Y’all enjoy yourselves as you answer the door, take your kids or grandkids to the Halloween party, host a Halloween party, or attend one. I think I’ll just curl up on the couch with my own personal bag of candy corn and enjoy some reruns of the Halloween shows I watched when I was a kid.

Of course, my all time favorite is It’s the Pumpkin Patch, Charlie Brown. Oh, how I wanted desperately to believe there REALLY was a Great Pumpkin that would magically appear in the pumpkin patch bearing gifts for those of us who dared to believe. I would’ve gladly sat with Linus all night long given the opportunity and waited patiently for him to arrive.

I’m sure it would’ve been just as fun as the time years ago when my kids were younger and we went trick-or-treating with friends. A couple that are long time friends of mine and DH’s, their kids, myself and our kids all loaded up in the back of their truck to trick-or-treat. Now this other couple hadn’t had the pleasure as kids themselves of really enjoying Halloween and its traditions so they had a tendency to get just as if not more excited than their kids during holidays.

Anyway, the kids all piled into the back of the truck and off we went to the first street filled with lit porch lights and unidentifiable kids EVERYWHERE…hundreds of ‘em…divided up among only 4, maybe 5, different costumes (they ALL bought them at the SAME store)!

Don’t you just LOVE trying to keep up with your own kids when they get mixed up in that crowd of costumes?! It was a trick to keep track of your own kids and a treat when you managed to survive the evening and bring home the right costume, er kid.

Once I yelled out, “Hey, get back over here with us!” thinking I was addressing one of MY kids only to hear the costume I was addressing tell me, “You’re not my Mom!” To which I responded with, “Well, what kid does YOUR Mom have?!” At that both of us then turned to seek out the missing parties, my kid and the Costume’s Mom.

We found them soon enough…the Costume’s Mom was frantically seeking HER kid and MY kid was frantically seeking me because she could no longer handle her 30 lb. bag of candy. Yes, that’s what I said…30 lb bag of candy. I hear you…”30 lbs?!” you’re wondering.

Well, that’s how heavy the bags of candy get when you go trick-or-treating with a couple that has decided to live their childhood through all our kids and keep telling them to… “Keep on truckin’, kids! We want LOTS of candy!”

Unfortunately, we weren’t in MY vehicle so I wasn’t in control of transportation, therefore, I couldn’t steer that sucker towards home. The kids and I had no choice but to “keep on truckin’”, albeit, footin’ it…in the ‘burbs….down a dozen streets…each with no less than 15 front doors with lit porch lights…on each side of the street.

NOW do you understand why I’m going to curl up on the couch with my own personal bag of candy corn and watch my favorite Halloween movie AGAIN?

Btw, it took me weeks to pick through all that candy to make sure it was all safe for my kids to eat over the next 3 years of their lives. And, no, I was NOT brave enough to allow them to indulge themselves and rapidly diminish the candy supply.

I was too pooped from the trick-or-treating and candy pickin’ to have any energy left to catch them and secure them as they bounced from wall to wall. As usual, DH was on a train somewhere. Thank God that part of life is over.

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Happy Halloween, tomorrow, and Happy Birthday Mom! You see my mother was born on Halloween. She’s not computer savvy though, so she won’t know if I talk about her. Shhhhhhh. LOL.

My mother doesn’t cook much any more, not like she did when I was a child. I remember her meatloaf though, that and her homemade Strawberry Cake. She’d set this cake out for Santa every Christmas Eve with a glass of cold milk. Those were two of my favorite dishes of hers growing up.

Several years ago she entered another one of her cake recipes in a contest. She was pleased as punch when her entry won second place. When all was said and done, the judges told my Mom her cake was the best tasting dessert, and had she done a presentation her cake would have easily taken first place. Being as this was my Mom’s first, and only ever stab at any cooking contest, she wasn’t aware of the criteria.

I don’t know how old this recipe is, but it has been passed down through several generations of my family from in-laws to ex-laws. Everybody has those, right, ex-laws? Anyway I thought it would be appropriate to share her award-winning recipe with you for her birthday. Hats Off To You Mom!

Butternut Cake

2 Cups Self-Rising Flour
2 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 Cup Milk
4 Medium Eggs
1 Teaspoon Butternut Flavoring
1 Cup Pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease, and flour two 9” cake pans. Hand mix dry ingredients, then add remaining ingredients, do not use electric mixer. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

When cake is cooled, mix the following in saucepan over medium heat:

1 Cup Milk
¾ Cup Sugar
1 Cup Coconut, grated

Heat until hot, not boiling. Slowly pour/drizzle over cooled cake. Then mix the frosting below:

1 Stick of Butter
1 Pound Powdered Sugar
8 Ounces Cream Cheese, softened
1 Teaspoon Butternut Flavoring

Cream butter and cheese together, add powdered sugar and flavoring. Frost cake, slice and serve.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM, your Card is in the Mail, CALL YOU TOMORROW….Oh that’s right, she can’t get past the power button on the puter. LOL!

Bon Appetite
The Backseat Gourmet

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Where DID the month of October go?! I finally had a chance to look up from a considerable load of work only to discover the month is GONE already! You know what that means, don’t you?

The holiday season is fast approaching. Are you one of those “always on top of it” gift givers that shops early in the year or throughout the year for gifts? Sometimes I do, but most of the time I wait until the season arrives. If I see something I know someone will appreciate I purchase it and put it away until the season arrives.

DH is really the shopper in our family. He LOVES to shop! Fortunate for me because I can usually show him what I want or need from a catalog, website or whatever and he’ll gladly find it for me. What a relief for somebody like me that doesn’t get a lot of enjoyment out of time spent in malls and department stores.

I should also mention what a thoughtful shopper he is. He quietly pays attention when family and friends mention something they would like to have. He’ll shop around for the best deal and, depending on the circumstances, either purchase it to give to them on the next gift giving occasion or he’ll let them know what he found so they can purchase it themselves.

Truth of the matter is I’m not much of a shopper. Generally I know exactly what I want before I ever even make it to the store. I prefer to go in, get it, pay for it, get out. I don’t care to spend a lot of time looking at things. I want to check everything off my list quickly, get in the first short line with a quick cashier, and go.

If my purchase requires research beforehand, I’ll spend time online reading reviews to determine the best product for my needs. One of my favorite places to visit for research is Amazon.com because, in many cases, you get the first hand experiences from other consumers.

When I can save by making the purchase online, I will. If not, I either let DH know what to look for or make a mad dash trip to the retailer that has it, and, as I said before, get it, pay for it and get out.

Which do you prefer? Shopping at the malls or department stores, online, or do you/would you use a personal shopper? Do you like to window shop? Who is your favorite retailer? If you enjoy shopping, have you considered becoming or are you a personal shopper for others?

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