Halloween Party Ideas!

Hellllllllo again. So instead of starting this post with a bunch of empty promises of my return to this space, I’m just going to get right into the good stuff. We had a super early halloween get together this year, and I wanted to share some of the recipes and crafts I made for the shin-dig.

We decided to do it really early because I didn’t want to compete with other parties, and I kind of love staying in Halloween weekend and just watching a movie with Russ while carving pumpkins and drinking cider.

But for our 2nd annual spooky (but more quirky) halloween movie night, I had to go all out.

In this post I will share our menu, decorations, and party favors!

Menu:

Pumpkin Puking Guacamole with chips

Buy a medium sized pumpkin. Carve it to look like its getting sick. Make some guacamole. Put it on a plate and a little near the mouth so it looks like it’s puking.

Skinned Alive Skull deli meat tray

Buy a styrofoam or plastic skull head. Cover it with saran wrap. Buy deli meat sliced thin, cover the skull, but leave the mouth area uncovered so the teeth show through. The eyes are made with small fresh mozzarella balls and two sliced olives. I used a tooth pick to keep them in place. Roll up the rest of the deli meat, and put it on a tray. I also had mini rolls and a small dish with mustard out for people to make their own deli sandwiches.

Edible Intestines (Spanakopita)

I got this idea from the blog, “Wanna Bite” but was left rushing at the end so I didn’t have time to nicely paint the blood on. Next time I will make it earlier in the day. I chose to do the spinach/feta combo inside because I wanted to provide my guests with another hearty option for a snack. The spanakopita recipe I used is linked in the title of this menu item.

Zombie Brain jello dessert

This is incredibly easy. Buy the jello mold, choose a red flavor, and add in some evaporated milk to make it opaque. Make sure to spray the mold with cooking spray to ensure an easy removal of the item.

Putrid Chocolate Covered Oreos

My mom has made chocolate covered Oreos for more occasions than I can count, so I had to make some for my party. The pumpkin toppers are royal icing, and my mom made them so I don’t have the recipe, but you could just put regular halloween themed sprinkles, or buy some other themed topping to go on it. I chose to purchase the Halloween Oreos this year as well, so when you took a bite you saw orange and black!

Bar:

For the bar we put out the usual liquor, plus some wine and our awesome friends brought beer and soda, etc. Instead of spiking the cider beforehand, this year we chose to leave it as is, and let our friends choose to use either rum or bourbon for the extra kick. (Our friend Nick drew the awesome signs!!)

We also got these cute little napkins at TJ Max for $3 a pack! I’m officially obsessed and have plenty leftover for next year.

Decorations:

We like to have fun with our decorations and go all out with new ideas of making fun things happen around the apartment. Here are some of the things we did!

Haunted House Door Decor

Ghostly Ghoulish Chandelier

Creepy Guy Hiding in the Shower

Russ did this one last year, but upped the awesomeness of it by adding in a motion sensor that turned the bathroom light red after a few seconds of people being in the bathroom. Yup. I have an amazingly creative boyfriend over here, and people LOVED it.

Party Favors:

I always like to end my holiday parties with a little treat bag for friends to take home, so this year I made some classic halloween candy filled goodie bags. I bought a 13lb bag of mixed candy at Costco, filled halloween themed bags with them, and added in some plastic spider rings and holiday themed stickers. Yup.

Costco packs your groceries in boxes, and I happened to end up with one that was a perfect size to turn into a goodie bag holder. I used some halloween themed tape that my mom bought me at TJ Maxx for $3, wrapped the box and that was it. I put it on the table at the front of our apartment near the door, added a pumpkin for good measure, and a little sign telling people to grab one on their way out. It was a big hit!

Movie: 

As for the movie choice, Russ’ brother Dane came through with an awesome recommendation called “Slumber Party Massacre Part 3.” No, none of us saw parts 1 & 2 but it didn’t matter. This movie was ridiculous and perfectly wonderful for the evening.

Alright that’s it! Hope you guys enjoy the ideas, and that this has sparked some creativity for our halloween party this year. I’d love to see some of the things you’ve done in the past, or come back later to share links to the things you end up doing later this month.

