Fall Candy Bark

I recently posted this recipe on my recipe/craft blog, but decided to share it with my devotional blog readers.  It's been a favorite fall treat at several functions already, takes just a few ingredients and not much time.  

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the recipe :).  Next week I'll have lots of great things to show you from our annual ladies' retreat.

I saw a picture of a Fall Candy Bark a few weeks ago, but couldn't remember where I saw it.  After searching online for a recipe, I found several that looked good and combined them to make this bark.  I served it to our teachers at last nights' parent-teacher conference and also at my daughter's Senior class get together.  Many commented on how much they liked it and couldn't stop eating it!

Layer a large baking pan with waxed paper.  Using your chosen ingredients, sprinkle them across the pan.  I used mini pretzel knots, candy corn, and fall colored M & M's.

My baking pan was large so I used 2 packages of vanilla flavored almond bark and one package of white chocolate chips.  Melt it (watch it carefully and stir often - it burns easily!) and pour over the candy and pretzels.  

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 Sprinkle some more candy on top of the melted candy.

Add sprinkles, if desired.  Adds some fun to the bark!! :)

Allow bark to cool in refrigerator or just at room temperature.  Break apart into pieces as shown in top picture. 

Pumpkin Poke Cake

(Note: I haven't shared a recipe with you in a long time, so thought I would today.  It's a "say hello to fall" recipe. I posted it on our family recipe blog a few days ago.)

Last year, at the end of fall, I saw several jars of Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream Topping for sale....less than a dollar each.  I bought four jars thinking that this fall I would figure out some way to use them.  Here is a great recipe using the topping.  It's based on the Butterfinger Cake recipe I've posted before.  I was pleased with the flavor and the texture of the cake, but especially the flavor.  It's not too overwhelming, but it's rich - my favorite description of a dessert :).  The special addition to the whipped topping makes it extra-special.

PUMPKIN POKE CAKE

1 box yellow cake mix, prepared as directed in 9 x 13 inch cake pan
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream Topping (mine was Smucker's brand)
1 - 8 ounce container French Vanilla Cool Whip
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/16 (or a pinch) nutmeg

Garnish as desired:  Pumpkin candy, pecans, caramel sauce, etc.

After cake is done (do not over-bake), allow it to sit and cool for 5-10 minutes.  Poke large holes all over the cake using a wooden spoon (or something like that).  Pour condensed milk and Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream Topping all over the cake.  Cover the cake and place in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.  Combine cinnamon and nutmeg with the French Vanilla Cool Whip.  Spread over cake.  Garnish as desired.   Keep cake refrigerated.

I used candy pumpkins to show that the dessert was pumpkin flavored at a church dinner.  I think many would like it with a few pecans and maybe a caramel sauce drizzled over the top.

Enjoy!

The Chronicles of Biscuit - How to Cook a Turkey

Biscuit's (Tyler) 1st grade class wrote a cookbook just before Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately he forgot to tell me about it and I didn't check his backpack until the Monday morning after Thanksgiving.  I wanted to post it for you now - just in case you are one of the families that has turkey for Christmas, too.

HOW TO COOK A TURKEY

by Biscuit

10 pounds of dressing

9 cups of juice

One 20 pound turkey

9 eggs

20 cups of milk

Directions:

Go shoot a turkey.  Then take the skin off.  Then you can use the feathers to decorate something.  Wash the turkey off in the sink with some water.  Put the clean turkey in a big, big pan.  Put all of the dressing on top of the turkey.  Bake the 9 eggs and then put them in the turkey.  Then pour water on the eggs and that will make mush to go in the turkey.  Take a little spoon and get some dressing out, then pour the milk where the dressing was.  Then put the dressing back where it goes.  If you want to put the feathers on when you're not eating it you can, then when you are gonna eat it take them off.  Put the pan in the oven.  Don't cover it cause the feathers might get hot.  Cook the turkey and feathers for about 30 minutes.  Then taste it and look at it to see if it's done.  When your mom yells "It's ready!!!" then it is prolly done.  Then take the turkey out of the oven and put it in the middle of the table.  Take the bones out.  Throw the bones to the dog.  Have your dad cut it up and put it on your plate.  Eat the turkey after you say a prayer.  After you eat, take all your Thanksgiving stuff down and get ready for Christmas.

