Happy Halloween.

It's early.  And this is what is happening.  

Candy Apples

Read 'CANDY APPLE' out loud.  Did you just hear and see a bunch of dyslexia in your ears and brain? Sort of, right?  At first glance, when you saw the title of this post, you thought 'CARAMEL APPLE' didn't you?  Well, that's what happened to me like 5 times yesterday when I told people I made Candy Apples.  

Me: I made Candy Apples!

Person: OMG I looove Caramel Apples.

Me: No, I said CANDY apples.

Person: There's this great place in Big Bear that makes THEE best Caramel Apples.

Me: Get away from me.  And don't say "thee."

Why does no one remember candy apples???  Was it just me who preferred them over the caramel kind as a little kid??  I will admit, these days I would pick the latter, but I wanted to introduce my son to the magic of a candy apple around Halloween.  A giant, bright, homemade lollipop with a beautiful, juicy apple wrapped inside.  Guaranteed you have all the ingredients and could make them in 5 minutes.   

Clean apples, remove stem (go ahead and play the 'ABC/This Is Who I Will Marry' game), place wooden skewer as far as you can into apple core...

1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup corn syrup and 3/4 cup water... boil until it reaches 300 degrees (if you don't have a thermometer, you'll know it's 300 when you take a spoonful of it, drop it in a bowl of water, and it turns hard)... remove from heat and quickly whisk in 4 drops red food coloring... immediately dip apples...

...and place on parchment paper.

*This recipe makes 3 apples, double for 6.

A Candy Winner! (and a candy loser)

First things first: the winner of my Dylan's Candy Giveaway has been selected by random.org and without further adieu... CONGRATS Boaz Frankel!  Please email me at siri (at) siriouslydelicious (dot) com and let me know where I should ship the gift certificate.  Thank you all for playing!  

Moving on... 

That is a Homemade Twix Bar.  Looks pretty good, right?  NOPE.  NOT GOOD.  Listen, I have to tell you guys something really important.  Are you listening?  Sometimes I screw up.  

Although, I don't really blame myself, I blame this recipe (a lovely blog, however).  I wasn't a fan of a few things, but mainly the addition of sweetened condensed milk in the caramel and ground rice in the shortbread.  The milk made the caramel too sweet, too light in color and bland in flavor.  And the ground rice took away from the buttery goodness of the shortbread, making it oddly crunchy.  If I try these again, I'm going to make my own caramel and my own shortbread.  The End.

pictures anyway...  

I only dipped a few in chocolate, then I gave up and ate the rest of the melted chocolate with a spoon.  I'm fat.  

Candy Corn & Pretzel Bark

IT'S CANDY WEEK!!!!  I just declared that, there was no plan to shout that at you just now.  But it has occurred to me that, after homemade peanut butter cups and a candy giveaway and now this candy corn bark... that I Hereby Hence Forth From This Moment On Shania Twain Style Declare it Candy Week!!  I know you'll murder me in my sleep if I don't make Twix, but what else should I make, huh, huh??

This bark took me all of 5 minutes.  SO EASY and very good, especially if you're a fan of sweet and salty like me.  Melt white chocolate chips, spread it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, immediately top with pretzels and candy corns, let cool, break apart, eat.  CANDY WEEK!    

white chocolate chips...

candy corns...

pretzels...

bark bark...

Giveaway: Dylan's Candy

What a perfect time of year for a candy giveaway, yes?  After Halloween comes that holiday where we eat a lot, and then that other one where we indulge and shop and eat some more.  Imagine these autumn jelly beans, scattered around the Thanksgiving table in jars, or those shortbread cookies, in your mouth.  But I'm not going to force them on you, because I'm giving away a $50 GIFT CARD to Dylan's Candy Bar - so you can buy whatever you want.  Great stocking stuffers.  Or mouth stuffers.

Giveaway Rules:

1. You must be an official follower of this blog to win (click the "follow" icon in the right margin).
2. Only open to residents of the U.S. and Canada.
3. An extra entry will be granted if you follow me on Twitter or blog about the giveaway. Comment below TWICE, and provide a link if you blog.
4. Winner will be chosen at random on Wednesday, October 26th at 8am PST.

*Comment below to win and good luck!

Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

Whoa, whoa, whoa... SETTLE DOWN THERE you Twix lovers.  I still plan on making those too.  It's just, the peanut butter cups were so simple.  Few ingredients, had them all on hand, etc, etc.  I SAID I'M GOING TO MAKE THE TWIX ALSO!  Yeesh, you guys are so mean.  Who am I kidding, I'll probably make the Snickers bars, too.  So basically I didn't need you to vote at all.

