Caramel Apples

We've discovered a new favourite treat... the caramel apple. Nothing revolutionary but I'd never really made them before (okay, I did make these caramel apple bites but those are different, though also delicious)

I've never been a big fan of caramel apples because they're so tough to eat but I though Catie would think they were fun so we made them. I did the caramel and dipped the apples and Catie rolled them in the toppings .  Now before you start thinking, "whoa, those are tough, Laura's amazing". These apples are attempt number three, the first two being completely unsalvagable.

You know what would have made these easier? A candy thermometer. I don't know why I don't have one but I never remember to buy one until it's late at night and I spur of the moment make something. I figured no big deal though, I'll just use the cup of water trick and cook it until a soft ball, no problem. Everything seemed to be going fine, we dipped the apples and they were even more beautiful than these ones, except when I tried to test one once they'd cooled you couldn't even take one bite they were so hard. I figured I'd try to cut them instead but they caramel just cracked off, and I could barely get a knife through it. Not a soft ball stage.

Catie was really disappointing though so I thought we'd give it another try. I wanted to take the easy route this time and go for pre-made caramel and as I was grocery shopping I came across a display of Macintosh caramels with a pamphlet on how to make caramel apples. Perfect. It called for two packages so I bought them, mixed it with water according to directions and melted. Then we went to dip and this caramel was so stinkin thin! I still feel mislead because it turns out the package size I was supposed to use was not the one on the giant display beside the instructions. I was supposed to use one much larger and now there's too much water and it rolls off the apple and isn't ever going to set.

So now Catie's disappointed twice and I figure I can handle a homemade caramel so I tried again. I used this recipe although I'm pretty skeptical on the directions. It says you're supposed to cook it on high, without stirring for 30 minutes. My super hard first caramel was not cooked that long or that high so I just skipped the directions and took it off when I though it was ready, after maybe 7 or 8 minutes. It was perfect, nice and soft and super delicious.

I can't stand how hard they are to eat so I cut them up for both me and the kids though.

Eden likes to eat all the caramel off and leave the apples which makes me crazy but I'm trying to let it go.

We dipped them in mini M&M's, skor bits and round sprinkles and surprisingly my favourite are the sprinkles. I bought them for Catie but they have a super yummy crunch. Most recipes say you should use granny smith apples but I just grabbed a bag of whichever were the smallest which turned out the be Gala, yummy.

We've already made two batches of them, and hey, they're apples so they're a perfectly nutritional lunch right? (not that I ate it for lunch yesterday or anything...)

Pumpkin Cake

This here is a serious cake, and oh so yummy.

It starts with 6 layers of pumpkin cake.  Thick, dense, moist, perfectly spiced, pumpkin cake.
The layers are filled with a caramel buttercream and that beautiful frosting above is maple cream cheese, with a caramel swirl on top.

It was incredible, delicious and I'm seriously craving it right now.
Though I'll be honest, there was one thing I would change... I think the awesome caramel buttercream was actually pretty unnecessary.  The pumpkin and maple were so delicious together that next time I would use a basic buttercream between the layers.

Want to make one?  Let me give you the recipes, but remember, this is a serious cake, it's going to take some time to put together.

First the pumpkin cake, and this recipe comes from Paula Dean.

Pumpkin Cake
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pans; set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars at medium speed with a mixer until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating just until combined after each addition. Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.

Now with the cakes done, you'll need something to put between the layers.  Like I mentioned, when I make this again I would use a regular buttercream but the salted caramel was nice so if you want to use then here's the recipe.  First you need

Salted Caramel Glaze
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp freshly ground sea salt
Melt butter in saucepan. Add sugars and bring to boiling, stirring constantly. Stir in whipping cream and bring back to a boil. Boil for exactly 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in salt. Cool completely.  Once your caramel is cool add it to your buttercream.

Buttercream Frosting
1 cup butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar, sifted
Beat together butter and icing sugar, it will be dry and crumbly and look gross but add your caramel and it turns beautiful and so yummy.

