Halloween Spider Web Dip

This dip can really be made any time of the year - but it is especially fun to add a sour cream spider web for Halloween!  It is super easy to customize and add your favorite ingredients!

Halloween Spider Web Dip
Serves 12-14

For the base:
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 16 ounce can of refried black beans
2 cups of bottled salsa
16 ounces of guacamole

For the toppings:
Shredded lettuce
2 cups shredded cheese
Sliced green onions
Sliced black olives
Sliced jalapeños
4 ounce can of diced green chiles
Diced tomatoes
Dashes of Tabasco sauce
Sour Cream

In a bowl, combine the taco seasoning with the black beans.  On a large platter, spread the bean mixture out - leaving space around the beans for the toppings.  Carefully add the salsa to the top of the bean mixture and spread to cover.  Carefully add the guacamole to the top of the salsa and spread to cover.

Around the outside of the beans/salsa/guacamole, start with the shredded lettuce and then top with the shredded cheese.  Sprinkle the remaining ingredients on top of the shredded cheese.  

Spoon some sour cream into a zip top back and cut the corner.  Carefully pipe concentric circles around the dip and then pipe the lines from the center out.  Finish with a spooky spider in the middle!

Last Minute Halloween Treat Ideas - Courtesy of The Bestie

I learned on Monday that The Bestie was making some Halloween treats and offered to share her photos with me to use as Halloween blog content....score!  She is quite possibly one of the busiest women I know.  Employed full time, the mom of a 7 year old and 4 year old twins, active in her community, fully engaged in her moms of multiples club....she never ceases to amaze me!  She is also one of the best moms I know - she'll do just about anything for her children.  Although, she did tell me at one time she wouldn't shave her head for them. 

She is the same mom who makes 3 birthday cakes in one weekend for her children since their birthdays are only 1 day apart.  You can read more about that here.

This week, she volunteered to make treats for various events....work, kids' activities - who knows. She said yes and as always, made it happen.  While we were on the phone together at 8 p.m. Monday night while she was shopping for missing items from her pantry, we talked about ways to streamline this and make it as easy as possible on herself.  She knocked these out in no time and even took pictures along the way.  Thanks, friend!

These cute cupcakes were decorated with simple orange frosting piped on from a pastry bag and she cut a chocolate bar to decorate. 

She also made these Pretzel Witches Fingers.  Using pretzel sticks, green Wilton candy melts, sliced almonds, and a toothpick she made another adorable Halloween treat.

 

The third and final treat is by far my favorite!  Remember those Waffle Dippers I posted in 2012?  She used the pan and filled with cake batter to make these super cool mummies!  You'll need the pan, it looks like this:

 

 

Next, get a box cake mix, pour the batter into each dipper, and bake.  Let cool, then get ready to decorate!  She used these cute large candy eyeballs from Wilton and used a #47 piping tip to add the bandages - aren't they awesome?  You'll want to make sure you have these on your serving platter before you start piping on the frosting - they aren't really moveable once decorated!

 



 

 

 

 

Have you volunteered to make Halloween treats.....and made it happen even though you really didn't have time to?



Halloween Creepy Crawlie Birthday Party

Over the weekend, we attended a Halloween Birthday party for a friend of our boys.  The birthday boy is turning 8 in early November but asked his mom if he could have a Halloween-themed birthday party - so she delivered just that this weekend. 

The kids and adults were all invited to dress up in costume - along with the kids, most of the adults came through!  Her decorations were, of course, all Halloween themed - they all looked awesome!  We enjoyed pizza for dinner and she had the buffet decorated with Halloween cookies and cupcakes. Her son was fully responsible for decorating the cupcakes - don't they look great?

Everyone was entertained by Jungle Jill who brought all of her "Creepy Crawlies" to show (and scare!) the party guests.  There were friendly ones too - like cool turtles and harmless snakes, but a few that stayed in their box like the scorpion and tarantula.

Yes, that gigantic snake on the right is a boa constrictor!

The birthday boy was able to hold a number of the critters - he did great!  He only panicked while holding the boa - he didn't hold it long enough for me to get a photo!

After the show, each child was able to choose one of the "safe" critters for a photo op.  My two boys opted against this!  But a friend of mine gave me the A-OK to include this adorable picture of her daughter holding "Teeny" the 1 year old turtle.

The party favors were perfect.  Cute jack-o-lantern takeout boxes filled with mini Halloween flashlights, spider rings, and goozing eyeballs candy - all from Oriental Trading Company.  Note that the flashlights were packaged and did not include a battery.  If you use this, I would recommend opening them and filling them with batteries before the party.  Our hostess saved the day with a large package of batteries and was able to quickly fill each flashlight with one as they were opened.

