Halloween is right around the corner and Jalapeño Popper Mummies are demanding center-stage at all Halloween events this year. They are also making some big-headed demands such as not wanting to sit next to the meringue ghosts.

They are getting bossy, but I suppose they do have to go through some effort just to get ready. They have to put on cream cheese, cheddar cheese and brown sugar, then be dipped in egg and milk, and dredged in flour, salt, pepper & chili seasoning. After that, they will be wrapped in raggedy dough and deep-fried until golden brown. I guess they should be the honored guests.

I don’t have a problem with them taking center stage on the Halloween Buffet Table, but the Spider Cupcakes, Meringue Ghosts, Witches’ Fingers and Glowing Cake (all coming soon) sure might.

Next thing you know, the Witches’ Fingers will want to answer the door and hand out all the candy. No telling what the spiders and ghosts will think up.
Enjoy!

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ABOUT SUSIE:  Hello! My name is Susie Gall and I am a self-taught cook and food enthusiast. My food blog is Simply Sated where recipes reflecting my life’s journey and foods I love can be found. Recipes for dishes so appealing you will pause at first-sight and mid-bite.

My husband and I raised two great humans, they are both married and we are grandparents to the most ridiculously darling human on the planet, our granddaughter. While my faith and family are the defining aspects of my life – cooking and traveling round out the corners.

From each phase of my life, I am reminded of favorite foods and memories they evoke. When I look through my recipes, it is as if I am looking at photographs in a family album. I remember details of each recipe and where, when and why I prepared it.

I started my blog for many reasons: to express my creativity, to share my love of cooking, and to continue learning. Please join me on my journey. I can’t promise every recipe will have few ingredients, but I do promise recipes one could proudly serve even Robert Redford (nope – I will never give up that dream).

Please visit Simply Sated to find that PERFECT recipe.

Follow Simple Sated on Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest |Google+

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The post Jalapeño Popper Mummies first appeared on BonBon Break.

Halloween is a favourite holiday around our house. Costumes have been decided on for over a month, spooky crafts start adorning my refrigerator, and decorations come out from the cupboard under the stairs.  Spiders, bats, skeleton bones, and rats start to find their way into our house. They’re on the walls, up the stairs, on the ceiling, and in our lunches. That’s right. Our lunches.

From the moment our Canadian Thanksgiving is over, my kids start asking for spooky lunches. The bigger the ick factor, the better.  Eyeballs, gravestones, and vampires, oh my!

This little bento is one of our first Halloween-themed lunches of the season. It’s very simple to put together, I promise. I’ll take you through it one layer at a time…

The bottom layer has a simple gravestone sandwich cut with a cookie cutter and drawn on with food-safe decorative pens. I also used a sticker tag and pressed it into the top of the sandwich. I cut the bread first, wrote the epitaph, put the filling on the bottom layer, and then pressed the two pieces together…

*If you try to build the sandwich first and then cut it with the cutter, you will find it is messier and your filling may spill out the sides.

The cucumber grass is very simple. I cut about two inches off of the side of a cucumber. I cut two half moon pieces off the bottom and placed them on their sides in front of the gravestone sandwich. With the remaining piece of cucumber, I cut little triangles off to form the grassy spikes…

I added little tiny plastic spiders and a rubber skeleton finger puppet to spook up the rest of the bottom layer.

The top tier of this particular bento box is shallower than the bottom tier. This is usually where I put the sides or snack portion of the lunch…

I used little spider rings to hold the salami rolls together and added candy bone sprinkles to the cup of cheddar. I used candy eyeballs and pressed them into the muffin. The “boo” divider is actually a cupcake topper. I cut the post off to use it as a baran (divider) sheet in this and in future bentos. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to bento-making. Repurposing can work just as well in lunches as it does in crafting!

I stacked the two tiers together and instead of using an elastic bento strap to hold it together, I used a piece of craft ribbon and placed a paper straw for her thermos of milk.

So there you have it! A little spooky lunch for your little one, all wrapped up in a bow. I promise this lunch will take you less than 20 minutes to put together now that you have a plan. And your kids will LOVE it. Really.

Happy Bento-ing!

~Arlee Greenwood,  Assoc. Editor for Bonbon Break

ABOUT ARLEE: Arlee is an Early Childhood Educator, earning her degree at BYU Idaho. She runs a government accredited care center in her home in Red Deer, AB. She studied with the New York Institute of Photography and she owns her own photography studio. Arlee is a mother of 6, an aspiring yogi, a lover of books, travel, good food and wine. She’s a blogger and Associate Editor for Bonbon Break in her “spare time” and she will never say no to chocolate.

Follow Arlee on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

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This post was written by Arlee Greenwood exclusively for Bonbon Break Media, LLC

The post Boo! Bento…A Hair-Raising Lunch For Your Little Goblin first appeared on BonBon Break.

