Halloween, a little late;)

Hey everyone, it will be a quick post tonight as today was my first day back at work and I'm wiped (and also coming down with a cold/throat thing I think - lots of tea, and I slept 2 hours this afternoon). Anyways, on "real" Halloween, the husband had homecoming at his college and I spent the day with Melissa, Angela, Chandrea, and Jess having our own Halloween lunch (I made dirt and worms, otherwise known as trifle;)), so yesterday we found time to have our Halloween meal:) I spent alot of time on my island couch finding cute recipes that would be good, enjoyable, funny, and easy. I was in luck, as there were plenty! They took about an hour total, and are totally kid friendly help-wise. I hope you enjoy the descriptions and pics!!

Mummy Hotdogs:

Preheat oven to 375
I used 4 hotdogs, and boiled them until cooked
1 pkg of Pillsbury breadsticks - I took 4 of the breadstick dough things and wrapped them around the hotdogs, leaving room for eyeballs, to look like mummys:)
Baked in the oven about 12 minutes, or until breadsticks start to turn golden. When removed from the oven, use whatever you would like for eyeballs (I used just mustard drops). My husband then went onto bloody them up with more mustard and ketchup;) So yum with the breadsticks - much lighter than a hotdog roll!

Jack-o-lantern Pizza:

Preheat oven to 450
I bought dough in the deli section of the grocery store, so I made one dough package into a circle and placed it onto a greased (with Pam spray) pizza pan.
Place as much sauce and toppings as you'd like - I used sauce and then alot of pepperoni
Use any type of pizza cheese on top of that layer and make sure that sauce/pepperoni layer is completely covered - I used a mix of italian shredded cheese and sharp cheddar.
Cut a green pepper into thin slices to use to make the outline of the jack-o-lantern; cut one thicker for the stem you can put on after it comes out of the oven. Cut pepperoni or anything else into the shapes for eyes/nose/mouth as you prefer:)
Bake for about 13 minutes (that's when my crust was done to how we prefer) and enjoy!

Let me tell you, the husband loved both, and loved the look of the pizza, but I know my husband, and I know he likes pepperoni on his pizza. I knew he'd be "disappointed" looking at it and seeing only minimal pepperoni for the facial features. When he bit in and realized there was a whole layer of pepperoni underneath the cheese, he was in heaven:)

Just making some good ole healthy salmon tonight, so going to go start that now and have some more tea. Fingers crossed for me! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the pumpkin pie/crust/whipped cream recipe, that will come probably tomorrow:) Have a great and beautiful evening, everyone (the weather in MA is fab - very disappointed I couldn't get out and enjoy today b/c I was so tired:(

Food, keep me warm!

So fall in New England is awesome - the leaves, fall sports, and finally the warm comfort food recipes come out of hiding! It was another casserole for Friday evening the 30th. It happened to be the evening that the kids in the development we live in were coming around trick-or-treating, so it was something easy to keep watch over while we awaited them with our big bag of candy thing:)

This casserole is definitely something you could pull together on a busy night, as most ingredients are probably those you'd have in your fridge or freezer. Think of it as a larger chicken pot pie but with cheese - warm, melty cheese.

In a large bowl I combined 1 can, 10 3/4 oz condensed cream of potato soup (love the chunks), 1 cup of milk, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 cups of cooked chicken, cut into small pieces, and 1 16oz bag of frozen, but thawed carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. To this mixture I added 1/2 cup shredded orange cheese and a half cup of those can fried onions that are always so very hard to find at the grocery store - they put them in odd places, and never in the same place at different chains. Anyways, I mixed this all up and put it into a 9x13 pan, covered that with foil, and baked it at 350 for 25 minutes (preheated the oven first of course). After the 25 minutes, I took the foil off and popped open a can of crescent rolls. I rolled them all out, not forming them into cresent shapes, but cutting them into strips to make a lattice over the mixture. I then baked the casserole 15 minutes longer, uncovered, and after those 15 minutes added more cheese and fried onions on top and cooked it again uncovered about 4 more minutes, until the cheese melted and the onions browned a bit. Let me say = yum yum yum! I think the parents traveling with the trick-or-treaters wanted some! Maybe next year;) Anyways, this recipe was adapted from cooks.com, and it was the perfect chilly fall night meal. Will definitely be making this again, and maybe next time adding just a bit of spice (the husband that loves spice added hot sauce to his). It was the perfect amount and combo of veggies, meat, sauce, yummy bread, and the crunch - you always need some crunch in your meals - helps you stay away from those vending machines!

Next time - a meal that I DON'T have to follow a recipe for, which is not common :) Till then, enjoy eating!