Halloween Treats!

A lot of people know that Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. I love everything about it from pumpkins to costumes to candy and more, this holiday is so much fun. I went to a few costume parties this weekend, but I'm planning on spending my Halloween watching scary movies and giving trick or treaters candy with some of my friends.

My unicorn pumpkin and my boyfriends driving skeleton pumpkin.

To spice the movie night up, I made a few really spooky treats, because what better way is there to celebrate Halloween than with Halloween themed snacks?

Starting out with these simple take on cheese and crackers with these string cheese witches broom sticks.

I simply took sticks of string cheese and cut each one into 3 equal pieces. Then I cut each piece vertically to look like strands on a broom. Lastly I cut into those pieces twice horizontally to make the piece of cheese look frayed and more like an actual broom. I added a pretzel stick on top for the handle and voila, a broomstick!


The next snack on my party list are these super cute jalapeño popper mummies!

Find this recipe at the bottom of this post.

They're made with roasted jalapeños, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and olives for the eyes.


Finally I made these adorable and extremely delicious spider cookies! They're basically snickerdoodle kiss cookies, but with a mini Reese's cup instead of a Hershey's kiss. 

Recipe at the bottom of this post.

However you are celebrating today and even if you're not, these snacks can be altered for any occasion. Cook away!





Mummy Jalapeño Poppers

Ingredients:

• Crescent rolls or puff pastry
• 10 jalapeño peppers halved lengthwise and seeded
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 8 ounces grated pepper jack cheese
• 1 green onion, finely chopped
• Black olive slices for eyes

Directions:

1. Halve and seed the jalapeño peppers.
2. Combine the two cheeses and green onions and mix well.
3. Fill the mixture into the jalapeño pepper halves.
4. Use a pizza cutter to slice strands of the dough. Wrap the strands of dough around the jalapeños to resemble a mummy. Leave space for the olive eyes.
5. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
6. Remove from oven and immediately press olive slice eyes in the spaces for the eyes.

Spider Snickerdoodle Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp milk (I used almond milk)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sugar (for rolling)
• Mini Reese's cups, frozen
• Candy eyes
• Melting chocolate or frosting in a tube

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat together shortening, peanut butter, egg, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and milk.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture and beat until blended.
5. Form into 1 inch balls.
6. Roll in sugar and place a couple of inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden.
8. Immediately, gently press an upside frozen Reese's cup on top of each cookie and move to wire rack to cool.
9. After placing and moving all the cookies on the wire rack, put in place the candy eyes while chocolate is still slightly soft.
10. Place in refrigerator for 10 minutes to allow cookies to firm.
11. Melt chocolate in a bag and cut the corner to pipe the spider's legs on to the cookie. I used frosting in a tube.
12. Place in refrigerator for 10 minutes to allow legs to set.

Holiday Time.

Hi all! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I really felt the holiday spirit this year and channeled that into my decorating, baking, and activity. I want to share some ideas and recipes with you all for you to enjoy as well!


Oh, Christmas Tree!

I started out the holidays by decorating our family tree with my family, of course while listening to Holiday jazz music.

Gingerbread House

Then my boyfriend surprised me with a gingerbread house kit so we could make our own cute little gingerbread house! Not only was it the cutest cookie house, but it was also a really fun bonding experience. Let's just say, it was hard, but we overcame our creative differences with our construction.

Our cute little house with a cute little candy family.

Centerpieces

Now, Thanksgiving is usually the holiday my family gathers at my house, so I didn't go all out with a formal dinner table for Christmas, but I made small centerpieces using the vases I used for my Thanksgiving centerpieces. I used these for regular dinners I'd have with my parents and brother and will likely use them when we gather at my house for Armenian Christmas on January 6.

I stacked layers of Christmas ornaments of varying sizes and pine cones. I painted some pine cones I found in my backyard with silver paint to match the color scheme of the ornaments. I wrapped the vases in holiday themed bows to finish the look.

"Ugly" Christmas Sweater Party

Okay, so I was invited to an ugly Christmas sweater party, and let's face it, I love a good theme party! I totally went along with it. I don't know if you would necessarily classify this sweater as ugly, but it was definitely a staple in my wardrobe this month.

Home Alone is my favorite movie to watch during the holidays. 

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting in a Jar

The holidays don't stop at home! I just started a new job and don't know my coworkers well enough to get them personal gifts yet, so I decided to give them a gift of my baking talents. I figured just making cupcakes or any dessert was not special enough to give as a gift, so I put a little twist on red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting...I put them in little half pint mason jars and tied recyclable forks to them and attached little gift tags for each of my coworkers.

The recipe I used for the red velvet cupcakes is at the end of this post.


LA Zoo Lights

Next it was onto the LA Zoo Lights event! Every year, I like trekking to neighborhoods that go all out with decorating their homes with lights and other decor. This year, I found the LA Zoo Lights, which turned the zoo into a holiday light fest after hours. All the walkways were lined with holiday lights and fun little light exhibits. They even had alcoholic drinks of every variety. If it wasn't so cold outside, I would have ordered one, but I stuck to my hot chocolate and a churro! This is going on until January 4, so its not too late to see this spectacle for yourself...

So pretty!

These fixtures were made with recycled plastic water bottles.

A twinkling lights tunnel.

Santa's land with paparazzi monkeys. 

Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

I came home from the light show feeling even more in the spirit, so I decided to make my special cranberry walnut oatmeal cookies! I make them every year for the holidays and I get so many compliments on them. Everyone has a secret recipe and this is mine. I would love to share it with you, but then it wouldn't be so special! However, I will gladly share the cookies with you :)

I hope everyone had a happy holiday filled with family and love. May you all have a wonderful New Year!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups flour
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/4 tsp cocoa powder
• 1.5 cups canola oil
• 1 cup room temperature buttermilk
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tbsp red food coloring
• 1 tsp white distilled vinegar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 

Instructions: 

1. Mix all wet ingredients (oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla) in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder).
3. Combine the two bowls and mix well. Place in cupcake tins sprayed with baking spray without cupcake papers. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes.
4. Place on wire rack to cool. Once cooled, cut each cupcake in half and assemble the bottom half of the cupcake into the mason jar. Fill with cream cheese frosting, then place the upper cupcake half on top of the icing then top off again with more icing. 

For the cream cheese frosting:

Ingredients:

• 1 8 oz. package of room temperature cream cheese
• 0.5 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3.5 cups powdered confectioners sugar

Instructions:

1. Mix together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla.
2. Once mixed thoroughly, add the confectioners sugar one cup at a time and mix through.

Voila!