Time to assemble.  Split each of your 3 cakes in two and layer your frosting between each.  It will be awesome and tall.  Trim the edges of your assembled cakes to make smooth edges.

Time to make some maple frosting to top it all off with.

Maple Cream Cheese Icing 
8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp Mapleine (maple extract)
1/2 tsp salt
Mix cream cheese, butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, Mapleine, and vanilla until smooth.

Frost your cake using your favourite technique.

There you have it.  I told you it was serious, but it's well worth all the effort, promise.

Here's a glamorous inside shot (on a paper plate) so you can see all the layers.

And one last one, cause I can't help myself.

Ice Cream Party

My friend Becca was getting ready to go on her mission for the LDS church so I offered to throw a farewell party for her.  I really wanted this party to be special, I wanted her to feel like someone thought about her and made an effort for her so I came up with an awesome ice cream bar idea that turned out so great.

Here's a shot of the table.

Now let's talk details

I picked up some cute red and white stripey straws so that became the colour scheme.  I kept the drink simple with lemon water.

We had chunks of brownies, bananas and bottles of spray cream and then beside those you can see all our toppings.  There were chopped peanuts, Reece's Pieces , Marshmallow Fluff, Chopped Skor Bits, Oreo Crunch (that stuff that's between the layers of a DQ cake), toasted coconut and some cute candy coated chocolate pieces.  My mother-in-law will be happy to hear that we finally used up the last of those chocolate pieces.  Then for sauces there was a butter pecan, a strawberry, caramel sauce and a chocolate sauce.

You can see some sugar cones for those that wanted a cone and then behind that are the cute paper bowls we used.  I filled the green bowl with ice and then put a bucket of ice cream on top and it stayed pretty frozen.

I made some super simple labels for everything so people would know what they getting.  The toppings all got put in some Ikea glass jars that are in my pantry (I temporarily emptied stuff).  Two of the sauces are in mason jars and two of them in squeeze bottles (loved these bottles!).  I bought a cheap plastic table cloth that I threw away at the end of the night and I was so grateful I hadn't used my nice cloth one instead, there were a lot of spills and I'm pretty sure my good one would have been ruined.

We figure we had about 40-45 people come and one of the best thing I did was pre scoop some of the ice cream.  I took two large cookie sheets and arranged as many bowls as I could (I could fit 12).  Then I scooped my ice cream into the bowls and put those two cookie sheets in the freezer.  When the first group came I pulled out the bowls.  This way no one had to wait for me to scoop, they could just grab a bowl and I didn't need to stand and scoop all night.  When those initial bowls were gone I would scoop 6 or so at a time.

I got the cute straws at chapters and already had all of the jars.  My biggest supplier was the Real Canadian Wholesale Club, they really came through for me.  That's where I got the tablecloth, the awesome squeeze bottles, the paper bowls and paper cups.  The bowls were my favourite find, they're like the ones you would use at Menchies (a self serve frozen yogurt place) and they were the perfect portion size and I liked that they were white.

Everybody loved their sundaes and we even had leftovers.

Second Annual Deep Fried Goodies

Last year, during our yearly Magrath celebration weekend we plugged in the deep fryer and ate battered and deep fried Twinkies, Peanut Butter Cups and Twix bars.  They were so delicious that we put a limit on our consumption, we're only allowed these deep fried treats once a year, I'm pretty sure that's all our bodies can handle so when this weekend rolled around we were excited to repeat the experience.  We made a few changes and added a couple rules.  Not only are we only allowed to eat them once a year we're also only allowed three treats per evening.  If we want to add something we need to subtract.

Everything we made we deep fried in funnel cake batter and since we knew they were delicious we started with Reese's Peanut Butter cups, only we used the mini ones.  They're awesome and will make a third appearance next year.


While looking for a good funnel cake recipe (which I found here and highly recommend) I stumbled on the most amazing idea... Deep Fried Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  She gives an egg-less recipe and this was hands down our favourite treat.  We did make the usual Twinkies but they were so overshadowed  by the cookie dough we don't even need to make them next year, we all wanted more cookie dough.


