Chocolate Apple Cupcakes

So I keep seeing everything for fall popping up more and more every day. Even in my own kitchen I've noticed that we've shifted from the bbq outside every night to the heartier warmer meals of Autumn. I've been canning jam and potatoes and hopefully pumpkin soon.  So I got thinking, with all the changes going on what says Fall more than caramel apples. I've been really wanting to attempt a salted caramel for a while. So I buckled down and said okay "let's do it!"

Now if you know me you know that come Christmas I usually make "Gourmet" Caramel Apples. And by "Gourmet" I mean the big chocolate and topping covered caramel apples you see in specialty stores and at the fair. Their super simple and easy to make but I wanted to try something different. So we did Chocolate Apple cupcakes with Caramel buttercream and Caramel sauce.

 Of course my "choco-holic" son was in sneaking bits of cake batter and wouldn't wait for them to be frosted but these melt in your mouth cupcakes were fun to make, even if I did stress about the caramel the whole time.

All you need to make them is

1 box chocolate cake mix and ingredients listed on box.
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2-3 small or medium granny smith apples peeled cored and diced


For the frosting
1 cup shortening
1 lb powdered sugar
2 tsp butter flavoring
2 Tbsp meringue powder
2-4 Tbsp water.
3/4 cup caramel sauce

For the Caramel Sauce
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup cream
1 tsp salt

Mix up the cake mix as directed on the box adding the spices and apples then bake as directed.  When they are done let them cool to room temp.  I made my Buttercream using a recipe I had memorized but if you have a favorite recipe I suggest using that. You want to leave your frosting really stiff so that when you add the caramel you don't end up with soup. Only add enough water to pull your frosting together for you.

Now remember this was my first attempt at Caramel Sauce. Again if you have a recipe you prefer by all means use it!   I added my sugar and water to a saucepan and swirled them together to get them mixed together. Then I turned the heat on med- med-high and let it go. It took a while but slowly the sugar dissolved and started to brown. ** I did not stir the sauce. Occassionally I would swirl the pot not often** When it reached that nice amber caramel color I pulled it off the heat and added the butter. **This is when I whisked the sauce** Whisk the butter and salt into the sauce until smooth, it does bubble up a lot and get thick but keep whisking it will liquify again. Then whisk in the cream. I immediatly poured it into a glass  measuring cup and set it aside to cool for a minute. Be sure to watch the pot, it turns really fast!! Within a second it can burn!!

After the caramel had cooled to the point it wouldn't melt my frosting I added  about 3/4 cup of the sauce to the frosting and mixed it well. Then I frosted the cakes and drizzled the remaining sauce over the top.

The chocolate is sweet, the apples a little sour and the caramel a bit salty! The perfect combination! Hope you enjoy!!

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

So with  fall coming on and the leaves changing I've got Fall Fever. And I've got it BAD! I love the crisp mornings, and the air just smells different.  With Autumn in the air everyone starts getting ready to set in for the winter. Apples and pumpkins start showing up in abundance in the farmer's markets. And I can't wait for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and all the BAKING.  I know it's kinda early, I usually don't start getting this antsy until the first week of October but this year I just couldn't wait!

So this morning while perusing all the pumpkin recipes on Pinterest I got a craving for a pumpkin donut. Not seeing one I decided to make my own recipe.  I can't take full credit for this one being as I used a recipe for a baked cake donut I found and just omitted, substituted and added new ingredients to come up with this one.

I got about 38 donuts outta this...
Donuts
 4 cups all-purpose flour
 1 1/2 cup sugar
 2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
4 large eggs,
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large can pumpkin pie mix
1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Glaze
  1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chocolate chips
1 cup cream
1 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar




For the Donuts whisk your dry ingredients together and then mix your wet ingredients together in seperate bowls.  Mix the two bowls together and then add the chocolate chips.  I spooned about 1/4 cup of batter into each of the holes in my donut pan. Spread the batter evenly around and then bake at 325 for about 12-14 minutes. When the tops are springy they are done.

