Ingredients:

• Chocolate Chips
• Butterscotch Chips
• Marshmallows
• Bananas
• Chocolate Crunch Candies
• Peanut Butter Chips
• Waffle Cones

Directions:

• Fill your cones and wrap in aluminum foil.
• Place on the grill over low heat for 8-10 minutes.
• You’ll start to smell the melty deliciousness and it is awesome!
• The boys, of course skipped the fruit and went straight for the candy. I made an awesome chocolate, peanut butter, and banana cone. The marshmallow is a nice fluffy filler and holds everything together once it all starts melting.

• Carefully unwrap the hot cones and dig in!
• Toasty crunchy sugar cones filled with melty deliciousness. Who needs ice cream? Although, a scoop of ice cream on top would not hurt this bad boy at all!

• My banana-chocolate-peanut butter cone was SO GOOD. The fresh banana cancels out the calories, right?!?!
• Next time, I’ll be adding crushed cookies or maybe even some mini candy bars. YUM!

I hope you guys try these cones and put your own twist on them! They are sure to be a crowd pleaser this summer!

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Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tbsp. ground black pepper
• 1 can of Pepsi

Directions:

• Add all the ingredients in with the steaks in an air tight container.
• Let marinate over night.
• Cook your steaks and enjoy the tender juicy flavor.

I am sure your family will love this marinade for your next steak night! It is just so flavorful and the steaks come out so juicy! Happy Grilling!

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Supplies:

• 14 oz. Glue
• 1 Cup Hot Water
• Food Coloring
• Glitter
• 3 teaspoons Borax
• 2 Cups Hot Water

Directions:

• Put glue in a tub.
• Add in 1 cup of hot water.
• Add in your food coloring and glitter.
• Stir until smooth.

• In a separate container, dissolve 3 teaspoons of Borax in 2 cups of hot water.
• Slowly add the water into the glue mixture and stir together.
• It will goop together almost immediately.

• You may not need all the water, so pour slowly.
• Once it’s mostly gooped up, begin mixing with your hands. (This is the fun part!)

• We started with red and black food coloring, because that’s all I had, and it turned more into pink and purple, which was pretty perfect for Valentine’s Day.
• As you can see, the slime is a HUGE HIT.

My family loved making this slime recipe and I hope your family will too! Have fun getting messy!

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Ingredients:

• 4 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 12 ounces chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Red food coloring
• Whipped Cream Vodka
• Whipped topping or marshmallows, optional

Directions:

• Heat the milk and sugar on the stove until the sugar is dissolved and the milk is steaming.
  • You don’t want it to boil and scald, so once you get lots of little steamy bubbles around the edge of the pot, it’s hot enough!
• Take it off the heat and add the chocolate chips and vanilla extract.
• Whisk until melted.

• Add red food coloring to give it the red velvet look.

• For the adults, add a shot of vodka into your hot cocoa.
• For the children, top with whipped topping or marshmallows!

Notes:

• You know I always go for the special dark chocolate for my chocolate chips!

As always we ask that you please enjoy our recipes responsibly. Don’t ever drink and drive. Enjoy some delicious Red Velvet Hot Cocoa with your family this weekend!

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No-carve pumpkin decorating is definitely a cool thing because the pumpkins don’t rot and fall apart within a week, like they do when you cut them open. Even dipping them in bleach concoctions and whatever else you may find on Pinterest won’t save them long enough to last the entire holiday. Plus, with little ones, carving anything sounds fun but completely ends up being a project for Mom or Dad. I wasn’t doing all that this year. These are both my Halloween AND Thanksgiving decorations, wham bam thank you ma’am!

Supplies:

• Pumpkins
• Paint
• Paintbrushes
• Foam Board or Thick Paper
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
• Pencil
• Scrap Paper

Directions for the Fox:

• Use a piece of scrap paper and trace out the shape (lightly with pencil) that you want painted around the eyes. This way you can flip the paper over and make the other side identical without too much hassle.

