Chocolate Octopi Recipe

In the J’Adore VoxBox from Influenster, I received a big bag of milk chocolate Hershey’s Kisses in colorful, Valentine’s-themed foil. I wanted to do something fun with them, but I couldn’t quite figure out what. Then, while I was eating blackberries, it hit me. Why not make chocolate octopi with blackberry centers?

This is a super easy and versatile recipe. I’m actually not sure if I should even be calling this a recipe…. Maybe I should have said that it’s a guide? I don’t know. Let’s just get down to the details on how to make these, shall we?

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You Will Need

• about 30 kisses, give or take a couple (Or, y’know, whatever chocolate you want, in a decent amount. It really doesn’t matter what chocolate you use.)
• Fred and Friends Coolamari Ice Mold (You can get one off Amazon, if you can’t find one in stores. )
• filling (I used 4 of the smallest blackberries in the pack that I bought. You can use blueberries, fresh mint, some kind of gooey stuff like jelly… Nothing is set in stone here. Let your creativity flow!)
• bowl
• spoon
• chopstick, or something else small to help "paint" the inside of the molds
• another bowl of hot water (Or you can just carefully melt the first bowl in the microwave, and skip the hot water bowl, or use a double-boiler.)

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How to Make Choc-topi!

1. Gather about 30 Hershey’s Kisses and get those all unwrapped and stick those in microwave-safe bowl. If you’re using some other chocolate, just eyeball the amount and chop/break it into little pieces into the bowl. Depending on what filling you’re going to use, you may need more or less chocolate.
2. Stick the bowl of chocolate in the microwave and stir about every 30 seconds until it melts. Or, you can place another bowl of hot water underneath it to let it melt. There’s also the double-boiler method.
3. Once the chocolate is melted, pour a little in each section of the mold and use your chopstick or whatever to paint it up the sides and coat the sections.
• If you’re going to use something like jelly or peanut butter in the center, work on gradually building up the outer layer of chocolate of the octopi to make sure they don’t break when you pop them out of the mold.
• If you’re just putting in something solid, like a berry, pour a little more chocolate in each section and stick the berry right in the middle of each.
• Fill the rest of the way, then tap to remove air bubbles.
4. Fridge time! I didn’t have any luck with these setting up on the counter. So, into the fridge for a chill they went! Leave them in for at least half an hour to make sure they’ve solidified properly.
5. This is the most stressful part. Popping these guys out without damaging the tentacles can be rather tricky. What you want to do is carefully peel the silicone away from the tentacles, gradually working your way around each octopus. Once the tentacles of all the octopi are loose, then you can push on the top of the mold to free the octopi. There’s a certain “s” tentacle that breaks on me almost every time. If that happens to you, just “glue” it back on with some warm chocolate.

 

Enjoy!

 

Disclosure: The Hershey’s Kisses mentioned in this post were provided to me complimentary by Influenster for testing purposes. The mold was purchased by my husband a while back. No compensation has been accepted for this post, and no affiliate links have been used. However, there are affiliate links in my sidebars.

Review: Skinny Cow Divine Filled Chocolates Peanut Butter Crème

When I found out that I was getting some Skinny Cow candies in my Jolly VoxBox from Influenster, I wasn’t really sure what I was going to get. The cheat sheet that gave me a preview of what was on the way literally just said “Skinny Cow Candy”. Much to my husband’s delight, my package contained a complimentary box of Divine Filled Chocolates Peanut Butter Crème for testing purposes.

I can’t say he volunteered to be a guinea pig, so much as he just claimed the whole box as his own, the moment I opened my mouth as to what it was. He loves peanut butter, especially in combination with chocolate. So, I kind of figured these would get a pretty good rating from him.

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The Basic Rundown

The box that I received contained 6 pouches, each with three candies inside. If you want something that you can easily slide in your desk/purse/bag/etc for snack time, the pouch is pretty flat and about the size of a Hershey’s bar, as of 1/24/2014 (Including the date because they seem to keep getting smaller, along with other candy bars.)

