Maple & Bacon Spiced Almonds

 

I always make spicy candied almonds (or pecans) for salads,

but the addition of bacon...oh my!!!  I just know you will 

love this one!

What you need:

2 1/2 cups raw almonds

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

5 strips of  center cut bacon, chopped up

Generous cracks of sea salt

 

Use kitchen shears to rough cut 5 strips of bacon and place in

a pan over medium/high heat.  

Separately:  preheat oven to 325

 Brown the bacon bits thoroughly, then remove the bacon 

from the pan. Center cut bacon does not render much fat

so there will be about a tablspoon of bacon fat in the pan. 

Leave it in the pan.  

IF YOU ARE USING LEFTOVER BACON FOR THIS

RECIPE, ADD 1 T. OF BUTTER TO THE HOT PAN AND 

CARRY ON WITH THE RECIPE.

Add the raw almonds and maple syrup to the bacon fat, in the

pan over medium/high heat.

Stir and coat.  Allow the maple syrup to bubble and reduce, 

while stirring constantly for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, all of the almonds should be coated in thick

maple syrup reduction. 

Turn off heat and return the bacon bits to the pan, along with

cayenne pepper (if you want a bigger kick, add more), and

a very generous dusting of sea salt. Stir to incorporate.

Pour the mixture onto a parchment paper lined sheet tray and

spread the almonds and bacon out into a single layer

Place the sheet tray in the preheated oven and cook for 7-9 minutes.

Remove pan from the oven and allow the coated almonds 15-20 

minutes to cool.  Then, try not eating them all.

 

Allow to cool completely, at least 1 hour before packaging up.

I am packaging up the almonds to give as gifts.  

This time of year you can find adorable containers in every store, 

otherwise, store the almonds in a sealed container or bag at room temperature.

Enjoy!

xo

Paper Mache Pumpkins

This is the first post of my brand new blog (yay, me!) and I am so excited to share a great little Halloween project (or heck, fall project) that you can enjoy year after year!

Here are the supplies you will need:

1. Fake pumpkins (now would be the time to go find them 1/2 off sales, and enjoy for the rest of fall!!!)
2. Glue
3. Tea Bags (4)
4. Computer, Printer & Paper (if you don't have a way to print, don't fret, just used a different paper application, such as scrapbook paper, grocery bags, newspaper)
5. Wax or parchment paper to cover your work surface
6. Plastic cups to set your pumpkins to dry
7. Clear acrylic spray paint (for a final dose of protection)

Here are some easy to follow steps:

1. I bought some cheapy 'fug-kins' (yes, they are often called funkins, but these were extra ugly and fake looking, so I will refer to them as 'fug-kins') at the grocery store. 
2. Googled 'lyrics to Monsters Mash'
3. Copy and Pasted the lyrics into a Word document (repeated the paste until I had a full page of lyrics). I changed the margins on the page so there was very little white paper around the edges.  Then I printed 10 pages of lyrics.
4. Tore the lyrics up into random sized pieces
5. Heated 4 cups of water, then removed from heat and added 4 tea bags.  Let tea steep (bags sit in heated water) for 10 minutes.  Then squeeze bags and remove from water.
6. Add the torn up lyrics to the tea, leave to stain in the tea for a couple of hours
7. Mix equal parts glue and water.  Run the strips of paper through the glue/water mixture and start placing on the pumpkin, starting at the bottom and working your way up.  Press into the groves of the pumpkins as you go.  Overlap, layer, you decide...can't mess this up.
8. I set  to dry with the stem sitting in a plasic cup.  I let them dry overnight.
9. The next morning, go check your cute, new creations (pinch yourself, it was that easy...), and have a few reserve strips of tea stained paper to 'patch' any areas you might have missed (just use a little glue/ water).
10. If you want (and I am thinking I will do this) spray with a coat of clear acrylic spray paint, just to preserve your holiday treasures for many years to come!!!
11. ENJOY!  I have received rave reviews already, and it is so gratifing to say, 'I MADE THEM!'

The pumpkins above were $4.95 each.  The little ones you will see paper mached were  $1...so great! 

  

Final Results!  What a fantastic centerpiece, right!  I am so excited to get a blogging, and hope you will find some inspiration from the things I do, and get aMUSEing today!