Upcycling Leftover Halloween Candy for Thanksgiving

November 16, 2016 by Angie Leave a Comment

If you bought a few too many bags of candy expecting a truck load of trick-or-treaters and only had two show up to your door, you’re probably wondering what to do with the leftover treats. Though it’s tempting to eat every last Hershey’s Kiss and Tootsie Roll, you’re saving your binge for Thanksgiving day, where you’ll help yourself to at least three pieces of pie; hey, it’s the holidays, treat yo’ self!

Instead of throwing the candy away or taking it to the breakroom for a free-for-all, why not get into the holiday spirit and make something of it to share with family and friends come Thanksgiving?

Here are three upcycled Halloween treat ideas that’ll get your Thanksgiving and all of your holiday celebrations off to a good start!

The Thanksgiving Cracker

Brought exclusively to you by the Bumblebreeblog (see full tutorial with photos there!), this sweet cracker craft will start Thanksgiving dinner off with a bang! Filled with small toys and candy (this is where all of that extra Halloween candy comes in) the Thanksgiving cracker is a fun, small gift of appreciation that’ll get everyone sitting around the table talking and laughing.

Materials Needed:

Halloween candy
Recycled paper towel tubes
Ribbon (orange, yellow, red, maroon or brown)
Cracker snaps
Wrapping paper (orange, yellow, red, maroon or brown)
Hot glue gun
Tape
Scissors
Pencil

Directions:

Step 1: Cut the recycled paper towel roll in half, making two smaller tubes. Cut along the top of the tubes.

Step 2: Lay the tube on the wrapping paper. Wrap paper around the tube (it should wrap all the way around) and make a mark. Make sure you have at least 2 inches of wrapping paper protruding from either side of the paper tube. Unroll the wrapping paper once more.

Step 3: Cut along the mark you made on the wrapping paper. Set the tube aside for now.

Step 4: On a flat work surface use your hot glue gun and glue the cracker snap along the edge of the cut wrapping paper.

Step 5: Unfurl the cut wrapping paper with the glued cracker snap and lay the tube in its center. Tape the wrapping paper edge without the cracker snap to the tube. Continue to roll the wrapping paper around the tube nice and tight. Hot glue this strip down.

Step 6: Tie one of the open ends of the tube with ribbon.

Step 7: With the Halloween candy you have left over (this would also make for an awesome Halloween arts and crafts project next year!) fill the tube. Tie the remaining end with ribbon.

And just like that, you have a neat little noisemaker complete with candy! Instruct your guests to pull the cracker apart at both ends and the treat will “rain” candy. To make the cracker even more exciting, you can include little handwritten quotes, jokes and questions for your family to read at the table!

Candy Stuffed Turkey

What is Thanksgiving without turkey? Nope, I’m not talking about the carved bird on the table, I’m talking about crafts! Use your leftover candy and scrap craft supplies to make a darling candy-stuffed turkey! (Full tutorial with more photos at Clean & Sensible)

Materials Needed:

Halloween candy
Pipe cleaners (yellow, orange, red and brown)
Googly eyes
Brown tulle
Super glue
White marker
Scissors

Directions:

Step 1: With your white marker, trace 9-in. circles on the brown tulle. Cut out the circles.

Step 2: Place a handful of candy in the center of each circle. Make sure you have enough space to tie the ends of the circle into a knot, with excess tulle to make fanning feathers.

Step 3: Measure and cut 6 in. of brown pipe cleaner. Roll the top of the pipe cleaner into a spiral, this will be the turkey’s head. Wrap a 1 in. piece of orange pipe cleaner through the coil; this will be the turkey’s beak. Next, wrap a 2 in. piece of red pipe cleaner around the base of the turkey’s beak; this will be his gobbler.

Step 4: Glue on the googly eyes just above the beak. Set aside and let dry.

Step 5: Using the remaining yellow pipe cleaners, cut two 8 in. pieces. Fold the bottom of each pipe cleaner to make three toes. These will be the turkey’s claws.

Step 6: Stick the head and feet through the “body” of the turkey.

Now your guests have their own gobbly good turkey friends!

Chocolate Thankfulness Tokens

Thanksgiving is of course about more than the food. It’s about sitting down with your loved ones and expressing gratitude for your family, friends and experiences. Show your loved ones why you’re thankful for them with chocolate thankfulness tokens.

