Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The Mother of All Meltdowns

If you’ve been living under a rock, you probably haven’t heard about my new book. Well, come out from under there and join the fun.

I joined 30 other bloggers in putting together an anthology. It’s called The Mother of All Meltdowns and I’m very proud of it. It went on sale in the beginning of October and is doing quite well.

Rather than write you a whole post patting myself and my fellow authors on the back, I’d like to introduce you to Sarah of The Momisodes. She agreed to read the book and write a review for you.

Disclaimer: The reviewer received only a free copy of this book in exchange for her review. No suggestions of, nor restrictions on the content of her post were made or implied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*taps microphone* Er . . . um . . . he . . . hello? Hi! I’m Sarah! As mentioned in the above intro, I’m the mastermind (evil genius? no . . . too much?) behind The Momisodes. I’m here to tell you a little ditty about Jack and Diane . . . wait . . . no, no that’s not right. I’m here to tell you about a book. A book that I got to read and that several of my friends contributed to. It’s called The Mother of All Meltdowns.

When Karen asked me to read and review The Mother of All Meltdowns, I was thrilled. This blog is Karen’s baby and anyone who knows her knows that she is not one to just toss out guest posts like they are candy. So this was truly an honor.



The Mother of All Meltdowns book featured on www.BakingInATornado.com

Click here to purchase for Kindle or in paperback.
Click here to purchase for Nook or in paperback:


Meltdowns . . . life’s way of bringing comedy to a situation that has gotten entirely too out of hand. This book brings you a much sought after camaraderie. Been locked out of your house by a kid? So has one mom. Legos causing you to absolutely flip your lid? Yup, she’s been there. The Mother of All Meltdowns is full of mothers who join us in the Sisterhood of Meltdowns, so you won’t feel alone very long.

When I got the book, I was absolutely giddy to get to read it. I may or may not have cracked ‘er open and located my friends who were part of the book. If I’d done that, it was simply out of excitement for them. I perched myself in my little corner of the couch and basically didn’t move. This book became an extension of me. It went where I went.

I laughed . . . a lot. This, can I just say, is really hard to do when you’ve got The Crud.

I cried.

More often than not, I found myself nodding my head right along with some of the stories.

The stories shared in The Mother of All Meltdowns will bring you a close knit group of like-minded friends who will gladly encourage you to have a glass box of wine to get through this thing called motherhood. You’ll instantly feel like you are talking with your girlfriend about how your kid made you lose your shit. No judgment here. You’ll get to know the wonderful ladies on a personal and relatable basis. Plus, there are some handy dandy tips on how to survive a meltdown. Really, it’s a win, win all around.

If you’ve not gotten your hands on The Mother of All Meltdowns, then you are missing out! So do yourself a favor, head over to Amazon right now and snatch this baby up. Your new friends are just waiting to be discovered! Thank you to Karen for this opportunity! Maybe one day I’ll share MY mother of all meltdowns!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 



The Momisodes featured on www.BakingInATornado.com


Wife. Mother. Blogger. Smartass. General exuder of epic awesomeness, Sarah is a 30-something married mother of 3 living big city dreams in a small country town who wouldn’t trade it for the world. Between cleaning a house, taking 3 kids to different schools, trying to get a business up and running, and shuttling the kids to various activities, she barely has time to use the restroom. But lucky for us, she finds time to blog. Visit Sarah at The Momisodes.
 
Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

Friday, October 25, 2013

Scaring Mom

There are two kinds of scary. There’s the kind I talk about here: Scariest Thing Ever where you can’t stop shaking and will probably never shower again. Then there’s the other kind, where you know you have to look but you’re not going to like what you see. Everyone has experienced the first type of being scared, but the one I’m talking about today, that’s a special kind of scary frequently reserved for parents. You know what I’m talking about, like when you realize your toddlers have been quiet for too long. You know you have to look, but you’re scared. That.

It’s well established that I have teens. So having the house quiet for too long no longer bothers me, it just means headphones are in use. But that doesn’t mean I’m safe. Not by a long shot.

What scares me?

