Back to School

Oh my, blogging is such a new thing for me, I need to remember to get TO IT.  

Well, it's back to school for the kiddos, which means they'll be HUNGRY when they get home.  As much as I liked to make crafts with our snacks and got all excited about making something, sometimes the kids just WANTED TO EAT.  But, at least I was prepared for the snow days and rainy weekends.  Since I liked to be in the kitchen, I always had something for the kids to do with food.  And we liked making homemade gifts for the teacher when we could.  It's a little different now with all the food allergies and limitations on what you can take to school, but there's always Grandma or the babysitter to make an edible gift for.  

Unfortunately, when my computer crashed back in 1999, I lost all my pictures and we didn't have the Geek Squad to run to so I may not have photos to post right now.  Hopefully, I can explain well enough to give you an idea.  

First, if you haven't signed up with Pinterest, I encourage you to do so.  Everything I talk about is on there by now.  You can see pictures and get recipes.  I'm just here to get you excited about getting your kitchen messy.  

September 5 is Teachers Day.  Since I used to be a teacher i looked forward to the luncheons, the cards, and the special notes I received from the families.  I got a lot of homemade gifts and cookies and enjoyed every single one of them.  One of the things I had my kids make were caramel apple cookies.  

Very simple.  Make your favorite cookie dough for cut-outs.  Dye your dough red (or frost it red, yellow or green later)Insert a wide craft stick in the cookie before you bake it.  Once it's cooled, drizzle frosting on the top to look like caramel dripping on the apple.  To make a glaze that hardens, mix equal parts white corn syrup with water, add food coloring, vanilla flavoring or any flavor you like, and powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want.  Ta-dah.  Let dry overnight and bag the next day.   Picture coming tomorrow.  

Another fun cookie is a chalkboard.  Frost a rectangle with black frosting.  Out line in brown.  Write the teacher's name in white.  When dry, you can even smear some powdered sugar to make it look like chalk dust.  Picture coming tomorrow as well. 

Call or email me if you ever have questions.  I love helping people.  I get asked sometimes why I show people how to do what i do.  Well, either they are like me, and want to learn the tricks because they want to do what i do, or as my daughter tolthey see how much work it can be and become a repeat customer!  ha ha