Recipe for a good time :O)

What I used:
Munchies (chips, dip, candy, etc)
Beer (I think there were 3 different kinds)
Captain and Smirnoff Apple
Soda (Pepsi, Coke, and 7up)
Saturday Night college football
Pumpkins
and Friends from work.

Directions:
Mix together and enjoy.

So I know this is not an actual recipe but I couldn't help myself: Jake and I had our first Pumpkin Carving Party with most of the people I work with, that happens to be most of the people we know in the Burlington/Mt Vernon area. But they are our friends just the same. I had a lot of fun hanging out with people, having someone over to our house rather then spending another Saturday night in front of the television, carving pumpkins.

Ready....Set....Carve!

Misty and Davis so serious about their Mariners pumpkin

Kurt and Jace making watching Britt

Me drawing my stars on my pumpkin :O)


Sharon (my boss) making sure we keep all our fingers.

Can go to work if you are missing a finger or two.

Misty checkin' out the competition

Carvin' away

All of our pumpkins (minus Misty and David's)

Halloween Cake Balls

Last night I decided I wanted to make cake balls, looked at a few recipes online and I think I can do it.
What I used....
Box of white cake mix
Container of white frosting
Wilton Candy melts (from Michaels)
and Wilton Decorating Gel (also from Michaels)

I follow the directions on the back of the box for the cake. (Oh I love the smell of cake while its baking!) After it was done baking I let it cool a little, about 40 minuets or so. I probably should have let it cool a little longer but I was getting impatient.

Then I took a small amount and put it in a bowl, using a fork I separated it into tiny crumbs. Kept adding cake to the bowl until it was all crumbs.

I did bake the cake a little to long and the edges were a little crusty. They had to be taken out of the bowl because I couldn't get them to cumble right.

After that, I added about 3/4 of the frosting to the bowl of crumbs. There were several different amounts used in the recipes, from 1/2 to 1 1/2. But the most common was 3/4. Mixed the frosting and cake crumbs together.

Once it was all mixed I rolled it into small balls and placed each one on a cooking pan covered with aluminum foil.  I did find it hard somethimes to roll the balls, but one thing I can suggest is to rinse hands often and leave them a little damp.  It helps keep the cake from sticking (for a little while at least.)

After the were all rolled I put them in the freezer to harden. I left them in the freezer for almost and hour so they would be nice and hard.
While the balls were freezing I melted the Wilton Candy Melts in the microwave. I dumped a bunch into a microwave safe bowl and turned it on for 1 minuet. Stirred them and put back in the microwave for 30 seconds. Repeated until completely melted.  It didn't take very long for them to melt.

When the cake balls were hard, I tried to use a toothpick to stick the ball and dip it in the melted candy and completely covered it but I wasn't very successful at that. Turns out that it is easier to just get dirty and use your fingers.Then I placed them back on the cookie pan.  This step was a little harder then I thought it would be.  But it was fun to be plaing in the melted candy.

Once they were all covered in the melted candy I used the Wilton Decorating Gel to decorate them.

I am very excited to serve these at our Pumpkin Carving Party!