Dear Halloween 2012,

Happy Halloween!

I hope all you little ghosts and goblins have a fabulous holiday whether you’re dressing up & eating candy or watching scary movies &… and eating candy. This year there is no costume for me but  I thought I’d still try to be festive for work wearing this:

And making:

Pumpkin Pie Crescents

Ingredients

Pumpkin Mable Butter (I found mine at Kohls of all places! But I’ve seen it at Earthfare too)

Pumpkin Spice Hersheys Kisses (found mine at walmart)

White chocolate chips

Pillsbury crescent rolls

Melted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Lay your crescents out on wax paper and using a pizza cutter, slice each one in 2. Flatten them out (I just used my fingers to mush them so they were a little bit wider)
3. Glob a spoonful of the Pumpkin Maple Butter onto the wide end of the crescent.
4. Add a Kiss and a couple white chocolate chips.
5. Roll em up and place them on your backing sheet
6. Brush/spoon melted butter on each one and bake for 10 min.
7. Then pig out.

And for your viewing pleasure, here are some of my favorite spooky videos!

Spooky ninja cat

Halloween Dubstep House

Ellen's Kids Halloween Costumes 2012

Boo y’all!

Very truly yours, A. Bean

Dear Boss's Day (& Whoopie Pies & Mushroom Cheese Soup),

Before I get into last night’s kitchen adventure, I would like to say:

Happy Boss’s Day, ya’ll!!

It is indeed, National Boss Appreciation Day. So thank you boss(s), I appreciate you. I appreciate the honor of working for you, assisting you every day. Thank you for paying my bills. Thank you for making me laugh. Thank you for teaching me new things. And thank you for the yummy snacks in the break room this morning.

Which brings me to my next subject; I was going to make Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies last night. I mean I started the process, got them in the oven… Then almost burned the house down and realized I had used regular sugar instead of powdered. At that point I was so exhausted I said forget it… Maybe I’ll make it to Target again to get another box or maybe it just wasn’t meant to be!

Found this gem at Target

Of course I had to use my Halloween spatula! (70% off at Joann Fabrics yesterday!)



Before the whoopie pie debacle started though (while watching my new guilty pleasure Breaking Amish on TLC) I made the most BOMBDIGGITY soup of all time. I call it: Mushroom Cheese Soup. Please enjoy.

Mushroom Cheese Soup

Ingredients

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 carton of sliced mushrooms

1 carton of “trinity mix” (chopped onion, celery, green peppers)

2 tbs minced garlic

3 tbs butter

1 ½ cup of chicken broth

½ tub of crumbled gorgonzola cheese (not pictured but you know how you can buy it in the little tub from your local grocery store?)

Parsley, salt, and black pepper to taste

Shredded cheddar cheese optional

Directions

1.    Melt butter in a large skillet, dump mushrooms, trinity mix, and garlic into the skillet. Sauté over medium heat until yummy and caramelized.

2.    Pour 1 cup of chicken broth over veggies, let simmer for 10 min.

3.    In a medium saucepan over medium heat, mix ½ cup of broth, can of soup, and veggie/broth mixture. Mix in gorgonzola cheese, parsley, salt & pepper.

4.    Once the cheese seems melted, pour in bowl, top with shredded sharp cheddar, and enjoy with some yummy bread!

Very truly yours, A. Bean

Dear Weekend Recap (Asian Festival),

It was good, it was bad, & it was productive!

Saturday (after crafting up my wreath) boyfriend and I went downtown to check out Tallahassee’s Annual Asian Coalition Festival. It was PACKED! And it was pretty cool! We made it just in time to see the Chinese drummers do their show, boyfriend was very impressed.

Then we meandered around to decide what type of Asian food we were going to try… Japanese? Chinese? Indian? Korean?

We punked out and went to the booth that has our favorite crab Rangoon, because I can never resist crab Rangoon.

Then we got some homemade ice cream, I taste-tested the green tea flavor and decided on the chocolate, because I can never resist chocolate. Boyfriend got the banana.

The chocolate and the banana together? HEAVEN.

Later that afternoon I made some Peanutbutter Chocolate Crunch Cookies.

And Bozo helped me clean up.

Peanutbutter Chocolate Crunch Cookies 

Ingredients

(Makes about 3 dozen cookies)

1 cup sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1 jar (18 oz ounce) peanut butter, creamy

6 cups corn flakes

3 oz good chocolate of your choice

Directions

1. Combine sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Place over medium-high heat and stir until the mixture comes to a full boil. Remove from heat and stir in the whole jar of peanut butter. Mix well.
2. Add corn flakes to a large bowl. Pour peanut butter mixture over corn flakes and mix well, taking care to coat all of the corn flakes.
3. With a tablespoon or cookie scoop, scoop out and form into 1-2 inch balls, depending on your preference, and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper.
4. Put the chocolate in a small bowl and melt in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Stir until smooth.
5. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies.
6. Let them "cool"/sit for a couple of hours for the chocolate to harden and chow!

And that night we went to the Bryant’s house with a group of friends to watch the FSU game, it was a sad night indeed when we lost… So that’s all I have to say about that.

Sunday I was excited for another DIY project!

Another easy peasy cheap decoration for the house that is totally customizable for you!

Check it out!

DIY Canvas Quotes

pack of 7 12x12 canvas (from Michaels $20)

7 12x12 sheets of scrapbook paper ($0.67 a sheet)

letter stickers ($4.99)

Glossy Modgepodge (I had on hand from Hobby Lobby)

Sponge brush (I had on hand from the Dollar Store)

1. Paint a canvas with Modge Podge and place a sheet of scrapbook paper (essentially gluing it to the canvas) be sure not to saturate it in modgepodge or it will make your paper wrinkly
2. do this to every canvas (I only used 6, saved one for another craft!)
3. using your stickers spell out your quote accross the dried canvases (I cut out each letter from the sticker sheet individually to make sure I had enough that I needed before I stuck them to the canvas. It was an extra step but its better to be safe than sorry sometimes!)
4. paint another layer of modgepodge on each canvas over the stickers (I did 2 top coats of MP to make it extra glossy) and your done!

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them in mutal weirdness and call it love." - Dr. Suess

Very truly yours, A. Bean