Easy Halloween Crafts for Both Parents/Kids

Hi Everyone! Yes, I'm back after a long, long break (at least from blogging). For the spirit of Halloween coming up, I just wished I posted this about a week ago and not the day of the fun holiday!

Shame on me.

I came across a craft about "Ghosts Lollipops", I've heard it's really easy to do, but I wanted something more pizazz on how to present it for my son's classroom Halloween Party. My co-worker Jeanny came up with a very creative idea! As the pics you will see below, the materials are easy to find and one important thing, fun to do with your kids.
This particular project could take about 2 days to complete if you have not prepared or cut things ahead of time. I actually did the "Ghosts Lollipops" while watching T.V. !

Like I mentioned before, I was late in posting this, but definitely something to keep in mind for next years Halloween!

Here are the materials you need for create this..

Dum-Dum Lollipops
White Table napkins (the thick kind)
Strong Glue
toothpicks or lollipop sticks
Design Duct Tape
Halloween Printouts (you can search on the web for these)
Ribbon (orange/black), 1/8 in x 10 yd (or 3 mm x 9.1 m)
Styrofoam block (from any Craft store)
Acrylic Paint - Black
Paint Brush
Sharpie (Black)

1. First, paint your styrofoam and set aside to let dry. Mine actually took overnight to dry. I must've painted too much layers of paint!

2. In the meantime, while you waiting for the styrofoam to dry, you can start on your Ghosts lollipops! I was lucky to find these small thick square napkins at Target, so it worked pretty well. 

 3. Cover the lollipops like so:

 4. Take your ribbons, (both orange/black) and tie them around their "necks". Then take your Black Sharpie and add the Eyes and Mouths to your cute little ghosts!

5. After you've completed the ghosts lollipops, now you can start decorating your styrofoam to be more presentable (that's considering it's totally dry). I choose this design, but you can use any design you want. So, tape the borders and I figured I covered the whole bottom so that when I stick the Ghost Lollipops there will be no chance of it passing the Styrofoam, it will keep it standing.

6. Once your styrofoam is done and looking oh so Halloween"ish", you can start cutting out your Halloween images from the web, if you have a cricut (die cutter) in which I WISH I had one, it will be easier but that's just me though. You do not have to buy one if you will not be using it that often like myself.

7. These cut out images here are to be glued together back to back with a toothpick or lollipop stick in between and let them dry. Unfortunately I do not have a picture to show you. But you probably get what I'm saying, the reason for doing them back to back is so no matter how it's displayed in the classroom or a Halloween party, you get the design in every angle.

8. Next comes the fun part, putting it all together on the Styrofoam! You can totally be creative with this project, can be used for other holidays of the year, same concept, just different theme!

Here's the end product of this craft. My son's class has about 35 students. The TALL Lollipop represents the teacher. You can also add names of the students if you want, I just did not have time.

I hope you try this fun project with your kiddos some day!

If you have any questions, please feel free to add one on the comment section below.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

You want to impress? Well here's an easy one: Apple Dumplings

Hi Everyone,
I'm slowly getting into the groove of things after a much needed vacation, cleaning and back to school stuff. I'm not going to keep typing here, as all I want is for you guys to try my Apple Dumplings recipe. I've given this recipe to my childhood friend when we visited Hawaii just this past July, and it was a big hit I was told, as my childhood friend had 3 in one sitting (Sorry Ed, had to tell).
Anyhow,  here it goes. Oh, and by the way, this recipe is not for someone who is cutting calories, don't tell me that I did not WARN you!

Here's what you need:
Servings: about 16-18 dumplings
2 Granny Smith Apples
1 Grands Crescent (Big & Buttery) Pillsbury Crescent Rolls or the Original kind, either is fine.
1 c sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon (I just eyeballed this one)
1 stick of butter
1 can of Mountain Dew (yes, you read that right)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish. Peel and slice the apples then cube them, I prefer not too chop it too small, as I prefer to see the apples when I eat.

2. Next, open the canister of the crescent rolls, place apples on the crescent rolls, starting from the tip, and slowly roll it, you will notice that the 2 ends will stick out, don't worry, too seal, just tuck them under. There's no wrong way of rolling this up.

3. Continue rolling until all crescent rolls triangles are used and place them in a 13 x 9 pyrex glass dish.

4. Set the apple dumplings aside. In the meantime, in a large pan, melt the butter.

5. Once the butter is completely melted, add the cinnamon and sugar and let it melt as well until all are combined and becomes this beautiful caramel color. No need for it boil! Just until they are mixed well.

6. Remove from heat. Pour the mixture over the apple dumplings.

7. Now, for the "secret" to this recipe. Add a can of mountain dew! Yes, I know it sounds weird, but trust me, it totally blends well with this recipe. If you have a liter of Mountain Dew at home, just pour 2 cups of it or just until it reaches the top of the pyrex dish.

8. Next, bake at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Your house will smell so good when you bake these!

9. Remove from oven, Vanilla Ice Cream is a MUST when you eat this. When I have guests for dinner,  I'll prepare the uncooked wrapped apple dumpling and refrigerate, I usually like to bake it while we are eating dinner, so that way, after they are done, I can serve the apple dumplings straight from the oven, it's warm!!

ENJOY!!!

