Whooooooo

Halloween preparations in full swing here this weekend.


Cute skeleton cut outs from Sewing Stars. Oops, he seems to have lost a leg.

And white chocolate ghosts courtesy of Martha Stewart. These look really impressive, but are dead easy to make. I don't know if my white chocolate got too warm to set hard again, because the lollies are great straight from the fridge, but a bit on the bendy side at room temperature. Any chocolate melting experts out there?

Clocks went back today - our first dark evening of the year. We have a family movie night planned, so I need to go and make popcorn. They rented 'Garfield - the movie'. I do not have high hopes.

Comments

[raspberry]

Garfield 2 is worse :) You can tell how bad they are by the fact that we have a box set, and it cost £7 from HMV a couple of months ago!!!!

[ljmax]

I have that same skeleton waiting to be cut out...looks good.

[Marmite Breath]

I have to admit, we love Garfield 1 and 2 around here. I can't help giggling, it's very cheesy but very funny!

[janet clare]

sorry seen it and I would recommend you have some knitting on hand!

[driftwood]

love those ghosts!!

[capello]

i have soooooooo been meaning to get that skeleton but our color printer is out of black ink so i've been waiting and waiting and drooling and drooling over others'. :-)

[Cathy]

Those ghosts are fab - I may have to add that to my list of things to make this week! Good luck with the movie - I watched about 10 minutes of it once with the girls then left them to it!
Cathy XX

[Angel Jem]

I have seen both movies.... poor you! The things we do for our kids, eh?

[rebecca]

great ghosts!

[meg]

hey I used to be a chocolatier! to make the chocolate hard at room temp. you have to temper it. Chop 75% of your chocolate and melt it at HALF power in your microwave (white chocolate burns easily, so stop and check every 10 seconds and stir it well). Take it out before it is completely melted and stir stir stir. Now grate (yes, with a cheese grater) the rest of your chocolate into the bowl and stir stir stir. You want the temperature of the chocolate to drop to about 85F (29C)--this is for white chocolate, dark is different. If you have added the rest and it still is too hot, just keep stirring until it feels slightly cooler than body temp. Then you should be ready to make your little ghosties. If your tempering worked they should set up to be nice and shiny! If not, eat em anyway.

[monica]

oh my... they look fabulous!

Garfield? ... mmm good luck with that.

Don't you hate the dark evenings?

[Florence]

Oh poor you! They will love you for it though (I always feel hugely grateful - and now very remorseful - for the amount of times my parents allowed me to rent Benji). I hope it passes quickly.

Your lollies look fantastic though...must follow your links and investigate where one finds the lolly sticks.

Florence x

[Dragonfly]

We have some chocolate lolly-type things ready to make...haven't very high hopes for them though! It was a set bought in Lakeland so no doubt chocolate will be horrid!

[Bev and Ollie O]

ooh ghosty lollies look fab!
I love popcorn but cannot eat it! :(

The clocks went back here too, I think the dark nights are the worst part of winter! x

[SquidgesMum]

MMMmmmmm white chocolate ghosts- yum

[VickyandJen.com]

I chuckle at the clocks falling back, since my morning went into chaos because of it.
My smart clock isn't so smart - it fell back, but they decided to wait a week here in Cincinnati. I thought I had an hour and 10 before an appointment, and realized that I only had the 10. Crazy!

[shannon]

Those ghosts are too cute.

[Junie Moon]

I have that skeleton doll project template saved to my computer but will have to wait until next year to make them--they are adorable and I love how yours turned out.

The candy project is cute, too. I am not a pro with candy making other than a couple of items so can't help you with that.

Garfield, huh? Well, family time is family time. I agree with Janet, a bit of knitting might be in order.

[Joanna Butchart]

i love that template and the chocolate lollies will probably have to make both for a party on wednesday evening. I really hope the film wasnt as bad as i think it probably was. Oliver isnt at that age yet!!!

[Ragged Roses]

Love the lollipops! We did the same yesterday, video and popcorn and dark evenings!

[Flibbertygibbet]

As a previous commenter said, you've got to temper it. My dad tried to explain all of this to me when I was making the chocolate dinosaurs last year. I think the temps he suggested were 110 and 86 - a sugar thermometer is a good investment!

http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Tempering-Chocolate/Detail.aspx

[lazylol]

Oh you've given me an idea - I think I am going to try making some mini choc ghosts to put on the top of my halloween cupcakes. I have made some skeletons too!

[cindy]

Those whit chocolate ghosts are genius. I would have never thought of that! Thanks for sharing!