halloween Archives * My Hot Southern Mess

halloween

Butterfinger Chunkies and How to Mail Them

November 12, 2015
Recipes
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It’s been almost 2 weeks since Halloween, do you still have candy? If you have some Butterfingers candy bars laying around I have an awesome cookie recipe for you, Butterfinger Chunkies. These cookies have become one of my families favorite new cookies. It is full of peanut buttery goodness. First you have peanut butter, then some chopped peanuts and the icing on the cake is crushed up bits of Butterfingers. Can you say yum?

As I was making these cookies I was reminded of my husband’s last deployment and all the baked goods that I use to send him. He is the guy to be friends with while deployed. His last deployment I sent him delicious treats such as chocolate chip cookies with oreos in the middle and then there were the slutty brownies. He always had the good homemade stuff. These cookies would be perfect for a care package and that got me thinking about my best tips for shipping cookies. I have been asked more than a handful of times for tips so here are some of my best tips for shipping cookies.

Tips for Shipping Cookies

The best cookies to ship are easy drop cookies like these Butterfingers Chunkies or Chocolate Chip. Bar cookies and brownies ship wonderfully also. This isn’t saying that you cannot ship other cookies such as rolled out sugar cookies, they just need more care such as individually wrapping.

You want to package your cookies in an airtight container to keep them from going stale. If you have a vacuum sealer it is perfect for this but if you don’t, don’t fret. You can do a poor man’s vacuum seal. Simply place cookies in a freezer ziploc bag, seal bag except for a tiny area where you can insert a straw and suck out all the air. Remove straw and seal. I use the freezer bags because they are thicker and more heavy duty.

When packaging your cookies you can add a slice of white bread or a few marshmallows (yes, marshmallows!) to help keep your cookies soft.

Ship cookies in a box not a padded envelope. The post office’s flat rate boxes are perfect. wrap cookies in bubble wrap and fill extra space in box with with popcorn, packing peanuts and/or used shopping bags. Used Target and Walmart bags are perfect for packing material.

Shipping priority mail (2-3 days) is usually good but if you are worried you can do next day. Fresh cookies are better than stale cookies after all. Pay attention to when you are mailing your cookies so they don’t sit in a post office over a weekend. Another thing to remember is when mailing overseas it can take a week or two, sometimes longer.

So there are my tips for sending homemade cookies to your friends and family. Sending homemade goodies is an awesome treat that your friends and family will love receiving especially if you are sending them some Butterfingers Chunkies! I can’t wait to bake some up to add to some holiday care packages.

What are your best tips for shipping homemade treats?

Butterfinger Chunkies

Author:

Country Girl Gourmet

Serves: 2.5 dozen

Ingredients

½ Cup Margarine (such as Imperial Margarine, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Country Crock)
¾ Cup Sugar
½ Cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 Cup Peanut Butter
1 ½ Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 ¼ Cup All Purpose Flour
½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ Teaspoon Salt
¼ Cup Peanuts, chopped
1 Cup Butterfingers, crushed
*All Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend can be substituted for All Purpose Flour with the addition of ½ teaspoon Xanthan Gum.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a bowl cream together margarine and Sugar and Brown Sugar until light and fluffy.
Add egg and combine well. Next mix in both Peanut butter and Vanilla Extract.
In another bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add Flour mixture to creamed mixture, mixing well.
Stir in chopped peanuts and crushed Butterfinger pieces.
Drop cookie dough by rounded 1 ½-2 Tablespoon scoops onto parchment lined cookie sheets.
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes or until golden.
Cool on wire cooling rack
Enjoy, sharing with friends and family!

recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Easy Zombie Makeup Tutorial

October 21, 2015
holiday, kids
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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #TrickOrSweet #CollectiveBias

We are now 10 days out from Halloween! It is one of our favorite times of year with all of the fall festivals, trunk or treats, zombie walks (and runs) and of course the big one, trick or treating on Halloween. My boys may be too big for trick or treating on Halloween but they still dress up. This weekend they will be zombies and they plan to dress up like zombies again on Halloween to hand out candy. To get ready I have been perfecting my zombie makeup skills.

Last year was my first time creating a zombie kid. I searched Pinterest found a tutorial and thought I was all set to go. I found a pin-fail though and had to scramble to figure out how I was going to pull things off. With some quick thinking I came up with a pretty easy zombie look for my son and today i’m sharing my Easy Zombie Makeup Tutorial with all of you!

To create a zombie look it takes a few things you probably have laying around your house. Tissues, school glue, paint brushes, a little makeup and then for some scary fake blood.

Step 1: Start with a clean face. Isn’t he handsome!

Step 2: Take your tissues and separate in the layers. Cheap 2 ply tissues work best for this. If you can find plain unpatterned toilet paper it will work in a pinch but all of the toilet paper I found had some sort of design imprinted into it.

