Urban Suburban Mommy

Tag Archives: halloween

Outrageous Pumpkin Spice Bar + Butterscotch + Salted Pretzel

Posted on by Posted in Urban Suburban Mommy .

With pumpkin season in full swing, this treat is the perfect way to put those pumpkins on a plate. Executive Chef Adrianne Calvo has created the perfect dessert for the season – all treat and no trick! Once you take a look, you’ll be shocked at how easy this one is! 

What you need:

Crust:

– 2 cups graham cracker, ground
– 1/2 cup sugar
– 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
– 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
– 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

– 2 cups canned pumpkin
– 1 cup cream cheese, softened
– 1/2 cup cool whip topping
– 1/2 cup condensed milk
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice

Topping:

– 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
– 2 cups cool whip topping
– 1/2 cup powder sugar
– 1 cup butterscotch chips
– 1/2 cup salted pretzels, chopped

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Crust:

Mix all the ingredients for the crust in a bowl to combine well.

Grease an 8×8 baking dish and press the crust ingredients onto the bottom of the baking dish. Bake for 5 minutes and then allow to cool.

Filling:

In a blender, whip all the filling ingredients together and pour onto crust. Freeze for 2 hours to set.

Topping:

In another blender, whip cream cheese, cool whip, and powdered sugar.

Finishing up:

Spread topping onto the top of set pumpkin. Sprinkle with butterscotch chips and pretzel. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Enjoy!

Adrianne Calvo is the Executive Chef and owner of Chef Adrianne’s Vineyard Restaurant and Wine Bar, Host of Maximum Flavor Live on NBC’s 6 in the Mix, author of four cookbooks: Maximum Flavor (2005); Chef Adrianne: Driven by Flavor Fueled by Fire (2008); #MaximumFlavorSocial (2014); and Play with Fire (2015), and founder of the Make it Count Foundation. Chef Adrianne’s Vineyard Restaurant and Wine Bar opened in 2007 and offers a varied and rotating menu with something for everyone. Monthly, the restaurant holds its signature event, Dark Dining, where guests are blindfolded for a sensual experience eliminating one sense in order to enhance another, providing maximum flavor.

www.chefadriannes.com 

Chef Adrianne

 

Chef Adrianne Calvo

This year’s best Halloween costumes

Posted on by Posted in The Struggle is Real .

So you’re the mom who waited to get costumes for the kiddos?

Yah, me too. We’ve been talking so exhaustively about what they want to be, but actually braving the stores… that’s a whole other thing. I was planning to get them to decide early this year and then just order them! Cheap and cheerful without having to hit the stores.

But nope. I waited. And hubby finally got them to the store and I don’t want to see the bill.

My older son is a really cool strip of bacon. He was a hot dog last year, but the bacon beats it all. He’s been working on his “It’s sizzling in here!” line and is über happy with himself. My younger son is a Star Wars guy. He doesn’t know which guy exactly, but his costume has a cool mask and a cool gun – neither of which is permitted at school – which I don’t think he understands quite yet…

Costumes aren’t easy. Masks and weapons aren’t permitted in schools, and I get why (though it really does ruin some of the fun!). Not all of us can paint a face – and not all costumes lend themselves to that. Some costumes are too sexy, while others are culturally inappropriate. It’s really a mine field out there.

My favourites for this year? Aside from super heroes, animals and everything Harry Potter, I’ve seen a few good ideas, though I’m dying to see if there are any parents out there willing to pull one of these off with the kiddos!

Easy and on trend: Georgie from IT

If you’ve seen a preview for the movie, you know the yellow raincoat and red balloon. It’s little Georgie and it’s the easiest and scariest costume out there. Just put the hood up and tie the balloon to your child’s wrist and voila! Just tell your kid to say “You’ll float too” if asked for a trick.

Food: Pizza, bacon, hot dog – food is in! I’ve even seen matchy matchy costumes of burger and fries or peanut butter and jam.

My son has the funniest sense of humour. Last year this hot dog costume made him so happy. Those mustard and ketchup bottles were filled with popcorn kernels. He shook ’em like maracas and pretended to spray people when he was asked for a trick. I should have filled them with glitter, it would have been an even better trick – but I couldn’t have the entire neighbourhood hating me.

