Ghost Cookies

This is one of those recipes that my kids beg me to make year after year after year. You can make these cookies into GHOSTS or MUMMIES. This year we did ghosts.

GHOST COOKIES:

3/4 cup softened Butter

1/2 cup Sugar

1 Egg

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 3/4 cups Flour

3/4 cup Coconut

12 Fruit by the Foot Strips (for mummy cookies)

Powdered Sugar (for ghost cookies)

Chocolate Chips

Frosting or Decorator Gel

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter, sugar, egg, & vanilla in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well mixed.

Reduce speed to low; add flour & coconut. Continue beating until well mixed.

Divide dough into 36 (1-inch) balls.

Shape each ball into a 2 1/4 inch long log.

Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 12-14 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheets & roll in powdered sugar while still warm (for ghost cookies).

Glue chocolate chips on your cookies with the frosting to make ghost eyes.

And that's it! Super simple.

If you want to make the mummy version:

Cut each fruit roll into 3 pieces. Starting at the top of each cookie, wrap 1 fruit roll piece around each cookie, stretching slightly to cover. Leave a small opening near the top for the mummy's eyes. Place onto waxed paper. Use frosting to adhere chocolate chips for eyes.

Twice Baked Potato Ghosts

Here's another fun Halloween Dinner that doesn't require a "recipe" & is SUPER EASY. It's just a twice baked potato with a face.

Twice Baked Potato Ghosts:

So wrap your taters in tin foil, stab them a few times, & throw them in a 400 degree oven for about an hour.

When they're soft, take them out & cut them in half lengthwise.

I know the picture below looks terrible, but I'm just showing you that it doesn't have to be perfect to turn out cute. I've never been able to dig the center out of ANYTHING without making a complete mess of it. So, try & dig the center of your potatoes out & put the innards in a mixing bowl. Save your skins cause you'll still need them.

Using the innards, make mashed potatoes in whatever way your family likes them. I add butter, ranch dressing, & half n half. Just make it nice & fluffy. Then refill your potato shells with your yummy mashed potatoes. Throw them back in the oven for 10 minutes to get them warm again.

Get creative when you put their ghost faces on. I used peas for the eyes & carrot slices for their mouths. The kids LOVED them. Even Bladen (my 2 year old) ate 2 of them. You can also add cheese, bacon, broccoli, chives, sour cream, etc. to make it a full fledged baked potato bar if you please. We added cheese, bacon, & chives to ours. Let the kids decorate their own. They LOVE IT.

And that's it! Super Easy!

A visit from Mimi, Baba, & Mamoo

I just love spending time with family. We were SO BLESSED to have my mom & dad & my Grandma Cherry fly out here to Monterey to visit for a week & a half. This was my grandmother's first time meeting Craiger. I loved the moment she held him for the very first time.

I love being with my mom because SHE'S MY MOM!! I love her dearly & I love being with her. Being military, we live far away from our family so I really love those visits we get with my family. My kids know that as soon as Mimi walks through that door, presents await them. (Spoiled little kids. . . my mom tells me that SOMEDAY I'd understand.)

Cadence & Lorien got craft sets & Taya got some Squinkies. Bladen got a car & Craiger a new book. They spent HOURS playing with their new found treasures.

But the thing they love most is hugging on their Mimi, Baba, & Mamoo. They love their grandparents SO much.

One thing I LOVE TO DO when my parents are around is cook. I've been cooking since I was a very young girl. My Grandma Cherry taught me everything I know. I LOVE to cook for her now as a thank you for all she taught me over the years. I REALLY enjoy cooking for people so I couldn't wait to make dinner & treats for my parents. My dad always CRAVES my homemade granola, so that was the first thing I made when he arrived. And for my mom & grandma I baked 4 loaves of homemade bread. Bread is my mom's favorite. It was SO MUCH FUN baking with them.

We spent most of their vacation on a trip to San Francisco (more blog posts to come), but it was nice spending time here at home enjoying life. I love my family.

