Running Gag

noun: a joke/gag that is repeated many times in slightly different ways

I don’t know if this is a normal thing for most families, but around here we have a proclivity for running gags. We will have a totally random topic or word or song pop up in our conversations and then for some reason we just keep working it in…over, and over, and over. Ask Nathan about pants. That one’s been rolling around for almost ten years now. Anyway, revisiting the gags usually ends up being funny or at least making Malia roll her eyes so hard that she can see her brain. Earlier this year, the DARE song was the gag. Drugs and that catchy tune from our kids’ 5th grade participation in the DARE program just came up far more frequently than was probably good for us. But it was funny. And so, it kept happening. After a while we aged out of that gag, and something else took its place. 

For some reason, cannibalism has been an on again/off again joke topic throughout this year. I think Malia started it with a random comment in the group chat my kids have established with their cousins on Kevin’s side of the family. But as I’m not actually in that group chat, I’m not certain. Nevertheless, cannibalism is a topic that has popped into our joke/random comment repertoire fairly frequently of late. And that led me to select this year’s Halloween dinner: man-burgers. And while this evening’s repast did not have the visual impact of some I’ve created in previous years, it did hit that running gag. And it was tasty. And simple to prepare. And honestly, I needed that this week.

As for costuming this year, Malia and two of her bestest friends planned a group costume. Malia was Eeyore with her friends dressed up as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. Malia sent me a text from school this morning telling me that one of her teachers had the exact same costume as she did. At least she was amused and not utterly humiliated. Because as a middle schooler, it could go either way. This evening, she is off at a friend’s house for a Halloween party, still in costume, of course. 

Nathan hasn’t really dressed up for Halloween for years, but this year he decided that he wanted to join the festivities. He dressed up as Steve from Blues Clues, a kids’ t.v. show that was popular when he was part of the preschool demographic. He was super excited about it and watched an entire episode of Blues Clues to get into character. And then he made a short Blues Clues inspired video for us rather than just sending a picture. With Blue and his handy dandy notebook in hand, he headed off to work and school with some of his notes for one of his jobs written in his notebook. With a giant crayon, of course. 😂 And he turned heads all day. Everyone in his generation is familiar with Blues Clues and even as he was walking back to his apartment this afternoon, he could see heads turn in recognition as the cars drove by. 

Halloween has become a much slower holiday in our entire neighborhood, not just our house. Families have grown up, just like ours, and it seems like there are fewer and fewer kids knocking on the door every year. We still make sure to keep some candy on hand for those that come, but we make sure to buy stuff we like so that it will actually get eaten eventually when the doorbell only rings a dozen times.

As usual, I already have ideas of fun foods I want to create next year. But as for next week, we begin making pies!

Muppet Killer

Having Halloween fall on a Friday is always fun. Because not only is there no school tomorrow and no need to drag sugar coma inflicted children out of bed in order to get them to school (although we really don’t need to do that anymore, which is nice), but it is pancake day! And having time for Halloween pancakes on actual Halloween is great! So, I had a pancake plan, a plan that involved lychee and blueberry eyeballs casually dropped on top of some lime green pancakes all draped with a bloody lychee syrup. It was a good plan, a tasty one, but there was a very unfortunate, and completely unexpected, outcome. When I assembled my first pancake stack, it looked exactly like Kermit the frog. Except bloody. 🤦

Killing Kermit was not exactly on my to-do list for today, but sometimes our days don’t go as expected. 🤣

Boo-tifully Simple

In my fun food endeavors, sometimes things can get pretty complicated. Making normal foods look super cute can often mean extra time in prepping, preparing, and presenting. On the other hand, sometimes simple efforts can have very positive results. Today’s Halloween themed dessert falls into the latter category. A package of frozen puff pastry, a can of cherry pie filling, and a cookie cutter were the main components of today’s creation. Add in a simple powdered sugar glaze and a purchased tube of black piping gel and a sweet little treat was born. And honestly, who doesn’t like a nice cherry turnover?

Are You My Mummy?

