I Can Still Post to this Blog, right?

Here is what I did today:

Thanks Amanda and Traci!

Traditional Halloween Bat Cookies

My friend Traci and I have been making these cookies for the last 5 or 6 years and have now declared them a tradition. They are stinkin' cute and YUMMY but a major pain in the rear end to make. Recipe to follow...
You will need:
Butter
Flour
Sugar
Salt
Chocolate Bark
Sugar Eyes (available at candy & cake making shops or on line)
Chocolate Sprinkles
Rolling Pin
Wax Paper
Bat Shaped Cookie Cutter
Double Boiler
A Partner

Scottish Shortbread
3/4 cup flour, sifted
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup room temperature butter
This amount will make about 8-10 cookies. I usually quadruple this recipe.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Work in the butter with a fork or pastry cutter until the dough has the consistency of short crust.

Pulsing in a food processor will work also.

Sprinkle a board or your counter top lightly with flour. Turn the dough onto the board and knead until it's smooth. Refrigerate the dough for a couple of hours or overnight. (ladies DO NOT try to skip this step...trust me. The cookies will hold their shape so much better if you just know ahead of time that this is a 2 day project.)

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut out bat shapes with cutter. Re-roll and cut until all the dough is gone. Place shapes on cookie sheet with enough space betweem for them to spread out a bit. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 to 30 minutes, until the cookies begin to brown slightly. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet.

In double boiler melt the chocolate. Be aware that water from the double boiler will ruin the melting chocolate so be careful to keep the water out of the chocolate. Have several sheets of wax paper ready to place finished cookies on. Have candy eyes ready and a bowl with sprinkles ready as well. Have one person dip a cookie in the chocolate and then dip the wing edge in the sprinkles and place on the wax paper. The other person places the eyes. Continue until all cookies are decorated.

Pumpkin Patch and Barn...It's Worth the Drive

Rowley’s South Ridge Farms 

300 West 9oo South

Santaquin, Utah

Telephone: 801-754-5511

www.southridgefarms.com

Jen's World Famous Haunted Trail Mix Recipe

Just pretend that I'm the Pioneer Woman and my 'cooking' photos are amazing ok??

1. I start with about 3 pounds of basic trail mix: nuts, raisins,

cereal, coconut or whatever you like.2. Add a pound of candy corn. You can also use the pumpkins
that are made of this same stuff...or both (;3. Throw in a big bag of Halloween colored M&M's.
4. Add about 1/4 pound of Halloween pretzels.
These are "Bats and Jacks" from Sam's Club.5. The best part of this mix is the foil eyeballs. They are chocolate
filled with peanut butter. You can get caramel ones too but I like PB best.
(Sorry the photo is so lousy...I couldn't get the camera to focus on
the eyes--just the plate! arggg!)Toss it all together and you have yourself several pounds of Haunted Trail Mix.

These are the basic ingredients that I always use. The fun part of a mix is that
you can add anything you like to make it unique. Next year I
am seriously considering working in these super cute candy corns.

Giveaway Hint...only 2 more days to post a comment!

These cute guys will be in my giveaway grab bag!

Blogiversary Giveaway...

Wow, I really meant to post my giveaway hint Friday but I got caught up in something totally LAME.  Husband and I started watching Twin Peaks....I know it's so ridiculous but--ahhhh what can I say???  I didn't watch TV for 2 decades so I'm a little behind.  

Anywhoo the hint is:  This giveaway is a 'grab bag' of sorts and one of the items is 1 pound of my world famous Haunted Trail Mix.  YUM!  Comment here to be entered in the giveaway, I will pick a winner on Thursday.  More hints on what's inside tomorrow.

Happy Blog-iversary To Me...

As luck would have it I did my very first post on October 31, 2007.  I didn't plan it and I didn't even know it until I went to check and see how long I'd been bloggin'.  Halloween is totally my day so it was a nice little surprise!  Anyway, I'm thinking it might be time for a giveaway--what do you think?  Leave me a comment and I'll pick a winner next Thursday , October 8th. What am I giving away you might ask?  Well, I'll give you a hint tomorrow.

Fall Football

I just love fall and I can't help but wonder if I'm missing out on a major element of what makes this time of year so fabulous: football. I wish I liked it, I'd love to go to a game and have fun like other people seem to but I just find it all an absolute bore. The teams, the rules, the players, the fanfare and just...well, the whole thing. I want to have a reason to bake football field cakes and football shaped rice crispy treats and stuff but I'm just not feelin' it. I can just imagine myself talking all about 'my team' and whatnot but...? It's just not there. What's that about?

Anyway to the rest of you football fans out there, I hope your season has started well and that you bake all the football shaped treats your little hearts desire!

I Made This!

I made this garland! I stole this idea from the Nesting Place and then just added a few things for Halloween. I love it and I wish I could keep it now that it's done but I promised it to the school auction. Boo-Whooo. Sniff.

Pumpkin Love

I've had a few questions about how I grew pumpkins in Utah.  First off--I finally gave up on trying to grow the giant ones and the unusual varieties, I just went with the Jack-o-Lantern, run of the mill pumpkin seeds.  Start them inside in the middle of April or so and then DO NOT plant them outside until May 1st at the soonest.  Check your local weather any time AFTER 5/1 but anytime before 5/1 is  not going to work.

After you have some good starts outside they need full sun and TONS of water.  I did flood irrigation this year where you give them tons and tons of water about 3 or 4 days a week instead of just a little each day.  You'll know you're giving them too much if the leaves turn yellow, then just back off the watering for a few days and try again when they turn green again.   It seemed pretty easy once I got the right type of seeds.  I'm guessing it's more that than anything else.  Happy planting...next year!

Check out my new pumpkin blog header!  LOVE it!

Pumpkin Day

You know how there was always a weird kid in your elementary school class that was obsessed with something like horses or model airplanes or whatever? Well...that is TOTALLY me but with pumpkins-I love them! I am so happy this year because I planted a tiny pumpkin patch and I actually have real live, fully ripened pumpkins in my yard right now! I have tried and failed to grow pumpkins for several years now but finally I have some just waiting to be picked!

Every year on September 1st (or fairly close to the first) I get out my pumpkin collection and it stays up until the day after Thanksgiving when we get out our Christmas stuff. My collection getting pretty big now and pumpkins big and small show up in almost all the rooms of my house. So we are sneaking up on 'pumpkin day' as I like to call it and I'm pretty excited! I'll post some photos when I get myself all decked out with pumpkins.