Halloween's Finale Recipes: Heart Attack Hotdogs and Devilish Cupcakes

Halloween is, funnily enough, a holiday my family friggin' loves.

We eat it up. Seriously. The costumes, the kids strolling through our neighborhood, the candy... the entire silliness and scariness of this spooky holiday charms my family completely.

And as if the candy wasn't enough, there is a Luby tradition to make Halloween Hotdogs that is done each and every year.

And they are so scary good, so ghoulishly packed with cholesterol, you may need to try these bad boys as a part of your own Halloween tradition. Or you know, your next Monday night.

What we have here, ladies and gentleman, is a Heart Attack Hotdog. Mouth is watering just thinking about it... 

What that means is, this is an all beef hotdog, sliced open and stuffed with american cheese, wrapped in bacon, and baked into delicious submission.

Yep. Yeppppppppp. Phenomenal. 

Exact recipe directions:

Preheat oven to 350, line a 9 by 13 pan with foil. Slice open each hot dog to the middle (not all the way through the dog, part way.) Stuff with american singles to liking (I usually use half a piece of cheese per hotdog but, I know other family members use a whole slice for optimum cheese gooiness). Wrap in a piece of UNCOOKED bacon. Place in lined pan, bake 45 minutes or until bacon is cooked (red/crackling). 

Allow to cool slightly so you aren't biting into hot grease. Place on toasted bun and top with confiments. I always do mustard, ketchup, relish if I have all 3. Tomatoes, onions, and pickles couldn't hurt.

Yum. Nothing could really. These guys are so rich, such a shock to the system, that once a year is more than enough to make them. I do think they are well worth a try though.

And now, devilish cupakes!

I adore how they look like little murder victims :)

Lots of you were wondering how I made the knives. I wish I could say I did but, I didn't. I bought them in a package at AC Moore. They were sugary and delicious and I am SURE we could replicate them with fondant ourselves. Pretty simple design! 

We COULD make them... but we could also buy them. Which is easier/cheaper, ha. And just as cute.

I used this recipe with chocolate cake/chocolate pudding for the cupcakes and they were a smash! Poor little murder victim cupcakes were also eaten, brutally, on Halloween night. 

I know we have 11 months but, cannot wait for next years Halloween already! 

Luckily, I have far more cheerful holidays to keep me occupied this month :)

Halloween Partay: Mac & Meat and Pepperoni Rolls

Not the prettiest picture, sure but, one of the most delicious spreads out there.


Gosh, I love cheese. And meat. And carbs.


Look at those pepperoni rolls! And mac and meat! Which is just like hamburger helper from what I understand of hamburger helper. But this one uses the blue box and your own ingenuity. 

Mac and Meat!

Pepperoni Rolls!

A truly perfect pairing.

So, I am having a huge halloween party at my house today. Huge. Hugest party I have ever had. So, there is a lot to do and stress over and pick at. 

Luckily I have comfort food like this to munch on and chill with. 

Also, I will try and post pics of the party/food and drinks sometime next week. Maybe as my Friday post. 

We'll see how together and adult I can be ;)

My Aunt Tootsie is a dietician and one of the best "throw things together" cooks I know. 

You know what I mean. One of those people who just tosses things together and they are just randomly deliciously perfect. 

These are two of her classics that she would make for us kids when there were seven of us and just 2 moms. 

I've been thinking lately of updating the Mac & Meat Recipe even further by adding some cooked veggies. Some more color and taste. It's just sooooo good and comforting as is that I am tentative to mess with it t all. Let me know what you think.

Mac & Meat

-1 box family size kraft mac and cheese

-1 can cream of mushroom soup

-1 lb ground beef

Prepare the mac and cheese and brown the meat. Once both are cooked, throw all ingredients together and enjoy.

Pepperoni Rolls

-4 packages biscuts

-1 package pepperoni 

Take a piece of pepperoni, fold a biscut in half around folded pepperoni piece. Lay out on cookie sheet, bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Irish Scones: My Family's Recipe

Oh my gosh. One of the top requested recipes of all time in my family are these spectacular Irish Scones. This is a reprise of a previous post which included this recipe. I don't care though, I just remade them and needed them to show up on my blog again with their treat-studded glory. 

They are half gone before they've even cooled off in our house. It's insane.

But trust me when I say the insanity is warranted. 