Like pancakes, sugar cookies are a blank canvas with an infinite number of possibilities. I don’t utilize them as often as I do pancakes, but sometimes I just crave a good sugar cookie. Add a simple Halloween themed twist, and dessert is served. An added bonus? When arms or legs break off due to super soft dough or ineptitude (yes, sometimes I just muck things up) or someone ends up with only one eye (I was rushing because I was really supposed to be cooking dinner rather than decorating sugar cookies), there is no need to worry. Sometimes mummies just lose parts. It’s all part of the deal. So those little baking mishaps add a charming Halloweeny twist. And whether whole or maimed, they taste good. 

If I Only Had a Brain

Most of the time my creative food endeavors turn out pretty well. But once in a while the results are a bit lackluster and today was one of those days. I’m taking full advantage of the opportunity to make all the dairy-ful desserts I can while Matthew is not here, so today was a no bake mini cheesecake kind of a day. And the Halloweeny twist was supposed to be a bloody brain resting oh so casually on top. But for some reason my brains did not turn out like the recipe said they would. Not only did they not set up in the predicted 1-2 hours, it took a full 24 hours in the freezer for me to be able to even pop them out of the molds. And even then, they did not have the definition of the ones in the picture that accompanied the recipe. But they were far and away better than the 1–2-hour brains. Those ones looked just like a brain would post zombie attack. But the blood portion looked better when it was fresher and not so great later on. Although to be honest, the effect was middling at any time. I’ve made far more convincing edible blood on other occasions. So, I guess it was kind of a no-win situation.

Nevertheless, they tasted delightful. Lemon cheesecake topped with raspberry sauce is always a winner. And next week’s treat has a higher probability of being more aesthetically pleasing, so hopefully I won’t come away feeling a bit disgruntled like I am today. But despite the letdown of a less than stellar visual impact, cheesecake cures many ills. Which means that mediocre jelly blood aside, we all enjoyed sampling this evening’s treat.

2 hour brain

24 hour brain

I’ll Eat You, My Pretty!

The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorites. When I was a kid, I watched the movie every time it was broadcast. Because back in the olden days there were no VCR’s, no DVD or Blu-ray players, and certainly no streaming on demand platforms. Back then we would scour the T.V. listings published in the newspaper each week so we could be parked in front of the T.V. when something good was aired. And so, I learned to love the classic Judy Garlic version of the story.

But then, I discovered the books. And oh, how I fell in love. We were frequent library patrons in those days, still are, and on one of those many visits to the grand repository of the written word, I discovered that the movie I so enjoyed was based on a book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. And wonder of all wonder, there were thirteen more stories that followed the first! I checked those books out over and over again. If 40 years and some library remodels had not come to pass, I could still get you within a couple of shelves of where that particular series was shelved.

When Kevin and I were newly married, we had many date nights at Borders, a large bookstore that is now, unfortunately, gone. Because we were poor, we rarely bought anything unless it was on the $5 bargain table, but we loved to peruse the shelves looking for new books that caught our fancy. And I always ended up wandering the children’s books section. Not only was I teaching 4th grade at the time, but even as an adult, I’ve always loved children’s books. And so, I would wander, looking for new books that just might interest my class or old favorites from my own childhood. 

On one of those trips, I happened to discover a set of all fourteen of the original Oz books. In all my life, I had never seen the entire series in a store, only the first book. And this set was a reproduction of all the first editions, in hardback. They were beautiful books. I had never owned the Oz books as a child, only checked them out from the library, so that set of books seemed like just about the most perfect series of books ever. But like I said, we were poor. And even back then, hardback books were pricier than paperbacks. But so in love was I with those novels that we crunched our numbers and budgeted for one book a month. Over the course of those first months of marriage, we would make our way to the store and buy the next book in the series, always hoping that they would still be there as the ones we purchased never seemed to be restocked. And then for our first Christmas together, Kevin bought me the remaining five or six books.