ADIOS!

Sasha

Vegetarian Fried Chik’n & Waffles

The other night I had an insane craving for chicken and waffles. It’s pretty much one of my favorite indulgence dishes, and the loss of it as I took chicken out of my diet has been a hard one. 

It wasn’t until the other day, when it dawned on me that there are fake chicken strips (or in this case, nuggets) available, that I could in fact recreate this in a cruelty free way. 

This is SO simple and you will thank me later. 

All you need: 

Chik’N strips (Gardein is Vegan I hear) 

Frozen Waffles (there are Vegan options of this as well) 

Olive Oil

Paprika

Garlic Powder

Cayenne Pepper

Maple Syrup

Hot Sauce

1) Heat olive oil in medium frying pan on medium heat. I used probably about 1/3 a cup, but use your judgement. 

2) In a bowl, toss Chik’N nuggets or strips with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with paprika, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper. I didn’t measure it, just give each a couple of shakes to taste and you will be good. 

3) When olive oil is heated, toss in the chik’n. Turn occasionally so you don’t burn either side. 

4) Toast waffles in toaster oven. 

5) When nuggets are soft (push fork on top to see) they are done! Place them on top of the waffle, drizzle with maple syrup and hot sauce, and enjoy!

 

An Update…Many Months Later

Hello Everyone, 

It’s been awhile. A really long while in fact. I haven’t been keeping up with this blog at all, and as a lot of people can probably relate to, it just gets hard sometimes. I want to pay more attention to it, but I haven’t for several reasons. The biggest of them being my lack of baking. You see, after my dad passed away (the real reason I started this blog in the first place) I dove head first into my hobby of baking. There was something about creating pretty and delicious treats for my co-workers that just made me incredibly happy. I loved sharing my creations with them. I loved the reaction I got when I’d come up with a unique recipe that made them excited. It was fun. 

Then I left my job to freelance, and had no one to bake for but me and my boyfriend. Unfortunately, with that came the addition of 25lbs and the subtraction of some self esteem. Let’s face it, drowning your sorrows in cupcakes perhaps isn’t the healthiest of ways to deal with something as traumatic as losing a parent. 

Perhaps I will find my way back to baking one day. Maybe the celebration of finding a new full time job will include some freshly baked treats for my new co-workers. Who knows. But for now, you won’t hear much of me on this blog. 

Until next time…

Your friend,

Sasha 

Big Apple Sinatra Cupcakes: A Going Away Treat For My Family

So yeah. My brother and sister in law(n) are moving to the Big Apple in t-minus 1 day and I am drowning my sorrows in whiskey filled butter cream. What can I say? Sugar makes me happy.

(Brother and sister in law(n). Clearly not their going away party but cute pic!)

Last night was their going away party, and I knew I wanted to bake them something delicious as my way of saying farewell and good luck and here is a stiff “drink” to get you through all of the goodbyes!

I made what I’ve dubbed the Big Apple Sinatra cupcake. It’s an apple cinnamon cupcake, with a whiskey brown sugar butter cream topped with a whiskey cinnamon apple compote.

The apples represent the Big Apple of course, and the whiskey because it was Frank Sinatra’s drink of choice.

I made this apple cinnamon cupcake recipe (omitting the chopped apples, and using apple juice instead of water/milk) while also adding in a tbsp of whiskey to the batter.

I baked those up, and started on the compote. I didn’t use the filling recipe from the one above, because I wanted to experiment a bit with what I thought would taste good.

So, I chopped up 3 granny smith apples, threw them into a pan with 1 tbsp of butter, and just started dumping cinnamon on until they looked nice and covered. I would say in total I used about 1 tsp of cinnamon, maybe a bit more.

After they had sauteed for a bit, I added 1/4 cup of water. Continued to cook it on medium heat until the apples were soft but not total mush. I waited until the end to add the whiskey because I didn’t want the alcohol to burn off. I added about 3 tbsp of whiskey (I prefer to use Crown Royale because it is sweet!!)

