It’s my favorite time of year here in Phoenix – FARMER’S MARKET SEASON! I mean, we have farmers markets during the rest of the year but it’s so unbearably hot out that they are only open from like 7:00 am to 11:00 am and even then you’re roasting in the heat for any amount of time you spend there… This weekend, though, we actually spent some time in the 70s (degrees, that is) and were able to sneak out to my favorite local farmer’s market.

Mr. Eats won second place in Movita’s pumpkin carving contest! He has gone up a few points in my book. Almost every judge, though loving his pumpkin, mentioned that they didn’t know “what an Oogie Boogie” was, so let take a moment to educate everyone…

Oogie Boogie is a ‘villain’ in The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the movie, Jack Skellington (whom Mr. Eats carved into his pumpkin last year, coincidentally enough) from Halloween Town captures Santa Claus in a misguided attempt to take over Christmas. I’m pretty sure it’s probably streaming on Netflix or Amazon Prime so give it a watch in your downtime.

You can catch out Oogie’s sweet dance moves in the video below.

Starbucks is releasing a new drink this holiday season – set to make its nationwide debut November 12th.

Chef Daniel Patterson shows us how to cook in our sleep.

Texas BBQ has finally made it to Paris, France.

This lady decided to take the frugal route to the paleo diet… by eating dog food. (That’s commitment.)

And Jimmy Kimmel’s annual birth control video… I mean, Halloween candy trick video…

If you’re still drowning in Halloween candy – here is the cure to your woes.

Otherwise, apparently you can sell your Halloween candy to your dentist.

I need this cracker plate. I think it would be an excellent blog prop, don’t you agree?

Carl’s Jr. has taken their sexy cheeseburger ads to a whole new level.

Shannon knocked it out of the park on her Feast feature this month. I want every single item in that spread. Thank god I don’t have the paper version or it would be covered in drool…

And @kawanabesatou is creating internet magic by tweeting pictures of hamsters in every day situations

… like serving sushi

… or tending bar

And… Since I didn’t get to it last week…

The best things I ate in October

Enchiladas (and salsa, and cheese dip, and everything else) from this tiny Mexican restaurant located in a strip mall in the middle of nowhere in Braselton, Georgia… I was extremely surprised since I was at least 60% sure it was going to be horrible and 30% prepared for extreme gastrointestinal distress… neither of which proved to be true.

Dominique Ansel’s banana bread… recreated in my own kitchen.

The goma ramen from Posh Scottsdale‘s ramen night (every Tuesday, folks!)

Carne asada tacos from America’s Taco Shop, which has several locations around Phoenix (one of which, I recently discovered, was actually not far from my house!).

Halloween is tomorrow and since I’ve been 1,896 miles from home for the past week, sadly I haven’t had time to create a Halloween costume.

I have, however, managed to carve a pumpkin – Hubby and I started this tradition just last year, neither of us having carved pumpkins for many years.

In my time away over the last five days I’ve enjoyed a bit of actual autumn weather, got to see some fall colors, and walked 25.25 miles through the trails surrounding the beautiful Chateau Elan in Braselton, GA, while away at work conference. And yes, my legs are very, very sore.

I also learned the bad news from my beloved that, despite following the advice of a trusted website, our pumpkins have already turned to rotting mush in record time and will not be making it to Halloween… It turns out that peppermint soap thing actually does the opposite of preserving your pumpkin.

So today, as I am sitting on a plane hurdling towards home (and 90 degree weather) at 500mph (or around there), anxiously awaiting my return home, I am also mourning the loss of our beloved pumpkins, and have every intention to drown the sorrows of our loss in this bark.

Just like the last bark, I used the sturdier candy molding formula for the base layer of bark because I love the snap it gives the chocolate. I also went with an extra dark chocolate for the base to provide a good contrast to the sweeter milk chocolate flavor for the second layer.

After spreading the second layer of chocolate, I adorned it with some of my favorite candies and a sprinkle of crushed potato chips and set it in the fridge for a few minutes to set up. Start to finish (including chopping time) I was done in under 30 minutes which isn’t bad at all if you ask me.

