Chocolate Drizzle Apple - with white chocolate and milk chocolate drizzles

One of my family’s favorite fall treats is caramel apples.  We used to make regular old plain caramel apples and love them, until one vacation to Disneyland many years ago.  We discovered  Marceline’s Confectionery candy shop just outside the Disneyland gates.  We had gone to Downtown Disney the night before our adventure into the actual Disneyland park to get a taste of the Disneyland magic and build our excitement for the next morning’s trip into the  park itself. We got some delicious caramel apples from Marceline’s (they slice them and put them in a little boutique looking bag) and sat outside soaking up the sounds and sights and smells of Disneyland in Downtown Disney.  Not that we needed to build the excitement.  Do you remember the “Too excited to sleep” Disney commercial, well that could be my family, as none of us can sleep the night before going to Disneyland.

We’ve made this night-before-caramel-apple-stop a tradition of our every other year Disneyland vacation. So now my family calls these gourmet caramel apples…Disneyland Apples, and now that we’ve figured out how to make them, we can bring a little of the Disney magic into our house any old time of the year.

Here’s how we make our…

GOURMET CARAMEL APPLES

INGREDIENTS

• 8 large Granny Smith or Fuji apples
• wooden craft sticks
• 2 (14 ounce) packages caramels, unwrapped
• 2 tablespoons milk
• milk chocolate chips
• white chocolate chips
• candy for coating

Kate

Enjoy your Coffee Break!

Be sure to check out these other Liz and Kate Halloween ideas:

• Halloween Month: Creepy Eyeball Treats & Monster Mash
• Halloween Month: Witches Hats & Breadstick Broomsticks
• Halloween Month: Disgusting Deviled Egg Eyeballs & Toads in a Blanket
• Disgusting Worm Salad

Life as We Know It 2010

Reel reviews for real people

Plot: Holly Berenson (Heigl) is an up-and-coming caterer and Eric Messer (Duhamel) is a promising network sports director. After a disastrous first date, the only thing they have in common is their dislike for each other and their love for their goddaughter, Sophie. However, when they suddenly become all Sophie has in the world after she loses her parents, Holly and Eric are forced to put their differences aside. Juggling career ambitions and competing social calendars, they’ll have to find some common ground while living under one roof.

Rating: PG-13 for sexual material, language and some drug content

Genre: Romantic comedy

Starring: Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, Josh Lucas, Jean Smart, Christina Hendricks, Melissa McCarthy

Director: Greg Berlanti

Running time: 1:52

Kate says -2 1/2 stars “I will admit, watching a decent romantic comedy is a guilty pleasure of mine. It doesn’t even have to be very good and it will still provide me with a few pleasant hours of escape from the reality of life, which is usually decidedly not romantic comedy-like. I say thank goodness for that, but a real life running soundtrack for  my romantic-dramatic-comedic moments would be a nice touch.  Anyway, Life as We Know It is just what you think it will be, and that statement alone will be the best predictor of whether you like it or not. If you’re of the “I hate romantic comedy genre” then you’ll hate this one too. If you’re from the “Nothing like a good romantic comedy genre” then you’ll find entertainment is this one also. It’s predictable, it’s safe, it has it’s funny moments, it has romance, it has pretty people…Enough said.”

Ebert says – 1 1/2 stars “Awww. Their best friends are killed in an auto accident, leaving behind their cute little 1-year-old daughter, Sophie….Awww. Sophie is just as cute as most 1-year-old babies…Awww. This is really sad. Holly and Eric have to share the same enormous Atlanta mansion…Awww, this is never gonna work out. Eric is a tomcat on the prowl….So anyway, what happens in “Life As We Know It”? You’ll never guess in a million years. Never. You might just as well give up right now. I don’t like spoilers, so just let me say that Holly and Sam adopt Sophie and live happily ever after in the mansion. Awww.” (read full review)

Claudia Puig  (USA Today) says – 2 1/2 stars “Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel have an appealing chemistry, but Life as We Know It is tripped up by awkwardly fusing a familiar sitcom scenario with a tragic premise. Duhamel’s boyish charm and comic timing make the biggest impression. He has a winning sort of subtle self-mockery that works particularly well when the neighbors — male and female — fall all over him. It’s a spotty movie that at least attempts to ground its story in reality. The booze and weed situations, and the potty humor, provide silly slapstick gags while the story takes too long to reach its obvious conclusion.” (read full review)

Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune) says – 2 1/2 stars “Compared to “27 Dresses,” “The Ugly Truth” and “Killers” …”Life as We Know It” does not crush your soul, does not turn Katherine Heigl into a shrill pain in the keister, only occasionally devolves into clumsy, poorly timed slapstick and outstays its modest but heartfelt welcome only by 10-15 minutes. I have a sinking feeling that me having had a not-bad time at “Life as We Know It,” which co-stars the appealing Josh Duhamel, means it’s destined to make less money than any of the above. For a film deeply into formula, both of the baby and the screenwriting varieties, it’s just scrappy and off-center enough to alienate a sizable portion of the audience. To which I say: Good for you! At times like these we must remember what that great, great Hollywood mogul Henrik Ibsen said: “The majority is always wrong.” (read full review)

Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly) says – “D-” “In the business-as-usually-awful romantic comedy Life as We Know It, Katherine Heigl plays Holly, a dithering control freak of a single career girl (you’re shocked, right?) unprepared to take care of an infant unexpectedly left in her care. There’s something about Holly: She’s the most ridiculous, irritating, two-dimensional rom-com heroine since…Katherine Heigl’s last rom-com…Josh Duhamel (Transformers) plays last-name-only Messer, the caveman hero so wrong for Holly that he’s bound to end up sweetly wiping the poo from her cheek…witless, unfunny, unromantic product, a comedy as disposable — and stinky — as loaded Pampers.” (read full review)

Roger Moore (Orlando Sentinel) says – 2 1/2 stars “Uneven and sloppily sentimental,  “Life as We Know It” is still the best Katherine Heigl  comedy since “Knocked Up.”Credit her co-star, Josh Duhamel for that. As he has done in many a less worthy romantic comedy, he amplifies her charm. And she, in turn, brings out his sweet side. And credit the script, which gives her more to play than your average “Ugly Truth.” And as uneven as it is, “Life as We Know It” still goes down like comic comfort food, especially for anybody who’s ever dealt with parenthood.  A baby makes us grow up and changes our lives and as this film points out, that’s not just a diaper joke.” (read full review)

Eric Snider (Snide Reviews) says – “C” “Life As We Know It” stars Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel as two people who can’t stand each other but must raise a child together after the baby’s parents die. In the process of caring for the kid, they fall in love. What’s amazing is that despite everything I have just told you, “Life As We Know It” is NOT the single worst thing ever created by mankind…there’s clearly no reason to watch this movie, and I’m not suggesting you should. I was just glad it didn’t make geysers of blood spurt from my ears, that’s all.” (read full review)

When I pulled out our box of rice bags, I could see that they were looking a little bit warn and ragged. A trip to the fabric store for some cotton flannel, and a few quick seams on the sewing machine and we’re all set for a warm and cozy winter.

Want to make some for yourself? It’s super easy. Give it a try.

How to make Rice Bag Heating Pads

SUPPLIES:

1/4 yard Cotton flannel fabric

Long grain rice (not instant) – About 7 cups per bag

Sewing machine

Cut  fabric in half, giving you two long pieces 9 inches wide. Then take one piece and fold in half, right sides facing in. Sew two sides completely, and the third side 2/3 of the way leaving an opening of a few inches.

Turn bag so the right side is facing out.

I’ve found that making a funnel out of a paper plate rolled into a cone shape works better than a regular funnel because the opening can be adjusted to the size of the opening in the bag.

Slowly pour about 7 cups of rice into bag.

Once the rice has been poured into the bag, fold the opening edges inward.

Sew seam closed.

Warm bag in the microwave for 1 – 2 minutes. My microwave gets them perfect in 1:30. Make sure to shake the rice bag after heating to insure even distribution of heat.

Put rice bag on feet and enjoy!

In the chaos of everyday that we call life, we sometimes forget to slow down for a moment and just enjoy the beauty of the world around us and the company of those we love.

Last night, I decided to leave behind the routine of a typical Monday night and head up to the mountains with my husband and a couple of the kids for a few hours of relaxation. Why?  Just because we could. I highly recommend it.

It was easy to convince the kids to leave the "real world" behind once I assured them that the favorite Monday night t.v. shows were set to record on the DVR...Oh, and the promise of, "We'll do the homework later" didn't hurt either.

We invited some friends to come along for the adventure.

Our “friends” didn’t stay long at the sight of these ferocious hunters.

No trip up the canyon would be complete without a fire to cozy up around.

...and some s'mores.

Here's a tip for fast and easy s'mores. Just use chocolate covered graham cookies and some campfire roasted marshmallows.

