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SheKnows.com posted their 25 Most Socially Shared Recipes of 2013 today, and I was pretty excited to see that 10 of my recipes were in the top 25. Sweet!

I've been creatively baking for 20+ years, but I've only recently ventured into the whole "online tutorial" scene. My first ever recipe for SheKnows in April of 2012 - the Pinata Cookie - might have set the bar a little high. It went crazy viral, and I'm still kinda shocked at how popular it is. But it's only encouraged me to keep trying to find sweet success again. 

To date, I've done 58 tutorials for SheKnows. I'm lucky that my hobby has found an audience and there are so many of you finding me through social media. I'm also thankful that my husband and kids put up with some of my crazy baking marathons. 

I'm happy to be a regular recipe contributor to SheKnows. They're always receptive to my bizarre baked (and half-baked) ideas. You can check them all out here.

And here are links to my 10 tutorials that made the top 25 Socially Shared Recipes.

1. Nutter Butter High-heel Cookies

2. Watermelon BBQ Grill with Fruit Kabobs

3. Candy-filled Maraca Cookies

4. Pop-up Groundhog Cookies

5. Fruit Roll-up Fortune Cookies

6. Hollow Chocolate Easter Eggs

9. Dirty Diaper Cookies

12. Tent and Campfire Treats

13. Heart-shaped Brownie Treasure Boxes

25. Octopus and Penguin-shaped Bread Bowls

Turkey Leg Treats

I created a dual-holiday treat that could work for either, Thanksgiving Day or April Fool's Day: Caramel Pear Turkey Legs!

It's just like a caramel apple, but instead of apples you use small pears. And instead of wooden sticks, you use pretzel rods. Add toasted coconut marshmallows to the tops of the pretzels, and they look just like turkey leg bones.

You can find my simple tutorial at SheKnows.com. Gobble, gobble.

Would you believe that I brainstorm a lot of my dessert ideas while I'm running? I guess it's kind of like the carrot dangling in front of me to keep me going. Except, my carrot is probably made of sugar and butter. Dipped in chocolate. And covered in caramel. :)

Wonderful Wimpy Kids

The newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book - Hard Luck - comes out today! You can bet Gus will be in line to buy that one. He's read and re-read all of them a million times. 

Speaking of Wimpy Kids... I just wanted to share a couple of fantastic Greg costumes that some blog followers made this year, modeled after Gus' Halloween costume in 2011. I'm so, so, so impressed with how they turned out. And even more excited to hear that the kids wearing these costumes LOVED them. Makes my heart smile. 

One of my favorite messages came from this mom: "He was a total rock star at his parade -- people I'd never even seen before were asking to take pictures of him and with him. It was unbelievable and a wonderful treat for my kid."

Great job, moms & dads! And thanks for sharing your photos and stories with us.

P.S.
By the way, if you ever need an easy Diary of a Wimpy Kid dessert idea, here's a Wimpy Kid cake and ice cream treat I made a few years ago for Gus' birthday. Let's celebrate the wimpy kid in all of us!

Make these Wimpy Kid cakes with Sno Balls.

These Wimpy Kid faces are made out of vanilla ice cream.

Cereal Killers

Boo Berry, Franken Berry and Count Chocula cereal box costumes.

Halloween is over. And once again, my kids' costumes (although fun & clever) proved to be troublesome when it came to actually trick-or-treating. Walking, running and climbing up stairs were nearly impossible. And after about four houses, Bea decided she was done wearing her box. She just wanted to carry it. 

Which turned out to be an awesome idea. All three of the kids took off their boxes and carried them to the front doors of every house. Then they set them on the ground, and hid behind them. After I rang the doorbell, they would jump out and yell "Boo" and "Trick-or-Treat." Everyone got a big kick out of it, and the kids had so much fun hiding and yelling "Boo!"

So for once, my error in costume judgement turned into a good thing. (I really, really, need to work on making costumes that you can actually see and move in.)

Sorry, kids.

Hiding behind their boxes, ready to yell "Boo!"

"Boo!"

Bea and her loot. Which wasn't a ton, but I was kinda glad.

Gus and Jay trading their candy.

Our cat guarding Gus' candy. Looks like she's eaten a few too many.

Poke-A-Pumpkin

I'm the room parent for Bea's 1st grade class this year, so I had to come up with a simple, fun, Fall party game that the kids could do in, like, 7 minutes. (They only allow 30 minutes for the class parties, and most of that time is spent scarfing down cupcakes and juice boxes.)

I'd seen versions of this game on Pinterest, but they all involved popping balloons. And we all know how loud and annoying balloon-popping can be. Especially in a room filled with excited kids, hopped-up on sugar and the excitement of Halloween. So I opted for a quieter version. I put prizes inside orange cups with napkins rubber-banded over the tops. Then I hot glued the cups to a piece of black foam core. The kids simply had to poke their finger through the orange napkin on the cups and pull out either a TRICK or a TREAT. Some of the tricks included: toothpaste, socks, and fake ketchup & mustard bottles. Some of the treats included: candy, inflatable Halloween decorations, and Slinky toys.

