The Blackberry Vine: October 2011

Monday, October 31, 2011

Salted Caramel Corn

Happy Halloween, Y'all!

The last two weeks have been super busy for me. Getting ready for Halloween was always on the list, but when I had time to get to it, I was just wiped out.

So, finally, last night I decided I had better get SOMETHING done.

I planned the meals for today and started the carmel corn recipe my family has used for years...another great recipe out of the church cookbook!

Well, it was all going by the book, until I could SMELL the corn in the oven.

Yes, perfect me, misread the direction and had the corn baking 100 degrees too high!

Again, I was too tired to start over last night. Instead, I went to bed and vowed to start over this morning. And boy did I!

For breakfast I made

Skull eggs & brain eggs

Mummies in a blanket

AND

Swamp Juice (Odwala Super Food)

To put in their lunch I made:

Bone Bread Sticks

Slider Patties with Cheese Jack'o Lanterns

AND

Apple mouths

Sorry, no pictures (well 1 iphone picture)...way too hectic around here this morning!!!

(Click on the idividual food items to see inspiration for each item!)

After kissing the boys and sending them off to school, I worked on the little one's Luke Skywalker Black Jedi costume. I'll post a link here as soon as I post the costume. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find this Luke Skywalker costume!
Then, I set off to try my luck with the carmel corn again.
This time perfection and a little inspiration!
I'm sure everyone has already been doing this, but it just came to me to add sea salt to the (almost) finished caramel corn...OH...MY!!! It is soooo good!

Here's the recipe if you want to give it a try yourself!

SALTED CARAMEL CORN
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup clear Karo corn syrup
2 sticks butter
Mix and boil five minutes.
Remove from heat. Add
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt.
Stir and add
1 teaspoon soda
Stir vigorously.
Pour over popped (1 1/4 cup unpopped) corn in a large, greased roasting pan.
Bake 1 1/2 hours at 225 degrees.
Stir every 30 minutes.
After each 30 minutes, sprinkle with
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Yields 20 cups

Enjoy!!!
Smiles!

Trick or Treating at some of the fun parties in my sidebar =>

Thursday, October 27, 2011

More Halloween Cake Balls

Busy, busy week this week! If I hadn't had these fun cakeball orders, I just might not have gotten anything Halloweeny accomplished!

Thanks to sweet Pat for the order!

Happy Halloween!!!

Smiles!

If I get a chance, I'm hoping to party with some of my sidebar friends! =>

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Birthday Bones

A sweet little girl is giving these bone sugar cookies to her friends as treats for coming to her dog party. She's also sending home actual dog bones for her friends' little fur babies! Cute, huh!?!

Happy Birthday Nina!!!

Thanks for choosing me to help make your party special!

Smiles!

Jami

May link to some of the super sweet parties in my side bar =>

Monday, October 24, 2011

Tuesday To Do #33 and #32 List Makers

Thanks for a GREAT party last week! You are all so wonderfully talented!
Are you ready to start bookmarking sites?!?!

Each one of this week's LIST MAKERS will no doubt be on your list, too!

The first item on my To Do list is already on the "DONE" list!

I made these Apple Pie Bites last night!! OOHH, YUM!

Stephanie at the Lady with the Red Rocker shows you how to make these easy little yummies for yourself!

Being Creative shares how to make these super cute bat plates just in time for your Halloween party!

Aren't you just swooning over this lampshade Erin made over at Lavendar and Lemon Drops? She has a great tutorial if you want to try your hand at making your own!

If you were on this week's To Do List, then please feel free to grab a LIST MAKER button:

TUESDAY TO DO
FEATURED BUTTON

Now on the the party...

Link up your creations! Sewing, crafting, cooking, tips, photography, tablescapes, parties, scrapbooking, collectibles...it all works. Please save your items for sell, your giveaways and your own parties for those specific blog parties. You're the best!

(Borrowed these little rules from the Shabby Nest...she's got it going on!)

1. Become a follower of The Blackberry Vine.

2. Link directly to your post and not just to your blog.

3. Grab the TUESDAY TO DO BUTTON from the sidebar, and link back to the Blackberry Vine. (Yes, it can be a little time-consuming, but it's the sweet blogger thing to do!)

