All Whisked Up: Cheddar Olive Cheeseball

It's time for another All Whisked Up reveal.  The members of Wisconsin Whisk get together and secretly peruse another blog and make something fun to share.  

This month I was assigned the blog Wisconsin Fun Next Exit written by Erica.  Erica lives in Madison and considers herself a "mostly vegetarian".  

Erica has lots of great recipes on her blog.  I nearly chose her baked cheesy eggs; and I still want to make those!  I am always looking for new ideas for breakfast.  But then I saw this cheeseball, and I knew I had to make it.  Like Erica's family, my family always served cheeseballs at holidays.  It was kind of a special occasion thing.  I love how this recipe is personal to Erica.  She even included a pic of the recipe card her grandmother hand-wrote.  Love it!  I had never made a cheeseball with olives in it, but I thought it sounded genius.  

Cheddar Olive Cheeseball

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

4 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1 tbsp toasted onion flakes (or regular onion flakes)

10 green olives stuffed with pimento

½ cup pecan chips

Directions:

Place cream cheese in a mixing bowl.  Add cheddar cheese and onion flakes.  Pulse green olives in food processor until chopped, but not pureed. Add to cheese mixture and stir well.  

Lay out a piece of plastic wrap and place the pecan chips in the center.  Form cheese mixture into a ball shape and place it on the pecan chips.  Roll it around to cover with the pecans.  Close up the plastic wrap around the cheeseball and refrigerate for 4 hours.  

Remove from refrigerator and let soften a bit before serving.

Makes 6 (2.5 oz.) servings.

This is a really great cheeseball.  And it really couldn't be simpler to throw together.  I cut Erica's recipe in half; I think hers was meant to make two cheeseballs.

I used Penzeys Toasted Onion Flakes, but regular onion flakes will work fine too. 

Don't you just love the little flecks of red and green inside?  Perfect for Christmas!  

I enjoyed getting to know Erica and her blog this month.  Thanks for a great recipe, Erica!

Be sure to check out all the other great Wisconsin bloggers below.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Improv: Cilantro Lime Hummus

It's time for this month's Improv Challenge.  The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it. 

This month's ingredients were cilantro and lime.  A little late for Cinco de Mayo, but a great combo anytime of year.  I love cilantro, and lime is a perfect partner for it.  Cilantro and lime are both common ingredients in both Mexican and Thai food.  I love both of those cuisines, but this time I decided to do a little "fusion" cooking.  

Do you ever make your own hummus?  It is really convenient to buy it premade at the grocery store, and I do that sometimes when I am feeling lazy, but I also think it's really fun to make my own hummus.  It's super easy using canned beans, and while it is really difficult (if not impossible) to get it as smooth as store-bought, the pay-off is that you can play around with ingredients and come up with some really fun variations.  Last fall I made a Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus that was amazing.  I also make Pizza Hummus, which is my kids' favorite.  So when I happened to stumble across the idea for adding cilantro and lime to hummus, I couldn't wait to try it.  My version is adapted from Vegan Family Recipes.

Cilantro Lime Hummus

Ingredients:
1 (15 oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
¼ cup tahini
3 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp ground cumin
3 tbsp lime juice
⅓ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1-3 tbsp water (optional)

Directions:
Place chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a food processor.  Process until smooth, scraping down the sides if necessary.  If desired, add water until desired consistency has been reached.

Pour into a bowl and serve with tortilla chips.

Makes about 2½ cups.

I made this as an afternoon snack for my daughters (ages 7 and almost 5), and they loved it.  I really think this would be a good alternative to guacamole for people who can't eat avocados.  I served it with tortilla chips, but you can dip anything you want in there, of course.

I'm happy to include this into my homemade hummus rotation!

Be sure to check out all the other great cilantro and lime recipes below and come back next month to see what I make with fish and avocado.  Oh wow!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus

I love hummus.  It's perfect for as easy light lunch and for an evening snack with a glass of wine.  Remember last month when I shared my recipe for Pizza Hummus?  I had to buy tahini for it, and if you've ever bought tahini, you know that it comes in a large jar.  Very large.  And most hummus recipes call for only 1/4 cup of it.  Since the jar is kinda pricey, I decided that I was going be diligent about using up that jar!  So I started pinning unique hummus recipes to my Dips and Party Foods board on Pinterest.  One that I came across was this one from The Healthy Maven.  I couldn't wait to try it.  I adapted it slightly; here's my version.

Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus

Ingredients:

2 lb. butternut squash

2 tsp + 2 tbsp olive oil

1 (15 oz.) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 tbsp tahini

1 tsp lemon juice

2-4 tbsp water

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp smoked paprika

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°.  Cut butternut squash in half, lengthwise.  Scrape out seeds and rub cut sides with 1 tsp olive oil each.  Place squash halves cut sides down in a baking dish.  Roast for about 45 minutes, or until flesh is completely soft.  Remove from oven, flip squash over, and let cool.

When cool, remove 1½ cups of squash from the skins.  In a food processor, blend together the squash, chickpeas, tahini, remaining 2 tbsp olive oil, lemon juice, 2 tbsp water, salt, and smoked paprika.  If it is too thick, add another 2 tbsp water and pulse again.

Place in serving dish and garnish with an additional drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of smoked paprika, if desired.

Makes about 3 cups.

Oh man, this hummus is amazing!  I love the slight sweetness from the squash.  The smokiness from the paprika brings it out even more.  Please do not settle for just any paprika when making this; you really need the smoked kind.  Usually I add more than a recipe calls for, but in this case, it was just perfect. 

My husband and I ate this with pita chips, but it would be awesome with anything: chips, crackers, and especially your favorite cut-up veggies.

This is the perfect dish to take to all of those great fall get-togethers you are invited to.  

Before you go, please hop over and enter my Red Gold giveaway.  Only a few more days left!

What I'm Reading Right Now

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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Improv: Butterscotch Popcorn and Peanuts

It's time for this month's Improv Challenge!

The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it. 

This month's ingredients were popcorn and peanuts.  Interesting!  Made me think of baseball of course, since I'm a big baseball fan.  I wasn't sure what there was to do with them though, until I started looking around on Pinterest for ideas.  I found Thai-style chicken that was breaded with popcorn and peanuts, fudge with popcorn and peanuts in it, and several different varieties of popcorn and peanut snacks.  While I am still very intrigued by that chicken, I went the snack route this time.  We are getting ready for a car trip and I thought I would make us a fun car snack.  I found a recipe for Butterscotch Popcorn Crunchies on Nestle's website, and since I love all things butterscotch, I had to try it.  It's basically like caramel corn, but with a butterscotch twist.

Butterscotch Popcorn and Peanuts

Ingredients:
12 cups popped popcorn
2 cups lightly salted peanuts
¼ cup butter
11 oz. pkg. butterscotch baking chips
¾ cup light corn syrup

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300° . Spray large roasting pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place popcorn and peanuts in prepared roasting pan.  (Make sure there are no unpopped kernels in there.)  Lay a large piece of parchment paper out on the counter.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over low heat.  Add butterscotch chips and corn syrup and increase heat to medium-low.  Stir often until butterscotch chips are completely melted and mixture starts to bubble. Immediately pour over popcorn mixture in roasting pan; toss as well as you can to evenly coat.

Bake, stirring every 10 minutes, for 20 to 30 minutes. Carefully pour mixture onto parchment paper and spread evenly. As mixture cools, it will harden. Once completely cool, break into bite-size pieces. Store in airtight container. 

Makes about 14 cups.

So I have to admit that it took me two tries to get this stuff right.  It was my fault, though.  Instead of using a roasting pan, I used my two stoneware large bar pans (from Pampered Chef).  They are rimmed so I thought they would work just fine.  And they did, except that I put them both on the same rack, side-by-side.  I should have known not to do that, because every time I do, the outside edges are too close to the sides of the oven, and those sides burn.  I forgot.  I noticed it the second time I went to stir them, so I moved one pan to a different rack and centered them both.  That stopped the burning, but the damage had been done.  The butterscotch caramel coating got too dark.  In hindsight, I realize I should have taken it out sooner, because the original recipe called for cooking it a total of 40-45 minutes.  So I just followed the recipe.  But like I said, the butterscotch part got too dark.  The result was still edible, and my husband liked it just fine, but I was very disappointed. The butterscotch flavor got cooked out.  :(

I wasn't sure I would try again, because I was busy getting ready for our trip.  But I had more of all of the ingredients and I thought it would make an awesome car snack, so I squeezed in some time to make it again.  This time I started out with the pans on different racks so there was no burning.  And I played it safe, and only baked it for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes everything was evenly coated and the butterscotch stuff seemed to be the right consistency, so I took it out.  Perfect.

