Ghosts of Halloween Past

I have just returned from the grocery store where I was in the checkout line with Harry Potter and Buzz Lightyear.
Yes, all the little kids were dressed up today in the grocery store!lol

 As I begin to spend the day preparing for the onslaught of miniature ghosts and goblins this evening, I harken back to memories of Halloweens past.
I found these couple of photos in my family albums from when my kids were wee little ones.

From 1995......

My almost 3 yr. old daughter as Tigger and my 4+ yr. old son as Casper the Friendly Ghost.

And from 1999.....

My 3.5 yr. old son.  He's the one in the middle in the shot.....dressed as Kimberly, the PINK Power Ranger.  That was just one of quite a few years he decided to be the Pink Ranger.  

Oh, the laughter & the looks he was responsible for the other moms giving me at his preschool.

Who says parents can only be the ones to embarrass their kids?
It's a two-way street!lolol


I am not one to stifle my kids' creativity and personalities, unlike my own parents.  The Pink Ranger now lives on in our family lore.


This will be the first year since 1990 I do not have a child dressing up to Trick or Treat for Halloween. 
The #2 son has hit the age when it's 'not cool' to Trick or Treat.
That may have something to do with the fact that he was invited to a Boy/Girl Party this evening.
I guess when you are 13, GIRLS trump CANDY! lol


It marks the end of a phase of my life I suppose.
And it has me feeling a bit blue today.


Here's hoping you get more Treats than Tricks tonight....


Sluggy

It's Almost Time for the End of Month Totals....

There's one more day in October and that means 2 things.
1-Get all your online coupons printed off now before they go away, or are reset for November.
2-Time to get the old calculator and spreadsheet out to see how you did financially in October.

I've started running some numbers here and it's looking mighty fine at Chez Sluggy!
After the disaster September turned out to be, we can sure use a Good Month here.

So, how about you?  Are you looking forward to seeing how you did overall for the month?
Or are you going to go hide under the covers and wish the month's outcome will just go away??

Sluggy

What Do You Do.....

...when it's less than a week until Halloween, you have 53 jars of  FREE peanut butter from Acme and still have 2 bags of Candy Corn(ok, "Autumn Mix")that was cheap from CVS and you are sick of eating it?

You make Candy Corn Fudge!

So I grabbed what looked like a quick and easy recipe from online and gave it a go.


Here's what you need.....

2 Tablespoons Butter + enough Butter to butter your pan
3 Cups Miniature Marshmallows
1 Cup Peanut Butter
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
20 ounces Candy Corn(I had to bags totaling 18 ounces)
2 Cups Roasted Peanuts(I didn't add this)

Butter a 9x9 pan.  I only had a 9x13 pan available.

In a skillet over LOW heat, melt butter and marshmallows, until marshmallows melt.
(You can also do this in a Double Boiler.  It would probably turn out better in one.)

Stir it until your hand wants to fall off, or it looks like this....

Add the peanut butter.

Stir until it's mixed in.

Then add the powdered sugar....

Stir until smooth.

Then fold in candy corn and peanuts...

In my case, I overheated the marshmallows so once I added the peanut butter AND sugar, the mixture had tightened up a lot to the firmness of taffy!  Folding in became "using my hands and kneeding in the candy corn".  It's a good thing I wasn't putting peanuts in because they never would have folded in.lolol
And I had LESS candy corn than the recipe called for and it was waaaay too much for the amount of 'batter'.
At this point, once you have 'folded' in your candy corn and peanuts, you are suppose to POUR the mixture into your buttered pan.
'Pouring' became ' placing solid lump of fudge into the buttered pan and pressing it down flat and evenly into pan'. lolol  This was difficult to do, as the fudge was very HOT!  I'd suggest you wear rubber gloves.

Let the fudge cool, then cut and serve.

Here's my finished product....

The family says it's tasty though it doesn't seem very sweet to me...until you bite into some candy corn.lol

Next time I'll do this differently....
1. Turn off the heat once the marshmallows melt.  There should be enough residual heat in the mix to melt the peanut butter in.   My heat setting was low enough but it didn't need the continual heating once the marshmallows got to the melting point.  The heat tightened up the mix too much after that.
2.  Use more peanut butter and marshmallows to the amount of candy corn.  The ratio of mix to candy was off.
3. And make sure the peanut butter is chunky, not creamy.  The chunky thing is just a personal preference. 
4. Work quicker once the marshmallows melt.  Hard to do when following a recipe for the first time AND you have to stop every few minutes to take a photo for your blog. 8-))

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Sluggy

Rebate Information Page is now UP!....Check it out!

