Cooking No. 10: Boo Cups

In college, my good friend E. introduced me to the best Halloween dessert ever: Boo Cups. I’d never had one of these amazing little creations until my sophomore year, but now the season just doesn’t seem right without them! Boo Cups are to Halloween what Peeps are to Easter – a delicious sweet you can only eat once a year for fear your teeth will rot out. Oh yes, they are that good.

Bert’s coworker invited us over for a Pumpkin Party last weekend (where Bert carved his first pumpkin ever), so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce Boo Cups to the NEPA crowd. (Interested? You can find the recipe here on the Kraft website.)

They are super easy to make. First, mix the instant pudding. The official recipe calls for only chocolate, but I always split it up into half chocolate, half vanilla. Trust me: Boo Cups are not lacking in the sugar department. I’ve found the vanilla makes them a bit more palatable for the “older than 5” crowd and adds a nice color contrast, as well.

Next, mix in half a tub of Cool-Whip (or “whipped topping,” if you go the Brand X route like me. ;) and 3/4 cup of crushed Oreos. (No Brand X on the Oreos. No one can match the yumminess of the real thing.) If you use both chocolate and vanilla pudding, make sure you split the Cool-Whip between the two, (i.e. a quarter tub in each bowl). I usually only put Oreos into the chocolate pudding, but again – up to you. ;)

Set the pudding aside and lay out twelve small cups. Sprinkle more crushed Oreos into each one. Divide the pudding between the cups - layering, if you're using multiple flavors - and top with more Oreos. (Can you ever have enough Oreos? No, I don’t think so. ;)

Finally, divide your remaining Cool-Whip into twelve “ghosts” on the cup of each pudding cup. This part always makes me laugh because the ghosts on the Kraft website look so perfect while mine always come out…well, blobby, for lack of a better word. (I'm sure they'd look neater if you piped them on.) Each ghost gets a pair of chocolate chip eyes and you’re done! The recipe says to use miniature chocolate chips, which I never have because they never go on sale, so I just substitute the regular ones for a more “googly-eyed” look. But they are yummy either way.

Unfortunately, transporting Boo Cups is not nearly as easy as making them. Eek! I have this issue every year and every year I forget about it until it’s time to leave the house. You’d think I’d learn.

The party was about 45 minutes away, so I threw the Boo Cups in the freezer to stiffen them for the drive. I tried a bunch of different pans and covered dishes, but the only thing big enough was a metal crate that Bert uses to hold office supplies. Out with the pens! In with the Boo Cups!

I covered the bottom with foil, lined up the cups, and then threw in a roll of saran wrap to wedge them in. (The crate was a wee bit too big. Or maybe I just didn’t make enough cups. ;) And it worked! The Boo Cups were a little melty by the time we arrived, but we put them straight in the fridge and they were perfect by the time dessert rolled around. Success!

Mmmm… Make sure you give them a try! And Happy Halloween!

NTOTD No. 13: October Snow

October snow? Yes, please! I always considered myself lucky to have snow on Thanksgiving, never mind Halloween. (Halloweens in New England always seem to be damp and mild, although I'm not sure how they usually run in NEPA.) I know we'll be lucky if the white stuff hangs around till Monday, but still... It makes for a very cozy weekend! (And I love how Bert's jack-o-lantern looks like it sprouted hair overnight. Chia Pumpkin, anyone? ;)

Craft No. 10: Sucrets Tin Makeover

In a recent scientific survey performed by yours truly, there were 3,210,000 hits for the Google search “Altoids tin craft,” but only 906,000 for “Sucrets tin craft.” And most of them appear to be "Altoids tin repeats."

Travesty! Sucrets tins are great! Mine has lived in the uncharted regions of my purse for some years now, providing a fantastic home for any sort of meds I need/think I need/probably will never need on-the-go. However, they are uglier than their small, mintier cousins, I’ll give you that. So the other night, in a burst of craftiness, I decided to give the ugly duckling of the tin packaging world a much-need makeover.

I started by removing the ingredients sticker from the back of the tin and scrubbing off the residual goop with rubbing alcohol. (I know some people like to use Goo Gone for that sort of job, but I’ve found rubbing alcohol works just as well – if not better – minus that awful smell.)

Next, I traced the top of the tin onto a piece of cork leftover from an old coaster project and cut it out with my special sharp scissors. (I protect my sharp scissors with my life. They live in an undisclosed location only known to me so they don’t get used for anything mundane or manly. Hehehe… Do you have a pair like that?) But even using the sharp scissors left the cork a little rough and crumbly around the edges. I rubbed it down as best I could, but I planned on covering it later and wasn’t too worried about the finish.

Now for the fun part! I pulled out my set of mini alphabet stamps and went to town. (Practicing on a bit of scrap paper first, of course. :) Originally, I wanted to use red ink to match the red tin, but the red didn’t show up too well on the cork. I substituted black and it came out just fine. “For what ails you” – it makes me think of a spoonful of sugar or the glass of “medicine” in Peter Pan. Hopefully, whatever lands in this tin is somewhere in between!