Hearing this:
“No, I didn’t spend all the money in my checking account.”
And knowing I could see this:


Scaring Mom | picture taken by, featured on, and property of www.BakingInATornado.com




Saying this:
“Please don’t stick anything onto your bedroom door.”
And knowing I could see this:


Sticker Door | picture taken by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com




Hearing this:
“The lawn doesn’t need mowing, I’ll do it next week.”
And knowing I could see this:



Mow the Lawn | picture taken by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com




Saying this:
“Yes, you can take my car, but please leave me some gas.”
And knowing I could see this:



Get Gas | picture taken by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com



Hearing this:
“I didn’t tell you to put cookies on the shopping list because I didn’t finish them.”
And knowing I could see this:


There are Cookies | picture taken by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com



Good thing I made these:




Mint Frankenstein Cookies | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com


Mint Frankenstein Cookies

Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics





Mint Frankenstein Cookies
                                         ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 tsp mint extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
40 candy corns
80 mini M&Ms for the eyes
Twizzler peel-and-eat peeled and broken into small pieces
Black or red writing gel for scar
Any color writing gel for the hair
 
Directions:
*Cream butter, margarine and sugar.
*Beat in egg and mint extract.
*Mix in flour, baking soda and salt.
*Divide the dough in half, wrap in platic wrap and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours.
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
*Break each dough half into 20 equal pieces. Roll each, then flatten with your palm and place onto parchment. Reshape them a little so the top is flat and below that is oval.
*Bake, 20 at a time, for about 10 to 12 minutes. They should just be starting to brown.
*Immediately, while they’re still hot, gently press a candy corn, tip side first, into one side of the cookie towards the bottom. Let the flat end stick out. Put a small piece of the twizzler onto the cookie for a mouth and two mini M&Ms on for eyes.
*Cool 2 to 3 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing.
*Once completely cool, use black or red writing gel to make scar shapes onto the face and colored writing gel to make the hairline.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Scariest Thing Ever

A couple of weeks ago a group of bloggers and I posted a Secret Subject Swapiversary. My friend Outsmarted Mommy got my prompt at that time. It was “what is the thing you are most afraid of?” You can read her sweet and thoughtful response here: Don't Let Fear Take Over.

At the time, I was trying to decide whether or not to keep blogging. The month of October and Halloween in particular is just my favorite time of year. I get really creative with food. I get to play with ingredients to make them look fun or funny or gross or scary. What’s not to like, right?

But I was having trouble with the writing. Writer’s block had taken residence in my guest room . . . well, in my whole house really . . . for close to two weeks and I always vowed that if I had nothing to say worth reading, I’d just stop. I had reached this point before but had gotten past it. This time I wasn’t .

And then just when I though all hope was lost, inspiration hit me in the shower, which is its normal spot. But it had never happened like this before. Either way, I knew exactly what I was going to write about, the prompt I had given my friend Outsmarted Mommy: What is the thing you are most afraid of?



Spooky Trifle | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #halloween

Spooky Trifle

So what are you most afraid of? For you it might be Norman Bates standing outside your shower with a knife. Not me. For me, the scariest thing I could think of was right in the shower with me.

Let me tell you that when you’re naked and standing in a little box, you do not want to look up to see this:

Spider | picture taken by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com


Because in that moment it looks more like this:



Fake Spider | picture taken by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com


So what did I do? What do you think I did? I’m a blogger, right? I flew out of that shower, crashed down the stairs naked and grabbed my camera, of course.

Happy nightmares, friends.

 Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics





Spooky Trifle
                                        ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
Brownies: You can use a boxed mix or make your own using this recipe without the candy bars and the baking chips:  Butterfingers Brownies
1 package of Cheesecake instant pudding mix
1 package of white chocolate instant pudding mix
4 cups milk, separated
3 drops of red food coloring and 12 drops of yellow food coloring
10 drops of red food coloring
6 Chocolate cookies, crushed
6 Ghost “peeps”
3 small plain cookies
3 large plain cookies
Food decorating gel
12 Mini M&Ms
1 Fruit roll up
Gummy worms
Opt: I made “grave stones” and letters out of white candy melts and food coloring
 
Directions:
*Using the decorating gel, attach candies to the rounded side of the cookies to look like eyes.  Attach a small piece of fruit roll up as a mouth. Set aside and allow to set.
*Coarsely cut brownies into bite sized pieces.
*Make the cheesecake pudding according to package directions adding 3 drops of red and 12 drops of yellow food coloring when mixing. Make the white chocolate pudding mix according to package directions adding 10 drops of red food coloring when mixing.
*Put half of the brownie pieces into a glass dish.  Carefully arrange the cookie people and ghost peeps rimming around the edge of the dish above the brownies.  Add the Cheesecake pudding into the center of the circle formed by the cookies.
*Add the rest of the brownies on top of the pudding, then the while chocolate pudding.
Sprinkle the crushed cookies over the top of the white chocolate pudding.
*Arrange gummy worms and any other decorations onto the top.
*Keep refrigerated.
 