This is kind of a messy dish to make, but it's worth it.  When you first pour the butterscotch syrup on the popcorn and peanuts, you're going to think that something went wrong, because it's very difficult to stir.  You can't possibly get all the popcorn evenly coated.  Don't worry about it.  When you go back to stir it after the first 10 minutes, you will see that the sauce has melted and loosened up quite a bit so you are better able to stir it and get all the popcorn covered.

The first time I made this, I made it just as written, and when my 4-year-old, Eva, found out she couldn't have it (because she's allergic to peanuts), she was heartbroken.  So when I made it the second time, I did half of it with peanuts and half without.  Then I had a very happy girl on my hands!

Check out all the other popcorn and peanuts recipes below and come back next month to see what I make with bacon and beans.  Yum!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Ranch Chex Mix

I promised you another great game day snack, and while this isn't the one I was originally thinking of (never got a chance to get a pic of it), this one is also perfect for a Super Bowl party.  It's one of my favorite Chex mixes.  The seasoning is ranch dressing mix and Parmesan cheese.  I used White Cheddar Cheez-Its instead of regular cheddar because I thought they fit better.

Ranch Chex Mix

Ingredients:

9 cups Corn, Rice, or Wheat Chex (or a combination)

2 cups bite-sized pretzel twists

2 cups bite-size White Cheddar Cheez-Its

3 tablespoons butter

1 (1 oz.) envelope ranch dressing mix

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

In a large microwavable bowl, mix cereal, pretzels, and crackers. In a small microwavable bowl, microwave butter uncovered on High about 30 seconds or until melted. Pour over cereal mixture; stir until evenly coated. Stir in dressing mix and cheese until evenly coated.

Microwave uncovered on High 3 minutes, stirring after each minute. Spread on waxed paper or foil to cool. Store in airtight container.

Makes 26 servings (½ cup each).

You can, of course, use any kind of small pretzels you like.  I happened to have some fun alphabet-shaped ones when I made this.  My kid loved it.  But small twists or anything like that would be great too.

I love how this is made in the microwave.  So easy and fast.  And you would think that it would turn out soggy, but it totally doesn't.  It's crispy and yummy and perfect for when you're craving a salty snack.

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Butterscotch Puppy Chow (Muddy Buddies)

Are you headed to a big Super Bowl party this weekend?  My husband and I are not into football at all (I'm a baseball girl, thankyouverymuch), so we will not be watching "the big game".  While I don't get everyone's obsession with football, I can definitely appreciate the food aspect of the Super Bowl and its parties.  I have a couple of super simple snack recipes to share with you this week.  These recipes are great because they are way better than just opening a bag of something from the store, but they don't require much time in the kitchen.

First up is a yummy snacky-type dessert.  Puppy Chow.  Or do you call it Muddy Buddies?  I have heard it both ways.  I grew up calling it Puppy Chow, so that has stuck in my mind.  Call it whatever you want; it's good!  The traditional version is a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter of course, but there have a myriad of twists on it lately.  Have you seen them?  They all look and sound so delicious.  I came across this recipe for a butterscotch version at Sally's Baking Addiction and just had to try it since I am obsessed with all things butterscotch.  One of my most favorite flavors ever.

Butterscotch Puppy Chow

Ingredients:
6½ cups Rice Chex 
1 (11 oz.) pkg butterscotch chips
½ cup creamy peanut butter 
2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Pour the cereal into a very large bowl with a lid. Set aside.

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butterscotch morsels and peanut butter. Stir constantly until smooth. Remove from heat and pour over the cereal.  Fold the butterscotch mixture very carefully into the cereal, being careful not to crunch up the cereal.  

Pour the powdered sugar on top of the cereal and put the lid on the bowl.  Shake the bowl until the powdered sugar is evenly distributed over the cereal.  Use a large slotted spoon to separate the cereal from the extra powdered sugar and place the cereal in a serving bowl.

Store at room temperature up to 2 weeks. 

Makes 6½ cups.

This is so amazing.  It comes together in about 5 minutes.  I love that.  This would be such a perfect thing to take to a Super Bowl party.  I made it on New Year's Eve and took it to our friends' house.  I was delighted to realize that my box of Rice Chex contained 13 cups, so there was exactly enough leftover needed for a second batch, which I made last week to cheer myself up when my husband was out of town for four days.

