When I saw this idea on FamilyFun I was delighted and eager to try it out for my own family. The beautiful photo above is from the FamilyFun website and while ours didn't turn out quite as perfect as theirs did it was still pretty whimsical..and delicious!! Check out the how-to below and the photos of our own little snack-o-lantern.
Snack-o-Lanterns
Ingredients
Naval Orange
Fresh or canned fruit salad
Instructions
1. To make one lantern, use a small knife to slice the top off a navel orange and cut around its interior to hollow it out. Scoop out the orange segments, chop them, and mix them with canned or fresh fruit salad.
2. Carve small facial features in one side of the orange, then cut a slit in the lid to accommodate the handle of a green plastic spoon. Fill the lantern with fruit salad. Insert the spoon and set the lid in place.
Carving out a face in a flimsy orange peel is definitely trickier than it looks..but the end result is well worth it. My little guy squeeled in delight when I served this up as dessert.
Yes..it's ANOTHER Halloween post. Don't groan..it is that time of the year and it just so happens to be my very favorite holiday. Having to try out our new spooky shaped cookie cutters I poured through my cookbooks to find a sugar cookie recipe to fit the bill. Of course the recipe I settled upon was by none other than the fabulous Martha Stewart. The first batch of cookies I whipped up I was honestly not very impressed with..but after we decided not to roll out our dough as thin and baked for a little less time we ended up with perfect, chewy and delicious cookies.
Sugar Cookies ala Martha (adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook)
Be forewarned..this recipe makes A LOT of cookies.
Ingredients
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp. salt
5 cups flour
Directions
1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and salt, stir until combined. Add flour in 2 batches, mixing until just incorporated.
2. Divide dough in half. Pat into flattened discs and wrap each disc in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or keep up to 1 week.
3. Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface roll dough out to 1/2 inch thickness. Using cookie cutters cut out shapes and transfer to prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes. Allow cookies to cool and firm on cookie sheet before transferring.
4. Once cookies have completely cooled decorate as desired. Icing slides right off of warm cookies..so be patient!!
We also made up some ghosts and bats..but those dissapeared much too quickly to take any photographs of!!
We had entirely too much fun making these apple print pumpkins just in time for Halloween. The pumpkins were created my dipping sliced apple halves in orange paint and the stems were made by finger painting with some green.
Yes my pre-schooler loves painting shirtless.
A guaranteed way to keep baby quiet and satisfied during craft time is to give her a project of her very own. Pudding painting is a classic..messy..fun..delicious..AND provides lots of precious photo ops. Say it with me now...awwwwwwwwwwwwww. We added some food coloring to the basic vanilla to give our pudding a pumpkin hue perfect for Halloween.
And her shirt in case you were wondering says - "Brunettes do it better"..borrowed from Mommy. :p
This weekend I hosted a small Halloween get together at my place which was the perfect opportunity to try out some new holiday recipes. Here are a few of the items I ended up serving..all are pretty simple to throw together and budget friendly. The Oreo balls (which were featured in an earlier post) were by far the favorite of the night.
First off were my favorite...devilled eggs topped with black olive spiders. I used my favorite devilled egg recipe which can be found at kraftcanada.com. These honestly do not take very much time at all to put together. Do NOT be intimidated. The spiders were simply made my cutting up some canned black olives. Half an olive serves as the spiders body and thin cut pieces make creepy crawly legs. 
The group favorite as I earlier mentioned were the Oreo Balls. The design on top I created by dipping frozen Oreo Balls into melted Bakers sweet chocolate and then topping with Halloween themed sprinkles.
The bottom design was created by dipping each pre-frozen Oreo Ball into melted white Bakers chocolate and then attaching slivers of thin cut licorice strips to the sides and top. A red smartie tops it all off which was also supposed to be dotted with a little melted dark chocolate to form a pupil. In the madness of the afternoon that was a step that was lost in the mix. Oh well. They still looked half decent nonetheless. Believe or not they actually taste BETTER than they look. These suckers are dangerous.
For directions on how to make the No-Bake Oreo Balls check out Canadian Family.
Last but not least I had to try putting together some blood rimmed glasses like the ones I had originally seen at Hostess with the Mostess.
The "blood" was made with a package of candy apple mix that I found at a local grocery store. The best of both worlds - a set of spooky stemware AND a dozen candy coated apples. YUMM.
Trick or treat?? How about just a little bit of each?? :)
After seeing some spooky seasonal frames in my local craft store I was inspired to create something similar myself at home . These frames are budget friendly, easy to put together, a fun family craft and a great Halloween keepsake.
What You'll Need -
Some sturdy cardboard (we cut up a diaper box we had put aside for recycling)
Exacto knife
Ruler
Paint and paintbrush
Googly eyes of varying sizes
White glue
A silly photograph
Scotch or masking tape
A small piece of magnet (we cut a piece off of a roll we purchased at a local dollar store)
How-To
1. Measure and cut a square from your cardboard using dimensions of your preference. We made our frame 6x6 inches. Trim a hole in the center of your square leaving 1 inch of space on all sides.
2. Have your child paint the frame in your favorite seasonal color, we chose black. Adhere googly eyes all over the frame, randomosity is key.
3. Print out and trim your photo to fit the dimensions of your frame. Once the frame has dried flip it over and secure the photo to the back of your frame using scotch or masking tape. Glue the strip of magnet to the back, top edge of your frame and allow ample drying time.
4. To finish off your spooky framework glue googly eyes over the eyes of the person in the photograph. Now stick your creation to the fridge, stand back and admire your handiwork.
My little guy is VERY proud of the finished product. I have a total creative mastermind on my hands here. :)
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