I used to teach with a teacher who was a horrible pathological liar. When I say horrible I don’t mean just that she was horrible for always lying, I mean she was bad at keeping track of the lies. My favorite of all time was when we had a school carnival. We as teachers were all required to work a booth for 1 hour. And while giving up a Friday night isn’t all that awesome it only happens once a year so it’s not like it killed us. Plus it’s a great way to interact with the students and their parents in a casual way.

So one year she makes up and elaborate story I don’t even really remember what it was about but when it came down to it there was no way she was going to be able to come and work the carnival. Since we do the planning months ahead of time she apparently forgot this. Only to show up to the carnival with her family. She is the woman who calls in sick only to post on her personal blog that she played hooky from work that day to go shopping. She’s the one to tell everyone she doesn’t have any money to help out with something and then show up the next day with a new Coach bag and show it off to everyone. She faked getting a degree to get out of having to sponsor a club afterschool, claiming she had class. Yeah, no degree.

It must be exhausting trying to keep track of what you tell who and when. In case you were wondering, she was transferred to another school, she had tenure so couldn’t be let go (though I wonder now where she is) so they just moved her around to four different schools. Kind of like a bad lottery. Congrats, you lose.

For me, I have trouble keeping track of recipes. I print them off and stack them and they go to some faraway place. Only to clean and find them. I found this recipe that I had planned on making into candy corn cheesecake like two years ago. But I found it and gave it a go. It doesn’t have as much candy corn flavor as I would like but those are the breaks. It’s festive all the same.

Candy Corn Cheesecake

Crust:
33 chocolate graham cracker squares, crumbled
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus additional, for brushing the pan
1 TBSP granulated sugar

Filling:
20 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
¾ cup heavy cream
5 ounces candy corn

The night before combine the candy corn and cream. Let sit overnight in fridge. Strain out the candy corn and measure out ½ cup of the candy corn cream. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Brush some of the melted butter around a 9 by 3-inch cake pan or 9 inch spring form pan (which is what I used).If you use spring form be sure to wrap in aluminum foil to prevent water getting in. Adhere parchment to the bottom and the sides. Let cool.

In a small bowl, combine crumbled chocolate graham crackers, the remaining melted butter, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Press the mixture into the bottom of the parchment-lined pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

In a mixer with a paddle attachment, beat sour cream for 10 seconds. Add the cream cheese and sugar and mix on low for 30 seconds and then turn up to medium. Scrape the bowl.

In a separate container, combine vanilla, eggs, yolks, and candy corn infused heavy cream (1/2 cup). With the mixer on medium, slowly pour the liquid mixture in. When half of it is incorporated, stop and scrape. Continue adding the mixture until the rest of the ingredients are incorporated. Once completely combined, pour half the mixture into another bowl. Add orange food coloring to one of the bowls. Pour the white layer into the cooled crust and then the orange layer and swirl using a knife.

Lower oven temperature to 250 degrees F. Place cheesecake into a preheated water bath, in the oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and open the door for one minute. Close the door for one more hour. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and place in the refrigerator for 6 hours to completely cool before serving.

When ready to serve, place the entire cake pan into a hot water bath for about 15 seconds. Unmold onto a cake round or serving dish.

To slice, place your knife into a hot water bath and wipe dry each time you make a pass through the cake. Top with whipped cream and candy corns.

Adapted from Alton Brown FoodNetwork.com

Too much Halloween fun leads to….

So be safe…

I was sitting with a group of mom friends and one of them was mentioning how they wished the housing market was better right now (who doesn’t?). Come to find out she wants to sell her four bedroom home and upgrade. I asked why the heck would she do that? Well we might want another child. I said, okay? You have two. Why do you need a 5 bedroom home? And she went in to how ideally she would really like a 6 bedroom home or at least 5 bedroom and a den. A master bedroom, a room for each kid, a playroom (what are bedrooms for?), and guest bedroom.

Growing up we never lived in anything larger than a 3 bedroom home. My parents now retired live in a two bedroom home (with a tiny, and I mean tiny loft up top…it’s an A frame). There were 5 of us. My mom, my dad, me, my two brothers, and our various dogs and random animals I would beg to have from a turtle to rabbits. My parents had their room. I had mine (I was the only girl…if I had a sister I am quite sure we would have shared a room). My brothers shared a room (and not just as kids…as teenagers as well). They had extra-long twin beds (they were tall boys). The “guest” bedroom was my room when people would come and I would get kicked to the couch. My parents did this because they did this thing called live within your means. You might have heard of it?