These are a handed down and well made Irish family staple. You need this recipe. From all the things I've posted to date, THIS is the thing you need to print off or write out or whatever. This recipe is one every family needs to have, every person should have.

Raisins are the classic choice but, chocolate chips make them decadent. For the breakfast scone, I would always go with raisin. But if you are a chocolate fan in any way, you need to make 1/2 the batch with chips instead.

I could NOT decide in this case which to make. So, I made these with chocolate covered raisins and cranberries. 

They made my toes curl.

Yes. They are THAT good. 

You must must make them. Must. Here is the much "mmmm'd" over recipe. Make and enjoy :)

Irish Scones

-4 cups flour

-2 teaspoons baking powder

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1 cup sugar

-1 stick butter

-1 pint sour cream

-2 eggs

-2 cups raisins (Or chocolate chips)

Combine all dry ingredients, cut in the butter, add raisins, beat eggs in sour cream and then blend all. 

Drop on a greased sheet, letting the rough peaks stay in shape. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes or until golden.

My First Ever Cookbook Giveaway! & Walkin' Tacos (The Epic End of Summer o' Stress 2011 and Beginning of a New Era: Fall)

It's fall here in DC and suddenly I find myself looking around in confusion wondering where summer went. I have stopped travelling long enough to have all luggage and bags unpacked. I have finally tackled the laundry and unpacked all the moving boxes. The next wedding I have to plan into my life isn't until New Years Eve. I look back at what transpired this summer and in my head all I see is a chaotic blur of equal parts fun/fab friends/sunshine/adventures/many lovely Weddings that all choked me up.... and stress/moving boxes/airplanes/hospitals/floods/hectic-ness.

I am both sad it's wrapped up and amazed I survived. Torn between savoring every photo and moment and trying to block it out. In the bad sides, the only thing missing was the plague of locusts. On the good, the only thing missing was more time to savor each blessing that came my way. Of which there were/are many. Or more time at the beach with my family.

Definitely that last one but, even if I had spent my whole summer with my family at the beach, I am sure I would still be grumbling that it wasn't enough time. I am a very lucky, very blissed out, gal when it comes to the blessings and people in my life. Especially my family. I only spent one week going around Chicago/Wheaton/Wisconsin this summer with my family and it was definitely not enough time.

The point of all that rant I suppose was these 3 things. 

1) I am sorry I vanished at points throughout the summer and then again for end of August/Apparently ALL of September. We'll just pretend September didn't happen. It seems like it was on fast forward anyway, I'm sure you all understand.

2) I love you all for being so patient with me and understanding of the few inches away I was from cracking under stress and grasping at the summer fun moments while I could. I know you all never ask anything of me as a writer/foodie/blogger but, the few posts I promise you need to be provided. The lack of consistency is my fault and I apologize. I know I come off as foodie/flake but! I am trying.

3) While at our lakehouse though, my mom organized one of the coolest meals I have ever seen. Pioneer Woman did a post on these recently too, (although hers were more involved and called "pie" which I don't get). They are a great, summer, meal that I look forward to for my next (hopefully calmer) sunshine season.

Walking Tacos.

What's that you say? Just an ordinary Fritos bag. But why is there a fork sticking out of it?

A Doritos bag? That's still not food, Meaghan! You've been gone from blogging too long and don't know what you're posting about!

Okay, I'll stop writing in the 3rd person/being weird. What appears to be an ordinary bag of chips is no such thing when you peek inside! Ta-da!

The insides reveal something akin with a taco salad but wrapped up inside individual chip bags! Basic idea: make all the fixin's for tacos but neglect to get tortillas or hard shells. Simply set up a taco bar for you/your friends/your fam and let people dump taco ingredients into bags of gently crushed chips.

Holy yum.

These pics are from the Walkin' Taco bar my mom set up at the lakehouse from 4th of July weekend. Yes, that's how long it has taken me to upload the pictures and write a post. I've already felt guilty enough, ok! Give me a break. 

The lovely thing about Walkin' Tacos is that you can make the meal disposable for easy clean up without feeling like a giant waster for using paper plates and napkins. It's just using the chip bags as dishes! Our lake is usually filled with 30-40 of our friends and family (mostly family, yes we are Irish Catholic) so meals like this one keep my mom sane. We chopped up some watermelon, cooked about 4 lbs of taco meat, and set up the taco bar for everyone's enjoyment.