• Paint that section white.
• Apply second coats as needed.

• Outline the white around the top edges with dark red.
• Color in the nose brown
• Add brown eyes.
• Use a drop of black for pupils.
• Make a simple mouth.

• Cut out ears using foam board. I rounded the bottoms so the foam would sit flush on my round pumpkin.
• Outline the tops of the ears with dark red.
• Hot glue to the top of your pumpkin!

These are just so cute together! Now, it is time to create our owl pumpkin!

Directions for the Owl:

• Sketch out the basic shape of your eyes like the photo below in pencil (it will be very light to see).

• Sketch in the pupils and nose and belly.

• Begin painting, starting with the blue outline
• Fill the inside with white.
• Apply second coats as needed.

• Color in the nose yellow.
• Color the belly brown.

• Fill the pupils in with black.
• Add a little drop of white in the eye.
• Add little white “V” shapes to the belly for feathers.

That’s all there is to it!! Find the perfect spot to show your beauties off! Let your imagination soar and have some fun with these no carve pumpkins!

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In 2006, North Dakota resident, Shelle Michaels Aberle decided to take action in order to honor United States military service members whom are currently deployed. This came about because of her cousin, LTC David Hosna, who had been deployed. She petitioned the North Dakota Governor (at that time) John Hoeven to proclaim the first official “Day of the Deployed” on Oct. 26, 2006, which also happened to be her cousin’s birthday.

Soon after, the Day of the Deployed celebration spread to other states throughout the nation, and in 2011, Hoeven (who by then had become a Senator) led the efforts to establish it as a national day of recognition, thus honoring all deployed military service members and their military families. In 2011, the U.S. Senate passed an unanimous vote to make the day a national day of honor. By 2012, all 50 of the United States celebrated this special day every year on October 26th.

I think this is a really awesome thing that was started by a military family member.  It just goes to show you that whether you’re a spouse, child, parent, aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, or grandparent, that there are ways to honor not just your family’s military service member, but all deployed service members!

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Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 cup red lentils
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 can of coconut milk
• 4 cups vegetable broth or water, I think the broth adds a great flavor to the lentils
• 1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 heaping tablespoon minced ginger
• If you aren’t familiar with these warm spices, I’d start with 1/2-1 teaspoon each: turmeric, cumin, coriander, curry powder, salt, smoked paprika (regular paprika works too!) I ended up using about 1 1/2 teaspoons each.

Directions:

• Add about two tablespoons of the cooking oil of your choice to a pot.
• Over medium heat, add the onion and carrots and sauté them until the onions are translucent, about 3-4 minutes.
• Add the garlic and ginger and sauté another 2 minutes.
• Add your spices in and let them cook until they become fragrant.  
• Add the lentils, tomatoes, and broth to the pot and bring to a simmer.
• Reduce heat to low and let it simmer for at least 20 minutes.
• Serve & Enjoy!

Notes:

• Once the lentils are soft, add the half a can of coconut milk and stir.
• The coconut milk isn’t overpowering, it just adds a nice subtle layer of flavor along with the broth.
• If you quickly chopped your onions and carrots like I did, you’ll have a somewhat chunky soup! You can always use an immersion blender or carefully add your soup to a blender if you want a smoother soup!
• You can add sour cream or plain Greek yogurt as a topping (leave off if you want to keep it vegan!) and I highly suggest trying the gremolata! Check out the recipe below:

Gremolata is a condiment consisting of chopped parsley, garlic, and lemon zest. It’s my new obsession! You can serve gremolata over anything for a burst of tasty freshness. It’s especially great over the winter with those heavy root vegetables in season!

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of parsley, chopped finely. (You can even use cilantro or basil)
• The zest of one lemon. I used a microplane, but you can easily use a vegetable peeler!
• 2 tablespoons of minced garlic

Directions:

• Mix all three ingredients in a bowl and there you have it!
• Add a spoonful to your bowl of red lentil soup and enjoy!

