Puking Pumpkin Dips

Every year we have a scavenger hunt that the hubs and I put on for our group of friends. It is a fabulous time and I think that I have more fun getting everything ready for it than the people that are participating in the hunt have... It is a fun and VERY competitive night with our group of friends. Although I love to cook and bake, we do it "potluck" style and everyone brings a dish to share. I have stopped making anything for this night because we usually have more food than any group of people can consume! So, I stick with my mulled cider, some beer and all the paper products. Well, this night was different... One of my friends tagged me in this fabulous Halloween treat that I knew I HAD to make! There wasn't another party that we were heading to, so I made it for the night of our scavenger hunt. It turned out awesome! Everyone loved the "display" and it was super yummy! The queso was a bit thick so I would definitely make it a little runnier next time, but that didn't stop me (or anyone else) from chowing it down!

Puking Pumpkin Dips
(Link found on Facebook)

ingredients for guacamole
1 tablespoon butter
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 cups cheddar cheese
2 cups monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 (4 ounces) can green chilies
1 small pumpkin, carved with a sad face
tortilla chips

Prepare guacamole according to recipe. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Melt butter in small saucepan. Saute garlic in melted butter until fragrant. Add both cheeses, milk and cornstarch and stir until melted and combined. Add additional milk until as thin as you would like for serving purposes. Stir in can of green chilies and place into small bowl that will fit inside the top of the pumpkin head. To serve, place pumpkin in corner of serving platter. Place guacamole in front of pumpkin, creating a path that comes out of the pumpkins mouth. Place chips around guacamole and serve.

Birds' Nests

For Easter we have spent the last few years heading over to my Aunt's house for the day. This has been our tradition since I was very little. My aunt takes care of all the main food, but we all pitch in with appetizers and little treats to share. I saw these on Pinterest and knew that I HAD to try them. For one, they are made from chow mein noodles - which I LOVE and second of all they looked delicious because they include chow mein noodle! Yummy!

Birds' Nests
(Recipe found at sherrihaab.wordpress.com via Pinterest)

1/4 cup butter
4 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
4 cups chow mein noodles
candy eggs (mini Cadbury eggs, M&Ms or jelly beans)

In heavy saucepan over med. heat melt butter and marshmallows until smooth. Stir in peanut butter and chocolate chips until melted. Remove from heat and stir in chow mein noodles. Work on wax paper and form 18-24 mounds. Dip fingers into cold water as you work to prevent the mixture from sticking and shape each mound into a nest. Fill with 2 or 3 candies each. Cool and store in airtight container if they last that long.

Sugar Cookie Truffles

This was another yummy cookie that I tried for Christmas this year. They were a lot of work, especially when you don't take the shortcut of buying premade sugar cookie dough and they didn't turn out as pretty as I would like them to have. They were pretty tasty though and went very fast when I brought them out to all our events that we were going to over Christmas.

Sugar Cookie Truffles
(recipe found on pinterest via munchkinmunchies.com)

1 16 ounces package of sugar cookie dough - I used this recipe instead.
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
4 ounces white melting chocolate OR 1 cup white chips
1 tablespoon shortening
sprinkles for garnish

Bake cookies according to package directions...BUT baking until cookies are crisp, but NOT burned. Cool cookies completely on wire rack before moving on to the next step.
Line baking sheet with wax paper. Crumble the cookies into the food processor. Process until the cookies are a fine crumb. Add the cream cheese and process until the mixture starts to hold together. Roll mixture into 1" balls, placing on prepared baking sheet and chill in refrigerator for an hour. Melt white chocolate and shortening on medium power in 30 second intervals until just melted, stirring well after each interval. Dip each ball into white chocolate with a fork tapping off the excess. Return to baking sheet to set. Sprinkle with sprinkles while white chocolate is still wet.