I have read those books many times since then. We have read them to our children and some of them have picked them up and read them independently as well. They are still magical stories and still a beautiful set. The movie has been watched frequently in our home and a few years ago we were able to attend a viewing on the big screen. And let me tell you, if you have never seen your favorite classic flicks in the theater, be sure to catch them if you have the change. Seeing things on the big screen is very different. Though you may have memorized the movie through a multitude of viewings, as I have, details that are lost on smaller screens are visible when viewed larger than life and it is magical!

So, with all that for background, you will understand why I selected this year’s inaugural Halloween themed treat. I saw the idea on Pinterest, and it had my name written all over it. It was super simple to create and I suspect it will inspire a viewing of one of my favorite movies. And I think it’s time to revisit the books as well. Life has been a bit trying of late, and a brief escape to a wonderful land where marvelous things happen and the good guys always win sounds like the perfect remedy.  

Snake Surprise

I know I’ve said it before, but Halloween without little kids is much mellower. I’m totally fine not attending the yearly Halloween costume parade at the elementary school, not fighting to get the kids to eat something healthy before the candy binge, and the trick or treating and subsequent sorting through all the candy to make sure my two youngest kids don’t die. And having Malia send me links to Amazon for all her costume pieces is so much faster than sewing all the Halloween costumes. (I always enjoyed creating those costumes though, so there’s a hint of bittersweet associated with purchasing costumes. But Malia and her friends had a whole Harry Potter thing going on, so she really needed some Gryffindor gear. And with how limited my sewing time is of late due to the headaches, purchasing was probably the smarter option anyway.) Honestly, I feel like I’ve paid my Halloween dues and deserve a calmer day! 

Having said that, there are some things that stay the same. Around here, that means the fun food continues even though we are past the years when the kids were so excited that I had to basically bribe them to eat healthy food by making it super fun. I still love hanging out in the kitchen all day playing with my food, so despite the lack of littlies, my frightening foods are still on the menu!

This year’s ode to Halloween was a reptilian double feature with a side of brains. I had to give my family a stromboli vs. calzone lesson when they were all confused by what the actual meal was, but everyone agreed that the stromboli was delicious. I modeled the filling after the garlic chicken bacon pizza that I love instead of the traditional pepperoni and Italian flavors because I’m the boss of the fun food at my house and can do whatever I want! And honestly, no one complains because one of my rules about edible art is that it still has to taste good.😉 

After the fun food was consumed, Malia spent the evening roaming the neighborhood. They called it trick or treating (yes, we broke our rule about not trick or treating once you hit middle school), but honestly, I think it was an excuse to hang out on Halloween. Malia came home with very little sugary fare but had a fun evening. Matthew drove down to Mapleton for a Halloween party that Aliese was throwing. I love that he enjoys spending time with his cousins! And with Kevin home to answer the door for the few trick or treaters we got (one of the side effects of an aging neighborhood is fewer little kids begging for candy), I was able to have a slow evening watching some favorite Halloween T.V. episodes. Yup, definitely calmer with teenagers!

Moving back to the subject of fun food, the next generation has inherited some of my love affair with whimsical foods. Nathan spent this evening making pumpkin cookies that actually look like pumpkins. I’m so proud! 😁

Now I move on to pies…and start planning next October’s fun food extravaganza! (Seriously, some of this year’s recipes have been on the menu since last October. I ran out of days before I ran out of ideas. 🤣)

Heads Up!

When I was young, my mom taught me how to make shriveled apple head dolls. We carved and dried the apples, created a body out of a wire coat hanger and some batting, added a dress and some hair, and voilà! Pioneer style playthings! I remember being very pleased with the end result.

This evening’s spooky snack brought those old memories back to mind. Last year I saw a picture of some apple dumplings carved to look like shrunken heads. It made me laugh and I knew that they needed to be on the menu this year! Malia was on hand to help carve the apples, which was good, because let’s face it. Artistically, she is far more skilled than I am. I didn’t do too badly, but Malia carved three faces in the time it took me to do one. 😂 So while she was putting on the finishing touches, I switched gears and focused on the pastry.

