Chocolate-Covered Caramel Apples!

I’ve been wanting to do some chocolate-covered caramel apples for awhile, now, but kept talking myself out of it.  It sounds stupid, but the thing that was holding me back was unwrapping all of those dang caramels.  I hate that part so very much.  To avoid the unwrapping in the past, I’ve tried to do make caramel from scratch or have tried bottled caramel with little success.  So I was back to the unwrapping. 

Then I remembered that I have kids.

Turns out, my children quite enjoy unwrapping caramels, and the caramel collateral damage wasn’t too bad.

So we prepped the apples, melted the caramel, and then came another hurdle.  Keeping the caramel on the apple.  If you set it right down after dipping, most of the caramel falls right off, so we opened a window and slowly turned the apples rotisserie-style until the caramel had set up enough that it wouldn’t puddle at the bottom when we set it down.

However, this took FOREVER.

Again, I grabbed the kids to do the manual labor, and after some training, they did a pretty good job.  After they had turned them for a while, we put them in the fridge to continue to set.

After the caramel had set came the fun part.

We melted milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and peanut butter chips and dipped the caramel apples, then rolled them in mini chocolate chips or toffee bits, and returned them to the fridge to set.

They turned out so yummy and most of them were pretty, too, which was awesome.

Making caramel apples was pretty labor intensive and messy, and after finally finishing them I vowed that I would never make them again. 

Until next year.

November VT Message {Conference Preserves}

What a great General Conference we had in October!  I loved every minute and drew such strength from each of the speakers.  I preserved a few of my favorite thoughts and quotes to share with my Visiting Teaching sisters, and you are welcome to use them, too.

To make some Conference Preserves to share with your sisters, you will need 3 sheets of paper—I used a regular weight paper with a cute print on one side and white on the back.  I printed on the white side.

   Click here, here, and here for the quotes.

Next I cut them along the dotted lines, folded them, and put them in a quart jar with some extra treats.

To make the tag, click on the link below to print, then cut around or use a punch to cut them out.

The tag is large enough to put on your lid if you are using a wide-mouth jar, or, you can tie it around the neck of the jar with some ribbon.

Click here for the tag.

I hope that you had a great conference, too!

Happy Visiting Teaching!

P.S.  If you are in the North Utah County area and would rather purchase some Conference Preserves to share with your sisters this month, there are limited quantities available at The Country Loft {288 E. Main Street} in Lehi. 

Spookified

I always restrain myself from putting up my Halloween decorations till it is officially October.  I usually do most of the decorating while the kids are at school, because they love coming home to see it up.  This year however, they have helped me put up most of it and it has been so fun to see their vision of Halloween decorating come to life.Letting them help has been an adjustment for me.  I think one reason I like to do it while they are gone is so that I can do it MY way.Not everything is exactly where I would put it, but it’s been fun to see their imaginations at work as they place things.This is a brain that my son is growing from a science kit he got at school.  We need to find some more creepy things for the other beakers…any suggestions?      It’s also been fun to see it evolve over time.  This spider web just keeps getting scarier :)

How do you do Halloween at your house?

October Visiting Teaching Message

Hi Friends,

This month’s message is “The Divine Mission of Jesus Christ: Creator”

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, “We are the reason He created the universe!  This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God.”

How wonderful it is that women have been created with the gifts to create.  I find that when I am feeling overwhelmed as a woman that if I take a minute to create something beautiful, I feel calmer and happier. 

For my sisters this month, I put together the message with a lump of clay, so that they can create a beautiful sculpture, and help the clay reach its full potential.   As I was putting them together, I realized that it would be just as effective {or more so} to add fabric, or yarn, or paints, or anything that your sisters could create something beautiful with.

To put together this handout, you will need some fun paper, the message, and tag.

Print the message and trim sides to the size of your bag.  Fold in half and affix the tag to the front.

Next, I put the clay in a 5x12 cellophane bag, then stapled the message to the top.

 

Happy Visiting Teaching!

Crazy September!

I can’t believe how fast September went!

Between football games, a family vacation, my high school reunion {20 years?!}, a church event, birthdays and our anniversary—it just flew by!

Even amongst the chaos, I managed to bring a little bit of autumn into our home.

I always get so excited when I pull out the fall decorations.  I store them with all of my fall candles {which, ironically, I don’t burn very often} and when I open those storage totes I get a burst of yummy fall smells.  Heaven.

I also finished refinishing my dining table.  I apparently have some kind of white furniture obsession going on because everything I do lately gets painted white.  For reals.

Of course there are a bajillion things that I want to do to this dining room.  Curtains, rug, walls, lighting, floors {I miss my dark wood floors and am considering refinishing…thoughts?}…deep breath, baby steps.

Maybe someday in like, 20 years, my house will finally feel put together.  Does anyone else feel this way?   

We’ve been busy this week putting October’s Visiting Teaching message together and decking the halls with spiderwebs, skeletons and pumpkins, come back next week for pictures and how I gave up my death grip {ha!} on being the only holiday decorator around here.

Have a great day!

September Visiting Teaching Message

Our message this month is on becoming more spiritually and temporally self-reliant.

Elder Robert D. Hales explained, “The purpose of both temporal and spiritual self-reliance is to get ourselves on higher ground  so that we can lift others in need.”

How do we become more self-reliant?  Some ideas were to become educated, avoid debt and live within our means.  To become spiritually self-reliant, we must live our covenants, be worthy of a temple recommend, serve others and worthily partake of the sacrament.

For the message this month, I printed the message on some fun autumny paper {I got mine at The Wood Connection in American Fork} and made a printable of the principles of self-reliance that are listed in the Ensign.

To assemble this for your sisters, you will need a 12x12 sheet of paper that is printed on both sides.

Fold the bottom of the paper up about 4 inches till it looks like this, then fold it the other direction into thirds.

  Take the message, the principles of self-reliance card, and a candy bar-like treat and put them into your newly formed pockets.  The message is the tallest, so I put it in the middle.

Fold everything together and then add a 3 inch strip of contrasting paper around the middle, securing it with tape in the back.

Add a bow and you’re all done!

Happy Visiting Teaching! 

We Remember

12 years ago the world changed.

It was a horrible, horrible day.

I can’t imagine actually being there.

I remember exactly where I was when it happened.  I bet you do too.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the site where the Twin Towers stood.  It is a solemn place.

It is now a peaceful place for reflection.

A place for hope.

And for remembering.