Bone-Warming Chili, Mummy Halloweenies, Spider's Blood Sparklers & Peanut Butter Candy Krispies!

Peanut Butter Candy Krispies, Boo Plates and a 3 D Black Cat Standing guard over our treats!!!

I just love Halloween! 

There are so many festive foods, drinks, costumes! It is such fun!

The creepy paper platter came from Hobby Lobby.
The colors of Reeses Pieces already look like Halloween!

I took plastic spider  rings and hung them on the sides of orange, green and red glasses.

You know we have to have a signature cocktail here...

Spiders Blood Sparklers: 2 Cups Pomegranate juice and a bottle of Prosecco. Garnish with
spider rings and fresh pomegranate seeds!

To add some drama...I added a bit of dry ice.
Dry ice is poison if ingested, so we just used a bit for effect. We drank a bit from this pitcher,
but the dry ice causes bubbling, so it was leaving our drink flat.
We had a back up pitcher for fresh, bubbly drinks!

Buzzzy...working on Mummy Halloweenies!

I rolled out crescent rolls and cut them into strips.
I wrapped them around 16 all beef hot dogs.
I placed them on parchment and baked them.

375 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until golden!

I added mustard eyes and served with a Dijon Oregano mustard!
Dijon Oregano Mustard: 1/2 cup creamy Dijon & 1 Tbsp dried oregano. Stir & serve!

We also had our Bone-Warming Chili...but I think I will blog that recipe later. 

We were visited by cowboys, Darth Vader, several Screams & even the Phantom of the Opera!

Watching parents and kids enjoy this time together is the most magical part of the evening.

I hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween!

I feel like this October has been one of the happiest and most festive we have had in quite a while.

I'm looking forward to moving into this season of Thankfulness. 

I hop you are too!

We had several opportunities to carve pumpkins this October, so I'll leave you with a our pumpkin carving pictures...La Bonne Vie Y'all!!!

Pumpkin Carving with Family and Friends!

We are a creative bunch!

We love cats!!!

On Halloween night we filled this Jack's head with green and purple glow sticks and some dry ice...
fog was flowing out of its face.
Can you see the outline of Remy in his cat tower looking at our Jack o Lantern?

The Hubs is excellent at carving!

The Cheshire Cat!!!

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Spice French Toast!

Pumpkin Spice French Toast with Applewood Smoked Bacon

Since Halloween is on a Friday, you will want to have a delicious breakfast for the morning after all that Trick or Treating!

This is a is a perfect way to recharge!

Ingredients: 8 slices of whole wheat bread, 1/2 cup milk, 3 eggs, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 3/4 cup canned pumpkin

Whisk eggs, milk, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice.

Dip each side of the bread in the mix.

Cook on a hot skillet or griddle and flip after 1-2 mins.

This makes 4 servings of 2 slices each.

I topped mine with a little whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon.

Check back in and see all of the fun we have on Halloween!

La Bonne Vie Y'all!

Getting Ready for Halloween...and Remembering Mason!

As it gets closer to Halloween, the Hubs and I love watching Halloween movies.  I don't like the scary ones...I know, so what do you watch?

My Current Halloween Movie list:

Hotel Transylvania

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Icabod Crane (Disney's Headless Horseman)

Beetlejuice

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Alice in Wonderland (Johnny Depp version)

Dark Shadows

and my favorite Halloween movie...

Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein! 

This puts me in mind of Mason and I going to see Sleepy Hollow many years ago at about this same time of year...

One thing that Mason and I loved to do (other than eat) was go to the movies. We saw so many movies together. 

Haha...this reminds me...

Back when Shakespeare In Love came to the theaters, Mason and I went to see it. I was in college and I was smitten with Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in the movie).

I went to meet Mason (I think we were going to a movie) and she pulled a folded piece of paper out of her purse. 

"Here. I got this for you", she said.

I unfolded a magazine page which she had torn out of that month's People at her beauty shop. 

I looked at it...then at her...

"Thanks...why do I have this?" I asked.

"It's that Shakespeare you like from the movie", she said.

"Ummm...no. This is his brother. Ralph."

"Oh. Are you sure? Well, he's nice looking too", she said.

Movie Joseph stars in...

Joseph Fiennes...

Ralph Fiennes...Joseph's older brother...

Movie Ralph stars in...

She did stuff like that all the time. She made me laugh. She still makes me laugh.

One Halloween, my friend Bran and I decided to dress up as some of Mason's favorite characters.

While my crush was on Joseph Fiennes (not his older brother), Mason's was Mel Gibson. 

So Bran and I dressed as Braveheart (complete with blue face paint) and...

...Indiana Jones.

When Mason came to her door that Halloween, she was laughing so hard we thought she was going to stop breathing. 

We loved doing things for her to make her laugh.

As I watch some of our favorite Halloween movies and get ready for all those cute trick or treaters, I remember Mason.

So, maybe you surprise someone this Halloween...but instead of scaring them...make them laugh, like Bran and I did for Mason...

Bran & I dressed and ready to surprise Mason!

Enjoy this time of year! 

And Enjoy my favorite clip from this Halloween Movie!

Gene Hackman & Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein.

La Bonne Vie Y'all!

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Homemade Halloween Wreath! Really Easy!

I really like Halloween. 

Not all the scary stuff...I actually can't watch scary movies at all. It's too scary and affects me too much.

But I love dressing up, making Jack 'o lanterns (the Hubs is especially good at that), and all those cute little trick or treaters! Two years ago we had a big sister dressed as a bunny and a little brother dressed as a carrot- it was adorable!!!

We get lots of trick or treaters, so I'm pretty serious about making sure we have enough candy. This year we have over 10 lbs of it! 

So, now to the wreath...

I saw this wreath idea on Pinterest. There were no instructions written out- just a picture. But I used my imagination and here is what I did!

Of course you need the help of cute black cats!
As you can see Remy was helping. You can see Minnie in the bottom left corner wondering,
"What is all this shiny stuff, mom?

I found what I needed at Hobby Lobby and Party City.

Needed tools:

1 foam wreath (your desired size)

enough black boas to cover your wreath

bag of floral pins

black ribbon

hot glue & hot glue gun

decorations (lime/bright green, purple, orange Christmas balls, glittery pumpkins,whatever you choose)

I wrapped my black and silver boa around my foam wreath.
As I wrapped it around I used floral pins to hold it in place.

You might have to unwrap and re-wrap until you get the desired fullness.
Minnie found an orange ribbon to play with in the background.

Apparently, Remy loved the bright green Christmas balls.
These cats were so helpful!

Hot glue the balls and glittery pumpkins to the floral pins and insert them into the wreath to create your desired arrangement.

The Hubs threaded the floral pins into the ball tops and through the foam bottoms of the pumpkins. You can do whatever works best for you. If the Hubs wasn't helping, I would have used the hot glue.

Attach the ribbon with floral pins and hang with the ribbon.

Isn't it cute?!

It looks great with a few pumpkins and a mum on the porch.

We look like we are ready for all of those tiny trick or treaters!

La Bonne Vie Y'all!

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