I haven’t made apple dumplings in years, so it was a nice change from our typical cookies and cakes. We did learn a few lessons though. First, if you use gigantic apples, they will take forever to bake. Second, you should use a bigger pan that will allow the sauce to be shallower, so the pie crust doesn’t fall off when you try to get them out of the pan. Especially since the pastry on the carved heads does not get wrapped up all snug on the top. Third, this old-fashioned dessert is a classic for a reason: they are so delicious! Especially when served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. But only if carving up and devouring a face doesn’t bother you. 😜

Are You My Mummy?

After so many years of making themed pancakes, sometimes it can be a bit difficult to come up with something new. But after scouring Pinterest for something I haven’t done yet and not finding anything that piqued my interest, I had a spark of creativity and came up with my very own idea. Two weeks in Hawaii was not enough to fulfil my craving for tropical flavors, so coconut pancakes and some food coloring combined with homemade coconut syrup thickened enough to be pipeable created this year’s gruesome griddle cakes. (And they weren’t actually all that gruesome, but I love alliteration as much as I love pancakes!

They were some of the tastiest mummies I’ve ever eaten. And yes, I’ve eaten mummies before. On several occasions. All of them being on or around Halloween, of course. 🎃

Finger Food

When we hear the term finger food, most of us likely think of things like pigs in a blanket, carrot sticks or chips and dip. These are the kinds of morsels we find at parties, the bite sized offerings that can be eaten as we mingle. But today I served up a finger food that was completely different. 

The moniker for this particular creations depends on the source of the recipe. Some people call them witch fingers. Others name them zombie fingers. But whatever you want to call them, these shortbread fingers are a tasty and gruesome treat. Especially when dipped in a little raspberry jam.

And technically, these fingers are still traditional finger food as well since no silverware is required...

It’s That Time of Year Again

It’s October and everyone around here knows what that means-Halloween themed treats! I have already missed out on one FHE treat opportunity this month due to the fact that I was in Hawaii. Since Kevin will be leaving for Boston on Saturday, we have family dinner at my folks’ house on Sunday, and Matthew has marching band on Monday, I decided to make a treat on an abnormal day so that I can still get in three Halloweeny sweets this month.

We kind of have a thing about eyeballs around here, so it should come as no surprise that I have chosen to inaugurate this season’s spooky eating with some edible eyeballs. I coated a lovely raspberry sunbutter filling with white chocolate and then used some gummy Skittles to lend a bit of color and black icing finished them off. I tried the whole bloodshot eye thing with some tinted seedless raspberry jam, but it came out looking like ketchup, so I opted to leave the bulk of the eyeballs intact. I know red decorating gel would have given a more convincing visual, but the gel just doesn’t taste that good. And despite the joy I find in creating these fun foods, tasting fantastic still trumps aesthetics.

So welcome to October! And maybe by the end of the month the weather will stop acting like July…

All Ducked Up

After all the sweet Halloween treats we’ve had this month, today was the day to go savory! Now that my kids are older, they will eat a larger variety of foods. I’m loving the versatility it brings to the menu, so I took advantage of that and made stuffed pepper Jack-O-Lanterns! We didn’t carve pumpkins this year because neither Matthew nor Malia cared enough to do it, but this allowed me to exercise my carving skills on a teeny tiny scale. I had a great time cooking creating dinner and everyone enjoyed eating the finished product! We also ate brain Jello, a must have around here on All Hallow’s Eve, and some cucumbers and carrots that were all decked out for the holiday. As a side note, if you decide to make veggies with eye holes, buy a steel straw. The disposable plastic ones are much too flimsy to be effective no matter what the internet says! Seriously, the carrots took me far longer to cut than the peppers did! But they turned out super cute in the end!

