Happy Halloween! (Caramel Pecan Brownies and more Rice Krispies Treats!

Happy Halloween from a couple of nerds!   (No, I don't have a witches hat on, that's a decoration on the door.)  You can't see my lovely white socks with clod-hoppy black shoes, also my nerdy make up job of blue eye shadow and really red, poorly caked on red blush and lipstick .  Classic!

There's a "kick me" sign on his back.  Kevin was a perfect nerd.  I just went along with it. ;)

We had Darth Vadar and Obi Wan Kenobi at our house.  And a basketball player.

Then we had a very uncooperative Candy Corn.

This is really how Sam trick-or-treated.  Just wearing regular clothes.  I supposed at least the shirt was orange!

Happy Candy kid!

And the loot.  Their pumpkin buckets were stuffed to the top after trunk-or-treating at our church and then hitting up the neightborhood door to door.  (Sam stayed at home for the door to door stuff with the big nerd!)

Big Bro and Little Bro.  This is a cute picture.

Pictures from the school Halloween Party parade on Friday.  I also hung out in Taylor's classroom for his party and took lots of pictures.

Taylor's teacher, Mrs. Heider, was a KU Jayhawk!

Classroom treats--some gluten free cupcakes (a girl in the class has celiacs) and some really cute mummy cookies.  Oh yeah, I made those.  Cute, easy.  Sugar Cookies cut with gingerbread boy cutter.  White frosting, then piped on white chocolate and red hot eyes.  I saw the idea for these here at Family Corner.  This great website is run by none other than the amazingly talented Amanda of Amanda's Cookin'--a fellow foodie blogger and person I consider a friend I haven't met yet!

Some friends of ours had us over Friday night for a little Halloween shindig.  I brought some treats.

Literally, Halloween Oreo Rice Krispies Treats.  Same recipe as these Halloween Oreo Caramel Rice Krispies Treats, but with no caramel and chocolate on top. 

I also made some most delicious Caramel Pecan Brownies.  (I know, I can't seem to get off the turtle/caramel-pecan kick!

THESE. ARE. BETTER. THAN. GOOD!

I used my favorite brownie recipe---it's the Dorie Greenspan Tribute to Katharine Hepburn Brownies.

Caramel Pecan Brownies, by Katrina adapted from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking From My Home to Yours

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 3/4 cup pecans,  whole and toasted

24 Kraft caramels (hello--unwrapped!)

4 tablespoons cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line an 8x8 inch square baking pan with foil so that edges of foil hand over the sides slightly.  Spray lightly with cooking spray.

Melt butter and cocoa in saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk together, remove from heat when melted and combined.  Let sit 3-5 minutes.  Whisk in eggs, then sugar and vanilla just until combined.  Add flour and salt.  Stir just until combined.  Spread half the batter evenly over bottom of pan. 

Put caramels and cream in a glass microwave safe bowl.  Melt in 30 second intervals, stirring between each.  When melted and stirred together until smooth, pour caramel over bottom brownie layer.  Line the caramel layer with the pecans (line them up like little soldiers in rows).  Add the remaining batter to a plastic sandwich bag.  Snip a little off one corner and pipe the remaining batter evenly over the top (this was so much easier than trying to evenly spread the batter over the sticky caramel!).  Bake for 25-35 minutes (test for brownie crumbs on toothpick.  I think mine baked for 30 minutes, but I always start checking before that!)  Cool completely on wire rack, then for most awesome fudginess, refrigerate for a couple hours before cutting into desired size pieces.

These were a huge hit at the Halloween party we brought them to.  Hope ya'll had a wonderful Halloween, too!