The Daily Dish Recipes

It isn’t too late to prepare some fun and festive foods as a treat for your children tonight. We are planning our own fun Halloween party tomorrow night, so these are great for us and we will probably do several of them over the entire weekend. Why not? Halloween is actually on a Friday this year! YAY!

Here are a whole bunch of ideas for a wicked good Halloween party!

Lady Finger Cookies - This site has the recipe for these, but also has several other absolutely awesome ideas for Halloween treats.

These are actually really easy to make and are a big hit with the kids because they taste great.

Here is a great Family Fun site with Halloween Recipes Galore for everything from desserts, snacks and treats to main dishes and side dishes for a full menu of Halloween food.

  These are another really easy to make item. Take a hot dog and wrap it up mummy style with bread stick dough. Follow the directions for baking on the can. Use peppercorns for the eyes. These are just like pigs in a blanket, except of course wrapped like mummies.

This fantastic cake is nothing more than a chocolate cake or brownies. Use chocolate cookies (Milano cookies work great as grave markers) but you can also use chocolate graham crackers and crumble them as shown. You can purchase a bag of plastic skeletons from any Halloween shop.

Kitty Litter Cake is a widely popular item on Halloween night and at many fun parties. There is a recipe here that you can use and all you need is a brand new small litter box and scoop to add to the look. It sure looks gross but I’ve had it before and its actually pretty good.

These are so easy to make. Hard boil your eggs like you would if you were making traditional deviled eggs. Add red food coloring to the “deviled egg” filling after you’ve mixed all ingredients. Place the egg halves in a plastic baggie with several drops of yellow food coloring and shake the bag gently coating each egg piece. Allow to sit and dry. Fill the eggs with the “red” deviled egg filling and then add either a whole or half of a black olive. Super simple and they look spooky but taste great.

And lastly for my fun Halloween foods, these are really easy to make too. They are simply Nutter Butter brand cookies dipped in white icing with black icing eyes, though if the icing was still wet you could probably use some type of candy. They are really easy to make and of course a Nutter Butter tastes great so imagine how delicious these are. They are a huge hit!

Some other great tricks are to purchase little plastic toys, rings and other Halloween paraphernalia and put it in just about any type of food which turns it instantly into a Halloween food. Float a spider ring in a bowl of soup, or put candy corns around a dish to decorate plain old brownies, etc.

So what special foods are you planning for Halloween or have you already done?

Piera from The Jolly Kitchen (also from Jolly Mom and Saving With Style) gave me the “I Love Your Blog” - Thank you!!!I love your blog too Piera (all three of them actually which is why I posted them!)

Here are the rules for the award:

- Proudly brag about display the award on your blog or in a post.

- Link to the giver - in this case The Daily Dish .

- Nominate up to seven other blogs that you deem worthy of such an award.

- Be sure to link to those blogs when you nominate them.

- Leave messages for your recipients on their blogs…so they know they won the award (do you know how many awards I’ve stumbled across and had no clue I won? LOL)

Most of my very favorite, can’t live without, need to check every single day at least once, obsessed about constantly blogs have already won this coveted award. So I did something different and chose seven blogs that I recently discovered but really, really enjoy! So here ya have ‘em!

1. Mama Loves Food

2. Mia’s Menu Mania

3. My Tasty Space

4. Kim’s Kountry Kitchen

5. Dawn’s Recipes

6. Kitchen Deelite

7. Culinary Escapade

Now, off to let them know they won!

ETA: Oops I missed an award.

Apparently, I also won an award from Kathy over at Simply Abundant Living and I almost missed it. Thank you so much Kathy for the award. I won this award:

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

And I choose these eight blogs (which are not all cooking blogs):

Take the Cannoli

Domestic Illusions

Mommy’s Kitchen

Miezekatzen - because I absolutely love all those pictures she posts every day.

Dine & Dish - because even without her mojo she still rocks

Diary of an Unlikely Housewife - because she’s “real” and I love reading her every day.

Homemade Mom - because she is one blog I cannot help but look at everyday to see what she is up to. We seem to have a lot in common.

Cafe Munchkin - because well…. have you SEEN her blog? If you are a mom and have kids, wow! Great blog!!

So I have this little problem ya see. I tend to be a cookbook magnet. I mean, I don’t intentionally set out to purchase them. It’s like they sort of jump off the shelves as I’m walking by and before I know it, I own four or five more. Honestly it’s a bit scary when you look at our cookbook collection.

When I moved in with my husband, he probably had 15-25 different cookbooks of various shapes, sizes and types. Then you have my collection which I am embarassed to admit was well in the 50-65 range but have to say that some of those are the little “grocery aisle cookbooks” (yes, that’s what I call them) - you know from Pillsbury, etc. that you can see when you are checking out. Yeah, I seem to be terribly addicted to them.

Then over the past three years I have become so obsessed with Taste of Home that I buy every single cookbook, magazine or “special publication” that they put out.  So the other day I ventured down into our basement where we store the ones we really don’t use much at all, and I think we need to consider a garage sale. Perhaps just with cooking stuff.

