So I recently posted a picture of some cute Halloween treats I made for a photo shoot on my website blog (click here to see it). The image also got accepted on Foodgawker and Tastespotting (two awesome sites for finding recipes and pretty food pictures). I submit photos to them on a regular basis. Sometimes they get accepted, sometimes not. Normally when they get accepted the number of hits (per day) on my website jumps from 15ish to about 300. Well… the two days after the images were accepted I had 800 and 1400 hits. Crazy!

Ironically, I didn’t like the image as much as I thought I would but the cute owl cupcakes were what made it so popular. Those definitely are cute. Well… The second day I got an email from the site where I found the idea for the cupcakes. She said she had had a lot of traffic on her site from mine. She thanked me for posting the cupcakes on my site and asked if I would be interesting in assisting/helping them with their next photo shoot. As you can imagine I was thrilled! She thinks the next shoot will be sometime in December (after their photographer has her baby). So I’m looking forward to that! Yay!

A friend of mine gave me this recipe a couple years ago. I think it beats outs store bought caramel. Even better, it is extremely easy to make. Here is how it goes:

8 oz. Cream Cheese Softened

1/2 c Brown Sugar

1/2 c White Sugar

Mix it all up and top with crushed Heath or Score bars (I forgot to add them to mine, but it is way better with the toffee bits).

I found the idea to put the dip in a hollowed out apple from someone on Foodgawker. I thought I saved a link to the site but I didn’t. If you know who it was let me know! For now, enjoy!

Two week ago my Grandma’s husband Bill was baptized. It was an amazing experience. All of the 8 missionaries that helped teach him were there, along with about every other missionary in the area. All of the grandchildren sang two songs and the missionaries sang the closing song. There was standing room only in the room with the font. He has a lot of people to support him. Here are a few pictures:

This is a cake that Karron and Kimberly made to celebrate Margo’s birthday while we were there.

We stopped at the falls because I haven’t seen them (that I remember). The ducks were lined up all long the edge of the fall for about a mile. I wish I could have captured a longer line of them.

I wanted to do a more complex shoot, meaning not just a close up of food but the whole table type thing. So I made a bunch of Halloween treats over the last two days and gave it a shot. So here you will see owl cupcakes (idea from One Charming Party), sugar cookies, candy corn, and apple dip. It wasn’t as much of a success as I was hoping for, but I do like it. I think I’ll be trying more in the future.

This image was shot for a large project I’m working on. This won’t be the final shot, but I thought I would share something from the shoot with you. You may be wondering what Styx and this delicious chocolate cake have to do with one another… that is something I won’t be able to share for a while… :) Some people may already know, but I’ve decided that if I keep sharing tons about the project no one will want to come see it when it’s done! So, I’ll give you a  sneak peek at the various shoots, but for now… limited information.

By the way, I got the recipe for this lava cake from Culinary Musings earlier this year. It is wonderful! I had to bake all four cakes to get the perfect one for the image. I had to overcook it slightly, but it was worth it in the end. It still tasted delicious too.

Things are pretty normal right now. Nothing really new or exciting. Since Kevin and I are both working and going to school we have been pretty busy and seem to only see each other a few hours a day. Kevin spends lots of time studying and I spend time thinking of concepts for images. We spent a lovely weekend at Anna and Dave’s house watching conference. They were kind enough to let us have loads of vegetables from their garden. That’s pretty much it really.I’ve put some new work up on my photography website… If something happens I’ll let you know! But for now you may just have to wait another month…

I eat way more of these than I should. I love hugs and I love salt (especially pretzel salt) and the combination of the two are wonderful! It’s probably a good thing I don’t have any of these items at my house on a regular basis or I would have some major health problems I’m sure. Not that I don’t eat a lot of sugar anyway… Well, you should definitely give these a try! They are delicious and make a great party treat.

Pretzel Hugs

1 bag pretzels
1 bag M&Ms
1 bag Hershey Hugs

Spread pretzels on baking sheet. Place a Hug on each pretzel and bake on
250 degrees for about 4 minutes. (Watch closely and take out of the oven just
when hugs have started to melt, but are still holding their shape.) Remove
from oven and promptly place a M&M on each hug. Chill completely before
serving.

Every Utah food blogger probably has to have some form of Jell-o on their blog at some point right? Well, I can’t say I’m generally a huge fan of Jell-o but… my mom’s layered Jell-o Salad (it’s still funny to me to call it a salad) is really good. So try it out! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

By the way, thank you to my mom for making all of the lovely foods you’ve seen in the last few posts (and a couple more to come). She had all of the food ready to be styled and photographed and she did all of the clean up. I would have to say it was one of the best shoots I’ve done because all I had to do was photograph! Don’t get me wrong… I love cooking and baking, but the combination of those with setting up a beautiful shot takes a lot of work. It’s nice when someone else is there to help (or do half the work). My little brother thought it was a great idea too as he got to eat the food when we were finished.

And now for the recipe!

Layered Jello Salad

4 small boxes of Jello-each a different color.
Mix each with 1 c. boiling water when adding a layer

White Layers:
2 envelopes knox unflavored gelatin dissolved in1 c. boiling water.
Then add…
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup cold water

Dissolve 1 small box of Jello in 1 cup boiling water and pour in a clear glass bowl or
9×13 pan. Mix white layer while this first layer sets up. After it is completely set pour
on 1/3 of the white mixture (about 1 cup). Continue adding layers letting each set
completely until all 4 colors alternated with three white layers have been added. Let
the jello mixed in the boiling water cool slightly before pouring it on the set layers. If
the white mixture starts to set up before you pour it on, put it in the microwave for a
minute and stir until smooth.

Choose colors of jello that match a holiday or season like red and green for
Christmas or red, white and blue for summer or the 4th of July.

This chicken is easy to make, but looks and tastes delicious. Let it soak and cook in a crock pot all day so it is nice and juicy then put it in the oven with some cheese and tomatoes and viola! A beautiful dinner!

Balsamic Feta Chicken

12-15 chicken tenders of 4 chicken breasts
1 cup balsamic vinaigrette dressing (I like to use Newman’s)
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
Grated parmesan cheese
Crumbled Feta cheese
*optional-diced tomatoes (canned or fresh)

Place chicken in a crock pot. Cover with balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Cook on low 6-8 hours turning chicken occasionally. Carefully remove chicken (so it doesn’t fall apart) and place on a greased cookie sheet or baking dish. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and feta cheese. Add tomatoes if desired. Broil for 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted and slightly toasted.

(You could also marinate the chicken and then grill it before putting it in the oven rather than cooking it in the crock pot)