Candied Apples

Every year when we make our pre Easter trip to Philly to go to the Italian Market one of the things my Mother in law gets for Easter is Candied Apples from Anthony's Coffee House. She loves them. One is $11.95. She usually gets four. I decided since she didn't get to go to Philly this year I would make them.

Here is my price break down:
4 Granny Smith Apples: $3.75
Caramel w/ sticks: $2.25
Chocolate: $2.00
White Chocolate: $2.00
Sprinkles: $1.75

Total from Wal-Mart: $11.75

So I can make four for the price of buying one. Here is how I did it:

Gather all of your supplies:

Take the sticks out of the Caramel Bag:

Put the Caramel and 2 tablespoons of water in a pot & Heat on Med-Low: (Keep an eye on it)

Stick the sticks in your apples:

Roll the apples in the caramel after its melted:

Put on wax paper to dry:

I cool them in the fridge over night. Then I top the next day.

First I melt chocolate. Milk, White, Dark whatever. I do many different apples.

From there it is unlimited possibilities. You can roll it in crushed cookies or nuts while wet. For this post I will let the milk chocolate dry.

Then I will melt white chocolate and drizzle it over the milk chocolate.

Voila! Enjoy!

Coconut Eggs

Ingredients:

• 2-½ cups Sweetened, Flaked Coconut
• ¾ cups Light Corn Syrup
• 2 cups To 3 Cups Milk Chocolate Chips (for Melting)

Directions:
Gather all of your supplies.

Place 2 1/2 cups of sweetened flaked coconut in a medium sized mixing bowl.

Pour 3/4 cup of Light Corn Syrup into a pot. Heat to just under boiling on medium-low. Remove from the heat when you see a few small bubbles rising to the surface.

Pour heated corn syrup over the coconut. Set aside for approximately 1 hour so the coconut can absorb the corn syrup.

Wet hands in cold water. Shape coconut mixture in to medium size “eggs” and set on waxed paper. Let shaped eggs sit overnight so they can dry slightly. (Mine are circles not eggs but eh who cares.)

Note: When shaping the eggs be sure to keep your hands wet so the coconut mixture does not stick. I usually shape 3-4 eggs before returning to the sink to wet my hands again.

When you are ready to assemble the eggs:

Melt approximately 2 cups of milk chocolate chips. I used a double boiler.

Remove eggs one at a time and dip in chocolate to coat. (The uncoated eggs will stick slightly to the waxed paper because of the corn syrup at the bottom. Just kind of “roll” them off the paper for best results.)

Set the chocolate covered eggs on waxed paper to dry. This batch looked more like balls than eggs. The next batch should be better.

Enjoy!

These are Tristan approved.

 

5 1/2 Dozen cookies down

Well they still have to be iced. See all of this:

I still have to make one lamb cake, coconut eggs, coconut eggs with almonds inside, caramel apples, and god knows what else. See a pattern? I get stuck with cookies, cakes & sweets. I am not sure how. LOL!

Rolled Sugar Cookies Part 2

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 8 Minutes
Servings: 4-5 Dozen

What Tristan was doing while I baked. He loves blueberry muffins.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

I rolled cut and baked one of my two bowls of cold dough. It made exactly 32 cookies.

Get everything you need together.

Pre-heat your oven and flour or powder sugar your counter/work space.

Roll out your dough and cut it.

Pull away the uncut dough.

Put the cut dough on a cookie pan. I always do cookies on non stick tin foil.

Bake in the oven 6-8 minutes. Today I had to go 8. Sometimes its less.

Put on cooling racks and cool. I usually cool a few hours on the rack and then put them in a gladware container until the next day when I ice them.

I call these my 3 day sugar cookies since it takes me three days.

Rolled Sugar Cookies Part 1

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 8 Minutes
Servings: 5 Dozen

 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. 

I make the whole recipe from hand since its been drilled in my head to never use a mixer on doughs. But do it how you want. 

Directions

 Soften your butter. I throw mine in the microwave for 45 seconds.

Measure out your sugar

Add your softened butter

Cream together butter and sugar

Add Eggs

Add Vanilla

Cream this together

Add Flour

Add Baking Powder

Add Salt

Mix Together

Then I separate and put in the fridge to cool. Cool for 1 hour or over night. I cool in 2 bowls so the dough doesn't get really warm.

Tomorrow I will roll, cut, and bake the cookies. Then they cool over night again and get iced. Stay tuned!

NOTE: Don't crack your eggs directly into the bowl, especially when using farm fresh eggs. I buy my eggs from the Amish down the street. So they never see a factory. I cracked one and got a bad one and had to start all over!

Fix it Friday #48

Original:

My edit:

Sorry it is a day late.

I used CS3 to edit.

Now it’s your turn. Click here to download this Fix-It Friday photo and to read the Fix-It Friday Instructions.

I am figuring it out

My camera that is. I can use it in manual. YAY! I took this while the car was going 107. My husband said but you didn't get the whole car. LMAO ok honey he was speeding down the track. I know most people are like ok she figured out shutter speed. But I am damn proud of myself.

Scariest Day EVER!

Someone tried to break into Rick's car while we were in the back and Rick was in the MVA. I've never been so scared. I think he saw the keys in the front and didn't see the baby and I in the back. So scary I pounded on the window and started yelling I'm calling 9-1-1. He ran away.

I think what if I wouldn't have made Rick lock the doors. What if I had taken a picture of him instead of just giving a verbal descrition. What if he would have pulled a gun. I can't keep thinking about it but its all I can think of. I told Rick I will never go to that county AGAIN! We don't have an MVA so we had to go to a not so nice town in a not so nice county. Oh sometimes its called the DMV not MVA. I had a glass of wine tonight. Ok almost a whole bottle.

Longest Day Ever

Today was the longest day ever. We had contractors coming in to fix warranty issues with the house. The first one came at 8:15 and the last one left at 6:15. There was the plumbers, floor people, builders people, and more. The only person that didn't show was the drywall guy.

The flooring in Tristan's room needed to be redone so I started taking his stuff out around 7am. I just  moved him to my bed. When he woke up at 7:45 he had a fit and cried and cried but I couldn't explain it to him. So we ate breakfast and played.

I made the mistake of letting him watch the floor guys rip the carpet out of his room. BAD BAD BAD BAD IDEA!!! He got mad. REALLY MAD! He was yelling at them and waving his arms around and they laughed at him so it made it worse. They had to saw and grind the wood floor under the carpet. So that set all of the smoke detectors off.

It was so funny. They are all tied together so T and I went outside. Then the construction foreman was jokingly yelling out the window help me we are on fire. That was kinda funny. The detectors went off for almost an hour.

The leaking 17 month old water heater got fixed. (I will always know exactly how old my house is because we closed on it the day after Tristan was born. So Rick had to do the final walk through with the builder alone. He did the walk through, closing and moving us in all in ONE day while we were at the hospital. That is my MAN!) And the knocking in the pipes got fixed.

Tonight when Tristan saw this:

He knew it was time for this:

So he was happy. Sorry its a crappy pic. I have not mastered no blur when I don't use the flash.

I was up and down the stairs a million in one times today. Sometimes I curse a 3 story townhouse and I hate whenever a worker went out I would say just come back in but they insisted on ringing the bell so it multiplied my steps. Oh well my chins and thighs tell me it was a good work out.

Tristan's first skinned knee.