Materials Needed:

Halloween candy (need mini chocolate bars)
Construction paper, assorted colors
Pens, assorted colors
Small plastic bags
Ribbon, assorted colors
Pencil
Scissors
Clear tape

Directions:

Step 1: Place the mini candy bar in the middle of the construction paper. Make a mark on the paper along all sides of the candy.

Step 2: Write a reason you’re thankful for them on the paper using your pens. You can add stars or other designs.

Step 3: Cut out the little rectangle message.

Step 4: Tape the message to the front of the candy.

Step 5: Repeat steps 1-4 for every square of chocolate.

Step 6: Place the candies in a plastic bag and tie with ribbon in their favorite color.

Now look: you’ve used all of your leftover candy, flexed your creative muscle and shared in the happiness of the holiday with your family. Not a bad way to spend Thanksgiving.

How do you use up leftover candy?

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Angie

Angie is a coffee-fueled writer, artist-wanna-be, and over-worker who currently resides in a tiny fixer-upper near Salt Lake City with her boyfriend and 70lb rescue pittie. She works full time in Customer Service/Computers, part-time in retail and fashion, goes to school part-time on and off, maintains this and another couple of blogs, as well as volunteers with rescue dogs. In her free time, what little of it there is, she likes to read, play nerd games, craft and create art, and spend time with all of the awesome people in her life.

http://www.mysocalledchaos.com

Simple Peaches & Cream Recipe to Use Up Overripe Peaches

June 20, 2016 by Angie 10 Comments

Last week I decided to renew my Costco membership. I’d let my membership lapse because I’d gotten too lazy to go out of my way to get gas there (it’s much cheaper), and since there was only one person in my household, buying in bulk just wasn’t important. However, since my little household has gone from just dog + me to dog + me + boyfriend + roommate, the resources have been going at a much speedier rate. There are now three times as many people using toilet paper and eating the groceries. Man, I had nearly forgotten how great some of the stuff you can find at Costco is… Including fruit! I bought a huge container of Cotton Candy Grapes (which were eaten pretty quickly) and couldn’t resist the Peaches that were perfectly ripe and smelled amazing as I walked past them. Of course, we couldn’t eat them fast enough, and it was only a few days before I looked at them and noticed they’d gotten too soft and a bit wrinkly… But I hated the idea of just tossing them out and wasting half a package of peaches. My solution? Peaches & Cream!

The riper the fruit, the sweeter it becomes, and during that ripening process it reaches a point where it just isn’t necessarily a desirable consistency and flavor anymore. In this case my peaches were still edible and nutritious, as they hadn’t soured or molded yet, but they were a bit soggy and the texture wasn’t something I was interested in enjoying. I knew if I left them much longer they’d just end up in the trash, so Peaches & Cream was a great way to use up those peaches without wasting them. Well, most of them… I did end up trimming off some of the more ripe parts of the peaches before making them into Peaches & Cream.

Recipe for Simple Peaches & Cream

I’ve been making Peaches & Cream since I was a small child. My mother used to make this very simple recipe with just about any kind of fruit we had that was ripening faster than we could eat it… We had Strawberries & Cream almost as often as Peaches & Cream, and it was just as tasty. It’s such an easy way to use up what overripe fruit with what you have on hand. You really only need three ingredients and you probably already have them in your kitchen.

Also, you can totally do this with fruit that’s perfectly ripe if you just want Peaches & Cream or with underripe fruit to sweeten it up. Just leave it longer with the underripe fruit or add a bit more sugar.

Ingredients

Peaches
Milk (any will work, but I recommend Whole Milk or Half & Half for better creaminess)
Sugar

Step 1: Slice Your Peaches

You’ll want to slice your peaches. The thickness of your slices or chunks will depend on your taste, I prefer thinner slices as they tend to absorb the cream a bit better, but if your peaches are perfectly ripe or overripe you may want to do thicker chunks. Underripe should be sliced thinner because it’s consistency will be less likely to absorb the fruit.

Step 2: Layer Peaches Evenly in a Bowl

Layer the peaches as evenly in your container as possible. I’ve used bowls for this often, but above I used a rectangle container so I could distribute the peaches more evenly. If you use a bowl that doesn’t allow that, you just need to make sure to stir it a few extra times over the course of the soaking.

Step 3: Milk/Cream

Pour the milk or cream over your peaches enough that they’re mostly submerged. You can make sure they’re fully covered if you’d like, it will just end up with more cream in the end (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing haha!). The less submerged they are the more often you’ll want to stir during soaking so that they all get equal time in your mixture.