A meme: The get-along shirt. Instagram celeb. Grumpy cat.

If you’ve got 2 kids you can do the ‘get-along’ shirt, just stuff them both in one extra-large Tshirt. Hey, you may be able to re-use this if they need help getting along over Christmas. Or get an eyeliner out and do the No Ragrets neck tattoo. That one always makes me laugh and laugh.

YouTube sensation: Pink Fluffy Unicorn Dancing on Rainbows. Karl and Jinger. Keyboard Cat.

Come on – it’s a cat in a shirt with a keyboard. You know that baby keyboard you’ve been tripping over for years now? Tie it on. Kitty costume is cute enough – but with the keyboard you’ve just taken your parenting game to a whole nother level.

Stranger Things

Forget the characters, go as the house. Wrap a string of Christmas lights around them for good measure.

I hope we won’t be seeing any Trump masks on kids – hoping we stay away from politics altogether. There is so much fun to be had on Halloween, and so many ways to get creative. Whether it’s store bought, home made, wonderfully weird, super popular or totally unique, I hope all children have a fun and safe Halloween and that all parents get enough candy to keep them happy til the next holidays hit!

Trick or Treat!

Pumpkin soup

Posted on by Posted in Delicious Dishes .

I’m just going to say it: I HATE pumpkin spice anything.

Hate it.

I don’t know what the attraction is. But I don’t hold it against you. I get it. From Canadian Thanksgiving to American Thanksgiving, pumpkin spice is bound to be an obsession for many of my favourite people.

Whether it’s pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice latte or pumpkin cheesecake, I just cringe while y’all indulge. I’ll even treat you to one at Starbucks – but just leave me to my decaf soy latte and we’ll all get along.

However I’ve got a lot of pumpkin decorations for Halloween that need to be used up and I’ve got my one pumpkin indulgence that I won’t give up. Pumpkin soup. I crave it on the same level and make it until my family begs me to stop. Honestly, you can use any squash to make this, but I do love pumpkin – plus I’m totally addicted to sea-salted roasted pumpkin seeds, so nothing goes to waste!

This soup is SO easy it’s ridiculous. It’s rich and hearty, and perfect as a starter or a meal. It’s the best warm-up on a cool day and makes me sad pumpkins aren’t available all year long.

What you need:

– 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter
– 1 apple, pealed and cored (Mac, Royal Gala or Empire – preferable something soft and sweet)
– 1 medium pumpkin, skinned, cleaned out and cubed/chunked
– 2 to 3 pinches sea salt
– pepper to taste
– 2 to 3 tablespoons brown sugar
– 1 heaping tbsp curry powder
– 1 bay leaf
– 4 cups water or broth (veggie or chicken)
– 1/2 cup heavy cream, optional

Garnish: Dollop of plain Greek yogurt or sour cream,
Serve with crusty bread or crispy crackers like Paris Toasts

What you do:

In a big soup pot, melt the butter. Toss in the pumpkin and let it sauté a bit. Add apples, pumpkin, salt, pepper, brown sugar, spices and stir together. Add water (or broth) enough to cover the whole mixture.

Simmer the mixture, stirring occasionally. When the pumpkin gets really soft, grab a stick blender (I love my Braun stick blender) and blend it all right in the pot. If you don’t have a stick blender you can use a hand blender, food process or or regular blender, but the beauty of this is that it can be done in one pot without getting other gadgets dirty – plus you need to be extra careful putting hot soup into a blender or food processor. (Yes, I’ve burned myself before.) You can always let the mixture cool and puree it before reheating for serving. But seriously, how do you live without a stick blender? I LOVE mine!

Anyways, get it all blended and let it simmer further. Adjust the seasoning to taste. I like it extra curried, so I add a bit more. I don’t usually add cream, simply because I don’t often have it on hand, but now’s the time to add it. It makes the whole thing extra rich and so yum!

To serve, pour in a bowl and serve with crusty bread or Paris Toast crackers for dipping plus a big scoop of sour cream or Greek yogurt in the middle. The hot/cold thing is sensational and it’s just such a burst of flavour.

See? Who needs a pumpkin spice latte when you’ve got soup!

