Halloween This or That

Time for a little Halloween post. Let's dig into the this or that.

1) Chocolate Candy or Fruity? I'm not a big chocolate fan...gasp..I know. So I tend to go for fuity
      candy. My absolute favorite candy is Sour Patch Kids extreme. I love sour candy!

2) Witches or Vampires? Definitely witches. Give me a good witch movie, costumes, TV, book, etc.
     Or even a bad one really.

3) Trick or Treat? Treat. I'm not big on surprises or tricks in general. Let me treat someone.

4) Hallowen Party or Scary Movie? Scary movie all the way. I love horror films and we've been
    doing the 31 Horror Films 31 Days this year and having a lot of fun exploring new old movies and
    watching some of our favorites.

5) Skeletons or Zombies? Skeletons. I'm not a big zombie fan.

6) Trick-or-Treat or Hand out Candy? I'm gonna have to go neither. I'm super shy and always              hated going around demanding candy from people, but I also don't want to be on the other end
     and interact with kids. I'm a super introvert, with anxiety and this whole aspect of Halloween is
     my nightmare.

7) Hay Ride or Corn Maze? Believe it or not, I've never seen a corn maze in real life. I have been
     on numerous hay rides though. But I'd really love to find a farm where they do corn mazes in the
     fall. It's been something I've always wanted to do, simple but true.

8) Scary Costume or Funny Costume? Since I find that most of the time "funny" costumes are
    usually offensive and culturally appropriative, I'm gonna go scary.

9) Pumpkin Seeds or Pumpkin Pie? BOTH. I LOVE pumpkin and I'll take it anyway I can make it!

10) Bottle feed a baby zombie or walk alone through a dark forest?  Baby Zombie definitely.
      Movies and TV have taught me that no good ever comes from being in a forest, so that's not
      gonna happen at all. Hand over that baby.

11) Bats or Black Cats?  I love Bats, but I am a cat person. So I have to go with Black Cat. But if I
      can sneak some Bats in as well, I will.

12) Pumpkin Spice or Hot Chocolate? How about some pumpkin spice hot chocolate????

13) Celebrate in neighborhood or at the mall? neighborhood definitely. We do our own thing at
       home and have fun!

Pumpkin Blondies

When my husband needed a dessert for a work lunch and the request was something pumpkin, I began to scour all the recipes I've found online. I finally settled on Pumpkin Blondies, which I traced back to Canadian Moms Cook (pumpkin brownies ). When I went to make it, I realized I didn't have any vanilla extract so I did tweak the recipe a bit and substituted pumpkin spice extract (which I did have on hand). I also used brown sugar instead of white sugar, just because I prefer it in fall baking. I made 2 batches of these to send with my husband to work and they were a hit!

Pumpkin Blondies 

prep: 10 minutes

cook time: 20-25 minutes

yield: about 16 blondies

1/2 Cup Butter, room temperature

1 Cup Sugar (I used brown, but you can use whatever you prefer)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 egg

1/2 Cup pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla (I used pumpkin spice extract)

3/4 Cup all purpose flour

optional: I added a drizzle of agave syrup and I think some pecans would be a great addition as well.

1. Preheat over to 350 F. Grease 8x8 pan. 

2. Cream butter and sugar. I used a hand mixer, but if you have a stand mixer, that would be perfect. 

3. Add all other ingredients except flour and mix well. 

4. Stir in the flour at the end. 

5. Bake 20-25 minutes until edges are slightly brown and a toothpick comes out clean. 

Do you have any favorite fall recipes or treats? Let me know in the comments below.