Note from Val: While combing the many boards of Pinterest that I follow, I found these and then I saw they were Megan’s. LOVE her. When you go to make these adorable cookies, read the comments below the post. There are some REALLY great tips in there! Now, on to Not Martha…

These Trick-or-Treat cookies have a surprise inside. Each cookie either holds a treat, like mini chocolate candies, or a trick, here they are small sugar ants. Which will you get? You’ll have to break one open to find out. Click through to get a great step-by-step tutorial and recipe!

ABOUT MEGAN: Megan Reardon has been writing Not Marthafor over a decade. She makes things, sometimes out of bacon, and offers DIY instructions. You can find her as notmartha on Twitter,Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr and Facebook.

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The post Trick-Or-Treat Cookies for Halloween by Not Martha first appeared on BonBon Break.

ABOUT SUZANNE:  Suzanne focuses on food as centerpiece for both everyday routines and special occasions. Each recipe featured on Flour Arrangements, from simple loaves of bread to fondant decorated birthday cakes, comes with a story that blends life with cooking.

You can follow Suzanne on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

See more of Suzanne’s posts on Bonbon Break here.

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The post Savory Pumpkin Rolls first appeared on BonBon Break.

I feel like a lot of Halloween food is cool to look at but not all that great to eat. So the fact that this had the scary Halloween effect AND could be called dinner, was just what I wanted. And you know my kids loved getting their own ghost to destroy and eat.

ABOUT CHRISTY: I am the mother to three wild and crazy boys and two sweet little girls. I grew up in Mesa, Arizona and am the youngest of ten kids. I love to dance. I took ballet and contemporary dance for 14 years. I also played the viola for 10 years so music is a big part of my life. Which is why on any given day, you can find me in the kitchen with the tunes cranking!

Read more at http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/

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The post Spooky Shepherd’s Pie from The Girl Who Ate Everything first appeared on BonBon Break.

Have you heard of OXO’s awesome Bake a Difference program??  For each blog post that goes up in September, OXO is donating $100 to Cookies for Kid’s Cancer, an amazing non-profit organization that is committed to raising funds to support the research of new improved treatments for pediatric cancer.  And they are doing it with cookies!!  How amazing is that??

Not only that, but when you purchase an OXO product that is marked with this green cookies for kids cancer logo, OXO will donate an additional .25 cents to this amazing organization.  You can check out all the awesome products they are doing this with here.  So not only do you get a really sweet tool to bake with, you are also helping fund pediatric cancer research!  Win win, yummy cookie, win!

So here’s the story behind these cookies.  The base is this amazing mixture thought up by the genius bakers at America’s Test Kitchen.  It’s the base of their Big and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, and sweet goodness, it is out of this world!  My original plan was to take out the chocolate chips and sub in candy corn and candy corn M&M’s (if you haven’t tried them yet, you don’t know what you’re missing).  They were going to be Trick-0r-Treat Cookies!  How fun, right?

Here’s what I didn’t realize . . . candy corn + hot oven = melted madness!!

The M&M’s in there by themselves are so amazingly delicious, that you kind of forget about your melted candy corn dreams.  These would also be really amazing with the M&M’s taken out and a Milky Way bar chopped up and thrown in . . . or 3 Musketeers . . . . you get the idea.  Just melt candy in your cookies at your own risk!

Candy Corn Cookies

(adapted from America’s Test Kitchen)

• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 sticks of butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 TBSP vanilla
• 1 9.9 oz package Candy Corn M&M’s

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Whisk together and set off to the side.
3. With your mixer set to medium low, beat together the melted butter, the brown sugar, and the white sugar until completely combined.
4. Now beat in the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla until fully combined.  Make sure you scrape down the sides so the dough is fully combined.
5. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients a little at a time.  Again, make sure to regularly stop your mixer and scrape down the sides.
6. With a spoon, hand stir in the M&M’s.  If you do it with the mixer, they will get all broken and won’t be nearly as pretty.
7. Make 1 inch sized balls with the completed dough and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, about two inches apart.  Bake for about 17 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden.  (I cooked about 8 cookies at a time and did multiple batches).
8. Let the cookies cool for about two minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack.  When completely cooled, store in an air tight container.

Thank you to Lisa for writing this post on behalf of Bonbon Break Media, LLC for the #OXOGoodCookie cause.

ABOUT LISA: Lisa, from Wine & Glue, prides herself on being a wannabe of every kind. Chief on her wannabe lists are chef, baker, seamstress, party planner, and photographer. Well, maybe not a wannabe of every kind. She is a very real mom to two crazy and wonderful little monkeys. Check out her wild wannabe adventures at Wine & Glue or follow along on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.

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The post Candy Corn Cookies #OXOGoodCookie by Wine and Glue first appeared on BonBon Break.

And then of course there is Halloween.

Who doesn’t love Halloween?  It’s the one time of year you can be something else.  Legitimately.  Maybe this year I will go as a sleep deprived lion.  I’ll roar at all the children.  And it will be okay.  Because it’s Halloween.

The other thing Halloween means?  Spooky decorations and spooky treats.  Fun little creations that put smiles on your kiddos face.

It was about this time last year that I discovered the cutest little addition to the baking world.

Candy Eyeballs!!  How awesome, right??  Even better is the name in Spanish!  Ojos de Caramelo.  Love it.

