Cookie Dough Balls for Charity

I have two charity events coming up in which I am donating my wonderful cookie dough balls. One was fall themed:

And the other were snowballs:

Playing along with Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom and Wordful Wednesday on parenting By dummies:-)

Sugar Cookie Pumpkins

I relapsed this weekend but before I got sick again, I made these cute Sugar Cookie Pumpkins for my youngest's classroom party:

And, in order to keep on track with my new lease on life, I am making sure that there is always one dessert in the house. That way, we aren't jonesing for sweets. We have our reward for doing good at the end of the day:-) I made a few extra of these and without the embellishments, it is actually not that bad for you: One cookie is 133 calories and 6 grams of fat. Everything in moderation.

As for my health, I am still being tackled by my hormones. They are making me very sick and I have to be on them for another month until they can implement a permanent solution to my problem. So, send me all your positive energy. I am going to need all the help that I can get!


Playing along with Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom .

Tackling Literary Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . This week I tackled the Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Literary Challenge. We were suppose to interprete a book, or a character or a plot in cupcake form. I chose Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. May I present: Raven Cupcakes:

They are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting decorated to with The Raven.

Pecan Pie

Time for another Wordful Wednesday with SevEn cLoWn CirCus.

I am nothing if I am not accommodating. Many of you asked for my Pecan Pie recipe and I am happy to oblige. Here you go:

Susie's Homemade Pecan Pie
Ingredients:
1/2 Fail-Proof Pie Crust Recipe
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup pecan, chopped plus enough pecan halves to top the pie

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Prepare pie crust.
3. In a medium bowl, beat sugar, butter, corn syrups, salt and eggs with a hand mixer. Stir in pecans and pour into the prepared crust. Top with pecan halves in concentric circles.
4. Bake 40 to 50 minutes until set. For easy service, cool at least 20 minutes before serving.

Serves 8

Tackling Thanksgiving

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom .

I spent the weekend preparing for Thanksgiving. I made 18 dinner rolls, 2 apple pies, 2 pumpkin pies and 2 pecan pies. Here are the fruits of my labor:

Pumpkin Gingerbread Cupcakes

...You got it:-) I got a bunch of requests for the recipe for my Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Thanksgiving entry . And I am obliging if nothing else so here it is:

Pumpkin Gingerbread Cupcakes

Ingredients:

3 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable

4 eggs

2/3 cups water

1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree

2 tsp ground ginger or 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

Orange-colored sugar glaze (see recipe below)

18 cinnamon sticks

mint vines for garnish, if desired

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 12 bundt-style cupcake pan.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, oil and eggs. Beat until smooth. Add water and beat until well blended. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice and cinnamon.

3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until they are incorporated.

4. Fill each cup 2/3 fill. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.

5. Dip each cupcake in prepared sugar glaze (see recipe below). Cut each cinnamon stick in half and place in the center of each "pumpkin". Garnish with mint vines, if desired.

Makes 36 cupcakes

Sugar Glaze:

Ingredients:

5 lb powdered sugar

1 tbl milk

Orange food color

Directions:

Mix all ingredients until combined.

Pumpkin Cupcakes and a TV Appearance

This is a really exciting week for me and I have so much to share. So, I am going to do another Wordful Wednesday with SevEn cLoWn CirCus.

We had another Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee competition Monday. This time, the theme was Thanksgiving. This was my entry:

This is a Pumpkin Gingerbread Cupake with an orange-colored sugar glaze and a cinnamon stick for the stem. I set it atop a bed of spun sugar to look like straw in the garden and garnished it with mint for the vines. I made these last year for our Thanksgiving table so, I thought that it worked with the theme very well. What do you think?

In addition to the competition on Monday, I am going to be on TV Friday!! Our local NBC affliliate, TMJ4 is airing a story about people making money from home. My chocolate shop on Etsy is being featured!! How cool is that?? So, if you are in the Milwaukee area, tune in Friday at 10:00 p.m! Otherwise, I will post it on Saturday:-)

Cauldron Cake, Witch Cupcakes and Chili

Well everyone...I may have a cake wreck on my hands:-( My nephew's birthday was this weekend and once again, I made a Halloween themed cake and cupcakes. Behold, the Cauldron Cake:

This is a yellow cake with green and orange buttercream frosting to look like the gruel in a witch's cauldron. The pot was $5 at Walgreens and I put the cake inside the pot on a cake decorating stand. So, when you spun the cake with the spoon, it simulated stirring the brew. Although the cake itself isn't the prettiest, I thought the concept was cool.

These are the witches and Man, do they look pissed! I would be too if I were this ugly:-(

And here is what the whole table looked like. So everybody...what do you think? To wreck or not wreck...that is the question.

As for a recipe, my SIL, Lisa served this awesome chili at the party. It is perfect for any chilly outdoor event like Trick or Treating or a football game or even looking ahead to caroling for Christmas. Without further adeau:

Lisa's Awesome Chili Mac

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 can kidney beans

1 green pepper

1 onion plus more for garnish

1 can tomato juice

1 packet chili mix

1/2 lb elbow macaroni

1 can diced tomatoes

Shredded Cheddar Cheese, for garnish

sour cream for garnish

Oyster crackers, for garnish

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef in pepper and onions.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients (except macaroni) to slow cooker and cook on high for 45 minutes or low for 2 hours.

3. Meanwhile, cook the macaroni until almost al dente.

4. Add macaroni to the beef mixture in the last 30 minutes of cooking.

5. Serve with garnishes on the side.

Carmel Apples

This weekend, we went a Halloween party at the neighborhood fun house (you know, the one house everyone gathers at). The hostess asked me to bring carmel apples. No problem right? Wrong.

You see, it is the neighborhood fun house however, the mom is a little...shall I say scattered. In the short time I have known her, I have learned that plans have to be confirmed and reconfirmed and even then, that doesn't mean that it going to happen as we agreed. Many a play date have been rescheduled at the last minute and lately, she just doesn't even show up for them at all. It's becoming very frustrating.

So, as the day of the party approached, I still didn't know what time, how many apples to make or even if the party was still going on. So, I called and left a message. She called me back...the night before the party to confirm it was still going on. She asked if I was still bringing carmel apples and I said that I was prepared to bring a dozen. She said, "Oh no. You have to bring at least 2 dozen." Have to bring?? My annoyance grew.

After a couple minutes of bitching about how completely rude that was, I grudingly went on to make the 2 dozen carmel apples that she requested:

So, because I was doing this grudgingly and because it was last minute, they turned out less than pretty:


So, I designed a plastic wrap smoke screen to hide their ugliness.

Then, I further disguised the ugliness with this basket:

Now, I feel better.

By the way, she wasn't even expecting 24 people at the party!! She was expecting 15 at the most! After all was said and done, I left a dozen there. So, here's my question...would you have been annoyed?

Carmel Apples:
Ingredients:
12 apples
12 sticks
2 bags of carmels (approximately 40 pieces)
1 small jar of peanuts, chopped

Directions:
1. Unwrap all of the carmels and melt them over low heat.

2. Twist stems off of the apples. Insert sticks into the apples at the stem.

3. Dip apples into carmel and then the peanuts. Place the apples on waxed paper to set.

Makes 12 apples

Pears Pears Everywhere

Ok...last week I posted a picture of my pear tree . This week, I need something to do with all these damned pears!!

I found this recipe for Pear Cobbler on Good Stuff Maynard . I am going to try this recipe this weekend. I will let you know how it goes:-)