I remember the days of Halloween treats for the Kid’s classmates. I miss coming up with an idea and spending time with HBear and SBean making treats for all their friends. Now that the Kids are in high school and middle school… They have said, “No more.“ Lol
But I still want to celebrate Halloween! I always find a punny costume to wear… In the house… By myself lol. I love holidays! I want the excitement of the holiday too! I don’t even get pumpkin patches anymore! Now that the Kids would rather spend their Saturdays working or with their friends, I couldn’t even get them to find a few hours to go for a drive to take some fall pictures with me! Can you believe it? All those years of prepping for Halloween, making costumes, preparing classroom treats, decorating, carving pumpkins, enjoying the pumpkin patch, going through haunted houses, corn mazes, and other fun Halloween adventures… Gone!
I am grieving. Grieving my life with young children. This year the fact that I have tweens/teens in the house has never been more apparent. Last year HBear worked on Halloween and this year she will be spending it with her boyfriend. SBean has always gone out trick-or-treating with Daddy and Papa, but this year asked if she could go out with her friends instead.
BUT, just when I thought all was lost, something amazing happened! SBean confided that she doesn’t really want to go out trick-or-treating with a big group of friends. She is very, very concerned that they will spend more time talking, sitting in a field, or waiting for each other to catch up then actually getting candy. Bean believes that the main goal of Halloween is to get the very most candy that you can, not to wait for the boy that you like to catch up. She has priorities you know? Lol. So, she told all of her friends that she had gymnastics on Halloween and wouldn’t be ready to go out with them in time. Thank goodness her extreme need for candy is letting us have one more year of Halloween, as we have come to know it and love it.
Sad. I’m sorry, Mom and Dad for being so happy and so quick to grow up that I didn’t realize what I was leaving behind and how it made you feel. To cheer myself up from all these realizations, I came up with a few different ways to enjoy Halloween despite all the changes. As the Kids grow up, we will just have to find new traditions and fun for our ever evolving festive family!
This magical cocktail will bewitch you with it’s, delicious flavour, bubbly effervescence, and sparkling shimmer. Try out our Witch’s Brew cocktail this Halloween for a yummy adult trick or treat!
If you were looking for a Halloween book series that infuses history, witches, vampires, and romance… Look no further than the Deborah Harkness Discovery of Witches series. Each book dives into the lives of Diana and Matthew, 2 very powerful magical scientists on their quest to learn more about the genetics of magical beings. This latest book, The Black Bird Oracle delves into high magic and witchcraft! Hauntingly perfect for the Halloween season.
You can’t have Halloween without the perfect Halloween dessert! This is exactly that! This layered dessert is absolutely delicious and ridiculously easy to make, so much so that SBean and her Besty made it before bed so they could have it for breakfast the next morning! Lol Whether you are making this No Bake Pumpkin Lush for dessert or breakfast is completely up to you lol. This pumpkin deliciousness will delight you with its layers of cheesecake, pumpkin, and whipped cream!
When my Sister and I lived together, we celebrated Halloween with homemade French onion soup and Caesar salad. Unfortunately, my Kids do not want to continue our Halloween traditions lol. So, I am always looking for a fun and festive Halloween dinner to make that will be quick and easy to make before the mad rush out the door to go trick-or-treating. These Bloody Finger Hot Dogs are the perfect Halloween dinner! Gory, yummy, quick, and easy! Don’t forget the blood I mean, ketchup!
I couldn’t leave Oliver out when it comes to Halloween treats! I baked him some easy, 4 ingredient Pumpkin & Peanut Butter Dog Treats to get into the season as well!
Ingredients
1.5 oz Vodka
0.5 oz Blue Curaçao
0.5 oz Chambord
1 oz pomegranate juice
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
splash of Club Soda
blackberries & edible glitter, for garnish
Directions
Rim the edge of glass with simple syrup and then dip into edible glitter.
In a shaker, combine vodka, Blue Curaçao, Chambord, pomegranate juice, lemon juice, and simple syrup. Add ice.
