Halloween Traditions

It seems like my family has a tradition for EVERYTHING - and I love it! Slowly, but surely, I am trying to start them with our own little family so we can keep these traditions going. For Halloween, one tradition included having Pumpkin Stew for dinner and my mom making her delicious homemade donuts! As a kid, it was always torture to eat dinner on Halloween because we were all so excited to go trick-or-treating. Now, I love it because it is something nice and healthy before all of the candy. This year, our ward Halloween Party is on Halloween, so we decided to share in some of the traditions early. Last year for Halloween, Rich really wanted pumpkin stew...this desire was enough to have him drive 20 minutes each way just to get the pumpkin. Luckily, there wasn't a shortage of pumpkins this year, so he didn't have to go that out of his way. He got his wish again and we had a great time eating pumpkin stew, orange jello (orange of course for Halloween), and rolls. Then, I got really ambitious and made homemade donuts. I had never done this before, so I was a little worried about how they would turn out. I called my mom several times throughout the day just to ask "one more question." Aren't mom's the greatest?! Well, her advice paid off and we enjoyed delicious homemade donuts last night!!! We had a great time and are excited for all of the other festivities this week :)

Here are my mom's great recipes:

PUMPKIN STEW

Ingredients

Pumpkin
Chopped onion
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 ½- 2 lbs ground beef
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 oz can mushrooms (drained)
Cream of chicken soup
1 ½ cups cooked rice
1 can sliced water chestnuts (drained)

Instructions

Cut off top of pumpkin. Clean out pumpkin
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Sautee onions in oil until tender
Add meat and brown
Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, soup
Simmer 10 minutes stirring occasionally
Add cooked rice and water chestnuts
Spoon mixture into clean pumpkin
Replace pumpkin top and put pumpkin on baking sheet
Bake 1 hour (or until the inside of the pumpkin is tender)

RAISED POTATO DONUTS (makes 100 donuts!)

1 cup warm water

2 Tb. Dry yeast (pkgs) dissolved in the 1 cup of warm water

1 cup shortening

6 eggs, beaten

4 tsp salt

3 cups milk

1 cup sugar

2 cups mashed potatoes (or instant)

2 tsp. lemon juice

2 tsp. grated lemon rind

½ tsp. nutmeg

12-13 cups flour

Instructions

Combine milk, shortening, salt, sugar, mashed potatoes and heat to lukewarm. Add beaten eggs and yeast. Add 6 cups flour and beat until well blended and smooth. Add lemon juice, rind and nutmeg. Add flour to make soft, but firm dough (firm enough to roll.) Knead until smooth. Cover and let rise until double in bulk (approximately 1 hour.) Punch down and divide dough in half. Roll out 1.2 inch thick and cut with cutter. Cover and allow to rise until double (30-40 minutes.) Fry in deep fat oil and 375 degrees until golden on both sides. Drain on paper towel and dip in prepared glaze, sugar, or chocolate. Use chopsticks to turn.

Toppings

Glaze (Thin)

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup warm water (1 tablespoon at a time)

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1 Tb. Karo syrup

Put in bowl. Dip completely. Drip on rack.

Sugar

Put sugar in brown bag. Cool donut first. Then drop in and shake.

Chocolate (Thick)

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

1 Tb. warm water or more

2-3 tsp. cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1 Tb. Karo syrup

Dip top only.

Optional - add sprinkles.

I love all of the fun traditions that my family has. What family traditions do you have for Halloween?