October 2012 – The Weekday Chef

Halloween Cupcakes and Brownies

I played around with some Halloween Cupcakes for a work party.

I had about 7 different designs on my Halloween Cupcake treats.

It was fun to make the “Purple People Eater” cupcakes with little eyeball superballs.

My favorite Halloween treats were these brownie skeletons made from white chocolate disks for the heads and yogurt covered pretzels for the bodies. I had to put chocolate icing on the walnut brownies too.I added pretzels and white chocolate candy melts for the faces. The rest of the body I used just white buttercream icing and made the legs and hands with a pastry bag and a decorator icing tip.

Here is a plate of my finished cupcakes. Love the chocolate vampire cupcakes with M & M eyes and candy corn teeth. The bloody smiles are made from red fruit snacks cut into strips.

I had some spider rings at school I added to the spiderweb cupcakes but forgot to take pics afterwards. The mummy cupcake was super easy with M & M eyes

I added a small box of vanilla pudding, 3/4 cup of sour cream and some butterscotch chips to the batter of the cupcakes. I also added half melted butter, instead of 1/2 the oil. It just tastes better. I hate cupcakes where I can taste the oil! Yuck!

Finished Halloween cupcakes and treats on top. They were very colorful and very yummy too.

The easiest Halloween cupcakes were the spiderwebs and pumpkins. Just chocolate chips for the jack-o-lantern faces. I just added chocolate chips for the face and some pretty sprinkles over the orange and green icing.

This vampire cupcake was so cute. I thought it turned out cute with the brown sprinkles for the chocolate iced hair, and the M & M eyes. I made some eyes brown chocolate chip eyes too. I couldn’t decide which one looked better.

Notice the 2 colors of spiderweb cupcakes too. I think they both look really pretty. It would be a cute plate to just have the 2 flavors of spiderweb cupcakes for a party.

I also made a pan of brownies too. They were skeleton brownies. I added candy corn to the square brownies.

Check out all the sweet treat fun! I got a lot of inspiration from looking on Pinterest at cute treat ideas I could try. I love peanut butter cookies. I’d do the pumpkin kisses with peanut butter cookies instead of brownies.

Pumpkin Kiss Brownies at Daily Food Buzz are cute.

At Food.Daily Buzz is the recipe for these cute yummy things.

These Halloween Brownies are super cute. And they were super easy. I love a mint flavoring for the icing and then I would tint the icing mint green. It looks so fun like cute little Frankenstein and jack-o-lantern faces!

Here at Tidymom.net is a bunch of really sweet cookies to decorate for Halloween. I love the Spiderwebs and Candy corn the best! But it is the assortment that really makes the white serving plate look special!

Here are my 2 little pirates at the Halloween Party. Argh! Matey! Have a Happy Halloween!

Easy Cheesy Breadsticks

Cheesy Breadsticks with Parmesan and garlic. mmmmm…….Make some to go with your favorite Italian dish!

Easy Cheesy Breadsticks

1 1/2 C warm water
2 T sugar
1 T yeast
1/2 t salt
3 1/2- 4 C flour
1/4 Cup butter
1/4 Cup fresh Parmesan cheese

a few shakes Johnny’s Seasoning Salt

This recipe will make about 20-24 seven-inch breadsticks.

1. Mix the water, sugar and yeast together in a measuring cup or in the bottom of your mixer. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

2. Add the salt and the flour a little at a time till mixed. Beat for 5 minutes with Mixmaster dough hook. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

I got a new beater this week at Kohls with a 30% off coupon! This was $10 off!

3. Place on greased cookie sheets in 6 inch rolls or use a pizza cutter to cut them into strips. Use silicone brush to lightly brush melted butter on top of each bread stick.

I poured melted butter and then fresh Parmesan and a few shakes of Johnny’s seasoning salt.

I just use a pizza cutter and do strips of breadsticks. I don’t really care that they are lopsided or whatever. I was just doing them for the hubs and I so who cares. For company I’d make them the same lengths and thickness so they would look uniform.

