Cutest Halloween Snack - Hands Down

Ha, ha. Get it? I crack myself up sometimes. But maybe that's not a good thing because it usually means I'm tired and have had a hard day. I think it's both today.

Anyways... enough about that. Are these cute or what?! I first saw these last year when I was visiting my favorite store, The Decorette Shop in Tigard. Best store ever! My Mom introduced me to this store years ago and it has been a love love relationship ever since. Yes, love love. No hate for this sweet shop. (No pun intended.)

So my kids and I made a bunch of these to take to school for treats. Last year they went to a private school so they could take home baked goods in for treats. I loved that. I'm sad this year that we can't do that.

They are super easy to make and can be filled with almost anything. We chose popcorn because most kids like popcorn (and it was cheap.) Okay, that was really the number 1 reason we chose popcorn... it's cheap.

Take a glove. (We used the cheapo ones.) Drop a candy corn in each finger for the nails. Then fill with popcorn. Add a spooky Halloween ring and there you have it. Easy, right? But totally cute!

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Also:
Halloween Blog Carnival

Yummy Mummy Cookies

The weather here in Oregon has been really off the past couple of months. It was stinkin' hot for awhile and then summer kind of disappeared the end of August. I'm not real happy about it. I LOVE the nice weather. Well, let me rephrase that. I love wearing flip flops and shorts. My wardrobe consists of shorts, capris and then super cold weather stuff. Not a lot of in between. But rather than whine about the lack of summer I am going to embrace the Fall. I do love Fall. Well, I love Halloween. I love everything about Halloween - the decorations, the abundance of candy around the house, the trick or treaters. You name it. So we're going full speed ahead and whooping it up for Halloween as long as we can.

So to start it off we made these super cute (if I do say so myself) and yummy mummy cookies. They are super easy to make and what child wouldn't think these were cool?!

You will need:

* 1 cup butter, softened

* 3/4 cup sugar

* 2 teaspoons vanilla

* 1 egg
* 3 cup flour
* mini chocolate chips
* white chocolate chips

- In a large bowl beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla and egg until light and fluffy.

- Add flour and mix on low speed until dough forms.

We had a tad bit of a flour mishap with my daughter helping me. But what the heck. I decided a long time ago it was more important to have my kids help me than it was to keep the kitchen clean while doing it.)

- Roll into a ball and cover in plastic wrap.

- Refrigerate for about an hour. It makes it easier to handle.

- Preheat over to 350.

- Divide dough into 8 equal pieces.

- On lightly floured surface, roll each piece into a 14 inch "snake"

- Cut each snake into 4 three inch pieces and 4 one half inch pieces.

- Roll the 4 one half inch pieces into balls (for the heads) and attach to the ends of the 4 three inch pieces (Are you confused? It's super easy. Make them look like this)

- Put 2 mini chocolate chips in the head for eyes

- Bake 8 - 10 minutes until lightly golden brown.

- immediately remove from cookie sheet onto a cooling rack. Cool completely.

- In a small resealable zip lock freezer bag, place the white chocolate chips (maybe 1/3 of the bag). Seal bag.

- microwave on high for 45 - 60 seconds or until melted.

- Cut a small hole in the corner of the bag and pipe the chocolate onto the cookies so that it looks like mummy wrapping.

- Let stand until set.

And there you have it. Yummy Mummy Cookies! I know it's not even October yet, but we're excited!

Happy Halloween!

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You Had Me At Booger

What? Booger? Yep, you read that right. Booger. This is Booger Pie. Seriously! I didn't make it up. (I know my co-workers are all thinking I made this name up but I didn't. Really!) I saw this great post over at The Speckled Dog and had to make it. I mean really. How could I resist such an awesome name?! I saw it, got off work and ran straight to the store.