Step 4: Sugar

Add sugar to your mixture. It’s up to you how much you add… You can have too much, so be careful with the mixing. Remember that if you taste it now while you’re adding, it will be sweeter later as the sugar dissolves into the milk.

Step 5: Soak

Cover your bowl of peaches, milk, and sugar and put it in the refrigerator overnight or for 24-48 hours. You want to give it enough time for the milk sugar to dissolve into the milk, and for the peaches to soak up some of that sugary creamy goodness. If you need to, stir once or twice during the soaking process to ensure that all the flavor is evenly distributed.

Step 6: Eat!

Now you get to enjoy your delicious treat! It’s great for breakfast or dessert, or a nice little afternoon sweet snack. It should keep for a few days, but I wouldn’t leave it too long-especially if your peaches are already overripe.

Other ways you could use up overripe peaches include peach cobbler, peach butter or peach jam (try: Fresh Peach Jam, Spiced Peach Jam, or Peach Jalapeno Jam), Peach Pecan Crisp, Peach Bread, or even peach cocktails!

Have you tried Peaches & Cream?

How do you use overripe peaches or any other kind of fruit?

Angie

http://www.mysocalledchaos.com

The Weekly Round Up | Amazing 2015 Halloween Recipes

October 18, 2015 by Angie 24 Comments

Each week on Sunday, my fabulous co-host Aubrey and I host a little social gathering here on our blogs called The Weekly Round-Up. The idea of this round-up is to take one day to not be self-centered and showcase some fabulous posts by other bloggers that we’ve collected through the week. This week, I’ve decided to theme it around Halloween since that’s coming up, and combine it with Cooking since Kenzie and I are hosting a Cooking Challenge this month also! I hope you find some great Halloween recipes to try. 🙂

How cute are these Jack-O-Lantern Cake Pops from Nerdy Momma? Adorable, and Vegan too!

These Almond Meringue Ghost Cookies by Creme de la Crumb are killer cute, and would be a hit at any Halloween party.

I know you can eat Caramel Apples all year long, but to me they feel very Halloween-y and these Chocolate Chip Caramel Apples by Tiaras & Tantrums look like a really fun way to do Caramel Apples this year.

These Candy Corn Cookies by Life with Lorelai look so tasty! I think the scariest thing is your waistline after! haha!

These Zombie Brain Cookies are also by Nerdy Momma, but look how cool they are! I couldn’t resist sharing them too.

→ Follow your hosts My So-Called Chaos & High-Heeled Love
→ Write up a post showcasing your favorite blog posts from other bloggers for the week
→ Add the Weekly Round-Up button (code above) and/or a link back to the link-up to your post
→ Link up below!

Angie

http://www.mysocalledchaos.com

Mad Birthday Cake Decorating Skills

April 23, 2010 by Angie 16 Comments

So this year I decided to make my own cake.

This would be the first time doing cake from scratch, and the first time attempting to decorate it using both buttercream frosting and fondant. I’ll admit, it wasn’t without trouble.

First, it was supposed to be a two tier cake, but the top failed before it even made it out of the pan.

Then, I didn’t have enough red food coloring to do red velvet cake.

So I quickly switched to a one tier chocolate cake.

The basis for this was the Marshmallow Fondant recipe I found on a blog, and I wanted to try it very much!

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe (via thepolhamusfamily.com)

I’m not usually a fan of fondant, however this recipe struck me as a little different as it’s made with mostly marshmallows. In fact, it tastes so much better than any fondant I’ve ever had! It was so very good! I will admit, working with fondant is a bitch, as it tends to stick to everything and have a hard time spreading, but it was worth it. My cake turned out so beautifully!

I even added some food coloring, made polka-dots and stuck them on using a little water on a paint brush. It was adorable!

Chocolate Cake Recipe (Via allrecipes.com)

This recipe was great because it wasn’t too sweet, and it was thick and moist. I loved it!

Buttercream Icing Recipe (Via Wilton.com)

So easy to make. I just frosted the cake with the buttercream, stuck it in the freezer for a while, and then put the fondant over the top! It was so rich and yummy!

What do you think of the my first attempt at cake decorating?

Angie

http://www.mysocalledchaos.com

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

February 17, 2010 by Angie 8 Comments

For Valentine’s Day I decided to try making Red Velvet Cupcakes, inspired by Have The Cake’s February Challenge . I snagged the recipe I found in this post, and gave it a go!

