Tricks for Treats

I don’t know about you, but I am a regular person – no super powers here and as the holidays roll around I begin trying to find tricks for my treats. Let me see a show of hands: how many of you have waited till the last minute to fix something for a party you were going to, party your child/grandchild was going to or a party you were throwing yourself? Yep, me too. Guess what I always end up taking? A cheese tray from the local grocery store chain. I am the cheese-bringer. Everyone likes that I bring chunks of cheese but sometimes I really wish we weren’t going home to a dirty kitchen and possibly even a broken dish or two – all with nothing to show for it. Another issue is that I’m out all the money for the ingredients and then I have to spend $20 on cheese. With the baby in the house, I am once again making little person treats and I really want to be better at it. Can you guess who Rocket is dressing up as for Halloween? Here is a hint:

Let’s start with the Witches Hats:

Ingredients:

Hershey’s Kisses
Keebler Fudge Stripes Cookies
1 can prepared frosting
Food coloring (optional)

Directions:

If you are coloring the icing, put the food color drops into the icing and stir then put it in a Ziploc sandwich bag. Cut a tiny slit at the tip.
Turn the cookie fudge side up and outline the hole with icing.
Put a Hershey’s kiss on top.
Done!

Next we will go with the Chocolate Covered Pay Day Candy Bar Mix:

Ingredients:

1 Bag Candy Corn
1 Can of DRY ROASTED Peanuts
½ bag of Mini Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Mix together and place in a snack bowl – tastes just like a chocolate covered Pay Day. Remember those?
Done!

Hot dog Mummies:

Ingredients:

Hot dogs
Canned Crescent Rolls

Directions:

Roll the crescents out and make eight large squares then using a pizza cutter or knife make a bunch of strips out of each square.
Start wrapping the hot dog like a mummy leaving a little space for a “face”.
Bake according to can directions.
After they cool a bit, put 2 dots of mustard for eyes.

Done!

Bean Dip:

Ingredients:

1 can of Ranch Style Beans or you could use chili beans.
1 8 oz. block of regular cream cheese. Softened.
½ an 8 oz. block of cream cheese with chive, softened.
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese.
Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder to taste.
½ teaspoon cumin.
¼ cup finely chopped onion (optional)
4 chopped fresh or pickled jalapenos (optional) saving 3 or 4 slices for garnish.
You could add some cilantro but I don’t care for the taste so we don’t have it.

Directions:

Put the beans in a food processor and process until smooth.
Put beans and all other ingredients in pot and stir constantly over medium heat until smooth.

Done!

Frito Candy

And finally – Frito Candy. This recipe is from Joyce Belville, Chickasha, OK who won first place in the Karo Syrup Contest at the Oklahoma State Fair this year. I changed it just a tiny bit but the original idea and recipe is still hers.

Ingredients:

10 ounce bag Lays Frito Corn Chips lightly crushed
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Karo Syrup
1 Cup creamy Peanut Butter
1/8 Cup real Bacon Bits
10 full size Hershey’s chocolate bars

Directions:

Place crushed Fritos in a 13 X 9 pan sprayed with non-stick spray.
Put sugar and syrup into a pot on medium heat until boiling then take off heat and add the peanut butter and bacon bits.
When it is smooth, pour over the Fritos and smooth it out.
Place unwrapped candy bars over the top of the mixture breaking up the last one if needed in order to cover everything.
If you want to, you can sprinkle finely chopped nuts over the top like I did. The recipe did not call for them I just thought it made the dish look pretty.
When they melt, take a spatula and spread out into the corners then refrigerate until firm.
Cut into squares for serving.

Done, done and DONE!

I made all of these, one right after the other and it took me exactly 1 hour to do it all with 15 minutes of that time waiting on the mummies to be cooked.
I hope you enjoyed my tricks for treats – Happy Halloween!