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So, just in case you've never cooked a turkey, you can try Biscuit's recipe! This 1st grade Thanksgiving cookbook will become one of the special memories from my children's younger years.  I'm thankful that their teacher, Mrs. A, was willing to take the time to listen to each student and write down their "recipes".  What a special cookbook!

Thanksgiving Memories 2009

In previous posts I mentioned a few things that our family does for Thanksgiving each year with my husband's side of the family. The three days (Wed., Thurs., and Friday) are filled with many traditions, which we all look forward to each year.

 The first tradition  is on Wednesday night. Family members who live out of town arrive in time for this worship time, which is an hour of praise in song. Others in our church family also have relatives in town for Thanksgiving, so it's a special time for them, as well. 

After the worship time, our family goes to my in-laws house to eat finger foods and play games.  Thirty-three of us were able to attend the Wednesday evening singing and get-together...there were only two not in attendance - pretty amazing! Several family members help out by bringing appetizers for the evening. This Cheese Ball (or log this time) is one of the things I take each year.  Click here for the recipe from my recipe blog.  Our favorite games are Liverpool (a type of Rummy), 42, and this year we tried a new one - Last Word. This new game was a lot of fun!

Thanksgiving morning our family has another traditional time - a Fun Run and a 5 K (3.1 mile) Run, called a "Turkey Trot".  Some walk the 5K instead of running.  Prizes are awarded to the children for the Fun Run and a plaque is passed on to the winner of the 5K each year.

Some of the kids are getting so big, they've moved on to the 5K!  Many of the runners also run in races throughout the year and not just at the annual "Turkey Trot".

Either before the run or afterwards, everyone enjoys a homemade cinnamon roll.  Usually my father-in-law makes the cinnamon rolls, but this time my brother-in-law did.  They were great!

Next comes Thanksgiving Dinner.  Notice I posted the dessert table picture first!  There were lots of yummy desserts.  The one on the left bottom is Pumpkin Cheesecake.  You can find that recipe here.

With thirty-three mouths to feed and to have leftovers around for a few days, there is a LOT of food.  Look at that huge bowl of mashed potatoes!  Home grown green beans are a family favorite from my in-laws garden.

Homemade rolls.....actually, in my husband's family they are always called "Hot Rolls", whether "hot" or not!  His dad makes the rolls each year, but I think this year another brother-in-law made them.  I've always been fasinated by the consistant shape of the rolls.  One year my father-in-law was sick and we all pitched in to help make the rolls.  We had some really strange shaped rolls!

We just live a few blocks away from my in-laws, so each Thanksgiving Day afternoon, we all head over to our field.  Our home-grown pumpkins are gathered and placed in a pile.

The cousins (this picture is minus 6 cousins) take an annual "cousins photo" and then the "Pumpkin Bash" begins.  I wrote about this recently and called it "Pumpkin Baseball", but it actually is a "Bash"...not that it matters.

The pumpkins were fewer this year, but they were also the messiest!  It made for some great pictures and one of our nephews even made a video of the event.

This year we had a new family member in attendance - our niece married in August and this was her husband's first time to be at the "Bash".  He was initiated into this tradition in fine fashion.  He got to hit the first pumpkin and his brother-in-law picked out a nice (and gross) rotten pumpkin for him to hit!  He was a great sport and seemed to enjoy the "Bash". 

After the "Pumpkin Bash" it's back to the in-laws for more games and food.

Friday morning some head out to shop "Black Friday" specials.  Others sleep in later.  In the afternoon, most everyone goes to a movie together.  Then it's back to the in-laws for more food and games.  By the third night of staying up really late, eating more than we should, and playing games and more games, everyone is exhausted!

Saturday all of the out-of-town family members head for their own homes.