Then I tried gluing the cork onto the tin, but the cork soaked up the Elmer’s and hot glue just got all gunky. (I think my glue gun’s dying and it wasn’t quite hot enough.) Plan C involved several strips of double-sided scrapbooking tape and that seemed to work just fine.

With the cork secured, I wrapped the edges in decorative adhesive tape (God’s gift to crafters? Quite possibly. I was thinking of gluing ribbon on, which in hindsight would have been a disaster!) and taped a bit of paper inside the cover for the finishing touch. Voila! What do you think?

Except for the skull and bones tape – 50 cents at Jo-Ann’s with a coupon! – I had all the supplies on hand, so this was a pretty low budget project. I wouldn’t mind sticking a brand or two in the cork for a little extra decoration, but I don’t mind it as is. I think my Sucrets tin is lookin’ mighty fine!

(What ails me? A sore throat, stomachache, and allergies, apparently! :)

NTOTD No. 12: The Vera Bradley Train

Am I the last one to jump on? Probably. Unfortunately. Trophy Wife or not, I never thought I'd see this day. But when I saw this wristlet on Listia, I was totally hooked before I even knew it was the ubiquitous V.B. How could I know? It's vinyl and there's no paisley. Obviously, Vera was out sick the day they snuck this bad boy through.

I am, however, 100% guilty of bandwagon-ing when it comes to that ID case. I bought it at a local consignment shop fully aware of where it came from. But it was on sale. And I am a complete sucker for anything turquoise and brown. And, well, I had already lost any street cred I had in regards to not owning a V.B. Might as well jump in head first...

Do you own a Vera? Why or why not?

Culture No. 32: Working!

I broke the number two trophy wife rule this week and got a job. Thankfully, the number one rule is “there are no rules,” so I quickly exonerated myself and emerged guilt-free and slightly richer. (I am all up for an extra dollar or two – sadly, literally – added to my monthly grocery budget.)

The new gig is a part-time office job at a local construction/trucking company with nary an AutoCAD station in sight. I can also wear jeans, so it is pretty much Sarah heaven in those two respects. (There is also an office cat named “White Trash.” Hellooo, NEPA!) I have to teach myself QuickBooks stat, but I already use Quicken at home so it’s not too bad of a learning curve. And who knows? My own personal accounting will probably drastically improve in the coming months as well. ;)

Ahhh…It feels good to have one foot back in the working world!

Culture No. 31: Hiking the Lehigh Gorge

I have a list of things I want to do while we live in NEPA. It's a small list, but it does exist. (On my iPod. So I can add to it when inspiration hits. Just like my grocery list.) After our trip to Jim Thorpe this summer, I added “Hike the Lehigh Gorge in the Fall” for two reasons: one, I am too cheap to pay for the tourist rail when I can walk it myself, and two, if it was gorgeous in the summer – which it was – I could only imagine how it’d look in autumn.

And since we’re coming down to our last few fall weekends here in the Northeast (Can you believe it?!), Bert and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and snuck away this weekend for an afternoon on the trail. And I'm so glad we did, because I think the Pocono leaf-peeping season is just about over!

I had imagined a really tough and rugged hike, but – like the Back Mountain Trail – the path turned out to be a bike trail (Whoops. Missed that memo…), so it was more like a leisurely stroll. (Thankfully, I packed enough chocolate bars to maintain our caloric intake. Got to love those Halloween sales!)

Still, we walked six miles+ and both came out sore. (Although that may be more a reflection on our own condition. I am blaming it on my boots. ;) There were lots of people out biking and walking their dogs and we even saw a large group of rafters headed downstream towards Jim Thorpe. (At the end of October? Crazies!) It was a beautiful day and I'm so glad I can check the Gorge off my list now! What were you up to this weekend?

(And before you ask: Yes! I am hunting wabbits! The resident male model was quick to point out my resemblance to Elmer Fudd. Guess I won't be wearing that hat again! ;)

NTOTD No. 11: Pumpkin Carving

(For Bert, at least.)

This weekend, Georgia Boy fessed up to never having carved a pumpkin before, which of course we had to remedy. Immediately.

Sacrificing one of my three pumpkins to the cause - the smallest one, just to start him off slow - we let the Carving Newbie go to town. He struggled a bit through the gutting process and - unaware he was supposed to save it - threw the top away, but once we rescued the stem from the trash it was smooth sailing from then on out. (Granted, he did have help from a five year-old expert. That may have helped. ;)

I think he named pumpkin, "An Ode to Steve Jobs," which is why it has glasses. Stevie the Wonder Pumpkin has since returned to the pumpkin ranks on our still-cornstalk-less front step and looks fantastic. I am so proud. :)