Alice in Wonderland Halloween costume

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10 Tricky Treats to make this Halloween (Creepy Halloween Party Food!)

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My mom always makes the coolest food for her office holiday parties. She's very creative and an awesome cook! This week, she emailed me the link to what she made for the Halloween party, Melted Witches. People are so creative!

If you have a Halloween party this weekend or just want to make something fun for your family on Halloween, here are tutorials for 10 Tricky Treats!

Melted Witches by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

Blood Slide Suckers by Forkable

Trick or Treats Cake Pops by Bakerella

Eyeball Caprese by Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories

Witch's Fingers by Magda's cauldron

Ghost Cake by i am baker

Jell-O Worms by The Idea Room

Halloween Cupcakes by My Cake School

Screaming Red Punch with Hand by Real Simple

Yummy Mummy Cupcakes by BH

If you're in the mood for less trick and more treat, check out Libby's Glazed Pumpkin Cookies, made by me!

Libby's Glazed Pumpkin Cookies by SweeterThanSweets

Travel Around the World in One Minute

I caught the travel bug when I was 20.

I studied abroad in England and traveled more than I had in my entire lifetime up til that point. That year, I fell in love with traveling. (That also happened to be the year that I realized that I was going to marry my now-husband-of-almost-10-years. Yes, it was a good year.)

We love to travel but when we can't, I'm almost as happy traveling vicariously through other people. If you're an armchair traveler too, here's an awesome 1-minute long travel video of this guy:

The story behind the video, in their own words:

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ....into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films.....

= a trip of a lifetime.

You'll want to watch this in full-screen HD (and probably more than once):



MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Two of my favorite reasons to travel are the titles of their other 2 videos, LEARN and EAT.

Cookie Fail

The other day, I attempted a different kind of Pumpkin Cookie. It failed miserably.

Here it is, my first attempt of using a cookie mold pan:

I want to share the destruction here because, as I said in the disclaimer on the About Me page, what you see on this blog just represents a part of my life. I don't usually share the messes or failures but every once in awhile, I believe it's good for the soul (yours and mine!).

What did I do wrong? Has anyone ever used these shaped cookie pans before? I used cooking spray and followed a sugar cookie recipe specifically for this kind of pan. But still, only one turned out right. If you've used these pans successfully for sugar cookies, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Anyway, since these were meant to be for the girls at my MOPs table for the next day's meeting, I had to reevaluate my approach and ended up making roll-out sugar cookies and using a pumpkin cookie cutter. Then I used orange-colored royal icing and piped on lines with melted chocolate.

Not what I planned (and my kitchen was a disaster) but that's life sometimes. I think next time I'll just stick with my tried-and-true Libby's Glazed Pumpkin Cookies!

Libby's Glazed Pumpkin Cookies Recipe

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You've been waiting for this (even if you didn't know it).

I gave you a sneak peek of these soft pumpkin cookies last Saturday. They are so delicious and this is coming from someone who doesn't even like pumpkin pie! In fact, this is the only pumpkin-y treat that I'll eat.

Have I convinced you? Now here's the recipe for Libby's Glazed Pumpkin Cookies (courtesy of VeryBestBaking.com) so you can taste for yourself how yummy these are!

Printable recipe available here.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
• 1 cup Libby's® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Glaze (recipe follows)

Make sure you use 100% Pure Pumpkin (not Pumpkin Pie Filling!)

 

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease baking sheets.

COMBINE flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Beat sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets.

BAKE for 15 to 18 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

 

For Glaze: (Optional, but yummy)

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 1 Tablespoon melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

COMBINE powdered sugar, milk, melted butter and vanilla extract in small bowl until smooth.

DRIZZLE, POUR, OR SPOON over cooled cookies.

Bonus points: Pure pumpkin puree is an amazing source of Vitamin A and a good source of Vitamin C, Vitamin K, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene (see the full nutritional data here.)

When you make these cookies, you'll have a little bit of pureed pumpkin left over. I always let Little Sweets eat what's left over and she loves it. Pure pumpkin puree was one of the healthy "homemade" baby foods I gave her when she was first starting solids.

In case you're wondering, No. This is not a sponsored post.
I just love Libby's Glazed Pumpkin Cookies.

Our trip to California - Part 2: Pumpkin Patch

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A Perfect Saturday.

Today has been a perfect Saturday.

I slept in until 8 a.m., then made myself a delicious double-tall White Chocolate Mocha. It tasted like the cappuccinos that my Sweets and I enjoyed at the cafe near our hotel in Rome (after we added 4 sugars to it).

Then our little family enjoyed a brunch of waffles with fresh-cut strawberries, scrambled eggs and a Fall favorite of mine, Libby's Glazed Pumpkin Cookies!

I'm going to share the not-so-secret recipe for these Pumpkin Cookies later this week so stay tuned! Here's the recipe for Libby's Glazed Pumpkin Cookies.

After we stuffed ourselves, we settled into a couch full of blankets and pillows for Family Movie Morning. Little Sweets can't really sit through a whole movie, but it was so cozy and I got lots of cuddles from her and my Sweets.

Then nap time for Little Sweets and time to get ready for a date night tonight, courtesy of our MOPs chapter. Tonight I'm going to enjoy some quality time with my hubby!

In other words... it's a Perfect Saturday.

How to "No Carve" a Pumpkin: Ideas for Halloween

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I got a little sidetracked while editing my pumpkin patch photos (coming soon) from our trip to California...

I was thinking that since Little Sweets is just 2, we won't be teaching her how to handle a pumpkin-carving knife quite yet. Here are some amazing no-carve pumpkin decorating tutorials:

Lacy Pumpkin by BHG

Painted Pumpkin by Alisa Burke

Glamorous Pumpkin with Rhinestones by BHG

Sparkly Pumpkins by The Swell Life

Rick Rack Pumpkins by Eddie Ross

Breast Cancer Awareness Pumpkins by The Swell Life

Decoupage Pumpkins by Little Birdie Secrets

Tangled Web Pumpkin by BHG

Glittery Pumpkin by BHG

Chalkboard Pumpkins by Your Home Only Better

Painted Pumpkin by A Beautiful Mess

If you want some Halloween costume inspiration, check out my other posts:

The cutest handmade DIY kids costumes,

The cutest handmade kids costumes on Etsy, and

The 15 best family-friendly DIY adult costumes

Are you carving or no-carving this Halloween?

Our trip to California - Part 1: San Francisco and Apple Hill

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California Love

We just got back from a trip to California to meet our newborn niece and spend time with the rest of our families. Little Sweets is in withdrawal from all the fun she had with her many cousins, aunties, uncles and grandparents!

I can't wait to share more pictures with you soon! Now all I have to do is download the rest, pick the best ones, edit them, and post them... =)

Also on the back-from-vacation to-do list: ditch the pounds we picked up feasting on our favorite California cuisine like See's candies, Baja Fresh, BJ's Pizza (or, more specifically, Pizookies) and of course, In-N-Out Burger.