Posting all of this reminds me of the song "Precious Memories".  Typically this song is used at funeral - probably because when a loved one passes away, it's the memories of that person that keep them close in our hearts.  This year was a special Thanksgiving for our family.  Last year in December, we were all (minus 2) able to go to Colorado together to celebrate my in-laws 50th anniversary.  In January, my husband's grandmother passed away.  She lived a long and healthy life up until the very end and was at all of the Thanksgiving Day gatherings except for the last one, I belive.  She was a big part of the Thankgiving traditions established many, many years ago.

Then, in the spring, my father-in-law had hip surgery and it was found that his prostate cancer was no longer being controlled with medication.  He began chemotheraphy and is continuing it still.  He seems to be doing great now and is getting stronger each day.

Each Thanksgiving we are able to get together is a blessing.  God has richly blessed us with another year together, but also He has given us another year to live for Him  May we always remember that it is because of what He has done that we have those "Precious Memories".

(Note:  This post is about my husband's side of the family.  If you would like to read a funny post about my side of the family, go to my recipe blog that I share with my mom and sister (mentioned above with recipe links).  My mom has posted "A Recipe for Disaster" which is sure to make you smile!)

And the winner is.....

This afternoon marked the end of our country fair. A few years ago the fair added a new pie contest as part of the fair. We've always been too busy with the kid's goats to have time to do pies, but this year my husband decided to give it a try.

He first began talking about making one or two on Labor Day, but I didn't really think he was serious. But the next day he mentioned some pie recipes he had found and was thinking about trying. By Wednesday, he had come up with four pies he was going to make. He even went shopping (the nearest early opening supermarket is 30 miles away)early Thursday morning before work to get his supplies.
He got a 1st place, two 2nd places, and the other we're not sure about (either 2nd or 3rd).

One of the pies he found was "Apple Crumb Pie". He didn't realize when he went shopping that he would need a disposable deep dish pie plate (it had to be disposable), but we had a round disposable one we thought would work. It looked really good as you can see in the picture. It came in 2nd in its class of "Fruit Pies", but one of the judges said it had the best flavor of any of the pies. It was 2nd only because it wasn't in a typical pie plate, but rather in a straight edged pan. It was so pretty cut! The layers of apples just lined up, without any juice coming out at all. I was waiting to take a picture of a cut piece with my husband holding it, but someone came up and bought the rest of the whole pie, so I missed it!

The neat thing about this pie contest is that these were the first pies my husband has ever made - and instead of just making one he made four! He can cook.  He knows how to make things, but he had never made a pie. So, that's pretty neat, I think! He also doesn't roll out the crusts. He just presses them into the pie plate, but they look really good.  He thinks rolling them out seems too hard and he makes it work - so that's just fine!

The recipe for this "Apple Crumb Pie" can be found here.  He just made another one of these pies for our church fellowship dinner tomorrow - in a glass deep dish pie plate!  Congratulations, Joe!

Fun Times in High School

Our daughter, Lauren, is a Freshman in High School this year. The big deal about that is that the students are allowed to leave campus for lunch once they're Freshmen. It has been fun having her come home for lunch everyday. Usually my husband has already gone back to work from his lunch break, so we have some time together - just the two of us. That doesn't happen very often!

Lauren and I decided that it would be fun to cook lunch for some of her friends once a month. Today was our first luncheon, and Lauren invited four girls to come over this time. My husband picked the girls up while I finished the meal preparations. She'll invite more sometimes and less sometimes, and maybe we'll even invite the whole class. There are only 24 of them, so it wouldn't be too many. They could walk, too, because we're only a few blocks from school.

Today's menu was lasagna, green beans, garlic bread, and brownies. You can find the brownie recipe here at "Life's a Bowl of Cherries" (a recipe blog of my mom, my sister and I). A funny thing happened during the luncheon. I had put some dry lemonade mix in a bowl with a spoon, so if the girls wanted to make their cups of water into lemonade. Unknown to us, one girl had thought it was Parmesean cheese and had sprinkled it all over her lasagna! I guess she hadn't taken a bite yet because Lauren asked, "Is this Parmesean cheese?" I said, "No. It's lemonade mix." The girl who had already used it gasped and said, "Oh, no! I put it all over my lasagna!". We all got a kick out of that! Of course we made her another plate of food. I can't imagine what that would have tasted like! YUCK!