I seriously don't know if I can go back to traditional puppy chow now that I've had the butterscotch version.  So addicting!  My almost-six-year-old and I nearly had it all gone by the time my husband came home.  We left him a few bites. :)

On Thursday I'll share a great savory snack for your Super Bowl party.  And a quick shout-out to my mother-in-law, who made me that pretty table runner in the photo above. Thanks Tammy!

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Improv: Owl Crackers

It's time to begin another great year of Improv Challenges!  

The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.

This month's assigned ingredients were cheese and crackers.  I love cheese and crackers!  They make a great snack, and I often have them for lunch as well.  I live in Wisconsin, a mere 5 miles from the infamous place called The Cheese Castle, so I never have a shortage of awesome cheeses to try out.  But I had to really think about it to come up with something to "do" with the cheese and crackers instead of just eating them as-is.  So I did some Pinterest searching (it has become my search engine of choice for recipes) and came upon a picture of adorable owls made out of cheese and crackers.  Owls have been quite popular lately, so I guess that is the inspiration here.  From what I could figure out, these owls first appeared in Family Fun Magazine.  I found them on the blog I Love My Kids.  You can just look at the picture to recreate these little cuties, but here's the specifics of how I made them.

Owl Crackers

Ingredients:

Four large crackers (I used multigrain Breton)

¼ cup whipped cream cheese

4 mini Ritz Bits sandwich crackers

Small bag sliced almonds

Small bag whole almonds

Small box raisins

Directions:

Spread a layer of cream cheese on each round cracker, using the tip of the butter knife to make small indents for feathers.  Separate the Ritz cracker sandwiches and press on the large cracker for eyes.  Put a small dab of cream cheese on the raisins and place them on the Ritz.  Finish by pressing on an almond beak and almond-slice feathers.  (The beak looks best if you lay it on its side instead of flat.)

Makes 4 crackers.

 This is all you need to make these adorable crackers.

My five-year-old, Lena, loved them.  I made them when my three-year-old was at school because she is allergic to dairy.  

These crackers were a big hit with my daughter, so try them out whenever your kids start getting bored with their snacks.

Be sure to check out all the other great cheese and cracker recipes below and come back next month to see what I make with bread and butter.

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Secret Recipe Club: Holiday Brie En Croute

 Today is reveal day for The Secret Recipe Club. The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

This month I was assigned a fabulous blog, Barbara Bakes.  This is a blog that was already on my blog reader!  Barbara is a mother of four who, as her blog's name implies, loves to bake.  She has tons of beautiful baked goods on her blog, but also lots of other non-baked savory dishes too.  As I was perusing her recipe index, I found lots of recipes that I wanted to try, like her Chicken Taco Cornbread Wedges and her Braised Beef Short Ribs, but as soon as I stumbled up on her Holiday Appetizers post, I knew that I wanted to make her Brie en Croute. I had this all figured out within half an hour of receiving my assignment via email!  I changed her recipe just slightly.  Here's my adaptation.

Holiday Brie en Croute

Ingredients:
2 sheets puff pastry (1 {17.3 oz.} pkg. Pepperidge Farm)
¼ cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup whole berry jellied cranberry sauce
1 tsp cinnamon
1 (8 oz.) Brie cheese round 

Directions:

Thaw pastry sheets at room temperature for about 40 minutes.

Combine the pecans and sugar in a small skillet. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until the sugar starts to liquefy. Continue stirring constantly until the liquid reaches a golden color and coats the nuts. Remove from heat and spread candied nuts onto a greased cookie sheet or plate and allow to cool completely. Stir occasionally as it cools to break up large pieces.

Preheat oven to 400º. Beat egg and water in a small bowl. Mix cooled pecans, cranberry jelly, and cinnamon together in a small bowl.  Cut the rind off the brie.

Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Cut a leaf or other shape out of one of the sheets with a cookie cutter.  Set aside.  Spread cranberry pecan mixture in the center of the other sheet. Top with cheese. Brush edges of pastry with egg mixture. Fold all edges up over brie and press to seal.  Place seam-side down onto baking sheet. Place leaf cut-out on top. Brush entire thing with egg mixture.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until pastry is deep golden brown. Let stand for 20 minutes.  Serve with crackers.

Makes 12 servings.