 Cheers,
Darlene

I'm Back and w/ the word NUTELLA

Hi Everyone,
Gosh, it's been quite a while since my last post on here. I do apologize. But now that I'm back, I would like to share with you such a very easy dessert that even your guests for dinner will be amazed by it and (hint: baking no required).
I've always been a fan of this creamy, chocolate spread jar in the grocery stores called Nutella. I would say I'm not a Huge fan of it, but it is very tasty and oh so yummy! I remember first trying it when I visited my cousin in Canada back in the late 80's and had asked what are they spreading over bread? Well, after one bite, I immediately fell in love with the taste of it. I did not know later on that it's a hazelnut spread, thank goodness I had no reaction to it at the time! I always thought it was just plain ol' chocolate spread.. lol

Going back to what I mentioned, it's a dessert that your guests think that you've been in the kitchen the whole day just to do these Mini Nutella Cakes! Did I say it required NO BAKING?
Ok, I bet you want to get started and impress your guests! So here we go:


NUTELLA MINI CAKES (derived from www.thepioneerwoman.com) :

Ingredients:
1 Sara Lee Pound Cake - this particular recipe, I used an all Buttery one (too much butter is good right?)
1 container of Nutella (Hazelnut spread)
Round Cutters
Cool Whip (Optional)

1. Remove the Pound cake from the container and slice it in the middle like so:

 2. Next, take your round cutter, and press down the cake and gently remove it from the cutter

 For this pound cake, I was able to press about 3 rounds.

 3. Next, take the cake that you just pressed and slice again in half like the pic below:

4. By Using a slanted knife, if you don't have one, a spatula or buttered knife will do, spread the Nutella onto the sliced round cake like so:

5. You can stack three on top (pictured below) depending if you want three or 2 stack mini cakes

 6. Now that you've seen these cute mini cakes all stacked up, I know it's tempting, but this needs to go in the freezer for about 30 minutes or so until the Nutella settles.

7. In the meantime, you can either make your own version of "cool whip" or if you want to make things easier for you, you can just visit the grocery store and buy Cool Whip. I personally don't like the taste of Cool Whip, I usually make my own. In this particular recipe, I was experimenting on the TJ's whipping cream. As you can see below, all you do is wait for it to be room temp before taking your hand mixer and beating it for about 10 mins.

Note: I did not like the TJ's brand, one I thought it was too light and the whipping cream was too soft. So again, I recommend you buy Cool Whip or make your own.

 Once the 30 minutes is up, and guests are ready to have dessert, cover the mini cakes with your Cool Whip! See how pretty these turned out? What do you think my fellow Bloggers? Doesn't that look so delicious?
Note: Since the Nutella can be hard after coming from the freezer, I've noticed that before you serve it, let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving that way when your guests slices it, it's not hard, it should be soft.

Enjoy! If you do make these, send me some pictures so I can post it on here, or on my facebook and twitter feed!

Thanks for reading,
Darlene 

The BEST Cookie Mix: Brand: Momofuku Milk Bar

Hello! Happy Friday to you! I'm sorry that I have not  been on here. Let's get right to it. Last month was my birthday and my sister gave me this very cute attractive cookie mix named Momofuku Milk Bar. She had asked me if I've heard of this place when I visited New York last summer. I said "nope". Anyhow, she explained to me briefly the story of these delicious cookies that this bakery serves. Basically, Momofuku Milk bar is a bakery in NYC. They offer cookies, cakes, cereal milk, pies and more.

Christina Tosi is the baker of Milk Bar. She is a 2012 James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year. If you want to read more on her bio, click here http://milkbarstore.com/main/press/

My sister gave me 2 boxes with 2 different flavors. One being CORN Cookie and the other a COMPOST Cookie Mix.
I opted for the Corn Cookie Mix first as I did not have the other ingredients at the time for the Compost cookie Mix. I normally don't like store bought cookie mixes as you know they taste so artificial. As for these, the ingredients are nicely packaged, labeled and all natural.

So, even though it was a prepared cookie mix, there were still directions that you had to follow to a tee in order to come up with the exact cookie they sell at the Milk Bar.
By reading the directions carefully, I was able to achieve the taste, texture of the cookie!!

By far, this has to be the BEST cookie mix I've ever tried. They sell them at Williams Sonoma. Click the link below: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/momofuku-milk-bar-cookie-mix/?pkey=e%7Cmomofuku%7C2%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C24%7C%7C2&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-Feature_Recipe_Rule-_-

1. When you open the box, it comes with the packaged ingredients, and a small card with Instructions. All you do is just ADD butter and eggs. That's it! Simple.

It came w/ pre packaged fine sugar, & corn mix. All you Add are  1 egg and 2 sticks of unsalted butter (Both Egg & Butter Has to be Room Temperature - VERY IMPORTANT

2. Mix the room temperature butter and sugar. 

3. Next, Add the corn flour

Make sure you follow and beat on Med High for 10 Minutes until you notice that increased it's volume

4. Once done, shape into balls and place on top of a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, Cover w/ Plastic Wrap and chill for about an hour (Don't worry, the instructions are in the box!) I was able to stretch the chilled dough to about 14 balls instead of 12 which is what the recipe called for. Any extra dough you have left, you can chill it for about a week, wrapped in saran wrap.

5. After about an hour, remove from the refrigerator and place in the oven for about 13-16 minutes, following the directions carefully here is what you will end up! It was definitely a big hit w/ my co-workers and my hubby & son! You just have too, I mean have to try this cookie mix! 

Cheers,

Darlene

(Post) Son's Birthday Goodies

Hi Everyone,

Remember that post I did about those scrumptious Vanilla Cupcakes? Well, I wanted to show you the end product of it after it's been decorated. As I mentioned, my son's birthday theme was Disney's Cars2! So here are some pictures that I had promised even though it's a couple of days late :)

Vanilla Cupcakes with Disney's Cars2 Cupcake Rings! I ordered them from Amazon

Aside from adding the cupcake rings, I also added these RACE checkered flag picks to the cupcakes too!

These are added on favors. This was just a plain sugar cookie . I did not have time to make my own, so I went ahead and ordered it from an organic shop called Parties "R" Personal

Cheers,
Darlene