Next year we're going to try some deep fried cheesecake.
We also enjoyed some funnel cake with strawberries and cream.  It was a good evening and I already look forward to next year.

*None of these photos are mine, I borrowed them.

Bakery Size Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a problem, it's a cookie problem and it's all thanks to these babies.

I just ate the last one (yes, I ate a peanut butter cookie at 9 am) and I'm already dreaming of the next batch.

Now the charm of these cookies is the giant size, let me give you a reference photo so you can see just how big we're talking.  The size alone makes them impressive but the taste carries them to the next level.

That's right, they're almost as big as my hand.  Each cookie is 1/3 cup of batter.  I thought the method of making giant cookies was genius so I've tried it with a few other recipes but they never turn out as magical, it's something about this particular dough that lends itself to huge cookies.

I recently found this recipe on Sew Dang Cute Crafts and I made the cookies just as she directed except for two small changes.  1 cup of mini chocolate chips?  It seemed immediately clear from her photo that would not be enough for me so I added 2 cups of regular chips and I thought they were perfect (I may have thrown in an extra handful after the two cups).  She also says to bake them for 19-21 minutes which I did the first time I made them but then I was disappointed that they turned out crunchy.  Even at 19 minutes when I took them off the pan right away they were still crunchy.  I'm a soft cookie person so the second time I baked them for 17 minutes ignoring the fact that they were clearly not done baking when I took them out of the oven.  I left them on the pan to cool and I can't tell you how perfectly they turned out.

So go bake some cookies, or better yet, don't bake these cookies so when I bring them somewhere you're super impressed with my skills.

I tried to give you the recipe but I couldn't get it to download properly so you'll just have to visit Sew Dang Cute Crafts to make these lovelies.

Pinterest Food Roundup

Thanks to Pinterest we've been eating some especially delicious foods lately and I thought it was time to share a list of food I've been making .

We'll start with the Autumn Chopped Salad

I actually made a salad very similar to this before I saw the pin but they made a couple changes I was intrigued by.  My salad was crisp lettuce, toasted pecans, craisens, Parmesan, feta cheese and a little poppy seed dressing to finish it off.  They skipped the Parmesan but they added pears, bacon and a splash of balsamic vinaigrette.   Now the bacon I thought was unnecessary but the pears and vinaigrette were both salad changing and definitely made it into the usual recipe.  This makes a delicious dinner and would be great at a potluck.

Jalapeno Poppers
Who doesn't love jalapeno poppers?

I'm not super wild about the store bought ones though, something about the breading.  These looked so yummy I thought I'd try them and they did not disappoint, I'd make them again in a heartbeat.  You simply take Pillsbury crescent rolls, cut each one in half and then put a blob of cream cheese, a chunk of a jalapeno and top with a bit of cooked bacon.  Fold them up and bake.  I made one change that I recommend though, these poppers only cook for 10 to 15 minutes which to me meant I was going to have crunchy jalapenos and sure enough someone mentioned that in the comments.  Before I cut up my peppers I threw them in the oven to bake until they were slightly tender.  Also, again both Brad and I thought the bacon was in the way here.  We didn't like the texture of it and I would skip it next time.  Now that's two recipes in a row where I've nixed the bacon so let me just mention that I do really love bacon I just don't think it's needs to be thrown into just anything.

Skinny Baked Potato Soup

This isn't actually a recipe that I made but a friend of mine did and it was awesome.  It uses a whole head of cauliflower to make it a little better for you and I loved it.

Braided Spaghetti Bread

This recipe was actually emailed to me, I didn't find it on Pinterest but of course it's there.  It was so good it deserves two pictures.  You take bread dough and roll it out like you would cinnamon rolls, spread it with garlic olive oil (or butter).  In the centre lay some spaghetti in sauce, top with mozzarella cheese and braid it up.  This was awesome.  Garlic bread and spaghetti together, so good.  Make it tonight.