4. Please visit other participants and leave them some comment love. Comment, comment, comment!!!

I reserve the right to remove posts that are not in keeping with the spirit of Tuesday To-Do including but not limited to those that link to your shop, your giveaway or your linky party, and those that do not link back to the Blackberry Vine. Thanks for playing fair!!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Halloween Dog Scarf

While making more PUMPKIN SHIRTS for some friends, I had to make something for my super sweet BEST friend, Addison! Well, she's ONE of my best friends! (Presley, our Shih Tzu would get his little nose out of joint if he could read this blog! He's allergic to cotton so I'll just stick him in a polyester costume! He'll like that a lot!)
Doesn't she look pretty in her new Halloween Scarf?!? Can you see that the back ground is white bones? The letter is a paw print print.

Addison ALSO has a best friend, a goldendoodle that lives next door. His name is Crush and he is SOOO CUTE!

Of course, he had to have a little Halloween Scarf, too!

At our next puppy playdate, I'll be sure to catch a photo of him decked out in his new duds! He'll look so handsome!

Happy Howloween!!!

Smiles!

Might just be linking up to the fun parties in my sidebar =>

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Tuesday To Do #32 and #31 List Makers

Hey there my sweet bloggy friends!!

So good to see everyone that linked up last week!

You all are the absolute COOLEST!

Here are last week's LIST MAKERS:

Fun Country Pillow Tutorial from Rachelle at Dazed, and Then Some

Great Gift Idea from Nellene at Stylebaggage

Jen at Twiddler House shared the recipe for these yummy Chocolate Orange Popcorn Balls...check out the orange honey recipe, too!

If you were on this week's To Do List, then please feel free to grab a LIST MAKER button:

TUESDAY TO DO

FEATURED BUTTON

Now on the the party...

(Borrowed these little rules from the Shabby Nest...she's got it going on!)

1. Become a follower of The Blackberry Vine.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Teacher Treats for Halloween

Here's a little treat for our sweet teachers...

insulated plastic cups filled with their favorite candies!

(I found the cups for a STEAL at Wal-Mart!)

Wrapped it all up with fun ribbon and a cute label.

Click here for your own.

(They fit perfectly on Avery 8293 round sticker labels!)

Smiles!

May be linking to my bloggy friends' super cool parties located in my sidebar =>

Wakeland Football Jersey Cookies

Recently, I had the privilege of making some cookies for one of our local football teams!

Thanks, Michelle, for thinking of me!

GO WOLVERINES!!!!

Smiles!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Rich Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Liqueur Ganache & Chocolate Cream Filling

This is my version of the Chocolate Cake IV from Southern Living.

The Southern Living version has a mocha cream filling as well as a Coffee Liqueur Ganache. My clients didn't want anything mocha or coffe flavored, so I adjusted it as necessary.

Because it needed to serve at least 25 people, I doubled the recipe. It has 4 9" layers as opposed to 3 8" layers that you see in the bottom photo.

Because I made it for someone else, I wasn't able to cut it open to see the inside.

Here is the photo from Southern Living:

Enjoy!

May be linking to some of the fun parties in the sidebar =>

Smiles!!!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Best Buttermilk Pancakes

This is our go to pancake recipe on most days (occassionally we spend a little extra time and use the recipe with whipped egg whites to make the super fluffy ones, but this one is SOOO GOOD!) Sometimes, my husband will put these together the night before, cover tightly with plastic wrap & put in the fridge. When I get up to make breakfast for the boys, all I have to do is warm up the pan and get cookin'!

I found the recipe in our old church cookbook (isn't that where we find ALL of the good ones?!?) A super big thanks to Mrs. George Kennedy for submitting it! The following is the recipe as written in the cookbook:

2 cups sifted flour

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 2/3 cups buttermilk

4 Tablespoons melted butter

Sift dry ingredients and set aside. Beat eggs lightly with a whisk. Alternate milk and dry ingredients in mixture with eggs. Use more or less buttermilk, depending on the thickness you like. Cook on a hot pancake grill that has been brushed with 1 teaspoon oil and 1/2 teaspoon butter. Turn the pancake when it bubbles. Yields 10-12 6-inch pancakes.