Friday, October 18, 2013

October Fly on the Wall

Welcome to a Fly on the Wall group post. Today 12 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house.

Fly on the Wall | BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics #humor

When you’re done, click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:
Baking In A Tornado
Just a Little Nutty
Follow me home . . .
Stacy Sews and Schools
The Sadder But Wiser Girl
Menopausal Mother
Moore Organized Mayhem
Spatulas on Parade
The Rowdy Baker
Trashy Blog
Dates 2 Diapers
Sorry kid, Your Mom Doesn't Play Well With Others


About 6 years ago our neighborhood was having a problem with someone driving over our lawns at night and doing damage. This went on for a few weeks. One night when my husband was out of town and the kids were in bed, I heard a crash. I went out front and found our basketball hoop, which had been cemented into the ground, ripped out and laying on its side.

Police and CSI came, the kid was found and arrested and before he went to court he and his dad replaced our basketball hoop.

Last month we had our roof replaced. On the roofers’ last day at the house they rang the doorbell to tell me that they had an accident. I bet the odds are astronomical that this could happen more than once:


Hoop Down | picture taken by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com




I live with three intelligent grown men. One day this past month I could be heard asking them a question that not one of them could answer: “Why is it that absolutely nothing comes out of the dryer more wrinkled than a wrinkle-free shirt?”


Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

My son is a lifeguard. He works at an indoor pool so he’s working year round. A few weeks ago he came home from work wearing his lifeguard bathing suit, a wrist band, 6 strands of Mardi Gras beads and an eye-patch. I haven’t a clue and I was afraid to ask.

Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


A couple of our electrical outlets weren’t working and I had to call an electrician and make an appointment for him to come out. The woman in the office asked what time I wanted him to come and explained that she couldn’t guarantee an exact time but would give me a 2 hour window. I asked for around 10:00 am and she said “sure, he’ll be there between 10:00 am and 3:30 pm”. Two hour window? This must be some new kind of math or something.


Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

So the electrician came out to check the outlets that didn’t work. I didn’t want to embarrass myself so I checked the fuse box before he came to be sure none of the fuses had tripped.

The electrician comes out, checks the garage outlet, the outlet in the front garden and the one on the back deck and sees that they don’t work. He walks into my laundry room, presses the “reset” button on the outlet in there and is finished within 60 seconds of arriving.

And again, so as not to embarrass myself, when my family came home I made up a whole long involved story of the hour the electrician spent here getting all the outlets working again. I think I even made up a few “technical” terms too.


Chocolate Pizza with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #dessert
Chocolate Pizza with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

Chocolate Pizza with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #dessert




The Cicadas were really loud this year and generally I just tune them out, but at the end of last month I had a headache and they were driving me crazy.
Me: “Those cicadas are making my headache worse”.
Son: “They can’t be making it worse”.
Me: “Well they are. I had a slight headache and now my head is splitting”.
Son: “Now you know how I feel when you sing.”

Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

After dinner my son clears the table and takes out the trash. My husband wipes down the table and, if I’ve used the grill, cleans the grill. I fill and run the dishwasher. One night my husband comes to dinner and does a little happy dance.
Me: “Oh, you love my chicken parmesan”.
Him: “No, I love that you don’t make it on the grill”.


Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


And here was another fun conversation:
Me: "Can you please go out back and pull the weeds."
Hubs (indignantly): "Stop asking me that, I already did."
Me: "Then what's this growing in the swingset, a beanstalk?"

Fly on the Wall | wild weed | www.BakingInATornado.com

It seems that I tell one of these stories about my younger son every month, but they happen all the time and it’s best for my mental health that I just keep telling them and try to laugh. So here’s the latest:
I go into my son’s bathroom and his trash can is full to the brim and about to spill onto the floor. I decide not to take it down to the kitchen to empty into the main trash, but I’m steaming mad. He’s a senior in High School, he can tell when a trash can is full.
So he comes home from school and I angrily say “go into your bathroom and look at the trash can.” And he leaves. And he doesn’t come back. And, being concrete and literal, I’m sure that he did actually go into his bathroom and look at the trash can. Kill me now.


Fly on the Wall, a multi-blogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

When I’m in the living room, if my son is really bothering me and I want to get rid of him, I turn on “The Big Bang Theory”.
I get it, I love the show.
He doesn’t get it at all, he lives the show.


Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics




Chocolate Pizza with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
                                   ©www.BakingInATornado.com

                                                                                                                                                       
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients, chocolate pizza:
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 stick butter
1 stick margarine
3 eggs
¾ tsp vanilla
2 cups sugar
1 cup flour
 
Ingredients, frosting:
1/2 stick butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 drops of red and 16 drops of yellow food coloring.
½ tsp vanilla
¾ tsp Pumpkin pie spice
1 TBSP milk
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
 
Ingredients, decorations:
Gummy worms
Halloween sprinkles
1 strand peeled off of a Twizzler peel ‘n eat
2 Vanilla wafers
2 M & Ms
1 Hershey’s Kiss
 
Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large round pizza pan (without holes in it).
*Melt together the unsweetened chocolate, margarine and butter in microwave. Stir until completely smooth.
*Stir in the vanilla. Once incorporated, stir in the sugar, then the eggs and last the flour.
*Bake for 15-18 minutes until the center is set. Allow to cool completely.
 
Frosting:
*Beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the food coloring, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice. 
*Carefully, starting off at your lowest speed, beat in the powdered sugar. If it’s too stiff, add the milk. If it’s too loose, add a little more powdered sugar.
*Carefully spread the frosting onto your chocolate pizza.
*Decorate with sprinkles to outline the face, gummy worms as hair, cookies and M & Ms as eyes, twizzler as a mouth and kiss as a nose.
*Store in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before serving.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Mommy or Mummy

NOTE: This post was originally published on 10-30-2012 on Scary Mommy.


Do you wonder if you’re not just a mommy but a mummy? If you were a mummy, would you know it? Would it feel any different? Because lately I HAVE been feeling different, decidedly not myself. Let’s see: lack of sleep, doing things I always swore I’d never do when I had kids, wearing ratty old clothes that someone has apparently used as a napkin. Yup, I’m a mummy. Are you? I’ve developed an amazingly accurate test to help you determine just that. Take it if you dare:


Mommy or Mummy | graphic designed by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com


#1: Do you stand in the shower wondering why your legs look no different after you shaved them and realize you never took the cap off of the razor?

#2: Do you, two hours later, wonder why you still have a splitting headache, then realize that there is a direct correlation between the efficacy of the medication and whether or not you’ve actually taken it? Leaving it on the counter appears to have no value.

#3: Do you find that you don’t want to go to the bathroom for fear of losing valuable caffeine?

#4: Would you, for a few minutes peace, wake your kids up and send them off hoping that they get all the way to school before they realize it’s Saturday?

#5: Have you done a recipe search “by ingredients” and wondered why there are no recipes using Valium?

#6: Have you ever “forgotten” that you grounded your child just so she/he’ll get the BLEEP out of the house?

#7: Do you find yourself unable to see the downside to robbing a bank? If you get away, you’ve got lots of money you can use to, well, get away. If you get caught, when in jail you get to approve (and deny) visitors.

#8: Have you ever used this phrase “go ask your father, and don’t you dare tell him I told you to.”

#9: After going out for a rare “Mom’s night out” have you ever found yourself sitting in the car in the driveway because you’re not going into that house until you’re positive the kids are sleeping?

#10: Do you ever tell your little ones it’s bed time 2 hours early because, what the heck, they can’t tell time?

Now count up how many times you’ve said “been there, done that” to the above and check your score:

Zero: Try again and tell the truth this time.
One: Did you think it was the kids who were making you feel ancient?
Two: I bet you’ve started walking around the house half asleep at night.
Three: You are obviously comatose. When you wake up you could be a mummy.
Four: Start buying lots of sheets, it’s fall now and you’ll want a new wardrobe.
Five and above: Answer the door, UPS is delivering your sarcophagus.

Go on, admit it, I’ve got you thinking. Now you need to let me know, what signs have you seen that you may be a mummy?

I’ll be back to check on your answers, and while you’re sharing I’ll be in the kitchen making my kids’ favorite cookies:

Mummy Cookies | www.BakingInATornado.com
Mummy Cookies

Click on this link to my original post for the recipe for Mummy Cookies.

Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics

Friday, October 11, 2013

24th Secret Subject Swap

Welcome to another Secret Subject Swap. This week 12 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.


