I remember when I was a little girl, we always got to go trick or treating around our neighborhood with all our friends. I would get a huge bag of candy and then proceed to "save" it and not eat it except at special times as my Aunt Susie so fondly remembers. First, let me tell you about Aunt Susie. She is really like my sister because she is only 7 years older than me. She is the queen of sarcasm and utilized it early and often on me. I learned the art of sarcasm from the very best. Susie crowned me "Miss Save-a-dee Lot" at Halloween one year. I could stretch that Halloween candy well into Christmas. But saving it had to do more with, first and foremost, torturing my younger brother than conserving my candy. He would eat all of his candy the first week after Halloween. I would then proceed to pull out my saved portions and eat it in front of him without sharing!! How cruel was I!!! He would run crying to Mother, and she would make me choose - either give him a piece of candy or get a spanking. I would usually take the spanking! Of course, he had to tell Aunt Susie who proceeded to tease me by calling me "Miss Save-a-dee Lot!" She was mad too because I would not share my candy with her either. What is so funny, though, is that I would save the candy for so long, it would get old and yucky, and I couldn't even eat it and enjoy it. HAHA!
Another memory I have of Halloween revolves around my Nana (Mama's Mama) who was the sweetest person on the Planet. She made me a ghost costume out of a nightgown for Halloween. I loved that thing and proceeded to wear it as a nightgown after Halloween. I was and still am a Scaredy Cat when it comes to night time. I hear things go bump in the night, get torn up, and can't sleep. One night while wearing my Ghost nightgown, I heard something and proceeded to get up and go to my Mama and Daddy's bedroom to seek comfort. For whatever reason, instead of waking them up, I proceed to stand over Mama willing her to wake up. Well, she did and when she did, she let out a bone chilling blood curdling scream and literally levitated to the ceiling screaming the whole way. I started screaming. Daddy started screaming, Sam the dog started screaming, and Mother never quit screaming. When it was all over, I was schooled on the proper procedure for waking them up at night when I got scared. I don't think I ever wore that nightgown again either.
Here is a picture of Mama and Daddy as Elvis and Priscilla one Halloween. This is when he realized he was Elvis.
When Food Police was born, we kicked it into high gear when Halloween rolled around. I remember one year she wanted to be a Barbie Doll. This is when I humiliated myself in the eyes of the other neighborhood moms. I thought it was fine and dandy to buy one of those plastic one piece costumes that came with that little plastic mask with the little nylon string that held it on from the Walgreens store. Horror of horrors!!! What was I thinking? When all the other kids came over to trick or treat, they had on awesome costumes that had a lot of effort put into them. I was mortified. "Never again" I said to myself. Little Food Police loved that costume though.
I found the picture of the Barbie costume. I guess we opted out of the mask!! Look at her posing. Oh my!
I redeemed myself by hosting two neighborhood Halloween parties while Little Food Police was in elementary school. The first one was outside complete with dry ice in the back yard, a fortune teller in our gazebo, and a scary house where they had to touch the proverbial peeled grapes for eyeballs and the spaghetti noodles for the intestines. The second party was the best though. I turned the whole inside of my house into a haunted house. The premise was that the house was for sale, I was the real estate agent, and the kids were the potential buyers. I took them into the house two at a time to show them the house. We had scary music going and candles and spider webs everywhere. At the dining room table, I had a person underneath with their head sticking through the opening where you lengthen the table. I had a silver tray with lettuce surrounding their head with a dome over it. When the kids would come into the dining room, I whipped off the dome, and there was this head just sitting there screaming with no visible body!!! We would go onto one of the bedrooms where someone was dressed like a zombie and appeared to be dead and of course, they would jump off the bed and chase the poor little kids down the hall. In the bathroom there was a large doll in the bathtub that had blood all over it and a knife sticking out of its head. Finally, they would go down the hall to another bedroom, and a friend of ours dressed like a red Bigfoot would burst out of the room and chase them outside. Those kids were literally hysterical and crying as they flew out of that house. One kid was so scared he kept running down the driveway after he got out of the house. Oops!! I worried for a long time that I had made it too intense (they were only in the 5th grade, and I do have tendencies to take things over the top), and that all the parents would hate me!!
Look out!! See how the costuming has upgraded. I learned my lesson with Barbie. Little Food Police is Paula Abdul !! Look at Daddy's face!! How funny!
Now I can't wait until I get little Grand-Food Police. What fun that will be!! It will also be so much fun to watch Food Police deal with the candy issue and the lack of nutritional value of it all. She will be that parent who will give out those horrid little boxes of raisins or worse yet, Halloween pencils and stickers!! Horror of Horrors!! Happy Halloween Y'all!
On to the recipe....I chose my cookbook called Frightfully Fun Halloween Recipes. The Eeny Meeny Miny Mo game chose the recipe "Potato Bugs". These are the cutest little things and taste wonderful. I can't wait to make them for the Grand Food Police!!
Whoops..still getting too much flash!! I have got to work on the photography. Notice in the background the beautiful hydrangeas. I think they are the perfect plant. In the spring, they are that wonderful blue and then they fade to a pretty green color. Now in the fall, they have that gorgeous jewel tone fall look of purple.
You will need hash browns, broccoli, spaghetti, olives, and carrots. I left out the sour cream.
After baking the Tater Tots and skewering them onto dry spaghetti noodles to hold them together, you decorate their little faces with broccoli for the hair, carrot sticks for the legs, and cut black olives for the eyes. You get everything to stick using sour cream.
Ok... I think these are too cute!
Here is your recipe....
Potato Bugs
Frightfully Fun Halloween Recipes
1 package (16 ounces) Potato Nuggets
6 pieces uncooked spaghetti, broken into thirds
1 carrot, cut into 1-1/2 inch strips
Sour cream, black olive slices and broccoli pieces
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly grease baking sheets.
Spread Tater Tots on baking sheets and bake for 7 minutes.
Thread 3 Tater Tots onto 1 spaghetti piece. Bake 5 more minutes.
Carefully push carrot strips into sides of each Tot for legs. Use sour cream to attach the vegetables to make the face.
Makes about 15 servings.
Now go have a great day.......
No comments:
Post a Comment