Chocolate Syrup

Years ago I worked in the accounting office for a grocery store chain. One day a store employee walked into my office with a pamphlet in hand. She told me how her grandmother used to make the best brownies from the recipe was on the back of the Hershey's cocoa box. Only it was no longer there--so she wrote the company. They sent her this pamphlet that had not only the brownie recipe, but several other recipes. She asked if I would make some copies for her so she could share with her mom and sister. I told her I'd be glad to on one condition...I got to keep a copy for myself. :-) While I had to agree, the brownie recipe was good *AND* easy (I declared I'd never buy another boxed mix) the recipe that has stayed with me nearly 20 years later is the chocolate syrup recipe. I have several boxes of brownie mix in the cupboard, but I haven't bought a can of syrup since I began making this. Its quick to make and tastes a *lot* like the canned stuff. Give it a try:

Hershey's Cocoa Syrup

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
dash of salt
1 cup hot water

2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine sugar, cocoa and salt in saucepan.
Gradually stir in water.
Cook over medium heat. Boil 3 minutes.
Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Pumpkin Recipes, part 2

Here are more of our favorite pumpkin recipes:

Pumpkin Pie Fudge
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup mashed pumpkin
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 package (12 ounces) vanilla flavored baking chips
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1/3 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation Directions:
Using butter or margarine, lightly grease the sides and bottom of a medium saucepan.
Place the sugar, evaporated milk, pumpkin, butter, salt, and pumpkin pie spice in the saucepan.
Stir constantly over medium heat.
Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for 12 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir in the baking chips and marshmallows until melted.
Stir in the nuts and vanilla.
Pour into an 8-inch square pan that has been lined with foil and greased.
Chill mixture until set.
Cut into small squares to serve.
Cover and store in refrigerator.

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Pumpkin Mousse
1 ½ cups milk
½ cup canned pumpkin
3-ounce package of instant vanilla pudding mix
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
7 teaspoon ground ginger
7 teaspoon ground cloves
1 ½ cups whipped topping

Stir together the milk and pumpkin in a mixing bowl.
Add the pudding and spices and whisk until thickened.
Fold in whipped topping and chill.

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Pumpkin Ice Cream Makes about 2 quarts.
1 (16 oz.) can pumpkin
1 cup packed brown sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup half-and-half
½ teaspoon grated orange peel
¼ cup orange juice
2 cups whipping cream
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Pour into ice cream canister. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.

Pumpkin Recipes

In honor of my color scheme, I've decided to share some of my favorite pumpkin recipes.

Making your own pumpkin puree is so easy, you'll flip when you realize how much you can save by doing it yourself. Simply cut a pumpkin in half (it doesn't matter which direction--but it doesn't roll if you cut it from the stem down while it's sitting upright). I've found that cleaning it out is made easier by a cheap, plastic ice cream scoop. I'm not a fan of the slimy innards, so I don't usually keep the seeds. Once clean, place the cut sides down on a baking sheet and bake it at 350 for an hour to 90 minutes...depending on its size. Once its soft, flip the pumpkin over and scoop out the tender flesh and puree in a food processor, discarding the outer shell. Put the puree in freezer bags (I measure 2 cups for each) and freeze.

Once you have all that lovely puree, you're gonna want to make something. My youngest son loves to make pumpkin butter and all three of my children love pumpkin muffins and pumpkin milkshakes (just make a vanilla milkshake, adding 2 TBS pumpkin puree and 1/4 teas. pumpkin pie spice).


Pumpkin Spice Makes 8 teaspoons
Ingredients:
4 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
2 Tsp Ground Ginger
1 Tsp Allspice
1 Tsp Nutmeg

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Pumpkin Butter Recipe Yield: 3 Cups
2 1/2 c Pumpkin; cooked, mashed
3/4 c Sugar
1/4 c Apple cider or orange juice
1/2 ts Cinnamon, ground
1/2 ts Cloves, ground
1/4 ts Allspice, ground
1/4 ts Nutmeg, ground
Combine all of the ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until the mixture thickens. Cover and chill.

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Pumpkin Chip Muffins
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
16 ounce can pumpkin
1 cup applesauce
½ cup vegetable oil
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (a 12 ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, applesauce and oil until smooth.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips.
Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups ¾ full.
Bake at 400° 16 to 20 minutes or until muffins test done.
Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.
Yields about 24 standard-size muffins.
*Can substitute carrots or zucchini for pumpkin or raisins for the chocolate chips.

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Tomorrow we'll tackle Pumpkin Fudge, Mousse and Ice Cream.

Ah, Autumn...

Even though this hasn't been a textbook year weather-wise, it's still so nice to have Autumn/Fall here. You won't hear me complaining about the cooler temps and the fallen leaves. Granted, because of the wacky weather, the leaves are falling early--some even before they change color. But still, I just adore this time of year. There's just something about Fall. Love is in the crisp, sweet air. Hubby told me last night that he'd taken our Anniversary off (to surprise me) and that last week he'd also scheduled the following day off...making a 4-day weekend for us! He asked if I wanted to go away somewhere with him--just the two of us. YES!

So, what's your favorite season?

Tomorrow I get my kitchen back!

The tomato juice is made

the pizza sauce is made


and the last of the grapes were used up in making juice today.


Tomorrow the kids and I will pack away all the canners, rings and equipment and I'll have my kitchen countertops back. I've been canning for nearly a month and I am sooooooo ready for this stuff to disappear for another year.