This was the cookbook mess.

And on another slightly humorous note, this is what I cleaned out of my kitchen drawers this morning because I got tired of never being able to find anything. Who needs all this stuff?

Do you have random items in your kitchen drawers that you “thought” you might need, but now know you don’t?

Well, tonight we have decided to make homemade Chicken and Dumplings. I’ve done it only once before and I did it in the crock pot and this one is a stove top method, so we shall see. It is currently cooking and will hopefully be done in about an hour. I will update this with pictures as soon as its finished.

Updated to add pictures and WOW!! It was soooo good!!

Here is the recipe:

Homemade Chicken and Dumplings

Broth:
1 3 lb.-5 lb. chicken
2 quarts of water
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Pepper or more, to taste

Dumplings:
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. shortening
3/4 c. buttermilk

Place the entire chicken in a Dutch oven and add water. Drop in the teaspoon of salt. Bring it to a boil; cover and reduce heat. Now leave it alone and let it simmer for about 1 hour or until chicken is tender. Hey, read a book, watch a television program, make a homemade dessert or side dish - whatever. Just let it simmer for an hour.
Remove the chicken once its tender onto a plate or platter and allow it to cool slightly. Trust me, that step is important or you will burn your fingers trying to get the chicken off. Once it’s cooled go ahead and bone the chicken and cut it into bite-size pieces; set them aside.
Return to your pot on the stove and bring the broth to a boil; add your pepper. You get to choose how much you want, but I recommend at the very least 1/2 teaspoon. Let it boil for a few minutes while you make the dumplings.

Onto the dumplings:

Combine the flour, the baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Cut in the shortening until the mixture looks like a coarse meal (kinda like oatmeal). Add the buttermilk and stir with a fork until the dry ingredients are well moistened. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured cutting board, and knead lightly several times.

Pat the dough to 1/4″ thickness. Using a knife cut 1 to 2 inch pieces. (or you can just use your fingers to tear them off - doesn’t matter if they are perfect). As soon as you pull of a piece, drop it into the boiling broth. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook for another 8 to 10 minutes or until it is your desired consistency. Be sure to stir it occasionally or the dough will clump up. Now it’s time to stir in the chicken.

Ready to serve!!

(and if you want to do the dumplings the VERY easy way - buy a tube of crescent rolls, and tear them into strips to go into your broth (just like dumplings). It might be the easy way - but it tastes pretty much the same!!)

Here’s a fresh, piping hot bowl of our finished Chicken and Dumplings and it was GOOD!

Whatever you call them, they are absolutely amazing. Many people remember Mom or Grandma making them, or remember them from Home Ec class at school. And still…many people have not tried these little bites of heaven before. Even if you don’t like campfire S’Mores there is just no way you won’t love these!

S’Mores Drops Recipe

4 c. Golden Grahams
1 1/2 c. mini marshmallows
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 c. light corn syrup
1 Tbs. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine the Golden Grahams and the mini marshmallows.

In a microwave safe bowl, put the chocolate chips, corn syrup and butter. Place in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. You need to stir every 30 seconds. I recommend setting your microwave for 30 seconds - removing - stirring - replacing - set for another 30 seconds - repeat until the chocolate is smooth. Add the vanilla and stir well.

Pour the melted chocolate over the cereal mixture and mix well. Be sure to coat every single piece of cereal and marshmallow in the bowl.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper on baking sheets. Allow to cool. For quicker cooling, and if you can fit them, place the tray in the refrigerator to cool for about 10-15 minutes each.

Eat and enjoy - they are amazing!!

ETA: I updated the original picture of the completed cookie with one that is totally dry and perfect.

If you like this recipe, please give it a Buzz Up or Stumble It!

Monday (10/27)
Chicken Normandy (I’ve been so wanting to try this! - I’ll let you know)

Tuesday (10/28)
Firecracker Casserole

Wednesday (10/29)
Soft Tacos (I’ll share our recipe, don’t worry)

Thursday (10/30)
Leftovers and soup and sandwiches (in case there’s not enough)
Friday (10/31) Happy  Halloween!
This will be a fast food/sub shop/pizza delivery night to get us prepared for the night.

Saturday (11/01)
Hot Dog Twirls (I’ll post the recipe) with Tater Tot Casserole (another recipe I will share!)

Sunday (11/02)
Chicken Penne Casserole (another been wanting to try - I make one similar to this)

Have a great week!

WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU?

Go tell us here.

There is nothing better than walking into your kitchen after a busy day and smelling dinner cooking and knowing you put hardly any effort into it at all. Classic Pot Roast is one of those easy Sunday dinners. Pop all the ingredients into your crock pot early when you get up, and by dinner time, not only will your house smell heavenly, but you’ll be all ready to eat a hot meal.

