Homemade 3 Musketeers Bars

I'm not even a huge fan of actual 3 Musketeers bars, but these are freaking wonderful.  They taste like chocolate mousse dipped in chocolate.  And like the Homemade Butterfingers, this recipe calls for 3 ingredients.  Three!  Semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, and a tub of whipped topping.  Making candy at home has never been easier!  If you are on the East Coast and without power... a) please be safe and my thoughts are with you and b) both the Butterfingers and these bars require NO oven.  Err, but you would need a gas stove to melt the chocolate.  Oh and this one calls for an electric mixer, but I don't think that step is vital.  I think you can whip it thoroughly enough by hand.

I used this recipe.        

Homemade Butterfingers

Do you have loads of candy corn laying around?  I'm about to tell you something that will rock your world.  No I mean it, you will do cartwheels.  That is, if you can do cartwheels, because I can't do cartwheels, so it's okay if you can't do cartwheels because cartwheels are hard to do.  Are you ready?

Want to make Homemade Butterfingers?  All you need is chocolate, peanut butter and...

CANDY CORN?!  Are you cartwheeling all over the place?!  Did you fall down and hit your head and are you okay?  Such a random, strange ingredient and yet, once melted and mixed with peanut butter it tastes EXACTLY like a Butterfinger candy bar.  I wouldn't joke about something this serious.  

It's all over the web (like here and here), but you hardly need to follow a recipe, it's that easy.  I melted 3 cups of candy corn in the microwave.  First for 60 seconds, then in 15 second intervals until it was fully melted.  I immediately added 1 cup of creamy peanut butter to the melted candy and stirred until both were well incorporated.  I placed that mixture in an 8x8 baking pan (lined with parchment paper) and smoothed out with a spatula...  

I put that in the fridge and let it cool and harden for about an hour.  Then I removed it and cut it into bite size pieces.  I melted approximately 3 cups of chocolate chips in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until fully melted (I only had semi-sweet chips but next time I would use milk chocolate to more closely resemble the candy bar).  My little 3-year-old helper assisted in dipping each bar...  

We got messy, we had tubbies, we slept all night long (yeah right) and in the morning, we had candy bars for breakfast.  I'm a great mom.  It's softer and chewier than the store-bought kind but the flavor is dead on.  Try it and tell me if you agree.

Roasted Carrot and Pumpkin Seed Salad

Something happened the other day.  I took an exercise class.

What's that I hear coming from your computer??  Is that MANIC laughter?!  You're not nice.  But it's okay, because I'm laughing about it too.  Actually, that's not true at all, because my body feels broken.  It feels like I've been beaten all over with a tiny hammer.  And by the way, how ridiculous do I sound saying "exercise class" I mean, is it called that?!  I don't even know.  This particular class is called "Body After Baby" and since Baby made this Body bake one billion cookies during pregnancy, I've decided to focus on other foods.  Like seeds.  And carrots.  

(Totally going to make Homemade Baby Ruth bars in a few days also...)

But for real, seeds and carrots are delicious together.  Pumpkin seeds, to be specific, and roasted carrots, with creamy avocado and salty queso fresco.  Here's what I did...   

I took store-bought pumpkin seeds that were unsalted and unroasted and I roasted and salted them.

I drizzled olive oil on sliced carrots, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and roasted them as well (400 degrees for about 15 minutes).

Then I mixed it all together with chopped avocado and crumbled queso fresco.  You could substitute goat cheese or feta as well, and you could certainly serve this over lettuce (in which case I would drizzle some more olive oil on top).  It's really wonderful.  Someone fix my broken body.

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

Today, my son's class took a field trip to a pumpkin patch...

Oooo, spoooooooky.

I volunteered to make 80 mini pumpkin muffins.  I know, spooky.  Carson always tells me I overbook myself but in MY defense, my mom was in town and helped watch the kiddos while I worked.  And have you ever known me to turn down a reason to bake??

Also, this recipe was extremely easy and extremely delicious.  Because of various allergies at the school, they are vegan (consisting of soy milk, soy yogurt and no eggs).  PACKED with spices and a hint of molasses flavor, ridiculously moist and perfectly pumpkin-y.  Recipe HERE.

