You've Been Booed!

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting it up with the little neighbor girl who lives across the street.  "Have you ever booed anyone?" she asked.  My reply? "Well, yes, I boo Kyle Busch and the occasional baseball player but it is not really polite."  She seemed confused, but we left it at that.

Fast forward to last week, when we arrived home from school to find a gift bag by our front door.  It was a bag of treats!  I was so excited, as I am just getting used to living in a neighborhood full of lawns, trees, kids playing, and all of that fun stuff.  Who had left it?  What was in it?  What glorious person dropped off this bag of treats at our door?  Turns out we had been "Booed".  For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it does not, as it turns out, have any relation to Kyle Bush during driver introductions at a NASCAR race.  It does have to do with leaving treats for your neighbors and then passing on the magic.  (You can imagine my thoughts when I put 2+2 together and understood the confused look on the neighbor girl's face).

This letter accompanied the gift bag, which was filled with Halloween brownie mix, a candy apple kit, a glow stick, and other assorted goodies.

You can download this for free here, thanks to Happinessishomemade

So I set out to make my own Boo Bags to give away.  I found everything at Target, and I had so much fun picking things out.  Mine are pretty simple, but now that I know of this tradition, I am already plotting my Boo Bags for next year.  Pinterest here I come!

I gathered some cute, Halloween inspired baking supplies, along with a cookie for good measure.  The claw bottle opener on the bottom right is spooky and kind of goes along with the rest of the goodies that follow.

A bottle of wine - get it?  Ravenswood, with it's creepy Raven on the label? 

 I can't take credit for remembering the creepy Raven on the label of Ravenswood.  Target had all of the wine with creepy labels/names on one shelf.

Along with the claw ("The Clawww" - sorry, I am a mom and I keep picturing Toy Story 3 when I write that) bottle opener, I picked up these skull and crossbone wine stoppers and tied them to the bottles.

Then, because I didn't feel it was creepy enough, I stuck on a fake bug to get my point across.

Creepy yet cute

I then shoved everything into a gift bag and tied it up with some orange organza ribbon I had lying around.  Next year I intend to do something really cute like little bushel type baskets or something.  I normally take more pride in my packaging skills, as gift wrapping is one of my favorite things to do, but I am going to let myself slide since "booing" people was new to me.

Don't judge me, my gifts are usually impeccably wrapped.

All that was left to do was sneak around and drop our treasures off to two neighbors who had not yet been booed.  Once you have been booed, you take the paper that I linked to above and make two copies of it.  Take the original and cut in in half, then hang the side that says "We've been Booed" on your door so that you don't get booed twice.  Place a copy of the full sheet in each of your boo bags.  Our neighborhood is pretty much fully booed, and I think that is so neat.
Go Boo someone!  (besides Kyle Busch).

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting it up with the little neighbor girl who lives across the street.  "Have you ever booed anyone?" she asked.  My reply? "Well, yes, I boo Kyle Busch and the occasional baseball player but it is not really polite."  She seemed confused, but we left it at that.

Fast forward to last week, when we arrived home from school to find a gift bag by our front door.  It was a bag of treats!  I was so excited, as I am just getting used to living in a neighborhood full of lawns, trees, kids playing, and all of that fun stuff.  Who had left it?  What was in it?  What glorious person dropped off this bag of treats at our door?  Turns out we had been "Booed".  For those of you unfamiliar with this term, it does not, as it turns out, have any relation to Kyle Bush during driver introductions at a NASCAR race.  It does have to do with leaving treats for your neighbors and then passing on the magic.  (You can imagine my thoughts when I put 2+2 together and understood the confused look on the neighbor girl's face).

This letter accompanied the gift bag, which was filled with Halloween brownie mix, a candy apple kit, a glow stick, and other assorted goodies.

You can download this for free here, thanks to Happinessishomemade

So I set out to make my own Boo Bags to give away.  I found everything at Target, and I had so much fun picking things out.  Mine are pretty simple, but now that I know of this tradition, I am already plotting my Boo Bags for next year.  Pinterest here I come!

I gathered some cute, Halloween inspired baking supplies, along with a cookie for good measure.  The claw bottle opener on the bottom right is spooky and kind of goes along with the rest of the goodies that follow.

A bottle of wine - get it?  Ravenswood, with it's creepy Raven on the label? 