Once that was all done, I put the apples compote in the fridge.

Next up is the butter cream. I like to think that frostings have become a bit of a speciality of mine, and I am ALWAYS working off of a basic butter cream recipe but substituting whatever flavor I want for the normal tbsp of cream you would use in a vanilla recipe.

So. For the buttercream:

1 cup of butter (2 sticks)
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
3 tbsp of whiskey
1 tsp of vanilla

Start by creaming together the butter and brown sugar. You want your butter at room temperature, but if you are in a rush the easiest thing to do is slice the butter thinly which will make it easier to cream.

Next, add in 1 tbsp of whiskey. Then a cup of powdered sugar, then more whiskey, then powdered sugar. You get the idea. Alternate between wet and dry. Add in the vanilla in between your dry and wet additions any time during the process.

As always, if you find your frosting to be too wet, add more powdered sugar.

Now its time to decorate.

Before I started frosting I dumped a liiiiiittttllle more whiskey over the apples just to make sure they packed a punch.

Then I piped little “cups” of frosting on top, added the compte to the middle, and there you have it folks. Delicious apple cinnamon whiskey cupcakes.

Since I had a little bit of frosting and apples left over, boyfriend, his brother Dane and I all started taking shots of frosting and apple compote. It. Was. Awesome.

If you have any questions about the recipe, give me a shout in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by, happy eats, and much love to you all.

Creative Therapy: A Little Dresser Refresher

There is nothing I find more exciting than a good deal. My mom always raised me to find more excitement in saving money than in spending it, which is one of the reasons why I always get giddy over a solid penny saver.

The other day, Russ and I were biking back from breakfast (say that 10 times fast!) and we came across a yard sale in our neighborhood. We’ve found a TON of great things in the past because we happen to have neighbors with fantastic taste, which made it so we just HAD to stop and take a look around.

And that’s when I saw it. A pretty wood dresser, sitting all by its lonesome, wanting to come home with me.

As quickly as I yelled “HOW MUCH?” from my bike, the response “$50!” came back and it was SOLD!

Next up, grabbing the good old Prius while betting Russ we could most definitely fit this thing in there. He absolutely didn’t believe me and I absolutely won the bet because IT FIT BECAUSE PRIUS’ ARE THE BEST EVER WOWOWOW!

Anywho. What you may not realllly be able to notice in the picture above is that those dresser knobs are painted purple. Yup. Purple painted wood dresser knobs. So obviously those had to go. Like, immediately.

Off to Home Depot we went, $9 later and we’ve got 7 of these shiny new knobs.

The new ones are a bit smaller, but anything is better than that purple and I liked the color of the new ones, and it is my dresser so I do what I want.

So began the changing out of all the knobs. It’s not so easy when you have two feline helpers that want to be part of it all.

Such cute monsters they are.

Anywho, it took about 10 minutes, all were changed, and now we have an updated dresser for a total cost of under $60!

I think I’m going to use the old knobs, re-paint them, and create either a purse hanging or necklace/bracelet hanging thing-a-ma-bob.

Good talk. Thanks for stopping by! Much love.

The Lazy Crafter: Sea Shell Memory Jar

A couple of years ago, while Russ and I were in Florida for the holidays, we took a walk along his father’s favorite beach in Jensen. Being a Florida girl myself, I knew I had to collect some sea shells along the way, figuring one day I would make jewelry out of them, a painting, who knows! I just knew I had to have them.

Fast forward a year, we’re back in Jensen Beach with Russ’ dad, his girlfriend Wendy, and his brother Dane, and in our stockings we receive two of those awesome mini zen garden’s for our desks. We both LOVED them.

Mine looked like this:

And Russ’ like this:

Unfortunately, after getting two cats who LOVE to get into everything, they both ended up looking like this:

They have looked like this for months and months but we literally couldn’t bare to let them go. Hoarders much? Probably. We just loved them and thought maybe ONE day we would buy some more fun things to go in them? I have no idea.

