S'Mores Dip!

Those short and sweet Tasty (Buzzfeed) Videos have my youngest son interested in cooking all of a sudden!  He watched one about making S'mores Dip and begged me to buy the ingredients for a week.  Who knew I had most of it in my pantry already??

Here's a super quick and easy S'mores Dip recipe that your kids can make YOU!

S'mores Dip

Ingredients:

1 bag chocolate chips
1 bag of mini marshmallows
1 box Graham Crackers (we actually preferred Animal Crackers when we experimented!)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Pour the chocolate chips into a pie plate and top with marshmallows.

Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Watch carefully so marshmallows don't burn!

Dip your crackers or cookies and enjoy!

Our little chefs :)

Homemade Gummies

My youngest is a candy addict and also going through a phase where he is realizing that processed foods don't have to come from a factory.  He has been experimenting with some recipes trying to duplicate his favorite (packaged) foods.  He watches YouTube series that teach him how to cook and anything on YouTube seems cool to him.

His first recipe was Gummy Candy!

Ingredients:

1 -3 oz box of flavored gelatin
2 – 1/4 oz  packages of unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup water
candy molds (we used silicon ice cube trays)

Directions:

Place 1/3 cup water in a small sauce pan. Sprinkle the Jello and unflavored gelatin over the water. Let sit 5 – 10 minutes.

Place sauce pan over medium heat and stir until gelatin is dissolved, about 2-5 minutes.
When mixture is liquid and all gelatin has dissolved, remove from heat.

 Let cool a minute and then pour into a glass measuring cup with a spout. Let sit for about 10 minutes then skim off the layer of bubbles that forms on top like a skin. I actually repeated this step about 10 minutes after pouring into the molds if there was a layer of bubbles on top. This is what gives you clear gummy candy like from the store.

Pour into molds and let sit several hours to set.

Taste Test!

Caramel Apples From Scratch

We have always made caramel apples by melting those little square caramel candies.  This year we were determined to make our caramel from scratch!  Sounds tricky?  I think it was actually easier!

I found our recipe in Taste of Home and we didn't even have a candy thermometer! If you don't have a thermometer, check out this Science of Candy article.

Carnival Caramel Apples 

(Taste of Home magazine)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, cubed
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• Dash salt
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 10 to 12 Popsicle sticks
• 10 to 12 medium tart apples, washed and dried

Directions

• In a large heavy saucepan, melt butter; add the brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil, about 10-12 minutes. Stir in milk. Cook and stir until a candy thermometer reads 248° (firm-ball stage). Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla.
• Insert Popsicle sticks into apples. Dip each apple into hot caramel mixture; turn to coat. Dip bottom of apples into peanuts, chocolate chips, crushed candies... Place on greased waxed paper until set. Yield: 10-12 apples.

Snickerdoodles Memories

A snickerdoodle always brings me back to my childhood, even more than the classic chocolate chip cookie. I love this chewy, cinnamon-y cookie and always pull out the recipe card given to me by my mom at my bridal shower. Now, you all know I never follow a recipe without making some changes to it - so I added half butter and half shortening for this recipe rather than all shortening.

Helper Munchkin feels compelled to squat on the counter while cooking, it's his favorite place to hang. Come to think of it, that is what he was doing when he had his accident, squatting on the bathroom sink to see in the mirror.

There are huge chunks of my childhood I don't recall, but one clear memory I have is rolling snickerdoodle dough in cinnamon sugar, using the dishwasher door as my table, just like this.

Helper Munchkin insisted on chocolate chip after we'd already begun, so I divided the dough in half and added mini-chocolate chips to half and rolled the rest in cinnamon sugar. Compromise never tasted so good!


Did you know that today is National Wear Red Day? It's a day designed to bring awareness to women and heart disease, the #1 killer of women. A worthy cause that requires only that you stand up, spread the word and show your support by wearing RED!!!

Wanna shop?

Let's start underneath with BoBelly

A party dress to make us feel pretty by Classic Tailors


Keep warm with this wrap by Knitting Guru


And a purse to pull it all together by Daphnenen

Dude, I didn't forget you...check out this rockin' belt by Foster Weld

How to Make Easter Candy with a 5 Year Old

Okay, I'd heard "Mom, what kind of project can I do?" about 30 times yesterday so decided to include Helper Munchkin in the Easter basket project for his cousins. This is so easy and really does look cute in a cellophane bag tied with a ribbon. You have 30 minutes to get to the store for supplies: chocolate chips, sprinkles, and peeps....ready? Go!

Good, now here goes...melt your chocolate and dip in your peep butts. Done.

Now, fill up a ziplock bag with extra chocolate and squirt it over the tops of the peeps because you are tired of dipping and cover with sprinkles.

Now, look at the rest of the chocolate and sprinkles and wonder what you can do with them (besides squirt the melted chocolate directly into your mouth).

Discover that chocolate squirted onto a plate of sprinkles makes nonpareils! Bonus!

Bag em up and you're done. You look so crafty!