Halloween 'Finger' Food!!

To me, one of the biggest challenges at Halloween (aside from eating all the treats before giving them out) is coming up with new, 'cool looking' treats to serve at our party. In our 8 years of annual extravaganzas, we've learned that salty trumps sweet and people gravitate towards the dips and chips vs. the cookies and cakes. This may be a little different at kid parties, or work parties, but when there's alcohol involved, there's definitely a greater interest in savory.

Despite this, you're pretty hard-pressed to find a savory recipe anywhere, that looks good on its own - that is, it looks good without a name tag explaining what it's supposed to be. If I have to stick a toothpick in something explaining it, it's not as fun to me, I want to look at it and be grossed out/amazed right away! This year's new treat requirements also included the ability to be served cold, quick to prep and it couldn't be a dip (I already had 3 planned) - bonus points if it was cheap!

Somehow, thanks to Pinterest, I found a winner!! Thankfully, it's still okay to have high standards for Halloween treats! ;) Behold... Halloween 'Finger' Food!

Halloween Witches' Brooms

October is EASILY the busiest month of the year for me. Sure Christmas is hectic, but the minute October hits, it's officially Halloween season, and myself and the hubby can be found all over the city checking out the latest Halloween props at whatever store carries them! Between costume planning, prop building and party prepping, October seems to fly by and yet again, here we are with 6 days to go for our annual Extravaganza!

Tonight I was testing some quick and easy treats for next weekend's party, and thought it would be great to share on the blog... as you may have noticed, there has been a lack of posting since October set in ;)

Anywho, if you're looking for an easy treat to make, this is it! I won't take the credit for the idea as I saw it online, cropped the picture, and now I have no idea where it's from! I do remember there were no instructions with it, so I've listed below how I made it happen :)

The Proper Way to Eat Chips!

Face it, unless you're at a social gathering, you're eating your chips straight outta the bag! This can be bad enough when you're eating alone - you're rolling up your sleeve, avoiding greasy knuckles - let alone when your sharing the bag - adding a second hand to the equation, or even worse, a third! All of a sudden it stops being about eating chips and your instincts force you into survival of the fittest (fattest?!) - rules are out the window, and mess is an afterthought as you fight your way to eating the most chips of everyone involved.

Now, suppose I told you there was a better way? An easier way to indulge your love of tasty potato chips? A superior way to share with a friend, without (God forbid?!) dirtying a bowl! Suppose I were to share a little tip - something I learned from my chip-loving father? Suppose I introduced you to a little technique that will forever change the way you eat a bag of chips?! Behold, The Goblet!

BAM!

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for any weight-gain resulting from use of this technique! Use at your own risk.

How to throw a 'Nerdy Thirty' Birthday Bash!

What happens when two slightly nerdy buddies turn 30 within 3 weeks of one another? Why, a Nerdy Thirty party, that's what!

Somewhere in the midst of summer, my hubby and our close friend both hit their 30th birthday milestone. Neither of the two were too interested in a big celebration, but since they were the first to 'level up' in our group, we knew they had to do it in style. Combining all their favourite nerdy themes, we created the ultimate Nerdy Thirty Birthday Bash, and in the end, two very happy nerdy 30 year old's ;)

I know this is a food blog, but we had such fun with the decorations that I wanted to include those as well, so without further ado, here's how you throw a Nerdy Thirty Birthday Bash!


For starters, get people interested from the beginning with some quality invite copy!

and finding a great picture of those being celebrated, is always a nice touch too!

Halloween photos are perfect for this!

Enchilada Pizza

What a crazy-wonderful-busy-fun summer I've been having! Lots of cake baking, party planning... more cake baking, traveling, beach fires, camp fires, BBQs and relaxation with friends and family. All the things that make summers so much fun! Now... in the midst of all that, I'm just a litttttle bit guilty of neglecting all of you - it's been over a month since my last post :O But have no fear, with summer winding down, and a back-log of posts ready to write and share, that stops now! Starting with this yum-tastic recipe, Enchilada Pizza!


This recipe is a result of 3 things:
#1. Realizing beans aren't so bad after all (especially when re-fried)
#2. Going through a brief Mexican food obsession
#3. Having pizza dough on hand but not wanting my usual goat cheese/sundried tomato/bacon/balsamic glaze version (which is pretty awesome too... just saying).

Anywho, after adjusting the amounts of certain ingredients, and giving it several taste tests, I can proudly post this to my blog. I love it and so does the hubby! I think I surprised him with this one, so yummy and so filling!