It was great hosting the teenage girls. They were so appreciative of the home-cooked meal during the rushed school lunch time (only 25 minutes). It was fun to hear them talk and laugh together. I look forward to hosting teens in my home for the next many years as Lauren and her three brothers go through and into high school. I've added it up and we'll have someone in high school for the next 12 years....lots and lots of meals!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

An Apple for the Teacher

It's been a long-time tradition for a student to take an apple to his/her teacher. Although the original origin of this tradition is not known, it used now to say "Thank You" to the teacher and is given from the student. At Tipton, we have a tradition that's been going on for nine years, but it's not just an apple the teacher's receive, but a whole entire breakfast! Yes, every year on the first day of class, the teachers and staff are treated to a "Back to School Breakfast".

The breakfast is provided by people who want to say "Thank You" to the teachers and staff of Tipton Public Schools. Some of the helpers are PTO members, while others are parents who want to be involved. And sometimes even people in the community contact me to let me know they want to help.

The "Back to School Breakfast" is delivered to three different buildings - elementary, middle school and the high school (we're really small, so only have one of each and they're all on the same campus.) The teachers and staff members are so appreciative any time they are treated in this way throughout the school year. And, of course, it's a fun way for all of us to say "Thank You" to the teachers and staff for teaching and caring for the students during the school year.

Other times the teachers and staff are served meals are at the two parent-teacher conferences, which are held in September and in February. Since the conferences are set up from 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. on Thursday and also from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon on a Friday, the meals are brought on Friday evening. A special celebration is held each May during Teacher Appreciation Week. You can read about that event here.

Even though I wasn't ready for school to begin this year, after enrollment Monday night - and then seeing everyone when we took the kids to school this morning - it made me excited about the upcoming school year. It doesn't take too long to get back into the swing of things.

Another tradition on this first day of school is something our own family has done for the past nine years. On the evening of the first day, we take meals to our children's teachers. This year we have two in elementary, so meals were taken to their families. This year, another son is in middle school and our daughter has moved to the high school building. Because Tipton is such a small school, some of our children's teachers overlap into both of those buildings, and maybe even into the elementary. For the middle school and high school teacher's meals, we choose two or three teachers to take to each year. This year we took to three of them, making a total of five family meals delivered.

This "First Day of School Meal" always consists of the same menu: lasagna (usually beef, but sometimes I do chicken for some - if I know they've liked it in the past), green beans, garlic bread, Chocolate Delight (called Pudding Cake, too) or Butterfinger Cake. Because all four of our children have gone or are going thru elementary here and have had the same teachers, the teachers know the meal is coming if they have one of our children - and they are very thankful for it! Thankfully today we didn't have conflicts that would cause us to be rushed getting the meals delivered. It was also a blessing this year that most of them lived close. Only one lived out in the country about 10 miles, but it wasn't 30 minutes away as some in the past have been.

Maybe a whole meal is too much for you to think of doing, but you would like to do something simpler. It's easy in a small town to deliver meals because you know where everyone lives. This would be hard to accomplish in a larger city or metroplex area. My sister does something neat for her children's teachers. I believe it's on their birthday or maybe Valentine's Day (can't remember, but the day doesn't matter!). She makes them a meal served on a plate and delivers it to them at school. I remember her saying that she also takes a flower in a vase as a decoration during the teacher's meal.

Treating others by delivering them food, sending a special card. or a note of encouragement is a great way to serve others. Jesus said in Mark 10:45, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." We can serve others just as Jesus did. It doesn't have to be something big. It doesn't have to be anything expensive. It just needs to be done from our heart - a servant's heart!

Serving others in this way is just one more way we can "Shine Like Stars".

I am always looking for new ways to serve others...ideas that can be used by our elementary PTO (Parent/Teacher Organization), the 4-H club, or just ideas for my own family. Do you have any ideas to share? Let me know!