Over at My Wooden Spoon’s facebook page, Sue commented how she’s lost her delicious, oh so buttery, melt in your mouth crispy peanut brittle recipe and needs to find a one to replace it.  She’s scoured the internet but nothing has come close to the one she lost.

So I’m asking you to dig around and share your favorite peanut brittle recipe in hopes of giving Sue a new one to add to her collection and pass on to friends and family.

What is YOUR peanut brittle recipe? Help a gal out won’t ya?!  Share links or recipes in the comment section. Thanks guys!

When trying to figure out what food gifts to give this year, I thought I’d make something I usually don’t, which is homemade fudge.  I’ve heard horror stories when it comes to fudge so I can see how it can be quite intimidating for some, much like pecan pies tend to do but my recipe is pretty simple and what I feel like, is some of the best fudge ever.

My homemade fudge recipe isn’t a family recipe but it may as well be because it came from a jar of Kraft Jet Puffed Marshmallow Creme jar.  Just like many food brands, Kraft has been around for years so you can imagine all the recipes from their boxes or jars, have become a family recipe, perhaps even a secret family recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1 lb semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 7 oz. Kraft Jet Puffed Marshmallow Creme jar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I used pecans that my FIL picked and shelled for me instead of walnuts)

DIRECTIONS

Try to have everything ready ahead of time.  It will make things a lot easier.  Chop the nuts and have the marshmallow cream out of the jar and in a bowl. In fact, I recommend you spray your spatula and bowl with Pam Cooking Spray before doing this because that creme is very sticky!  Line a 13″x9″x2″ baking pan with foil and spray with nonstick spray.

In a 3-quart saucepan, bring sugar, butter, and milk to a boil on medium heat, stirring constantly once the mixture begins to bubble. Once the mixture reaches a boil,  you’ll want to remove the mixture from the heat once it reaches 234°F on a candy thermometer.  I just used a digital thermometer that I had but if you don’t have one, just remember it will take about 4 minutes to reach that temperature.

Remove from heat. Very quickly stir in chocolate and marshmallow cream. When those have melted,, stir in the vanilla and then the walnuts.  Pour into your pan lined with foil.  Cool to room temperature before slicing, at least 4 hrs or so.

Makes about 3 pounds of fudge.

You MUST let someone lick the spatula of course! Truett enjoyed this part of the process a great deal. Who wouldn’t right?

Once done, I placed some pieces of fudge in a Christmas bowl and put a whole bunch of fudge in these fun gift boxes from Wilton.  I really really like the gift boxes and bags. It made the whole food gift giving process easy for me and looked fabulous!

These don’t have to be only Halloween treats but they does make for a fun one and as you can see, we used Halloween colors and decorations to celebrate the holiday.  They are very fun and vibrant.   Halloween always seems to be about sweets (and no exceptions here) but at least there are fresh apple bites incorporated into this one!  These are much smaller than you probably realize because instead of using whole apples, you’ll be using a melon baller.  I have this cool double-sided melon baller for the 2 size options but any will do.

I recommend letting the kiddos help you with this one. It’s very easy for them to dip them into the sweets and they’ll just love being your helper.  If your kids are helping, I highly recommend you use the tip below to keep the mess to a minimum!

Ingredients/Supplies

• 4-inch lollipop sticks
• Melon baller
• Granny Smith apples (one apple makes about 8 mini apples)
• Wilton Chocolate Chips (I got mine at Walmart), Butterscotch or peanut butter chips
• You could also use Chopped nuts, sprinkles, shredded coconut, or mini m&m’s…whatever you want.
• Small paper candy cups

Instructions

With the melon baller, scoop little balls out of the apple. Each ball should have a section of apple peel. Push half of a lollipop stick into the peel of each ball. Pat the apple pieces dry.  Melt the chips according to the package directions. Dip and swirl the mini apples in the melted chips, then roll the apples in nuts, sprinkles, coconut or whatever your choice is.   Place the mini apples in paper candy cups to set.

TIP: Here’s one of my favorite tips to keeping the mess under control with all the different sprinkles, m&m’s, etc.  Get a muffin pan out and place muffin liners in them.  Pour each topping you plan to use into a separate cup so that all you have to do is dip each covered apple into that topping.  Works great!  I learned that tip from the fine folks at Wilton.

I have this little booklet full of recipes you can make using Carnation Evaporated Milk and what do you think my kids chose?  Yep, fudge.  Of course they would because even though the pear pie and quiche looked fabulous, their sweet tooth tells their brain to pick the fudge. So fudge it is.

Now I have, on several occasions, heard about this recipe before. I’ve heard how it’s creamy sweetness is like no other but is it true?  Well, according to my bunch and apparently the folks who reviewed it at the Very Best Baking site, say it’s the best ever!  And talk about easy to make–recipes just don’t get any easier than this.

My pieces are thinner because I only had a bigger pan but that didn’t hinder the taste a bit;)

INGREDIENTS

• * 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• * 2/3 cup (5 fl.-oz. can) Nestle Carnation Evaporated Milk
• * 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• * 1/4 teaspoon salt
• * 2 cups miniature marshmallows
• * 1 1/2 cups (9 oz.) Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• * 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
• * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

LINE 8-inch-square baking pan with foil.  I used an 8×11 because that’s all I had.

