Individual Mummy Pies: Blog With Friends

Today’s post is the next in our series of Blog With Friends theme collaborations. Each month a group of bloggers get together and each publish a project based on a theme. What I love about this partnership is that it’s not bloggers with similar interests or strengths but a diverse group coming up with a variety of posts. In any given month we may have a recipe, sewing tutorial, crafts projects, book review and/or a technology post all related to the theme of the month.

This month's theme is Tricks and Treats. There will be individual project pictures and links to what everyone else has to offer at the end of my post, but here’s a peek at what we all came up with:

I don't think I've made it any secret that I love Halloween. The tricks and the treats. For today's post I made a treat. Call me predictable. 

We're chocolate/raspberry lovers in our house, but you can choose another filling flavor for these pies as long as it's red. For making these pies at another time of year, you can use any pie filling flavor, but for Mummies, I like what the red oozing out insinuates.

Individual Mummy Pies

I love that these pies are individual sized and that they're finger food. They're a perfect Halloween snack or dessert, and they look great on a platter for a holiday party.

It's your choice whether to make these completely from scratch using homemade pie crusts and filling or using packaged products. It just depends on how much time and energy (and patience) you have. I used packaged. It's a patience thing with me. 

One crust at a time, I started by making the circle a rectangle, rolling it out and cutting it into fourths.

I mixed the filling, cut strips along the sides and added filling to the center.

Criss cross the strips over the filling and you can see the mummy start to form. Here they are ready to pop in the oven.

After only 25 minutes they start to brown and the filling starts to ooze, time to remove them from the oven. Decide which side is the top and pop on those eyes.

They all look a little different. They all taste the same. Delish.

As always, any time you make one of my recipes, feel free to post a picture of it to my Baking In A Tornado Facebook Page. I'd love to see it!

Be sure to visit all of this month's other Blog With Friends projects:

Dawn of Spatulas on Parade shares a treat, a Halloween cookie Cow Tails and Nuts.

Lydia of Cluttered Genius shares how to design a Kid Friendly (But Still Spooky) Halloween Porch. 

Rabia of The Lieber Family Blog shares Make Your Kitchen Boo-tiful for Halloween.

Sarah of Not That Sarah Michelle shares Playing Dress-Up.

 Individual Mummy Pies

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients (makes 8):
Crusts for 1 pie (top and bottom)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, chopped
1 can (12 oz) raspberry (or strawberry) pie filling
16 edible candy eyes (can substitute chocolate chips or M&Ms)

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
*If the filling you're using has large chunks, whisk it so it's more smooth than chunky.
*In a bowl, mix one cup of the pie filling with the chopped chocolate chips.
*Sprinkle 2 pieces of parchment paper, approximately the size of your baking sheet, with flour. Flour a rolling pin as well.
*Working with one crust at a time, fold in the sides and roll it out so you have a rectangle, approximately 12 X 14. Cut into quarters and move apart so you have room to work between the pastries.
*Starting on the right of the longer side of your rectangle, cut 8 - 10 strips from the outside just 1/3 of the way in. Do the same on the left side. 
*Place about 2 TBSP of the pie filling/chocolate mixture down the center of each crust piece. Fold a small piece of crust down to hold the filling from dripping out. Repeat with the bottom.
*Starting with one side and alternating sides in a criss cross pattern, gently pull the crust strips at a slight angle down over the filling to the other side.
*Leave the pastries on the parchment paper and move to a baking sheet. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until the crust is cooked and the filling starts to bubble.
*While the first batch is baking, prepare the second batch.
*Remove from oven. Dip the bottoms of the "eyes" into the residual filling in your bowl and attach to the center of the upper part of the cooked pastry. Allow the pies to cool and the eyes to set.
*Repeat with the second batch of pies.

Secret Subject Swap: Terror and Judgment

Welcome a Secret Subject Swap. This month 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. Read through mine and at the bottom you’ll find links to all of today’s other Secret Subject participants.

My subject is: Boo! Tell us the scariest thing that has ever happened to you!
It was submitted by: Rabia of The Lieber Family Blog.

I'm warning you now, this post is not going to be what you'd expect. Yes, I'm going to tell you about the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. But it's a different kind of scary. Terrifying nonetheless.

There was a lot of talk this past May when a 3 year old boy climbed/fell into the enclosure, at the Cincinnati Zoo, where Harambe, a large male gorilla was housed. The gorilla grabbed the young boy, jerked him around. The mother and other spectators were mortified, frantically calling 911. In the end, the Zoo officials had to make the heartbreaking call to kill Harambe.

And the interned exploded.

People chastised, no crucified, the mom. They berated the Zoo and their decision to remove the danger to the child in the only way they could in that moment. The Zoo had to shut down their social media accounts as the only way to stop not only the harassment, but their exposure to the "humorous" memes.

As the criticism grew to a fever pitch, especially towards the mom, I was appalled. How can people be so judgemental? Has no one ever looked away from a young child for a moment?

I had.

