Chocolate Caramel Pretzels

These are all over Blogland right now, but if you haven’t seen them yet here’s a quick and easy recipe. They take maybe 5 minutes to prep and another 5 minutes to heat them up and then top them with pecans. They travel well and they are delicious.

Ingredients:

A  bag of Rolos (about 50 candies)

50 small square pretzels

50 pecan halves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Spread pretzels out in a single layer on sheet pan. Unwrap Rolos and place one, wide side down, on each pretzel.

Bake pretzels for 3-4 minutes until the chocolate barely starts to melt.

Press a pecan into each Rolo and let them cool. That’s it!

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds Three Ways

If you’ve been carving some of these:

Then maybe you should make some of these:

Cinnamon Sugar

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 egg white

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp clove

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

 

Salt and Pepper

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 egg white

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 tsp coarse sea salt

 

BBQ

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 egg white

3 Tbs brown sugar

1 Tbs chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp onion powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a few tablespoons of salt. Boil pumpkins seeds for 10 minutes – similar to pasta. Drain seeds and let cool a bit. 

In a small bowl, beat egg white until slightly frothy. Beat in spices. Mix in seeds until well coated.

Drain excess egg mixture off of seeds and spread onto parchment.

Bake Cinnamon Sugar seeds for 12-15 minutes (careful, these burn fast) and Salt & Pepper and BBQ for 17-20 minutes until crispy and barely browned.

Quick and Easy Thank You Postcards

I’m horrible about writing thank you cards. It’s not that I’m ungrateful but making, writing and sending a stack of cards can take a LONG time. So I opted for the quick version – a postcard with a stamped sentiment on the front and a short note on the back. You don’t even have to stuff it in an envelope if you don’t want to.

If you would like to whip up some postcards of your own, you will need: coordinating scrap paper, a postcard size rectangle of cardstock, sentiment stamp, ink, a square of cardstock for the stamp, a square for the border and adhesive.

Tear a strip of paper that is a little over half of the width of the postcard. Adhere it to the bottom half of the card and trim the edges.

Tear a strip of coordinating paper that is about 1” wide. Adhere it over the torn edge of the other paper. Stamp and mount the sentiment. Attach it to the card with adhesive. I turned my cards horizontal but you could also keep them vertical.

Here is a “Thinking of You” version:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Bread pudding might be the ugliest dessert ever. Especially when it’s pumpkin orange and dotted with chocolate chips.

It tastes good though. I promise.

Ingredients:

1 loaf of sturdy, day old bread, cut into 1” slices

2-3 Tbs unsalted butter

3 eggs + 3 yokes

2 cups milk

1 cup cream

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

Directions:

Preheat oven to broil and position top rack 5-6” from element. Butter a 13x9 baking dish.

Butter both sides of bread. Cut into 1” cubes. Spread bread on a sheet pan and toast under broiler until edges of cubes start to brown. Turn cubes over and toast the other side. Reduce oven to 325.

In a large bowl, beat eggs, milk and cream until combined. Stir in pumpkin, sugar, vanilla, salt and spices. Add bread to egg mixture and let stand for 3o minutes, stirring occasionally.

Spoon bread into prepared baking dish. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until custard is set and top is slightly browned. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.