A Giveaway (yahoo!!) AND a Halloween Treaty

Do you ever set goals for yourself?  Well, sometimes I do.  I like making goals because when they are accomplished I feel successful which then makes me feel happy! - it is a win win situation in my mind...especially if my "goal" has been reached. :-)

One of my "goal setting" moments recently has been with my blog and being part of the food blogging world.  When I first started to build my blog I did a lot of browsing through other food blogs and picked out what I really liked about them.  From there I formed a list as to what I wanted to include in my blog.  Such things as having a "print friendly" button was important along with making labels of the kinds of foods I blogged about so that recipes could be easily searched and found.  I also wanted to increase the traffic/visits to my blog.  I am still learning the best way to do this but with time and more experience I think I will learn the ins and outs of what attracts people to my blog and then make it happen!

I have recently won two (yes, TWO) separate giveaways on other food blogs (Thanks Monica and Ingrid...hugs and gratitude to the both of you for your lovely giveaways).  Can I tell you that everyone around me would think that I had just won the lottery each time I discovered I had won one of these giveaways.....I was out of my skin with excitement!!! And yes, winning a giveaway has also been on my "goal list" - yahoooie I have been able to cross off that one (twice!!!).  So that being said, it is time for me to make someone else just as happy (I hope) as I was when I won my giveaways and give away a little somethin'
somethin' on my blog.

Here you go.....some food tattoos (don't they look fun!?!) and a cutie patootie dish brush (that is actually named "Baker"....such a perfect name in my eyes coming from a woman that LOVES to bake herself!).

How do you win these two little treasures?  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what you have to celebrate today (one or two simple things is great) here on my blog or on my Baking and Creating with Avril facebook page (don't forget to become a fan on FB if you have yet to do so)...and yes, you can comment in both places to increase your chances of winning.   I will start first....

*Today I am celebrating the fact I had energy to clean my kitchen (see, something small is fine).

* I am also celebrating the reality that it was a beautifully sunny Fall day outside.  Happy Fall Y'all!

*Oh, and one more thing I am celebrating today is that the Keene PD is giving out FREE pumpkins!!!! Fun and just in time for the Pumpkin Festival this coming weekend. :-)

*Lastly (but oh so gratefully) I am celebrating the fact that I have 70 followers now on my blog!!!!!  Thank you, thank you one and all for following my blog!

I will announce the winner of my giveaway Saturday a.m. Last entrance will be excepted no later than Friday @ 12 midnight.  All entrants will be placed in a hat and picked at random.

Now to move onto my Halloween Treaty.....super easy to make and VERY fun to involve kiddos in the making of it.  I first saw a version of this treat from my friend Astrid.  She makes huge batches of these fun treats at Christmas time.  I thought it would be fun to make them for Halloween by just switching up the kind of candy I used geared for Halloween.

Sweet and Salty Halloween Treats

Ingredients:

*Pretzels

*Hershey Kisses (I used the striped white and milk chocolate kind)

*Candy Corn

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Place pretzels on cookie sheet....

2. Unwrap Hershey's Kisses....

...can you tell how happy Jo was to be soooo up close and personal with the HK's??? :-)

3. Place HK's on top of pretzels....

 ....and then place filled cookie sheet in oven.  Bake for 4-5 minutes but no longer - just until HK's start to get shiny.  Take out of oven and place candy corn on top of HK's....

....gently pushing CC's into chocolate.

4. Cool and then transfer to serving platter or wrap up in cute packages to give away.

Happy Sweet and Salty Halloween Treats Making and good luck on the giveaway!