Here's my proof that I was there...my feet getting nice and toasty by the campfire, in my Sanuks.

Let's not forget to be safe and put out all campfires completely. Look closely here. This is my 10-year-old son's preferred method of fire safety. Yep, it's yellow, and nope, he doesn't know I ran this picture. Ten year old's can't sue their mothers, right?

There’s something you should know about me.

It’s time for me to come clean.

I bought a new purse this past Saturday and as I was making the switch-over from old purse to new purse it became clear to me that I have a serious problem. I have an addiction to gum. In this old purse alone I found 5 packs. A quick rifle through my other purses revealed 6 more packs. Yep…that’s 11 packs of gum.

Now I ask you…does anyone really need 11 packs of gum? Probably not, but I can’t seem to help myself. I never go to the store with the sole intent of buying more gum, but as I wait in the check-out line I find myself helpless to resist the row after row of brightly colored gum packages just staring me in the face…

calling out my name…

beckoning me…

luring me in with the promise of a “New” flavor.

And the names…ah, the names. Last week I bought Orbit Mist Watermelon Spring and 5′s Zing “a sour to sweet bubble”.  How could I read those names and not yearn to “chew” the taste of a Watermelon Spring, or wonder what in the heck is the flavor of a Zing? I figured, who couldn’t use a “Zing” once in a while?

But after making the purse change-over, I realized my gum addiction was quite possibly getting out of hand, and I vowed to chew the packs I had before I bought any new gum. Later in the day, I realized I was out of milk and bread. I knew I was headed into dangerous territory as I entered the check out line in Wal Mart. I felt strong, though. I felt good. I knew I could resist my natural gum addiction urges.

It was then that I saw them.

Something I’ve never seen in a gum before.

Something completely new.

Something revolutionary.

Extra Dessert Delights

They may as well have had a neon light flashing over them. Are you kidding me? DESSERT in a GUM?  With no calories? Could it get any better than that?

And three flavors…

Mint Chocolate Chip… Strawberry Shortcake… Key Lime Pie

I bought them, all three packs. Who can blame me? I think some gum flavor designer over there at Extra headquarters made these new gums especially for me.

On the drive home I tried the Key Lime Pie. I’m not kidding when I tell you this gum tastes exactly like a slice of Key Lime Pie. How do they do that? An hour later I tried the Mint Chocolate Chip, which tastes surprisingly like the ice cream of the same name. I am not a fan of chocolate gum I’ve tried in the past, but this one is yummy. And right now as I type, I’m chewing the Strawberry Shortcake. It’s almost as good as dessert at grandma’s on Sunday.  Delish!

I may never have to have a calorie laden dessert again. Unless, of course, it’s the Cheesecake Factory’s Godiva Chocolate Brownie Sundae. Then all bets are off!

I think it’s high time I found a gum sponsor for Coffee Break. May as well get paid for my addiction, don’t you think? Extra…are you listening?

~ Kate

Enjoy your Coffee Break!

Make sure to check out our new cookbook, our CaffeMarco coffee and our fav Sanuk footwear.

What are Sanuks anyway?

And where did they take me?

Go ahead. Give it a click and see.

I spent this past Saturday in the middle of nowhere, traipsing through knee high weeds in the wide open fields of Clyde, Idaho. I am not joking when I say Clyde is smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Here are shots of all four directions at the exact spot my GPS lady (with her sophisticated English accent) told me I was “arriving at destination”, Clyde, Idaho.. I thought it was so funny I just had to stop and document it, ’cause I’m quirky that way. If you look carefully, there is one house in one direction.

You may be wondering how I found myself in such a hip and happening place. Well, I went to Idaho with my husband for a family gathering to have a memorial service to dedicate a grave for an ancestor, Aaron Henry Williams, who was shot and killed by a disgruntled ranch hand in 1913. He was  buried in grave with no headstone in a tiny family cemetery in the middle of a field on the family plot of land, and my sweet mother-in-law and her brother collected donations to purchase headstones for Aaron, his wife and his two children, who were also buried there.

What does all of this have to do with a bomb shelter? We had about 45 minutes to kill before the service, so we went out to explore the land, nature lovers that we are. This is what we stumbled upon.

Now I don’t know about you, but when I see something bizarre like this, a little voice starts shouting inside my head…Kate, there’s an adventure here just calling your name. Kate … Kate … KATE, can you hear me?

So we (my husband, 2 nephews, a niece and a brother-in-law)  got up close and personal to get a better look at the rocky mound with the strange boarded up opening and red tarp.

