Choctoberfest...

One of my good friends recently invited me to a Choctoberfest that she was hosting and gave me a challenge... she wanted me to make something with chocolate and bacon! I started to research on the internet to see what I could come up with. I saw that some people had dipped bacon in chocolate but I wanted to be a little bit sneaky with the addition of bacon. Then, I came across chocolate chip cookies with bacon! SOLD! 

I have a favorite cookie batter recipe that I use for... um... EVERYTHING! So, all I did was make my batter and add 12 cooked & chopped pieces of maple brown sugar bacon.

I know what you're thinking... Stop making that face! 

They were delicious!!!! The richness of the dark chocolate chips and sweet & salty taste of the bacon were awesome together! I got 2nd place for the most creative recipe!!! {I was beat out by a Chocolate Risotto... Boo}

I know that you are dying to try these AWESOME cookies for yourself... so, here is the recipe:

~CONFESSION~

I was a little over ambitious... AS ALWAYS... and decided to bring two dishes to Choctoberfest. I wanted to bring something else that was a different combination of flavors that I have not tried before & something that the guests would not turn their noses up to {like I was afraid they would... but they surprised me}.

 SO... I am a little bit obsessed with pumpkin... ok, a lot a bit... and had never tried pumpkin and chocolate together. I found a SUPER easy recipe that was not too involved to add to my to do list: PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BROWNIES

ARE YOU SALIVATING? I AM!

I won Best Presentation with these little beauties! They were delicious! 

What is that, you say? Two great recipes in one post... You're welcome! 

Pumpkin Ring Toss...

For our Homeschool Group's Fall Festival each mom was asked to come up with a carnival game for the children to play and win prizes. I thought that I would make a pumpkin themed ring toss game...

Each child would get three rings to try to throw over a "pumpkin." For each ring that they got over a "pumpkin" I rang a bell and they received a prize. For getting 1 out of 3 rings on a pumpkin, they got to pick a piece of candy out of the pumpkin basket. For 2 out of 3 rings, they got to pick a Wendy's Free JR Frosty ticket from the trees on the table. For anyone that got all three rings on a pumpkin, they got a velvet print and markers that were a harvest theme.

We had four different age groups going around to each booth, so I came up with different distances for each group to stand away from the pumpkins. I had the 1-2 year olds I had stand pretty much right in front of the pumpkins, the 3-4 year olds stand 32 inches away, the 5-7 year olds stand 44 inches away, and the 8 and up stand 56 inches away. I think that it worked out perfectly!

The kids really enjoyed themselves! And I did too!

To make you own set of a Pumpkin Ring Toss game all you need to do is buy 6 large orange soda bottles, 3 glow in the dark necklaces, and some prizes! I took the labels off the bottles and painted the lids green. Then I took a green paint pen and drew vines and leaves on the bottles.

Presto... You have a SUPER cute fall themed ring toss! ENJOY!