Spooky Dinner

Every year for Halloween I make my family dinner and add some fun Halloween twist.  I've looked for ideas on line but a lot require too many ingredients or would require Martha Stewart's staff to create.  I try to stick with the "less is more" idea so here are my very simple dinner ideas for this year's Hallows Eve.

I took plain strawberries, washed them and left the stems on.  Then dipped them in white chocolate and used little mini chocolate chips for eyes and a mouth.  The strawberries became "boo" berries!

 For our main course, I took jalapenos, rotisserie chicken and monterey jack cheese, layered them in a tortilla, put them in my panini press, added some black olives and I have a "yummy mummy"!

Add a little salsa for a "bloody yummy mummy"!

To go with the panini, I put a little sour cream in a zip lock bag then cut the tip (my homemade pastry bag).  I used that to write "BOO" in some tomato - I mean "Bloody Soup".  You could also use the sour cream to make a spiderweb.  Just pipe circles and drag a toothpick from the center outward.

And lastly, for dessert....... I just took chocolate cupcakes, added a little frosting and a very large spider (made with Hershey's chocolates and black licorice cut into strips).

Make it simple....make it fun....no need to spend a ton of money or hire a staff!

"Happy Halloween!"  -Jo Newman-Bosak

Carving Pumpkins - The Bosak Way

To know our family is to know that all of our children are very familiar with how to use real power tools.  They have been using band saws, a drill press, chain saws, jig saws, hand drills.......since they were about 3 years old.  We are not sexist in this family.  Equal opportunity for tool usage has been given to our daughter along with her two older brothers.  So.....when it comes to carving a pumpkin, why do it the hard way?  By incorporating power tools, things go a lot faster and I think you can be just as creative without all of those fancy etching and carving tools!

Here's how we did it.  My daughter decided how big she wanted the eyes, nose and mouth.  Based on that, we were able to choose the appropriate drill bits or hole saw.

Then my daughter decided we needed to add some color so we painted the "stripes" of the pumpkin.  She picked out the colors and the order in which we painted them.

No pumpkin is complete without some crazy pipe-cleaners!  I twisted the pipe-cleaners around a pencil, put a dab of hot glue on the tip and then added a pom pom.

Another couple holes drilled and our "creature" has antenna!

Of course, no "bumble bee attacked by a unicorn" would be complete without wings.   I used white pipe cleaners (two for each wing) and twisted them into wing shapes.

I put glue on these pipe cleaners then I pressed them into a sheet of wax paper.

Next, I dabbed glue on the top side of the pipe cleaner wings and pressed another sheet of wax paper on top.

I trimmed the wax paper around the wings.

We drilled another hole and added the two wings.

Here's our scary "bumble bee attacked by a unicorn"!

Oh!  Can't forget that a bumble bee has to have a stinger!

"Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun."  -Mary Lou Cook

My Newest Music Obsession

Any one who knows me knows that I have a very DIVERSE taste in music.  I like to listen to the music my kids like - mostly top 40.  I listen to jazz while I'm at work.  While making dinner, anything with a Spanish flair will do.

Lately however, one group has occupied all of my listening time.  I have become addicted to Mumford & Sons.  I received their newest CD, "Babel", from my friend Lisa for my birthday.  Her daughter Tessa, gave me an earlier CD of theirs, "Sigh No More", because I liked their newest one so much.  While listening to them, much to my children's embarrassment, I dance around the kitchen when I'm cooking and around the house while I'm cleaning.  I also sing out loud in the car and tap my toes at work to their music.

They are a folksy group from the UK.  Check out their website http://www.mumfordandsons.com/.  Try a snippet of their music on i-tunes.  It's almost impossible to listen to their music without moving to the beat!

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silenced."  -Victor Hugo

My Daughter's Book Marks

My daughter and mom do lots of crafty things together.  Sometimes they're quite complicated projects other times they are simple projects that then my daughter turns around and teaches me.  This is one of those projects.  My mom taught her how to make book marks just by folding paper.  Here's how my daughter taught me.

First you need to start with a piece of paper 5" square.  My mom and daughter used double sided pattern paper.  They also used pinking shears to give the paper pretty edges.

Next, fold the paper in half - corner to corner.

Then fold one corner back toward the center fold.

Fold the right corner down, matching the edges.  Do the same with the left corner.

Tuck the right corner and then the left corner into the inside pocket.

There you have it - a book mark!

A simple project that even a 10 year old could teach her mom!

"The more you read, the more things you will know.  The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."  -Doctor Seuss

Chocolate Chip Brownies for Halloween

My daughter and I are in a production of Willy Wonka in December.  My daughter is an Oompa Loompa and I am Grandma Josephine.  Today we had a fundraiser for the performance - a "Candy Extravaganza".  There were lots of games, candy, baskets of goodies, and baked goods.  As I watched the baked goods go out the door, it made me really want to go home and do some baking of my own.

I stopped at the store on the way home and browsed the aisles until I decided on just the right ingredients.  I bought a dark chocolate fudge brownie mix, dark chocolate chips, and white cookie icing.

Here's what I did.....I combined 2 1/4 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, 3/4 of a cup of granulated sugar, 3/4 of a cup of packed light brown sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 eggs and 2 cups of dark chocolate chips.

Once mixed, I pressed the mixture into a greased jelly roll pan.

Then I mixed the dark chocolate brownie mix with 2 eggs, 1/4 of cup of water, 1/2 cup of oil.

I poured the brownie mixture over the top of the cookie dough mixture.

I baked my brownie/cookie mixture in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes - until the brownie mixture was set.

I thought I'd put a little Halloween spin on things and I used the cooking icing to  make little spiderwebs.  I made circles with the icing and then I dragged a toothpick through the circles.  That didn't work too great so then I just drew the spiderweb.  That didn't work too great either.  (Next time I will try white frosting.) 

They still taste wonderful with or without the "spiderwebs"!

"I love being at home and cooking and baking."  -Blake Lively