Below are the nutrition facts that are listed. You can also find these for various Skinny Cow products on the Skinny Cow site.

I’ve seen nothing about being gluten-free, and Nestle, to my knowledge, does not use GMO-free ingredients. So, that’s something to keep in mind. Also, artificial flavoring and coloring have been used in this, and TBHQ has various studies (according to Wikipedia) that link it to being a possible carcinogen and possibly associated with stomach tumors. This isn’t something that bothers my husband, but I don’t think I’ll be eating anymore of these.

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Taste Test

Although my husband claimed most of these, I did get a couple to sample for testing. We both agree that the chocolate is smooth, not waxy at all, and that the peanut butter is very creamy, almost kind of gooey. It’s not really the consistency that I would expect from peanut butter.

Compared to the popular Reese Peanut Butter Cups, there’s a definite difference. If you love Reese, you may not be too fond of these. The peanut butter is sweeter, and the consistency is much different. However, I will say that it’s better than Reese knockoffs, since a lot of companies like to make peanut butter cups, usually with waxy chocolate...

Personally, I thought they were okay, but they weren’t quite my thing. My husband finished the rest of the box in only a couple nights, though. When asked if he’d want me to buy him another box, he told me to go ahead.

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Opinion

My husband and I have two very different opinions on these. On the one hand, he loves them and doesn’t really care too much about the ingredients. On the other hand, I’m becoming more ingredient-conscious each day, and I just don’t feel comfortable eating these, along with the fact that the taste just isn’t my thing. I’m not too big on peanut butter and, if I’m going to eat junk food, I’d rather go for Reese.

If you want to try a box, I’ve seen them at Target. They had a lot of the candies in the back on clearance. I think they started out around $3-something and were marked down to something like $2.76 or something. Not bad. I mean, you’re going to pay more than that just for 6 single candy bars.

P.S. If there’s any other reviewers out there that want to join Influenster, hit my contact page up and I’ll send you an invite! ♥

 

 

FTC Statement: I received this product for free for testing purposes from Influenster on behalf of Skinny Cow. No affiliate links have been used in this particular post, although they are present in my sidebars. This has not affected the opinions within the review, and complies with FTC standards.

Soul Cakes Recipe

A soul! A soul! A soul-cake!
Please good Missis, a soul-cake!
An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry,
Any good thing to make us all merry.
One for Peter, two for Paul
Three for Him who made us all.

Soul cakes are traditional treats that are basically round, spiced cookie biscuits. Recipes can vary and may also include dried fruits. Most often, you’ll see them marked with a cross to represent a soul being freed from Purgatory. They were made for All Saints Day or All Soul’s Day to celebrate and remember the dead, and the tradition still survives to this day.

Adults and children of the olden days would go "souling" for one of these treats. To earn a soul cake, one would go door-to-door singing songs, saying prayers for home owners, and performing other tasks to receive one. It became a tradition that greatly influenced trick-or-treating in the U.S., as immigrants brought their customs with them and continued to celebrate.

Recipes can vary widely, but this is my favorite. Depending on whose recipe you use, they may come out more like cakes. These are more like cookie biscuits, and are somewhat comparable to gingerbread.

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup soft butter
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 2 tsp of white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 2 tsp of white wine vinegar

You may be able to find mixed spice at the grocery store or a specialty store. If not, you’ll need to make some yourself. For that, you’re going to need one of those little blender things for spices. Since I don’t have one of those, I just emptied a pepper grinder and ground the spices, measured them, placed them in an airtight jar, and gave it a good shake. Some things you can find already powdered, like the ginger. 

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Mixed Spice

• 1 Tbs ground allspice
• 1 Tbs ground cinnamon
• 1 Tbs ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground Ginger

I prefer this mix, but have also seen other recipes that include mace and coriander. I’ve never seen mace in the spice aisle, and I have allergies to coriander. If you’d want to add them in, I’d say maybe 2 tsp of ground mace and 1 tsp of ground coriander. Remember, measure after you grind!