While donuts were cooling I made my glaze. Simmer the cream or you can use half and half on the stove but be careful not to scald it.  Using a metal bowl I poured the cream over the remaining chocolate chips and let it sit for a minute or two. Then I whisked it still smooth, and started adding the powdered sugar a half cup at a time.  Be sure to whisk it until its smooth.  I made the mistake of thinking it was smooth and when I put it on my donuts figured out it wasn't. I still had little bits of powdered sugar running through my chocolate. Next time I'll use the kitchen aid with it's whisk attachment.

My kids were drooling over my shoulder and watching through the oven door. Every time the timer beeped Boo jumped up and down screaming the donuts are done! Can't tell he likes donuts can ya? Even now while they sit cooling he's standing guard over them! Hope this one works out for everyone the way it worked out for me!

Crunchy Mac and Cheese

Kids have funny a sense of taste. My three for example: Tato HATES spice. And I mean hates. She won't eat anything if it has black pepper on it, or if she thinks it does. Little does she know she actually eats it all the time! Boo on the other hand LOVES spicey things. He loves hot sauce on his eggs and hot and sour soup. Part of that is his SPD. He tends to be hyposensitive when it comes to food. But even before we noticed problems he was all for anything spicey... Just like his Mom! Brookers is just plain a grazer. She doesn't care what it is, if it's food she'll eat it!

So how do you please such a picky crowd? My answer is crunchy mac and cheese. My kids named this dish crunchy because of the cereal I put on top. The idea for this dish came one night when we ordered Pizza Hut. For some odd reason we decided to order their mac and cheese with bacon too. It tasted good. We liked it. Little did we know that there was something better in the works.

A couple weeks later I got to thinking that that mac and cheese was really good but I thought I could make it better. After several months of trial and error I came to this recipe.

• 1 stick + 3 TBSP (reserved) margarine melted
• 5 TBSP flour
• 6 c. milk
• 4 oz. velveeta melted
• 4 oz. grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 8 oz. mild or med. cheddar cheese cubed
• 1 c. grated colby jack cheese
• 1 lb bacon
• 1 lb elbow macaroni
• 2 c. Honey bunches of oats cereal crushed
• 2 TBSP mustard
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Fry bacon till crisp and remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain grease.
3. Melt stick of butter in large pot then add flour and mix to form a roux. Let flour mixture cook for 1 minute then slowly add milk. Whisk together till smooth and mixture starts to thicken.
4. Then add melted velveeta and whisk till smooth. Next add your grated sharp cheddar a handful at a time. Allow the cheddar to melt in between handfuls so that it does not clump and melts smoothly.
5. Once sauce is thickened and cheese is melted add mustard, nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Whisk together and set sauce aside.
6. Cook macaroni in boiling salted water for five minutes. It will finish it's cooking in the oven.
7. While macaroni is cooking crumble bacon. Add remaining reserved melted butter to crushed cereal and set aside.
8. When pasta is done drain thoroughly. Add cooked pasta, half of the bacon, and cubed cheese to the sauce mix well and pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle in order the remaining bacon, colby jack cheese, and cereal mixture over the top of mac and cheese.
9. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly throughout and golden brown.

Footnotes

• You can substitue any mixture of cheeses that you feel pair well. This dish also reheats very well in the microwave. I like to serve this as a main dish meal with a small salad and dinner rolls. Also works great with skim milk and whole wheat pasta for a healthier version. The kids just eat it up! Literally!

Breakfast for Dinner

Happy summer everyone! It's so nice when I don't have to get up before the suns up to get my oldest ready for school. We get to sleep in and have pajama days. I love those days! When we spend till lunch in our pj's and finally decide that we better get dressed before Dad gets home. It's great! But with the lazy days come the hot lazy days.

