Great recipes and links in it for Halloween!

Our family room was decorated every year by my teenage son

In honor of the holiday today (Halloween) - This is a repost from 2014 - but has some great recipes and links in it for Halloween!

By the time the kids were preschoolers we had cute little pumpkin window clings and little adorable witches and pumpkins hanging on the fridge.  Little bat cookies soon followed and with the next few years, as the kids got more vocal about decorations... it grew.

By the time my kids were 18, 17 and 13, our Halloween decorations had expanded to pretty much the entire main level of our home from the spiderweb encased front porch to the bloody background graveyard above  our fireplace mantel.  We had flying bats, electronic rats, flying ghosts and fake blood splattered walls with HELP ME written on them by some poor soul.  My son had a BLAST decorating.

We even covered our every day artwork with vampire and ghost inspired art as well as running a smoke and bubble machine!

Yes... our house became a Halloween house - complete with Halloween inspired FOOD.

However, my "Halloween Loving Child" is now a 22 year old guy living on his own about 1,000 miles away... my days of creepy Halloween decorating are over and I'm back to being able to decorate with a pretty little pumpkin, a harvest theme, or cornucopia.  No bloody finger cakes as I don't have a house full of teenagers to appreciate it.  Or eat it all!

Our annual Red Velvet Bloody Finger Cake

Previous Halloween Goodie Posts

Edible Worms
Bloody Red Velvet Finger Cake
Witches Fingers Cookies
Sugar Free and Low Carb Cut Out Sugar Cookies
17 Pumpkin Recipes! Pumpkin Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Bars, Pumpkin Pasta and more

However,  in keeping with the holiday spirit, I started to search for Halloween themed baking pans this morning on Amazon.

I had seen the coolest idea to use a skull cake pan to make not cake, but to homemade pizza calzones.  The bread pressed into the pans with a red pizza sauce and pepperoni filling oozing from it's skull was brilliant!  And it got me thinking about how I wanted to buy a skull pan and ship it to my son... who loves to cook in his apartment and I knew would find skull pizzas an awesome fun idea.

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Related items available through Amazon (and many more items can be launched from  any of the links below):

Wilton Haunted Manors 6-Cavity Pan
      
Wilton Pumpkin Faces 6 Cavity Silicone Mold


Wilton Cake Pans: Halloween Singles Bat Ghost Pumpkin Mini Molds ~ Set of 3



Wilton Dimensions Nonstick 3D Skull Pan




Wilton 2105-8920 Web with Spider Cake Pan Set

Wilton 2105-0679 Halloween Jack-O-Lantern Fluted Cake Pan




Or cupcake liners!

Wilton Graves Baking Cups 75 Pack


Wilton Skull Petal Baking Cup 24 Ct

(11) Eleven Autumn Recipes Featuring Pumpkin

Today is National Pumpkin day so it's a great time to repost this - a list of yummy pumpkin recipes to welcome Fall.

If you need pumpkin pie spice and you don't have it in the pantry, you might already have the spices to make it yourself;

Pumpkin Pie Spice

1 t cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg
1/8 t allspice
1/4 t ginger


Eleven Autumn Recipes Featuring Pumpkin

Pumpkin Griddle Cakes

Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake

Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Bars

Pumpkin Dessert (Made with a Dry Cake Mix!) 

Pumpkin Pie made with Apple Butter

Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Penuche Frosting 

Low Carb, Sugar Free Pumpkin Bars

3 Layer Pumpkin Bars

Pumpkin Muffins with Flaxseed

 

  

 

 

You might also be interested in these related items from Amazon; 

 

Wilton Recipe Right Nonstick 12-Cup Regular Muffin Pan

Wilton Autumn Micro Leaves Sprinkles

Wilton Fall Sprinkles Mix

Wilton Recipe Right 2 Piece Long Loaf Pan Set

Nordic Ware Cast Aluminum Mini-Scone Pan

 

 

 

     

Good Ol' Southern Homecookin' Y'all - Quick & Easy Side Dish - Green Beans with Mushrooms and Bacon

It's a day/night I really don't feel like cooking but I know everyone is going to be really hungry after a busy, full day.  So, into the Crock-Pot when some BBQ Beef Ribs and I didn't think about it the rest of the day. 

That evening I took the ribs out, put them under the broiler (we were out of propane for the grill and I didn't feel like cooking over a campfire that night - all 3 great ways to finish up the ribs for serving) and got the juice from the ribs simmering on the stove with some brown sugar sweetener and reduced sugar ketchup to make a sauce.  It was NOW that I started to think of a side dish.  About 5-10 minutes before serving time. 

Time for some good old Southern style cooking y'all.  Green beans with bacon and mushrooms it is!  You can absolutely use fresh or frozen green beans for this; just cook them on the stove or in the microwave first until tender while the bacon is cooking.

Green Beans with Mushrooms and Bacon

4-6 slices of bacon
1 small can of mushrooms or about 1/2 cup fresh, sliced mushrooms
1-2 cans green beans of your favorite brand and style or fresh/frozen pre-cooked til tender on the stove or microwave

In a large pan fry the bacon, flip and continue cooking til just beginning to crisp.  Add the mushrooms. Continue cooking the bacon and mushrooms together until the bacon is dark golden and crisp and the mushrooms are golden.  Add the drained green beans.  Heat through, season with salt and pepper and serve.







Related products available through Amazon;

Hamilton Beach 33967A Set 'n Forget Programmable Slow Cooker, 6-Quart
BLACK+DECKER SC2007D Slow Cooker, 7 Quart, Teal Wave
Crock-Pot SCCPVL600S Cook' N Carry 6-Quart Oval Manual Portable Slow Cooker, Stainless Steel