Baking Monday - Peanut Butter Cup Truffle Brownies

AKA, using up Halloween candy, part 2! Happily, there were enough peanut butter cups in our stash to make these today:



Really, there's nothing more I can say to sell this recipe: if you like chocolate, brownies and/or peanut butter, you won't be disappointed. You could maybe cut back a teensy bit on the butter, but everything else is awesome. I used a mix of Ghiradelli and Hershey's chips. Super gooey and chocolatey. Enjoy!

Halloweening

It was a no-brainer that Dora and Theo chose Potter costumes this year, as they spent all summer imagining themselves in the wizarding world. Clark originally wanted to be a bat, then changed his mind to a cat when they realized they could all go together. This was their first costume theme since they were a spider / flower / bumblebee back in preschool (but that was more of a happy accident that they all coordinated.) So, this year, we had ...



... a lovely Hermione ...



... a handsome Harry ...



... and a contemplative Crookshanks.

I was originally going to make Clark a costume from an orange sweatsuit and then found this costume at a thrift shop last week for three dollars. I wish it had just ears on the hood - I like when the kids' faces are the costume face - but the price, color, and size was too good to pass up. And Clark's worn it every day since it came home.



Dora had her hair crimped for a party over the weekend, but we didn't have time to do it for trick-or-treating. Which was fine, because this is what she looked like before we went out:



It was cold, but at least there was no snow! Those scarves came in handy! (And I am loving Theo in glasses. Just a matter of time ...)



And maa-aan, did they score. This was the first year that Clark actively participated in trick-or-treating. Last year, he just hung out in the stroller and Dora collected candy for him. Dora went out with friends for the first time this year and stayed out twice as long as we did, so she came home with an extra full bag. Going out with friends was not our favorite - I missed her too much, and she wanted to come home much sooner than she did ... we'll stick together next year. One bonus, though - with Theo as the oldest child, his personality just shone. He was the one leading the group from door to door, not just trailing behind Dora. I had a fantastic time with him, cracking jokes and making conversation with us all evening.



Theo's traditional jack o'lantern and Clark's puppy pumpkin. Dora's had unfortunately rotted out by the time we carved (any advice on keeping pumpkins fresh or picking the best ones?) so her grand plans for a Harry Potter portrait were reduced to a single lightning bolt, which still looked pretty cool. Happy Halloween!

Baking Monday - Nutter Butter Bark

For this week's baking project, I was checking out a recipe for pecan caramel bark which sounded awesome, but was more complicated than I had time for. I followed the suggestion of "Other Recipes You Might Like ..." to this very easy, a little cheaty, yummy, very bad for you treat.



I had a little trouble with the recipe, because pb chips melted alone were very sticky and didn't spread very easily. Consequently, they didn't look great, so I used the ol' drizzle with chocolate trick to pretty them up. It might work better to mix the cookies right in with the melted pb chips and then drizzle with chocolate. Peanut buttery yummy. 

Sneak Preview

Guess what I stayed up waaay too late making last night?



Looking forward to Monday! Hope it doesn't snow.

Baking Monday - Corn Muffins

I've tried many corn muffin recipes, but had yet to find one we really liked. I've also been looking for things to make with corn meal, because a couple of weeks ago, I needed a tiny bit for a recipe and the grocery store around the corner only had gigantic bags. So, last time we had chili, I searched again for a new recipe to try. I found this one via Tracey's Culinary Adventures (fantastic recipes and even better photography!)



Well. Dora declared them the best ones she's ever had and has asked to make them again about once a day since we ran out. I opted to omit the corn kernels, because, blech, and nutmeg. I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I did the ol' milk plus lemon juice substitution (thanks, red & white cookbook!) and they turned out just fine. This one is definitely a keeper!

Refreshed

We had cucumbers for dinner, and Clark immediately set two aside. "I want to put these on my eyes when I go to sleep!" I do not know where he got the idea, but was SO insistent on wearing cucumbers on his eyes at bedtime. When I asked him why, he said, "So I will be refreshed!"



"And," he said, "If I get hungry in the middle of the night, I'll just ARRMPF! and eat them all up."

Baking Monday - Super Sugar Cookie Roundup!

It's been sugar cookie central around here the last three weeks! Here are some highlights ...



Wedding shower cookies - dresses, cakes, gifts, and hearts.



Signature tiger cookies with a new twist - pastels! I love how these colors turned out.



Tray for the birthday girl - an assortment of birthday items, "girly" cookies, and the cutie tigers.



I also included some personalized extras for the birthday girl.



I had an order coming up the next week for tie-dye t-shirts and socks for a tie-dye birthday party. I made some practice cookies to see how they would work.



And these are the final result! I love how they turned out! Very time consuming, but big impact.



More wedding cookies! These were for a rehearsal dinner. I'm a big fan of the monochrome colors. These were delivered on Thursday morning and ...



... thirty minutes later, I got another order for wedding cookies. Happily, I was able to use the same shapes, just changed the flowers to the bride's color - coral - and updated the hearts from pink to purple, I think they look very nice with the coral flowers. Boo for bad photography - these went on a tray at 7:30 this morning, so dim kitchen light was the best I could do.

I love making these, but they are not my favorite cookie to eat. So, in between all the sugar cookie craziness, I had to make a batch of pb chocolate chip cookies just for me.