Playing Catch - Up

I'm sooooo bad! I owe the site a months worth of posts!!! Well, here are 3 of them:

Spook-Tacular treats: Dirt Cups

Yields 6 cups

1 large box of instant chocolate pudding (prepare as directed)
6 Oreo or other chocolate sandwich cookie (with chocolate filling)
12 gummy worms
1 cup of coconut
green liquid food coloring
6 clear throw away plastic cups (approx. 8oz)

Color your coconut green with the food coloring, set aside.
Place cookies in a zip lock bag and beat with a skillet, to crush them into small pieces, and set aside.
Fill cups ¾ of the way with chocolate pudding (mud). Bury 2 worms into the mud. Sprinkle cookie crumbles (dirt) on top, then sprinkle with a small amount of green coconut (grass).

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Pumpkin: Gooey Butter Pumpkin Bars

1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix 1 egg 8 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling: 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 8 tablespoons butter, melted 1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey.
Serve with whip cream.

Variations: For a Pineapple Gooey Cake: Instead of the pumpkin, add a drained 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple to the cream cheese filling. Proceed as directed above.

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A rice Dish: Rice Pudding

3/4 cup raw short-grain rice (such as Arborio), rinsed in a colander until the water runs clear 4 cups milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest 1/2 cup sugar 4 egg yolks
Cinnamon & raisins if desired

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

In a covered heavy saucepan, bring the rice, milk, vanilla, and lemon zest to a simmer over medium heat. Immediately reduce the heat to as low as possible, cover tightly, and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until the rice is very tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Turn off the heat.
Stir the sugar into the cooked rice mixture. Stir in the egg yolks. Pour the rice pudding into a greased baking dish and bake for 20 minutes until slightly browned on the top. Remove from the oven and let cool. Chill until ready to serve. Sprinkle with cinnamon and raisins before serving.