I used this recipe and loved it (but see below for a Sirious tip).  I think I should go eat one now, don't you?

peanut butter center coming together...

mmm, milk chocolate...

*in the cups...

*Sirious tip: When you fill the bottom with chocolate, use the back of your spoon and gently push the chocolate around the edge of the paper to create a shell.  This will help you avoid this: 

Still delicious, though.

Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork Stew

I'm not on my game today.  I'm exhausted, Jack is trying to show me that the 'terrible two's' really do exist, these pictures are blurry, Advil isn't working, blah, blah, blah.  You should see my face.  I look as happy as Ben Stein does when he's sad.  So I'll wrap this up - I don't want you to catch my horrible mood. 

Pulled out the slow cooker last night for it's inaugural autumn usage.  Found this recipe (HERE) and really enjoyed it.  I used a 4-pound pork shoulder (recipe calls for 2), added 2 extra cups of water but otherwise did everything the same.  8 hours on low = 8 hours of your house smelling scrumptious.

Ok, I'm going to go force myself into a happy place by stuffing my face.  FRIDAY.  

Chicken Enchiladas Salsa Verde

I have a love/hate relationship with Mexican food.  Mostly I love it, far too much, and when "too much" becomes "Hi, I'm pregnant with 13 babies and eating for all of them" well, then I HATE it.  And I curse its existence in my belly.  

But let's go back to loving it.  I love Mexican food!  And I just found an enchiladas recipe that is impossible to hate.  It's relatively light - no thick, heavy, creamy cheese sauce.  Just queso fresco (generously) sprinkled on top of tender chicken, rolled up in toasted corn tortillas and dipped in salsa verde.  The best part?  A fresh, bright, crunchy salad on top.  DIET FOOD!      

Click HERE for the recipe.  I used a store bought salsa verde (tomatillo sauce) and leftover roasted chicken.  I also did not have radishes for the salad, but added avocado and tomato instead.  

Peanut Butter Apple Muffins

Sometimes I'm still flabbergasted that Gwyneth named her daughter Apple.  Apple?  But, then I think, would it be a gorgeous name if we didn't associate it with pie, a doctor a day, and trees?  And right now I'd rather be associated with those things over an iPhone.  'Apple' sort of rolls off the tongue in a delicate and feminine manner, doesn't it?  And you could call her Ap for short... ugh, back to the iPhone.  Anyway, I have no idea what I'm even talking about.  I woke up at 5:45 for no good reason and this post has zero direction.  

Muffins.  I made them yesterday.  I used this recipe and put a 1/2 cup of peanut butter in with the wet ingredients.  I am glad I did that, and I am going to go eat one now.  See you later.     

Pesto Green Beans

Do you ever buy green beans in a bag?  Oh you don't??  Oh you hand select them and wash and trim each one??  Oh.  You're better than me.  Well, I occasionally (all of the time) buy the pre-washed, pre-trimmed beans in a bag.  So there.  And they're delicious, especially if you make them all fancy.  

Last night I melted a tablespoon of butter in a skillet, added a Dorot cube of garlic and a cube of basil (if you can't find these miracle cubes, you could use minced garlic and finely chopped fresh basil, about a teaspoon of each) and 1/4 cup of pine nuts.  I sauteed that until the pine nuts started to toast...

Then I microwaved the bag of green beans for 3 minutes (you heard me) and threw them into the skillet, tossing them until they were coated with the butter/herb/garlic/pine nut mixture.  A little salt and pepper, Parmesan cheese on top - Pesto Green Beans.  The perfect shortcut side.

siri for class president.

I need you guys to get up in my business and make decisions for me, again.  What homemade candy should I make for Halloween?  Please VOTE, or throw another one in the mix if you're not a fan of these 3...

Snickers

Peanut Butter Cups

Twix

Caprese

When I went to Eataly, I knew I wanted to spend a stupid amount of money on a good bottle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  I was seriously ready to fork over 100 bones for the stuff, as I had already settled on buying black boots at Old Navy instead of JCrew (priorities).

But then I met this nerd guy who was giving out samples of the stuff on tiny little spoons.  I sniffed and slurped and sniffed and slurped until I fell in love with the bottles above.  Less than $60 for both!  And come on, you can't find olive oil for under $10 at the grocery store anymore.  So I did pretty good yes?  So maybe I can go one step above Old Navy??  Yes??  Ugh, that means Gap, doesn't it.