Here’s where my internal tug-of-war began. I really wanted to go down that ladder to have an adventure and explore, but on the other hand my logical mom-self was telling me what she would tell my children…Don’t you dare go down that ladder into that hole in the earth. It’ll collapse on you when you get inside, and you’ll be buried alive and die a slow and painful death of suffocation. So I made a compromise between my adventurous-self and my mom-self…I said to my group, “Hmmm, I wonder what it’s like down there. Wouldn’t that be cool to go inside and look around. I’d go down if somebody was brave enough to go first.”

Heehee, I knew that’s all it would take to get someone male to play the role of big brave explorer, and sure enough, within one minute brother-in-law was climbing through the wood and down that ladder, while his wife was screaming, “Don’t you dare go down there!” Sorry sister-in-law, I had to do it.

Once I saw that the ladder was secure and the walls and ceiling weren’t going to cave in, I headed down, along with the rest of the group. It was immediately apparent that this was either a really elaborate time-out room or a bomb shelter. After much debate between teen-agers and adults, AND the offer to let the teens test out the time-out room theory, we  decided on the bomb shelter option. How cool is that?! I was standing in a bomb shelter in the middle of nowhere in Idaho.Could there be any safer place in the whole world? I mean really, how high could the uninhabited fields of Idaho be on the nuclear target list in the first place?

This is the first of the two rooms inside the bomb shelter, the entryway or landing, I suppose, used to welcome your bomb shelter guests. The blue piece of metal in the center top is a door which can be pulled down to close off the second room.

And here's the second room, a cylindrical rusted metal tube, tall enough to stand up in. There are also some built-in frames which look like they may have been bed frames...just throw on a slab of wood and a scratchy wool horse blanket and you've got yourself some cozy little bomb shelter sleeping quarters.

The ceiling has three air holes which lead to tubes on the outside of the mound, which begs the question, "If the air outside has been nuked, do you really want to breath it without some sort of elaborate filtration system?"

Yep, that's me climbing back up the ladder, safe and relatively sound, none the worse for wear.

Want to know more about bomb shelters? Check out this video clip from the documentary, Buried in the Backyard: a documentary about bomb shelters and the people who build them.

Also, the history of bomb shelters

And how to build a bomb shelter…Bomb shelter guide

Okay, now go and have your own adventure, I dare you!

~Kate

Now I’ll tell you that in years past at the mere mention of demolition derby time approaching, my children’s reactions would range from hysterical laughing, to sad looks of pity reserved only for parents who have obviously lost their marbles. But each year through a bit of bribery, some coercion, and perhaps a little white lie or two, we somehow manage to drag a few new kicking and screaming kids with us. And each year by the end of the smash ‘em crash ‘em night, they have been desensitized and brain washed into becoming demolition derby converts also. It’s not my proudest accomplishment, but it helps me to feel better about my own once a year white trashiness.

This year, I set my heights high in bringing yet another child into the demolition derby realm, my 23 year old soon to be high school English teacher daughter. Let me tell you a little bit about this daughter. Her idea of a fun, light-hearted summer read would be any proper English novel that could star Emma Thompson in the lead role of the movie version. She is a tree hugger, save the whales, recycler.

She folds her tee shirts in such a way that the pictures face out, and then places them in her drawers in a color coded fashion so she always knows the exact placement of each and every shirt. In fact when I called her just now to ask her to snap a pic of her drawer and send it to me, I interrupted a movie she was watching with her roommate. Was it some silly girlie romantic comedy that typical 23 year old girls would be watching? I think you already know the answer to that. It was a movie about Tolstoy. Need I say more?

I finally wore her down, though,  and she agreed to go, but only as a mocking haughty observer, not as an active participant in the demolition derby fun. She swore not to have a good time, and the entire first round of smashing and bashing she held fast to that promise.

She cringed at every crashing sound, worried that the drivers would be injured, and looked with disdain at the cheering derby fans. By round two, she didn’t seem quite so disturbed about the whole thing, and by the third round, she had succumbed. She was shouting, cheering  and even fist pumping along with the rest of us.  She experienced her first ever white trash moment and she had embraced her inner redneck. Ahhh…another success. Another kid brought down to my level.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the whole sport of demolition derby, and I use the term “sport”  loosely,  let me just explain what happens.  A bunch of old beat up clunkers with paint jobs courtesy of a few cans of spray paint, enter an arena barricaded with concrete barriers and then proceed to crash and bash into each other.