When College Boy was about 5 and PurDude about 4, we were visiting my sister and her family back in Boston. It was a warm summer afternoon and we were all out front. My sister, her husband and son, her in laws, my husband and sons, my mom and step father and I. We were all spending a leisurely day enjoying the weather and preparing to have dinner together.

Vegetable Rotini with Chicken in Pumpkin Cream Sauce

Suddenly we see a flash out of the corner of our eyes and realize that the dog has gotten out. This dog, a Huskie, could run. Panic and pandemonium ensued. Some of us ran down the street to the left, some to the right, others ran straight ahead, all calling to the dog. My brother in law jumped in the car and drove off, hoping to cover more ground that way. I remember standing on the sidewalk in front of the house, slowly circling, searching to see if I could catch a glimpse of the dog.

A few minutes later, I turned from looking off to the right to look again up to the left. What I saw haunts me to this day. Just turning the corner onto the street on which I'm standing, I see a woman walking towards me. Holding the hand of my 4 year old. 

She looked at me and said "does he belong to someone here?" I thought I saw disapproval on her face but that might have just been projection. Doesn't matter. No one disapproved of me in that moment more than I did.

I grabbed that little boy and hugged him. I hugged him like I'd never let go. I hugged him like I knew I might have never hugged him again.

And I thanked that woman. Profusely. Endlessly.

I will never. I mean never judge a mother who looks away for a minute. Because I did. It turned out for me. Lucky me. But seeing that woman walking towards me holding my son's hand? That was the most humbling, paralyzing, terrifying experience. And let me tell you, it does not diminish with time. It has the same visceral intensity now as it had in that mortifying moment almost 20 years ago. 

And when that child fell into Harambe's enclosure, I went immediately back to that day in Boston. The horrifying terror returned. Along with an overwhelming empathy for that mom. No one, publicly or privately, will judge her more harshly than she will herself. 

Well beyond that day. For the rest of her life.

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:


Not That Sarah Michelle


The Bergham Chronicles 
Spatulas on Parade
The Diary of an Alzheimer’s Caregiver 
The Lieber Family Blog 
Dinosaur Superhero Mommy 
Southern Belle Charm 
Confessions of a part time working mom 
Never Ever Give Up Hope 
Climaxed 
A Little Piece of Peace 

Vegetable Rotini with Chicken in Pumpkin Cream Sauce

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:
12 oz vegetable rotini, cooked al dente
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt, pepper, onion powder
2 TBSP olive oil, divided
1 onion, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup (plus more for sprinkling) grated parmesan
paprika

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 13 baking pan.
*Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Heat 1 TBSP olive oil in a saute pan on medium heat. Add the chicken, sprinkle with salt, pepper and onion powder. Cook and stir until juices run clear.
*Drain the chicken and add to the pot with the pasta.
*Wipe the saute pan with a paper towel and return to the stove. Add the other TBSP olive oil and the onion. Cook and stir until onion is soft. Add the heavy cream, pumpkin, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and nutmeg to the pan. Whisk.
*Cook and stir the sauce just until it boils. Turn off heat and whisk in 1/4 cup parmesan.
*Add the sauce to the pot with the pasta and chicken. Mix well, then add to the prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with more parmesan, then paprika. Cover with foil.
*Bake for 35 minutes until completely hot and sauce bubbles.

Orange You Glad?

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad it's Halloween?

I know that some people think Halloween is just one day but they're wrong. For me anyway. Halloween is a month. When it comes to stores and websites it's actually a few months. I always hold off until October first, but once that day rolls around, you cannot hold me back any longer, it's Halloween. 

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Witch.
Which who?
I don't know, which witch are you?

Witches of all ages grab their brooms. Orange rules. Spiders {{shudder}} are cool. Blood drips from the windows. Bats hang from the ceiling. Bloody Fingers for lunch. Spaghetti Brains for dinner. Billy the Puppet Cake for dessert. All hail the pumpkin. It's October.

Wait. Pumpkin? Did you say pumpkin? I hear the group groan all over social media every year. "Ugggghh, pumpkin season. Here we go again, thousands of pumpkin recipes flooding my news feed. No more pumpkin. Make it stop. For the love of all that's unholy, make it stop." 

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Pumpkin.
Go away.

Sorry, not going away. Resistance is futile.

May as well go with it. Light a fire in the fireplace. Grab a drink. Enjoy.

Pumpkin Pie Hot Apple Cider

Happy October, everyone!

Pumpkin Pie Hot Apple Cider

                                                                          ©www.BakingInATornado.com
 
Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients (makes 2):
2 1/2 cups apple cider
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 TBSP brown sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves 
1/4 cup Snickerdoodle flavored coffee creamer (if you cannot find this flavor, substitute a flavor of your choice: Pumpkin Spice, Caramel or Cinnamon Vanilla are good options)
OPT: 2 shots Goldschlager
whipped cream  

Directions:
*In a saucepan on medium heat, whisk the cider, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Heat but do not allow to boil. Turn heat down to low.
*Mix in the coffee creamer. Stir and heat for one more minute.
*If using, place a shot of Goldschlager in each mug.
*Pour cider mixture into mugs. Top with whipped cream.