Gingerbread Cheesecake Bites

This one is going to take you a ways back to Christmas time! :) These were honestly my new favorite Christmas cookie... I like to try a few new recipes each year and there are a lot of recipes that I try once and don't make again. There are a handful that I try and know that they are going to be made year after year - these are in that category!! They were scrumptious, pretty to look at and a hit every where that I took them.

Gingerbread Cheesecake Bites
(Recipe found on pinterest via www.createdby-diane.com/)

1 (30 ounces) package Pillsbury Gingerbread Cookie Dough (refrigerated section) or I used this recipe...
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Roll two teaspoons of cookie dough into a ball for each cookie. Place balls of dough into paper liners mini cupcake/muffin pan. Make a well/indentation into each ball of dough with a flour dipped mini rolling pin or the back of a measurement teaspoon. Beat room temperature cream cheese with powdered sugar. Stir in vanilla. Place filling into a piping bag, cut off edge of bag. Place one teaspoon or so of filling into each area of cookie dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes or until cookie tested with tooth pick comes out almost clean. Don't over fill the cookies with filling as they will rise when baked. Let cool before removing from cupcake pan.

Pink Cinnamon Rolls

I wanted to do something special for the kids for Valentine's Day, especially since they were home from school that day! So, I decided to get up early and make these pink cinnamon rolls!! Oh, they were so heavenly... Loaded with calories, but worth every bite! I definitely will not be making them for breakfast again though since they took FOREVER, with all the rising, punching, rising again - you know the drill! I think that these will be an afternoon snack type of thing from now on - just to save on mom's sanity!

Pink Cinnamon Rolls
(recipe found on pinterest via lovefromtheoven.com)

Cinnamon Rolls
1 box of white or yellow cake mix
2 packages of dry yeast
2 1/2 cups of warm water
pink food coloring, if making them pink
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
5 cups flour

Filling
2 cups brown sugar (or granulated sugar if you are trying to keep the pink color)
Cinnamon
1/2-1 cup butter, softened

Frosting
1 can Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Frosting Starter
1 packet Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Cinnamon Roll Flavor Mix
(or I used my cream cheese frosting recipe)

Mix yeast and warm water until dissolved. Combine cake mix, salt and flour in a large bowl. Add warm water/yeast mixture and vanilla (and food coloring if you are making it a pink color) to cake mix, salt and flour mixture. Mix well. This may require kneading with your hands a bit to completely combine ingredients. Cover tightly. Let rise for one hour. Punch down and let rise again for another 30-60 minutes. On a floured surface, roll dough into a rectangle shape, approx 1/4″ thick. Once dough is rolled out, brush with softened butter. I only used about half of a stick of butter for mine. Sprinkle with brown sugar (or granulated sugar if you are making a colored cinnamon roll). Sprinkle with cinnamon, as much as you want. Starting at end opposite from you, roll the dough towards you until all dough is rolled into one long piece. Slice dough into 24 equal sized pieces. Place rolls in two greased 9×13 pans. Cover and let rise until doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Prepare your Frosting Creations Cinnamon Roll frosting. If you prefer your frosting to melt into your rolls, frost after rolls have cooled for 10-15 minutes. If you prefer your frosting to stay on top of your rolls, wait until rolls have cooled until frosting.

Resurrection Rolls

I made these rolls a few years ago for Easter and decided that I needed to make this a yearly tradition for our kids. Although my husband doesn't think that kids need "props" to help them understand the stories in the bible, my teacher training kicks in and I say "hey, if it is yet another way for them to understand what they are hearing about, I am all for it"!! I love the hands on technique, plus anything that gets us in the kitchen is a bonus for me!! I thought that I had blogged about this in the past, but when searching for the recipe came to realize that it was on my family blog instead of my foodie blog, so here I am - passing it along to you and helping me be able to find it next year when I am looking for the recipe again!! :)

Resurrection Rolls
(Recipe found on pinterest)

crescent rolls (to symbolize the tomb)
white marshmallows (to symbolize Jesus and his purity)
melted butter (to symbolize the oils used)
cinnamon and sugar mixture (to symbolize the incense used)

Set out the crescent rolls.