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Getting Ready

• Don’t preheat your oven (400°F) yet, or you’ll just be wasting energy. The dough will need to be refrigerated for half an hour.
• Make sure you’ve got all your spices and ingredients to prevent any mad dash to the store in the middle of things. If you’re grinding your own spices for the mixed spice, that may take a while. So, give yourself plenty of time to get all this done.
• Line two baking trays/sheets with aluminum foil (to me, this is easier), or grease two baking trays/sheets.
• Search the house for a round cookie cutter, like one of those nice pastry ones. Don’t have one? Find a mason jar and pop the lid off. This works better if it’s one of those lids where the center comes out.
• 
  

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Getting It Together

• Mix all the dry ingredients together until they are well-mixed and everything looks decently uniform.
• Mix the butter into the dry mix until the mixture looks like little bread crumbs. It’s best to do this with a fork and just keep jabbing/smashing it.
• Once it’s all crummy looking, add the egg and vinegar and mix until you’ve made a firm dough.
• Cover the dough and stash it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
• You’ll want to decide when to start preheating your oven, depending on how long yours takes to preheat. I just turned mine on while I was cutting out the soul cakes. Preheat to 400°F.

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Creating The Soul Cakes

• Flour your work surface and rolling pin.
• Dump out the dough onto your work surface, and roll out to about 1/4” thickness.
• Get your round pastry cutter/cookie cutter/jar lid and make use of your space as best you can. Work quickly, as warm dough is trickier to deal with.
• Ball up whatever spare dough you have left after the first cutting and roll and cut. If you still have a little left, just form that by hand into a ball and smash it to match the rest of the soul cakes.
• If you wish to place the cross on them, you can do so lightly with a butter knife. Raisins or other dried fruit may also be arranged on the top. I haven’t tried that, though. I would assume that you would probably need to soak them first, then make sure to press them into the dough.
• Bake the soul cakes until they become golden brown. Depending on how large you cut them, that will affect your baking time. I prefer to just keep checking on mine every 5 minutes or so. Each batch usually takes about 15 minutes or so, for me.

Review: Fuwarinka Rose Essence Soft Candy

Rose-flavored candies, teas, and other goodies have become quite popular lately. In addition to the natural Vitamin C, it’s also said that these sort of things can even affect your body odor. Of course, these candies aren’t for that; they’re for your skin. Each little candy has a dose of collagen and Vitamin C to help keep your skin looking young and vibrant, while helping to combat wrinkles.

Sounds like a bit of a tall order from a cute little candy, huh? Well, I decided I needed to try them out for myself. I’ve already had rose gum, and loved it. So, I figured, even if these candies didn’t do what they promised, they’d still be worth the taste.

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Packaging

This little bag of rose candies came safely tucked away in recycled Japanese newspapers in a box with some other things that I had received. It’s about the size of a typical letter envelope, and can be resealed.

The front has some basic information stating that it’s a rose candy intended for beauty purposes. There’s a bit of English, but not much. Below the main label, it says, “Makes you comfortable with scent of rose,” which is about the whole eating-rose-stuff-so-you-smell-good thing. I guess they figured they might as well throw that on the package, in addition to the beauty benefits.

The back of the packaging is almost entirely in Japanese, and gives the nutrition facts and ingredients. You’ll also find the link to Kracie’s website in the bottom right corner.

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Ingredients

Although I’ve had a few years of Japanese languages classes, I honestly don’t feel comfortable trying to translate the ingredients on this. I can say, however, that it has collagen in it, along with Vitamin C to help with collagen absorption.

If you have any food allergies, I would consult Jbox about the ingredients, before purchase.

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Amount / Size

I think there was about 25 of the candies in the bag. Unfortunately, I had eaten a decent amount of them before realizing that I should have counted them. You get plenty for the bag just being $2.20, though.