Better than Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

Everyone loves the Olive Garden right?  What's not to love so most of you have probably had their Zuppa Toscana soup.  It's a soup with potatoes, sausage and kale among other things.

I'll be the first to admit that this soup is not good for you but it was so amazing we couldn't stop raving about it.  I served it with crusty baguette and don't you dare skip the bread, it was the best part.  Now as much as we loved this soup I would make some changes next time, it had far too much sausage, I'd use half the amount and add extra potatoes.  Also, I could have used more kale so I'll make those changes next time as there will certainly be a next time.

Kung Pao Ramen Noodles

I watched this movie not that long ago called Ramen Girl, now don't rush out and watch it because it really wasn't very good but the entire movie is about the process of making ramen which made me crave it something fierce.  I did a quick Pinterest search and found a bunch of yummy looking variations and this was the one I started with.  It was awesome and easy.

White Chicken Enchiladas

For Christmas dinner this year my Mother in law made white enchiladas and I loved them and wanted more and then I came across this recipe which I loved since it doesn't include any cream of anything soup.  I do think her amounts are a little off though, there's no way her recipe called for enough cheese, I think I doubled it and I didn't fill nearly as many tortillas as she said too.  Also I discovered that I hate leftover enchiladas so next time I'd make a teeny tiny pan of these.  They were awesome the first night though.

Chicken Broccoli Supreme

Here's another no cream of anything soup. It can be tough to find casseroles that don't use a can of nasty stuff but this is a good one.  Now not good for you at all as it's topped with buttered Ritz crackers but it's super yummy and pretty.

Cheesy Bacon Pull Apart Bread

While I was down at my sister's house we went to a potluck so I made this and it was delicious and gone quickly.  Just don't make mistake, make sure your rolls don't thaw too much before you use them.  Mine was much more difficult to make than it should have been.

Pizza Bites

Oh how I love these.  A tiny ball of dough with two slices of pepperoni and a square of mozzarella tucked inside.  You stick them in a pie plate and serve with yummy sauce for dipping, so delicious.

Buffalo Chicken Bites

One last recipe and these I actually haven't tried yet, they're on the menu for dinner tonight and I have high hopes.


So there you have it a handful of tried and tested really delicious meals.  You should incorporate some into your week.  I don't know where you live but today where I live it's a perfect day for Zuppa Toscana.

Yummy Salad

Sometimes you manage to do something right in the kitchen and this salad is definitely right.

We've named it, That Yummy salad and we can't quite get enough of it.  If it's a side to the meal it steals the show, if it's the main course seconds are necessary.  It's a salad so it's really easy and I figured it was time for me to share it with all of you.

First up, your ingredients.  Some green leaf lettuce (hopefully less sad than mine was), crumbled feta cheese, grated Parmesan cheese (not that crappy powdered stuff, you need some good parmigiano reggiano), craisins, poppyseed dressing and some toasted pecans.  For this salad I went the extra mile and candied the pecans. I knew they would be good and I knew they'd make the salad better but I had no idea how salad changing they would be.  I'm not sure I'd make the salad without them now.  I used this recipe to candy them and I highly recommend it.

We ate this for dinner and since it was just Brad and I eating I ended up using half of all the ingredients you see below.  If you used the full amount it would make a salad big enough for 4.  So the key to this salad is lots of toppings and just a little dressing.  Be liberal with the toppings and show restraint with the dressing, just a light coating is all you need.  As you can see in picture number 4 it barely looks dressed but trust me when I say it's plenty.  

I served this with homemade bread sticks and it was a delicious meal.  If you wanted you could add some chicken to the salad but we don't usually think it's necessary.

So go ahead, make your own Yummy Salad.

Cupcakes in a Jar

What this?  A post that isn't What Catie Wore?  Shocking!

 Ages ago I pinned this link from cakies for cupcakes in a jar.