Tomorrow I think I'll start making up batches of cookie dough to freeze for later--when it's baking season. You know, drop oatmeal or chocolate chip cookie dough onto trays, freeze them, then bag 'em up with baking instructions and pack back into the freezer. Then, when you've got the oven heated up from baking a meatloaf or a casserole, you can just pop a sheet of cookies in the oven in no time and VIOLA! there's dessert.

I love it when I look like super mom! :)

Besides, now that I'm in perpetual motion mode, I have to do SOMETHING lest I look like a slug. The winter cometh...and I really do turn into a slug on those dark, depressing days.

Oh...Allie, I just want to thank you for all your encouraging words. You don't know how much it means to me to find a friendly comment after I've posted. Thanks for being there for me, friend! I'm sorry for all the times you've asked a question and I haven't answered. You deserve better. I love you, man! ;)

Critters...again

In late July and early August I blogged about some of the critters in our world...and promised pics of others.

Well, today is the day, my friends.

You're barely able to contain your excitement. I can tell these things.

So without further eloquence, meet:

the salamander,

the baby bass,

and the uninvited bat.

Yes, that's a badmiton racket. You don't think bats let you pick them up and move them out of the house, do you? I don't allow my boys to touch a bat--and you KNOW that *I'm* not going to touch one. Besides, you have to STUN them before you can move them--hence the racket.

We also had three toads...but I made the boys turn two of them loose. It's really difficult to catch enough crickets for three hungry toads. And we have crawdads. I don't know how many we have today. The boys keep catching them and putting them in the same tank. Crawdads are territorial, you know. You can fill in the blanks on why the population keeps dwindling. I don't know why I don't have any pictures of these critters. I handed the camera to the middle child with instructions to bring me pics...but these are all I got for my troubles. Oh well, it will give me something to blog about later.

TTFN

Been a little busy.

This past month has been a doozy....both at home and at work. 'Tis the season and if you don't keep moving, you'll either get run over or you'll run behind. Speaking of running, I'm feeling a little *blah* because I've neglected my treadmill. More thoughts on that in a sec... First lemme brag on how I've been working on my homemaker skills:

So far I've put up 60 pints of salsa

12 quarts of grape juice (no pic) and 10 quarts of spaghetti sauce

and tomorrow I *plan* on working on pizza sauce. This time I'll *try* to follow the recipe.

You see, I don't usually use a recipe when I cook. We've been making salsa for several years now...and its still a question of how its going to turn out because I don't know how hot the peppers are this year. ...until I make a batch. Then I can adjust the heat for every following batch. Hubby gets to try the first batch of salsa...it's *usually* spicier than I like it. I'm selfish that way. He will tell me how spicy it is, then I know how many peppers to put in the next batch depending on if I'm making mild, medium or hot.

So when I still had **at least** another bushel of tomatoes left after doing up the salsa, I decided to make something else with it instead of just canning them straight. I'm stupid that way--thinking I need to pile more work on an already busy schedule. Up until this year, the only kind of tomatoes I've canned has been chopped (for soups) or salsa. So I looked up some spaghetti recipes and combined the things I liked about them and made a batch. ONLY...I thought they didn't use enough spices--oregano, basil, etc--so I added more. I think by the time I finished adding I had **at least** twice as much as the recipe called for. Yeah, it was overkill. So today when I made lunch I used a jar of homemade AND a jar of store-bought to dilute it. No complaints from the family. Maybe I'm just sensitive.

So...that's why I said I will try to follow the pizza sauce recipe. No guarantees....I'm not known for following recipes. I almost always add my own touch. My philosophy is that every recipe is just a guideline...a suggestion. If I choose to follow it, good. If I choose to add or take away, good. The bad part is that I rarely make something the same way twice--so if you liked it today, you'd better enjoy it...because tomorrow I'll try to improve it.

That's just how I ride. :)

I don't just mess up *food* recipes, either. I'm talented enough to mess up other recipes, too. I bought all the stuff needed to make homemade laundry (powder) detergent. One night last week I gave Timothy the job of grating the soap. He loved it. So then I let him be in charge of measuring the ingredients and mixing them up in the food processor until they formed a powder. I'm such a fun mom. He did a great job. So he ran to his room and got a load of laundry to try out the new detergent. YES! He's finally going to wash some clothes! (Don't get excited--it didn't last.) The homemade detergent worked wonderfully. So I did a load with those messy towels that the salsa leaked onto. Not only did it lift the stains, those towels looked whiter than the ones in the drawer! I was so pleased. So the next day when we put the ingredients away, I said something about the box of Washing Soda. My daughter corrected me...Baking Soda. No, it says right here on the box...Baking Soda. ACK! I *know* the crumpled box in the laundry isle that I reached behind to get this box said Washing Soda, so I never thought to look at *this* box. I won't make THAT mistake twice. {sigh}

I can get in trouble in my spiritual life by not following God's "recipe", too-- I can't take the same approach that I have with cooking. I will mess it up EVERY time if I pick and choose things from God's Word. We have to read the Word and follow it, no varying to the left or right. The gate is small and the way is narrow (see Matthew 7:14)...so we need to make sure we stay on the right path.

I hope and pray that all my cyber friends are spiritually fit. Keep working on those spiritual muscles. We're only in this world for a short time.