Cucumber Boats

Cucumber boats
Cucumber Boats

Cucumber boats floating on their blue ocean plate with fully open egg-white sails, rigging of toothpicks with whimsical olives making the mast, and filled with egg salad. Ahoy!

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Pirate Party Menu and Recipes

Pirate Flag Of Rack Rackham
Pirate Flag Of Rack Rackham

Pirate Party - It's a Pirate Party! This is a fun menu to make for your own pirate party, whether for kids, or adults who are celebrating International Talk like a Pirate Day. Of course, you can use these recipes at any time of the year.

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Day of the Dead Brownies

Day of the Dead Brownies
Day of the Dead Brownies
Day of the Dead Brownies Inspired by Crystal Skull on Exhibit at the British Museum
Crystal Skull at the British Museum

These Day of the Dead brownies have an extra kick from Chipotle and Cinnamon that takes them out of the realm of the ordinary brownie.

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Cranberry Brown Betty

Cranberry Brown Betty
Cranberry Brown Betty Cooling

This is fast becoming a staple Thanksgiving dessert. I don't like pumpkin pie, and mince-pie is wonderful for Christmas, so this has the one for this holiday. It's very simple to make with only a few ingredients that you probably already have on hand.

You will want to use Panko breadcrumbs because they are large and very dry. Broken up bread will not absorb enough of the juices to make a nice top on this. Breadcrumbs that come in a can will not work either, as they are too small, and you would just have a cranberry pudding instead of a Brown Betty.

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Bride and Groom Ghosts

Took one look at her groom and hung herself!
Took one look at her groom and hung herself!

Crafts in this Post

Halloween is my favorite holiday for crafts. There are so many fun projects you can do. Amber is making Zombie Dog Pumpkin for her son's pumpkin contest. I'm sure she'll win. I decided my theme this year was going to be about dead people, as I already have some Styrofoam I am going to use to make tomb stones.

We started our Halloween project this afternoon. A few weeks ago, I found some Polyethylene Foam laying discarded on the side of the road. As I walked past it, I thought, gee, it kind of looks like a ghost. Well, I went right back, picked it up, and took it home. Then when I was helping at the school a few days later, I found some smaller sheets and took those home, too, thinking I could make smaller ghosts.

So, I thought I would make a Bride and Groom ghosts, since I still have a lot of tulle left over from making Spane's First Communion favor bags.

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Turkey Salad Stuffed Tomato

Recipes In This PostPhoto005

Paula Deen is going to be at Barnes and Noble to do a book signing this evening at 7 pm. That made me think of how lucky I am to be living here in Glendale, California. We have things here that you just don't find everywhere else.

This morning, I went to my favorite store, Best Grocery on Maple, and got two big, red tomatoes, a fat slice of smoked turkey and avocado. I went home and made a wonderful stuffed tomato salad.

Turkey Salad Stuffed Tomato and Avocado
Turkey Salad Stuffed Tomato and Avocado

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Apple Cranberry Puff Pastry

Apple Cranberry Puff Pastry
Apple Cranberry Puff Pastry with Apple Topping

Apple Cranberry Puff Pastry is easy to make with dried fruit and frozen puff pastry. Have fruity goodness anytime!

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Mexican Feast - Coleslaw, Black Bean Dip and Taquitos with White Sauce

Mexican Feast
Mexican Feast
Recipes in this Post

This afternoon when I was at the local store, I had a taste for Mexican food. I already had frozen taquitos in my freezer (I'm too lazy to make them myself), so all I needed was avocado. Well, surprise, surprise my little store didn't have any, so I decided to make the white sauce similar to the fish taco white sauce at Rubio's.

I also had some cabbage in the refrigerator. I love cabbage and it's very good with Mexican food. I picked up a can of black beans so I could make the same black bean dip I used for my Black Bean Tacos.

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