Friends… if you know me at all you know I am not cutesy or crafty or “kid food” creative at all. In fact I used to be the food editor for a kid’s food magazine and every time I was assigned to do something cutesy with food, I cringed. I just don’t have that talent like some people do! I love to throw a good Halloween Party but my food is typically pretty standard. Soup, bread, salad… nothing cutesy.

So when my friends at California Avocados challenged us to make a fun halloween party recipe using their fresh, California Avocados, I cringed. Ugh! What was I going to make? …

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Cinco de Mayo is coming up, which happens to be my favorite food holiday of the year. I know that Cinco de Mayo has way more significance than just the food, but you have to admit…it’s hard to find a holiday to celebrate with better food around!

For the avocado lover, especially, Cinco de Mayo is the mecca of all holidays because it’s the perfect time to highlight California Avocados, which are newly in season. There are so many fantastic recipes featuring avocados this time of year! Give me an avocado plain, and I’m a happy girl. Give me a buffet of recipes, all featuring avocados, and I’m thrilled. Like a kid in a candy shop!…

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So… it was a great party. You want to know how I know it was great? I was so absorbed with the people around me that I didn’t take a single picture of the food I had prepared for the event.

OK, I might have been a little too busy to take pictures, but I always know when I’m having a completely perfect time when I look back the next day and realize I took hardly any pictures. I was actually present and in the moment… doesn’t happen a whole lot for me. How about you?

At our little party we had pulled pork sliders, mini Caprese salad bites, kettle corn, crackers with goat cheese and Harry & David peach relish, chocolate covered Biscoff cookie bites, Krispy Kreme bread pudding and these… mini magic shell ice cream cones.

For the party we had Neapolitan Ice Cream and homemade Chocolate Magic Shell. For you, my friends, I’m taking things up a notch.

As a lover of all things cookies and cream, I thought… “Why not make Cookies and Cream magic shell?”

Of course, I made the Cookies and Cream Magic Shell on tiny ice cream cones, then devoured a mini ice cream cone, and finally, looked out into the great interwebs and discovered the queen of Oreo’s herself, my friend Jenny, was one step ahead of me. She’s already mastered the Cookies and Cream Magic Shell. I should have known. She’s smart like that!

I’m going to send you over to Oh Happy Day for details on how to achieve the mini cone look (which makes for the cutest little party dessert). Then, head over to Picky Palate to see how Jenny created the Oreo Cookie Magic Shell. I did mine almost exactly the same except made the white chocolate Magic Shell, dipped the ice cream cone into it, then rolled it in crushed Oreo Cookies. Be careful heading over to those blogs… they are quite awesome. I don’t want you to forget about little old me 😉

Enjoy!

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My friend DeLynn is one of those friends who is great at “connecting” with people. She understands the priority of having and maintaining female friendships and because of that, she has a gift for bringing people together.

DeLynn, my friends Terri, Whitney and I have been friends for 9 years now. Although our lives have all changed and schedules have gotten busier over time, DeLynn always manages to bring us together in some way. We call ourselves “The Houlihan Girls” because we meet at a restaurant by the same name once a quarter. If we fail to put something on the calendar when we are together, DeLynn makes sure to coordinate something soon after so that we all have our girl time penned in.

Our time together is always refreshing…sharing, laughter, tears and love. I value the friendships of these ladies so much and appreciate the place they have in my life. Even more so, I am thankful for DeLynn’s ability to keep us connected…through emails during the week, phone calls for this and that, and making sure we have our “girlfriend time” on the calendar, regularly.

DeLynn had us over for brunch this past weekend where she made her yummy Cinnamon Rolls, a delicious Starbucks copycat Caramel Apple Cider and these adorable Waffle Cone Fruit Cups with a Sweet Sour Cream Sauce. I thought the Waffle Cone Fruit cups would be an excellent thing to “bring” to a Virtual Baby Shower for my friend Aimee from Simple Bites.

Aimee is adding a sweet baby girl to her family of boys any day now. I can’t get together with Aimee in person right now, but I hope that my well wishes and excitement for another mama to experience the wonderful world of baby girls shows through the miles. Congrats to your family, Aimee! There are a lot of incredible moments ahead for you.

Recipe: Waffle Cone Fruit Cups with Sweet Sour Cream Sauce (From my friend DeLynn)

This isn’t really a recipe. It is more so a clever idea for serving fruit and fruit dip in a unique way. Perfect for a party!

• Fresh fruit, such as strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, chopped apples, banana slices, etc
• Large waffle cones
• Sweet Sour Cream Sauce (mixture of 1 cup sour cream, 2 Tablespoons brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla)

1. Fill each large waffle cone with fresh fruit. Spoon sweet sour cream sauce over the fresh fruit. Serve and enjoy!

Friends around the web are gathering for a virtual baby shower for Aimee. Be sure to visit the following blogs for more baby shower treats!

• Strawberry and Vanilla Cupackes with Strawberry Jam from Bluebonnets & Brownies
• Strawberry Pretzel Dessert from My Baking Addiction
• California Veggie Wraps from My Kitchen Addiction
• Mini Berry Pies on a Stick from Food for My Family
• Pink Pomegranate Smoothies from Food Your Way
• Grapefruit Avocado Couscous from Stetted
• Quiche Lorraine from Good Life Eats

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Why is it that all that I can think about when writing this post is the You Tube video of Faith Hill recently telling off a concert groupie for groping her husband? I know, I have the mind of a 5th grader, don’t I?

We went to an Italian restaurant a couple of years ago and  I ordered spaghetti and meatballs. To me, meatballs means lots and lots of meatballs and I was looking forward to my heaping amount on top of my pasta. When our food arrived, I looked at my plate and my expectations for the pasta were fulfilled… it was a heaping pile of pasta. Much to my dismay, my expectations for the meatball situation fell very short. On my plate was one, single, solitary meatball. It was a large meatball, but there was only one.

This was all wrong. Meatballs belong in groups and piles. They are not loners. They need others by their side to be complete….

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