I wasn't sure if I should trim off the rind or not.  Barbara's recipe didn't say anything about doing that, but in her picture, it looked like she had.  I know the rind is edible, but I didn't think it would melt like this recipe called for, so I trimmed it. Also, I couldn't find the same puff pasty sheets that Barbara used, so mine are a different size.  But it worked out just fine.  I used pecans instead of walnuts just because I like them better.  And I couldn't find the cranberry pepper jelly that she used, so I tried with the whole berry jellied cranberry sauce and that worked perfectly.  I call it "holiday" because the cranberry and pecans seem holiday-ish to me.  I added a little cinnamon to "holiday" it up even more.  I had to guess on the number of servings.

Oddly enough, this wasn't the first time I made some "en croute" for Secret Recipe Club. Last November (it must be a November thing!) I made Salmon En Croute.

Here are a few pics of the brie en croute process:

Cranberry pecan mixture on the puff pastry.

Topped with the trimmed brie round.

Isn't it pretty?  This would make a fabulous appetizer for your Thanksgiving dinner.

You can't beat the combination of smooth, creamy cheese and tart crunchy cranberry pecan filling.

Spreads beautifully on crackers.

Thanks for a great recipe, Barbara!  The Secret Recipe Club is taking a holiday break in December but we'll be back the first Monday in January.

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Pumpkin Nacho Cheese Ball

I apologize for this horrible picture. Harsh sunlight and sitting on a FedEx box is certainly not ideal, but it was the only way to get a picture of this before it was devoured at our Reformation Potluck at church on Sunday.  I saw it in Food Network Magazine and thought it would be perfect for a late October potluck.  I changed it slightly; here's my version.

Pumpkin Nacho Cheese Ball

Ingredients:

2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened

3 tbsp taco sauce

1 tsp cumin

¼ tsp chipotle powder

1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

½ of an 11 oz. bag of Doritos, crushed into tiny pieces

Stem from a bell pepper

Blue corn tortilla chips

Directions:

Mix together the cream cheese, taco sauce, cumin, chipotle powder, and cheddar cheese.  Scoop onto plastic wrap and use the wrap to form the mixture into a 5” pumpkin-shaped ball; chill at least 2 hours. 

To serve, unwrap, roll in crushed Doritos and press a bell pepper stem into the top.  Place on platter and serve with blue corn tortilla chips.

Makes ? servings.

Sorry that I don't know how many servings it makes.  I changed the seasoning from the original.  It called for salsa, minced onions, and jalepenos.  I thought having chunks in it might turn some people off (especially kids), so I used a smooth taco sauce instead.  And added a bit of chipotle powder to spice it up just slightly.  

This would make the perfect addition to any Halloween party, or it would also be great to make for yourself to snack on in between doorbell rings on Halloween night!

It would also be great for Thanksgiving.  Maybe replace the blue corn chips with some kind of brown cracker?  Like Triscuits or Wheat Thins or something like that.

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Boo-nana Yogurt Pops

Did you miss me last week?  As I explained on my Facebook page, I decided to take the week off from this blog to get caught up on my family blog.  I was about four months behind!  It worked out well, I got nine posts published, some of them with as many as 73 pictures, and now I am only a little less than 2 months behind. Yay!

But it's good to be back here sharing fun recipes with you.  Even though I wasn't posting last week, I sure was cooking.  I think I made at least 7 recipes last week that are blog-worthy.  As promised, here is a fun Halloween-themed treat.  I was signed up to bring snacks to my daughter's preschool on Monday.  I wanted to do something with a Halloween theme, but nothing freaky or scary like severed fingers or bloody eyeballs.  I also wanted it to be somewhat healthy; nothing that was pure candy or cookies.  I did some searching around and found some adorable white chocolate-covered banana pops that look like ghosts at Gina's Skinnytaste.  While hers were dipped in white chocolate, one of the commenters mentioned making them with yogurt instead.  I thought that was genius.  Same result, but healthier. So that's how I made mine.


Boo-nana Yogurt Pops

Ingredients:
12 bananas
32 oz. carton vanilla yogurt
48 mini chocolate chips
Popsicle sticks

Directions:
Spread parchment or wax paper on two baking sheets.  Open carton of yogurt and stir it well to remove any lumps.

One at a time (so they don’t brown), cut each banana in half.  Insert the popsicle stick into the cut end.  Dip the banana half into the yogurt container.  Pull it out and let any excess yogurt drip off.  Place two mini chocolate chips on it for eyes.  Lay it on the baking sheet.  Repeat with remaining bananas.

Place baking sheets in freezer on a level surface.  Freeze for several hours or until solid.  Keep frozen until ready to eat.  Eat quickly, as they are not pretty when they melt!