Pumpkin Grilled Cheese & Blood Swamp Creature Soup

October 2nd: Day 2 of "The Potter Halloween Dinner Spooktacular"

Pumpkin Grilled Cheese & Blood Swamp Creature Soup

Basically it's grilled cheese & tomato soup (but don't tell the kids that!)

Using a pumpkin cookie cutter, cut all the bread for your grilled cheese sandwiches.

The hardest part of the whole recipe is cutting the faces into the top pieces of bread. I cut them with a sharp knife & they turned out okay, but not fantastic. I wish they made mini cookie cutters for pumpkin faces. It would make this a LOT easier.

Next cut your cheese with your cookie cutter as well so that it fits well onto your sandwiches.

Assemble your sandwiches in whatever way you like to make grilled cheese. I like to put a little bit of butter & sugar inside mine.

(I know, I'm weird, but I grew up putting sugar on my grilled cheese & it's a habit I can't break.)

Then grill your grilled cheese pumpkins on your griddle. SUPER EASY.

For your Blood Swamp Creature Soup, just make your favorite tomato soup (I use Campbells Condensed Soup) like normal. Then add 2 scoops of sour cream for the eyes. I added corn for the pupils. I usually used sliced olives, but I was out. Oh well, the corn worked fine. I also used green & red bell peppers for the mouth. ENJOY.

The Ward Campout

Our yearly ward campout was a couple of weeks ago. My mom & grandmother were in town so I decided to stay home with them for some girl time. I kept Bladen & Craiger with me. And Trek took the 3 girls with him Camping for some daddy/daughter bonding time. They had a BLAST!

I packed each of them a tin foil dinner (a camping favorite in our house) & they cooked them over the open fire at the campsite. There were games, campfire singing, & smores with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. YUM.

The girls LOVED setting up the tent with daddy. Our whole family loves tents & roughing it in the outdoors. We really need to camp more often. We all love it.

The ward put on a HUGE pancake breakfast for everyone in the main building at the campsite. I heard it was FANTASTIC.

There were lots of classes & games for everyone on Saturday morning.

The kids found a tire swing & spent the entire morning there. They LOVED playing with their church friends.

I'm bummed I missed out on all the fun, but am also glad I got some one on one time with my mom & grandma who I rarely get to see. I'm SO happy the girls had fun with their dad!

Random PIcs

I realized I haven't posted pics in a little while so here's just a few random pictures of the little ones. They are growing up at lightning speed. I can't believe how big they're getting.

Mummy Dogs

Hello OCTOBER! Oh how I've missed thee. Halloween is my favorite time of year & one of our family's favorite October traditions is Halloween Dinners. Every night for the month of October I make the kids a fun Halloween inspired dinner. They LOVE it & I LOVE it. It's SO fun to get creative with food. I will be posted all my ideas & recipes on this blog every night (if I can find time) so check it often if you'd like some ideas for Halloween dinners. Enjoy!

For October 1st we did the kids' classic Halloween fun meal:

Mummy Dogs

This one is SUPER simple & the little ones LOVE IT. All you need is a can of refrigerated breadstick dough & a couple packages of hot dogs.

Lorien LOVES to cook, so she always looks forward to helping me with my Halloween dinners. We have lots of fun "mummy"/daughter time making dinners.

Stretch your breadstick dough as far as you can without it breaking.

Then wrap it around your hot dog like a mummy. Leave a small opening near the top for the mummy's face, but that's it. SUPER SIMPLE.

Place your mummies on a greased baking sheet & bake them at 375 degrees for about 13 minutes, until they are slightly browned.

Using a toothpick, add mustard dots for the eyes of your mummy. And that's it. You' have a

"SPOOKTACULAR" dinner for the kids.

Lorien is hilarious. She took the ketchup & mustard & added

"BLOOD" & "GUTS"

to her mummies.

Happy October Everybody! Happy Eats!

It's October 1st!

It's October 1st in the Potter house & you know what that means. . .

Halloween is already in FULL FORCE.

We started our day with pumpkin shaped cinnamon sugar toast. The kids LOVED it. Even Bladen ate his (& he doesn't "like" toast).

It was a SUPER fun start to the best month of the year!