Each candy is about the size of a mini marshmallow. You know, the ones you put in hot chocolate? Not the dehydrated ones, the ones that come in a big bag. They’re pastel pink and round, yet not completely smooth.

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Smell

Upon opening the bag, I was greeted with the scent of the most fragrant roses in blossom. I haven’t noticed them affect my body odor, but I’d assume you’d have to eat a decent amount of them in one sitting for that.

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Taste

These don’t quite taste as much like rose as the rose gum does, but it’s still very rosy. What I pick up on is a hint of rosehips. If you’ve never had rosehips before, the taste is a bit hard to explain. It’s somewhere between a fragrant rose and a sweet tomato. Although the taste was a bit different, I did enjoy these.

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Texture / Consistency

Although the bag says that these are soft, they’re not what I would consider to be soft. The inside is more like the consistency of gum or taffy, and is surrounded by a thin, crunchy candy shell.

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Opinion

Although these aren’t quite what I expected, I still liked them. If you’re thinking of getting these, just keep in mind that they have a chewy center and a crunchy candy coating, and they have a slight taste of rosehips along with the pure rose flavor.

Did they do any good for my skin? I can’t really say. It would probably be better to have a 3-month supply of them to do proper testing for that. If you want some for yourself, you can click the button below. They also have gum, soap, bath salts, and even mosquito coils that are rose.

 

 

 

 

FTC Statement: The Fuwarinka Rose Essence Soft Candy was provided to And The Dreaming Moon… by Jbox in exchange for an honest review. Affiliate links have been used. This has not affected the opinions within the review, and complies with FTC standards.

My Pocky Day Sale Purchase from Jbox

In case you didn’t know, Jbox is having a Pocky Day sale in honor of Pocky Day, which is today… Sorry that I forgot to tell everyone… It’s not really a say, per se; you’re just getting double points on snacks, which is still awesome. Once you gather enough points, you can use them to get money off future orders.
Anyway, below is what I ordered. Yeah, the shipping kind of kills, but that’s what happens when you order something from Japan from the US.

I’ll let you know when it gets here! I can’t wait for the Ramune UHA Puccho! And Pocari Sweat is even better than Gatorade, when I’m sick. It’ll be nice to have some of that on hand again.

Shari's Berries $50 Gift Code Giveaway

The holidays will soon be upon us, and that means that people will be looking for something sweet to nibble! Of course, that always brings on the fretting about gaining a few pounds. What about something healthy to satisfy your sweet tooth, though? Chocolate covered strawberries are a classic treat that allows you to indulge yourself without the guilt. Afterall, you’re getting your daily serving of fruit plus the added health benefits that chocolate offers, right?

Kara's Deals and Steals:

“I could write this review in one word. That word is AMAZING. However, I will give you the juicy, chocolate, delicious details of the wonderful products I tried from Shari's Berries. First I will tell you a little bit about the company. Shari's Berries offers many delectable gifts for special occasions, including chocolate covered strawberries, cookies, cakes and more! These are perfect gifts for a wedding anniversary, Mother's Day, Christmas party or birthday event. They even have local gift basket delivery for select cities which is perfect if you are trying to surprise a loved one.”

Read the full review by Kara's Deals and Steals here. Shari's Berries has so much more to offer than just berries and cheesecake, so be sure to keep them in mind if you are trying to think of a unique Christmas gift. In fact, they have a whole Christmas gift section that you can check out here.They would also make an excellent birthday gift for someone who is about to turn 26 in a few days!

Be sure to check out the Shari's Berries Facebook page, too. For becoming a fan, you’ll receive 20% off your order! See more about the company and other great products on Kara's 2012 Holiday Gift Guide!

{Giveaway} Shari's Berries has graciously provided a $50 gift code for one lucky winner! This giveaway will run from 10/11-10/25 and is open to U.S. residents. Please enter the giveaway on the Rafflecopter below.

