Treats, Treats, and More Treats

This past Sunday my friends and I had a full blown "Fall Day," and we did it right. To be perfectly honest though, we didn't get it all done. We had plans to sip on apple cider all day while making pumpkin bread, caramel apples, pumpkin seeds, and carving jack-o-lanterns, but we only got to the first three because studying took up more time than planned. Pumpkin seeds are carving jack-o-lanterns got rescheduled to this coming Tuesday (tomorrow); I'm sure I'll have pictures and stories to come.

If you want to have a nice little 'fall day' of your own, just follow these simple recipes and enjoy! (All recipes came from "A Taste of Heaven," a cookbook my parent's Sunday school class put together a few years ago. I have yet to come across a recipe I don't like.)

Spiced Cider: (Compliments of Carla Fields)
1 gal cider
2 qts water
1 cup sugar
2 tsp whole allspice
4 sticks cinnamon
12 oz frozen orange juice
12 oz frozen lemonade

Combine all ingredients in a large pan and simmer for 1 hour.
(The men chose to enjoy this drink with 1 oz of whiskey per mug of cider while watching football. Yeah, they weren't too involved in our 'Fall Day' except for enjoying the products of our labor.)


(Picture compliments of Google Images. Honestly we just bought apple cider, but the recipe sounds delicious and I recommend anyone try it!)

The pumpkin bread, however, we made from scratch and it was delicious! Mmm, so moist and good. (The picture is still borrowed from Google Images because I forgot to take a picture of ours, but it looked very similar.)

Pumpkin Bread: (Compliments of Mary Ann Ryan and Kris Spengler)
1 cup oil
3 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin
4 eggs
2/3 cups water
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
1 heaping tsp nutmeg

Mix together oil and sugar. Add pumpkin, slightly beaten eggs, and water. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to liquid ingredients, and mix well. Add spices, mix well. You may use two large greased loaf pans or 4 smaller ones. Bake in 350 degree oven. For large loaves bake 1 hour. For small pans bake 35-45 minutes. Bread is done with toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes; then remove from pans to cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap or foil for storage.

Finally, we made some caramel apples. This was a pretty simple process, and the recipe followed was on the back of the bag of caramels we used. The sticks for the caramel apples were also in the bag of caramels. Simply take 5 apples and wash and dry them well. (If they aren't completely dry the caramel will not stick to the apples.) Insert popsicle sticks into the stem side of the apples. Place a piece of wax paper on a large plate, spray with cooking spray, and set aside. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine 1 bag of caramels and 2 tbsp water. Stir constantly until caramel is completely melted and smooth. One at a time, dip the apples in the caramel and spin until apple is covered in caramel. Scrape the caramel off the bottom of the apple and place on waxed paper, drizzling top of apple with caramel if needed. Repeat with the other apples, and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Optional: prior to placing in refrigerator, dip in chopped peanuts. Enjoy!!

The recipes were delicious and we had a great day. I hope you all (if anyone reads this) gets a chance to enjoy these recipes too. And if you do, enjoy your treats!