Magical Treat Monday Continued!

Hello again loves! I have two more recipes for you all to try for your big HP week ahead!

Madame Rosemerta's

Famous Pumpkin Juice

Ingredients:

A pumpkin (you could always use canned pumpkin, it would probably be a lot easier. I was on a budget and just used a pumpkin we had laying around for decoration... Always thrifty!)

2 cans apple nectar (I used Jumex, it's a Hispanic drink you could always use plain apple juice or cider)

2 cans pear nectar (again you could always use plain pear juice or even substitute it out for something else like pineapple)

1 tbsp honey

brown sugar and pumpkin spices to taste

Instructions:

Ok, so here's what you do. First you need to chop up that pumpkin and take all the seeds and nasty stuff out. I left the rind on my pumpkin for a little extra flavor. Once it's all chopped into pieces (the smaller the better, it will help it cook faster) put it all into a pot and add your brown sugar and spices (I used about 1/2 cup of brown sugar and there were a lot of dashes of Cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, and a few cloves thrown into the mix). I would take one of your cans of juice (probably apple) and dump about half of that into the pot with the pumpkin. Let the pumpkin cook until it's soft enough to run a fork through it. Remove it from the heat.

Next you're going to need a food processor (which is why you may just want to buy canned pumpkin). You're going to grind up the pumpkin until it is a paste, and you may have to add a bit more juice or water to it to help it along (and the juice that's left over in your pot... save it! or use it here. That's the good stuff!!). Once that's formed your are going to take your pot and add in the rest of your juices and put it back on the heat. Next you're going to add in your pumpkin to taste. I probably used about 1 cup or 1.5 cups. Stir everything together and let it simmer for a little bit. Breathe it in.... smells delicious doesn't it!

So now here's the fun part. You will need a cheesecloth (or once again I'm thrifty I used a very thin broadcloth that I use for making butter and other things, please make sure it's clean whatever you use). I would layer a strainer over top of a bowl and then place you cloth laying on top of the strainer. Then start pouring your wonderful juice into it. Once it looks like a nice amount you will need to twist the cloth. This is to separate the pumpkin bits from the drinkable juice, otherwise you end up with a drink that has a bit of a texture to it and trust me it's not flattering. Trash your pumpkin bits, rise your cloth and go again until you've drained everything.

What's left in your bowl is your pumpkin juice! Bottle it up, store in the fridge, serve and enjoy! I'm not a fan of eating much less drinking pumpkin, but this was very tasty and reminded me more of a mulled cider taste.

I had a little extra from Dumbledore. I found an amazing lemon drop recipe here. Old school lemon drops. The type my grands used to eat. It's the kind you have to roll out onto a surface and knead and then cut. This is real sugar art folks! lol And it's also very, very hot and slightly dangerous. So I decided if you want to risk it, you can go to their site and get the recipe. It's hard candy and I did happen to burn my index finger a bit, it was totally worth it though. lol. I must have been a candy maker in a past life. ;) Well that's all for now! I'll see you all in a bit with a Wizard Wear tutorial!

Magical Treat Monday!

Welcome all to the week long crafting event for HP and the Deathly Hallows!! Aux Demilunes is doing a 5 day long event of of WitchCrafts in order to celebrate the upcoming release of the new Harry Potter movie. Today is Magical Treats! I figured I would start this morning off with some recipes you all might enjoy from your favorite red heads and later tonight I will post a few more recipes from some of our favorite shops down in Hogsmeade. So, without further ado.... From the Wonderful World of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes (try and say that 5 times fast) I give you......

Ton-Tongue Toffee

(I used a simple Almond Roca recipe found here )

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (not margarine, butter, no substitutes, just butter people!)

cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

dash of salt

about 1/2 cup of almonds (diced/chopped/slivered whatever takes your fancy) (You can also change out the almonds for your favorite kind of nut or not have any at all.)

about 8-12 oz of chocolate

Instructions:
In a pot combine the butter, sugar, and water and stir. Heat over medium heat. Stir the mixture until the butter melts all the way and is incorporated well into the mixture. After that leave it alone. Heat until the mixture boils and reaches a yellow brown color (this is known as the hard crack stage. If you have a candy thermometer you should be using that, however mine broke and I know the color changes pretty well now for hard candy so I just winged it ;) )

It should only take about 10 minutes or so. While your mixture is still cooking take out a pan and line it with aluminum foil, I would also butter it or use a cooking spray (it will make your life so much easier!). Now place just about all of your almonds into the pan and spread them out pretty well. Save a bit to sprinkle on top for the garnish if you please. It's not necessary though. Now when everything is the proper color carefully pour it into your lined, sprayed, and almond equipped pan. Be careful, making hard candy is a very HOT task. You don't want to have burns on your hands and arms from it. It's not a pleasant experience.

Once you've poured your toffee in the pan you can either sprinkle your chocolate chips on top of the toffee and as they melt spread them out over the toffee. Or you could be nifty like me, create a double boiler and melt you chocolate and then pour and spread it on top of everything. This is a recipe that you can do just about anything with and it's almost fool proof. Let your toffee sit for a few hours to harden up and then you can crack it with a knife and enjoy!

Puking Pastilles

(I used a gum drop recipe found here, but I altered it a bit)

They don't photograph well, sorry.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup corn syrup

3/4 cup water

1 3oz package of flavored gelatin/jello (I used orange you can use any flavor you want)

2 packages of Knox unflavored gelatin (they equal about .25 oz a piece)

1/2 tsp baking soda

optional: Flavored extract (such as orange/lemon/raspberry or whatever compliments your gelatin/jello. I used orange of course)

Powdered sugar (you will be using it to coat the outside to keep it not so sticky you could also use regular sugar if you like the crunchy taste)

Instructions:

Line a cake pan with foil and spray it with cooking spray (you will regret skipping the spray part trust me) and set aside.