It’s time to get your soup on this fall! I hope your family enjoys this recipe just as much as my family does!

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Where am I getting at with this, you ask? Well… I currently have no yard, I have a very awkward shaped porch, and the gorgeous Halloween and fall decor that I’ve collected from around the world is either completely missing or hidden away in the dark corners of our attic that neither my husband or I can locate. I refuse to buy new decorations (at least until they are all 75% off after this Halloween season) so, we have been winging it with a ton of DIY crafts this season. I do have a fun inflatable, 5 foot witch for the yard that was tucked into our Easter decoration box!? However, we have no yard to set it up in! So I’ve got a porch. A funny looking porch. That’s all I have to work with. So what’s a milspouse to do?!?! You make your own spider webs out of yarn, that’s what! It’s easy, cheap, and you can build it to fit any space that you have.

Supplies:

• White Yarn
• Heavy Duty Tape
• Fake Spiders

Directions:

•  Start out by taping pieces of yarn into an asterisk (*) shape.

• Add more strands through your “X” base diagonally and horizontally, going every which way. Make it as full as you’d like.
• Build the inside of the web
• Cut a decent size of yarn and start doubling your yarn up to start the circle.

• To begin creating the circle, hold the folded end of your strand under one of the pieces of yarn that you already have taped up, towards the center.
• Take the tail end of your strand and feed it through the loop where you folded it to tie itself around the strand that you have taped up.

• Move your double strand from each piece of the web to the next piece, just wrapping around each web strand as you go without securing with any knots.
• When you get to the end and have completed a little circle, just tie off in a knot.
• Repeat with larger and larger circles until you are satisfied with the size of your web!
• Add some fun spiders and just entwine the legs into the yarn. No glue or tape necessary!

Notes:

• I’d suggest taping the yarn to objects that stick out from your porch to give the web some dimension – I taped the yarn to a bench I have instead of taping it straight to the wall, so it would *pop* out at ya!
• When trying to figure out the yarn length, it’s better to have too much than too little.
• I got my spiders from the dollar store!

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• I used a bottle of Italian dressing (roasted red pepper Italian to be exact) as the base on the plate.
• Topped the sauce with mozzarella balls – premade or make your own.  
• Top your eyeballs with thinly sliced olives. I used green olives with a pimiento pupil, but black olives would work great too!
• I think next time I’ll marinate the mozzarella balls in the dressing overnight for a more bloodshot look!

• For the main course, we have these CRAZY looking bloody hot dogs fingers.
• I used a small paring knife to make a few slices along the hot dog to resemble two knuckles.
• I simmered the hot dogs in water for about 10 minutes and then used a vegetable peeler to peel the “finger nail” for the finger. EW, right?

• A smattering of ketchup really brings the bloody fingers together on the bun.

• Make cupcakes.
• Inject cupcakes with the raspberry jam for a little surprise when you bite into it. I wish I had cut the centers out a bit more to add more jam so go ahead and do that if you want them deliciously oozy!
• Add 2 heaping tablespoons of powdered sugar to your store bought tub of vanilla frosting to stiffen it up and just a dab of red food coloring to get that pinky brainy color.  

• Frost a base layer on top of the cupcake.
• Pipe two lines down the center of each cupcake and then two rows of squiggles on each side.
• If you don’t have a piping bag and tips, you can use a zipper bag with the corner cut off. EASY!

This dinner and dessert combo was so easy to put together and so much fun to eat. My kids are aware of the zombie craze, so to ask for dessert, I made them walk like zombies and ask for “Brrraaaiinnnsssssss.” It was AWESOME! BONE Appétit my little zombie friends!

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Supplies:

• Plastic Pumpkin
• Spray Paint
• Mums or Fall Plant

Directions:

1 – Remove the handle.
2 – Spray paint the pumpkin.
3 – Plant!

Best of all, this decoration doesn’t have to come down once Halloween ends. This is perfect to use through Thanksgiving, too!!

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