Remember yesterday when I told you about our Spooky Restaurant Menu? I had second thoughts.  A careful, detailed nutritional analysis revealed that the menu was approximately 75% sweets.  Sweets we do not need to consume as we head into Trick or Treatin’ Season.

I decided to make the Monster Brownies as cupcakes, but I have to admit I had an ulterior motive.

I wanted a new cupcake carrier.  This one by The Good Cook as a matter of fact.  I like that you can bake in it, and then use the cover to take it with you.  Plus, there is a nifty little display stand so you can show off your good work. I went to WalMart in search of one, but the store by my house didn’t have any. 

So sad.

But the (scary) show must go on.  We persevered and made the Monster Brownie Cupcakes.  I just used a regular box of brownies, and put them in cupcake tins instead of a pan.  I baked them for 18 minutes; which is less than the directions said.

Then we let them cool, and mixed food coloring into white frosting.  We used Crunch Berries as “eyes” for the monsters.  Trust me when I say that while it looks a little lame; it’s exactly what my kids wanted.

I’m still sending the leftovers to work with my husband.  If there are any…

I was compensated for the time it took me to shop (albeit unsuccessfully) and write this post by Collective Bias and Good Cook.  All opinions are my own. 

I’ve gradually embraced Halloween.  It’s still not my favorite holiday, but at least I can kind of hang now when it comes to doin’ it up for my kids. Their school doesn’t have Halloween Parties, so it’s not like I can outsource the celebration aspect. 

I asked the kids what they thought would be on a menu in a Halloween Restaurant.  Maybelle’s was – a bit abstract, as she tends to be.  A.P.’s was pretty good, and he gets extra 7-year-old-boy points for working the word “butt” into it, albeit a little clumsily.  Diners can choose from the following; to be served in plastic pumpkins and (plastic) cauldrons, AND using my super cheap Kohl’s clearance Halloween place mats and napkins that I got in January:

• Petrified Pork
• Spooky Salad
• Monster Brownies
• Peanut Butter Eyeballs
• Blood
• HamburGRRRRR Butt
• Ghost Pizza
• Worm Spaghetti
• “At Spooky (A.P.’s)”

Thursday also brings us “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown“.  It’s later than my kids usually stay up, but they just have their not-Halloween parties at school the next day so it’s not like they need to be super well rested for chowing down on Harvest party delicacies.  

Other events around town on Thursday are:

• Barnes and Noble Woodland is having a Kid’s Trick-or-Treat Night from 6:30 to 8:00
• Michael’s has some crafty fun for kids today, and a few other days as well
• The Grand Rapids Children’s Museum has it’s usual Thursday Night reduced admission, but it’s a special “Fall Harvest Party” edition.

We go to Kalamazoo for trick-or-treating, but I hear the Grand Rapids area can’t quite seem to agree on when it occurs.  Check this listing to see when your neighborhood trick or treats. 

Is this madness happening all across the state? Because if it is, you know who I feel for? Those punks in Detroit.  I mean, how will they know which night they need to set fire to abandoned buildings if they don’t even know when Devil’s Night is?

It’s a much tamer holiday here, thank goodness. We just need to worry about getting our money’s worth out of those costumes by gallivanting around town in them all weekend.

If you’re in need of some pre-trick or treating chow on Friday, check out IHOP’s Free Scary Face Pancake for kids 12 and under.

Saturday you could squeeze this in even if you are in a “trick or treat” zone later; the Literary Life Bookstore is having their annual “Litlife Halloween Party” with crafts, stories, and treats from 11:00AM-12:00PM.

And in addition to (or instead of) actual, official trick or treating events on Sunday you could go to the Halloween Hoopla at Woodland Mall  from 3:00-5:00 PM

Have fun.  Be very scary.  And of course, get lots of good candy!