Halloween Treats and Images

The Halloween season is upon us and I'm as giddy as a school girl. I have been looking at all the great images and tasty treats. I picked some of my favorite and I hope you enjoy.

http://katherinarodrigues.deviantart.com/

http://www.etsy.com/listing/57467143/paw-readings-cats-witch-primitive?ref=usr_faveitems

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81644535/pumpkin-pie-bites-pumpkin-shaped-pies?ref=usr_faveitems

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=harvest+#/doj4u8

http://browse.deviantart.com/digitalart/?order=9&q=harvest&offset=48#/d4gmg9z

http://browse.deviantart.com/artisan/culinary/?order=9&q=fall&offset=24#/d2eiyo2

http://browse.deviantart.com/artisan/culinary/desserts/?q=halloween#/d31i8be

Pumpkin house

Soy Latte

An image of my soy latte in a cup handed down from my great grandmother. Tasted great!

In the Gardens

For my Birthday my lover and I went to some beautiful gardens and walked around. I captured some of the plants on my phone. Hope you enjoy.

After walking around we stopped to sit on a bench amongst the greenery and read.

It was a great morning filled with beautiful plants. The most relaxing birthday anyone can ask for.

Chris's Birthday Cake

I made a cake for Chris's birthday that encompassed all his favorite desserts. It turned out amazingly good and what it lacked in looks it made up for in tastyness. It's my Twix carmel cheese cake. It contains a gram-cracker crust with brownie, a layer of caramel, cheese cake with cut up Twix bars, and topped off with caramel and chocolate drizzled.

Recipe:

1 box brownie mix
2 eggs
1 package of wrapped caramels 14 oz
1 5oz can evaporated milk
2 8oz packages of cream cheese
12 mini Twix bars
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pie tin with gram-cracker crust

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix up brownies following instructions on the box. Pour half of mix onto gram-cracker crust. The other half of the mix can be used to make regular old brownies.

unwrap the caramels and place them in a pot with the evaporated milk.

Cut up Twix pieces into small bit size pieces.

Mix softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract. Once mixed add one egg at a time and mix. Then add in Twix pieces.

Put brownie into oven for about 10-15 minutes.
While it's cooking bring caramels to a simmer and stir frequently melting the caramels.
Pull brownies out of the oven and add a layer of caramel then add cream cheese mix on top of the caramel. Put back in oven for 40 mins.

Once cooked pull out of oven and drizzle remaining caramel on top along with some fudge if you would like. Let cake cool in fridge over night.

Enjoy!

Turkish Coffee

This afternoon I had a lovely cup of Turkish coffee. Now if I could only pair it with a nice cup of productivity then I would be set. Anyways here is a picture of the tasty cup.

Hope everyone is having a grand day filled with joy.

Kukicha review

I made some Kukicha which is a japanese green tea. Common nick name is twig tea. I got my Kukicha from The Tea Grotto. I put in 2 grams of tea for every 6 oz of water and used filtered water. I ended up steeping it in my cast iron tea pot at 70 degrees F. I tasted the tea every 30 sec. into steeping. What I found was that 1 min. 30 sec. was the perfect blend of grassy freshness without any bitterness. I continued to steep tell 2 min. 30 sec. to tast the developments in the tea. I found that any longer then 2 min. and it started to become bitter.
Dry Kukicha

Kukicha after steeping 

Color of tea. Mind you this is the color afte steeping it for 2 min. 30 sec. Which wasn't the ideal steep. 

Over all I would say It was medium soft body tea. It was grassy, fresh, kelpy, and robust. I love a good japanese green and this kukicha was very enjoyable.