So this morning I was emptying the dishwasher and putting some stuff away when I noticed the tupperware container filled with sea shells, and ALSO noticed the empty sand boxes.

DING!

Lightbulb went off and I realized I could use one of the many empty salsa jars I’ve been hoarding to create a little memory jar using the leftover sand from our zen gardens and the sea shells from our holiday vacation, both of which came from really great times we’ve spent with Russ’ family.

It’s as easy as it gets, pour the sand in, layer the shells, and BOOM, you’ve got an awesome little memory jar to put on your book shelf! (We are getting new bookshelves this weekend, I am SO excited!!)

I added a little strip of bling to my jar lid to make it feel a bit more romantic. I think it looks lovely.

And that’s that! An easy 5 minute morning craft project to get the day started. We’re off to Home Depot now to get some new dresser knobs for a yard sale find we got last weekend. Will post about that later.

Lots of love to all of you that frequent my blog (all 5 of you, HI MOM!) and hope you have a great Thursday.

Creative Therapy: Gold Leaf Necklace

One of my most favorite things ever is when I find inspiration from other people’s creativity.

With the days kind of blending together as I patiently await interview phone calls (those are totally coming, right?! hahahaha) I have been trying to keep my mind occupied with creative projects.

Luckily for me the other day my sister in law, aka sister in lawn, showed me a project her and her friend Megan created for sister in lawn and brother bear’s new apartment in NYC.

Inspired by the awesome living room wall hanging below, the girls set off to create a replica using fake leaves and some gold spray paint.

(Original piece from Elle Decor)

(Sister in lawn’s piece, handmade!)

How incredible is that?!?! So awesome!

I loved it so much that I  was contemplating just straight up stealing her idea and making one for our apartment, but alas, I chose to do something different with the same gold leaves, and I made a necklace!

This one was REALLY easy, and I think it came out pretttty neat.

Here is what you will need:

Fake leaves (any shape/style you’d like!)
Gold acrylic or fabric paint
Gold Chain
Necklace Clasp
Pliers
Bling Embellishment Strips (Like these from Michaels. I used the square crystal ones.)
Scissors
Exacto Knife

Alright SO! Let’s start.

First, I cut different sized leafs off of the vine they came on. Leave a little bit of “branch” on it when you cut as it will make painting easier leaving  you something to hold on to. I wanted my necklace to have the largest leaf in the middle and then gradually move into smaller leaves to create a grecian crown type look, so I cut one large leaf, and four smaller ones of various sizes.

Next, paint your first coat of gold onto the leaf. I used a blow dryer in between coats to speed up the drying process. In total, I put on three coats of paint just to give it that REALLY gold look.

Repeat this step on all of your leaves.

Next, I used my pliers to remove some of the circular hoops from the fake gold chain I bought. I then made a tiny slit with my exacto knife onto the top center (or as close to the center as possible) area of the leaf. After that, I put the gold hoop through and repeated this step with all of my leaves.

Take your gold chain, and measure how long you want it around your neck. Make note of that length, remove any excess chain and then lay it on your table with it folded in half. This will allow you to see where the center of your chain necklace lays.

Attach the first leaf to the center of the chain. I had to use a wrench from my tool kit to firmly close the hoop for a strong attachment but thats because my jewelry pliers are miniature. Just a suggestion if you need to, the wrench worked magically.

Once I put all of my leaves on, I decided to add a little bling from another project I was making, and add some sparkle to each leaf.

You can leave these off if blinged out gold leaf necklaces just aren’t your thing!

Lastly, attach your clasp to the ends of your necklace, and you are done!

One thing I thought about after I finished was that in the future I would like to use small grommets on the leaves to attach the hoops. This will make it more durable, and less like to rip.

And that’s it! Another day, another craft project on the books.

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Brownie “Ice Cream” Cones

Last year when my dad was sick, during some of the down time my mom and I (and sister in law!) would bake.

It was, as it always has been and still is today, a great way to just lose ourselves in something when times are tough.

At the time, I didn’t have this baking blog so I never shared this really cute project we did.

