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!