What to do with all that pumpkin (spoiler alert – vegan pumpkin balls)

Posted on by Posted in Delicious Dishes .

On Halloween night the pumpkins were ablaze – from traditional Jack-O-Lanterns to creative stencils and magical patterns – oh, and the big pumpkin throwing up all the pumpkin guts – that seemed to be a popular one this year in my hood.

But the day after Halloween, they’re just hollowed out squash destined for the garbage, the decorative pumpkins sitting around go unused, and leftover pumpkins at the market are on deep discount.

So what to do with all that pumpkin? If you’ve still got some good ones around, there are loads of pumpkin treats. I make pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin soup and pumpkin cookies. But fellow mom, photographer and creative cook extraordinaire, Nicole had these amazing pumpkin treats posted on Facebook, and as my mouth watered, I knew I needed to share that recipe with you all!

Nicole says: With the holidays coming up – that means holiday parties, potlucks and general excuses for food and merriment. I don’t know about you – but I always seem to have at least one person in a crowd who is worried about food considerations, and try as I might, accommodating them doesn’t always happen. However after a recent

Pinterest scroll, I lucked out! London Brazil over at Gluten Free with LB saved my balls (pun intended) so to speak. And as per my usual I added my own twist to her recipe.

pumpkin-balls

I needed sweets for two different events, one of which was going to include a vegan, with a known sweet tooth and a love of things pumpkin. So I did what all fellow sweet tooths who also love chocolate do – I found some GF vegan dark chocolate made by Good Life, melted it and covered those pumpkin balls! After the chocolate set just a bit I sprinkled some coconut sugar on top to give myself a way of setting them aside for said Vegan. I didn’t buy enough to do the entire batch, so I used regular chocolate almond bark to cover the rest.

pumpkin-balls-in-boxes

Both were met with rave reviews.

Also included in the pictures are margarita balls, that I scored from Katie over at Butterlust. (for the non-adult drinking age types I did make a non-alcoholic version that I did not put a tiny piece of lime zest on so as to not confuse the two 😉 )

The scary part of Halloween? Making the costume!

Posted on by Posted in The Struggle is Real .

“I need a cardboard box big enough to fit a four year-old.”

Don’t we all? That line has earned me my share of raised eyebrows this week.

I’ve been dreading Halloween this year. Over the summer, my precocious Nathan saw the Disney movie Wall•E.

Five hundred times. On repeat.

He can recite the entire script by heart. So can I. The animated feature chronicles the life of a small trash-collecting robot who, over the course of 700 years and a syrupy Disney script, becomes a sentient being. It was 90 minutes of my son’s favourite things: trash, trash compactors, robots, guns and trash compacting robots with guns.

Last month, when we were eagerly discussing Halloween (or as I call it – send your kids to work day), I asked him what he wanted to be.

Wall•E. He wants to be the robot. Crap.

I realize I’ve been lucky enough to coast by over the past three Halloweens. The first year, Nate wanted nothing to do with the freaky ghosts and vampires that came knocking at our door. He hid behind me the whole time, screaming.

The next year, he wanted to be a fireman, but only went out for 20 minutes before collapsing with exhaustion. Last year he was a fireman again, and finally made the connection between the length of time spent outdoors and the size of his stash.

It was a good year.

halloween-candy

So now Halloween is two weeks away and he has asked his Mama, a walking craft-phobic Pinterest Fail, to make him a robot costume. I am to arts and crafts what Trump is to temperament. Foreign and awkward.

This is what Wall•E looks like:

wall-e

I spent the first week of October paralyzed, unable to draft a simple plan. I knew I should have studied to be an Imagineer.

Pinterest offerings

Pinterest offerings

Finally, with Halloween fast approaching, I’ve been galvanized into action – collecting supplies, anything I can get my hands on, praying that I have enough paint to hide a multitude of mistakes.

I’ve watched YouTube videos, dissected pictures on Pinterest (damn you Pinterest), even checked online to make sure there wasn’t a Wall•E costume available (There isn’t. Unless you want to be a slutty Wall•E.)

As I get underway, I ask that you wish me luck.

Also, do you have a reciprocal saw I can borrow?