Paper Paint and Pine: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

. . . Halloween Boo Bark . . .

Happy Halloween!

If you are a regular reader you know that I love making different combinations of candy Bark. I have done it for all different occasions and they are always so festive and colorful but the best part is how easy it is! Makes a great gift and is always well received. This year I made "Boo Bark" for my son's classmates with a cute treat topper. It was easy and the kids thought it was great!

You will need:

White Chocolate Candy Melts

Milk Chocolate or Semi Sweet Chocolate

Oreos

Sprinkles

Candy Eyes

• Gather your ingredients

• Chop up the Oreo cookies so they are coarsely ground

• Melt the white chocolate and spread onto a baking sheet. It doesn't need to be a really thick layer of chocolate so spread it fairly thin

• Melt the milk or semi sweet chocolate and drop a few dallops onto your white chocolate and then swirl with a knife. Don't over swirl it or you will have a muddled looking bark

• Working quickly you will start adding your candy sprinkles, Oreos and candy eyes and any other toppings you might want to add

• Press the toppings into the melted chocolate. You won't have to press too hard but just enough to have it adhere to the chocolate.

• Place Boo Bark in the fridge for several hours until firm then use a table knife to break it up into small pieces. I have done candy bark as larger pieces too so it just depends on how far you need it to go or what size you prefer. There isn't a right or a wrong when it comes to this bark.

• You are now ready to bag the Boo Bark for gift giving

• I printed out enough treat toppers for my son's class and teachers and filled small cellophane bags with the Boo Bark and then stapled the folded treat topper on top of each bag to keep the bark fresh.

Yummy!!

BOO!!

YUMMY!

Halloween!

Monday, October 29, 2012

. . . Deep Fried Ravioli . . .

This past year my husband and I had a weekend getaway to Blowing Rock, North Carolina and we went to Storie Street Grille where we had the best Deep Fried Raviolis. When we left the restaurant I knew I'd be making them at home as soon as possible. I have made them several times now and they are so good. It might seem odd to put them on skewers but it is a great way to do them because you have the perfect serving for each person and it keeps them contained in your pot of oil. They are so good and you can interchange the sauces you use for dipping. My favorite is Vodka Sauce--yummy!

{Yummy}

PRINT RECIPE HERE
You will need:

1 quart vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup panko bread crumbs

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

2 Tablespoons dried oregano

2 Tablespoons dried basil

1 Tablespoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

Store-bought frozen ravioli (or 20 tortellini)

• Gather your ingredients

• Separate your egg, bread crumb mixture and flour to get ready to coat your raviolis

• Once the ravioli is coated you will thread three onto a wooden skewer

• Drop each skewer into oil and turn over as soon as the ravioli starts to brown. This will take about 3 minutes or so

• Drain the fried raviolis on a paper towel lined plate

• Serve warm with the pasta sauce of your choice

So Good!

Ravioli!

Dinner served!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

. . . Happy Anniversary . . .

Today my husband and I are celebrating 11 years of marriage. I don't really know where the time has gone but I certainly can remember the wedding day like it was yesterday. We had a beautiful day and have so many great memories.

• • •

Life has given us good times and bad but we have been very fortunate and have worked together to weather it all. I hope we have many more years of friendship, love and marriage. Happy Anniversary!

Friday, October 26, 2012

. . . Candy Corn Cookies . . .

Can we pretend today is Cookie Time Tuesday? If you are ok with it so am I...that being said there will not be a Cookie Time Tuesday feature on October 30th so I'm sharing this a little early. I wanted you to have a chance to make these awesome Candy Corn Cookies this weekend so you'll have them for Halloween treats. They are so yummy and absolutely adorable!! Candy Corn Cookies, who knew! They are buttery and have a slight citrus flavor due to having a little orange zest in them. These are guaranteed to please for their taste and how adorable they are! Enjoy them.

I found these on Alaska from Scratch and she says the recipe came from Land O' Lakes. They are so cute and really aren't difficult to make at all. It was a lot of fun to make them with my son because he was impressed with the way they really looked like pieces of candy corn.

So Cute!

You will need:

1 C butter, softened

1 C sugar

1 egg

2 tsp. freshly grated orange zest

2 tsp. freshly squeezed orange juice

½ tsp. vanilla

3 C flour

½ tsp. baking soda

⅛ tsp. salt

yellow food coloring

orange food coloring (or a combination of yellow and red)

⅓ C sugar for dipping cookies

• Gather your ingredients

• Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy

• Add orange zest, egg and orange juice to butter mixture and combine

• Add flower mixture to the wet ingredients and mix well

• Divide dough into thirds

• Press the "white" dough into a plastic wrap lined 9x5 inch loaf pan

• In separate bowls add coloring to your two other balls of dough. I used Wilton's Food Coloring Gel to get a bolder shade of orange and yellow but you can use your basic food coloring if you have it on hand.

• Press the orange dough on top of the "white" dough and then add the yellow dough on top of the orange dough pressing each layer firmly into the pan. Loosely cover with the plastic wrap and freeze for about an hour to hour and a half.