Shake well. Strain the into prepared coupe glass. Top with a splash of club soda.
Skewer a few blackberries on a cocktail pick and place it across the top of the glass. Sprinkle a tiny amount of edible glitter on top to finish.
The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness: This is book 5 in the All Souls “Trilogy”. This book isn’t about Diana and Matthew, it is about Diana. They all are, but this one delves into Diana‘s history with higher magic and prophecy. I loved that this book was more about witches than vampires. I am very excited for the next book and where Diana‘s path will take her, her vampire husband and their bright born twins.
Ingredients
1 ½ cups crushed graham crackers
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (8 oz) block cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 (8 oz) container Cool Whip
12 oz evaporated milk
15 oz pumpkin puree
1 (5.1 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Directions
In a bowl combine the crushed graham crackers and melted butter. Press the graham crackers into the bottom of a 9x9 pan.
In a medium mixing bowl combine the softened cream cheese and powdered sugar with an electric mixer. Fold in 3/4 of the tub of Cool Whip.
Spread the cream cheese mixture onto the crust carefully.
In a medium mixing bowl using an electric mixer combine the evaporated milk, pumpkin puree, instant pudding and pumpkin pie spice.
Spread the pumpkin mixture over the cream cheese mixture. Top with the remaining Cool Whip and sprinkle with a little cinnamon.
Refrigerate for 4 hours before serving. You can also freeze this, just let it thaw for 30 minutes before serving.
Ingredients
4 hot dogs
4 buns
ketchup
water
Directions
Start a large pot of water boiling on the stove.
To make the fingernails, slice the two sides of the fingernail, then straight across the top. Then make a slight curved slice for the bottom nail bed. Next, take your knife and carefully slice the fingernail piece off the top.
Next, to make the knuckles, make one slit along the middle with two crescent slits directly above and below it. Then halfway between the new knuckle and the nail, make two crescent slits. And add two more crescent-shaped slits at the very bottom.
Boil the hot dogs for 4-5 minutes.
Then place each "finger" into a hot dog bun loaded with ketchup - be sure to smear some ketchup on the bottom of each "severed finger" and a bit at the top of the bun.
Pumpkin & Peanut Butter Dog Treats
24
servings15
minutes12
minutesIngredients
2 cups flour
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 ripe banana, mashed
Directions
Preheat your oven to 375 F.
Mix pumpkin, banana & peanut butter in a bowl.
Stir in the flour & combine into a dough.
Roll out dough on a floured surface. Cut out shapes with favourite cookie cutters.
Place treats on a baking sheet, about a half an inch apart. Bake for 12 minutes.
Check out How Was Your Week, Honey? Episode #401 Like Cheap Cologne. This week, we get together to discuss: Witches Brew, Halloween treats, costumes, Trick or Treating, too old for babies, Provincial Election, SOW, Taylor time, and refs.
My week was basically spent in bed. I early voted in the BC provincial election and then got my flu and Covid vaccinations, which left my energy, depleted. I was out cold one afternoon and was woken up by ferocious winds and violent hail! Someone on Facebook shared a picture of a funnel cloud that was starting near the Penticton airport! We don’t get tornadoes in the valley! The storm pounded us… And then it was gone! Unfortunately, the rest of the province didn’t fair as well and there is major flooding from atmospheric rivers throughout BC. But there’s no such thing as climate change folks, lol!
I found my Jesus pencil! It has been my lucky pencil topper for every hockey pool in the past decade and I’ve always been a winner! Two years ago I misplaced it and I haven’t won a hockey pool since! Thank Jesus I finally found it Lol. Bean had a busy week, helping me peel carrots for dinner, practising her aerial off the balance beam, attending drop in gymnastics with her TalentShowBestie, tackling Costco on a Saturday with Daddy, went to see Bad Robot with HBear, and got destroyed Playing Mario Brothers 3 with me lol. HBear had her new boyfriend over to watch Lala Land and I tried out SBean’s new Fenty lipstick from her Ipsy bag!