Trust me/look at how good that looks. No one was complaining. I tried Doritos and Fritos (2 bags, but this is a safe place, no judgement) and both of them were amazzzzzing. Want to give it a try with chicken instead of beef and Ranch Doritos sometime soon too. Yummmmmmmm.

Alright, that's enough of that now. I am sure you will all be anxious to make Walkin' Tacos so I can stop talking about their amazing factors and we can talk about my giveaway! That's the good part, after all! 

Despite my own guilt/reservations about my skills as a blogger, for some reason Joy Bauer (for those of you who don't know, that's the nutritionist from The Today Show!) and her people think I am doing something right because they offered me a chance to promote her new cookbook on my page! I was so excited, I probably spent the most spastic response back they've received to date and so the cycle of confusing e-mails began! Ha, eventually though it was accomplished that they would send me Joy's book Food Cures and I could give a copy away to my readers after a review. 

My readers being you guys. 

So get excited! I am pretty much excited FOR you! This book is INSANELY cool- it has all kinds of recipes to create a flexible diet to any stomach/health issues (lactose, gluten free, etc) as well as an index of foods to help with certain nutrional balances, stomach/health symptoms, and descriptions of the overall science behind food working within your body.

A serious hat's off to Joy and her team for doing all this research and creating such a great book. To whoever wins this, it's a great treasure in the kitchen. I really want my own now that I have been sneaking peeks into the reader copy!

To enter for a chance to win the giveaway, you have to "like" my page on Facebook if you haven't already (click here or on the icon in the sidebar) and leave a comment on the page about either your interest in the science of food or your personal need for more nutritional balance! Make sure to leave your full name (if it's not on your facebook account) by 12 PM EST on Wednesday, October 12th and later that night for my birthday post (yes, 10/12 is my bday! To quote Hannibal, I love it when a plan comes together), I will reveal the winner! I'll then ask you to e-mail me and we can work out the minor details like where you'd like me to ship you Joy's book.

  Best of luck to all of my readers! If you don't have FB or you have questions regarding the contest, write me an e-mail at clutzyscribbler@yahoo.com and I can enter you that way or answer whatever I've neglected to explain. I am sure I am forgetting something, this is why I shouldn't be allowed to drink Diet Coke. Hyperactive blog posts are always my most scattered/least informative.

I look forward to hearing from all of you guys and can't wait to reveal the winner! Good luck to all of you and SO EXCITED to be back in the blogging game!

Thank you again to you readers who continued to support me, write me, and believe in me through my absence as well as a big thanks to Joy Bauer and her team for believing my blog to be a good spring board for their amazing cookbook and supporting me throughout this process. 

Giveaway #1! Here we go :)

B.L.T. Dip: Worth Killing For

So. This is pretty much the best dip ever. 


Seriously.


My roommate, Em, is in love with this dip. Spread on rye toast, wheat thins, triscuts, and bagels.... it's addicting. I even made it into chicken salad by using tablespoons of this dip instead of mayo. And look how pretty it looks.

See! Look how pretty! 


And it tasted EVEN BETTER!


Seriously.

So, pretty much you must make this dip. Because it is delicious. Pure pure delicious.

Go now, my loves. It WILL change your life.

B.L.T. Dip

-1 cup mayo

-1 cup sour cream

-1 cup (cooked) bacon, diced

-2 ripe tomatoes, diced

Combine all ingredients, chill for an hour. Serve with crackers. 

Fruit Pizza

I love this recipe. I had posted this before as "Berry Happy You're a Citizen!" fruit pizza, which I had made with red and blue berries (as shown above) to celebrate a dear friend of mine becoming a dual American/Canadian citizen. At that party, people had thought I had BOUGHT the tart, it looked that good. 

Well, I mean, really. It does look pretty daggum good!!! This one here is a rainbow pattern, I don't know which I like more! The baby tartlets were adorable but, the big pizza is always a hit. I made it in a tart pan so the edges were lovely for the citizenship party but, it still is an attention getter with all that fresh fruit and lovely cream...

I mean, wow. Can't you see why? I vote you make this today. With all the fresh spring berries, it'd be perfect.


Or soon. Just make it VERY soon :)


Enjoy!

Fresh Fruit Pizza

-1 package sugar cookie dough

Grease pizza pan (or, as I used, fluted tart pan), press dough to edges and smooth. Bake at 350 for 7 minutes.

