Its almost time...

For my favorite holiday...Halloween. Now I'm not sure if it was my love of candy or dressing up but I've always loved Halloween. We I carved pumpkins last night for the family. I have been sick all week and finally found a not so sick moment to post. This weekend we went to see family up north and they have a fright night in the area. I had never heard nor had I ever been to a zombie walk but was curious to see it.

I didn't get the best pictures as I was trying to keep warm by sitting on the side of the road that was sunny.

Then we went to the Halloween at the zoo. Where they had pumpkins everywhere and some were super cute, I had to share.

horse, pig and a cow made out of pumpkins

cute catepillar

think it was a dog, cat and a rabbit

three little pigs

It was a super fun weekend, hope you get to enjoy the fall festivities with your family!

Happy Halloween!

-Tori

Easy Halloween Wreath

So I had already made a fall wreath which was my first attempt at ever making a wreath...cause I'm still new to all of this. After making my Halloween Bunting I thought I really needed to make a wreath to go with it instead of my semi boring fall one, so I came up with this...

It was all really simple and pretty cheap. Everything at Hobby Lobby was already 30% off which really helped. 

Started with my ribbon and a wreath form.

The pattern of the dots matched my bunting with the buttons. And it wasn't going to be super hard to attached ribbon to a wreath form. I used hot glue.

I bought this little sign too. I could have made one but I wanted to be quick here, the bunting took enough time.

Added the sign to the wreath which was just the right size because I didn't wrap my ribbon well and didn't have quite enough to make it around my form. I did pull the little wire hanger off of it.

I did buy the bats, 30 cents each...but you could easily make these bats with some felt, puff paint, and googly eyes.  The main body of the bat was two pieces of felt spiraled into each other and the wings were felt with the puff paint outline. I was very happy with how it all turned out and very happy that it only took me fifteen minutes to complete.

Happy Crafting 

-Tori

Gourmet Thursday: Carmel Apple Pie

Its that time of year again, yay for all things fall! My husband absolutely loves this and I even made it for thanksgiving last year.

YUM!

Ingredients

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust deep dish pie, I store bought mine 
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1/4 cup butter, melted 
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 cups thinly sliced apples ( i use granny smith)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 tub of caramel dip, found near the apples in produce section
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. To Make Taffy: In a small bowl combine brown sugar, melted butter or margarine, and 1/3 cup flour. Mix well and set aside.
3. To Make Apple Filling: Place apples in a large bowl. Add white sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Toss until all ingredients are mixed well and apples are thoroughly coated.
4. Spoon half of apple filling into pastry-lined deep-dish pan. Top with half of caramel dip and half of taffy mixture. Repeat process with remaining apple filling, dip and taffy mixture. Place top pastry over filling and seal well (this is very important--if edges are not sealed, caramel will leak out all over). Cut steam vents and brush top crust with milk or light cream.
5. Cover pie with foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil from pie and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until crust is golden. Serve warm.

If you like a lot of apples use more apples. I used six cups.

Also if you don't want to use crust for topping the pie, there is a recipe for Streusel...I haven't made it this way before but I'm going to try it this year.

Streusel Topping: In a medium bowl combine 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon,1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 c brown sugar, 3/4 c oats, and 1 tea lemon peel. Mix thoroughly, then cut in 1/2 cup butter or margarine until mixture is crumbly. pour over pie before baking and pat to seal ..make sure there are no openings where filling can seep through. bake, halfway till pies done..put tin foil on top and over edges of crust.


Happy Baking
-Tori