Makes 24 pops.

These were a huge hit.  Lena reported that her classmates liked them and her teacher wrote on Facebook wall saying that she liked them too.  I didn't need the full 24 for the class, so Lena has been asking for the leftovers every morning for breakfast.

The other thing I changed from Gina's recipe was that she cut her bananas into fourths.  I thought they were just fine cut in half.  You can probably coat more than 24 halves with that amount of yogurt.  I did have some yogurt left over, but not much, and I'm not sure how many more I could have done.  The only problem I had with them was that some of the sticks wanted to come out as I was pulling the banana out of the yogurt.  I used a spoon to support the banana and then the stick froze in place during freezing so it wasn't that much of a problem.

Too bad these won't work to hand out to trick-or-treaters!

Update 10.18.13:
Women's Health Magazine featured these banana pops in their article "Halloween Recipes That Are Actually Healthy".

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Halloween Muddy Buddy Snack Mix

I'll admit it.  I'm not really into Halloween.  I know everyone else just loves it, but I feel it's a pointless and annoying holiday.  We didn't celebrate it at all until last year when my daughter was in her first year of preschool and had a dress-up day.  So I dressed her up as an adorable little butterfly and that was pretty much all there was to the celebration last year.  This year, though, we are pretty much going all out.  My mother-in-law is putting the finishing touches on some really neat My Little Pony costumes for both girls (Rainbow Dash for Lena and Pinkie Pie for Eva), and we are planning on taking them out trick-or-treating.

Savannah of Hammock Tracks invited me to join another one of her blog hops today with the theme being Halloween Goodies.  At first I assumed I would sit out since I'm not big on making those severed fingers or bloody eyeballs that I see all over blogs and Pinterest this time of year.  But then I saw a Halloween snack that wasn't a bit creepy and sounded really good, so I thought, what the heck?  Enter: my first-ever Halloween-themed recipe on this blog!  I got it from Your Cup of Cake, who posted it just 10 days ago.  I don't usually like to repost other bloggers' recipes so soon after they do, but this one was so good I couldn't wait to share it with you.


Halloween Muddy Buddy Snack Mix

Ingredients:
4½ cups Cinnamon Chex cereal
½ cup white chocolate chips
½ cup creamy peanut butter, divided
¼ cup butter, divided
1 tsp vanilla extract, divided
1½ cups powdered sugar, divided
4½ cups Rice or Corn Chex cereal
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp cocoa powder
Reece’s Pieces
Candy Corn

Directions:
Line two baking sheets with parchment or wax paper.  Set aside.

Place Cinnamon Chex in a large bowl with a lid.  In a medium-sized microwaveable bowl, combine the white chocolate chips, ¼ cup peanut butter, and 2 tbsp butter.  Cook in microwave on high for one minute.  Stir until smooth and then stir in ½ tsp vanilla.  Pour mixture over the Cinnamon Chex and stir to evenly coat cereal.  Add ¾ cup powdered sugar, cover with lid, and shake to coat.  Spread cereal out on one of the baking sheets to cool.

Repeat this process with the Rice Chex, semi-sweet chocolate chips, remaining ¼ cup peanut butter, 2 tbsp butter, ½ tsp vanilla, and ¾ cup powdered sugar.  Spread this cereal out on the other baking sheet.

Once cereal is cool, transfer it to a large bowl and add Reece’s Pieces, candy corn, and any other candy you would like.  Toss to evenly distribute candies.

Makes 9 cups.

I made this the other day.  Unfortunately, I failed to notice the line at the top of the print-out that said "Makes 18 cups".  Whoops!  Yep, I made the full recipe and ended up with 18 cups of Muddy Buddies and no one to share them with!  So I went ahead and halved the recipe for posting here because you would have to have one heck of a party to need 18 cups of this stuff!

Another change I made was using Cinnamon Chex for the white chocolate pieces.  I have used Cinnamon Chex in a dessert before (White Trash, yum!), so I knew they would be good in this too.  

Muddy Buddies (or Puppy Chow) is such a great snack/dessert because it is so incredibly easy and fast to make.  And everyone loves it.  What really caught my attention about this recipe was the combination of white and dark chocolate pieces.  I thought that was pretty creative.  My dark pieces didn't turn out as dark as the picture on the original blog, so I increased the cocoa powder a bit in the recipe above.  I think that will help next time.

