Pumpkin Pumpkin on my Mind

I wasn't going to carve the Pumpkins this year.  The kids are teenagers and weren't too interested so I figured I'd just enjoy having pumpkins on the porch, not Jack-O-Lanterns.  No problem, they'd look autumn-ish all fall and the they serve as appropriate decorations until Thanksgiving. 

BUT I just couldn't let them be.  We didn't pull down any of our typical Halloween decor this year, no 4ft dancing ghosts, no egg crate spiders, no Mr. Bones the skeleton made out of Milk Cartons.  So, at 5:00 on Halloween night - I decided to carve.

I had to do something cute, right?  So I made vegetarian Jacks.  One is eating an apple and one is munching carrots between his toothless gums.  I'm pleased.

They look like this:

So, as I was carving, I smelled the pumpkin and realized I wanted to EAT something pumpkin, so I prodded around the internet and came across this yummy looking treat. 





I haven't tried this recipe but I thought I'd post it anyway. I will buy the ingredients next week and give it a go.

Click here for the recipe.

If you try it before I do - let me know how it is!

Dark Chocolate Pistachio Bark

For the past two weekends, I've attended or hosted a lot of events that required me to provide a bit of dessert.  I chose Chocolate bark.  This recipe is the second of two varieties I made.  I also made Halloween bark.  You can find that recipe post HERE.

To create dark chocolate pistachio bark, I melted two 7oz 72% dark chocolate bars from Trader Joes using the double boiler method.

When the chocolate is melty and smooth (don't burn!), pour it onto the center of a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan that is lined with parchment paper.  Spread it around evenly.  I achieved this with the back of a metal spoon.

Sprinkle pistachio nuts across the melted chocolate.  Follow the nuts up with broken pieces of extra thin salted pretzels.  Then, add chopped walnut pieces and finally sprinkle on some coarse salt. 

After hanging out in the fridge for a few hours, your tray of chocolate bark should look like this:

Break it into pieces with your hands and put it on a plate.  Ready to eat!  AND delicioso!  Give it a try!

YUM!

Halloween Bark

Halloween Bark is the perfect Halloween treat.  It incorporates CANDY, CHOCOLATE and SALT!  What more could you want in a holiday treat.  Oh yeah, did I mention it's really easy to make?  This recipe was adapted from one I found HERE.

I used 7oz of Trader Joes white chocolate bar and a 12oz bag of white chocolate chips.  I used the double boiler method to heat them, placing a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water.  The chocolate melted easily.  Don't over cook it - remove it as soon as it's pourable.

Line a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper.  Pour the melted chocolate into the center and spread with the back of a spoon to smooth it evenly across the entire pan from edge to edge and corner to corner.

Then, evenly distribute candy corn across the tray, landing it onto the melty chocolate.  Next, break apart Halloween oreos (I used Trader Joes Halloween Joe Joes) and drop them onto the chocolate.  Thin chocolate pretzels (salted!) can then be broken apart (I just crunched them in my hands) and added.  Finally, sprinkle Chocolate and/or orange sprinkles - I used a brown and orange Halloween blend with little black bats.

I used a square of waxed paper to slightly press all the goodies into the chocolate to make sure they would stick and not come loose.  Don't press so hard that you bury them.

After a few hours in the fridge, remove the giant pan of bark and break it into pieces by hand.

Easy Peasy!

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Fall Flowers around the Yard

Finally - the sun has come out and we can have some proper fall weather, cool and crisp when it's early and late and sunny and beautiful during the mid day.

Even though the weeding has gone by the way side, the summer flowers have continued to stretch toward the autumn sun.  I captured a bit of the splendor.  Enjoy!