Secret Subject Swap | graphic designed by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Baking In A Tornado
The Sadder But Wiser Girl
Evil Joy Speaks
100lb Countdown
Follow me home . . .
Menopausal Mother
Dinosaur Superhero Mommy
Stacy Sews and Schools
Discovering Me
It's Yummi
Dates 2 Diapers
Confessions of a part-time working mom

My subject is: What’s on your “must do” list before the snow flies this year? It was submitted by It's Yummi. Here goes:

Let me just start by saying this: if I’m going to get through this list, the snow better not fly for a long, long, long time. Maybe forever.

And what’s on my list? Well, how long have you got?

Before the snow flies:
*Win powerball.
*Have a ski mountain built in my back yard. No, not a dinky little hill either, although that would be a start around here.
*Invent a built in body warmer for when I go out in the cold. And no, extra body fat isn’t what I had in mind.
*Find a way to entice my college student to call home other than when he needs something.
*See my blog go viral.
*Get the garage heated. Oh, and the driveway too, may as well.
*Win powerball.
*Find a store that delivers my groceries. And puts them away too, please.
*Find a liquor store that delivers. No need to put anything away, thanks.


Apple Pie Shotini | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #drink


Apple Pie Shotini

*Has anyone gifted me a private Island yet? No? OK, put it on the list. I’d like it before the snow flies. And a private jet to get there would be nice, but no pressure.
* Is it too late to plant cacao trees in the back yard? ‘Cause I’m gonna need that or a money tree with the price of chocolate these days.
*Make millions something . . . anything . . . from my (collaborative) book.
*Get my new blog up and running. Or even close. Or just pick a logo and a template. Or even a logo OR a template. Or make any decision at all, really.

*Stop the gray hairs from growing. ‘Cause pulling them all out is really starting to take up too much of my day.
*Buy . . . wait, I need to google how many days winter is . . . 89. OK, but 89 pairs of sweat pants and 89 hoodies.
*Win powerball. Ummm, did I already mention that?
So that’s my list. Well, not really my whole list, but it’s a start.



Baking In A Tornado signature| www.Bakinginatornado.com | #MyGraphics




Apple Pie Shotini was featured on What The Flicka?


Apple Pie Shotini
                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounce Grenadine
3 ounce Goldschlager (cinnamon liquer)
6 ounces Apple Vodka
2 ounce Whipped Cream Vodka
Apple slices
Opt: Hot Tamale Candies
Opt: Apple juice
 
Directions:
*Mix together the Grenadine, Goldschlager, Apple Vodka and Whipped Cream Vodka. Add the Apple slices and refrigerate until cold.
*Garnish with Hot Tamales.
NOTE: If this drink is too strong for you as is {{wimp}}, you can add some apple juice {{wimp}}.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Best Dressed

I have a rule in my house, no Halloween until October 1st. I hate how stores push holidays so early, it takes the fun out of it for me to see Halloween costumes already out in August. But it’s October so at my house we have finally made it to Halloween season, my favorite baking season. Halloween is all about playing with foods for me, but there’s so much more as well. I love to decorate my house, and I’m living vicariously through all of my friends’ posts about costumes.

The way I see it, there’s a whole progression in the costume timeline. It starts when the children are little and this is one of my favorite times. I get to pick what they wear and take adorable pictures.

Then the kids get a little older and they get to pick insist on picking their own costumes. This is about the time that moms start frantically shopping and designing and working night and day to live up to their child’s vision. But there’s nothing like the look on their face when you do.

During these years the parents get to dress up too, for school parties, for handing out candy and, for us, adult costume parties; different treats but lots of fun.

Following those years there’s a bit of a lull for the kids. Many hit the age where they don’t dress up. During these years I host tons of teens for a party in my basement on Halloween. I make Halloween treats but most of the kids don’t dress up. This is the stage that we’re in now. I know eventually the kids will find dressing up fun again, but for now here we are.

Snake Sandwich | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #halloween

Snake Sandwich

Snake Sandwich | recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #Halloween



And during this lull I find myself looking back at some of the costumes I made we wore through the years. The best ones are easy to remember. I loved this butterfly one because it’s the first one I ever really made myself.

Butterfly Costume | picture property of www.BakingInATornado.com



The worst Halloween costume I’ve ever worn was also the scariest. And the sad thing is that I wasn’t even wearing a costume.