You know the one's I'm talking about. The ones that the heat just sucks the energy right out of you. And you were able to feed the kids pop tarts for breakfast, pb&j for lunch but now its the dreaded hour of dinner. Now normally I can't wait for dinner time. Because I LOVE TO COOK! And I love that we get that time to be together as a family before we rush off to work on whatever needs to be done. Or usually that my husband has go back to work.

But when the heat is so much that the thought of turning on the stove let alone the oven is enough to make even me go running from the kitchen in fear what do you do? I had one of those days this week. It was hot, I was tired, and obviously my kids were not in the mood to actually like each other that day. 

I trudged through the house to the fridge looking at what could I make that wouldn't require effort, I decided on pancakes. A staple in our house, pancakes are usually made from a made from scratch mix that I'd made a few weeks before. Or if in a pinch Bisquick. I don't use just water like I know some of you like to do. Especially with Krusteaz. But use whatever mix you normally have on hand.  I add eggs, milk, and vanilla to mine with the result being a thick fluffy sweet pancake that my kids just eat up. Literally! They eat like five or six pancakes a sitting. 

Well this time, I was out of vanilla and didn't want just a plain old boring pancake and syrup for dinner.  This is kind of off subject but my favorite kind of ice cream shake is cherry chocolate chip cashew.  And as I searched for what to add to this pancakes I thought that all I really wanted was a shake for dinner. Lightbulb! I had cherries, and I had chocolate. Cashews? Nope, but the thought of those in a pancake just didn't seem right to me.

So I threw together this crazy idea and twenty minutes later and the griddle not heating up my house this is what we ended up with.

The recipe (approximatly)

4 cups pancake mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract ( I use butter or almond if I'm out of vanilla)
1/2 c pomegranate juice
2-3 cups milk
1/2 c sugar
Pitted Cherries
1 cup chocolate chips or about half a bag
2-3 drops red food coloring

I just threw everything in the bowl and mixed it together.  Then we topped them with some whipped cream, whole cherries and chocolate shavings.

Now if you know me you know that I usually don't follow a recipe. They never turn out for me. So everything I make is usually just me throwing together a make-shift recipe.  And when it turns out trying to remember the amounts! You can add more or less of anything I use.  I added the juice to add some fruity flavor to these but you don't have to use it. The only thing I will say about the milk is that milk is expensive. I use it because I can't stand just water in pancakes. But feel free to use just water or to half and half it with the milk.

I leave my pancake mix a little thin and let it sit for a few minutes. I like it to thicken up before I pour it on the griddle. It gives you a thicker fluffier pancake. If you come back and your batter is too thick add a little more liquid and use the consistency you and your family like.

 Brooker's ate 3 of these and the other two together polished off almost 10 and were complaining they wanted more. Definately another hit around here! Next time I have a quick and easy chicken salad recipe for another hot day dinner!

Happy Cooking!

Movin on up..

I feel like I haven't been around much lately. But for good reason! We have been able to take advantage of an awesome opportunity! We have moved into a bigger home, on a bigger lot, on a MUCH MUCH quieter street. It's not only safer for my kids, but so far has been one of the best things to happen to our family.

We were living in a smaller 1930's 3 bed home on probably the busiest street in Roy. Now we've been able to rent (hopefully for only six months till we can buy it!) a larger house on a dead end street.  Where we were on a 1 acre lot that we only had access to 1/8th of it we now have a full 1/2 acre for the kids to run and play. I don't know who was more excited. Me or them!

We spent just over a month remodeling and cleaning and on Memorial weekend moved in. It's the first place we've been able to put our large sectional living room set in the room AND still have space around it. We can sit at our dining room table for dinner and not be squished. 

