A Tasty Treat for a Fall Day

I'm easily settling into this fall weather. I love, love, love it! I decided to make a tasty treat for my Hunny to celebrate the cool weather this fall is bringing. First choice in our house is Carmelita Bars. If you've ever had them, you'll want them again. So unhealthy, so fattening, so DELICIOUS!

I got the recipe from my mother, who in turn got it from my wonderful Aunt Pam. Where she got it, I have no idea. I've since similar recipes on the back of oatmeal boxes but I'm not sure where it originally came from.

I love a handwritten recipe! 

Gather your ingredients.

 

 Now, the most annoying part. Open 64 individually wrapped caramels. Why 64? I don't know, but the wrapped caramels are so much better than the ones that aren't! 

 Add the caramels and evaporated milk to a saucepan on low. Stir occasionally but the caramels and milk will combine slowly on the stove without burning.

 Ahh, butter! 3 sticks to be exact, melted. I told you it's fattening!

 Add flour, oatmeal, brown sugar(my second love, after Hunny), melted butter, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

 Stir it up!

 Press half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 pan and bake for 10 minutes. The oatmeal base will come out of the oven a little puffy.

 Sprinkle a 12 oz bag of chocolate chips evenly of the hot oatmeal base. Followed by pecans (optional. I've made the bars without nuts many times.)

 By this time, the caramel mixture should be melted. Pour the caramel over the chocolate chips and pecans.

 Take the other half of the oatmeal mixture and crumble it over the top of the bars. Pop the bars back in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

The top should be golden when pulled out on the oven. Allow the bars to completely cool before serving. I know, it's hard.

Yum! So, so good! You'll thank me!

Ingredients:

Caramel Filling:

-64 caramels

-10 T evaporated milk

 

Oatmeal Bar:

-2 c Flour

-2 c Oatmeal

-1 1/2 c Brown Sugar

- 3 sticks Butter

-2 tsp Baking Soda

-1 tsp Salt

 

-12 oz bag chocolate chips

-1 c Pecans, chopped

I hope you guys enjoy them as much as we do! Every time I make them and take them somewhere people always asks me to bring them again! I'm going to go enjoy this wonderful fall day with a Carmelita Bar in hand! :)

 

Welcome Fall!

Ahhhh! It's that time of year, FALL! My favorite season of all. Those cool nights that linger into the late morning followed by those warm afternoons that bring that distinct fall smell. You know the one...it's a mix of the autumn leaves being raked, football games, a pot roast cooking and a campfire going. And now I've got to go make a cup of tea because I put myself in the mood with all this talk about cool fall weather. Excuse me....

Firing up my trusty tea kettle.

Ahh! A little green tea with honey in my favorite mug...Now I can continue.

This fall is a little more special for my Hunny and I than any other...in 37 days we will be tying the knot! I'm so ready for it! I cannot wait to be Mrs. Hunny and let all the wedding drama be behind us! Too many mishaps, too many last minute cancellations and people going back on their word that I'm ready to just let the cards play out and enjoy my day! Enough about the wedding for now! I'll post more about that in the weeks to come! 

I decided to add a little fall to the porch. It's not much but it's what this wedding poor couple can afford until after the wedding. 

I hope it doesn't look too ghetto! I want to do so much more but the wedding definitely comes first this year! I just love the look of cornstalks and mums on a porch! I'd really like to have a porch like the picture below that I saw on Jillian Harris' website. Hopefully, after the wedding or next year for sure!

Jeez...kinda embarrassing to put my pitiful porch picture next to this! 

 

Over the weekend we had a few visitors of the in-law kind...with the visit we inherited a few belongings. We got a twin bed to put on our sleeping porch, Hunny's Grandmother's piano as well as some children's furniture...is that a hint? 

 

I finally put the bed together today and covered it with Hunny's Great Grandmother's quilt she made 50 plus years ago.

Here's a view that includes my little Prosperity Chest as a nightstand and my owl lamp for a nightlight.

The piano has found a home in the foyer/front room. I plan on hanging wedding pictures above the piano. So excited to do that! 

Well, I need to start focusing on making dinner. I plan on a homemade baked mac and cheese with broccoli. If I remember to take pictures, I'll make it my next post. ;)

 

Pantry Project

All right, like I promised, I'm posting about my pantry project I did a few weeks back. First off, I wanna say that I LOVE ORGANIZING! I love having everything in it's place and everything uniformed. Doing this, however, is quite expensive when you buy everything made up. So, I did a DYI project for food storage in my pantry that cost me less than $5 for each jar.

Here's the final product. I absolutely love the chalkboard look on jars. It's so fun to label everything!

I bought these jars from Wal-Mart. I bought the gallon size ones but they come in other smaller sizes as well. The first thing I did was wash and dry them out so they would be ready to use after I finished them.

I bought chalkboard paint from Home Depot. It comes in a small can, but you don't need a lot for this project. You can also have the paint department tint the paint in about a dozen colors if you wish. I saw a blog post about making your own chalkboard paint here on the Salt Tree blog. I haven't tried it, but I'd love to hear from anyone who does and how they liked it!

 I wanted each jar to look the same so I taped off the jars with some leftover painter's tape from when we painted the house. Make sure to have a good seal with the tape to the jar.

I painted each jar with two coats per the directions on the can and then waited for them to dry for three days! It seemed soooo long! 

Once the paint dried and I took the tape off I had some bleed through from the paint. I was able to scrap it away with my finger without too much trouble.

Rub a piece of chalk over the chalkboard before writing on it and you're done. Finished! All I had to do was decide on what to put in my jars and admire them from their shelf.

 I hope you guys like my little project and maybe it inspired you to create one of your own! Thanks for reading and I plan on posting about baking soon!

It has been WAY too long!

Okay...I'm guilty. I have let almost a year go by without posting. I could go on and on with excuses but I won't.

So, I am going to start over.

This past year has been hectic to say the least. Besides the fact that my Hunny and I are tying the knot in 46 days, we decided to add the stress of buying a house to the mix.

We signed the next 30 years of our lives away on June 28th. And I have never been more excited...well, until the day I become Mrs. Hunny next month! Of course, the day we moved in was the hottest day of the year, but sleeping that night in our very own house, knowing it is OUR house was the best feeling!

Our new home was built in 1915 and it really needs some work. The previous owners had done a ton of renovations but being an old house there are still plenty of projects! I'm sure I will have tons of posts about them over the next few years! Our first adventure in being homeowners involved replacing a toilet. It took all day! A simple job of taking out an old toilet and putting in a new one turned into so much more. Whoever installed the last toilet decided not to replace the rusted out flange and just screwed the toilet into the floor. That act of laziness set us back a few good hours running back and forth to Home Depot and prying years of rust away from the "poop pipe" as I called it. We've also painted a few rooms and I've been decorating!

Can you tell I like antiques?


I'm going to wrap things up for now. I have a wonderful pantry project that I will post in the next few days! And I promise I will not disappear for a year again, if there is anyone who reads this!