So when the lovely ladies at BonBon Break asked me to whip up a funtastic Halloween treat, I immediately thought of Candy Eyeballs and Oreos.  And what do you get when you put together Oreos and Candy Eyeballs?

Oreo Monster Pops!!

How do you get delicious Oreos onto sticks you ask??  (And honestly, what isn’t cuter on a stick?)  Start by melting some candy melts (any color, because it’s going to be hidden), and opening up some Oreos.  I used an inverted rimmed cookie sheet and some wax paper for this process, and it worked like a dream.

Dip the end of the stick in some of the melted candy, and squish it into the Oreo cream.

Now dab on a little more melted candy with your fork.

Now put the Oreo back together and let it dry, between 15 and 30 minutes.

Once the Oreos are firmly on their sticks, and have been transformed into pops, it’s time to make them monsters!  You certainly could just go ahead and dunk them in the candy melts.  But I’m a stickler for chocolate crumbs in my beautiful melted candy.

An easier, less messy way is to glob some melted candy on one side of the Oreo, tap the stick on the edge of the bowl, flip it over, and glob some more on the other side, tapping again to evenly distribute the melted candy.

Once you have the candy coating on your Oreo, add your Candy Eyeballs and other candy decorations.  I scrounged through my candy making cabinet (Seriously.  That cabinet really exists in my house.) and found all these glorious little edibles to make my monsters.

Two things.  First, the candy coated sunflower seeds seem to only exist at World Market.  Unless you are a gagillionaire and want to buy them in bulk through Amazon.  Second, the white frosting like stuff is squeezable fondant.  Ummm . . . love!  I find it easy to work with, and it sets up hard.  So once your design is on the pop, and it dries, it will stay there.  Hooray!

The candy hearts and candy corn (coated in chocolate), were perfect for horns.  On some of the monsters, I added a dollop of chocolate to the top of the head, let it dry just a tiny bit, and then used a tooth pick to make some luscious monster locks.

Some other candy that would work really well are Sixlettes (try not to eat them all before they make their way onto your monsters), jelly beans (especially for big monstery noses), mini M&Ms, and Skittles.

It helps to have your face planned out before you coat your Oreo.

See . . . . now this is the point in a post where I would normally tell you how much fun I had doing this with my kiddo.  And isn’t he great, and don’t I love him, and we totally bonded while doing this.  Totally.

But I’m a control freak.  And I kind of wanted perfect monsters.  Ha!

So I made these while Gavin was at school, but then he came home and saw my candy mess, and the jig was up.  This is the monster that Gavin designed.  It’s kind of awesome, right?  Clearly I should have had him help from the beginning.

Making these was more fun than I predicted.  Imagine me, by myself in my kitchen, putting together monsters, and giggling each time I finished one.  Check out this crazy one.  It might be my favorite.

Even better was when Gavin and I realized that if we turned the sunflower seeds on their sides, they made a pretty rocking mustache.  Suddenly our monsters became much more mature.

Hope you have a spooky and cute Halloween!!

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Looking for more cute Halloween treats?  Check out my Peanut Butter Pretzel Pumpkins.

About Lisa: Lisa, from Wine & Glue, prides herself on being a wannabe of every kind. Chief on her wannabe lists are chef, baker, seamstress, party planner, and photographer. Well, maybe not a wannabe of every kind. She is a very real mom to two crazy and wonderful little monkeys. Check out her wild wannabe adventures at Wine & Glue or follow along on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.

CHECK OUT THESE FUN HALLOWEEN FOODS AS WELL!

Oreo Monster Pops was written by Lisa of Wine & Glue exclusively for Bonbon Break Media, LLC

The post Oreo Monster Pops first appeared on BonBon Break.

I’ve never been much of a seasonal decorator. Even so, I still wholeheartedly embrace the holidays, especially Halloween. I love to stomp around our small-town pumpkin patch with my family. I will happily spend an entire rainy Saturday reading Halloween stories with my daughters.

 

And, of course, I can’t help but head to the kitchen in an effort to transform some of my seasonal enthusiasm into food.

 

In Halloween’s past, I’ve made meringue bones and pumpkin-shaped cupcakes and even a three-tiered ghost cake. This year, I channeled my Halloween spirit into little Jack ‘O Lantern pies. Savory ones.

ABOUT SUZANNE:  Suzanne focuses on food as centerpiece for both everyday routines and special occasions. Each recipe featured on Flour Arrangements, from simple loaves of bread to fondant decorated birthday cakes, comes with a story that blends life with cooking. You can follow Suzanne on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

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The post Pie O’Lantern by Flour Arrangements first appeared on BonBon Break.

ABOUT MELISSA: Melissa is a stay-at-home mom to four fantastic kids. Two in full-time elementary school, one in part-time preschool and a toddler. Three boys, one girl. Three neurotypical, one with autism. Two great eaters and two picky eaters. Any way you slice it, she is a busy mama! In her “spare time” she enjoys making their lunches fun and waste free.

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The post Muffin Tin Halloween by Another Lunch first appeared on BonBon Break.