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Disclosure: Kara's Deals and Steals was provided a free product by Shari's Berries in exchange for a review. I was not monetarily compensated for this review or giveaway. This blog complies with FTC guidelines. And The Dreaming Moon… is not responsible for prize shipment or delivery.

In Pretzel Heaven - Auntie Anne’s Home Baking Kit

 

Through an opportunity at BlogFriendlyPR, I was able to review the Auntie Anne’s Home Baking Kit. You have no idea how much I’ve been craving Auntie Anne’s pretzels!  Sadly, our local mall started losing stores like crazy and, eventually, Auntie Anne left, too.  I think it’s probably been over a year now. I’m not sure. I couldn’t wait to try out this kit, though! 

Now, I’ve tried making pretzels on my own with a recipe I found on the Internet. Those tasted… well… strange, to put it nicely.  The Auntie Anne’s Home Baking Kit comes with everything you need. You’ve even got the choice between salted pretzels or cinnamon/sugar pretzels. I ended up doing 6 salted pretzels and 4 cinnamon/sugar pretzels. It’s just the way they got divided on the baking sheets.

Full instructions are included. If you need to download them for some reason, though, you can do so here. I’m not going to go into complete detail for the instructions, but I’ll walk you through the process.

First, you’ll need to get the yeast going. For fans of Alton Brown, that means it’s time to wake up the burping sock puppets. All they need is some little warm water and some time to perk up. You’ll start to see a froth on the top when they’re ready. If you don’t, your yeast is dead and your water was probably too hot or too cold.

Next, you’ll need to mix that in with big bag of dough mix. You can use a rubber spatula, but I prefer getting my hands dirty. You might as well. You’re going to get them dirty eventually anyway. Besides, hand-mixing seems to do a more thorough job.

Turn that out onto a floured surface, knead, form it into a ball and let it rest for 30 minutes in a warm spot. Make sure to cover it with plastic wrap. The instructions said to use non-stick spray, but we don’t use that stuff. Turned out fine anyway.

Your blob of dough should have risen and gotten larger in size. This is due to the yeast snacking on the sugars in the dough and producing gas (hence Alton Brown’s burping sock puppets). Divide this out into 10 even portions.

Roll each piece out into a long rope (like the worms you would make out of Play-Doh in Kindergarten. Make sure you make it even. It’s best to start out with a fat log and roll from the middle of the log out with long strokes. This will help keep the diameter of the finished rope even.

Fold

Don’t worry, there are better folding diagrams in the instructions.

Once you have all of them folded, you’ll need to dunk them in a baking soda/water solution and then let them drain. You can coat the baking sheet with non-stick spray, but I really don’t like the stuff. I just used parchment. After you get them on the baking sheet, you’ll need to decide if you wanted them salted or cinnamon/sugar.

Here are my pretzels after they came out of the oven:

                        Salted                                      Cinnamon/Sugar

The whole process was really easy and turned out much better than the pretzels I made on my own. As soon as I got them out of the oven, they were quickly inhaled by my husband , and I got a few. I saved one of the cinnamon/sugar ones for breakfast the next day. That was a nice treat. 

If you want to make something other than pretzels, the kit also mentions how to make pretzel dogs or pizza with the mix. Or, you can check out Auntie Anne’s recipe page.

Rating:

5/5 Although nothing beats a fresh Auntie Anne’s pretzel from the mall, the ones I made with the baking kit turned out nicely. They don’t taste exactly like the ones I’d get from the mall, but they’re still really good. I’m very happy with the Auntie Anne’s Home Baking Kit and will probably be getting more of them when I get the chance. The only thing hubby had to add is that he wishes the sour cream and onion powder would have been included, too. Otherwise, the instructions are easy to follow and the results are yummy! 

 

FTC Statement: I received the Auntie Anne’s Home Baking Kit for free through BlogFriendlyPR. No compensation has been received for this review. This has not affected the opinions within the review and complies with FTC standards.