These are VERY easy, SO cute for any party you are having, and were a huge hit among our friends and family.

Here is what you will need to make these:

Mini ice cream cones (you can buy them at Michaels, or you can buy regular cones and cut the ends off!)
Mini M&M’s
Rainbow sprinkles
White chocolate candy melts or coating bark
Batch of brownies
Small ice cream scoop, or if you don’t have it a spoon would work too!

First, bake your batch of brownies according to whatever recipe or box you choose to use. My mom swears by Ghirardelli Brownie Mix and I tend to agree with her!

Once the brownies are done, let them cool.

While those are cooling, melt your candy melts according to the directions on the package.

Now that the brownies are cool, start scooping them into your mini ice cream cones. The fun part about these is that during the whole process, there is really no way to mess them up. Ice cream scoops always look different, so don’t get too obsessed with perfection.

Next, take the melted white chocolate and let a big spoonful drip on top of the brownie. Again, no wrong way to do this! You may always want to try dipping the top right into the chocolate bowl to really get it covered!

Quickly add the sprinkles before the chocolate hardens, and don’t forget your “cherry” mini M&M to top it all off!

And that’s it! Put em nicely on a platter of some sort and watch as your guests go crazy for this cute idea.

Enjoy!

An Update On The Present & A Time For Reflection

Well. It’s been awhile, once again, since I’ve posted. In fact, it’s been awhile since I’ve baked.

Let’s catch you up really quickly on the present, and then take a moment to reflect on the past.

A month ago, I resigned from my job. Lot’s of people think I am crazy for having done this, and perhaps part of me is, but another part of me is hoping that you guys will respect a person who is willing to take risks in her life in order to move forward.

I saved money from every pay check I received while employed, and currently I am taking the summer off for the first time in 13 years, while also applying for jobs in hopes of finding my next career home.

If you don’t know, I’ve worked in radio since college. The people I worked with quickly became family, and for four awesome years I did some of the most amazing things any young person out of college could have dreamed of doing.

I coordinated concerts, recorded interviews with amazing artists, planned some incredible prizes that I believe the winners will remember for the rest of their lives. I worked 18 hour days, 80 hour weeks, went back stage and on-stage for some of my favorite bands, collected VIP lanyards for every show I could have ever dreamed of seeing, let alone be in VIP for, and 16 year old Sasha can’t believe that was ever something she got to participate in during her life time, period.

Walking away from that job was (and still is currently) one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. And while some days I wonder if it was the right one, I keep moving forward in hopes that I will land somewhere that I can be just as proud of as I was when I was at the peak of my radio career.

So.

Now that you are all caught up on the present, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on a time not too long ago where I was going through a ton of changes, like I am right now, where I couldn’t always see a bright future ahead of me but I charged along until I found my way. From that experience came one of the greatest accomplishments of my life: I created an after school art program for a low income school. One that would make such an impact, that art would later be reinstated to the regular curriculum because the principal realized how important it was for her students.

I found the first blog that I wrote about the experience, one of many blogs that unfortunately are lost in the abyss that is the internet, but I wanted to share the one I found.

This is copied straight from my myspace page! ha!

The program started small, but eventually 20 kids joined, and it was amazing.

So here it is:

