Saturday, November 1, 2008

Candy hunt...and a recipe

We didn't really do the whole Halloween thing this year. Chickie (at 2 years 9 months) is in a "scared" phase. My formerly fearless toddler is getting scared by lots of things that wouldn't have phased her a few months ago. So I was a little nervous about the decorations, masks, etc. that she might encounter during trick or treating. We had invited friends over for dinner, and when I found out they don't do trick-or-treating, we decided to skip it this year. Besides, I hadn't put costumes together for the kids, and appreciated the excuse not to worry about it until next October

Instead, Chickie and her friend Z did a candy hunt in the house. (Z is almost five, but he and Chickie are great buddies.) I hid candy in our game room, and the two kids got their candy buckets ready to go upstairs for the hunt....



Chickie and Z searched, crying out, "I found one!!!" whenever they spied candy.



Afterward, Chickie showed me her stash. (Shh--she doesn't know how much more she would have gotten if we'd gone trick-or-treating!)



When the fun hunt was over, we sat down and watched part of Cars since both Chickie and Z are lovers of anything with wheels. It was really a fun night even without costumes and trick-or-treating.

Before the candy hunt, we had dinner. I went with one of my standby dishes, Rachel Ray's delicious and easy Mexican Lasagna (which I make with ground turkey instead of ground chicken.) If you're looking for a simple recipe that will please most people, try it out.

For an appetizer I made a new recipe my friend Deanne shared with me, and it was delicious. Now, I'm not sure what to call this. We ate it with tortilla chips, but it's too chunky to be called dip or salsa. It's more like pico de gallo on steroids. So we'll call it...

Deanne's Dynamite Pico

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 large can diced tomatoes, drained and rinsed (or several fresh, ripe tomatoes, diced)
1 can corn, drained
1/3 to 1/2 red onion, diced
2-3 avocados, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
Juice of 2 limes
Salt to taste
Garlic salt to taste

Toss all ingredients, and chill. Serve as a dip with tortilla chips or as a topping for tacos, quesadillas, burritos, salad, etc.



Fresh and delicious!

However you spent your October 31, I hope you had as much fun as we did!

11 comments:

Anna said...

so it was Halloween "easter style" very cute!!

Special K said...

What a great alternative to Trick or Treating! Did you have any treaters at your door?

Momza said...

Wow that salsa looks delicious! I'm tryin it! Thanks for sharing!

on a side not: Should the "art" I share with my new pen pal reflect where I live or does it matter?

Thx!

C. Beth said...

Anna--Yes, Easter-style! It worked. :) Of course on Easter she'll probably be like, "Hey, where's my pumpkin basket?"

Special K--We had a TON of kids come to our door. Because Ana's friend was here she was pretty distracted. At one point she said she'd like to do that but I think she got re-distracted. :)

Momza--Let me know what you think of the salsa-pico-stuff! And for the art...whatever you want! The subject matter is up to you.

Anonymous said...

I love the sound of that dip stuff. I'll try it.

Sounds like a Halloween that will be a family memory of something different!

Anonymous said...

We did not do trick or treating last year either. Kate was at the same stage. I think your idea was great fun!!!

The pico looks awesome!!
I love that you post things you cook.
I am not a huge fan of cooking, so I love to see what others are doing!

Our Scoop said...

That looks so yummy! I want to dip a chip in it myself! We skipped the whole Halloween thing too. We went to Ikea :) DD thought it was great fun to be able to play in the toy section, ride the escalator, the elevator and get a cinnamon roll and milk :) What he doesn't know - can't hurt him...right?

Becky said...

The candy hunt was a great idea!

That pico sounds wonderful...all of my favorite things are in it. DEFINITELY making that one this week. You've posted some great recipes - I meant to tell you, I tried both the quinoa and the peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies, and both were fabulous. I think I may start using your del.i.cious page as my cookbook. :-)

C. Beth said...

Becky--Thank you so much for telling me that! I've wondered if people are making the recipes (or simply drooling on their computers and forgetting about it.) ;) I find that allrecipes.com is also a GREAT "cookbook"; almost anything on there with close to 5 stars is excellent.

mullensfam said...

Thanks for the mention! HA! I LOVE that salsa! It ROCKS!
BTW: We don't really do Halloween either. Too many demonic things...we went to the carnival at a local church...and it was AWESOME! they had bounce houses, rock wall, and tons of candy!

C. Beth said...

D--No problem! Looks like several people want to try it! Thanks for the recipe!

That carnival sounds great; we may want to go to something like that next year.