You could also use just Garlic Salt instead or just leave it at Parmesan cheese and butter.

4.Lightly sprinkle Johnny’s Season salt and parmesan cheese on each bread stick. Let rise for 30 minutes. Bake at 375 for 10 – 12 minutes. When they are golden take them out. Yum. You will LOVE THEM!

Cheesy Garlic Breadsticks! These are fast, easy and sooooo YUMMY! Try them!

Fall Soup Recipes

I was at the Sprouts Market near Fashion Place Mall yesterday with the hubs. We were getting lots of Farmer’s Market produce because it is so fresh and delicious there. They had this most delicious looking soup bar! It made me want to go home and make soup. So I did! (after I got lots of yummy organic veggies and fruits!)

But before I did I had to sample some of their BUTTERNUT SQUASH soup. It was delicious. The veggie gourd is low in fat and high in fiber and potassium too. Yum to that, right? It had a hint of nutmeg in it.

Butternut Squash makes a delicious soup! I’ll have to mess around with that one!

Another soup I love to make is broccoli cheese or cream of broccoli. It is easy and sosooooo yummy. The recipe is HERE.

I got a few yellow crook-neck squash, some zuchini and a really giant sweet onion and a giant yellow pepper!. And their avocados were GIANT! They know how to grow stuff! For sure! I’ll be making a great salad with those things. But what I really love are their fruits. They had blackberries for $2.50 a basket that were so big and sweet looking I bought 2 baskets! And the Cuties were so cute!

The recipe for this homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles is HERE. It’s another favorite soup of mine, perfect for the cold, rainy weather we’ve had lately, and especially today!

And here is my Clam Chowder Soup. It’s one of my hub’s favorites.

Here is my recipe for clam chowder. You can delete the clams and add some parmesan cheese and it’s a pretty good Potato Cheese soup too.

But it got me thinking about how much healthy stuff goes into soup and how we could probably lose more weight if we just replaced a few pasta dishes with veggie soups and stews. I’m going to make more veggie soups! Especially on a rainy day like we’ve had. Now if I can just stay away from the crusty bread and butter!

Broccoli & Bacon Salad

This Studio 5 Salad has Broccoli, bacon, nuts and raisins in it. I’d use Cashews!

Do you remember the first day of summer vacation when you had all these wonderful goals? I was going to spend a half hour in the “garden of weedin’, a half hour on my messy hoarder closets, and a half hour in my loosely termed “exercise” room/basement. And I lasted about a half hour on that plan.

I wasted so much time this past summer playing and just dinkin’ around, watching those decorating shows and the gardening shows, and those shows that teach you all about hoarders and trying to organize your “stuff” that I thought maybe I was just organizing vicariously through all those guests on the makeover shows! Maybe I could learn to organize in my sleep! (that would be awesome)

Funny Friendship Ecard: You're one stack of shit away from an episode of Hoarders.

Even though I don’t really like the sh– word, I had to laugh at this e-card…..Its so me!

Well, I’m very proud to say this week I have spent almost a half hour in my garden weeding. And one flower bed is looking much less like its gone haywire. I really hate to weed. It’s probably my least favorite household chore of all, Yuck. But now I can actually see progress!

My hydrangeas are doing so so, not as good as last year…but surviving!

Pretty pots full of flowers….

You can’t kill an onion plant, believe me, I’ve ignored mine! And look at my crappy soil! It is amazing anything grows!

This Broccoli and Bacon Salad has nuts added, cashews would be so delish added! It’s from Grocery Cart Challenge.

If only I can only keep up my goal of weekly weeding in the garden instead watching THE CHEW or watching Nate do his decorating thang, or watching my favorite cooking shows on my DVR I’ll be doing good!

We got a few tomatoes in September….and here’s our haul this week….just a few left now…..

This Broccoli, Bacon and Raisin Salad is from The Southern Lady Cooks.

Anyways, here is a veggie salad recipe that is so great for a get together pot luck dish or any side dish. It’s fresh and crunchy and I always get compliments on it when I bring it to anything.

