General Conference Weekend

In between the Saturday sessions, we took Ray's motorcycle up into the canyon. Ray wanted a picture of his bike on his debit card, and the ones he had were all taken in our front yard, featuring the empty lot, the road, and the highway. I told him the fall trees would make a much better backdrop - and of course I was right!

The kids hopped on the bike to take a few pictures. J was asleep in the car.

I got the idea to start a new General Conference tradition from a blog I found, alittletipsy.blogspot.com. She has directions for making gourmet carmel apples, and I thought that would be something I could do with the kids that they would enjoy - and that is low-maintenance enough that I could stand to do it every 6 months! :) I got the melting carmel package from Wal Mart, and after the last session on Saturday, we got to work. The kids LOVED it! Even J got into it, he couldn't wait to dip his apple in the carmel and chocolate - and of course, eating it! We ate a bit Saturday evening, and then I cut up the rest during the morning session for a snack. YUMMY!

Here are pictures of the kids enjoying the rewards of their work and patience.

The plan is to only have carmel apples at General Conference, so the kids have something to look forward to. My kids do that really well - getting all hyped up about traditions, and excited about things they know are coming up. Ray and I enjoyed it, too! Next time, I'll get a bit more adventurous, with extra toppings. The kids asked if they could just do chocolate next time, :), and I told them they could do whatever they wanted. I used small apples, so even though the package was to make 5, it made 6 apples easy, with carmel left over for the kids to dip cut up apples in the carmel and eat them. So, a very fruity weekend.

Basic Ingredients:
10 medium green apples (edit: Gma G suggests having them cold so the caramel sets up faster)
2 bags caramel bits (Love these! I bought them thinking they were regular caramels, but then opened them to find I did not have to unwrap them all. They are smaller balls so they melt easier too.)
Water
1 bag milk chocolate chips
1 bag white chips
Crisco

Optional ingredients: (these will be used for an additional coating depending on what flavor you want)
Cinnamon Sugar (used with white chocolate to make the apple pie flavor, my fav!)
Oreos
Butterfinger
Reese's Pieces
Heath Bar
Chopped peanuts
anything else that you might like to try!

1. Begin by washing the cold apples and removing the stem. Then insert the stick where the stem was. (The sticks come with the caramels.)
2. Spread a good amount of wax paper on the counter and spray it with cooking spray so the apples won't stick.
3. Melt the caramel according to package instructions. I believe ours said something like add 2 T. of water and microwave for 90 seconds, stir and then melt until smooth. You want it pretty runny.
   
4. Dip your apples in the caramel by tipping the bowl, holding the stick, and spinning the apple in it. (sorry forgot to take pics of all this) Cover all but about a 1 1/2 inch circle on the top. Continue turning the apple while the caramel drips off so that you have an even coat all around. Let it drip for quite a while, until it looks like a thin layer, otherwise you will have a huge puddle under your apple. Reheat caramel for additional apples as necessary to keep it runny.
   
5. Place the apples on the sprayed wax paper and put in the fridge for about 20 minutes until the caramel is solid (I had them on a cookie sheet to make it easy to move them all at once).
6. Get out two medium bowls and put each flavor of chocolate chips in each bowl. Add a Tablespoon of Crisco to each bowl. This will make the chocolate more viscous. Microwave until smooth, stirring at least once per minute.
   
7. Repeat dipping step 4, but with the chocolate. Sprinkle with your Optional ingredient (oreos, butterfinger, etc.) so they stick to the chocolate.
   
8. Place on sprayed wax paper and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
9. If you want to get really fancy, put the leftover chocolate in a ziploc, cut a tiny hole in the corner and drizzle over the apples.
   
10. Enjoy! MmmMMmm! I like to cut mine up so it is easier to eat.