The top few cars in each heat move on to a grand finale round where they pummel each other until there is only one car left running. The winner gets bragging rights and enough prize money to go home and fix up his/her car to do it all over again.

I found myself a real bonafied demolition derby expert on the internet at www.hartin.com who accurately describes it as,  “Kind of like a WWE cage match, when you think about it. There are just a few rules in the interest of safety and fair play, although in my experience they tend to be enforced just about as rigorously as in the WWE.”

Here’s a clip of the final championship round at this year’s Utah County Fair. Embrace the white trash in yourself..take a look. No one will even have to know.

Will I be returning next year?  Absolutely. Will my English teacher daughter be returning? For certain, and maybe I’ll drag a few more of my kids along as well.  Come on…stranger things have happened.

I confess to being a fan of the Food Network show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. Really, who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned, high-fat, carb-laden meal from a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon diner once in a while?

A few months ago while on our family vacation, we took a day off from Disneyland to slow down with a relaxing trip to Ventura, California. When lunchtime came, much to my family’s chagrin I steered them past all the standard recognizable fast food joints, past all the nice clean sit-down, waitress type restaurants and right down South Seaward Avenue to Seaward Fish and Chips. I think I can safely say this is the kind of diner/dive Guy Fieri would love.

It’s close enough to the beach that there is sand scattered along the the sidewalk outside. It’s old, tiny and quirky. The walls and ceiling are decorated with real dollar bills. And the fish and chips are to die for!

How did I find this place so far off the beaten path? Well, when it comes to planning our family vacations, I become a little kooky with my need to be organized and have everything planned out. I happened to pick up an issue of Family Fun Magazine (May 2010) that had an article on Family Getaways and guess what was featured??? Yep  Seaward Fish and Chips. I saw this picture and knew that I wanted it to be MY family sitting on the porch of this fish and chip stand.

So me being the mom and all…well, I made it happen. Moms get to be in charge of stuff like that.

First of all, let me tell you that the fish and chips in this place are the best I have ever eaten. That’s because the owner (Tim) of Seaward Fish and Chips has his own fishing boat (Lady Raquel)  which he takes out  daily (I’m guessing) to bring in the freshest and most delicious fish. (That part I am not guessing about.)

Second of all, the atmosphere of this place is beyond quirky. The walls and ceiling are covered with dollar bills decorated by customers and held up by push pins.

Do you love the bizarre-ness of this as much as I do?

So we did what any self respecting fish and chip lovers would do…we pulled out our dollar bills and went to town decorating with the markers provided by the cute high school aged girl behind the counter.  (Is this even legal?)

Here’s my Coffee Break with Liz and Kate dollar and my mucho delicious fish and chips.  (Okay, so I never said I was an artist.)

And here’s the placement of my dollar, on the right wall up by the ceiling.

So here is my challenge to you, dear readers. Take a trip off the beaten path. Try something you’ve never tried. Eat somewhere you normally wouldn’t eat. Order something you wouldn’t normally order…take an adventure Kate/Guy style.

And if any of you happen upon Seawards Fish and Chips in Ventura, Ca., pull out that old dollar bill, decorate it,  stick it up next to mine, snap a pic and email it to lizandkate@live.com. I dare you…

While there I couldn’t help but notice some quaint and quirky observations about the differences between my current state of Utah and my former state of KY.

Observations:

• I’ve noticed the famous KY rolling stop is still the accepted, and preferred, means of stopping at a stop sign.

• When you are done drying off after a shower, you still feel completely damp.

• In the battle between my hair and the humidity, the humidity is clearly the victor.

This is kind of what my hair looked like in KY…

• There are so many nicknames for grandma and grandpa…mamaw, nanna, nan, papaw, popsa, pops are a few that I heard while there.

• When I was a kid, some kook decided to build a castle just outside Versailles, Ky. I suppose because of the name of the town this guy had visions of royalty. The thing is, he never finished it. Upon my return I see that the unfinished castle on the way to Versailles is now a finished castle called CastlePost, a stately hotel for rich-type royalty wannabe’s.

• Cold drinks really sweat here…a lot. I did learn a trick from Liz. Just sprinkle some salt on your drink napkin and your glass won’t stick.

• Lightning bugs still exist…my kids have never seen one. I am seriously considering catching some in a jar and taking a pic for the kids.

• You don’t have to put lotion on your hands every hour in KY.

• The people here are so, so friendly and welcoming, especially in the smaller towns. I saw many a head nod and steering wheel wave while there.