When my daughter Sarah was younger and went trick-or-treating, she especially enjoyed all the sour candy. She was happy when she received her favorites, knowing I would look longingly at the chocolate, not interested in anything but those little candy bars.

Fruit was always a big hit at our house, too. Sarah would usually eat the apples before anything else.

With Halloween only a few days away, I want to make sure I have some candy in the house. But we have very few trick-or-treaters, so I make sure I buy candy I will like when it’s left over.

While I never complain that I have leftover candy to eat, I searched online for some creative ideas for Halloween candy and found some at cdkitchen.com. Your leftovers can always be frozen and used later instead of trying to eat it all at once, like I do.

An easy use for Rolos, mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Milk Duds or Hershey’s Kisses is to stuff them into cookie dough. Mix up your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough or buy some already made, place it in mini-muffin tins and squish a piece of candy into each one. You will get a cookie with a surprise center that’s sure to please.

For a faster version, you can also add chopped-up bars to cookie dough, spread it out on a cookie sheet and make cookie bars.

Got Life Savers, Jolly Ranchers or other hard candy? Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray it and some metal cookie cutters with cooking spray. Place the cutters on the cookie sheet, then fill them with a single layer of hard candy.

Bake at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes. Cool two minutes, then use a straw to poke a hole in the candy. When completely cooled, remove from the cookie cutters, lace them up with ribbon and you’ve got stained glass-looking ornaments.

A great idea for extra candy is to save it in a cool place and use it for decorating a gingerbread house. Saving it to fill a birthday piñata is another good idea. You can also add candy corn to your Rice Krispies treats, add peppermint patties to your brownies, fold chopped up candy bars into softened ice cream and melt your chocolate bars with heavy cream for hot fudge syrup.

Just for fun, try finding out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. While the commercial says three, there have actually been tests conducted and the average answer is 252.

Another suggestion purely for fun is to crunch up Wint-O-Green Life Savers while you are in a dark room. I haven’t tried this, but it’s supposed to make a bright light show in your mouth.

It reminds me of my daughter’s retainer that glowed in the dark. It was great entertainment and we made her show it off anytime we could find a dark room. She eventually quit protesting, knowing sooner or later it was going to happen so she just got it over with quickly. Good times. Have fun with these ideas.

The recipe for the leftover candy cake I’m sharing today comes from cdkitchen.com and it sounds great. I’ll be making one to take to work on Friday, using anything chocolate I have in the house. This cake can be dusted with powdered sugar once it’s cooled, if you want to dress it up a little.

From my friend Jean McFadden comes the avocado fries recipe. I whipped up a batch of these little goodies last week and thought they were delicious. Something different from guacamole. I used regular breadcrumbs because that’s what I already had on hand.

For a super-easy dinner ready when you are, use your slow cooker for the pot roast with mushroom sauce from “Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes.” Fifteen minutes spent in the morning will reward you in the evening. My cousin Vicki fixed this roast when I visited her some 15 years ago in Arizona and I still remember how delicious it was and look forward to eating it again and again.

Be safe and happy eating!



Leftover candy cake

2 cups coarsely chopped leftover candy

23/4 cups sifted flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 ounces unsalted butter

11/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a tube or bundt pan and dust with fine bread crumbs. Tap out excess crumbs. Sift together flour, salt and baking soda; set aside. In large bowl, cream butter until soft; add vanilla, almond extract and sugar. Mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one. On low speed, alternate adding dry ingredients with sour cream. Place 11/2 cups of mixture in pan. Add candies to remaining batter; fold in gently. Pour this mixture over plain batter. Bake one hour or until test done. Cool 15 minutes. Invert and remove from pan. Cool. Yields 12 to 15 servings.



Avocado fries

Oil for frying

1/4 cup flour

Kosher salt

2 large eggs, beaten

11/4 cups panko (Japanese-style) breadcrumbs

2 firm-ripe avocados, peeled, pitted and slice into 1/2-inch wedges

In medium saucepan over medium-high heat, heat 11/2-inches of oil until deep-fry thermometer reaches 375 degrees. Meanwhile, in a shallow bowl, whisk together the flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Place eggs in second shallow bowl and breadcrumbs in a third bowl. One wedge at a time, dredge the avocados through the flour, shaking off any excess, then through the egg and finally through the breadcrumbs. A quarter of an avocado at time, fry the wedges until golden brown, 30 to 60 seconds. Drain on paper towel. Keep warm in warm oven while cooking remainder of wedges. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Yields 6 servings.



Pot roast with mushroom sauce

1 (11/2 pound) boneless beef eye of round or round rump roast

4 medium potatoes, quartered

1 (16 ounce) package peeled baby carrots

1 can golden cream of mushroom soup

1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon or basil, crushed

Trim fat from roast. Lightly coat unheated large skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Heat over medium heat. Add meat and brown on all sides. Place potatoes and carrots in slow cooker. Place browned meat on top of vegetables. In a small bowl, stir together soup and tarragon or basil; pour over meat. Cover and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours or on high for 5 to 6 hours. Yields 5 servings.

Address correspondence to Cheryle Finley, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802.