We still have a lot of work to do and everyday we try to do small jobs leaving bigger ones for the weekend. But isn't that part of owning a home anyways? The constant honey-do list that never seems to end. And the multiple trips on a Saturday to the hardware store because this didn't work, or you found another problem that has to be fixed.  So with this being said I have three tips to remodeling:

#1 NEVER I repeat NEVER count on it being done when you expect it to be. By this I mean that it is a no fail guarantee that something (especially on a older home) will either not fit right, not work right, or will you find another problem to fix first. This goes most importantly with plumbing. For example we tried to switch out our toilets this weekend. Needless to say I have one working toilet (the one that didn't get taken out) and a bathroom that is now unusable until we could get back to the store. I'm just so thankful that my step-dad knew what he was doing and came out to help. Otherwise I'm afraid of the words and phrases that would have come out of my husband!

#2 Don't start on a Sunday! I know I know that Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest. But for some, work schedules don't allow for Saturday home improvement projects! My husband had school all day Saturday and then had a 12 hour shift at the fire station. And of course they don't get a call until half an hour before his shift ended. So the list of things to accomplish didn't get started till almost 3 pm Sunday afternoon. Home Depot AND Lowes close at 8. Thus the un-finished bathroom project and the others that didn't get started or finished yesterday.

#3 Don't be a wuss! This is meant for all you women out there who think you aren't Wonder Woman! You may not think you can start a project or work alongside your husband doing the dirty work. But you can do it!

While we were working on the house we found that the dining room floor had to be ripped out and replaced. Since my husband is in class three days a week and working two jobs he really didn't have a lot of time for remodeling. So one afternoon while my two older kids were at school. I armed myself and my two year old little girl (perfect time to set the example on how strong women really are!) with a screw driver, hammer, and crow bar. And we set to work. Two hours later we had all the ruined wood out and the floor cleaned and ready for new wood. My husband was so impressed he kept bragging to everyone later who asked him about the floor.

 I think that if we work alongside our spouses and include our kids in the work. Especially the girls, that it not only teaches them to work hard but that they can do anything they want. It teaches us as women that we ARE capable. I'm not saying that everyone out there thinks they can't do it, I'm just saying that if you think you can't you're wrong. Not every job is a man's job. Some of them yes. But not all. And just because we can do it, doesn't mean we need to do it alone. Work alongside your spouse and learn how things work and what to do to fix them.

A friend of mine on Facebook commented on my status one day telling me that she loved that I was a true firefighters wife. That we don't just sit around waiting for them to get the job done. We just do it!  I strongly believe that women need to know how to fix things and take care of problems that can't wait till there husband gets home. And she's right. Being the wife of a firefighter puts me in a awkward position sometimes. He's not always here, and when I really need him to be here the pager usually goes off. So I've learned to adapt and to not be afraid of picking up the tools and going to work

I hope that in my doing this that I have set an example for my daughters to grow up to be strong, and accomplished. That they don't have to know everything, but knowing a little bit about a lot of things will get them much farther than if they depend on someone else to do it for them.

So I guess the moral of my story is be prepared! Be prepared to do the work yourself, be prepared to help someone else do it, be prepared to get dirty and sweaty and covered in paint. It'll all wash off! I've more to say on moving. And hopefully on my next post pictures of the new house with all the work we accomplished!

Get inspired and go to work!

Sincerely,
 I'm not Cinderella

The artist in you..

I think everyone has a little artistic talent in them. And I think that of everyone children have the most creative talents ever! This week I have realized that my kids top everyone. It seems like every day I'm finding new mediums for art with pictures for me.  The most recent of these was the bathroom toilet!

A couple months ago after finding marker on the wall that would not scrub off I got fed up and found every marker, highlighter, pencil, pen, and crayon in every hiding spot they could be and put them up high and OFF LIMITS!!  Much to my kids dislike and their ranting and raving they have stayed up high. Or so I thought...

 Todays artwork was sponsored by a yellow highlighter, crayola, and a skin marker (that I really don't know where it came from.)  Beautiful work really...

