Category Archives: Halloween

Happy Halloween

Posted on by
4

Happy Halloween all!! It is quite spooky here today as it is very foggy out and quite chilly. There is a hoar frost on the trees making them look extra eerie. Tricker treaters will have to bundle up extra well tonight.

We sure had a blast at this years annual Noland Halloween Howler. Some great costumes this year and some extra creepy but tasty grub to nosh on. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Uncle Fester won for best adult male costume and Popeye for best female. The little old man from the movie Up won for funniest kids and a very creepy winged creature won for the scariest.

Our neighbor Eddie generously agreed to take photos with his great back drop and awesome camera. The pictures turned out superb. Ken and I were Mad Scientists and Amber our creation. We had a theme of that this year. The kids had a Mad Scientist party and the cake was all done up like that too!! Thanks again Lindy for doing an amazing job.

Well enjoy the pictures and yes those teeth of mine are the scariest of all!!

HAPPY HAUNTINGS!!!

Print Friendly

Mouth Watering Mondays

Posted on by
2

Phew!! What a week that was. I am not quite sure I have ever had one so busy. I couldn’t go day by day, it was more like hour by hour. Think too far ahead and you will go crazy. Anyway, I survived it fairly unscathed. Going to Toronto and being treated so fabulously by Earls Restaurant, Steam Whistle and Motto’s Clamato was how my week started and it then finished off with a very fun and I hope fantastic Halloween party.

October is such a busy month but now comes our slower time getting close to the holidays. We do much less entertaining but do lots of baking, cooking and crafts still. More close to home quiet time.

I am revamping the Mouth Watering Mondays and will only be doing this segment on Mondays and not another post, trying to free up some time for the cookbook and some other projects. I am now including pictures and links to some of my favorite picks from around the internet. Things that have made me stop and pause and drool. I hope you enjoy this!!!

This Monday is focused on Halloween. First off we have this wonderful cake pop. These are not easy things to make. I know I have made them many times and never have they turned out this cute. Love the mummy cake pops from We Choose Organic.com by Niner Bakes. They also have pumpkin cakes pops that are adorable with a full set of instructions.

Halloween Pumpkin & Mummy Cake Pops

Now aren’t these cute, lovely little spiders made from one of my favorite chocolates that screams Halloween for me, Reese’s peanut butter cups. Yummy!! These adorable delectables are by Half Baked Harvest, go and see how easy they are to make!!!

This cake caught my eye, it looks difficult but the instructions make it look easy. Kids would go crazy for it and it would be the hit of any Halloween party. Got to Makoodle for the full instructions on how to make this fabulous Monster Cake.

This crazy little pizza has spooky and yummy written all over it. How the kids would love this before trick or treating!! For the full mouth watering instructions go to Within The Kitchen….is where life happens.

What a fabulous creative idea this is. Stamped wonton wrappers, brilliant!! I love the creativity and they sound so good too! Madeira Mushroom Filled Halloween Won Ton Appetizers by Hungry Happenings has upped the ante on Halloween with this one.

I saw this picture and stayed on it for awhile. How mysterious and enchanting is this cocktail for Halloween. Then I discovered it’s name La Llorona the Weeping Woman and I was completely sold. How fabulous is that, love it. Go to Muy Bueno Cookbook for the full spooky story behind this cocktail and how to create your own. Muwahahaha!!

 

 

Print Friendly

Witch’s Fingers for Trick-Or-Treat Halloween Party at #SundaySupper

Posted on by
56

As you may know from my previous five posts on Halloween it is one of my favorite times of year. I have been celebrating Halloween one way or another for many many years. One of my all time favorite Halloween recipes is Witch’s Fingers. I don’t even know where I got this recipe but we have made them for umpteen years and it is a must have at Halloween. The shortbread cookie itself is so delicious. You get over the gruesomeness of it very quickly!!