The ingredients were super simple and relatively cheap. We bought:

* 1 package of Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies
* 1 16 ounce tub of Cool Whip

* small bowl of milk

* mini chocolate chips

The recipe called for chocolate sprinkles instead of chocolate chips but the store here in town was out of chocolate sprinkles. I know - shame on them. How can a store be out of chocolate sprinkles?!

Dip the cookies in the milk and then lay them in the bottom of a pan. You can use any kids of pan. We made 2 in 9x9 pans for me to take to work and then made 2 in tupperware "dishes" so we could keep one and then take one to a friend's house.

Spread some of the Cool Whip on top of the cookies and then sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Repeat this layer as many times as you would like. We did 2 layers in the 9x9 pans but did 3 payers in the tupperware since they were smaller.

Put it in the fridge for about 2 hours and there you have it... Booger Pie.

It's even better the next day! The milk and whipped cream make the cookies all soft and almost cake like. It's delicious and so darn easy to make. Even little ones can make this one!

Enjoy! And try not to smile when you tell people you're making Booger Pie.

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White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

I don't know about you but I love the taste of white chocolate and raspberries together. It's heaven in my mouth. Except for one small problem. I don't like raspberries. The seeds get stuck in my teeth and then I have to pick them out and I feel like Gramma from The Beverly Hillbillies. It's not pretty. So I thought and thought and thought and came up with this amazingly fantastic idea. (Okay, to be honest I didn't think about it much at all. I opened my cupboard and saw a box of Pop Tarts and bam, it hit me. Why not add Pop Tarts to cookies??? I mean, Pop Tarts rock. Cookies rock. Why not cram the two together. So I made these, white chocolate raspberry cookies. They look pretty good don't they?!

Ingredients:

* one box of these bad boys (I used raspberry but you could use any fruit flavor. And, of course I used the ones with frosting. Is there any other kind???)

* white chocolate chips (I used half of the bag but you can use as much as you like.)
* 2 1/4 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 large eggs

Preheat over to 325. (This is if you are using a muffin top pan. If you are not, preheat over to 375.)

* Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
* Beat butter, sugar and brown sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
* Gradually beat in flour mixture.
* Stir in white chocolate chips.
* Then I crumbled up the pop tarts and folded them into the dough. Yum, right???

I cooked them in my muffin top pan because it is my new favorite way to make cookies. (Hopefully you didn't miss my post here about it and the delicious chocolate chip s'more cookies.)

Bake for about 13 minutes but check often. If they are getting brown on the sides they are done. (I like chewy cookies.)

The Pop Tarts are delicious inside the cookies and the raspberry taste is heavenly.

Enjoy and try to not eat them all in one sitting... I dare you.

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I'm A Winner!!!

Let me first start this by saying I'm not a lucky person. Things don't just fall into my lap. I work hard for what I have. I wish I were one of those people that are just lucky. You know who I'm talking about. They have a great job because they were in the right place. They win the lottery (even the little scratch off ones) or door prizes. They skate through life without a care. I envy those people. Well, maybe only sometimes. I can't complain too much. =o)

So in all my spare time I enter giveaways. I mean really, who doesn't, right? I love to win stuff. Maybe because I never do! But I keep entering them in hopes of finally winning something someday.

So, where am I going with this?

I think my luck is changing!

I won this adorable bag from The Country Mouse. I love it!

And then when I won the mother load from Shauna over at Piece of Cake . I was thrilled! By mother load I mean a $100 gift card to the CSN stores. Yep, you read that right! $100!!! I quickly got onto their website and picked out these awesome products.



Tiffanee over at One Crazy Cookie was having a giveaway for a years subscription to this awesome magazine
Oh yeah, I won! I'm on a roll now!

And to top it all off I just won a $25 gift certificate from Gina over at Dang Gina for one of these awesome and adorable picture boards from The Picture Boards. How cool are these???
And just when I thought I was going to explode from happiness I received and email from Liz over at Hoosier Homemade telling me I won all of these great products!


I know, right?!?!?