I have to say I was proud of myself for not losing control. I had my visiting teacher here at the time, and for fear of her reaction if I pulled my adorable two year old out and swatted her I instead sternly told her that was a "no no" and sent her on her way for the moment. We would get down to the real consequence after our company left.

 Poor lady had to cover her face and was turning red from trying so hard not to laugh. Needless to say that B's reaction to getting swatted later was more funny than the toilet I should have just done it with company here! B just looked at me with a scuzzy look and gave me a grumpy noise. HAHA I haven't ever gotten such an evil eye that it made me laugh and the whole discipline thing went out the window!

Boo on the other did his typical ignore me, scream at me, and walk away. We're still working on discipline methods for him. He did have to help clean up though!

So now how to clean it up. They have to learn to clean up the messes they make whether it's a good mess or a bad one right? My next fear is marker on the toilet. Should come off easy? Probably would have, but why take the chance of just smearing the stain.  I forgot to mention that they did get some on the floor, wall and tub too!

Not to get sidetracked here but Pinterest is my new best friend, I get so many ideas off of that site that my head spins. So what did I do? I grabbed the laptop and started looking for ideas to clean this off. I've noticed lately the surplus of cleaning ideas, and homemade cleaning agents. I found a pin a few days ago about using shaving cream for cleaning.

Shaving cream? Really? Then the light bulb came on.  Shaving cream is a great sensory medium!! I just got the opportunity of the day to teach my kids and get some input!

Still afraid of smearing the marker and making a bigger stain I tried a little on the tub first. WORKED LIKE MAGIC!! It wiped right off! Like I said before it probably would have wiped right off anyways with a little water and a rag, but we're in a rental and I was taking no chances.


Next we moved on to taking turns cleaning up the mess. Spray some shaving cream all over the toilet and give them a rag and its off we go!  It did smear a little but we just rinsed out the rag and did it again.

The only problem we encountered was the plastic toilet seat.. it does stain. But lucky for me I have magic in my cupboards and got out the magic eraser. Magic eraser and shaving cream are the miracle cleaner.  Now I have a nice clean toilet, marker free and smells great. And in the bargain some sensory input for Boo because he got shaving cream everywhere and it smells great too!

Now to just get them to stop drawing on everything but the paper.... See ya next week!

Welcome Back!

Wow!! I didn't realize it's been almost a year since I posted anything. Well in my defense it's been a busy, long, up and down year. Since I don't have room or time to fill you in on everything, I'll give you the short version. Basically after finding out that our then 3 year old son possibly had a ASD (autism spectrum disorder) our life went into a spiral. Not necessarily downward but definately spinning in some direction.

We did find out that our precious little boy has PDD-NOS and SPD. Which basically means that he has an extremely high functioning ASD and has a hard time processing sensory input to his body. Little things bug the crap out of him and big ones sometimes don't make a difference. 


So now my days are filled with running errands, therapy appointments, running kids to two different schools AND finding new activities and "sensory" tools.  This week we ventured into gardening, I went to walmart and spent about $5. We bought Clay pots and flower seeds. Luckily I have a box full of acrylic paint and so we settled down to an afternoon of finger painting and planting.

I gave the kids free rein on how they wanted to paint their flower pots. My only rule was that I got to put the paint on the napkin so we didn't end up with a whole bottle on the table!

As you can see he would only get a few fingers in at a time! Oh well, at least we were getting messy!

 So after we let the pots dry we moved onto filling them with dirt. With our hands of course! No shovels or gloves for this sensory kid!

They planted their seeds and now we're waiting patiently (or as patient as we can!) for sprouts! I'll post pics once we actually have blooms.

I know that there are lots of blogs out there and bunches more with lots of sensory ideas. And just plain fun ideas for kids. My goal in this blog is to help myself by giving me somewhere to put everything down, to help inform our friends and family, and to hopefully help at least one other stressed out "sensory mom!"

Good luck in your adventures!