Even though I am swamped busy right now I couldn’t say no to joining in on #SundaySupper’s Halloween Party. I hope you enjoy all the great recipes that everyone has kindly shared.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Print
Witch’s Fingers for Trick-Or-Treat Halloween Party at #SundaySupper
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 5 dozen
 

You can’t have just one, you may need a handful!
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter softened
  • 1 cup icing sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp. almond extract
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 2¾ cups flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • ¾ cup whole blanched almonds
  • 1 19gm. tube of red decorator gel

Instructions
  1. In a bowl of a standup mixer with a paddle attachment beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond and vanilla extract. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and add slowly.
  2. Roll into a ball and cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 30 min.
  3. Preheat oven to 325F. Cut the dough into four sections and working with only a quarter while the rest is refrigerated, roll heaping Tbsp. into a finger shape. Squeeze in the center to make a knuckle. Press almond firmly into one end of the cookie. With a sharp knife make lines on the knuckle and just under the almond.
  4. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 min. or until pale golden.
  5. Let the cookies cool for 3 min. Carefully lift up the almond and squeeze the red decorator gel onto the back of the nail bed and then replace the almond, letting the gel ooze out. Remove onto racks to cool completely.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Witches, ghosts, goblins, vampires, zombies, monsters…  Everyone is invited.  You don’t want to miss this hair-raising party.  It’s sure to be a real scream!

On the menu for our Trick-or-Treat #SundaySupper Halloween Party:

We would love to have you join this special Sunday Supper and bring your halloween party recipes.  So many amazing recipes and this group is just a blast to be around.  Our #SundaySupper chat will begin on Twitter at 7pm Eastern Time.   Grab your Bewitching Brew and Ghoulish Grew and join the fun!

Bewitching Brews:

Ghoulish Gruel:

Haunted Snacks:

Spooky Sweets:

Join us on Twitter throughout the day during #SundaySupper.  We’ll be meeting up at 7:00 pm(Eastern) for our weekly #SundaySupper  live chat.

All you have to do is follow the #SundaySupper hashtag or you can follow us through TweetChat.

We’d also love to feature your Sunday Supper Halloween Party Recipes on our #SundaySupper Pinterest board and share them with all of our followers, too.

This is a fun Sunday Supper you don’t want to miss! I promise you will have a blast.

Print Friendly

Sponge Toffee for Halloween

Posted on by
7

I have not made this since I was a child and I have to say it is one of my favorite candies. It reminds me of my childhood when I used to make divinity, fudge and candies like this. It is so crunchy and yummy and melts in your mouth!!

Making candy has an art to it. You can’t just walk away from it. You must be paying close attention. You also have to keep in mind that making anything with hot sugar that even after the heat is off the mixture continues to cook and can burn so very easily. Ask Ken, the candyman and he will tell you that for sure. You can do it the old fashioned way with a bowl of cold water and test for the different stages. I like this method better than a thermometer. Making candy takes patience and practice. The first time I over did the sponge toffee, not that it was inedible but it was probably 30 seconds to a minute over done and it didn’t rise nearly as well as it should have. So the second time I used a smaller pan. I did get a thicker sponge toffee, pretty much perfect but I had molten lava sponge toffee over flow onto my counter. Didn’t matter as it just hardened there on the granite and came right off. So in the recipe I will say to go back to the 9×13″ pan.

Making candy can be a two man job. When you have something that is so incredibly hot and the timing of getting it into a pan quickly is essential you could use an extra set of hands. At least I found this out the hard way. Trying to balance a 3 liter pot in the air while trying to scrape out molten lava is not easy.

Sorry I am not trying to make this seem like an impossible recipe on the contrary it is quite easy but you need to know some things ahead of time.

I hope you try this for Halloween and that it brings back childhood memories for you or you create some with your children.

Happy Hauntings!!

