On Homecoming and Caramel

We had a wonderful Fall weekend, full of fun activities and projects. Both of my children are in High School now, and this week was homecoming. Friday was a nice, warm, sun-shining fall day, but I knew rain was on the way, so before the big football game, we all went out the the garden to bring in the rest of the peppers- we harvested another whole big mixing bowl full of jalapenos as well as some Ancho & bell peppers. While we were out in the garden, I noticed that one of my blueberry plants had turned a beautiful red color, and had a few late ripening blueberries, the plant looked so pretty!

I went to see how my tiny bucket of corn was doing, and look at this little cute frog that was hiding in the corn. We have these cute little green frogs all through the garden, I just love them!

After our nice afternoon in the garden, we got ready for the game. The weather was perfect, not too hot, not to cold, and the rain decided to wait! Best of all our team won the game! Very fun game to watch!

Saturday we spent the day getting ready for the Homecoming Dance. My daughter invited a group of her girlfriends over to spend the afternoon doing hair and makeup. This was also my son's first semi-formal dance, luckily, one of my daughter's friends also has a little brother, the same age as my son, so he came over as well and the boys had a blast playing guitar and video games all day while the girls were getting ready.

We had a light dinner before the dance, I had fun making these wraps with all different meats and cheeses, next time I would like to add double the lettuce, I love the crunch. For the spread inside, I mixed a few tablespoons of prepared ranch dip into a block of softened cream cheese and a dollop of mayo, and blended till smooth. I also mixed some stone ground honey mustard with mayo for one of the wraps. I served the wraps with pretzels and grapes.

For dessert I wanted to try a new frosting recipe, I made mini devil's food cupcakes, and topped them with a Salted Caramel Buttercream frosting that I found on Pinterest a week ago.

They turned out yummy, and it was my first time making a caramel sauce from scratch.

Here is the Pinterest link below for the wonderful recipe.

I had a bit of a problem with my first batch of caramel, the directions say to cook the sugar mixture until it turns amber, and I let it go a bit too long, after I pulled it off the heat, it went a shade darker, and after I mixed in the cream and butter and took a taste, although it looked like a nice caramel, it was burned. Here is my sad little first attempt, looks so good, tastes not so good :(

But if at first you don't succeed try try again. So I cleaned my pan and got to work on the next batch, which turned out yummy. I was hesitant to let it get too dark, I would like to make this sauce again, maybe for some hot cocoa, and see if I can get it just a tad more caramely without the burn. So now I am on a caramel mission, I want to learn how to make the perfect caramel sauce, as well as a nice soft caramel candy for the upcoming holiday.

The kids enjoyed the cupcakes, and so did me and hubby. All the kids looked wonderful all dressed up, and had a great time at the dance.

I also had a chance this weekend to start getting out some fall decor. I love fall decorations, and Halloween decorations, and it takes me quite some time to get everything out. Here are some of the decorations I got up this weekend.

I love my owl candle holders, I got the two individual owls last year, and this year I got the trio of owls tea light holder. I love owls!

I also love crows and blackbirds, I love these rustic metal bell trees, I have had them for years, and I love putting them out every fall.

Here I brought out two wooden crows, and in the center is an owl that I made last year from some fall colored spotted fabric and wool felt.


I hope to get a bunch more decor up this week, now that the rain has arrived, it will be nice to warm up the house with my fall decor.

Just a reminder, there is still time to enter my Giveaway for the children's story book by Tomie dePaola The Knight and The Dragon, giveaway ends Friday October 7th . The Knight and The Dragon Giveaway

Thanks for stopping by!