Semi-Homemade Apple Cider

Have you ever bought apple cider from the store and been disappointed? You think, why didn't I just buy apple juice? Indulge in warm, homemade apple cider and barely lift a finger! Pour a container of store bought apple cider into a crock pot or stove top pot. Drop in 2 whole cinnamon sticks, about 20 whole cloves and 10 whole allspice and let simmer for 1 to 3 hours- Set crock pot on high or stove top to medium heat. YUM! I honestly could not taste the difference between my fresh, homemade apple cider from scratch and this semi-homemade apple cider! Plus, when you serve it straight from a pot, everyone thinks it's homemade! Why would I ever make it from scratch again?!

To make it even easier, you can buy premixed "mulling spices" and add them to the cider instead of the individual. They are pre-measured and delicious! Buy these in the spice aisle or on the Amazon link below.

Save the cinnamon sticks for garnish when you serve the apple cider. It'll impress the pants off your guests-guarunteed!

You can even leave the spices in the apple cider and pour it back into the original container to refrigerate. It continues to taste fresh and perfectly spiced until the expiration date! Enjoy!

Candy Corn Cake

How adorable is this cake?! It is so easy to make, and oh, so clever!

MyRecipes has a homemade version of this cake, but I'm all for the easy impact-Cake mix it is! 

 

Start with Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Dark Chocolate Fudge cake. This stuff is AMAZING! Mix as directed and preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan; line with parchment paper. Grease parchment. Lightly coat bottom and sides of pan with flour, knocking out excess. Pour in cake mix and bake for indicated time on box.

When cake is finished, pull out of the pan by lifting by the parchment paper and freeze overnight.

Frosting Ingredients:
3-3/4 cup (l lb. box) Powdered Sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup butter (2/3 stick), softened

Cut cake into triangles and frost all sides of each piece with a very thin layer of frosting. Let chill in the refrigerator for one hour. This will secure the cake crumbs and prevent them from intruding on your frosting.

Separate frosting into 3 bowls and add yellow food coloring to one, orange to another and leave the rest white. The key to making this cake look amazing is getting the right colors. Make sure you use enough food coloring, and mix the colors to get the right candy corn shades. If the orange is too pastel, add red food coloring to brighten it up. Just add a small amount while you're mixing until you get the perfect shade. Similarly, add a little orange food coloring to make the yellow brighter.

Working with 1 wedge at a time, leaving remaining cake wedges in freezer, frost pointed end with white icing, middle portion with yellow icing, and outer portion with orange icing. Repeat with remaining cake wedges and frosting. Press sprinkles on outside of wedges, if desired. Serve on a round white cake plate with real candy corns sprinkling the plate. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

First and foremost- Don't be intimidated! Crème Brûlée was one of the first things I ever learned how to cook, and it's surprisingly easy and oh-so-impressive!

Ingredients:

2 Cups Heavy Cream

¼ Cup Sugar

(additional sugar will be needed for caramelizing)

¼ Cup Brown Sugar

8 Large Egg Yolks

1 Cup Canned 100% Pure Pumpkin

½ Teaspoon Vanilla

½ Teaspoon Cinnamon

Directions for Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut tops off each pumpkin and save for presentation. Scrape out the seeds and fibers from pumpkins. Place pumpkins on a baking sheet, cut sides up, and roast, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

In saucepan, combine cream and sugars, stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside for later use.

Whisk eggs with an electric beater on high for 2 minutes (will be lemon colored). While the mixer is running on low speed, slowly keep adding the cream mixture in small batches until all of the cream mixture has been added to the eggs (do not add all of the cream mixture to the eggs at once). Add the remaining ingredients, mix.

Spray the inside of the pumpkins with a non-stick cooking spray and divide the mixture evenly among the cooled pumpkins.

Place the filled pumpkins in a large roasting pan and set on the oven rack in the 350 degree F. oven. Pour hot water into the pan to reach halfway up the pumpkins. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center of the pumpkin crème brûlée comes out clean. Place reserved pumpkin tops on a baking sheet the last 20 minutes of baking. Cover and chill all for 2 hours. Remove from refrigerator and place about 1 teaspoon sugar evenly on top of each pumpkin crème brûlée. To caramelize the sugar, use a kitchen torch; broiling may burn pumpkins. 

For leftover batter, place in ramekins and bake with the same instructions. Pumpkin Crème Brûlée in ramekins can be broiled in the oven to melt the sugar on top.



For dinner parties, serve these on a platter or place at each table setting for a nice surprise as soon as your guests sit down.

From ordinary pumpkins......

To extraordinary pumpkin crème brûlée!

Enjoy!