The kids (and parents) ate them up.  My Jack had 3 (I say "my Jack" because there were four others).

*I doubled the recipe and it made 80 mini muffins.

Saveur's Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know, it's Wednesday, and this is my first post this week.  DON'T YELL AT ME!  It's been a particularly busy, crazy, difficult, incredible week.  Yup, all of those things at once, and when a roller coaster of emotions occur in one week, you have to make cookies.  Yeah it's a law.  Subject change...   

You know what I love about blogging?  When I am sent new recipes from you fine people.  A friend/reader emailed me a link to a very specific method for making chocolate chip cookies, and I was instantly fascinated.  I know what you're thinking, how many chocolate chip cookie recipes are you going to bake on this blog??  Well the answer is eleventy infinity two.  I am a preschooler.  

Two things about these cookies:

1. They are the most professional looking cookies I've ever baked.

2. They were time consuming and a mess to make.

But worth it if you have the time.  So what is this very specific method?  Instead of dropping the cookies onto baking sheets, you roll out 3 different rectangles of refrigerated dough, and in between each layer you sprinkle gobs of chopped chocolate.  You use a 2-inch round cutter to form your cookie shapes.  AND you brush the tops with an egg wash for that beautiful golden crust you see above.  Specific, professional, messy, WORTH IT.  

You can find the recipe here.

3 layers...

Garlic and Sage Croutons

It's soup weather.  And stew weather.  (Don't you dare add stewp.)  We've been eating a lot of both in our house.  Yesterday, instead of the same old toast accompaniment, I decided to make homemade croutons!  Before you get all, "that's way too Martha for me" just stop.  STOP, COLLABORATE AND LISTEN.  (Oh my god, I'm so old now and I do things like that.)  Making homemade croutons is as easy as making a fool out of yourself with Vanilla Ice lyrics.  All you need is some bread.

For these, I decided to add garlic and sage.  You don't need to get all fancy with the garlic - just infuse 2 cloves in a few tablespoons of olive oil for a few minutes over medium heat.   

Add your chopped bread and chopped sage and sauté until golden and crispy.    

Carson called these "cracktons" : )

Spinach Gnocchi

As I've already told you, I'm a huge fan of the Weelicious cookbook.  Huge.

And so is everyone in my family, adults and kids alike.  Especially kids.  I made this Spinach Gnocchi for Jack the other day and he ate it up.  HUGE point for Mama.  Of course, I called them "Green Cheese Balls."  I know, I know, you're not supposed to disguise what they're eating in order to sneak in the healthy stuff.  Listen, when he can vote for the President, I will reveal what the Green Cheese Balls really are.  Until then, HE'S EATING SPINACH!!!  

  

And so am I, because this recipe is delightful.  Click here for it.  

Tomato Paste 101

I learned an interesting thing in this month's Bon Appetit magazine.  Would you like to learn it with me? Let's learn together!  (I'm a Room Mom at my son's preschool, and learning is F U N!)

Many recipes call for tomato paste, and we throw it in without giving it much thought.  But BA told me that if you let it cook in a little light oil for a few minutes, until it caramelizes in color, it will develop its flavor and add richness to whatever you're cooking.  In fact, you can take a whole can (or tube) of paste, cook the entire thing, freeze it in ice cube trays, and then you'll have one ready the next time you're making sauce!  Neato!  We learned a thing!   

Homemade Candy

Almond Joy

I've made a lot of candy on this here blog.  

Check it out and make something for Halloween!  

Also, what should I make this year in all of my spare time? 

Peppermint Patties

Salted Caramels

Peanut Butter Cups

Candy Apples

Snickers

Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash

Hello there.  How were your weekends?  Did you enjoy fall activities?  We watched a lot of football (go Vikings) and post-season baseball (go Yankees), bought our Halloween costumes (a family of superheroes this year complete with a slutty Bat Girl and baby Captain America costume), drank some Oktoberfest beer(s) and ate some squash.  Do you like acorn squash?  If so, here's a very easy way to enjoy it.  Cut it in half, through the stem.  Place cut-side down on an oiled baking sheet.  Roast in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes.  Remove.  Stuff with cooked wild rice.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper and some olive oil.  Delicious, healthy, easy and yet fancy enough to serve at a dinner party.          