Print
Sponge Toffee for Halloween
Author: 
Recipe type: Candy
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 48 pieces
 

A perfect treat for Halloween!
Ingredients
  • 2½ cups granulated sugar
  • ⅔ cup white corn syrup
  • ⅓ cup water
  • 4 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 tsp. vanilla

Instructions
  1. Place sugar, water and white corn syrup in a 12 cup or 3 L saucepan over medium heat and cook stirring until the sugar dissolves.
  2. Bring to a boil, and cook without stirring. Brush down the crystals on the sides with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Cook until the hard crack stage of 300F or when 1 tsp. is dropped into water it forms hard brittle threads about 10 min.
  3. Remove from the heat and being very careful add baking soda. Add it all at once and quickly stir with a whisk. It will increase dramatically but just keep whisking, add the vanilla in now.
  4. Working quickly pour toffee into the prepared pan. Let cool without disturbing until completely cool about 2 hours. Break into pieces.
  5. Make ahead, store in a airtight container between layers of waxed paper for 1 month.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Recipe adapted from Canadian Living.

Print Friendly

Chipotle Chicken Smoked Nachos

Posted on by
1

We love having nachos for dinner. Quick and easy and with a big salad, very filling. To change them up a bit I purchased a chipotle roasted chicken, of course any roasted chicken would do just fine. Grab some different colored nachos for a change and we also tried the new “Tamed” Jalapeno Peppers. Just slightly less hot. Paired that with some smoked Gouda and smoked paprika and we had a deliciously different nacho. Serve some up this Halloween for a quick dinner before the kids head out for trick or treating. It couldn’t be any easier!!

Print
Chipotle Chicken Smoked Nachos
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 4
 

A deliciously different nacho!
Ingredients
  • One bag of nachos, red, white or blue
  • Chipotle roasted chicken, shredded
  • Tex Mex cheese blend, grated
  • Smoked Gouda, grated
  • Halved grape tomatoes
  • Green onion
  • Tamed Jalapeno Pickled Peppers
  • Smoked Paprika
  • Salsa
  • Sour Cream
  • Guacamole, optional

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Place parchment paper in a broiler pan and layer on nachos, chicken, tomatoes, jalapenos, green onion and lastly the cheeses. Use your discretion to the amount you would like. Sprinkle with the smoked paprika.
  2. Bake 10min. and then finish off under the broiler to brown slightly. Using the parchment paper slice nachos onto a serving platter. Serve with sour cream, salsa and guacamole.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Addicted Button 2, Addicted to Recipes Butoon, v@
 

Print Friendly

Trash

Posted on by
1

I am always trying to think of nut free snacks for the kids at Halloween. They like to graze at parties so I came up with this mix that is a bit healthy and a bit naughty. I thought of serving it out of paper bags spilling over and called it Trash. It has that sweet and salty thing going on so I hope they will enjoy it. I know we all did when sampling it. Have fun this Halloween and make it a safe one!!

Print
Trash
Author: 
Prep time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 12
 

A fun and healthy snack mix!
Ingredients
  • 320 gm. bag tiny twist pretzels
  • 213 gm bag Bugels
  • 2 cups mini chocolate chips
  • 3 cups dried blueberries
  • 4 cups banana chips
  • 3 cups candy corn
  • 100 gm. dried apple slices (optional)

Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients together leaving the apple slices until serving time. Enjoy!!

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

Print Friendly

Embalming Fluid

Posted on by
11

I love making up cocktails especially now that there are so many options with the flavored vodkas. This one will help you get your ghoul on!! It is not strong at all and taste like a limeade. Delish!! This makes the perfect amount for three of these glasses but you may want to double the recipe for a larger one. Half the fun is coming up with a gruesome name for something that is quite divine and in a different setting it could be a refreshing spring/summer cocktail. That is what is so much fun!!!

