What would Halloween be without a great drink concoction and apparently, Butterbeer is the beverage of choice for the Wizards at Hogwarts Academy.

Ingredients

2 cups light or dark brown sugar
4 tablespoons water
1 1/2 sticks butter (NOT margarine)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup heavy cream, divided
1 teaspoon rum extract
1/2 teaspoon
4 12-ounce bottles cream soda

Directions

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the brown sugar and water. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer, stirring often, until the mixture reads 240 F on a candy thermometer.
2. Stir in the butter, salt, vinegar and 1/2 cup heavy cream. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. Once the mixture has cooled, stir in the rum extract.
4. In a medium bowl, combine 4 tablespoons of the brown sugar mixture and the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream. Use an electric mixer to beat until just thickened, but not completely whipped, about 2 to 3 minutes.

To serve, divide the brown sugar mixture between 8 tall glasses (about 1/4 cup for each glass). Add 1/4 cup of cream soda to each glass, then stir to combine. Fill each glass nearly to the top with additional cream soda, then spoon the whipped topping over each.

Enjoy!

Halloween is right around the corner and this is a great Halloween party recipe for kids and adults alike. Wrap up your favorite brand of hot dogs in true Halloween mummy fashion! These are cute and very fun to make and serve.

Source: Pillsbury.com

Ingredients

• 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls OR 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations® refrigerated seamless dough sheet
• 2 1/2 slices American cheese, quartered (2.5 oz)
• 10 hot dogs
• Cooking spray
• Mustard or ketchup as desired

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. If using crescent rolls: Unroll dough; separate at perforations, creating 4 rectangles. Press perforations to seal. If using dough sheet: Unroll dough; cut into 4 rectangles.
3. With knife or kitchen scissors, cut each rectangle lengthwise into 10 pieces, making a total of 40 pieces of dough. Slice cheese slices into quarters (1/2 slice cheese, cut in half).
4. Wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog and 1/4 slice of cheese to look like “bandages,” stretching dough slightly to completely cover hot dog. About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate “bandages” so hot dog shows through for “face.” On ungreased large cookie sheet, place wrapped hot dogs (cheese side down); spray dough lightly with cooking spray.
5. Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot. With mustard, draw features on “face.”

Try a mini version with cocktail sausages.

Fall has arrived, and in many parts of the country it is chilly outside, windows are open to the cool crisp weather and leaves are falling. It is lovely weather to enjoy some homemade donuts and a steaming cup of hot chocolate.

Gather your family in the kitchen to make this delicious recipe and then enjoy them outside while you chat about your day. This is a wonderful weekend tradition!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose or white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• Cinnamon and sugar, for rolling
• 1/2 cup butter, for dipping

Directions

1. If using a babycakes donut maker, turn it on to preheat. Otherwise, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a donut pan or regular cookie sheet.
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix together the dry ingredients.
3. Beat in the pumpkin, eggs, milk, and butter until well combined.
4. Fit a pastry bag with a large tip and fill with the donut batter. Alternately, fill a large ziploc bag and snip off the end.
5. Pipe into the donut maker, donut pan, or just pipe in circles on a greased cookie sheet. The dough is thick enough that it should stay in the general shape you pipe it in while in the oven.
6. If using the donut maker, cook for about 3-5 minutes, checking for doneness with a toothpick.
7. If using the oven, bake for about 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
8. Cool on a wire rack.
9. Melt the 1/2 cup of butter in a small dish and mix together cinnamon and sugar in a second dish for dipping.
10. Dip the donuts in the butter and then the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
11. Store in an air-tight container.

This recipe is courtesy of Buns In My Oven.com

A slow cooker or crock pot is a useful tool for any busy household. All that is required of you is to add your ingredients to the crock pot and be ready to eat a delicious home cooked meal when you and your family all gather around the dinner table. Slow cookers come in many sizes to accommodate both single people or larger family units. Before you begin to lick your lips, here are some basic tips about how and what to cook in your slow cooker.

First, there are slow cooker cookbooks on the market, and most crock pots come with a recipe booklet included in the box.Here are some links to some great slow cooker cookbooks on Amazon.com

• Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Recipes For Two

• Biggest Book of Slower Cooker Recipes (Better Home and Gardens)

• Make it Fast, Cook it Slow – The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking

• 1,001 Best Slow-Cooker Recipes: The Only Slow-Cooker Cookbook You’ll Ever Need

• The Gourmet Slow Cooker: Simple and Sophisticated Meals from Around the World

A crock pot can turn some of our favorite stove top and oven recipes into slow cooker sensations. Dishes you may never thought of cooking in a crock pot cooker can be prepared without you even being there. You can even bake banana bread with an optional insert!

