Author: Shannon

Tonight’s splurge was brought to you by Halloween.  I’d thought about doing a special Halloween Edition next week, but…well…it’s Halloween, so we’ll be busy.

I spent entirely too much time on the internet this afternoon plotting the themeiest of themes.  Here’s what I came up with:

For the first time, Liam was in on the splurge action with his Jack-O-Dilla.  I got the idea here.  I used the whole wheat tortillas we had on hand and the shredded Mexican Blend cheese.  I just threw it in the toaster oven.  Here’s what our version looked like:

Liam ate the whole thing:

Next up for the smorgasbord were Mummy Dogs.  I got that recipe here.  I followed it except that I used Monterrey Jack cheese just like I do when we make pigs-n-blankets.  Even Liam liked them (although he kept saying “more bread please” when I asked him if he wanted more hot dog).  He even threw a fit when we told him that he had to stop eating and brush his teeth (since he’d finished his own dinner an hour earlier and it was time for bed).  That’s a win, in my book.

Here’s one before baking:

Here’s our guy after 12 minutes at 375:

With friends:

Third on the list were witches’ fingers.  I got that idea here, but I modified it a bit.  We basically made them like little calzones and wrapped the breadsticks (we used the garlic flavored ones) around half a mozzarella cheese stick and a bunch of turkey-pepperoni slices.  Then we followed the directions from the original recipe and scored the “knuckle” and made the “fingernail” out of a turkey pepperoni wedge.  Here’s what one of the fingers looked like before baking:

Baked fingers:

Full hand:

Next on the list were the witches’ hats.  I got that idea here.  If you followed that link you can see that they were supposed to look like this:

But the this recipe is where we hit the snag.  The icing was the sticking point, and not in the way that the recipe intended.  I specifically purchased a container of orange icing that comes in a bag for piping and according to the directions, the only thing necessary to pipe was a “Betty Crocker decorating tip.”  Apparently Betty Crocker’s decorating tips have changed in size dramatically since I purchased the set I already had.  It’s only been a decade since I purchased them, but I guess America’s obession with super-sizing bleeds over into icing tips as well, because the ones I have are way too small to work with the current icing bags.  My first thought as it became abundantly clear that the icing in its current state wasn’t going to cut it was to try putting some icing into a sandwich bag and cutting the corner off for piping purposes.  This idea was a gigantic fail.  The icing was so stiff that it wouldn’t come through the hole that I’d cut, but it did begin to form holes in the bag and shoot out in little nubbins all over the bag.  Everywhere except the hole through which I had intended the icing to flow.  Matt came in and tried.  There was grunting.  He shoved the too-small-tip into the bag and the icing (predictably) shot out around the sides.  He then cut a hole in the side of the original icing bag and squeezed some out onto each cookie.  It was very clear at this point that there would be no bow on these particular hats.  We’ve learned to cope.  Here’s what they looked like when we finished:

The final act in our Halloween play was our ghost cookies.  I got that idea here.  When I started, I followed the directions (except that all I could find at the Publix to dip them in was white chocolate chips — but they worked really well and melted nicely in the microwave).  But trying to dip both sides resulted in this mess:

I thought this was very unghostlike so I began only dipping the top half and then smoothing the tops and sides with a pastry brush.  Here’s the result:

Casper and friends:

Everything was very tasty (as the ingredients clearly indicated).

Happy Halloween!

Let’s try this again, shall we?

Tonight we made Swiss Enchiladas from Cooking Light (via PJ).  I ended up with more ingredients than the recipe called for (which is completely normal for me) but this time I think that the overage was actually in proportion, so the recipe holds up pretty well.  It was very easy to prepare; the thing that took the most time was shredding the rotisserie chicken.  You don’t even have to drain the canned ingredients!  The only modification I made was to add a little Mexican Cheese Blend (yes, there’s more) to the milk & flour mixture after it thickened a bit.  It tastes great!  Also, I don’t think I added quite the amount of salt that was called for (and it probably could have used a titch extra), but you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little afraid of salt for a while…

Pretty little enchiladas, all in a row:

Sauce in progress:

Pretty little enchiladas, all in a row, with sauce:

Finished product:

Don’t pay attention to the rating given by the link above, this stuff is awesome.  Also, if you’re wondering if we have any other pans, the answer is yes.  If you’re wondering if we use any of the other pans very often, the answer is no.  We’re a casserole/lasagna/pot pie/one-dish-meal kinda family and I make no apologies for that.