Ingredients for Cupcakes:

2 ½ cups Cake Flour (not self rising)
2 tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 ½ cups Vegetable Oil
1 ½ cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 container Neon Pink Food Coloring
1 Cup Buttermilk (I used 1 ½ cups)
2 tsp White Distilled Vinegar
1 ½ tsp Baking Soda

Ingredients for Frosing:

8 oz Cream Cheese
¼ cup Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
Confectioner’s Sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350° and line two muffin pans with cupcake liners.

2. In a bowl mix together Cake Flour, Cocoa Powder, & Salt.

3. In a separate bowl beat the Vegetable Oil and Sugar together with an electric mixer until blended. Add the eggs in one at a time. Beat in the Vanilla and Food Coloring. (Yes, it’s the entire bottle!)

Recipe: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

4. Add the dry ingredients to the liquids in three batches. With each batch add a ½ cup of buttermilk. Mix until combined smoothly.

5. In a separate small bowl, whisk the Baking Soda and Vinegar together. This will be foamy. (It reminds me of those volcanoes you make in Jr. High where you add the two together and let it foam out the top!) Mix this into the batter until blended.

6. Pour into cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

7. Let it cool.

8. Make your frosting by letting your cream cheese sit out to room temperature. Then blend it with your Butter, and Vanilla until smooth. Add the sugar too taste. In the original recipe she mentioned she liked her more tart, and I completely agree. I don’t like it too sweet because I prefer to taste the cream cheese instead of the sugar. Like Eli said “I’m a whore for cream cheese!”

I wish I had more cake tools, then I could have made the frosting prettier, instead I just spread it on (thickly) with a knife, and it looked very homemade. They tasted fabulous and were so moist!

Angie

http://www.mysocalledchaos.com

Valentines Day Sugar Cookies (Super Yum)

February 13, 2010 by Angie 7 Comments

I found this recipe via Blue Cricket Design and had to try it, as I’d never made sugar cookies with Sour Cream in them before. I have to say, they were SUPER YUM, and if you like to bake (or maybe even just like to eat cookies) you should try it!

Read her original post on the recipe here.

You will need:

5 Cups Flour
1½ Cups Sugar
1 Cup Melted Butter
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
2 Eggs
1 Cup Sour Cream
½ Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

*Note, I recently learned that if you end up using Self Rising Flour, you should not add the baking powder or salt, as those come premixed. You will need them if you use regular baking flour.

Combine Flour, Salt, Baking Powder, and Baking Soda in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, blend together the Sugar, Butter, Vanilla, Eggs, and Sour Cream until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and then mix together until you have a well blended dough ball.

Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 2 or 3 hours or until firm. (I only left it about an hour and a half or so. What can I say-I’m impatient!)

When making your shapes, make sure to roll out the dough pretty thick, about a half inch or so.

Bake at 375° for about 10 minutes (adjust time as needs be.) You want the cookies to be about the same color as the uncooked dough.

After the cookies melt, heat can of pink frosting into a bowl, dip the cookies into the melted frosting and let them drizzle off. Add sprinkles or other pretty things to the top, and serve!

It made about 16 Large cookies the first time I made this recipe, and 46 small ones when I made it again last night. The best part? As long as you keep them wrapped, they stay nice and moist! They were delicious!

Angie

http://www.mysocalledchaos.com

Recipe: Mini Fruit Pizzas

January 23, 2010 by Angie 1 Comment

These were such a hit with my friends, so I thought I’d post the recipe! If you make them, let me know how they turn out! Enjoy!

Crust/Cookie:

Recipe via Joy of Baking. (Though I didn’t follow their steps, just the ingredients.)

3 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 cup Unsalted Butter (at room temp)
1 1/2 cups Sugar
2 large Eggs
2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Mix the salt, flour, and baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl blend butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs until well blended. Then blend in the powdered ingredients until you have your dough. Make little balls and use something (I used the bottom of a shot glass) to make an indent into the cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Let cool before topping.

Frosting:

Recipe via All Recipes.

8oz Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Sugar
2 teaspoons Vanilla

Blend all ingredients well, and top your cookie with a spoonfull, spread thickly.

Add your choice of fruit to the top in any pattern you wish. I chose sliced Strawberries, Mandarin Oranges, and a big Blackberry in the middle. Serve, and watch your guests enjoy!

Angie

http://www.mysocalledchaos.com