Month: October 2012

butterscotch brooms

Amy10 Comments

After making autumn witch hats, I decided that matching brooms were in order. For the bottom part of the broom, melt together 12 oz. butterscotch chips with 3 tablespoons of nut or sunflower butter until uniform and glossy. Coat 5-6 oz. of chow mein noodles with the golden butterscotch mixture and drop as pyramid piles onto parchment paper. For the broomstick, place a pretzel stick in the middle of the pile and give them about 20 minutes to harden. These brooms are easy to make, easy to serve, and perhaps even easier to eat.

I took my non-edible broom outside this morning to sweep away the last of the fallen leaves on the back porch. The winds are calling for butternut squash soup on the stovetop and cinnamon baked goods in the oven this week. My heart is with those in the path of the hurricane: be safe and keep cozy, my friends.

cozy porter candy apples

Amy5 Comments

It’s getting to be sweater weather around here, and though I don’t knit, I do keep this colorful variegated yarn on hand called “schoolyard.” The colors in this yarn remind me of a basic box of Crayolas, and I like to use it for tying up brown paper packages and cellophane bags of goodies. The other day I brought it into the kitchen and used it to cozy up some naked lolli sticks for this year’s festive candied apples.

Last year I bookmarked this Brooklyn Brew Shop recipe on The Mash and thought it was prime time to try it for myself and cozy up some bare apples!  I followed the outlined recipe with the exceptions of subbing light brown sugar I had in the cupboard for the dark brown sugar and the always cozy double chocolate stout (stout = “porter on steroids” as once described by a beer shop guy) for the maple chocolate porter listed. I had difficulty actually biting into the candied apple, so I ended up slicing the apples and serving them that way. The look of the toffee is sinister and the flavor is slightly sweet with hints roasted coffee. I think I will make another batch of toffee and form a few porter candy spiderweb toppers for the weekend (cinnamon/molasses gelato sundaes, anyone?).

To make your own sweatery sticks, glue the beginning of the yarn at one end of the stick with a dot of liquid glue and overlap to cover the glued piece. Continue wrapping the stick with yarn to desired length and secure the end with another dot of liquid glue.

ginger and caramel witch hats

Amy15 Comments

Among the tea time snack treats I enjoy this time of year are Anna’s Ginger Thins and Caramel Bugles.  Bugles used to be a special after-school treat at my babysitter’s house (when you could still buy them in boxes!).  All of us kids would put them on the ends of our fingers and pretend that we had creepy pointed fingers like the Wicked Witch of the West.  Bugles are also the perfect shape for making little witch hat desserts, usually stuck on chocolate cookies and dipped in chocolate.  I decided to make a more earth-toned witch hat with my favorite snack treats using sunflower butter as the glue.  The flavor combo is salty, sweet, spicy, nutty, and crunchy like fall leaves.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?  I must be an autumn witch.

an abstract pumpkin patch

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My niece is four years old now, and after her brother gets on the big yellow bus, she wants to have school, too. This morning I was at her house and she asked me if we could make a pumpkin craft. She loves practicing her scissor skills and cuts out all sorts of shapes and colors that inevitably look like confetti! While she made orange construction paper pumpkins, I curled up some green spiral vines. Next, we glued everything down on grid paper. She named each of the little pumpkin pieces as she pasted them down and called it her family picture. Once all of the family was glued down, she said, “let’s play princess castle and read cookbooks together, Aunt Amy.” Twist my arm.