Now that Malia has hit middle school, Halloween at school is less of an event and more of an afterthought. She decided at the very last minute that she wanted to dress up for school, so she went digging in our box of Halloween costumes and came up with the toddler sized hat from Matthew’s long ago ducky costume. She has a thing for rubber duckies right now, I’m not sure why, but she decided to go with the duck theme. A couple of bobby pins kept the hat in place, and she used hot glue, an old sweatshirt, and a bunch of rubber ducks to complete her ensemble. The ducks didn’t stay on the shirt very well, so she was shedding ducks by day’s end, but it made her happy and she got lots of requests from classmates wanting to adopt a duckie. We did give Malia a one-time only pass to go trick or treating while in middle school. Our rule has been once you hit twelve years you are done begging for candy, but she had plans to roam the neighborhood with a new friend, so we let her go one last time. She didn’t actually come home with all that much candy though. It was more about socializing than getting all hyped up on sugar.

Years ago, when Daniel and Nathan were teenagers, the cousins would all get together and go to the temple and then have a Halloween party. With most of the teens grown past that stage, it is a tradition that has kind of petered out. However, Matthew gathered up a group of friends and they went to the temple. And I love that! I may encourage Malia to join him next year.

Overall, Halloween is a much calmer holiday now that the kids are mostly grown. We had a few trick or treaters, but the neighborhood has grown up just as our kids have and there are fewer and fewer little kids around. But that’s ok. It means we aren’t glued to the front door all evening and can actually do something else. I’ve begun to wonder if I will still want to do the whole fun dinner thing when all my kids have moved out and as of right now, I don’t have an answer. But as my little ones become big ones, I find myself asking these kinds of questions more and more often. But for now, at least, I’ve got half a dozen more years before I have to seriously contemplate being an empty nester!

C is for COOKIE!!

I love cookies. If given a choice between a delicious cookie or a bowl of ice cream, I’m going to choose the cookie. All bets are off if it is a mediocre cookie, but if it is a perfectly baked combination of crisp exterior and chewy interior with the amazing flavor to back up the right texture, I’m going to go for the cookie. Cookies are often at the top of my stress eating list as well, with the baking of said cookies being an important part of the experience. But since I know that about myself, most of the time when I get all stressed and want to bake, I can opt not to which is generally the healthier option. And now that you know a little bit more about me than you probably want to, let me introduce our last Halloween themed treat for this year.

There are three distinct reasons these cookies can claim the moniker “monster.”

Monstrous Quality #1:

A monster cookie is actually a flavor of cookie the same way a snickerdoodle is a flavor of cookie. The traditional monster cookie features peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chips and M&M’s. Our version uses almond butter, oatmeal and three flavors of chocolate chips-dark, semi-sweet and white. It’s our allergen free version of the traditional recipe.

Monstrous Quality #2:

These cookies are massive. Seriously, I’ve never baked a single serve cookie this big before. I’ve made bar cookies, cookie pizzas, and cookie cakes, but I’ve never slapped a baseball-sized chunk of cookie dough on a baking sheet with the intention of it being consumed by one person. 

Monstrous Quality #3:

Eyeballs. And monster-colored sprinkles. Because it can’t be a proper Halloween treat without looking the part. 😉 

Now that we have clarified this particular cookie’s claim to its name, let’s talk about how they taste. They were good, very rich though, and honestly, one cookie could easily feed two people. The outside was crisp, and the inside was just barely baked which made them super yummy. I would make them again. And we most definitely have leftovers. It might take us the rest of the week to finish the batch!

I’ve Got My Eyes on You! (Version II)

Pancakes! My original fun food medium! It wouldn’t be Halloween without them!

I have an almond poppyseed muffin recipe that uses sour cream (or in our case, fake sour cream). I hadn’t made them for a long while, but at one point last year Malia requested them so I dusted off the recipe and whipped some up. I had forgotten how soft, tender and delicious those little nuggets were and it came as no surprise that thereafter they became one of my family’s most often requested muffin varieties (along with the apple muffins I make that feature loads of shredded apple with just enough batter to hold it all together). After being reminded of the benefits of adding sour cream to quick breads, I went looking for a pancake recipe that incorporated the ingredient. It was a variation that was super easy to find, of course, so I selected a promising one and gave it a whirl. 

