Butterscotch Fudge

Growing up, I was sure that fudge must be really hard to make - why else would it only have been sold at small town festivals and in Wisconsin? At least that's the only place I ever had any! Needless to say, it was a delightful surprise to find out that fudge is incredibly simple! It's not nearly as intricate as a brittle or a candy, (there are no thermometers necessary), but does require a significant commitment to stirring.

This weekend, butterscotch fudge with a dark chocolate spiderweb garnish seemed like the perfect dish for a Halloween potluck! Here's the fudge recipe:

1 teaspoon plus 2 tablespoons butter, divided

1-2/3 cups sugar

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups miniature marshmallows

1 package (10 to 11 ounces) butterscotch chips

• Line an 8-in. square pan with foil and grease the foil with 1 teaspoon butter; set aside.
• In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, milk, salt and remaining butter; cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
• Remove from the heat; add the marshmallows and chips. Stir until marshmallows and chips are melted. Spoon into prepared pan. Let stand in the refrigerator until set.
• Using foil, lift fudge out of pan. Discard foil; cut into desired size and shape. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Yield: about 1-1/2 pounds.

 
For the spiderweb, I melted some dark chocolate chips in the microwave (remember to stir often and use no more than 50% power on the microwave - burnt chocolate is not tasty!) and then used a Ziploc to pipe the spiderweb onto the fudge.  

Anti-Halloween Halloween

Here in Arizona, we don't really have much of an autumn season.  Sure, the nights are getting a bit cooler but we don't have any of the beautiful fall foliage that we are used to from back east.  Neither of us are really pro-Halloween, so in order to make the most of our October, we decided to pack up on Sunday and head about an hour outside of Tucson to visit a pumpkin farm!  

We got to walk around a HUGE field of pumpkins and literally pick our pumpkins off the vine (note to selves: remember to bring a knife and gloves next time!).  It was interesting to see all the different kinds of pumpkins - the white ones were especially cool.  Stacie couldn't resist the irony of the white pumpkin snowperson.  : ) 

 

In our typical fashion, although we intended to visit and maybe get a decorative pumpkin or two, we walked off the farm with a total of seven (yes, seven) pumpkins.  Two big ones to carve and several smaller ones for decorations.   

 

When we got back from the farm, we cleaned our pumpkins by scooping out the seeds and guts and then carving them.  Stacie's is the white pumpkin with the artistic owl design and Sarah's is the orange one with the funny face. 

Finally, we decided we needed a snack after all that carving, so we cleaned the seeds from both pumpkins by separating them from the pumpkin flesh, rinsing them, and patting them dry with some paper towels.  After that, the rest was easy!  Here's our recipe:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

2 cups (approximately) of cleaned, rinsed, and dried pumpkin seeds

1/2 stick of butter

Seasonings (We made three kinds - Salty Garlic, Asian-Inspired, and Sweet & Spicy)

*Here's what you will need depending on the type you want to make: 

Salty garlic:

 (generous sprinkles of granulated garlic and salt)

Asian-inspired:

(2 TB of soy sauce, 1 ts sesame oil, a 1/4 ts of powdered ginger, 

generous sprinkles of granulated garlic and salt)

Sweet and Spicy:

(3 heaping TB of brown sugar, a few good shakes of ground cayenne pepper, 

and generous sprinkles of granulated garlic, salt, & paprika)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  In a medium bowl, pour butter over the clean seeds.  Add the seasonings and mix well.  Pour out onto a foil-lined baking sheet (or two).  Spread out seeds so they are in a single layer.  Pop them in the oven for about 30-45 minutes.  You'll have to watch to make sure they don't burn, so don't go far from the kitchen!  You should use a spatula to turn the seeds around at least two times during the roasting process.  After they turn a light toasted color, take them out of the oven and let them cool down before you dig in! 

Also, thanks everyone for your votes on our poll!  Look out for our pesto recipe, coming soon! 

Nutty Irish Cream Cookies

Cookies are fun because you can do pretty much anything you want, and as long as the flavors go together, they will be delicious. Tie it together with frosting (really, who doesn't love a good frosting?) and you have an elegant but simple dessert. These cookies start with a regular sugar cookie base (think butter, sugar and a little vanilla) then get jazzed up with some cocoa powder, walnuts and some Irish Cream flavoring. I used coffee creamer but you could use a syrup or the real stuff if that was more appealing to you. The cookies are done in 12 minutes, so whip up the frosting while they cool. The recipe called for a powdered sugar based frosting (complemented by additional Irish Cream flavoring), but these cookies would be fantastic with a cream cheese frosting also. They are extremely sweet, but were gone in less than 6 hours with suggestions that we sell them for a profit. 

 

One for the Win Column

 

September and October mean two things: the busy season at school and work and fall foods! We haven't been able to cook as much but this steak dish was one of the best things we have ever done. If you don't know, both of us have extensive recipe collections from a wide variety of magazines and internet sites (most of which we haven't used...) that we can turn to for inspiration. This recipe came out of Stacie's brand new recipe binder and will be made again and again. The best part? This really only takes one pan. Start with some olive oil and saute the zucchini with some garlic, salt and pepper for about 5 minutes. Season the steak with salt and pepper, set the zucchini aside and cover it, then sear the steak on both sides in the same pan. Set the steaks aside, leave the juices from the meat and reduce a third of a cup of balsamic vinegar until it is nearly gel like consistency. The sauce completely makes this dish (even for someone who doesn't like vinegar anything...). Total time, less than 20 minutes for an extremely impressive and tasty dish. Enjoy!

And look out for our transition into apple and pumpkin frenzy soon!