Combine sugar and corn syrup into a pan. Heat over medium heat. You should be using a candy thermometer however mine is broken (remember?) so I basically cooked it for almost 10 minutes took out a spoon dipped it into the mixture and stirred it into a glass of cold water to test its consistency. I did this until the mixture seemed like it was more gummy like than jelly like. With your thermometer it should read about 280 degrees Fahrenheit this is the soft crack stage. As this is happening you should place the water, flavored gelatin, unflavored gelatin's, and baking soda into a separate pan on medium heat until it comes to a boil (don't forget to sir to help everything dissolve). Once it boils remove it from the heat.

Now once the sugar/corn syrup mixture reaches the proper stage return the gelatin mixture to the heat and bring it to a simmer. As it simmers SLOWLY pour in the sugar/corn syrup mixture and stir constantly as your do (that means one hand pours and one hand stirs. If you aren't that coordinated then I suggest asking for some help from a partner or someone lol). Let this mixture simmer for about a minute more. Remove from heat and stir in you extra flavorings if you have any. Then pour into your previously line and sprayed pan. Let sit for a few hours until firm.

Once firm, take the powdered sugar and pour some on top and spread it around. You will have noticed that it is still sticky. Putting the powdered sugar on top takes care of that. Now powder the top of your work surface. and lift out the foil. Flip it foil side up and sit it on top of your surface. Now, have fun pulling off that foil from the stickiness. If you skipped spraying I laugh at you HA! If you sprayed it's still a bit of a work out but it is NOWHERE NEAR as bad as it could have been. I find putting powdered sugar on as I pull off the foil helps it come off quicker. Once it is all peeled and powdered take a cookie cutter or in my case I used a small Tupperware container for salad dressings (it's a tiny cup with about a 2 inch diameter) stir it in some powdered sugar (this helps with the sticking) and cut the suckers out. When your finished you can do as I did and rub the cut outs between your hands and remove some excess sugar or you can leave them alone. Enjoy!

Fever Fudge

So this is by far the easiest recipe of the day.

Seriously. You could make it in your sleep. Are you ready?

Ingredients:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

12 oz chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions:

Take a cake pan and line it with foil and spray. In a double boiler combine milk and chocolate. Stir until all is melted and combined. Remove from heat stir in vanilla, cinnamon, and cayenne (you can add more or less to taste the amounts here are very mild). Pour into pan and let sit a few hours until firm. Once firm lift foil and remove. Cut into squares/shapes and serve. See I told you it was easy.

I hope you enjoy these wonderful recipes. Fred and George would approve! I'll see you later tonight for Madam Rosemerta's Famous Pumpkin Juice recipe and I may even throw in a favorite from Dumbledore! See you tonight loves!

November Already?!

Crazy insane, or insane crazy? I like to think I bounce between both borders. Well, I'm rather disappointed because I spent Samhain morning in the ER thanks to a kidney stone. It finally got to the point where I decided to see a doctor. had I insurance I would have seen one A LOT faster, but, alas, I have none. So fingers crossed the the bill won't kill me. With that means I slept the rest of Samhain away in a terrible drug induced coma. I did manage to light a candle for my loved ones and to set out some pomegranate and home roasted pumpkin seeds along with some Sangria (from the bottle since I obviously wasn't in my right mind to make any). I was really sad not to be able to a ritual or to go the the local one, but I think if my ancestors and loved ones did stop by they would have understood why. So I've missed my 3 favorite holidays: Halloween, Samhain, and Dia de los Muertos. That deserves an angry lion...... ROAR! I'll have to call a Doctor today and go in for a check up at some point to see if the stone is moving. At the ER we found out it's partially blocking my little tube, which isn't good, so I have to so see a urologist or however you spell it. *sigh* Can i just trade my body in for a newer version? Where's Dr. Frankenstein when you need him?!

So to turn things upward, I'll probably craft today. I need to do another witch hat for Witch Hat Wednesday, and I also have to finish some things for my HP swap. And I have fabric I have to package off to Canada for Simply Crunchy for her rainbow quilt she's making. I've lacked money to ship it until now. So I'll be putting that in the mail by weeks end! WOO HOO! And this all brings us to November. In American we have Thanksgiving in November, which much to wishful thinking is actually only celebrate by the US lol. Everyone should have a Thanksgiving. I guess technically we Pagans do. Mabon seems to be our version of such. Which means that the next Sabbat is Yule. That's over a month away! My house celebrates Yule and Christmas since I am the only Pagan in the family. I'm lucky my mom even recognizes my religion. I love her so much for that. So every year we make an effort to do little things outside of the Christmas box that are more Yule like. Instead of an artificial tree we've been getting real mini pine trees and if they survive the winter we plant them in the yard. I've been doing cranberry garlands, little snacks, and a bunch of tiny things. Baby steps people, baby steps. Even after 5 years on the path I'm still trying to integrate myself into the sabbats. I think this year I will have mini celebration for Yule. Not sure what to do yet, but I'll be sure to keep you updates. But for the moment, it's November. And all that really means to me is that I have a TON of Christmas gifts to craft for the family, not to mention a few Birthdays to prepare for! Have I said how much hate/love November? Well I do. So very, very much. And with that being said. I'm off! I have much sewing and planning to do today to prepare for the next two months. I leave you with my amazing squirrels, that always show me much love when I go to visit them.