October cooking club

The theme for October is........

 HALLOWEEN!!

                                                                                                                                                    

So, please bring a dish that is either: 

-Black, and/or Orange

-Halloween themed/silly/spooky

For example, Spider cupcakes, or ghost mashed potatoes, etc.

Please avoid scary/gory dishes like bloody fingernails or something.......  :0) 

Main Dish: Lisa-Soup and Bread Bowls
Appetizer: Goblins with Pumpkin Dip (Erin)
Drink:Orange Creamsicle Drink (Brooke) 
Side: Butternut squash gratin (Kelsey)

Salad: Autumn Salad (Danielle)

Dessert:Black Licorice Caramels (Sarah)

Dessert:Witch's broomsticks (Stacie)

Dessert:Toffee (Nikki)

Black Licorice Caramels
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups white Karo syrup
1 oz bottle of anise flavoring
3/4 tsp black food coloring

Mix first 5 ingredients. Boil on medium-low heat for about 20-30 minutes until temperature reaches 245 degrees. (Cook longer than regular caramels because of the oil in the flavoring.) Take off stove and add flavoring and coloring. Pour into a buttered 8x10 pan. When cool, cut into squares and wrap in wax paper.
*I know it seems like a lot of flavoring, but it is not very strong

Toffee
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 ½ bags chocolate chips
Club crackers (or whatever salty cracker you have on hand – I use club crackers because they fit easy on the pan)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. Cover foil with layer of crackers.  Melt sugar and butter until boil is reached. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour mixture over crackers and spread evenly. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove and let sit for 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over pan and after 5 minutes spread evenly on top. Refrigerate until hardened. Break into pieces and serve.

Autumn Chopped Salad

Ingredients

*6 to 8 cups chopped romaine lettuce

*2 medium pears, chopped

*1 cup dried cranberries

*1 cup chopped pecans

*8 slices thick-cut bacon, crisp-cooked and crumbled

*4 to 6 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

*Poppy seed Salad Dressing (I like T. Marzetti)

*Balsamic Vinaigrette (I like Newman's Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette)

Instructions

*On a large platter, combine the lettuce, pears, cranberries, pecans, bacon and feta cheese. Drizzle generously with poppy seed dressing, followed by some of the balsamic vinaigrette. (I would estimate that I used about a cup of dressing: 70 percent poppy seed dressing and 30 percent balsamic vinaigrette) If you prefer your salad to have more dressing, feel free to experiment with the combination.