More great work from the {almost} 8 year old birthday boy - he was responsible for filling all of the goodie boxes.

It was clear that the adults and kids all had a great time at this party.  What a fun idea to make a birthday party into a Halloween party too!

Halloween Party

This year we headed over to the home of good friends for some pre-trick-or-treating fun, pictures, food, and drinks before we headed out into our neighborhood.  I can't take credit for any of the photos shown here - they are all the creative work of Gretchen Wakeman - but couldn't resist sharing the decorations, buffet table, and fun pictures Gretchen took! 

Our hosts did a great job choosing the perfect food for their guests!  We had two kinds of sandwich platters from Costco - one included deli pinwheels (you know, those yummy bites that have deli meat, cheese, etc wrapped in a tortilla and sliced?) and the other was deli croissant sandwiches - perfect, delicious, and filling!   Also on the buffet table were bowls of chips, salsa, a veggie platter, cookies, and of course....buckets of candy!  For the kids we had juice boxes and for the grown ups, cocktails and beer.....awesome. 

To top it off, the hostess and host were dressed as a shot girl and shot boy - it was perfect for them and made for some great photos!

How did you celebrate Halloween this year?

photo courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman

photo courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman

photo courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman

Halloween Cookie Decorating Station

This year, I volunteered at my older son's classroom Halloween party - and to no one's surprise, I volunteered for the snack station!  There were 5 total stations - snacks, spooky storytime, Halloween bingo, and 2 craft stations.

Everything had to be store bought - so went with a popular choice of "decorate your own Halloween cookie".  The hubby volunteered for the Halloween party in the Kindergarten class last year and was put in charge of snacks - his advice "those kids used a lot of frosting and a lot of sprinkles" - man, he wasn't kidding! 

I had anywhere between 3-5 children at my station for about 15 minutes each.  Just enough time to decorate and eat!  I gave them each a sugar cookie, then they decorated them with orange frosting and added LOTS of Halloween themed sprinkles - I mean LOTS.  They didn't seem to care that all of the sprinkles fell off if they didn't keep their cookie level once it was time to eat them.  Some of them thought it was even funnier when the sprinkles did fall onto their paper towels - then they could just eat them with their fingers!

Fortunately I remembered to bring a big package of baby wipes with me to help them clean up - their hands were covered in mostly orange, black, and purple - and many of the 1st graders left my table with black lips and teeth!

I added a few photos below of cookies being decorated as well as some of the final products - they looked awesome!   My oldest was super proud that his friends all said his mommy had the best station at the party (well of course they thought that....I had the cookies!)

If you are hosting a Halloween party or volunteering at a class party - this is always a great go to idea!

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

It's that time of year again, for carving pumpkins and toasting the seeds!  I would have liked to have posted this before Halloween, but haven't had the time or energy to do so!  But here it is - a couple of days late!

My family LOVES toasted pumpkin seeds - it's the hubby's job to make them each year.  We do not follow a specific recipe - it all depends on how many pumpkin seeds you have and how you like them to taste! 

What I've shared below are the types of seasonings he adds to our pumpkin seeds (yielded from 4 pumpkins this year).  We taste along the way and adjust the seasonings accordingly.  Since we recently visited Kauai, I had to include some of our Guava Garlic Salt to the sauce that we purchased from Salty Wahine Gourmet.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds - washed, drained, and dried
Melted Butter
Olive Oil
(note the above two items are used to also help the seasonings stick to the seeds)
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Guava Garlic Salt (from Salty Wahine Gourmet)

Spread out pumpkin seeds in a large pan.  Toss with above ingredients (plus more or less!)  Cook in the oven....low and slow.  We set the oven at 200 degrees F.....for hours.  My big brother even cooks them overnight.  If the heat is too high, the pumpkin seeds will toast way too fast and the inside will be chewy.  Continue taste testing them as they cook - add more seasoning as you go if needed.  Once they are crunchy and taste the way you like them, you are done!  Enjoy!

Halloween Guacamole

Looking for a gross, but fun and easy way to serve guacamole during the Halloween season?  Check this out!  I can't take credit for the idea - last fall I found a similar image on Pinterest with the website of My Food Looks Funny.com at the bottom of the picture - I couldn't resist but to give it a try!

You can certainly use store bought guacamole (like I did here) or you can make your own.  Check out my Guacamole with Grapes recipe for another idea.

I bought the tiny pumpkin and carved out a face, put some of the guacamole in it's mouth, then spread the rest on the platter.  Add some tortilla chips and you are done!  

If you dare to make this....I'd love to see your photos!

Happy Halloween!