The kids had a great time, everyone got a prize, and there was plenty of time leftover for a good sugar rush.

Carefully poking her prize pumpkin.

She got a trick bottle of ketchup!

He got a trick bottle of mustard!

Will she get a trick or a treat?

Will the teacher get a trick or a treat?

All smiles for the Fall Party.

Plenty of time to eat lots of treats.

Comparing spiders from their cupcakes.

Bea and her best friend, Morgan, before the costume parade.

What's up, buttercup?

The 2013 Denneler Family Letter is in the mail! After last year's pie-crafting marathon, I opted to create a simple little card this time. The words are laser cut, so you can fold them upright to display them.

On the back of the card, is a list of playful rhyming phrases that people use to say: Hello! How are you? and See ya around!

Whatcha know, daddy-o? What's shakin', bacon? What's new, tennis shoe? What's cookin', good-lookin'? What's the plan, Stan? What's the word, hummingbird? What's the story, morning glory? What's the deal, banana peel? Don't be silly, sasparilly. Okeedokee, artichokee. Peachy keen, jellybean. Shut your lip, potato chip. Yes indeedy, pumpkin seedy. Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. I'm the boss, applesauce. Chop-chop, lollipop. Nice thinkin', Abe Lincoln. Peace out, cub scout. Take care, teddy bear. Bye-bye, french fry. Better skadoodle, poodle. See you later, alligator. After while, crocodile. See ya soon, baboon.  That's the end, my friend.



By the way, if you happened to get one of these and it came "Postage Due" I'm truly sorry. My brother said his arrived needing an additional 20¢ postage. Which irks me, because I specifically took them to the post office before mailing them to have them weighed and inspected, MAKING SURE they would only need a 46¢ stamp. Oh well. I tried.

Sending smiles through the mail ... Hope you enjoyed them! - Eric, Sandra, Gus and Bea



P.S. In case you're wondering, this is our version of sending Christmas cards. But I do it in the fall, instead of the crazy & hectic month of December. Here are samples from previous years - 2012, 2011, 2010.

Yum...... Mums!

My inspiration for these sweet little cookies came from all the colorful mums I've been seeing on everyone's front porches. So bright. So happy. So perfectly fall. Dontcha think?

You won't believe how easy they are to make too. No baking necessary. Assembly only. The hardest part is stopping yourself from eating all of the chocolate-covered sunflower seeds. I love those crazy things... yum.

For a complete list of ingredients and my simple tutorial, head over to Handmade Charlotte. (This is my first edible art project for them and I'm super-excited about becoming one of their regular contributors!) 

Stay tuned. There's more food fun to share.

Spicy Sweet Potato Pumpkin Bites

Here's a fun, fall recipe that packs a spicy punch. These bite-sized pumpkins are actually made from a sweet potato mixture, rolled in zesty chipotle pepper cracker crumbs. If you prefer, the recipe has an option to make them a little more meaty by adding tuna or crab. Either way, they'd make a perfect, pumpkin-shaped appearance at any fall gathering.

You can find my recipe and step-by-step instructions at SheKnows.com.

Spooky Cereal Box Costumes

I'm a child of the 1970's so, I pretty much grew up on sugary cereals. I loved Captain Crunch and Quisp and Cocoa Pebbles. But the Halloween cereals were my absolute favorite. Probably because they only came out once a year. It made them seem even more special.

I've had this idea to make Halloween cereal box costumes for about 10 years, but my kids were always too small and my husband doesn't really like to dress up for Halloween. (Boo.)

However... this year, I was finally able to convince Bea, Gus and our next-door-neighbor-buddy, Jay, to dress up as Franken Berry, Boo Berry and Count Chocula boxes! We're going to go trick-or-treating as a group on Halloween and hopefully hit some Trunk-or-Treat events the next couple of weekends. (For the first time ever, we have our costumes done early. Hooray!)

Ideally, I wanted Eric and I to dress up as the lesser-known Halloween cereals: Yummy Mummy and Fruit Brute. But the logistics of steering 3 kids in bulky box costumes, up and down stairs and through the dark streets of our neighborhood, means we better remain costume-less. Not that I wouldn't make an awesome Yummy Mummy mommy! 

I scanned images of the actual cereal boxes and created files of the front, back, sides and top in Photoshop. Then I took the files to my local sign printing company - Signs Now - and they printed them on vinyl and adhered them to plasticore. Then Eric and I cut and taped them into box shapes. I'm going to build some compartments, just inside the hand holes, for the kids to stash their candy treats. That way, they don't have to hold onto any bags.

Happy Halloween everyone. Let the trick-or-treats begin!