So there you have it. One unlucky person is finally a little... no wait... A LOT lucky! Yeah!

Thanks to all the bloggers out there who do these fantastic giveaways. Keep on giving because we all like to win!

I Think Gramma Lost Something...

A friend of mine at work bought this amazingly awesome ice cube tray mold for me. I thought it was a giant compliment when she said "I saw this and thought of you." Seriously! How cool is that! I love it when people see weird but extremely cool things and actually think of me.

What do you think? Awesome, right? One look at this and the ideas were flying.

First we made jello jigglers in them. My kids were a little grossed out at first but then they loved them.

Then we filled them with Kool Aid and made grape ice cubes. My daughter totally thought this was cool. Although they were awfully "slidey" on the plate. (That's a word, right?)

Sadly this picture doesn't capture how totally weird they looked when added to a glass of 7 Up. I think this will be perfect for Halloween. They actually looked like someone's dentures floating in water. Well, if dentures were purple but you know what I mean.

So a HUGE thank you to Heather for buying me such a very cool gift. I love gizmos and gadgets and cool cookie/cake/anything molds. It was perfect! Now what else can we make in this........

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Back To School Teacher Gift

The first week of school is always so hectic. I know for me it is. So I decided to wait until the second week before we gave my kids' teachers their back to school gifts.


We made them these cute pencil holders. They were really easy and didn't cosy much at all.


What you'll need:
* empty can
* pencils (our took 34 pencils each)
* ribbon
* hot glue gun
* cardstock for the bus


Start gluing the pencils onto the can. I did this step myself since I only have a HOT glue gun. It's not a low temp one. And I'm bad enough. I don't need my kids burning themselves. I'm like the shop teacher that's missing some fingers. I'm the crafter with constant hot glue gun burns on my fingers. But my daughter did hand me the pencils as I needed them.

Then I got out my Cricut. It was like reuniting with an old friend. I haven't used it since December and oh how I've missed that baby!

I used my Stretch Your Imagination cartridge and cut out a cute school bus. You could do an apple or anything school related. I chose the bus.

My kids also helped with this step. They pushed all the buttons on the machine and were great helpers!

We tied a bow around the pencil holder and glued it on.

Then we glued the bus to the end of the ruler.

And there you have it. Very cute pencil holders for the teacher's desks. We hope they like them!

And I couldn't let the year start without posting a picture of my kids on their first day of school. My son started 2nd grade and my daughter started kindergarten. Aren't they just the sweetest faces ever?!?!

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Triple Layer Brownies

When I saw this amazing recipe over at Sinful Southern Sweets I knew I had to make them. I love brownies with cream cheese frosting. It's a weakness! And with a third layer? Pure heaven. So I made a pan of these thinking I'd take them to my first day back to work. But I ate them. Seriously! Not the entire pan but close. They were that good. So I made another batch on the first day of school to take to the staff. I think they liked them because they were gone by the end of the day. And what's not to like!

You will need:
* 1 package brownie mix (the size for a 13x9 inch pan)
* oil, water and eggs for the brownies
* 1 tub of cream cheese frosting
* 1 package milk chocolate chips
* 1 cup peanut butter
* 3 cups Rice Krispy cereal

Again, you could make the brownies and the cream cheese frosting from scratch but that's just crazy talk. I don't have that much free time on my hands =o)

Make the brownies according to the package. (Little helpers are great with this step!)

Cook until done and then let it cool. When it is cool, frost with the tub of frosting. Yes, I used the entire tub of frosting. I'm not a waster =o) Again, little hands are great for this step.

Pretty simple so far, right?

In a saucepan over low heat combine the peanut better and milk chocolate chips. Stir until completely melted. Then add the rice krispy cereal. Mix together and then pour over the frosting layer.

Put it in the refrigerator to cool. Then cut and gobble it up!

Now do you see why I ate them all? They are truly delicious!!!

Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Enjoy!!!

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