With just one sampling, that pancake recipe became my family’s favorite. We eat a lot more pancakes than muffins, especially since the establishment of Pancake Fridays during the Covid shutdown, and this recipe is on the menu more often than any other. As such, it seemed perfectly natural to turn to the greatly loved sour cream pancake recipe when contemplating this year’s Halloween pancake creation. 

Delicious sour cream pancakes were the first perk associated with this morning’s pancake shaped homage to Halloween. The second was the delightful flavor combination of strawberry and kiwi. I’m not always a fan of the artificial versions of this particular duo, but homemade strawberry jam and fresh kiwi are wonderful together! The third perk to this morning’s creations? I got to tell Malia to eat her eyeballs. 😂

Sweet Ribs

Most of my Halloween food creations lean towards the cute side of spooky. But every once in a while, something a little more gruesome strikes my fancy. I think the bleeding intestine cinnamon rolls win the award in this category, but today’s treat was also a bit more Sweeney-ish. Malia’s favorite kind of pie is cherry, and I have a sweet cherry pie recipe that we all enjoy. A simple change of shape and some creative latticework turned our cherry flavored dessert into a tasty rib cage pie. Traditional sour cherries would have yielded a bloodier creation, but as always, I’m not willing to sacrifice flavor for form. My creations need to taste just as good as they look! And we really like the sweet cherry pie. So perhaps it could have looked a little more grisly, but it was still appropriately Halloweeny!

We’re Going on a Witch Hunt

It’s fall break and for once, the break in our school district coincides with the one in Rachael’s district. That meant a cousins’ outing was in order and today was the appointed day! We decided to meet at Gardner Village where we could wander and enjoy the Halloween ambience for free and then to have lunch at my parents’ house. Rachael, Sabrina (and a couple of her friends), Kate, Sam, Patti, Ella, and Esther met up with Malia and I for a morning of witch hunting. I’m not talking Salem style witch hunt though. It was like a scavenger hunt but witch themed. The kids were being silly, as well they should, and we had a grand time. As all the cousins get older, it seems like there are fewer and fewer of these days spent together. I guess that means we had better sneak them in whenever we can!

The Eensie Sweetie Spider

I hate spiders. And when I say hate, I mean really, really hate them. I grew up in a basement bedroom and there were spiders galore, but that is not where the hate originated. As a kid, they didn’t bother me all that much. But when I was in high school, I went to see a movie with some friends. I didn’t ask what movie we were seeing as I was focused more on the social aspects of the evening and didn’t really care what the movie was. I knew my friends’ standards were the same as mine and that we wouldn’t end up in some kind of an X-rated porno film. That is how I ended up sitting through “Arachnophobia” at our local dollar theater. Having grown up in the previously mentioned spider infested basement meant I didn’t have too many concerns at the get-go, but what I did not know was that the movie contained a scene where a spider crawled right into a guy’s ear and then proceeded to eat his brain or whatever super creepy death spiders do inside your head. And I have serious problems with stuff crawling inside my ears. That particular phobia started with the original “Wrath of Khan” movie, one that I still can’t watch. That movie led to a lifelong abhorrence of earwigs and watching a spider pull a Khan maneuver just totally messed me up. 

Let me illustrate by telling you several stories. After I graduated from college, I moved back into my parents’ house for a time. One of those basement bedrooms became my domain and it still contained a large spider population. One night I came home and found a huge spider on the wall in my room. And when I say huge, I mean humongous. Yes, I know Utah spiders aren’t really all that big, but to someone with a serious aversion to the creepy crawlers, it was gargantuan. I knew I had to kill the thing or I would lie awake all night worried that it was about to crawl in my ear, but killing spiders was also super high up on my ick scale. I can’t just grab a Kleenex and squish them like a normal person because you can feel them squish and that is disgusting. So, I went looking for a weapon. A shoe with a big chunky heel seemed just the ticket, but I knew that if I used one of my shoes as a spider killer, I would always know there had been spider guts on the shoe and would get the heebie jeebies every time I wore it. Yes, I know I’m neurotic, but it was an honest concern because I know how my brain works. My sister Rachael was not home at the time, and I knew she had a pair of chunky heels identical to my own, so I slipped over to her bedroom which was conveniently located right next to mine and borrowed a shoe. I used Rachael’s shoe to aggressively smash that eight-legged beast and it was so big that I heard it pop. Loud. Eww. And double eww. It seriously made my skin crawl. When the task was completed and the shoe cleaned and returned, I was able to sleep. I didn’t tell Rachael about the whole thing for at least a decade. Luckily for me, she was amused when she finally found out. And she asked which shoe I had used. 😂