Click here for another tasty Acorn Squash recipe.  

Slow Cooker Squash Stew

Happy Weekend.  It's cooling down here, slightly.  The tree in our front yard is changing colors and the coffee shops are selling their pumpkin drinks (see, there are seasons here).  I've whipped out the slow cooker and I bought some squash.  We even had a family dance party to the song "Ghostbusters"!  

If all of the above applies to you, or at least the slow cooker part, you should make this stew.  Vegetarian friendly (or you could be like me and add some turkey sausage at the very end), hearty, comforting, the perfect autumn weekend meal.  To be served with an Oktoberfest beer.  

Recipe HERE.    

Broccoli Pesto

Discovering creative ways to sneak green veggies into my son's diet is one of my favorite things, right up there with organizing things and eating handfuls of chocolate chips while no one is looking.  With that in mind, I was recently inspired by this post, but I wanted something without heavy cream so I stuck to a more classic version of pesto: garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil.  Plus something green, and in this case broccoli!  As long as I don't call it "broccoli pasta," he will eat it.  So I call it green pasta.  Because green is a super cool color.  There is a green Power Ranger, and a green Hulk, and he goes to school in the Green Room.  Go Green!        

We adults thought this was delicious too.  Here's what I did...

I threw 2 cups of broccoli florets in a pot with about 1/4 cup of water over medium-high heat.  I covered it, and let it cook/steam for about 5 minutes, until the broccoli was tender.  I threw it in a blender with 1/4 cup of toasted pine nuts, one clove of garlic (roughly chopped), and 1/3 cup of Parmesan.  I didn't drain the broccoli before placing in blender, because the excess water helped get things going.  Then I slowly drizzled in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, until it reached my desired consistency.  I tasted, and seasoned with salt and pepper.  

I served it over mini ravioli, because children (and myself) like things that are mini.

Maple Chocolate Chip Cookies

A family friend sent me a recipe for these cookies months ago, in the heat of summertime.  I bookmarked them, because although they sounded delicious, maple reminds me of fall.  So I made them yesterday, in the blistering heat of autumn time - seriously, WTF California, CHILL OUT!!!

I adapted them slightly, using Madhava Maple-Flavored Agave Syrup instead of Maple Syrup (because I had it) and bread flour instead of whole wheat (which I didn't have).  These are absurdly delicious.  Super soft, full of maple flavor, and somewhat healthy for you!  No sugar (other than the syrup and buckets of chocolate chips I used) and no eggs!  Make them, especially if it's fall where you live.  

Mmm... maple butter...

Maple Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Makes roughly 2 dozen)
Printable Recipe

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temp
1 cup maple syrup (or maple-flavored agave syrup)
2 T brewed coffee, cooled
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.  Cream the butter with an electric mixer.  Slowly drizzle in maple syrup and continue to beat until light and smooth.  Add coffee and vanilla, and beat to combine.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda and salt.  Slowly add to wet ingredients, mixing only until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts if using.  Drop by rounded spoonful onto parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden around edges.

*These are fluffy cookies, if you prefer flatter cookies gently press down with the bottom of a glass cup before baking.    

Pumpkin Little

Happy October the First!  

"Pumpkin Little" is a nickname Jack and Etta's grandmother uses a lot.  She's leaving us today.  Can you believe both my mom and Carson's mom have the balls to up and leave us alone with two kids?!  Oh right, we asked them to only stay for 3 weeks.  We decided we're ready to try this "family of four" business on our own.  We are?  We are.  We are!  

 Needless to say I don't have a recipe for you today.  

But the above photo (Soft Frosted Pumpkin Spice Cookies) and the two below are on my "to-do" list.

I'll get to that, right?  Right.  Right!  

Baked Pumpkin Donut Holes...

Pull Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread...

Plus plentiful perfect pumpkin plans.  Wow, that just happened.