Mix:

-1 8oz cream cheese

-1 8oz cool whip

Once cookie crust is cool...pour and spread onto crust.

Decorate with fruit, coat in glaze.

Glaze:

-1/4 cup water

-1/2 cup sugar

-2 teaspoons lemon juice

-1 teaspoon cornstarch

-1/2 cup orange juice

-Dash of salt

Use a spoon to pour over tart and then a detail brush to smear and coat all the fruit. 

Breakfast Pie

Lingering love from "pie day" has inspired me to post what is my all time favorite breakfast dish- breakfast pie.


This recipe is intensive. My mom and dad make it for us kids every year for Christmas morning, making the pie the day before, and every year on Christmas eve as they prepare the pie, there is some grumbling about how much effort goes into one pie dish.


However, once the morning comes and everyone takes a bite of said pie, everyone wonders why we don't make it more then once a year.

It is SO GOOD. I cannot begin to tell you how worth it this pie is to make. It's cheesy, potato, meats, eggs, all in a flaky shell with roasted garlic and carmelized onions.


...I mean... really.


Doesn't that just SOUND good? 

My Mom elegantly adding an egg layer. She is NOT clumsy in the kitchen and makes everything look beautiful...

I could keep repeating myself on the glories of this pie but, you should probably stop reading and start making it yourself. As I said, it takes some time. And you're going to want to have a slice as soon as possible :)


Breakfast Pie
- 17 1/4 oz pkg (2 sheets) frozen, pre-rolled sheets puff pastry (thawed)


-POTATOES
-1/4 c butter
-3 c (6 med) sliced red potatoes
-1 c (1 med) sliced onion, separated into rings
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp pepper


-OMELETS (make 2)
-2 tbsp butter
-6 eggs
-1 tbls parsley
-1/8 tsp salt
-1/8 tsp pepper
-2 tbsp water


-FILLING
-1/2 lb thinly sliced, cooked, ham (deli works)
-2 c (8oz) shredded cheddar cheese


*NEXT DAY* Brush with-
-1 egg slightly beaten
-1 tbsp water


Layer in the following order:
1 omelet, 1/4 lb ham, 1/2 of the fried potatoes, 1 cup shredded cheese, remaining potatoes, remaining ham, 2nd omelet. Top with remaining puff pastry. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Next morning, heat over to 375. Take pie out, allow to adjust to room temp for 30 mins prior to baking, brushing with egg/water. Bake for 30-35 mins or until golden and cooked through. Let stand for 5 mins before serving.


*If you are too anxious and make it that morning, you may simply put it in the oven without allowing it to set up over night or adjust back to room temperature. However, allowing the flavors to set up overnight is an even more amazing pie so, if you CAN be patient, it's well worth the wait!*

No Cupcake Pan? Make Carrot Cake Cookies!

These cookies are simple, delicious, and, as far as I can tell, extremely well received. The recipe is from my Aunt and, while the icing and cute little carrots are optional, I always encourage to go for the extra flourish because! Details are where things pay off. And, while the recipe calls for a boxed cake and you can use canned icing, if you want to get fancier, you should try making your own cream cheese icing.

Carrot Cake Cookies

-1 Box Carrot Cake Mix

-1 Egg

-1/2 Cup Oil

-1/2 Cup Walnuts (Chopped)

-1 Can Cream Cheese Icing

Mix all ingredients, (excluding the icing can). Roll dough into spoonful sized balls, bake on cookie sheet at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool completely, and ice. To ice with ease, scoop icing into small ziploc baggie and cut a small incision into the corner of the bag. Sometimes, I pipe on just a simple white swirl. But most otherwise, like as pictured, I tend to ice the cookies with the good old fashioned smear method and then pipe on with ziplocs some of the frosting dyed and placed into baggies. Either way and any way you decide to go, try to avoid putting on too much icing. Don't want to over-sweeten the delicious taste of carrot cake.

In other options with this recipe, you can make German Chocolate Cake cookies by just making the recipe with German Cake Mix and Coconut Pecan Icing. Or Funfetti Cookies with Funfetti Mix and Vanilla Icing. I like to use this recipe essentially for cupcakes when I don't feel like cleaning a cupcake pan. Delicious, cute and small. Plus, super easy for us clutzies! Woohoo :)

Moylan Christmas Cookies

My mother is one of five sisters and, every year, as far back as I can remember, we have Christmas cookies that they each make in bulk (1 cookie type, 5 batches- one per family) and then trade.