Once Kevin and I got married, he became my built-in spider killer. If I discovered a spider in our apartment when he wasn’t home, I would just put a cup over the top of it so that I would know it couldn’t crawl away and slip into my ear at some point. One time I covered a spider with a cup and by the time Kevin came home, the spider was gone. After that, the cup was the first line of defense and a book on top of the cup to weigh it down so the spider couldn’t slip out due to the pile of the carpet became my standard tagging method. I suspect that you are either rolling your eyes or laughing your heads off at my insanity at this point, but it was seriously a mental health issue. Once located, I really couldn’t just release a spider back into the wilds of my living room. Nowadays I just grab the vacuum cleaner and suck the little creepers up, but that had not occurred to me at that point.

Now that you know the origin and extent of my spider loathing, you might ask why I would make a spider themed treat. Honestly? I was looking for a Halloween themed excuse to try a new cookie cake recipe. A simple spiderweb on a round dessert was just the ticket. And maybe eating a spider made of Skittles felt like a little bit of revenge for years of spider induced shivers. Who knows. 😉 Either way, this oatmeal raisin cookie cake with a cinnamon royal icing web was another winner. It was thick and chewy and delicious. Seriously, if you haven’t tried a cookie cake yet, you should give it a try. It just might change your cookie eating habits. 

Haute Halloween Cuisine

I think I must have trained Daniel and Nathan well because this evening they created their own little Halloweenie treat by making dirt cups. I don’t know if they were specifically thinking about Halloween, but it is October so it works! I do love that their dirt cups are much posher than the ones we ate at my primary activity on Tuesday as they were served in stemware rather than disposable plastic cups. 😂

I’ve Got My Eyes on You!

Long time readers know that eyeballs are an inside joke around here. As such, when I see something eyeball themed, I just have to give it a try! This particular eyeball is a mini cookie cup which was originally made of a peanut butter cookie with a white chocolate mini peanut butter cup and an M&M. Pretty much all those things will kill 50% of my children, so I definitely tweaked the recipe to make it my own. I made a dairy and egg free almond butter cookie base. Mini sunbutter cups made a great filling but they don’t come in white, so I smoothed a thin layer of dairy free melted white chocolate on top of each before adding a Skittle. A food coloring marker provided the last details, and they were ready to eat. They turned out fantastic! Seriously, I ate way too many eyeballs…

It Was a Graveyard Smash!

 As October approaches each year, I start trolling the internet for new fun food ideas. There are always more themed treats than I can cover in a month of FHE treats, but part of the fun is deciding which ones to include in this year’s assortment. Ever since I found an egg free high altitude brownie recipe that actually works, I like to do something with brownies in October. Part of that is because I have a not Matthew friendly white chocolate brownie recipe that I really love, and it gives me an excuse to make them for myself while still providing him with a similar treat. Another part is because there seem to be so many cute ideas for gussying up brownies!

This year’s brownie art is a classic graveyard scene. I saw a multitude of different versions of these, so I took all my favorite ideas, ditching the ones that aren’t safe for my kids (like those little candy pumpkins-Matthew and Malia can never eat those), and came up with a design I am super happy with. I even bought a special chocolate mold so I could make tiny white chocolate bones. That part was so fun!

Stay tuned for more creepy cuisine! There are five Mondays this month which means I get to choose and create a bonus creepy treat!