Roll the marshmallow in the melted butter.

Cover it with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Lay the marshmallow on the crescent roll.

Roll the crescent roll up tightly, making sure to seal up all edges otherwise your marshmallow will ooze out everywhere. For that same reason, use a baking sheet with edges or you may have marshmallow all over the bottom of your oven like I did...

Bake for 12-15 minutes at 375 or until crescent rolls are browned. When opened, the marshmallow is "gone" and the "tomb" is empty...

Peeps!

I had to share these, even if I am a little late!! I wanted to get them posted last weekend, but the time just flew by and I never hopped onto my computer to do it... I saw this idea on pinterest and love, love, loved it! How simple!! I always have some kind of skewers at my house and peeps are available for every holiday, so it doesn't even have to be saved for next Easter... I threw these together for my daycare kids for an Easter treat to take home. If I had been more on top of it, these babies would have been made up for my kids' teachers and helpers - cheap, cute and easy!!

In case you are wondering - my note says "You are one of my favorite peeps!"

Valentine Cookies

Usually when I bake up a treat, it is all from scratch... I don't use a lot of premade ingredients, but sometimes you can't help but do it - especially when it turns out as cute as these did. I made these Valentine cookies for the paraprofessionals in my kids' classrooms and since I overbought, we made up bags for all the daycare kids as well. I also made sure to save a few for the hubs since he LOVES these wafer cookies! The best part of these cookies? They were so simple to make that the kids were able to help bake their teachers treats! I honestly think that these would be great for any holiday! I just bought some cute Valentine treat bags from the store and sent them on their way... Super fun!

Valentine Cookies
(recipe found on pinterest via craft-o-maniac.com)

wafer cookies (I bought 4 small packages for what I made)
candy melts or melting chocolate
sprinkles

Melt chocolate using double boiler method. Dip half of wafer cookie into the chocolate.

Place on wax paper and cover with sprinkles.

Let stand to harden chcoolate.

Bag 'em up!

Ghost Pops

Since I was going the cookie route with the Witch Hats, I decided I needed something a little healthier to go with it. I found these fabulous Ghost Pops on pinterest and couldn't resist. They were a little more difficult to transport since you need to keep them frozen. They get pretty slimy and gross if you leave them out too long! They turned out super cute and the kids LOVED them!! I might have to make another batch for at home...

Ghost Pops
(recipe found on pinterest via skinnytaste.com)

banana(s)
white melting chocolate
mini chocolate chips
popsicle sticks

Place waxed paper on a cookie sheet. Cut banana(s) in half and then slice each half lengthwise. Insert a popsicle stick into each quartered banana. (I found it easiest to keep the two lengthwise halves together and squeeze at the top while you are sliding the popsicle stick inside, otherwise the banana seemed to crack down the sides.) Place prepared bananas onto waxed cookie sheet and place in freezer until frozen through. Melt white melting chocolate over a double boiler. Working quickly, coat banana(s) in white chocolate, place two chocolate chips on for eyes and place back onto cookie sheet. Refreeze until chocolate is firm and you are ready to eat.

Witch Hats

I volunteered to bring snacks for ECFE this past week and you know that I had to make something super Halloweeny and cute! It is one of the last places that you can actually still bring in something homemade and since I have time on my hands during the day, I decided to make a couple cute things. I started with these witch hats... Love them and other then unwrapping a lot of kisses, they were super simple!

Witch Hats
(recipe found on pinterest)

Keebler fudge stripe cookies (I used a combo of regular and dark chocolate ones)
frosting, tinted orange
Hershey's kisses

Turn cookie upside down, pipe frosting around center whole and place a kiss on top. I placed them in the refrigerator for the day since I wasn't going to be using them until the next evening.