs
1 tsp. of salt
1 tsp. of baking powder
7 cups of flour.  (I like to use bread flour)

The Directions
Combine in a Mixer
2 cups warm water  (110 degrees)
2 T yeast
1 T sugar
Let it stand for about 5 min.

THEN ADD
7 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 cubes soft butter or marg.
3/4 cup of sugar
2 eggs

Mix for 2 min in your mixer your dough will be  sticky BUT if you feel like it needs more flour go ahead and add some.   Then let it rise until it doubles.
Dump dough out onto floured counter sprinkle more flour on top and knead until dough is smooth and can be rolled out without sticking too much.  This is where I like to add my flour to make my dough the consistency I’m looking for. 
Shape into whatever type of rolls you desire and let them rise for 30 min.
Bake at 350-375 for 12-15 min. 
If you make rolls where all of the sides are touching (like in a 9x 13 or something) make sure your oven rack is below the middle of the oven and bake at 350 for 20-25ish min.

Pie #23 Golden Pecan Pie

Here is the recipe for today’s pie Golden Pecan Pie.

and the verdict from yesterday’s pie Grandma Ople’s Apple Pie This pie gets a 4 stars for ease of preparation.  As for taste we would give it a 4 stars as well.  The crunchy topping on the crust was really cool and unique.  I think this recipe is a great starting point but it could use a few tweaks like cinnamon.

Golden Pecan Pie

This was another fast and easy pecan pie.  You basically mix your ingredients altogether and then add the nuts.

Pour it all into a pie shell add a few whole pecans to the top and bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes.  Enjoy!

The Verdict

Super fast and super easy this pie gets a 5 stars for ease of preparation.  It gets a 4 stars for taste.  It’s a pretty good little pecan pie.  I would make it again.  This one is also going to someone who won’t be able to rate it, sorry… but it’s for a good cause.

SAMM Homemade Pizza

One of our family favorites is homemade pizza and that’s my SAMM recipe for today.

First you’ll need some dough here is a great recipe for Pizza Dough.

Sometimes we make 2 pizzas and sometimes we make one pizza and one garlic cheesy bread.  Today we went with one pizza and one cheesy bread.

Get your pizza dough spread evenly over your pizza pans.

For garlic cheesy bread I spread the dough with butter and then sprinkle it with garlic powder, pizza seasoning or Italian seasoning, parmesan cheese, and then top it all off with some mozzarella cheese.

When that’s all done I use my pizza cutter to cut them into bread sticks.  Then I bake it for 15 –20 minutes at 425 degrees.

For the pizza take your dough and spread it with your favorite pizza sauce.  Since we make pizza so often I like to make and can my own.

Gather your favorite toppings.  Today we went with pepperoni, olives, artichoke hearts,  1/2 pepperoncini's and of course mozzarella cheese.  Bake at 425 degrees for 18-20 minutes. 

ENJOY!!

 

VARIATION

One of our favorite homemade pizza’s is made with a garlic parmesan white sauce and then you add chopped cooked chicken, crumbled bacon, green onions, sliced zucchini, artichoke hearts, and diced tomatoes. (sometimes we use spinach and olives too) IT IS SO GOOD  you should try it!