Classic Pot Roast Recipe

1 Roast
1 can beef broth or 1 cup of water (the beef broth just adds more flavor)
5 lbs. red potatoes
1 bag of carrots (if you want to make it really easy, purchase the tiny ones that are already to go)
garlic salt
onion salt

Begin by washing and slicing your potatoes into chunks, set aside. Clean the carrots and grate them. Cut them into 1-2″ pieces. In the crockpot, pour the can of beef broth or the cup of water. Add the roast. Sprinkle it with garlic salt and onion salt. Add the carrots and the potatoes. Season them with seasoning salt or garlic and onion salt to taste. I recommend cooking your roast on your slow setting for 8-10 hours. You can fast cook it, but the flavor is FAR better during a slow cook, as is the meat tender.
Enjoy! You can even make a gravy for the meat if you like with the liquid in the pot. Just add a couple of Tbs. of flour. Yum!

Yes, I know it’s a cooking blog, but I couldn’t help but want to post these pics of my fur babies. Five kids, three fur babies, yes - we have a houseful.

Here is Maple, our Manx cat. We’ve had her about 2 1/2 years and I believe she’s close to 3 now.

This is Max, our 1 year old Shih-tzu. He was born June 4, 2007.

Yes, I could have shown you a regular old pic of him, but this one is so much cuter!

This is Maggie, the newest edition to our house. She is only a few months old. She was born May 30, 2008.

For the record, I am not in the habit of dressing my pets up, but they need to keep warm with the colder weather and this little sweater keeps her warm enough that she doesn’t shake anymore. (plus its cute!)

And since we’re showing off pets (okay so I am - not you), here are two others we have that are less than furry.

This is our bearded dragon, which is un-named because my son wants to know if its a boy or girl first and apparently you must wait until they are a bit bigger (or so the store told us). We thing age wise he’s about three or four months old. My son got her for his birthday in August.

This is Morgandy, our sweet aquatic turtle. She’s a yellow bellied slider and is so sweet and has a cool personality - except she eats a lot! She’s probably close to a year old.

Okay, now that I’ve shown off our non-human family members, I will resume to my cooking stuff. We are making some awesome cookies today as well as a delicious dinner. I’ll post pics in a bit after it’s cooking!

The cost of food is certainly on the rise, and making our dollars stretch is something that all of us need to do. Groceries are a necessity and something we have to purchase. It is not an expense we can forgo. So how do you save money on the thing you need most to survive? Here are five easy and quick ways to start saving today.

1. Substitute your boxed or frozen meals with made from scratch meals even just two times a week and you can save up to $5-10/week. Do it four times a week and you’re looking at $15-20 worth of savings. Add that up over the course of a year and you’re on your way to saving hundreds of dollars a year. Made from scratch is cheaper and can be stretched further and if you’re worried about waste, use your freezer to save portions for another day.

2. Coupons are available everywhere for nearly every product known to man. Clip them, organize them and use them. When you are making a shopping list, grab the weekly ad from your local grocer and pay attention to what is on sale. Perhaps even create your meals around these items. If a deal is particularly good, and you have the storage room, stock up. Use your coupons to bring the cost even further down. The first time you get groceries for $42 that would have cost you $109, you’ll get more excited about the coupons. In addition, it takes about an hour a week or so in organizing, but can save you thousands of dollars a year.

3. Buy in bulk, but only if you actually use the item frequently. Avoid purchasing anything in bulk that will spoil before you use it all. Consider splitting the cost with someone else and sharing the product. Ask someone, you might be surprised at how eager they are to do the same thing. You won’t know if you don’t ask. Buying in bulk definitely saves money, but you want to eliminate the end waste if you can.

4. Before you shop, eat a quick sandwich, or an apple or anything that might make you less hungry. You don’t want to be full, unless you shop exclusively from a list (which I strongly recommend). You’re more apt to not purchase anything because nothing will be appealing to you. If you shop when you are hungry, you will wind up with many items you probably would not have purchased otherwise.

5. Meal plan, make a list, stick to it. The best advice I have for you, make one grocery trip a week if you can help it. Consult the store ads, check out your coupons and then plan your meals ahead of time. Make a list of what you need to prepare those meals.  Once you have made that list, go to the grocery store and stick to what you have listed.

More tips coming this weekend and a money saving recipe later this afternoon!

I would say that I am actually not going to win any “mom of the year” awards, but my kids beg to differ. Last night I was just not in the mood to cook. We had about a half dozen errands we had to run and I wasn’t sure what we should eat. My daughter and I ran to the store, and I actually let her help dictate the meal. It was the epitome of a home-made buffet. LOL Nobody ate any one thing, but instead they ate like 10 things. Here is what our menu looked like:

Pancakes
Bananas
Sausage Links
Cheese and Crackers
Popcorn
Toasted Ravioli
Potato Skins

and to top it all off, we ate Pumpkin Ice Cream for dessert. Yummy!

Yes, I know it wasn’t healthy, and I just don’t care. We had fun and watched a few shows from our DVR and they thought it was cool. Yeah, so back to cooking tonight. I’m making a chicken and cheese lasagna tonight. They’ll love that.

So, what’s for dinner at your house?