“One week ago today marked the beginning of the after school art program that I started at a local elementary school here in Orlando. This whole idea came about after meeting my little sister through Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Central Florida. The first day we met, we spent the last 1/2 hour of our time together drawing pictures. I was amazed when I saw how talented she was, and was disappointed to hear that the funding for art at her school had been cut because of insufficient funds. I knew that money for the arts was low in a lot of schools, but had no idea the magnitude of this until I started speaking with people for donations.
I met my little sister in Septemeber of 2006. For those of you who know me well, and for those of you who are interested, 2006 was a very tough year for me. I’m not going to go into the depressing details of it all, but I’m happy to leave it in 2006. I signed up for Big Brothers/Big Sisters months prior to actually getting a match. There is a whole process that you have to go through to get cleared, background checks, interviews, reference checks, etc. I signed up when my life was feeling pretty stable, and by the time we were actually matched with a student, things had fallen pretty low. I was incredibly aprehensive about the situation, as my confidence had been shattered for the moment, and I wondered if I really had anything to give to this kid, and my fight or flight mode kicked in.
When anxiety and insecurity mix together, in most cases in my past I chose flight. I know a lot of you can empathize with this, anxiety is not an easy emotion to overcome, and most of us just run and hide until enough time has passed to come back out and look around. I went back and forth between choosing to quit Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and just sucking it up and taking a chance.
I am more than happy that I chose to stick it out, because I have now accomplished a goal that has brought a huge light back into my life. So back to the art club….
As soon as I found out that art funding had been cut, a million ideas started running through my mind. I wrote to some friends and family to see if I could raise some money, and one friend told me he would donate a big chunk of cash. That was all I needed to get the confidence that this was something that I was capable of doing. That day I wrote a proposal of supplies that could be purchased, how many kids could be involved, and set an appointment to speak with the people I needed to connect with.
Over the course of the next 4 months I spent time getting things prepared, and I am proud to say that as of last week, the first goal for this project was achieved. The first art class went off without a hitch, and it was more fun than I ever expected it to be. Now keep in mind that my experience with groups of kids at that point was non-existant, no teaching, no camp counseling under my belt. I threw myself into this situation, and did my best to mimick what great teachers I have had in my past did with their students. I also have an art teacher for a mother, so that was helpful as well.
I started the class by presenting the kids with their personal art kits. Each student gets one and that is the one they will have to take good care of because its the only one they get! =)

The coolest part of that was when they clapped for one another as I called their names to come to the front and get their kit. It made me laugh and laugh, it was just too cool.

After we made name tags, (which I forgot to get pictures of, sorry) I taught them all about the color wheel. I had them use their water colors to fill in their color wheels, and showed them how to mix primary colors to make secondary, as well as tertiary colors. It was a blast to see how excited they got when they mixed the colors to make new ones!

We ended the day by making a mural based on things we thought of when we thought of Florida. My favorite answer was “Great Restaurants and awesome shopping!” I have to agree on that one. And my favorite drawing was when one of the kids drew an orange with wings…..its poetic.


When they finished the mural, I presented them each with a sketch book that was kindly donated by a manager of a great art store in Boca Raton. They were thrilled to have a book of their own, and I cant wait to see what they draw when they are at home.
Today is week two..and we will be making thank you cards for all of the people who donated so far. I have plenty of blank cards, so if you still want to donate you can. *wink*
I will be sure to take more pictures today…stay tuned if you are ineterested.
Lots of love,
Sasha ”

I look back on that and remind myself that for every big change comes something incredible that you will take with you forever.

I have no idea what my future holds, but I know there is a future waiting for me and I look forward to meeting it.

Lots of love to everyone who made it to the end of this post.

Sasha

Bakerella’s “Snow Cone” Cupcakes For Memorial Day

To continue my red, white & blue baking this weekend, I took on the task of baking these “Snow Cone” inspired cupcakes made by someone I really think is amazing, the one & only Bakerella.

If you don’t know about Bakerella, you need to. She is amazing.

So, I decided to take this one on right after making these red, white & blue pancakes. So much baking in one morning, and I advise if you are going to try the snow cone cupcakes to leave yourself enough time. I was rushed, and it was crazy!

Instead of making mini cupcakes, I went with the full sized variety and they came out pretty nifty if I do say so myself.

Instead of making the batter from scratch, I used a box of white cake and added a tablespoon of my new favorite madagascar bourbon pure vanilla extract. It’s a bit more expensive than the regular kind but worth EVERY penny.

She has a delicious butter cream recipe on her blog, so go for it.

Make sure you have piping bags ready because you need quite a few of them.

Also, to get that perfect stripe of the three different color batters, make sure when you are piping the batter into the cupcake tins you use a fluid back and forth motion, don’t keep the bags stagnant! You need some motion to make the stripes.

And that’s it! They were super yummy and a crowd pleaser at the party.

Have a nice day.