COMBINE sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

STIR in marshmallows, morsels, nuts and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted. Pour into prepared baking pan; refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into 48 pieces.

In keeping with transparency, as always, I did receive a gift card from One2One Network and Carnation for ingredients to create this delicious fudge but in no way was my opinion of evaporated milk bought– fudge, or anything else for that matter.  It’s always been a staple and if you want to search my recipes for it, you’ll know that’s the truth;)  {{giggle}}

oh.my.gosh.  I almost don’t have words to describe this cake. Actually, I don’t have words to describe it. It’s that good. I will tell you, that after we all had a piece, I went to do one load of laundry and within 10 minutes, 2 more pieces were gone. I’m not 100% of who the culprits are but I have a sneaky suspicion that it was the doing of two teens.

You can use any chocolate cake mix you want.  I chose to try Naturally Nora’s Chocolate Cake Mix for this recipe.  One of the first things I noticed when mixing the batter, is how few lumps there were.  I was even mixing by hand and quite surprised at how smooth it got.  These cake mixes use all natural ingredients with NO trans fats or hydrogenated oils.  They are Kosher as well and contain NO dairy or soy.  That’s not a big concern for me to be honest but I know that many of you guys will appreciate that.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 chocolate cake mix
• 1 can sweet condensed milk
• 1 small jar caramel ice cream topping
• 1 tub Cool Whip
• 1 Butterfinger candy bar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350′.  Bake cake as directed on box.  When cake is done, poke holes in cake. (wooden spoon handle works well).  Pour condensed milk over the top of hot cake.  Pour the jar of caramel ice cream topping over the condensed milk.  When cake is completely cooled, top with Cool Whip and sprinkle Butterfinger over Cool Whip.

Over the next week I’ll be bringing a few Mexican treats like today’s Mexican Candy.   Coming from a partial Hispanic background and marrying into a Hispanic family, I’ve had the pleasure to eat some really delicious sweets that are super easy to make and VERY budget friendly!

There are a few versions of Mexican Candy but today I’m bringing you a very basic one.  One that looks like a praline of sorts.  It literally only takes minutes to make and a couple of minutes before they’re ready to eat.  It definitely isn’t something I’d make often but for an occasional sugar rush, it sure hits the spot!

As with many recipes, you can completely omit the pecans but because we’re nuts ’round here, we put them in all kinds of desserts!

If you have your own version, I’d love to hear it!

P.S. If you’re looking for an organizer for your wax paper, foil, and plastic wrap (and they cut perfect every time!), check out the WrapMaster – It’s my favorite!

Mexican Candy

Ingredients

• 1 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cup of pecans (whole or pieces)
• 7 Tbs milk
• Wax Paper

Instructions

Cook sugar & milk ingredients in saucepan until you a small ball forms in a glass of water. Meaning, drop just a tiny bit into a glass of water and if it forms into a solid, then it’s ready. Mix in pecans. Pour spoonfuls out onto waxed paper and let cool. VIOLA, it’s done. Told you it was fast!

My rating: 4.0 stars It deserves 5 stars but since it’s terribly sweet, I gave it 4.

In need of a very good treat to give for the holiday?  Almond bark, popcorn, pretzels, peanuts oh my!!  This is the perfect, affordable treat that when wrapped in cute holiday buckets and plastic goody bags, will make anyone smile!   You can make it small and large batches and even use different themed bags & buckets for different holidays.

INGREDIENTS:

• *Air pop corn popper-because my husband is a freak and thinks that Microwave ovens (along with everything else in this world) cause cancer.  I think that SEX causes cancer and that we need to keep that out of our house too!!!!! (lol)
• *Vanilla Almond Bark
• *Spanish peanuts
• *Pretzels
• *Popcorn

DIRECTIONS:

I melt one entire block thingy of Almond Bark on my stove top (again the microwave issue with the man) in a plain ole pot on LO to MEDIUM LO, until completely melted. While the candy is melting, Me & Orville Redenbacher get the poppin’ party started!! I fill the popcorn to the level indicated 2 times. This usually gives me enough popped corn for a full batch of Goodies. I used a fairly HUGE bowl.. Add popcorn, peanuts, & pretzels. When the candy is completely melted (whew, my arm is tried of stirring occasionally to prevent scalding) I add the melted candy and mix until completely covered.

Pour onto a wax paper to cool, as a little holiday cheer, I sprinkle red and green candy decor (sugar) over popcorn goodness before it cools.. Fill up your favorite holiday gift bags, add a cute lil bow or ribbon. There you have a perfect scrumptious homemade gift.

I also have a picture of just a Christmas candy that I make, just excluded the popcorn. Mix candy, pretzels, and peanuts until covered, and plop down on wax paper until cool. I also add the colored sprinkles for some holiday flare…..Get your filthy hands outta there I am taking a picture…….

Get your filthy candy grabber’s outta there, you no microwave wanting Nymph…or you’ll pull back a stump..

Happy Holidays Ya’ll!!