 I can't take credit for remembering the creepy Raven on the label of Ravenswood.  Target had all of the wine with creepy labels/names on one shelf.

Along with the claw ("The Clawww" - sorry, I am a mom and I keep picturing Toy Story 3 when I write that) bottle opener, I picked up these skull and crossbone wine stoppers and tied them to the bottles.

Then, because I didn't feel it was creepy enough, I stuck on a fake bug to get my point across.

Creepy yet cute

I then shoved everything into a gift bag and tied it up with some orange organza ribbon I had lying around.  Next year I intend to do something really cute like little bushel type baskets or something.  I normally take more pride in my packaging skills, as gift wrapping is one of my favorite things to do, but I am going to let myself slide since "booing" people was new to me.

Don't judge me, my gifts are usually impeccably wrapped.

All that was left to do was sneak around and drop our treasures off to two neighbors who had not yet been booed.  Once you have been booed, you take the paper that I linked to above and make two copies of it.  Take the original and cut in in half, then hang the side that says "We've been Booed" on your door so that you don't get booed twice.  Place a copy of the full sheet in each of your boo bags.  Our neighborhood is pretty much fully booed, and I think that is so neat.
Go Boo someone!  (besides Kyle Busch).

Fun Fajitas And A Sinful, Easy Dessert

When I plan out my meals, I have a category for each day - Tuesdays are for tacos, but to me that really means any Mexican dish.  Last night, I made fajitas, and I must share this recipe with you because it is,  by far, the greatest fajita recipe in all the land.  Seriously.  I have made it about a million times and it has never let me down.  It is also super easy, since basically all you have to do it throw everything in a blender, marinate the meat with the blender contents, and grill it off.
Here it is, it is from Tyler Florence (the fact that he is super cute has nothing to do with my love of this recipe).

If you look at the ratings, you will see that I am not the only one who thinks this recipe is to die for.

The recipe works for chicken as well as beef, and the only thing you have left to do is chop up some onions and peppers to saute (I only do onions because nothing makes me gag quite like a green pepper does), put some cheese in a bowl, and warm up some tortillas.  Seriously, this marinade is the best thing ever.

The other thing I made was a dessert.  I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so I rarely make desserts.  My husband, however, has  a huge sweet tooth.  Therefore, I have been working on making some sweet treats for him.  Over the weekend I was watching a Pioneer Woman episode on the Food Network, and she made an incredibly simple ice cream pie.  Now that I am living in Texas and have easy access to Blue Bell ice cream, I knew that I had to make it.  Here is the recipe for it.  It is so easy, you can make it in advance, and the caramel sauce that goes along with it is now my go to caramel sauce.

So there you have it!  An easy weeknight meal complete with dessert.  I must admit, I am feeling quite proud of myself.

When I plan out my meals, I have a category for each day - Tuesdays are for tacos, but to me that really means any Mexican dish.  Last night, I made fajitas, and I must share this recipe with you because it is,  by far, the greatest fajita recipe in all the land.  Seriously.  I have made it about a million times and it has never let me down.  It is also super easy, since basically all you have to do it throw everything in a blender, marinate the meat with the blender contents, and grill it off.
Here it is, it is from Tyler Florence (the fact that he is super cute has nothing to do with my love of this recipe).

If you look at the ratings, you will see that I am not the only one who thinks this recipe is to die for.

The recipe works for chicken as well as beef, and the only thing you have left to do is chop up some onions and peppers to saute (I only do onions because nothing makes me gag quite like a green pepper does), put some cheese in a bowl, and warm up some tortillas.  Seriously, this marinade is the best thing ever.

The other thing I made was a dessert.  I don't have much of a sweet tooth, so I rarely make desserts.  My husband, however, has  a huge sweet tooth.  Therefore, I have been working on making some sweet treats for him.  Over the weekend I was watching a Pioneer Woman episode on the Food Network, and she made an incredibly simple ice cream pie.  Now that I am living in Texas and have easy access to Blue Bell ice cream, I knew that I had to make it.  Here is the recipe for it.  It is so easy, you can make it in advance, and the caramel sauce that goes along with it is now my go to caramel sauce.

So there you have it!  An easy weeknight meal complete with dessert.  I must admit, I am feeling quite proud of myself.