Even though one day is plenty of time to make this bark in time to hand out for Halloween, it would be an excellent way to use up all of your leftover Halloween candy as well.

I included my favorite candies in the recipe below, but feel free to use whatever candy you find in the bottom of your (or your kid’s) trick-or-treat basket.

Print

halloween candy bark

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: one 18 by 12-inch half sheet pan of bark

Ingredients

• 2 cups dark chocolate (I used this candy molding formula from Chocoley)
• 2 cups milk chocolate (I used this dipping and coating formula , which is a bit thinner than the candy formula)
• 2 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter (go with a regular standard peanut butter that won't separate, I always use Jif)
• 1/2 cup mini peanut butter cups; chopped (I used a mix of Trader Joe's dark chocolate and milk chocolate peanut butter cups)
• 1/2 cup mini Oreos (I used mini Reese's Oreos), coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup mini Reese's Pieces
• 1/2 cup potato chips, roughly crushed
• 2 Tablespoons sprinkles

Instructions

1. Melt dark chocolate in double boiler or microwave. Pour melted chocolate onto parchment-lined baking sheet and set in the fridge to solidify, about 5 minutes.
2. Melt milk chocolate in a double boiler or microwave and stir in peanut butter until fully incorporated. Pour over hardened chocolate and spread to cover.
3. Working quickly, before the top layer of chocolate hardens, sprinkle with assorted toppings (I listed them in the order I sprinkled, but that's not necessary) and place into fridge to harden for about 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Remove bark from refrigerator and cut into pieces.

2.6

wee-eats.com/2014/10/30/halloween-candy-bark/

Halloween is right around the corner, making this the perfect time to make your own candy! Even if you’ve never made candy before, literally anyone can make a killer bark.

Though I’ve included a recipe for the bark that I made, no real recipe is needed. Just like with any other recipe, though, you will want to think about balance. If you follow a single flavor profile, your bark will end up tasting a bit flat. You might not know what it is missing, but you will definitely know that something is missing. A good place to start is with something sweet, something crunchy, something salty, and go on from there.

For this bark I wanted to stick with Halloweeny flavors, so I started off with candy corn for sweetness, pretzels for crunch, pumpkin Joe-Joe’s (From Trader Joe’s), and then sprinkles just to make it pretty. Since I was using white chocolate for the top layer, I stirred a tiny bit of orange gel food coloring into the white chocolate once it was melted, because everyone knows that Halloween things are better when they’re orange.

To make sure I got a good “snap” from my bark, I used Chocoley’s candy molding formula for the bottom layer of chocolate. I love using their candy molding formula for projects like this because it gives you a great sturdy base with the snap of a tempered chocolate without having to actually temper any chocolate. Then, for the top layer, I used their dipping and coating chocolate formula. That formula is a bit thinner than their candy formula and so it sets up a little bit softer, but either one would work perfectly.

If you plan to use another type of chocolate, TheKitchn has a nice thermometer-free tutorial, or David Lebowitz has a more in-depth “how to” for tempering chocolate on his site.

Since I used a couple of items (candy corn and pretzels) that aren’t prone to snapping along chocolate’s natural fault lines, I chose to cut this bark with a knife. That allowed me to get nice, clean cuts with my pretzel and candy corn pieces on each piece of bark.

Print

candy corn halloween bark

Yield: one 18 by 12-inch half sheet pan of bark

Ingredients

• 2 cups dark chocolate melting chips (I used this candy molding formula from Chocoley)
• 2 cups white chocolate melting chips, (I used this dipping and coating formula , which is a bit thinner than the candy formula)
• 1 cup candy corn
• 1/2 cup pretzels, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup sandwich cookies, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon sprinkles

Instructions

1. Melt dark chocolate in double boiler or microwave. Pour melted chocolate onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Set in fridge to solidify, about 5 minutes.
2. Melt white chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Pour over hardened chocolate.
3. Working quickly, sprinkle with assorted toppings and place into fridge to harden, about 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Cut or break into pieces (I cut mine since I had larger toppings that weren't likely to divide evenly if I just broke the chocolate into pieces)

2.6

wee-eats.com/2014/10/27/candy-corn-halloween-bark/