What you must remember when cooking anything in a slow cooker is the liquid component. There must be some type of liquid in the bottom of the cooker to begin the cooking process. Without it, your meal will stick to the bottom and burn. There doesn’t need to be a lot of it, just enough to cover the bottom in most cases. The juices within the meat will mingle with the other liquid during cooking to create more of a stock.

When using a crock pot it should be at least half full for maximum cooking potential. Keep in mind that the more food you add to the cooker, the slower it will cook. The temperature will cook the food evenly without overcooking if the heat settings are adjusted accordingly. If you aren’t careful and don’t adjust the crock pot heat settings, you may find that an eight hour setting cooked your dinner in two and spent the other six drying it out.

Meats are the most common food cooked in a slow cooker. People use a crock pot to cook main dishes for dinner since this is the meal we struggle with preparing most on a busy schedule. Any meat used needs to be thoroughly drained before adding it to the cooker. Since meat takes longer to cook, they need to make up the bottom layer. This will also help keep the meat moist since it will cook into the liquid underneath.

For safety, cook meats at least three hours so that an internal temperature that is high enough for proper cooking can be reached. This is not usually a problem since many use the crock pot at its lowest setting (six to ten hours depending on the brand of cooker). Just a word of advice, whole chickens should not be used in a slow cooker. The internal temperature needed to safely cook that much chicken properly can’t be reached in time for eating at such low temperature settings.

If you plan to cook vegetables in your slow cooker, here are some tips. Tough fibrous veggies like carrots and potatoes can be tossed in at the beginning with the meat. It takes longer for the fibers to be broken down and the vegetables to be cooked all the way through. More delicate vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms should be added half an hour before the meal is done.

Slow cooking makes dinner a cinch when you are on the run. Just be sure to experiment with various dishes the first time to get an idea of how long your slow cooker takes to create the particular meal. Layering foods correctly and testing heat settings will ensure your meal will be delicious every time.

The best part of the holidays is walking into a house that smells like the occupants have been baking all day. The sweet aroma of spice, apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cookie dough wafts around the house like a new type of air freshener. The main reason is that something is baking in the oven – a holiday pie.

Hands down, the most popular pie might be apple, but at Thanksgiving and Christmas, the favored fruit has stiff competition. There are traditional pies that rival apple for the top spot. Depending on where your ancestry lies, someone in your family may make a pie recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation. Some of the better known holiday pies include pumpkin, pecan and sweet potato.

Pies do not have just one filling ingredient at Christmas. In addition to the fruity choice for a filling, bakers use add-ins like raisins, currants, dates, and a variety of nuts. Primary spices include allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. Grated fruit peel is used as a garnish once the pie has cooled.

A true holiday baker will have a recipe for their own pie crust. Most ingredients are similar but each person adds their special ingredients for a flaky flavorful crust. If you are pressed for time, choose a readymade pie crust from the grocery store. It can always be re-rolled to allow for the addition of seasonings to the crust. A rich filling will mask the taste of a store bought crust. No one will be the wiser unless you leave a bunch of tin pans around.

Pie filling can be created days ahead of time and chilled until ready for baking. Increase the variety of pie fillings this way so each person can get a taste of a different flavoring. A popular Old World holiday pie was mincemeat pie.

Mincemeat pie used to be made with minced meats in a crust. Of course, it wasn’t quite tasty or sweet so people began to add ingredients like honey to soften the taste. Now, the mincemeat filling is composed of fruits, nuts, and spices. The pie has come a long way, and we are thankful for that.

What is your favorite holiday pie? Whatever it is, bake one for the family or as a gift to friends. If your favorite pie filling contains a fruit that is out of season, remember to slice and freeze some during peak season for use at Christmas. If you forget, there is always the frozen variety.

Black Bean and Pumpkin Chili

This is a healthy and quite delicious recipe that everybody in the family will love, especially on blustery autumn days! It’s a wonderful variation on standard chili that freezes well and tastes even better as leftovers.

Ingredients:

• 1 med onion, chopped
• 1 med. yellow pepper, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 cups of chicken broth
• 2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 1/2 cups of cubed, cooked turkey or chicken
• 1 can of solid pack pumpkin
• 1 can of diced tomatoes UNDRAINED
• 2 tsp. parsley flakes
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, saute the onions, peppers and garlic until tender.
2. Transfer to a slow-cooker. Stir in the remaining ingredients.
3. Cover and cook on low 4-5 hours or until heated through.
4. Enjoy!!