Happy Halloween!

For fun, since Halloween is on a Friday this year, I flexed my day at work so I could get to the Peaslee's in time for the babies to go trick or treating. Now, we don't subscribe to most of the Halloween stuff since it is mostly not Christian based, so we kind of do our own thing, but we still let the babies get dressed in furry, cuddly costumes to trick or treat. We are having a little fun party for the big kids at home that includes some scary treats on Saturday. I'll post pictures of the party next week. But here are some recipe ideas for you to try some time:

Creepy Fingers

Yield: 5 dozen

Ingredients Needed:

1 cup Butter, softened

1 cup Icing sugar (powdered sugar)

1 Egg

1 tsp Almond extract

1 tsp Vanilla

2 2/3 cups Flour

1 tsp Baking powder

1 tsp Salt

3/4 cup Almonds, whole blanched

1 Tube red decorator gel(optional, not pictured)

In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Beat in flour, baking soda*, and salt. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll heaping teaspoonful of dough into finger shape for each cookie. Press almond firmly into 1 end for nail. Squeeze in centre to create knuckle shape. (Accompanying picture showed long rolled shape with bulge at centre for knuckle; you puff it out rather than squeeze it in.) Using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325F (160C) oven for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Lift up almond, squeeze red decorator gel onto nail bed and press almond back in place, so gel oozes out from underneath. You can also make slashes in the finger and fill them with "blood."

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Spooky Sugar Cookies

Ingredients Needed:

2 cups margarine or butter

2 1/4 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

6 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

4 Tbsp milk (can use water)

Divide dough in half (or sixths). Only add milk or water if the dough is too dry. Chill 1 hour. Roll out half of dough 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375F/190C for 12 minutes. These can be frosted. Makes about 5-6 dozen standard-sized cookie cutter shapes.

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Royal Icing

This is the traditional recipe that glues gingerbread houses together or makes a hard candy-like surface on cookies or cakes. Makes enough to ice 5-6 dozen sugar cookies.

Ingredients Needed:

16 oz powdered sugar (icing sugar)

3 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Beat until peaks firmly hold their shape, and the more you beat it, the firmer it gets. This hardens when exposed to air, but dissolves in water, so keep a moist towel over the bowl while working with it. Use a tight-fitting plastic container to store in the refrigerator for a couple weeks, but the egg whites begin to separate from the sugar any longer than that.

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Awful Arachnids

Take one cup of Royal Icing and tint it black. Using a decorating tube to pipe, pipe Royal Icing into spider shapes on waxed paper. If your hand gets sore from piping spiders, put a toothpick in the piping tube nozzle so the icing doesn't dry and plug the nozzle. Taking breaks is good since the warmer the icing gets, the bigger and sloppier your lines are, so let the icing bag rest back to room temperature, then keep piping away until you get sick of spiders! This usually makes about 3 dozen, or one cookie sheet full. Once the spiders are dry, as long as they stay away from moisture, they will keep indefinitely.

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Edible Eyeballs

Ingredients Needed:

Carrots

Cream Cheese

Black Olives

Slice carrots about an inch thick, dab some cream cheese on top and add a half of a black olive.

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Swamp Water Punch

Ingredients Needed:
1 can ecto cooler
1 quart orange juice with pulp
1 large bottle ginger ale
ice (optional: ice made with things in it like gummy worms)

Chill all ingredients before making. Mix ecto cooler and orange juice together in your punch bowl. Add ginger ale and ice just before serving.

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Haunted Taco Tarts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Ingredients Needed:

1 pound ground hamburger

1 packet taco seasoning

Egg Yolk Paint (recipe follows)

2 packages (15 ounce) refrigerated pie crusts

2 egg white

1 cup chopped tomato

1 cup taco-flavored shredded cheese

Cook hamburger until browned. Add taco seasoning as directed; set aside. Lightly grease baking sheets. Prepare Egg Yolk Paint; set aside. On lightly floured surface, roll 1 pie crust to 14-inch diameter. Using 3-inch Halloween cookie cutters, cut out pairs of desired shapes. Repeat with other pie crusts, rerolling dough if necessary. Place 1/2 of shapes on prepared baking sheets. Brush edges with egg white. Spoon about 1 tablespoon taco mixture onto each shape. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon tomato and 1 teaspoon cheese. Top with remaining matching shapes; press edges to seal. Decorate with Egg Yolk Paint. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

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Egg Yolk Paint

Ingredients Needed:

4 egg yolks, divided

4 teaspoons water, divided

Red, yellow, blue and green liquid food colorings

Place 1 egg yolk in each of 4 small bowls. Add 1 teaspoon water and a few drops different food coloring to each; beat lightly.

Bacon & Cheddar Dip

This is a recipe from a potluck we had at work. It was so yummy, it was requested she share and she was kind enough to do so.
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Ingredients Needed:
1 pint of sour cream
1 cup shredded cheese
1 pkg of Hidden Valley Ranch Dip
¼ cup bacon bits

1. Mix all ingredients in bowl.
2. Serve with crackers.

ENJOY!!