This drink is hauntingly delicious!!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Print
Embalming Fluid
Author: 
Recipe type: Cocktail
Prep time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 3
 

A Hauntingly Good Cocktail!!
Ingredients
  • 1½ oz. mandarin vodka
  • ½ oz. sour apple mix
  • ½ oz. lime juice
  • 4 oz. gingerale
  • 2 drops green food coloring, optional

Instructions
  1. Mix all ingredients in a shaker over ice. Shake twice and serve in your most ghoulish of glasses.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Manic Monday ButtonPhotobucket

 

 

Print Friendly

Zombie Cupcakes

Posted on by
4

Day three of our frightful treats and crafts. My very dear friend Nan who I adore was over for Thanksgiving dinner with her family. When she comes in she is always loaded down with armfuls of wonderful presents. This Zombie cupcake kit was one of them she gave to Amber. We made the cupcakes on the weekend and Amber and her girlfriends devoured them yesterday. They were a huge hit. Sorry today you won’t get a recipe but I hope this inspires you to go looking for funky ideas to decorate your cupcakes.

My little zombies I picked up last year in a funky little shop up in Edmonton called Chicken Scratch. I love my little sill dwellers. Call me crazy and many do but this time of year is so much fun. Nan took one look at them and fell in love. So I added them to the Zombie cupcake pictures. If you enjoy Halloween 1/10 as much as I do you will have a blast with it.

GET YOUR ZOMBIE ON!!

Print Friendly

Halloween Cheez-Its

Posted on by
17

I originally saw this recipe and put it up for my Mouth Watering Mondays post. I thought these would be great for Halloween too! The original recipe was on A Chow Life and she had adapted it from ReadyMade Magazine. I wanted to make a big batch so I doubled the recipe. I also wanted to play on that orange and black theme for Halloween so I added black sesame seeds. They are delicious and I can’t wait to serve them at Halloween. I usually make a homemade cracker or bread for Halloween so this year they are hiding nicely in the freezer with the rest of my goodies. Try some you will love them. Careful it does make a lot!!

5.0 from 2 reviews

Print
Halloween Cheez-Its
Author: 
Recipe type: Snack
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 16
 

These are frighteningly good!!
Ingredients
  • 16 oz. old cheddar cheese, grated
  • ½ cup butter at room temperature
  • 1 tsp. Kosher salt
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 Tbsp. black sesame seeds
  • 2 Tbsp. ice water

Instructions
  1. In a standup mixer with a paddle attachment mix cheese, butter and salt together. Slowly add in flour, the mixture will be crumbly. Add the sesame seeds. Slowly add the ice water so the mixture will form a ball, adding more if needed.
  2. Cover the ball with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour. Preheat oven to 375F. and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide the ball into fours and working with a quarter at a time (you can return the unused portions back to the fridge) roll out thinly to ⅛” inch and a rectangle approx. 10×12″. Using a pizza roller or sharp knife cut into 1″ squares.
  3. Place the squares on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-15 min. Careful not to burn. They should be just golden and puffy.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Recipe adapted from A Chow Life and ReadyMade Magazine

The DIY Dreamer

PhotobucketManic Monday Button

Print Friendly

Spider Sac

Posted on by
1

Today starts off our week long Halloween celebration. This is my favorite time of year. I love Halloween and we have a big party every year here at the house. We have been decorated now for two weeks and we do more and more as we get closer to the big day. I have crafted a few scary things over the years but I love this spider sac that I saw on Martha Stewart eons ago. It is a simple project, the only difficulty was finding white stockings for some reason but my friend had some so off I went a crafting!! Here is what you will need.

One white stocking
White batting
One foam ball
Plastic spiders
One large spider
Straight pin
Hot glue gun
Push pin

Wrap the foam ball with the batting and place some spiders on the bottom of the ball and slide it into the white stocking. Place more spiders inside the stocking taking care not to make a hole in the stocking. Now glue spiders on the outside and one large one to the bottom. Secure with a straight pin if needed in the large spider. Hang using the pushpin.

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

The DIY Dreamer
Print Friendly