Meat Candy…hahaha…..Love it! Bacon makes everything taste better!

FRESH BROCCOLI AND BACON SALAD

This Broccoli and Bacon Salad added blue cheese. My hubs would like this one….It’s from Yogi Butter.

Ingredients for Broccoli, Bacon and Craisin Salad

2-3 heads (or 4 cups) fresh broccoli, cut into florets
1/4 cup diced red onion
7-8 slices of bacon, cooked and diced
3/4 cup Craisins (dried cranberries)
3/4 cup slivered almonds or cashews

Dressing:

1 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

I love this salad for fall. I’m going to gobble up a whole bowl!

Halloween Table Decorating

I got some fun new stuff for my house for my favorite holiday…Halloween!

And I spread it all over the place decorating for Halloween! Here is my front entry table… Trick or Treat!

The skeleton dish and candle are new, and the glass Happy Halloween plate are new too… I love this purple and black decor!

And who can resist Helga the Witch? She keeps the candy safe till Halloween….

she is relegated to the corner of my living room for now!

I LOVE this cute candy corn decoration made from yarn and an inverted snow cone paper. You could also make it with just cardstock twirled into a cone shape. I love it with the wiggly eyes and mouth! This was from Craft Passion.

Mix mingle glow had this cute pumpkin decoration made completely of balloons! I LOVE balloon decorations. They always make such a statement!

Mason jars with colored water with toy insects added….I have TONS of toy insects! Go get ’em from the dollar store. This would be inexpensive and easy to do. Kids would love it at a Halloween Party! Thanks to Mix Mingle and Glow.

My daughter did a simple table decoration with candy corn. She placed a long, thin, glass inside the canister then filled the outside edges with candy corn.

Then she added these cute pumpkin chair backs for Halloween decor…..

Here is my table decor. I got black plates last year. The centerpiece was a birthday present from my daughter…she has good taste. Thanks Tiffany!

I think I’ll take this Halloween centerpiece to school so my little second graders can enjoy it!

Cute salt and pepper shakers from Pier 1 Imports….I love them so much!

Well the kitchen is done….now on to the other rooms….Halloween Decorating is so much fun!

I got a set of these glass orange beads, glass black bats and glass white ghosts to sprinkle around my Halloween Table Decor….isn’t it sweet? That was Pier 1 again. This would be a fun fall gift I think too. Everybody who sees them thinks they are so cute! I think so too!

My Birthday Dinner

I had a birthday on Monday and my daughter Tiffany hosted a birthday party for me Monday night. I went to lunch with the hubs so it was fun to not worry about anything food for an entire day!

Halloween decorations on the table were so cute….Tiff put a glass inside of this jar and then surrounded it with the candy corn. She didn’t really buy 100 pounds of candy.

She is a master at these delicious bread bowls. The recipe is at Jamie Cooks it up HERE.

She made these wonderful, homemade bread bowls and some delicious creamy soup. Then she had my all time favorite spinach salad with strawberries and avocados and candied pecans. Can you spell Y-U-M-M-Y?

Gotta love the chairs all decorated like Halloween pumpkins….

Yummy spinach salad is one of my favorites… A good recipe is HERE at The Girl Who Ate Everything. I prefer candied pecans to almonds though.

My birthday cake was a strawberry cheesecake. It was so pretty and delish! My little granddaughter had cheesecake face. :O

Strawberry cheesecake…..Yes those are 4 CANDLES…..Yeah…I’m only turning 40 now. Woo Hoo!

Yum, I like that cheesecake stuff grandma! Marisa has cheesecake face….

It was so fun to be spoiled. And my son-in-law likes Halloween like I like Halloween.

He’s going to add lots of spiderwebs and scary dudes hanging from ropes and stuff….

Here is the beginnings of his graveyard….the spooks are even coming out of the window wells to a strobe light. He still has to hang a few ghouls from a noose and a few more tombstones.

Marisa and Meg hung the little ghosties in the tree…so cute!

It’s gonna be the neighborhood fun stop for sure. I better go get all my stuff out too!