Step 3: Tear of pieces of tissue and apply to the face using washable Elmer’s Glue. I use a cheap paintbrush to apply the glue.

I also like to lightly glue over the tissue. I chose to use Elmer’s Glue because as a kid I use to put glue on my hand and then peel it off. It was like peeling dead skin. That’s the look we are going for so it is perfect!

A big thing to remember about applying the tissue is it does not need to be perfect! You can also “play” with the tissue creating holes for bullet holes and scratches. Make weird faces and let the wrinkles come out. The more imperfect looking the better.

Step 4: Let the tissue dry to your face. If desired to speed up things use a blow dryer on the low and cool settings.

Step 5: Now it’s time to get creative! It is time for makeup! Once the tissue is dry we want to turn the tissue into something that is flesh toned. I like to use a lighter color than our skin tone. Use pressed powder and a make up brush and evenly go over the face making sure that the tissue is evenly colored.

Now it’s time to get creative. Using black eyeliner and black/gray/white eyeshadow (use matte unless you want a sparkly zombie) and start shading and coloring in features on the face. I like to use eyeliner to fill in and outline scars and wounds. I use the eyeshadow on the eyes to darken them. I also darken the lips. I prefer this over typical halloween make up. It’s also easier to wash off!

Step 6: Set your make up! If you want to give your look staying power add Colorless Setting powder. You can find it with halloween make up for less than $5.

Step 7: Add fake blood and voila you have a zombie! I wait until we are ready to leave to add the fake blood to prevent smears. I also like to apply it with a paint brush and let it drip a little.

The whole look doesn’t really take that long to do which is great so we can put our favorite Hershey’s candy in the bowl and head out the door. Seriously, you have to have Reese’s cups on Halloween!

Hershey’s make picking up Halloween candy easy. All I had to do was go to Walmart and grab a couple variety bags and go.

My usual Halloween candy buying involves debating how many bags to buy. I always worry, will I buy enough or will I have candy leftover? Then there is the what all should buy? I always buy Reese’s but what about kids that don’t like them (is that even possible?) or cannot eat them. I always have to make sure I buy a large variety. The Hershey variety bags all have a good mix of chocolate and some with non-chocolate candy allowing a little something for everybody plus they are the perfect size! I have a bag for this weekend and another for Halloween for my boys to hand out. I am all set and ready. Their large bags have made this Halloween easy for me. I have plenty of Reese’s for parents to take as payment for taking their kid’s out, then some Kit-Kat’s,Twizzlers and Jolly Rancher lollipops too!

I think we are ready. Is it Halloween yet?

What are you dressing up as for Halloween? What is your favorite Halloween candy? Don’t forget to check out Walmart for all of your Hershey favorites!

It’s not easy being tall on Halloween

October 29, 2013
holiday, kids, Lil Bits of Life, Uncategorized
2 Comments

Halloween time is one again upon us. Time for our children to dress up and go trick or treating. A right of passage for any kid, a night they look forward too. After all when else are you allowed to go door to door asking strangers for candy? It is the time of the year social media sparks up in blogs about healthy candy alternatives, being mindful of children with special needs to age limits for trick or treating. Which brings me to my question, what about the children who are tall? With my own children I have learned it is not easy being tall on Halloween.

The picture above was taken in 2011 when my oldest was not yet 12 years old and well i’m 5’6″, my son next to him was 5 feet-ish tall. Alike his brother that year would wind up being his last year going trick or treating. He was 9 years old and in the 4th grade. The exact same age and height as his brother was the last time he went trick or treating. The same age (and height) as the cutie in the orange shirt is now. What happens at this age is when my kid’s go out trick or treating people skip over them when handing out candy. They will give to the siblings but not them. They are left standing waiting as the candy giver retreats back inside. They are in a costume, say Trick or Treat, they are polite, my kids are the kids that tell you thank you after given a treat. So what gives?

I honestly couldn’t figure it out. I trick or treated (in costume) with my friends until I was 13. I was dumbfounded until I started reading various postings on social media sites asking, “until what age should kids trick or treat?” The majority were in agreement that kid’s should stop once they hit the age 13/14 or have started high school. People also said they go based on how big the kid looks. That is when the aha moment set in. No one has ever accurately guessed the age of one of my children. My husband is well over 6 foot tall and people keep telling me that I am tall for a woman. We have tall kids, plain and simple. At the kindergarten concert you see that super tall kid that is a head above all their classmates and has to look down at them. That is my kid. All 4 of my kids to be exact.

As a parent I am going to ask those of you participating in halloween treat giving this year to rethink your methods for handing out candy. Please think about the tall kids and their parents who have to explain why you didn’t give them a piece of candy but gave to their siblings. Let them experience this rite of passage like their friends. They are still kids, just a little bit taller than other kids their age. It’s not easy being a tall kid, please don’t give another reason why.