Hot Cocoa Anyone?

I made up a recipe for homemade Hot Cocoa:

Melt together over stovetop:

     7 cups milk

     1 cup heavy cream

     6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and add to milk mixture once chocolate has melted completely:

     1 cup powdered sugar

     1/2 cup cocoa

     1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

Added a bit of mini marshmallows and it was SUPER yum!

hApPy ThAnKsGiViNg

It was a day of birds ;)  We saw a variety of them today, a few different species of wild birds, woodpeckers, blue jays and TWO hummingbirds!  I haven't seen that many birds in our yard since September.  Did they sense I was cooking their cousin for dinner?

This is our Thanksgiving feast, most of it was prepared from scratch:

If it's in yellow, then it was homemade: brined Turkey, gravy, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, salad, roasted cauliflower, caramelized onions, corn, bread, veggies, dip, salami, cheese, jello, pumpkin pie, ice cream & whipping cream.

Will share recipes, just ask and I'll send it to you!  Everything was yummy - it's all about starting with a great recipe =)

Sea Foam Candy

I tried this recipe for Sea Foam - it's old fashioned chocolate covered candy - my mom loves it. I made it for Thanksgiving for her. She doesn't remember to read my blog - LoL - so I can post it here before she knows about it:

I used an 8x8 pan to pour it into so the candy would be thick:

It tastes super yummy - fun, fun! This was my first attempt and I'll definitely make this again.

RECIPE:

1 cup Sugar (I used Brown Sugar)

1 cup Dark Corn Syrup (I used Brown Sugar Corn Syrup)

1 tablespoon Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Baking Soda

Cook sugar, corn syrup and vinegar in heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves, 3 to 4 minutes. Stop stirring and bring candy to boil and continue cooking without stirring until candy reaches hard-crack stage (300 to 310 degrees on candy thermometer), about 9-10 minutes. Do not overcook. Remove candy from heat and quickly stir in baking soda. Pour into buttered 13- by 9-inch(I poured it in an 8x8 pan to get thicker pieces) baking pan but do not spread (candy wont fill pan). Let candy cool. Melt chocolate (I used 1 cup white chocolate chips & 1 cup semi-sweet) in top of double boiler over simmering water and set aside to cool. Break hardened candy into chunks and dip into melted chocolate. Place on wax paper until firm, about 30 minutes, or refrigerate. Store in airtight container.

. . . . and then Keaton was putting dishes away and 3 glasses fell and broke all over my candy on the counter =( I'm very, VeRy, VERY sad right now . . .

Sleepover Food

Brady & Keaton had a few friends stay the night, I made cinnamon rolls:

and strawberries with homemade chocolate ganache, cool whip and homemade granola:

And I wonder why the teenagers want to sleep over ;)  It's cause I feed them! 

Caramel Apples

I made caramel apples yesterday for my Activity Day girls and Visiting Teaching route:

No unwrapping caramels and melting them here - although it probably is faster - I made the caramel from scratch and even took a recipe and added ingredients, took away some and altered the measurements!

Used 2 caramel coats since it was a thin syrup:

I melted white almond bark and coated that over the caramel, then rolled it in homemade granola:

Wrapped them up and gave them away:

Happy Fall =)

Granola Recipe - quick & easy

1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup chopped or slivered almonds
2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey

Preheat the oven to 350˚.

Combine coconut, almonds, oats, oil, and honey together in a large bowl until they are mixed well. Pour onto a sheet pan and bake, stirring once or twice during baking time, until the mixture turns a nice golden brown for 20 minutes.

Remove the granola from the oven and allow to cool, stirring once.  Stores for 1 month or longer in an air-tight container.

Cast Away Day

It's Cast Away day at school, I made t-shirts from iron-on transfers:

On the front it says 'Hello! Anybody?', wording 'Cast Away' on the volleyball, tally marks on the sleeve, 'Don't worry Wilson, I'll do all the paddling. You just hang on' on the back and found a great volleyball of the bloody hand print online. The boys said everyone was talking about just being 'dirty' and wearing torn clothing. They have an original =)