What's cookin' in my kitchen

Ever been stuck in that ridiculous maze of useless products before you get to the register at Marshalls, TJ's or Home Goods? Yeah? Me too. And what do I have to show for it? A cinnamon bun scented candle, drawer liners and caramel apple mix. Which I thought would be a fun little Halloween project with the girls.



I was so wrong.

Like a good prepper, I layed out all of the goodies that we intended to roll our apples in.



If you ever want to test the willpower of your children just put them in front of 4 candy bowls and tell them not to touch anything.

They were good for about 30 seconds.

And then all hell broke loose. They both began tattling on each other for taking an M&M or for stealing a gummy worm. Then the yelling. And the hitting. Which I could do nothing about because I was too busy stirring 225 degree scalding ass caramel. What the hell was I thinking? TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE DEGREES! This, clearly, is not a project for kids let alone a novice baker. After removing the caramel from the heat, the instructions told me to work quickly so it doesn't harden. I wanted to tell the instructions to kindly kiss my ass, but then I realized it was a piece of paper and that just wouldn't wo...dammit Gina, snap out of it, your freakin' caramel is hardening!

QUICKLY?! QUICKLY?!!!

Quickly doesn't go over well when you have OCD children who want to pick and choose which M&M's get planted on the apple. Quickly doesn't go over well when your children start freaking out that the worm is on the bottom of the apple and not "peeking" out from the top like all worms do. Quickly doesn't go over well when your children lose their mind because you decided to add nuts at the last minute (because you knew if you brought them out beforehand with the other bowls they would outright refuse a nut addition). THEIR CARAMEL APPLES MIA, THEY ALWAYS COME WITH NUTS!!! But again, even my yelling wasn't helping the situation. Oh no.....I quickly realized the best thing was to practically throw the damn candies on the apples until they stuck.

AAGGHHH!!!

My kitchen was a total disaster. I was full of sweat. Chance was screaming. And I had about 5 minutes to get all three kids in the car and drop Bella off at school. Best. Afternoon. Ever.

But ya know what? They were so good--I mean, really really good! Gee, can you tell which one's Bella's? Hah!



Tonight we made some pumpkin bread---and oh my goddess this pumpkin bread recipe was AWESOME!! My fellow blogger friend Megan over at Living the Dream posted this amazing recipe for pumpkin bread that has me wanting to make a loaf a day. Here's the yummy recipe.

Make it today, don't wait--it's that good! Thanks so much for this Meg, it's a keeper.

What's cookin' in your kitchen these days? Any good recipes you want to share?