It's a fun tradition, and a delicious one, that everyone looks forward to reaping the benefits of once all the sisters swap cookies. I was considering doing one post per cookie but, then I realized, I'd have to wait 7 weeks for all my holiday goodies to be posted! I mean, really, that is MUCH too much time. So, here we have listed below all 6 holiday cookie recipes and then the infamous recipe for Moylan family fudge. Which means a short blog post but a HUGE collection of holiday recipes. All of which are extremely worthwhile.

Make and enjoy :)

Resess Cup Cookies:

-1/2 c butter

-1/2 c brown sugar

-1/2 c sugar

-1/2 cup peanut butter

Mix and add

-1 egg

-½ tsp vanilla

-¾ tsp baking soda

-½ tsp salt

Put into mini muffin tins sprayed with Pam. Bake 8-10 mins at 350. Press peanut butter cup into cookie and let sit at least 10 min.

Toffee Squares:

-1 c brown sugar

-1 c margarine

-1 egg yolk

-1 tsp vanilla

-2 c flour

-6 hershey bars

-Nuts

Cream butter, sugar, add eggs, flour, and vanilla. Spread on a greased sheet, bake at 350 for 20 mins. Spread hershey bars on hot toffee, smear. Tops with nuts while warm and cut (usually we just use a pizza cutter) while warm.

Basic spritz cookies:

for 6-7 dozen.

1/2 cup butter softened

1/4 cup crisco shortening

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

green food dye for tree shape

Mix butter and shortening in large bowl. Cream together on medium high speed.

Add the sugar gradually. Beat till light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla, mix well using medium speed.

ADD THE GREEN FOOD DYE NOW. BEFORE YOU ADD THE FLOUR.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, THEN add to green butter/sugar mixture in 3 additions,

mixing well after each addition. Dough will be stiff.

Fill your cookie press. Press cookies on ungreased uncoated baking sheet (I never use uncoated, but may try this, would help them

not to stick to the cookie press)

Bake at 375 for 10 to 12 minutes, or until LIGHTLY browned around the edges. Do not overbake (The recipe said that, not me)

Did I mention you need to add the green dye before the flour? Yeah, you will make the mistake once, and then try to add it after the flour, and it will take you about an hour to try to get the color consistent, and by the time you are done you will have green fingers because you got so frustrated trying to mix it, you started using your hands......

Hopefully this will only happen to you once. I was not so lucky, but it was not written in the recipe, so I was supposed to remember,

yeah, right.....

Almond Butter Cookies (Crescents or Snowballs):

2 cups butter

¾ c sugar

1 ½ c finely chopped almonds

3 ½ tsp vanilla

3 ½ c flour

Mix, bake at 350 9-10 min. Roll into balls (as shown above) or crescent shapes. Ungreased pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Pecan Tassies:

-1/2 c butter

-1/2 c margarine

-6 oz cream cheese

-2 cups flour

Mix and chill for 1 hour. Form into approx 48 balls, press into mini-muffin tins.

For filling:

-2 eggs

-1 1/2 c brown sugar

-2 tbls melted butter

-1 1/2 c chopped pecans

-1 tsp vanilla

-Dash of salt

Bake 25-30 min @ 350. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Christmas Thumbprint Cookies:

-3 c soft butter (6 sticks)

1 ½ c brown sugar

6 egg yolks – save the whites

3 tsp vanilla

6 c flour, ½ tsp salt

Mix all except flour/salt. Combine flour/salt together and blend into dough. Roll into balls. Dip in slightly beaten egg whites. Roll in chopped nuts. Bake 5 min, remove and press centers. Bake 8 mins more. Let cool, place jelly in middle.

And last but not least!!!

Moylan Family Fudge:

-2 qt saucepan

-1 stick butter/15 lg marshmallows

(melt together)

-add 2/3 c evaporated milk (5 oz can)

-2 cups sugar

-A sprinkle of salt

Cook on med heat until at a boil. When it bubbles, stir for 5 min. Remove immediately.

Add 1 cup semi sweet chips, 1 tsp vanilla, & 1 cup walnuts.

8X8 greased, let it cool