Halloween Cap’n Crunch (officially known as Cap’n Crunch’s Halloween Crunch) is now available in grocery stores, if you’re lucky enough to find it on a shelf. I feel that it’s my obligation to point out that not only does it turn your milk green, it will also turn your hands green if you decide to have a “secret” after work snack. Obviously green dyed fingers is a dead give away. That sneaky Cap’n will get you every time.

Every morning Chris reads the Metro on our fun filled ride on the Subway. I usually just read whatever book happens to be in my bag at the time. But this morning Chris found a great article detailing a new book, The Take-Out Menu Cookbook, written by Meredith Deeds and Carla Snyder that caters to those of us who enjoy take-out food a little too much. This cookbook features the top 200 take-out and carry-away dishes from the 12 most popular ethnic cuisines: French, Italian, Spanish, German, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Middle Eastern/Moroccan, Indian, Eastern European/Jewish, Greek, and Japanese. By focusing in on the most ordered dishes the writers aim to create authentic, healthy, and delicious recipes that are not only approachable but may also make you break up permanently with your delivery person.

Another new product that I picked up at the store is Pepperidge Farm Blueberry Breakfast Bread. I searched all over the place online to provide you with a link to check it out but I couldn’t find one anywhere. But here’s photographic evidence that it does in fact exist — not just in my bread obsessed mind. It’s very tasty and way more fun to have than a boring bowl of Grape Nuts. At this rate I’m going to have to create some kind of grocery store scavenger hunt.

I bet you thought it was too early for gingerbread houses, right? Well not for a Haunted Gingerbread House. Thanks to Create a Treat you can decorate your own scary cottage complete with jelly beans, black icing, and candy ghosts. Funnily enough, the tray for this house is the same as the tray for the Christmas version and still has spaces in the plastic that would fit the gingerbread people and trees. We decided to fill them up with pumpkin pyramids. I think any 6 year-old would be extremely proud of my and Chris’s artistic vision.

When I originally saw these Chocolate-Hazelnut Smooches aka Witch Hat Cookies on YumSugar I thought they were absolutely adorable. We’ve all made the peanut butter version before and I thought the reinvention of the recipe for Halloween was too cute for words. Unfortunately, while the cookies turned out picture perfect I had numerous problems with the texture. I never know quite what to write when I have a bad recipe experience, but I guess you can’t win them all. So, sorry Giada, but there are a few issues with this one. Read closely my fellow ghouls and ghosties for some ideas you can attempt if you want to use the original recipe with more chewy results.

First of all, chill your dough before you begin working with it, and in between batches if you’re only working with one cookie sheet at a time. Second do not under any circumstances top the cookies with Hershey kisses and put them back into the oven unless you want the chocolate to melt all over the place and make your cookies look ridiculous. Just top them when you pull the tray from the oven. Third, space the cookies far apart. They’ll expand and flatten a lot more than you think. Fourth, do not over cook. In fact, I would under cook them as much as you can. Numerous people have noted in the reviews on the Food Network website that they ended up with pretty orange hockey pucks. My first batch could have broken windows in a matter of minutes. And finally, freezing your kisses will make them less likely to melt into puddles of goo when you do actually top these little problem children with their jaunty black hats.

Of course Chris came home from work and promptly devoured a few and declared them delicious. The issue may simply be that I really like chewy cookies and these are crispy. So it could just be a matter of personal taste. Although, I think next time I’d skip this recipe all together and simply make a good peanut butter cookie, roll it in orange sugar, and get the same effect with less troubleshooting. And if all else fails, which it probably will, toss a slice of bread into the container you’re storing the cookies in and let it sit overnight. That should suitably soften them. Or for a quick fix, 15 seconds in the microwave will also do the trick.  Unless of course you’re really into crispy crunchy cookies, then disregard everything I’ve just said.

Make a Million Tiny Balls	Roll in Neon Sugar
Be Careful Not to Over Cook	Pretty But Deadly