I was tempted by another Halloween-ish dessert and I am making some Halloween-themed preschool snacks for my daughter's class next week, so you can look forward to two more Halloween recipes from me this year!

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Chex Pumpkin Pie Crunch

I have the great opportunity of participating in another blog hop series hosted by Savannah of Hammock Tracks.  She has a great series lined up between now and the end of the year.  Today we are talking Tailgate Munchies.

Now, I am not a football fan, and have never been tailgating, but I still have a pretty good idea about what recipes would work well for tailgating.  Remember the stand-by party food, Chex Mix?  There are tons of recipes for different kinds of Chex Mix on their website.  From savory to sweet and everything in between.  This is a great one that I made last year as a Thanksgiving appetizer.  But I think it would be great for tailgating.  I left it pretty much as it was written, except that I added something fun at the end.


Chex Pumpkin Pie Crunch

Ingredients:
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
¼ cup butter
2  tsp vanilla
2 cups Cinnamon Chex
2 cups Wheat Chex
2 cups Honey Nut Chex
8 oz. pecan halves
2 cups Vanilla Cupcake Grahams Goldfish

Directions:
In small bowl, mix brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice; set aside. In small microwave-safe dish, microwave butter on high about 30 seconds or until melted. Stir in vanilla. In large microwavable bowl, mix all cereals and pecans. Pour butter mixture over cereal mixture, stirring until evenly distributed. Add sugar and spice mixture and stir until coated.

Microwave uncovered on high 5 minutes or until mixture begins to brown, stirring every minute. Stir in Goldfish.  Spread on wax paper or a cookie sheet to cool. Store in airtight container.

Makes 16 (½ cup) servings.

Did you notice the little thing I added at the end?  The Vanilla Cupcake Graham Goldfish Crackers.  I saw them at the store while I was shopping for ingredients for this and I thought they would be really good in it.  I was right!  They are really cute!

This Chex Mix really does taste like pumpkin pie.  This is great for tailgating because you can make it a day ahead, store it in a big air-tight bowl, and then just throw it in the car when you leave for the game.  Easy peasy!

Come back on October 5 when we will be sharing Pumpkin Delights with you.  

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Candy-Covered Chocolate-Dipped Pretzel Rods

I wasn't planning on blogging today, as I've got a busy morning, but then I opened up my email and learned that it is National Pretzel Day.  And I just happened to have a pretzel recipe on my "ready to blog about" list.  I couldn't let this opportunity pass by!  These are the food gifts I gave out to all of our family members last Christmas (hence the Christmas trees and red and green M&Ms, oh yeah, and the candy canes!).  They are really easy and really fun to make.  It's something I found on Pinterest.  The idea and method came from The Baker Chick; I added specific ingredient quantities.


Candy-Covered Chocolate-Dipped Pretzel Rods

Ingredients:
1 (12 oz.) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips 
1 tbsp shortening
Chopped candy toppings 
15 pretzel rods
White chocolate melts

Directions:
Prepare a cookie sheet or two with covered wax or parchment paper.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate and shortening for 60 seconds. Remove and stir, and then warm in microwave for 15 second increments until it is smooth.

Start dipping the pretzels right away. Use a spoon to bring the chocolate up to where you want.  Set rods on the cookie sheet.

Dip about 5-10 pretzels and then start placing the toppings on. You will have to do this by hand because if you try to roll or sprinkle them on it really won't work and will end up with a sticky candy-glob mess.

Arrange the candy bits on each pretzel rod. (You have a good 5-7 minute window where the chocolate will still be soft enough to press the toppings in.)

If the melted chocolate in the bowl has started to harden, just give it 15 more seconds to get it back to its nice melty-state.

Repeat with the rest of the toppings.

Place tray in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes until chocolate has hardened.

Melt white chocolate (the same way you melted the chips) and place in a plastic baggie.  Cut off a tiny bit of one corner and drizzle over the pretzels.

Place them back into the freezer to harden and then wrap, eat, enjoy!

Makes 15 pretzels.

I didn't get a picture of the white-chocolate drizzled ones, but they turned out well too.

I used mini M&Ms instead of regular and I thought that worked well.  The third one up there is Heath Bits.  Yum!  They were easy because you can buy bags of those already chopped up in the baking aisle.

Even though I am a total control freak in the kitchen, the holiday spirit got to me and I let my three-year-old daughter, Lena, help me make these.  As you can see, at this point she had already sampled the chocolate!

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