Old School 'Mario' Kraft Dinner

At the risk of losing all legitimacy I’ve established to date, I bring to you this amazing ‘recipe’ – Old School ‘Mario’ Kraft Dinner, a.k.a. my vice!  Now, before you ream me out for posting a ‘recipe’ for a pre-packaged product with all kinds of preservatives and hard-to-pronounce ingredients (this coming on the heels of my granola bar post about trying to avoid these types of things), I can’t help myself. This is my crack! I could seriously eat Kraft Dinner every day for the rest of my life and never grow sick of it. If I know it’s in the house, it doesn’t stand a chance!

I’m probably revealing too much about myself at the moment, but I don’t possess the control to put the spoon down! Every box of Kraft Dinner is a shameful gorge-fest. A straight-out-of-the-pot, using my ‘kraft dinner spoon’ (yes I have a special spoon), eat ‘til it’s gone type meal, that sends me into a world of shame/happiness – don’t judge and don’t dare ask me to share.

Now, this ‘recipe’ is for the old school Kraft Dinner I remember from childhood. Any true Kraft Dinner connoisseur recognizes the merits of each variety of KD, and likely holds one of them as a favourite. Original is nothing but a tasty time, and I LOVE me some spirals, I even enjoyed the KD spaghetti they tested out for a while, but for me, nothing compares to the taste of the character Kraft Dinner!

To be honest, I’m not sure why they gave up on the stuff? Maybe it was a cost thing, maybe for some bizarre reason it wasn’t a big seller? Or maybe they just stopped selling it where I live? Either way, it’s something I think they should seriously consider bringing back! But until then, for those of you out there longing to chinch yourself full of cheesy-character-pasta-goodness, this recipe is for you!  

Roasted Garlic

Two summers ago, myself and the hubby jetted off to San Fransisco for our honeymoon! What a friggin fantastic time, that was! We loved it there! There was so much to do and see, and let's not forget, eat! And eat we did! In fact, when I shared my photos once we were home, we were asked by several people if we did anything there BESIDES eat! haha It was round about that time, I realized my slight obsession with food and posting pictures of it ;)

In any case, one of our favourite restaurants was easily The Stinking Rose. This restaurant was located in North Beach, the Italian area of San Fran, and featured garlic in every dish on its menu - including their Ice Cream! Which, for anyone wondering, was surprisingly delicious! We would eat there again in a heartbeat if we could, so naturally we purchased the restaurant's cookbook!

Chewy Homemade Granola Bars

Reading the side of a granola bar package can be pretty jaw-dropping at times, and may require a degree in chemistry - a dictionary, at the very least! Personally, I'm tired of reading about all the 'crap' I'm ingesting, and am taking it upon myself more and more to prepare things at home with basic ingredients. Now, I realize a lot of the ingredients I'm using are processed to some degree, but at least I'm cutting out the preservatives and flavour enhancers.

This is the second granola bar recipe I've tested, and I have to admit, I prefer it to any of the packaged bars I've had. I think the pumpkin and spices really make it stand out, plus I enjoy the pistachios! These bars received rave reviews at work and were one of the recipes that convinced my coworker to purchase The Looneyspoons book! Oh... and most important, they're pretty quick to throw together!

St. John's Farmers' Market - A Newbies Guide!

Last summer I made a promise to myself that I would start doing more of the things I wanted to do vs. just talking about them. The St. John's Farmers' Market fell into that category - something I always wanted to check out, but never got around to. Yesterday, I happily attended my very first St. John's Farmers' Market!

For those of you who are newbies like me, it can be a little confusing when trying to figure out where you have to go. It's located in the Lion's Club Chalet behind the parking lot of the Re/Max Centre, on Bonaventure Avenue. I will advise, parking is a bit intense - even for the calm parking lot driver - so if you suffer from parking lot rage, you may want to park across the street... or bus it, or walk ;)

We managed to snag a spot in the Re/Max parking lot, then proceeded to the lion's club after slight confusion... after seeing what looked like a few stands, plus the hula hoopers we determined we should go to the building pictured below. So I repeat for newbies, it's NOT in the Re/Max Centre, it's in the building that says 'Lion's Park'.

As you can imagine, she's a little packed on the inside, but not unbearable - you can also escape out the back door for more vendors and some fresh air! There's everything from handmade soaps, to crafts, to artwork and lots and lots of food - the wonderful aroma of tastiness smacks you in the face at the door and it's AWESOME!

Date Squares

Dunno about you, but I'm ready for this week to be over!! Nothing dramatic happening, just really looking forward to some lazy times on the weekend! Since this has been, and continues to be, a rather drawn out week, I think I... sorry WE, deserve a delicious treat! And at the moment, I would love nothing more than a warm, fresh outta the oven date square - the proper comfort food. Using my momma's recipe, I whipped these up for my visiting fam a little while ago and am wishing I had some more, they're just sooooo tasty!!