Tuna Salad

This is a dish my mom has been preparing for years, my Grama Louise makes it too, so I can only presume it is a long standing family dish. I know many others that make this, but none exactly like us and this is my preferred version.
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Ingredients Needed:
1 can of tuna in water, drained
4 stalks of diced celery
1 8 oz. package small shell noodles
3/4-1 cup Kraft Miracle Whip
1/8 tsp. Lawry’s Season salt
1/8 tsp. onion salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

1. Boil water for noodles, cook, and cold rinse them when they are done.
2. Take drained tuna and place in medium sized bowl, mix in pepper, onion salt, and Lawry’s Season salt.
3. Mix in chopped celery.
4. Add in cold rinsed noodles.
5. Stir in Miracle Whip.
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Variations:
I know people who add onion, peas, or cheese. Have also seen egg in it. Some substitute salmon in place of tuna. Most people use mayonnaise and not Miracle Whip, but to me, Miracle Whip rocks.

ENJOY!!

Hamburger Stroganoff

This is a recipe that I sort of made up based off of watching a ton of kitchen shoes and quirking things around until it tasted like I wanted it to. Hope you like it.
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Ingredients Needed:
1 lb. lean Ground beef
1 tsp. Onion salt
¼ tsp. Lawry’s Season salt
½ tsp. Garlic powder
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 cup sour cream
1 bag Egg Noodles

1. Cook hamburger with spices until done.
2. Add in cream of mushroom soup, let simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in sour cream.
4. Serve over egg noodles.
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Variations:
I substituted hamburger for sliced steak as it tastes just as good and is less expensive. I usually serve this over mashed potatoes, since they are my favorite. You can also serve this over rice.

ENJOY!!

Rave Reviews ~ Chicken Noodle Soup

I made it this weekend at the Peaslee's. We decided to pretend we were at Olive Garden having soup, salad and breadsticks. Well, we didn't have their dressing and we didn't have their Zuppa Tuscana, BUT, it still was yummy.

The kids ate the soup right up, I made a big pot, so we actually did have some leftover which we had the next day in addition to our tomato soup and grilled cheese. I also made a big salad with leafy greens, roma tomatoes and cucumbers. And to complete the trio, Pillsbury garlic breadsticks fresh from the oven. Laurie like the soup alot, the broth was different from how Fred makes his, but that is to be expected as Fred doesn't use any seasoning. He also makes homemade from scratch noodles, which, while delicious, is alot of time and effort. Joey even commented on how much he liked it, although I figured it out on my own after the third bowl was dished up! Kid is growing like a weed and being in football makes him hungry all the time. And then I got a phone call the other night from Fred. He had the last of my chicken noodle soup and called to tell me he loved it. Coming from Fred, this is a compliment because he doesn't use any seasoning and I use all kinds! He was impressed. I smiled.

I love the fall, it is a great time to make soups and stews to warm you up after coming in from outdoors. The temperatures continue to drop around here, in fact, we have had frost on the cars a few times already, so I expect I'll be making soup alot more often.

Dirty Snoballs

This is a recipe I got back in high school from a friend's mom. Super easy, super fun for kids!
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Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients needed:
1 can of Pillsbury biscuits
1 pkg. Hershey Kisses
½ stick melted butter
½ cup sugar

1. Wrap biscuit around a Hershey Kiss and roll into a ball.
2. Roll in melted butter.
3. Roll in bowl of sugar.
4. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 8-12 minutes.

ENJOY!!

Rave Reviews ~ Pizza Casserole

So a family in our church had a new baby last week and I was asked to make them a meal for Sunday. I love to cook of course, so I said yes.
I called them up and asked them if they wanted me to bring it to church with me or if they wanted it delivered. We discussed a few things and Scott thanked me and said he'd see me on Sunday.
Well, it turns out that Kathy wasn't feeling very well on Sunday, so they didn't come to church, so Scott's brother picked up the food and delivered it.
I got a phone call on Monday from him with another big "Thank You!" and he said that his kids(obviously not the baby) loved it! They ate it very enthusiastically and were happy I included the recipe so Mom could make it again sometime.

Told you my Pizza Casserole was a hit with the kids!

I happened to make a big batch so there would be enough for a meal at Fred & Laurie's and their kids all loved it too.

And there was a secret ingredient! I used whole wheat pasta for the healthy benefit factor and you couldn't even tell once it is covered in red sauce that it was any different from regular semolina pasta, taste, texture or otherwise. SNEAKY huh?

Makes me feel good to get compliments from people I don't cook for on a regular basis!

Chicken Noodle Soup

Now that fall has arrived, I figured I'd post a soup recipe. This is a recipe I made up myself through experimentation trying to emulate the broth that Noodles has, it is as close as I can come since their recipe is a secret! This is also one of those recipes that I typically don't measure, I just throw in a dash of this and a handful of that, so, feel free to experiment yourself!
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Ingredients needed:
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
3 small carrots, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, thinly diced
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
8 cups chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/3 pound egg noodles (preferably wide ones)
1 cup cubed cooked chicken (meat from about 1 breast)
1 tablespoon whole flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish

1. Put the onion, carrots, celery, thyme, parsley, chicken broth, and water in a medium pot.
2. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and bring to a simmer over medium high heat.
3. Simmer until the vegetables are almost tender, about 10 minutes.
4. Add the noodles and cook until tender, 5 to 8 minutes (depending upon the size of the noodles).

5. Add the chicken, warm through, and then adjust the seasoning, if necessary, with salt and pepper.
6. Serve garnished with parsley.
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Variations:
If you don't have fresh herbs, dried will work. I also usually add potatoes(most people wouldn't), but I love spuds and it tastes good to me! You can also use dark meat, I just prefer white meat. You could also substitute turkey in place of the chicken. Feel free to experiment with herbs.

ENJOY!!