Per popular request, I have started a REBATE PAGE.
To get to it, look on the right hand side of the blog.  Right under my amazing Followers is a clickable Link titled, "REBATE CENTRAL".  Just click on that and it will take you to the List of Currently Available Rebates out in Rebateland.  There isn't alot there now as it's new, but I'll be adding to it as time goes on.  You may want to bookmark that page for easy access in the future.

This REBATE PAGE will list current rebates. If there is a downloadable form or a website for the offer, I'll make the Link clickable.  I'll also list the major points, like what you need to buy, what you get & any deadline or expiration dates.   I'll be concentrating on food and toiletry rebates but may throw in other good offers as I find them.  I am only one woman though, so if you find a current rebate that I haven't posted, I'd appreciate an email(slugmamaATyahooDOTCOM)with the information so I can add it to the Rebate List.  If you also see anything that needs correction on the list, please let me know that too.
I will clean the list up each month and remove any rebate offers that have expired.

In addition, if anyone does send for any rebate on the list and experiences a problem or has a tip on how to make  the submission process go smoother, let me know and I can post a "hint" with the rebate.

Please feel free to spread the word about the Rebate Central Page.  The more Couponers and Hounders we can help, the better! ;-)

Sluggy

Apples for Days....

So what do you do when you go to the farmstand and there's a half bushel of homely apples priced at only $5.00 calling your name?

You buy them!
And that is just what I did.
I brought home a huge sack of Ugly Apples last week.
These are the less than perfect looking apples that nobody wants in their Peck or half Peck Bag of apples.  You know....scarred skins, not quite the perfect color, not quite the perfect shape &/or bruised.  The kid working at the stand said that after you picked over them and got rid of the bad ones,  at least they would be good for one pot of applesauce.
Ha!....little did he know!!

So I set to peeling and coring these babies to make some applesauce.  Making homemade applesauce it so easy too!
First thing is to select your apples and wash them thoroughly. I chose enough apples to fill my crockpot...about 17 apples.

Next you peel(if you want to peel them)and core them.

Since my ugly apples might have been riddled with bad spots, bruises, I chose to peel them first.
After about half I realized that my ugly babies did NOT have any bad spots. They were just "skin challenged" with ugly scarred peels. So I didn't peel the last part of the batch.  It's better if you leave the skins on, as most of the vitamins and "stuff that is good for you" is just under the peel.  Your applesauce will pack a bigger nutritional punch this way.

Then came the coring...

I LOVE my little apple corer. It cost me $1.00 at the discount outlet.  It makes this job go so quickly too!

After coring/peeling, put your apple slices in a bowl in which you've put some water and lemon juice(you can used bottle juice, it doesn't have to be fresh squeezed).  The lemon water helps them not to brown while waiting to go into the crockpot.  Actually, since it really doesn't matter if the slices brown, you don't have to put lemon on them.  It's just a force of habit for me to lemon the apples. lol

Spray your crockpot with a spray oil.  This helps with cleaning up later.
Then drain the lemon water off and put your apples in the crockpot, put on the lid and turn it on.
Don't add water!
That's it.....just walk away!

Now you can cook them down on LOW or HIGH.  Low will take about 5 hours, while High will cook them into sauce in about 2-3 hours.

You'll know when they are done when the house smells heavenly and they look like this....

(The large pieces in the photo are peel, not apple.)

When your apples are finished cooking, turn off the crockpot, stir it up and taste for sweetness.  If it's a bit tart for your taste, you can add some sugar or other sweetner at this point.  Also add cinnamon now if you want some in your batch.

If you didn't peel your apples and don't want the peels in the finished product, just fish them out after your applesauce cools.  Your applesauce at this point will be a bit chunky.
If you want it fine and smooth, get out a food mill.

Pour the sauce in and start milling into a bowl or pan.  If you are going to mill, don't bother fishing out your peels beforehand.  The mill will keep your peels from winding up in your finished product.
And speaking of finished product, here it is....

Ready for eating!
If you make a lot you can water bath can applesauce or put into freezer-safe containers and freeze any excess for later.
It will keep in the refrigerator for about a month.

My 17 medium-sized apples made a 6 Cup container(48 oz.)of applesauce.

I'll get out both Crockpots & do another 2 batches tomorrow of Chunky Applesauce.  That should keep us in applesauce for a couple of months.
The rest of the apples will be made into Apple Pie Filling later this week.

Sluggy