Nutter Butter Ghost Cookies

I love this one because it is so easy and quick to make.  (This one came from the Martha Stewart Living Magazine in 2001.)  These little ghosts are so cute and easy, and it's something the kids can help with too!  I had a holiday bake-day with my friend, and our four year olds put the eyes on all of these little ghosts.

Enjoy!

You will need:

1 package Nutter Butter peanut butter cookies
white chocolate bark or white chocolate chips
mini chocolate chips

Dip cookies in melted white chocolate.  Lay on waxed paper, add chocolate chips for eyes.

Is it really that simple?  Yes it is!

Shattered Crystal Ball Jello

October is a month of lots and lots of P.A.R.T.I.E.S. All of my husband's family was born in October, as well as my oldest daughter and my mom. So consequently we get together a lot in October, for food and fun and presents!

I was looking through my pictures of all of our parties this morning, and noticed that Isabel had taken a picture of this jello. My kids all loved it (my youngest in particular is a big fan of jello, so we make it a lot)! When I saw this picture, I figured I better put the recipe on here so next year when I go to make it I can find the recipe.

It would be fun at Christmastime with red and green jello, and I suppose it can be made anytime of year with whatever color jello you want.

Recipe comes from Taste of Home magazine last year.

Ingredients:

2 pkgs. (3 oz. each) lime gelatin

6 cups boiling water, divided

2 pkgs. (3 oz. each) orange gelatin

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

1/3 cup cold water

1 1/2 c. white grape juice

1 carton (12 0z.) frozen whipped topping, thawed

1. In a bowl, dissolve the lime gelatin in 3 cups boiling water. Pour into an 8 in. square dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. In another bowl, dissolve orange gelatin in remaining boiling water. Pour into another 8 in. square dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until very firm.

2. In a small saucepan, sprinkle unflavored gelatin over cold water; let stand for 1 minutes. Add grape juice. Heat over low heat, stirring until gelatin is completely dissolved. Pour into a large bowl; refrigerate for 45 minutes or until slightly thickened. Fold in whipped topping.

3. Cut green gelatin into 1/2 in. cubes and orange gelatin into 1 in. cubes. Set aside 8-10 cubes of each color for garnish. Place 2 cups whipped topping mixture in a bowl; fold in remaining green cubes. Spread into a 13 in. x 9 in. dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Fold remaining orange cubes into remaining whipped topping mixture; spread over bottom layer. Sprinkle with reserved green and orange gelatin cubes. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until set. Cut into squares.

Butterfinger Eyeballs

Ingredients:Wax paper
1 cup creamy peanut butter (not all-natural)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
1 NESTLÉ BUTTERFINGER Candy
2 cups NESTLÉ TOLL HOUSE Premier White Morsels
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
2 pkg. NESTLÉ BUTTERFINGER BB'S Candies
1 small tube red decorator icing
Wooden pick or skewer for dipping

Directions:
Line 2 baking sheets with wax paper.Beat peanut butter and butter in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in powdered sugar until mixture holds together and is moistened. Stir in chopped Butterfinger. Shape into 1-inch "eyeballs." Place on prepared baking sheets. Freeze for 1 hour.Melt morsels and shortening in large, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) power for 1 minute 30 seconds; STIR. Morsels may retain some of their original shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10- to 15-second intervals, stirring just until melted.
Remove one baking sheet of frozen "eyeballs" from freezer (keep other sheet in freezer until ready to use).Dip one "eyeball" into melted morsel mixture using a wooden pick or skewer. Shake off excess and return to baking sheet. Gently press 1 Butterfinger BB on top of "eyeball" to make a "pupil." Repeat procedure with remaining "eyeballs" on baking sheet. Refrigerate until coating is set. Repeat with remaining sheet of "eyeballs" and coating. You may find it necessary to reheat morsel mixture before dipping second batch. Before serving, pipe decorator icing around eyeballs to create bloodshot markings. Store in covered container in refrigerator. Best served cold.

Mummy Pizzas

Mummy Pizzas (From the Family Fun magazine)

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
English muffins
Pizza sauce
Black olives
Scallions
Red or green pepper
Cheese sticks or slices

1. Heat the oven to 350° F. For each mummy, spread a tablespoon of pizza sauce onto half of an English muffin (toast it first, if you like).

2. Set olive slices in place for eyes and add round slices of green onion or bits of red or green pepper for pupils.

3. Lay strips of cheese (we used a pulled-apart cheese stick) across the muffin for the mummy?s wrappings.

4. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the muffin is toasty.

Popcorn Jack-o-lanterns

Fun treat for the kids to take to school or to share with neighbors.

3 quarts popped popcorn
1/4 c. butter, cubed
1 10 oz. package miniature marshmallows
1 3 oz. pkg. orange jello
12 green Dots candies
1-2 Tbs. marshmallow creme
green fruit by the foot fruit roll

Place popcorn in a large bowl. In a large microwave safte bowl, heat butter and marshmallows on high for 1-2 minutes or until melted; stir in gelatin powder until dissolved. Pour over popcorn and toss to coat. With lightly buttered hands, quickly shape mixture into 12 3-in. balls, flattening one side slightly. For each stem, insert a green Dots candy at the top of "pumpkin", attaching with marshmallow creme. Decorate jack-o-lantern faces as desired with fruit roll and licorice, attaching with marshmallow creme if necessary. (Taste of Home Oct. 06)

Spider Cookies

Found this one on Stie-My Favorite Things and she's right! Martha Stewart has nothing on her! I can't wait to try this one with my kids!

Here's what you do:

Take your favorite sugar cookie recipe. And instead of spending hours rolling the dough flat, cutting shapes with cookie cutters, and essentially having flour all over every crevice in your kitchen, make little dough balls and flatten them with your hands. Shhh. Don't tell Martha. It works just as good and takes half the time.

Then mix up the frosting glaze before you bake your cookies. I cannot stress this enough. The cookies will not work if you don't frost them right out of the oven.

For the glaze:
2 3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. shortening
3 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat all ingredients well. Separate about 3/4 cup of the glaze into another bowl and add desired food coloring. Put the colored glaze into a pastry bag with a small writing tip.

Now, when your cookies are RIGHT out of the oven - and I mean piping hot - take a few off the tray and begin frosting them with the non-colored glaze (I leave the rest on the tray to keep them warm until I frost them). Pipe the colored glaze in a bulls eye like this: Then take a toothpick (or BBQ skewer in my case) and start in the center of the bulls eye and lightly draw lines going to the edge of the cookie. Repeat all around for spiderweb effect. [Hint: I never put the next batch of cookies in the oven until I have decorated the first. You HAVE to do this when the cookies are warm, otherwise the glaze doesn't melt on the cookies and they will look dumb. Trust me. I learned that the hard way.]

Stick in a few [hopefully lead-free] plastic spiders and VOILA! A Halloween treat. From my heart to yours. Enjoy.

Thanks Stie!