Holiday Recipes: Cookies, Candy and More

Patch editors from across Chicagoland share some of their favorite Christmas recipes.

Patch.com editors from across the Chicago area dug into their cookbooks and came back with some of their favorite holiday recipes to share with readers. We hope you enjoy. Happy Holidays! Share your favorite holiday recipes with Patch! Send your recipe as well as any photos to Editor Amie Schaenzer at amie.schaenzer@patch.com and we will include your recipe in this article.

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Is it Wrong to Hoard Halloween Candy You're Supposed to Hand Out?

Sally Higginson shares her strategy on handing out candy on Halloween. Here's a hint: it's not the trick or treaters who end up in the sugar comas.

True story: This Halloween, a group of sixth grade boys ambled up the steps to my front porch and, while avoiding eye contact with me even after I asked about one of the costumes (apparently there is character named “Slender Man”), the boys rifled through my bowl of candy.  “Is this it?” Slender Man asked me.  I looked into my proffered bowl. There was an abundant supply of individually wrapped peanut M&Ms, Whoppers, Tootsie Rolls, Air Heads, Dubble Bubble, Banana Chews, Atomic Fire Balls and non-brand-specific lollipops. Granted, it wasn’t the greatest Halloween selection. There were no Kit Kats, no Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, no Twix. Those darn generic lollipops had given me pause even when I bought them. It seemed a little chintzy, not …

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7 Creative Ways to Use Your Leftover Halloween Candy

Fun ideas on how to use up all of that Halloween Candy

  It's the day after Halloween and we have way too much candy in the house. Waaaay too much candy. Between the kids' haul from trick or treating to the leftover candy we didn't get to give away, we have a small mountain on the kitchen table. There's no way we can, or even want to eat it all. You can’t bring it to work because everyone else brought their extra candy to work. Your waistline doesn’t need to collect on the “Mommy or Daddy Tax” from the candy haul. You don’t want to throw it out but you certainly don’t want to urge your kids to eat more candy, so it doesn’t go to waste. That won’t win you any Mom-of-the-Year awards. So, what should you do with the leftover candy?  1.      Play with it Use the candy to have some fun. Have your …

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Betsy and Sal

Halloween: Just Say Yes

Don't take the sugar buzz out of our national paean to candy.

Trick or treat, Smell my feet, Give me something whole grain, low fat and nutritionally valuable to eat. Since when did Halloween become the new poster child for abstinence? Who are these people who take one look at a Snickers bar and tell us to “Just Say No?” Our brother is one of these, and we are close to disowning him because of it. He is now the official Scrooge of Halloween. Yes, instead of handing out “fun size” candy this year, he’s purchased “fun-sucking” fare in the form of bags of pretzels decorated with bats and witches. Like that’s gonna fool the kids into thinking pretzels are a treat? What is wrong with him? We’re not condoning vandalism, but if someone were to T.P. his front yard on Oct. 31, he’d deserve it. After all, …

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