HAPPY HALLOWEENIE

Wonder-Leela wishes you a safe, Happy and absolutely DELICIOUS Halloween!!!!!

From the Archives: 2007, Puff Pastry Cheese Cake Cups w/ Pear topping

I've been working REALLY hard lately to roll out a whole new Sweet Life Kitchen ASAP, we are so excited to show you all the new updates!!
In doing all the fun projects that are required to make this dream a reality- I've spent time all kinds of time digging through the blog archives, allll the way back to the beginning! 

This was one of my FAVORITE early recipes- a total experiment from 2007~ So old school in fact I am still searching for the original photos- so my apologies for the little one! Hope you enjoy it anyway....

Here's the O.G. post for a fabulous recipe & trip down memory lane:

These were a baking experiment gone RIGHT. I wanted to create a fun fall desert with stuff I had on hand. I couldn't find any recipes online combining cheesecake, puff pastry and pears...so I improvised this one, Nate is not super fond of graham cracker crusts & cheesecake, which I totally love, so I was excited to see if this worked because I had a feeling he would really dig it! Thankfully, they turned out awesome and would be  a fabulous dessert for dinner parties!

Beth's Puff Pastry Cheese Cake Cups w/ Pear topping

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed according to package directions

2 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened and at room temperature (very important!)

3/4 c sugar

2 large eggs at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp lemon zest

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp all spice

Topping

2 pears peeled, cored & chopped up into small pieces

1 T white sugar

1 1/2 T Brown Sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

*optional caramel for topping

Spread thawed puff pastry over floured surface and roll out. Grease a muffin pan (I used a 12 muffin-pan). Cut the pastry into 12 even squares (you could probably get 18 squares out of it if you rolled it out more. Place one square in each muffin cup.

Preheat oven to 350.

Place all toppings ingredients into a foil packet and cook in the toaster oven at 350 for 25-35 minutes.

In a large bowl combine cream cheese & sugar and mix well, until smooth and fluffy. Add vanilla and mix well, then add eggs one at a time, mixing after each. Make sure the batter is smooth and not lumpy. Use a large spoon to fill each muffin cup with cheese cake batter.

Bake cheese cake cups for about 17 minutes, then turn off oven and let stand in oven for 7 minutes. Then let cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes until removing from pan to cool. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, serve topped with pears and caramel.

Monster Eye Eggs

Here's another simple Halloween party recipe, much like the spinach dip- it's a creepy twist on an easy classic!

This is also a fun recipe to make with the kids- decorating the eggs is a fun way to get party ready.

Boil a dozen eggs, let cool and split in half.

In a medium bowl mix the yolks with a few tablespoons of yellow mustard, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a pinch of sugar, salt & pepper to taste.

Use a pastry bag (or gallon-sized ziplock with a corner cut out) to fill the egg white halves with the yolk mixture.

Top with sliced green pimento stuffed olives and use red gel frosting to add blood-shot-ness!

MMMMmmmmmmonster-tastic!

Bread Stick Bones and Bloooood

Halloween is a BUSY time, fast forward into Fall, getting costumes ready, making sure you've got all the details on lock down and trying to get everything done while the sun sets earlier every night! This is not of my own invention, definitely a old classic, but a fun and easy Halloween party treat.

You can absolutely make your own pizza dough, but to make this a true time saver hit up Trader Joes and get some that's ready to roll!!
They've got ready made marinara sauce there too, so this can be a fun recipe to whip up with the kids for a costume party!!

Roll out the pizza dough and cut (with a pizza cutter or pastry wheel) into strips~
Cut a one inch slice in the center at the top and bottom of each strip and peel/curl the two pieces on each end around to make the "bone" shape.
Bake on a foiled baking sheet at 450 for about 15 until golden.
Serve with marinara sauce!

Lil'Mummy Dudes~ Halloween Party Recipes

Sweet Life Kitchen had the pleasure of catering a super spectacular Halloween party in 2009 and we keept it creepy and crypt-tastic with some really easy, fun treats like these lil'dudes. This is certianly not my invention, I've seen hotdogs wrapped in crescent roll strips as a favorite kids dinner on Halloween. This was a cocktail party, so I needed to cocktail size this classic kids comfort food and make it party perfect. Nate helped by using a pizza roller to quickly make mummy wrapping strips out of Pillsbury Crescent Creations, and then we made like some ancient egyptians and wrapped these lil'smokies up!! I also had the sheer JOY of using my eddible marker for the first time and giving these little guys some lil'eyes~

Makes about 45
1 package "Lil'Smoky" Cocktail weenies
2-3 packages Pillsbury Crescent Creations

Preheat oven to 375.
Cover a baking sheet with foil and use a pizza slicer to cut the crescent creations into thin strips
Wrap each cocktail weenie with a strip of crescent dough.
Bake about 15 minutes per batch, until crescent is puffy and golden
Dot on some eyes with an edible marker if you wanna!

Cemetary Spinach Dip~ Halloween Party Recipes

Time to get ready for Halloween! Tune in for all kinds of party recipes that I've made time and time again- easy, inexpensive ways to get in the spooky-spirit!

If you are planning a party this year or bringing a dish to one- here is my all time favorite Halloween dip. I love this because because it's a great centerpiece for a GIANT VEGGIE PLATE, which helps balance all that sugar from the trick-or-treating loot!!

This is just a very basic spinach dip that I've made and posted about before with a few dashes of green food dye for extra grody-factor to celebrate the spookiness of Halloween.
Last year I added the carrot fingers, which are an easy and awesome way to add creepy to your table...attach a little almond slice finger nail using a dab of cream cheese~ BOO!

You can easily double this recipe depending on how many guys & ghouls you have coming to your shin-dig...

Serves 20

• 2/3 cup mayonnaise
• 1 16 oz. container sour cream
• 1 1.8 oz) package dry leek soup mix
• 1 8 oz. can water chestnuts, drained and minced
• 2 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• Fresh cracked black pepper (just a bit to taste)
• Green food dye- for swampy spookieness

Mix all of the above ingredients in a large bowl and add the food dye until it is the desired color of swampy green. Cover and refrigerate 8 hours to overnight. Serve with  veggies like celery, carrots & bell peppers, tomatoes......