My variation: I use just under 2 cups of buttermilk, add about a teaspoon of vanilla to buttermilk and replace granulated sugar with brown sugar...YUM!

Enjoy!!!

I may be linking up to some of the great parties in my sidebar =>

Monday, October 10, 2011

Tuesday To Do #31 and #30 List Makers

Oh, it's party time again! Yeah!!!

A big shout out to each of you for linking up to #30! You rock!

My apologies for not getting comments to each of you.

I've started working a little bit again this week (yeah,) which doesn't give me much bloggy time (boo.) It also doesn't give me much time to get my Halloween decorations up (augghh!) Halloween decorating is definitely on the brain this week as you might have figured from the following LIST MAKERS:

Go get lots of great ideas for black & white Halloween decorations at Shelley's blog Crazy Wonderful. (Do you see the ghost on her stairs!?!)

Cool Snake Wreath for Halloween from Kokeshi Cakes.

Spider Pillow from Felt Placemat by Freaking Craft is freakin' cute!!

If you were on this week's To Do List, then please feel free to grab a LIST MAKER button:

TUESDAY TO DO

FEATURED BUTTON

Now on the the party...

(Borrowed these little rules from the Shabby Nest...she's got it going on!)

1. Become a follower of The Blackberry Vine.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Pretty Pumpkin

Don't you just love all of the fun pumpkin ideas out in blogland?!?

I do, too!!

Here is my version of a paper covered pumpkin:

Pin It

Easy peasy...here's how I did it:

Supplies:

Cheap styrofoam pumpkins from Dollar Tree

Can of white spray paint

Patterened tissue paper

cute scrap paper

scissors

black wire or black pipe cleaner

Mod Podge or glue/water mixture

spong brush

black acrylic paint

small paint brush

Process:

Pumpkin

Spray paint orange pumpkins white-let dry completely.

Fold tissue paper into a square...cut small triangle out of corner (this is where stem from pumpkin will go.)

Cut large circle out of tissue paper....each edge should slightly overlap bottom of pumpkin when center is placed over stem.

Count the ribs of the pumpkin...cut "petals" in the tissue equal to the number of ribs. Cut to about 3" of stem. Taper ends of petals.

Coat pumpkin with Mod Podge.

Place tissue on top of pumpkin, letting stem show through hole.

Gently work tissue onto pumpkin, slightly over-lapping & trimming tissue paper as needed.

Coat entire pumpkin with Mod Podge...let dry.

Paint stem with black acrylic paint...let dry.

Leaf & vine

Fold your scrap paper in half with pattern on the outside...free hand a leaf shape, starting at fold...leave a small part of the fold intact. (You'll have a leaf with pattern on both sides.)

Fold leaf in half "taco-style."

With wire/pipe cleaner, poke hole into small fold at tip of pumpkin...insert wire about an inch inside the leaf.

Coat inside of leaf with Mod Podge.

Press firmly together.

This is tricky to explain, but EASY to do...pinch the leaf together at three or four spots until your leaf has some texture.

When you have it the way you like it, coat leaf with Mod Podge-let dry completely.

Twist end of pipecleaner into a corkscrew.

Assembly

When pumpkin and leaf & vine are completely dry, wrap pipe cleaner around pumpkin, making sure leaf is next to stem. After you get it the way you like it, use a little hot glue or E6000 to hold it in place.

Smiles!

May be linking up to some of the fun and fabulous parties in my sidebar =>

Monday, October 3, 2011

Tuesday To Do Party #30 and #29 List Makers

Hi Sweet Blackberry Vine Friends!

I've had such fun checking out each of your great blog posts this past week.

Did everyone get a little note from me?!? Some of them didn't show up right away, so be sure to know that I commented on each one...they were awesome!

I so appreciate each of you that stops by every week!

Here are my picks for LIST MAKERS from last week...

I'm sure you'll add them to your list of To Do's, too!