These cupcakes in a jar are so unique and beautiful and I knew I wanted to make some but I also didn't have any jars and wasn't willing to buy them.  Then I moved in with my Mother-in-law and she had a whole case of small canning jars, not as cute as the ones in the photo but not bad.  I knew I wouldn't package mine as beautifully (those wooden spoons are so awesome) but they still turned out not too shabby.


Before we go any further, let me tell you my opinion of red velvet cake.  I think it's stupid.  The colour comes from nothing but a whole lot of food colouring and I've never understood the draw to them. I do know that lots of people love them and they're kind of gourmet for some reason so I made them to take to my husband's work bbq.  After making them twice now they might be starting to grow on me.


As I mentioned above, I moved in with my in-laws but most of our stuff is in storage including my cake decorating supplies.  I tried to make do but my first attempt wasn't really anything special.  I had to use an icing tip that was too small, a ziplock bag for my icing but worst of all I didn't have my gel food coloring.  Instead I used what was on hand, the liquid stuff.  Those red velvet cupcakes were awfully pink.  People forgave me though and ate them anyway and they were tasty.


Not too long after my cousin was having what I thought was a Dr. Suess  themed baby shower (I think mine was the only red and blue item there).  Red velvet cupcakes with blue cream cheese icing was perfect for the theme (think Thing 1 and Thing 2).  This time I got proper food colouring and borrowed a proper tip and bag and the difference was surprising.  I didn't take a photo of my first attempt because they weren't photo worthy (being very pink and all).  Just compare my two different batches of batter.  I knew I was in trouble with the pink stuff there just wasn't anything I could do about it.

I used Bakerella's recipe for the cake and it was delicious (much better than the last recipe I used), like I mentioned above, it's cream cheese frosting tinted blue.

Since they're kind of unique I added a label to the top so people would know what they were eating.

And a photo from the top so you can see the pretty swirled top.

I'll definitely be making these again, they're delicious and so pretty.

 Linking To Monday - C.R.A.F.T., Making The World Cuter, Sugar Bee Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Girl Creative   Tuesday - All Things Related, Creative Itch, Domestically Speaking, Sassy Sites, Today's Creative Blog, This & That, Topsy Turvy    Wednesday - Blue Cricket Design, Thursday - A Glimpse Inside,  Lemon Tree Creations,  Somewhat Simple, The Train to Crazy, What Allie's Making Now   Friday - Creation Corner, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots & Jello, The CrEaTiVe CraTe

Deep Fried Goodies

The other day I mentioned that the Calgary Stampede was in town.  Brad and I were given some free admission and Grandstand show tickets so we spent one evening on the Stampede Grounds.  Before our show started we were sure to pick up our usual Stampede food, the frozen, chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick and also the pizza bread wrapped pepperoni sticks.  Both of them are super delicious and we buy them every year.  I fell into the lemonade trap and was really disappointed but I was also really interested in the deep fried Twinkies.  They sound delicious but I just wasn't willing to spend $4 for one Twinkies so I skipped it but couldn't stop thinking about it.  We were recently down in Magrath for the annual celebration and with family around it seemed the perfect time to pull out the deep fryer and the Twinkies.  We didn't stop there though...

None of these pictures are mine because it was late at night and they would have been super crappy.  Also, I didn't use recipes from any of the sites where I found the pictures, we battered them all in funnel cake batter and fried until they were golden.

We started with the Twinkie since that's what started the experiment and they ended up being my favourite of the evening.  Just be careful you don't cook them too long or the cream filling melts into the cake, not bad but not as good as visible filling.  Also, we skipped putting a stick in them and ours weren't this brown, they kind of look like corn dogs don't they?

Photo from Deep-Frying for the brave

After the success of the Twinkies we moved onto some Twix bars.  They were really delicious but none of us really loved how crunchy the cookie was, the melted caramel was sure good though.  Good enough that I ate two of them (on two different nights).

Photo from Yelp

Most people's favourite though ended up being the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  These things are seriously delicious, buy one if you ever see them!

Photo from Wellsphere

So that ended our deep fry fest for at least a year, definitely can't do it often.


