Chocolate Covered Cherries

This recipe was given to me by my Aunt Audra back in 2001 and I have made them every Christmas since then.  When I was growing up I had a neighbor who would give me and my sisters a box of chocolate covered cherries each for Christmas.  I think he started my love affair with these incredible candies.  Now that I know how to make my own, I don't buy boxed anymore.  These take about 2-3 weeks for the insides to liquefy so plan ahead if you are going to be making them as gifts.

Ingredients:
3 T unsalted butter, softened
3 T light corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 pkg chocolate almond bark
1 large jar of stemmed cherries
1 pkg mini muffin liners

Drain cherries.  Put them in a bowl with paper towels and put them in the fridge to chill.

Combine butter, syrup and salt.

 Stir in powdered sugar.  You will have a big sticky ball and will have to use your hand to really mix.  Sometimes you need to chill it too.  

Take a tsp of sticky mixture to wrap around a cherry.

 Leave stem uncovered.  Place on wax paper and chill.

 Dip in melted chocolate and place in mini muffin cups.  I use the Ghirardelli chocolate because I have found that as far as taste and appearance go, it's the best.  Make sure to cover the whole cherry up to the stem.

Yummy!  Now just store them in a cool, dark place for 2-3 weeks and they'll be ready to eat!  I always eat a few after making them and they taste good too but it's so much better when the sugar has liquefied. 

Pumpkin Bread

This is a moist and delicious treat that we love to enjoy every fall.  It fills the house with delicious smells and begs us to pick every crumb off of our plates.

Ingredients:
1 - 15oz can of pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups Splenda sugar blend for baking (you can use regular white sugar too)
3/4 cup water
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 6 3x5 loaf pans.

In a large bowl mix together pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil, water, sugar, and vanilla; until well blended.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended.  Pour into prepared pans.

After making 4 loaves I added 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips to the rest of the batter and made a couple of them into Pumpkin Chocolate Chip loaves.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes in preheated oven.

Loaves are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cut you a piece, grab a fork and enjoy!  These make a great little gift to share with a friend or neighbor.

If you divide each loaf into fifths then 1/5 is worth 5 Weight Watchers points.  If you make it with regular sugar it's more...not sure how much more.

Apple Dew Crisp

This recipe is a combination of two recipes that I really like.  I just took a Apple Crisp recipe and tweaked it a little bit by adding in some of the ingredients of the Apple Dew recipe.  We all really enjoyed it.  I hope your family will too.

Ingredients

• 2 Granny Smith apples cored, peeled and chopped
• 3/4 cup Mountain Dew (diet or regular)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/2 cup sifted flour
• 1 cup quick or old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup melted butter or margarine

 Core and peel your apples and chop into small pieces.  Place in a bowl with the Mountain Dew.  Stir and refrigerate for 6-8 hours.  

 When apples are about ready, lightly butter an 8-in square pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl; blend in melted butter and vanilla.  

 Press 2/3 of mixture into bottom of pan.  

 Cover with apple mixture.  Sprinkle with remaining oat mixture.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned.

 Cool; cut into squares; serve topped with ice cream or whipped cream.

Makes 8-10 servings.

Ice Cream in a Bag

I found a recipe for making ice cream in Ziploc bags in a Family Fun magazine.  I think it was the June 2011 issue.  I found the recipe on their website, www.familyfun.go.com
 There is even an instructional video that you can watch.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup half and half
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup salt (The bigger the granules, the better. Kosher or rock salt works best, but table salt is fine.)

• Ice cubes (enough to fill each gallon-size bag about half full)
• 1 pint-size ziplock bag
• 1 gallon-size ziplock bag

Instructions:

1. Combine the sugar, half and half, and vanilla extract in the pint-size bag and seal it tightly.
   
2. Place the salt and ice in the gallon-size bag, then place the sealed smaller bag inside as well. Seal the larger bag. Now shake the bags until the mixture hardens (about 5 minutes). Feel the small bag to determine when it's done.
   
3. Take the smaller bag out of the larger one, add mix-ins, and eat the ice cream right out of the bag. Easy cleanup too! Serves 1.

We added chocolate syrup into Caleb and Simon's bags so that they would have chocolate ice cream. I would highly recommend washing your little Ziplocs off after removing them from the big bag. That way you don't have wet, salty fingers while eating your ice cream and maybe it will keep that salty water from dripping into your ice cream too.

 The boys had fun shaking their bags.  Josh won the award for the "Most Excited Shaker".

Even Simon shook his bag but he had lot's of help.

I scream!  You scream!  We all scream for ice cream!

The mustaches agree!  It's yummy!