Candy Corn Sugar Cookies & Mummy Dogs

I know Halloween's come and gone, but I still wanted to share these. We had our usual family dinner on Sunday, but we put a Halloween twist on it. All night long people kept pulling out all sorts of Halloween inspired food creations. We ate a LOT! Here's what I contributed:


Candy Corn Sugar Cookies
1 batch of your favorite sugar cookie dough
yellow and orange food coloring
butter cream frosting

Divide your cookie dough into thirds. Color 1/3 yellow and 1/3 orange. Divide each 1/3 in 1/2, so you have 6 dough balls in all. Chill in fridge for 1-2 hours. When chilled roll each dough ball into a rectangle approximately 9inx4in (doesn't need to be perfect)
Using a pizza cutter, cut each rectangle into thirds lengthwise making 3 long strips.
Place 1 strip yellow, 1 strip orange, and 1 strip white together and press seams together with your finger. (again doesn't have to be perfect)
Using a sharp knife, (I used the edge of a large, thin metal spatula) cut dough into triangles and place on to a cookie sheet.
Bake 6-8 minutes at 350

Make your frosting, color 1/3 yellow, 1/3 orange. Put each color in a plastic baggy, cut a small hole in the corner and go to town.

Sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't bad at all. And if you want to see some step-by-step pictures click here




Mummy Dogs
1 package little smokies
2 rolls crescent dough like pillsbury

Unroll crescent dough but do not separate into triangles. Using a pizza cutter cut crescent dough into strips. Roll each little smokie up into a strip of dough and bake according to crescent roll package directions. Use mustard for the eyes.

Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn

I came across this recipe a couple weeks ago while trying to come up with a sweet snack that wasn't completely jam-packed with sugar. And we were all set to watch a movie, so what better than popcorn? We're on a mission to dramatically reduce the amount of refined sugar we eat in this house so I made a few changes to the recipe to make it a little more "healthy", the result? DELICIOUS! Benton asked me to "please make some regular popcorn" because this wasn't tantalizing his taste buds as it was mine. Turns out, after trying it, I had to remind him to eat his "regular" popcorn because that's what he wanted. I made this again for a big family movie night and it disappeared pretty quick. So, pretty much it's the perfect sweet & salty snack.

Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn: (pictures coming soon)
from allrecipes.com

• 1 cup unpopped popcorn
• 1/3 cup butter ( I used a little less)
  
• 2/3 cup white sugar (I used 1/2 c. Xagave brand agave nectar instead)
  
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pop your corn with an air popper, or if you're like us and don't have one, on the stove in a stock pot with some olive oil. Put into a Large mixing bowl and set aside.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees

Combine the remaining ingredients in a small sauce pan and cook until thick and bubbly (I let it boil no more than 2 min, it should still be real liquid-y, just a little thicker than you started out with)

Pour over popcorn and mix until evenly coated.

Spread popcorn into large roasting pan ( I used a 16x20 in) and put in 250 degree oven for 10 min. After 10 min, turn heat off and allow popcorn to stay in oven for another 20 min. Remove from oven and let cool before eating.

*This makes a BIG batch, so unless you're feeding a crowd, I'd half it.