Halloween Cupcakes

I was so proud of my cupcakes that I made for Halloween. I found the skeleton hand at Roberts awhile back and then made it using an idea I saw in the Rachael Ray magazine. The cupcakes are caramel cupcakes, then I made the frosting from scratch, with my favorite recipe from the Pampered Chef website. Sprinkled Oreo's on top, and added the hand!!


Caramel Cupcakes

Ingredients
3½ oz	white chocolate, coarsely chopped
4½ oz	butter, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup	brown sugar
¼ cup	golden syrup
2/3 cup	milk
1 cup	plain flour
1/3 cup	self-raising flour
1	egg, lightly beaten

	Preheat the oven to 330°F (170°C).
	Line a 12 cupcake pan, with cupcake papers.
	Combine the chocolate, butter, sugar, syrup and milk in a saucepan.
	Stir over a low heat until melted and combined. (I had a few small bits of white choc that just would not combine - not a problem).
	Allow to cool for about 15 minutes.
	Sift the flours.
	Mix flours into the caramel mixture.
	Next, stir in the egg.
	Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases.
	Bake for 30 minutes.
	Remove tin from the oven, transfer to rack and cool.
Makes 12 Cup Cakes. Frosting 1 package (2 pounds) powdered sugar (about 7 cups), divided 1 cup butter or margarine, softened 1/2 cup vegetable shortening 1 tablespoon clear vanilla extract For frosting, combine half of the powdered sugar with butter, shortening, vanilla and 3 tablespoons of the milk in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer until smooth. Add remaining powdered sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, adding more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed for good spreading consistency. Tint some of the frosting with food coloring, if desired. (I had to play with it to get it to be grey) And in case anyone noticed, I really really want to get the blog going again. So leave a comment if you are full on in favor of participating. I have gone back to this blog so many times for recipes, I really miss it!!

Christmas Quiche

This is what we have for breakfast every Christmas. Sooooo Yummy!

1 10 inch pie crust ~~ unbaked

8-10 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

1/2 pound steamed broccoli flowerettes

1 1/2 cups grated gruyere cheese

1 pound emmentauer cheese

(may substitue swiss cheese for the above cheeses)

1 cup heavy cream

2 eggs

1/4 pound ham, cooked and diced

Sprinkle bacon to form bottom layer in pie crust. Layer broccoli and cheese in crust. Reserve one cup cheese for topping. Whip cream and eggs for 2 minutes. Pour evenly over veggies/cheeses. Top with remaining cheese. Garnish with ham. Bake at 350 for 45 min. or until toothpick done. Let stand for 15 min. to set up before serving.

picture to follow

We had St. Patty's Day food too!

The kids did NOT like the green eggs we had for breakfast. I guess the eyes fool the brain. I'm pretty much the only one that ate them.

So I was worried they wouldn't eat dinner either, but they did, although Landon kept asking, "have I had this before?"

"Do I like it?"

Ritzy Poppyseed Chicken ~~ looks a little odd sportin a green color, but still YUMMY! My 9 year old that doesn't like ANYTHING loves it! I will have to post the recipe sometime.

And the ever delicious LoftHouse cookie . . .

Here's to GREEN POOP!

St. Patricks Day Dinner

Just added food coloring to my mash potatoes and gravy, butter, and Kool Aid. The kids loved it! So I thought I would post it.

Hershey/Reeses Double Decker Fudge

Ingredients:

2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) Reese's peanut butter chips,

divided use1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow creme

1 1/2 cups (12 oz. can) evaporated milk

1/4 cup butter

Line a 13x9x2-inch pan with foil. Place 1 cup peanut butter chips in medium bowl; set aside. In second medium bowl, blend 1/4 cup melted butter, cocoa and vanilla until smooth; add 1 cup peanut butter chips.

In heavy 4-quart saucepan, combine sugar, marshmallow creme, evaporated milk and 1/4 cup butter. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until mixture comes to a rolling boil; boil and stir 5 minutes.

Remove from heat, immediately add half of hot mixture to bowl with peanut butter chips only. Pour remainder into cocoa mixture; stir to blend.

Beat peanut butter mixture until chips are completely melted; spread evenly in prepared pan.

Beat cocoa mixture until chips are melted and mixture thickens. Spread evenly over top of peanut butter layer.

Cool; remove from pan. Remove foil; cut into squares. Store in airtight container in a cool, dry place. Makes about 4 pounds

Melt In Your Mouth Sugar Cookies

COOKIES

*preheat the oven to 350

1 cup butter (room temperature)

1/3 cup power sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

3/4 cup cornstarch

1. Cream butter, powder sugar & vanilla together

2. Sift flower and cornstarch and add to mixture

3. Drop teaspoon size balls onto a grease cookie sheet and flatten the tops with your fingers

4. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the middle to upper racks and watch they should be light brown on the bottoms

5. Frost with frosting recipe below when the cookies are still warm

FROSTING

1 cup powder sugar

1 Tbsp melted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp milk

*I doubled the frosting recipe because you can never have enough frosting! This recipe ends up with 15-20 cookies