Current Obsession: Mercury Glass

Originally created as a “poor man’s silver,” mercury glass has made its way into high end decor. It is such a unique substance, combining both rustic and glamorous elements in one material. You can group mercury glass with silver for a more glamorous look, or mix it with bronze elements for a more rustic appeal. Either way, it's sure to draw attention!  

Most think of mercury glass as a winter decoration. It's most available in stores around Christmas time, but I always wait for it to go on clearance after Christmas and stock up on things to use all year round! I love this use of the mercury glass for Fall by Pottery Barn.

I purchased these mercury candlesticks after Christmas a couple of years ago at JCPenny's and they were marked down to about $2 a piece!

 

For the holidays, mix and match your favorite pieces to glam up your dining table!

Find this bowl and potpourri at ZGallerie

Ghoul's Night!

I just love a simple, fun, girly party! For this "Ghoul's Night" event, use pink satin fabric, glittery skulls and festive drinks to make the party come alive. I have used these dollar store glitter skulls for so many things already! The trick for inexpensive decorations is repurposing things you already have. Use your summer hurricane lanterns to cage in a skeleton and skull, floating it with the stick of a toothpick. I made this mirrored cake plate for my wedding and have used it for almost every party I've had.

 

Print off labels of "poison", "warning", "beware", and "caution" on regular paper and attached them to the glass with a piece of double-sided tape. The labels come off perfectly clean at the end of the night.

Fill the glasses with drinks the color of your theme, and make sure you have a drink for everyone-warm, cold, alcoholic and non-alcoholic. I had Cosmos, sparkling fruit juice, wine and apple cider.

Create a simple caramel apple bar that will be the center of attention. Mix 2 bags of caramels with 4 tablespoons of water into a fondue pot. Set out various toppings for them to decorate their own. I set out chopped peanuts, milk chocolate chips and shredded coconut. Make sure and leave paper plates and plenty of napkins at this station!

 Use blue corn chips instead of white or yellow to go with the gothic feel of the party. It's the small details like this that really help pull everything together, and make it look like you spent a lot more time on it than you really did!

 Find out how I made these wine labels by clicking here. :)

I love the decorations that are in between cutesy and scary- just classy.

Place a variety of pink candies around the tables for people to snack on while they make their rounds. They create great conversation starters!

To be honest, I ran out of candy dishes and found this wonderful martini alternative that turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the party!

 

Give guests just a little something to top off the evening. For this event, I gave away pink ribbon lolly pops for breast cancer awareness as party favors with a friendly reminder-Check early and check often!

 

Inspiration for this event came from this picture at Evite.com!

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo! Turn Your Cake Into a Pumpkin!

I love these pumpkin cakes from Country Living! Partly because I love Fall, and partly because they remind me of Cinderella. :) Pumpkin cake is great with cream cheese frosting or chocolate-OR BOTH! I'm dying to try hi hat cupcakes with orange frosting! What are hi hat cupcakes, you ask? Frost your cupcake, refrigerate, dip in melted chocolate and let harden. Yep. Just you wait...

This was actually someones pumpkin wedding cake!

Don't forget to try my super easy pumpkin cupcake decorating! Frost a cupcake with orange frosting, and insert and 1 inch piece of a sour straw! Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo! Instant pumpkin cupcake!

Personal Shopper

This is the coolest thing! I have added these Amazon.com ads to my blog, and can suggest products for you to look at! It's like being a personal shopper for all my readers! Please feel free to ask for specific suggestions and post personal decorating or entertaining dilemmas under "comments". I would be happy to find products/solutions to your challenges!

"THE one"

I'm a bargain hunter at its best. I have a number of things in my house and wardrobe that were cheaper than my morning latte or FREE. Yes, FREE. How? Coupons and dealin'! You'd be surprised how much you can get for free! More on that later...

I am, however, a firm believer in that when you find "THE one", it is worth the money. "The one" is the first thing you see when you walk into a room. The one where your guests leave and they are still talking about a week later. The one that you just can't stop staring at. You can bargain your way through decorating your whole house, but you can't pass up "THE one". For me, this is it.

It's exactly the look I wanted, exactly the size I needed, and it changed the whole vibe of the room. It transformed a work-in-progress to a final masterpiece in its hour-long installation. While my husband watches TV, I watch the furniture.

If you look closely, you can spot "THE one" in any room. If you can't put your finger on why you like the space, look for the true element that makes the room. If you remove this element from the room, the whole room changes. Some are obvious, others not so obvious. Whatever you do, don't compromise when it comes to "The one".

The sofa

The ottoman

The Fireplace

The drapes

The sectional

The end tables

Do you think the chairs? Nope! The drapes :)