Vanilla Dipped Pretzels a la Halloween...

I tried really hard to buy the popcorn balls like Jessica Brady told me to do.  She told me that they were at Walmart and that would be easy and perfect since it was last minute.  She is usually right - mostly always right.  Then she found pictures on the internet that she emailed to me and I got too excited - cute white paper cups with perfect ghosts drawn on them, filled with orange popcorn.  Then there were the vanilla dipped pretzels with ghost eyes and mouths painted on with chocolate... I was right back to where I started, wanting to do something "big."  (Notice how often the words "big" and "excited" appear in my life?  Those are the two words that get me in the most trouble.)

Here is what you need:

1 package (block) of vanilla candy coating
1 bag of unbroken (mostly) pretzel rods
Multiple colors of sprinkles - I think purple, lime green and black are the best
cellophane bags
matching curling ribbon

Here is what you do - oh how easy peasy:
Dump some of your sprinkles into a nice long, thick pile (for lack of a better word) on a narrow platter or plate, set aside.  Open bag of pretzels, set aside.  Roughly chop the vanilla blocks of candy coating - chop about 1/2 to 3/4 of the package.  Throw into a large glass bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval.  It might take 2 or 3 minutes of this. 

Begin dipping 1 pretzel rod at a time into the melted candy coating, covering 3/4 of the rod. 

Let excess drip off - if you dip into the sprinkles and the coating is too thick, it will fall off in a clump.  Not good.  So, let the excess drip off for a minute or so, humming to yourself as you wait. 

Then roll into the sprinkles. 

Lay on parchment or tin foil to let harden.  Aren't they pretty? 

After they've hardened for about 30 minutes, place each one into a cellophane bag.

Tie with matching curling ribbon.  Be sure to make enough for the teachers... the best way to an 'A' is a happy, well-fed teacher!

BBQ Jalapeno Poppers...

Note: For your own sanity, do not allow a man into the kitchen during the preparation of this obsessively-tasty treat.  The man will be stubborn and will not wear gloves and will make you miss your office Halloween Party because he will be writhing in pain from his fingers touching his contact lenses and you will not get to dress up like a pirate because you have to take your 4 year old to the dermatologist and you will be mad, sad, but happily stuffed because you will be stuck at home with all 36 delectable poppers and finally you will realize that you are, in fact, jack-slap glad! 

Here is what you need:
18 whole Fresh Jalapenos, 2-3 Inches In Size
1 8oz. block Cream Cheese, softened
1 pound Center Cut Bacon, Sliced Into Halves
1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese
Green Onions, if you want to
BBQ sauce - your favorite
Toothpicks
Latex gloves - if you are smart

And here is what you do:
Prepare yourself properly with latex gloves, because if you've ever been burned by jalapenos and had to self-medicate with every sort of home remedy on Google... well, you know what I mean.  So, on with the gloves! (If you ever do burn your hands - so bad that you can't think about anything else - call me and I will come a runnin' with my jar of L'Occitanen Lavender Body Butter - that was the ONLY thing that cooled the heat. 

Cut jalapenos in half, length-wise.

With a spoon, remove the seeds and white membrane (the source of the heat; leave a little if you like things HOT).

Mix cream cheese, cheddar cheese and green onions, if using. 

Stuff this divine mixture into each jalapeno halve.

Then lay halves on a foil lined sheet. 

Wrap jalapeno with bacon pieces, securing by sticking toothpick through the middle. (At this point, you can freeze them, uncooked, in a Ziploc bag for later use).

Brush tops of bacon with BBQ sauce. 

Bake on a pan with a rack in a 275 degree oven for 1 hour (start checking for sizzling bacon at 50 minutes.)  Serve warm or at room temp.  Yum!

Books on Audio - yet another sinful pleasure of mine...

Life with two boys and a husband can get rough for a girl.  Not rough as in harsh, but rough as in I am not able to float around on my own private pink puff cloud anymore.  On blissfully calm days when I am on the pink puff cloud, I could be pushed off at any minute by two boys wrestling. Of course, most who know me realize that the husband is always trying to direct the pink puff cloud on where it should float to next and how.  (Note the word "trying" - everyone knows a woman is always in control of her own destiny!)

In short, mothers need some alone time.  Everyone can benefit from time and space to reflect on identity - who we were before we departed on life's journey of learning quickly to become "Anything and Everything to Everyone."  The closest to peaceful that I get these days is when I meet Jennifer for breakfast on Wednesdays at Johnson's on 4th.  Sometimes (like this past Wednesday when I really needed to be doing other things instead of meeting at our charming little breakfast spot - and texted her so), I still somehow ended up there with her because this tiny bit of heaven is well deserved by us frantic moms and I refuse to give it up. 

So, if you have been blessed in the way that I have - with a wide open, daily adventurous, maniac life with two wonderful little boys, what you just might need this chilly season is a warm car and a book on audio. 

Audio books, like charming breakfast spots, can be completely delicious.

Prime pleasure comes from sitting in my toasty car, whether in the school pickup line, bumper-to-bumper traffic, or while coasting down the highway to work when listening to a good book on audio.  What can make this pleasure even better is if you have a steaming cup of hot tea or coffee - over the top decadence! 

