Triple Chocolate Ooey Gooey Cake

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 box small box instant chocolate pudding
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 c warm water
1/2 cup oil
1 cup chocolate chips

Follow directions on back of cake mix, except add all ingredients listed above.  Bake in Bundt pan or 2 loaf pans for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. 

FOR FROSTING (From Pioneer Woman)

1-3/4 stick Butter

4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa

6 Tablespoons Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar

While cake is baking, make the icing. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together and pour over warm cake.

31 Days of Halloween

1.  Host a block party.  Provide drinks and paper goods, invite others to do a dessert potluck. 
2.  Decorate for Halloween.  Put out a Halloween book basket during the decorating for kids to read. 
3.  Make Rice Krispie treat pumpkins.

 

4.  Make monster boxes for boys to store Halloween candy they collect throughout the month.  

5.   Play "Don't Eat Pete!"

6.  Make Halloween Plates.

7.  Make Caramel Apples. 

8.  For FHE, ding-dong ditch neighbors leaving your newly made caramel apples. 
9.  Make spider suckers. 

10.  Attend local fall festival.
11. Make toilet paper roll, candy-filled mummies. 
12. Attend local corn maze/Cornbelly's.
13.  Halloween BINGO. 

 14.  Decorate sugar cookies.
15. FHE: Fall scavenger hunt. 

16.  Make glitter slime monsters. 

17.  Play balloon badminton with balloons decorated as skeletons or pumpkins. 
18.  Vote on favorite candy and then go to store to buy favorites. 
19.  Halloween picture coloring contest or make pumpkin poop and take to friends.

 
20.  Bake/decorate cake (Frankenstein or pumpkin). 

21. Extended family Halloween party. 
22.  FHE: blindfolded candy-eating contest or another activity below. 
23.  Halloween tic-tac-toe. 

24.  Make witches brew. 
25.  Go to a local pumpkin patch or Wheeler Farm.
26.  Trunk or treat. 

27.  Watch a Halloween movie.
28.  Make haunted gingerbread (or graham cracker) houses.
29.  Carve pumpkins.
30.  Make glow stick balloons and have a dark dance party. 

31.  Make a special Halloween dinner either a jack-o-lantern pizza or eyeball meatballs and spaghetti with garlic skeleton bone breadsticks.

* Other activities include making spiderweb mint brownies, making caramel corn balls or stuffing popcorn in hand gloves to look like witch hands, or visiting the many attractions around your hometown.  Ours include: Heritage Park, Boo at the Zoo, witch hunt at Gardener Village, Garden after Dark, etc.

Caramelitas

I've made many batches of this yummy caramel treat and I found my favorite over at Little Birdie Secrets.

Oatmeal Caramelitas
35 caramels
5 T. evaporated milk
--melt in a saucepan over low heat stirring often until melted and combined.

While melting caramel, mix together:
1 cup quick cook oats
1 cup flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup melted butter
--Press half of the mixture into a greased 11 x 7 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with 1 cup chocolate chips. Pour caramel mixture over chips. Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture on top. Bake for 15 minutes more. Refrigerate immediately for at least 2 hours. Cut and eat!

Homemade "Wendy's" Frosty

Thank you Christy, for bringing this into my life!

1 c milk
1/2 c. Nestle Quick (we use Carnation Instant Breakfast)
3 cup s vanilla ice cream, softened at room temperature for about 10 minutes

Blend milk and Quick for 10 seconds on high.  Pulse in ice cream until mixed.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Last week was all cake at my house.  The request: "vintage, daffodil yellow".

Felicia's Specialty Cake:

1 box lemon cake mix
1 box small lemon pudding
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 c warm water
1/2 cup oil
1 heaping T poppy seeds

Follow directions on back of cake mix, except add all ingredients listed above.  Bake in Bundt pan for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter (4 T)
3 - 3/12 cups powder sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth.  Gradually add sugar until light and fluffy.

Lemon Meringue Buttercream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 water
1/3 c. meringue powder
1 lb. powder sugar
1 1/2 cups room temperature butter
2 T lemon curd (more or less to taste)

Mix granulated sugar and water in a medium size pot, over medium heat.  Mix and cook until sugar is completely dissolved.  Allow to return to room temperature (crucial step!).  Once cooled, mix sugar syrup with meringue powder in blender until mixture peaks (about 5 minutes). Stir in powdered sugar.  Add butter until mixture reaches a smooth consistency.  Add lemon curd to taste.

Recent Reads

I don't know when I turned in to an avid reader . . . well, that's not true, I do remember.  I just somehow can't believe it.  I enjoy reading.  Look at me in my old age.

To commemorate this momentous occasion, I want to share the fabulous books I have read of late and my review.  Now, to clarify, I rarely read a book that wasn't highly recommended to my by someone so most of the books have a strong and favorable review.

0 stars - terrible, horrible, no good, very bad book.  Probably couldn't even make it through.
1 star - Not a good or recommended read, but there must have been something in it that made me keep reading to the end.  Something . . . not a lot.
2 stars - Enjoyable enough, but not a favorite.  Either a book that had a really good message, but kind of slow story or a book that was very easy to read, but had some major flaws.
3 stars - Great book, but has one or two flaws.  You know the books that you say, "Great book except for . . ."  Wonderful, but I might have one or two reservations.
4 stars - Fantastic.  Could go on and on and try to convince you to read this book.

The books I have read during 2011:

The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry - 3 1/2 stars (4 stars for young adult).  Amazing book.  Wonderfully fun, suspenseful and romantic.  It is however a young adult book, so the story isn't highly complicated, nor does it have a life changing theme.  But so enjoyable and a very quick read.

Before the Dawn by Dean Hughes - 3 Stars.  This book was life changing.  I cried every day I read it and felt more compassion and love for the people around me. I'd absolutely recommend it.  But . . . the book doesn't always clip along and there are some parts that are not as fast and easy to read as others.

Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran  - 3 1/2 stars.  One of the best books I've read in some time.  Historical fiction that was educational, but gripping and highly entertaining.  Why not a 4?  The author touched on one subject matter that prevented a perfect score.  Read this book. 

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton -  3 stars.  Thoroughly enjoyed reading.  Very different flow then books I've read recently.  Some questions still remained at the end, which is why it wasn't a 4 star book.  

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George - 3 stars for adults and young adults.  Light, entertaining.  Easy read.  

Becky's Easy Cheese . . . .Ball

Easy cheesy.  Perfect for an appetizer served with chips, crackers or veggies.

2  8-oz pkgs cream cheese, softened

1/4 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated

2 tsps. onion, grated

1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch Original dry salad dressing mix

Blend all ingredients together and form into two balls.  Roll in chopped nuts (I use pecans or almonds).

Serve with crackers or celery sticks.

Best if allowed to set in fridge for 24 hours before serving.

Will keep well in fridge for several weeks.