It was the day of Halloween and I was just putting the candy into a bowl when I had an itch on my eyelid. I’m not sure how i did it but I ended up scratching my eye. It didn’t hurt but it bled. Since there was no pain involved I just forgot all about it. That night, dressed in my normal clothes, I happily went to answer the door, big bowl of candy in my hand. The neighborhood children took one look at me and, deciding to forgo the candy, went screaming from the house. Parents even gave me nasty looks. Wimps.
But that’s OK, I was perfectly happy drowning my sorrows in candy. And I have it on good authority that chocolate has healing powers. Bet my eye got better much faster once I started making my way through that candy bowl.


Bloody Eyeball | graphic designed by and property of www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics



The worst Halloween costume my children ever wore is a matter of perspective.

I happen to think that this picture of my boys is the cutest thing ever. Yet now that they’re teens, when I take this adorable picture out to show to their friends each Halloween, my boys (who agree on absolutely nothing) will both tell me that these are the worst costumes EVER. In fact, they claim that it’s possible that if I don’t lose this picture they’ll require therapy for life.

Bee and Cow Costumes | picture property of www.BakingInATornado.com



Once they got a little older and could choose their own costumes, my boys showed me what a Halloween costume is really all about. They actually had me make these for them:



Freddie and Jason costumes | picture property of www.BakingInATornado.com


Anyone wondering why I’M in therapy for life?

 

Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics





Snake Sandwich
                                         ©www.BakingInATornado.com
                                                                                                                                                

 
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
1 (1 #) loaf of frozen bread dough, thawed
2 TBSP sweet hot mustard
6 - 8 slices deli ham
6 - 8  slices deli turkey
Approximately 20 slices pepperoni
6  slices provolone cheese
¼ cup black olive slices
3 different colors of food coloring
3 tsp water
3 egg whites
1 thin slice red pepper about 2 inches long
*You will need 2 toothpicks
 
Directions:
*Grease a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*Flour a working surface and roll out the dough to approximately 24 inches by 8 inches.
*Gently spread mustard onto the dough, leaving a ½ inch border.
*Layer on the cold cuts, cheese and all but 2 of the black olive slices.
*Roll the dough up, rolling from the long side. Pinch the ends of the snake so the meat is enclosed and the back one comes to a point. Fold the front dough under to form a face.
*Move to the baking sheet, seam down and manipulate so the entire sandwich looks like an “S”.
*Mix each food coloring separately with an egg white and a tsp cold water. Using a pastry brushes, “paint” stripes onto the snake.
*Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the bread is golden.
*While it’s baking, cut a 2 inch long strip of red pepper and cut a “v” out of the end to look like a tongue.
*When the “snake” comes out of the oven, cut a small slit in the front where it comes to a point and insert the flat side of the red pepper inside so it sticks out and looks like a tongue. Insert toothpicks where the eyes would be and put black olive slices onto each toothpick.



Monday, October 7, 2013

From Eewww to Boo


This is my second Halloween blogging. And although I’m having fun playing with new recipes again this year, the truth is that there are many great recipes from years past that I’m making too. Each of my kids have their favorites and they’d be let down if I didn’t make them again.

So I thought that I’d bring those favorite recipes of Halloweens past to one blog post. A sort of compilation of Oooh, Eewww, and Boo.

Before you look through them, let me just apologize for the (lack of) quality of the pictures. I’m not a photographer in the best of circumstances but the camera I had then may have qualified as the worst of circumstances. The state of my earlier pictures were equipment failure. Unfortunately the state of my more current pictures is operator error.

Below are pictures of Halloween recipes I posted last year. Under each one is a link back to my original post where you’ll find the recipe. Let me know which ones you try. I just love when people make my recipes and then post a picture of it on my facebook page. If you’d like to do that, post your picture here: Baking In A Tornado on Facebook.



 
Candy Corn Poppers  | www.BakingInATornado.com




Meringue Bones  | www.BakingInATornado.com




Candy Pumpkins  | www.BakingInATornado.com




Rice Krispie Jack-O-Lanterns  | www.BakingInATornado.com




Spider Cookies  | www.BakingInATornado.com




Bloody Eyeballs | www.BakingInATornado.com




Edible Band-Aids  | www.BakingInATornado.com


Witch's Fingers Cookies  | www.BakingInATornado.com




Candy Filled Witch's Hats  | www.BakingInATornado.com



Black Cats Cookies  | www.BakingInATornado.com

Orange Eyed Mice  | www.BakingInATornado.com


Yellow Eyed Mice  | www.BakingInATornado.com


Be sure to check back here. I’ll be publishing new Halloween posts and recipes through the rest of October.

Happy Baking.
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