Next on our list of awesomely ridiculous foods to try is the Doughnut Hamburger.

That's right, the bun is a doughnut.  Sweet and savoury here we come.

Strawberry Smoothie

Look at this, a brand new post!  This one is not a repeat.

I have a new smoothie obsession, I eat one for breakfast every day and sometimes a second later in the day.  They're great for me and delicious so I refuse to feel guilty about it.  The beauty of a smoothie is that you can put just about anything in them.  Today I thought I'd give my recipe for the most basic smoothie, you can build off this one to make some delicious creations.

First, here are you ingredients and I think these 4 are the building blocks to any good smoothie. 

So 4 main ingredients:

1. Juice - Orange juice, apple juice they're both awesome
2. Milk - This one is pretty obvious, you need the liquid to your fruit
3. Yoghurt - This makes just the right consistency.  Any flavour works but I tend to stick with vanilla
4. Frozen Fruit - I almost always use strawberries because you can buy big bags but as long as it's frozen it does the trick

Let's get on with the blending.

Start with your liquids and your yoghurt and put them in the bottom of your blender.  I know in the picture above there's a lime, it's my favourite addition and I'm sad when I don't have one but it's not essential.


Okay, here's where things get a little crazy.

Yes, that's spinach in there.  Sounds gross, I still can't quite convince myself that it's good so I only manage to add about 7 leaves, I'm getting better though.  I swear you can't taste it at all and it adds a ton of iron and other good stuff, you just have to get over the idea of it.  Add it to your liquids and blend it up.  Don't be afraid of those few flecks of green, you won't notice them.

Now add your frozen fruit, blend it up and your done.

Strawberry Smoothie
1/3 cup juice
1 cup milk
the juice of half a lime
3 tablespoons yoghurt
8 frozen strawberries

Now that you have the basic recipe you can change it up anyway you want.  I like to use two kinds of fruit, mango and strawberries being my favourite.  The second fruit doesn't need to be frozen either, just add it to your liquids and blend well.  Thicken with strawberries like usual and you have a whole new drink.

Happy Blending

Pinteresting Food

I've been using Pinterest for some time now and like everybody else I'm loving it.
You can follow my boards here if you're interested.

I've been thinking lately about how Pinterest has brought me some really incredible food and I thought I'd share some of the amazing things we've tried.


Summer Corn Fettuccine

We actually ate Summer Corn Spaghettini since we prefer it to fettuccine.  This pasta was so good, the combination of bacon, corn and red peppers was perfect.  Now keep in mind it does use 6 ears of corn, this dish really does taste like corn.  If you don't love corn then skip this dish.

Cheesy Garlic-Herb Bread

Okay, this one I didn't actually find on Pinterest but it's just too delicious to not share.
Pesto, slathered on bread and then stuffed with Mozzarella and baked?  Yes please!

Baked Oven Fries

I've often made homemade french fries and just about every time I've been disappointed that they haven't crisped up and browned the way I wanted them to.  This recipe is the solution to this and these potatoes are so good!

Peanut Butter Popcorn

This was super easy to make but so delicious.  My only tip, when you're spreading out your popcorn to cool spread it really well.  I figured I'd be able to break it apart when it was cool but it was pretty stuck together and much more difficult to eat than I would have liked.  This popcorn doesn't come out crispy, it's chewy but not stick to your teeth chewy, I'll make it again for sure.

Saltine Cracker Toffee

I've had this before but I'd never make it myself.  I was looking through Pinterest one day, saw this recipe and thought, "Yup, going to make that right now."  It used all ingredients I had on hand and came together really quick.  I was smart and halved the recipe though, we sure didn't need to eat an entire pan of these.  What I did make disappeared off the plate real quick.

And I saved the most ridiculous for last

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n' Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar

Cookie on the bottom, Oreo's layed on top that, topped with Brownies... GOOD!

So there you have it, Pinterest is a good thing.  Need an invite? I can help you out, just let me know.