Not saying that my friend can’t probably afford a 6 bedroom house, both her and her spouse make good money, I just don’t see why you want to add more finical burden to yourself in today’s economy. I’m not sure when the idea of each child should have their own room. Sharing? Ever hear of that? It’s a good lesson to teach kids.

One thing you will definitely want to share are these caramel apples. This is the first time I have ever made a caramel that used sweetened condensed milk and I LOVE it. It gives it a little dulce de leche flavor as well. So nice. Yes, it’s harder than just melting the Kraft caramels down like we did as a kid with some milk…but it’s worth it. If you have any leftover (I did) you can simply spray a pan with baking spray and pour it in. They set up nicely as just plain caramels!

Mini Caramel Apples

25 mini apples (this is a guess) or 12 big apples (also a guess) as I did a mix of both big and small
2 C brown sugar
1 C corn syrup
1/2 C butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine the first 3 ingredients. After butter is melted stir in the milk.

Cook to soft ball (230 F degrees). Stir constantly.

Stir in 1 tsp. vanilla.

Remove from heat. Dip apples into the caramel, and then roll in nuts if desired, I used mini chocolate chips.

Let set up on a cookie sheet. Place in refrigerator if needed.

From Your Home-based Mom.com

This fun cake comes from October 2007! Some days it’s hard for me to believe that I had a blog that long ago or should I say still have a blog. I go through phases where I wonder if should keep doing it. And I always come back to continuing the blog.

Definitely been having writers block, and combine that with the fact that people only comment nowadays on controversially posts only makes it hard to want to keep on putting effort in. No worries though, whenever I think I am going to stop I keep going. I’m sure I will keep going just like I always do. I won’t even threaten to take time off as every time I say that I rush out and do a bunch of posts.

The cake is an adaptation of this peanut butter chocolate chip cake I made a year or so ago, the difference being the use of the peanut butter chips. The other difference is the use of my mini(4-inch diameter) tart pans. I used those to give the cake a more peanut butter cup look. If you get too much rise on your cake you can always trim off the top with a bread knife(that’s what I had to do). If you don’t have little tart pans, you could simply bake it in the rectangular pan and then cut out circles with a cookie cutter. It won’t have that cute peanut butter cup shape but will be tasty nonetheless.

Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Peanut Butter Peanut Butter Chip Cakes(recipe follows)
Chocolate Glaze(recipe follows)
peanut butter cups, chopped, for garnish

Peanut Butter Peanut Butter Chip Cake

2 ounces unsalted butter
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar
3 ounces creamy peanut butter
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 325F.

Grease three 9 x 1 1/2 inch pans.(I personally used just one 9 x 13 pan). Line your bottoms with parchment. Set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Mix together brown sugar, peanut butter and butter for two minutes. Add egg and egg yolk and mix for another 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and mix for another minute.

Add half of the flour mixture and mix until incorporated about 20 seconds. Then add the sour cream, mixing again for 20 seconds. Gradually add the remaining flour mixture. Add the hot water in a slow, steady stream and mix on low to combine, about 30 seconds. Add the vanilla and mix for another 10 seconds. Add the peanut butter chips and use a rubber spatula to finish mixing the ingredients until thoroughly combined.

Divide the cake batter into the prepared pans, spreading it evenly. Bake for about 22 minutes. If you have 4 inch diameter tart pans like I used, it takes the same amount of time to bake the cake, if not a few more minutes. Use a knife to see if it is done.

Source: Death by Chocolate Cake by Marcel Desaulniers

Chocolate Glaze

6 ounces semisweet chocolate
4 TBSP unsalted butter

Break chocolate into small pieces and place in a small stainless steel bowl over a pot of hot(not boiling)water. Melt the 4 TBSP butter in a small saucepan, and skim off the white foam that rises to the top. When chocolate is just melted, stir in the clarified butter(discard the white solids left behind). Set aside until chocolate is 86F.

To Assemble: Place cakes on a wire rack. Place rack on top of a cookie sheet so that the extra chocolate has a place to drip onto.Pour chocolate glaze over cake and using a narrow metal spatula, quickly pared it evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Allow chocolate to set to firm consistency before serving. Garnish with chopped peanut butter cup.