It's the small things that can make a girl like me feel like a celebrity!  Almost. 

Here are a few I recommend...

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
A fairly short story of two men, one needing the other - for entirely different reasons.  A reminder that even the best laid plans sometimes go awry...

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
A trying tale of a woman trying her best to remain loyal and cheerful for her husband and children, of a man bent on farming his land, of two men coming home from the war, one hiding in a bottle of liquor and the other who refused to humble down to the prejudices running thick in the delta and of a family who learned that no matter how hard they worked, they just couldn't get ahead.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

For One More Day by Mitch Albom
A beautiful story of a mother who gave everything to her son.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Today is Mock Halloween

Today is Saturday, October 30th.  Tonight the boys will go from door to door saying "Trick or Treat" or "Tricks or Treats" (if you are Charlie Brown - and then look into your bag to find the first of many forthcoming rocks.)  Our town is "Trick or Treating" the day before Halloween this year, because the real Halloween is on Sunday.  Nuff said. 

I have all sorts of lovely things to blog about - pictures of the chocolate dipped pretzels I made at 11:00ish at night for Owen's class, and the feverishly fast, stuffed jalepeno peppers that we made for the work Halloween party (that I didn't get to go to), but alas I am tired.  My eyes are in a constant haze from the contact lenses that I prodded into my eyes with the hands that held the jalapeno peppers.  I have no creativity.  Did I spell jalepeno right?  I am tired - did I say that too? 

I promise big things later - after a nap, and a few cups of hot tea, which I plan to swill like the pirate (I mean farm girl) that I am...

Corn Maze! Check Point!

On the way back from the Apple Festival, we decided to stop at a pumpkin patch ...

and found a corn maze...

I have been wanting to go to one of these since a couple of years ago when we passed one on our way home from Myrtle Beach with the Tylers.

Farms make me happy - especially ones with green silos.



Loved the sunflowers too - the entire roadside was edged with them.



Have you ever heard of egg gourds? Or maybe they're called gourd eggs? Hmmmm...



Anyway, don't you think they look just like chicken eggs? I thought I could buy 20 or so to fill a black wire basket in my kitchen, but at .50 cents each, I thought I better not. (Especially since Jim was there with me! LOL!)

We did lots of running through the corn maze.

I worn my Keen's (I love them!) and I knew they wouldn't let me down.  Being able to walk the next day is important for a farm girl like me...

There were 12 checkpoints in the maze and a hole puncher for each checkpoint on our map. Jim loved to scream out "check point" or "found number 8!" I think he wanted a stampede of people chasing him.

We found all 12 checkpoints and turned our map in to be entered in a drawing... wonder when that happens? Wonder what we might win...? Maybe a big green silo?

Every now and then the mom has to be in the picture too... just to prove that she was on the trip - for alibi circumstances and all.  Ya just never know!

Everyone jump on mom!

See how happy my boys are at the farm?

Farmers have come a long way - ours was wearing overalls, driving this tractor and talking on his cell phone.  Who knew farmers had cell phones?  I wonder if they even know how to text?!

We were sad to leave, but I got all kinds of BIG ideas - like opening our very own corn maze - and how I would sell hot apple cider!  It WAS the apple festival.... Wonder why they didn't think of that?

Apple Festival!

On Wednesday we found out that "everyone" in Owen's 2nd grade class was going somewhere for Fall Break. Some were going to Disney, some to other places and one was going to Alaska... Jim was on his way home from Texas - by car. He wasn't even home yet, as the beginnings of a plan were rapidly coming together. We had to go somewhere - anywhere! That anywhere quickly became the Apple Festival in Ellijay, Georgia.

Sadly, we had to stay at the Crowne Plaza in Atlanta for lack of an available cabin. Next year we will be better prepared!

Look at all of the people!

There were all sorts of yummy things to eat...

Like these...

Ooooh...

 Yummmmm...

Eating fried apple pies can make a girl very thirsty...

There were just so many cute ideas to steal ...

Next year, we will be organized - you know, like book a cabin before the day we leave Guyton.  Little things like that can make a big difference!  ha ha!

Timeline Project by Owen Murphy...

We had a good time doing this.  Owen wanted to do a baseball theme - Milwaukee Brewers of course. 

We made bases, used baseball bats as the "timeline" and baseballs to mark the years.



Candy Corn Wreath - from the cover of Woman's Day October Magazine

You will need:
16 in (or similar size) styrofoam wreath
Black duct tape
Hot glue gun
Lots of hot glue sticks
Black ribbon
Candy corn

Cover the wreath in tape, winding around and around.

Glue candy corn in rows with the first row with points to the left, the next row with points to the right. Do the inside edge and outside edge last.

Woman's Day doesn't say to spray with a sealer, but I did so that the bugs don't have a picnic off the candy corn right on my front door!

Lay it on the grass, but first lay it on top of a paper bag - because laying it on the grass without anything under it invited lots of little critters for a feast.

Wrap ribbon through wreath and tie into a bow!  Isn't it cute?