Quick Birthday Care Package

As I have said before my fiance's Best friend is stationed out of state and we like to send him some love from home when we can. This was his Birthday care package. I bought an individually packaged pound cake at Walmart for 3$ and a pilsbury chocolate funfetti frosting along with some other much needed goodies that he could share with his buddies. We bought him some games and a book to help pass his down time and then I made the happy birthday banner so that it would pop up when the box is opened and filled the box with confetti. He was so happy! He face timed us while he was opening it and kept saying how happy he was even though he might end up with diabetes.
We added a few goodies he could share with his barack roomie like orbit gum, q-tips and equally divided ziploc baggies filled with the iced animal cookies.
A lot of other Birthday care packages I seen had home made "cake in a jar" but most of those can spoil fairly quickly in the mail so when I bought the pound cake i made sure to buy one fresh with 7 days shelf life and mailed it the same day to ensure it would get to him before spoiling. Also for those of who do not know, mail and packages are not retrievable on weekends on a military base so make sure to ship it on a monday or tuesday.

As always thanks for reading! Don't forget to ask Homemakin secrets questions if you have any. 

Very Quick Halloween Care Package

This entry is going to be short and sweet, my fiance's best friend is stationed with Air force out of state and every so often we like to send him some love from home. This month I made him a Halloween themed care Package and I had a lot of fun with it.

First things first we had to pick up a medium flat rate box from our local postal office Just like the one below

Next we got to go SHOPPING!!! At what better store than Dollar tree?

We loaded up on Shipping safe candies, it is october though so I am not too afraid of anything melting. We also bought decorations for the inside of the box.

 

I glued down the "infection zone" tape with elmer's glue

Hot glued the Pumpkin garland

And filled the inside up with fake spider web, candies, and a dino mask, then covered the top in more fake web. It came out great!

The Cheater's guide to Easy Homemade Pumpkin Pie

My mom taught me how to make these as soon as I was tall enough to see over the counter and strong enough to stir the mixture. The ingredients and directions are right on the back of every Libbys 100% Pure pumpkin can and it is also on their website but I'll go ahead and share it anyway because it is my favorite desert in the fall. Now the only reason I refer to this as the "Cheater's guide to Home-made pumpkin pie" is because the pie shells and pumpkin puree are store bought but the taste is absolutely authentic!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

• 4 large eggs

• 1 can LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin (29 oz)

• 2 cans NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk (12 fl oz)

• 2 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shell ((4-cup volume))

Preheat oven to 425







My best friend and I decided we'd bust a move in the kitchen to kill some time before American Horror Story: Freak show came on.
http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/american-horror-story/episodes
So the first thing you want to do is mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, and cloves in a small bowl. 
In a separate larger bowl beat eggs Add the pumpkin and sugar mixture to the eggs and mix thoroughly
Slowly stir in evaporated milk (it will splash)



Open up your Pie shells, I personally love to use Marie Callendar's frozen pie shells
I bought mine at winco foods in the frozen section
If you choose to use the same DO NOT THAW shells
Pour the mixture into the shells straight out of the freezer



Once mixture is well mixed slowly and steadily pour your mix into a pie shell


After one pie is filled you will have enough to fill your second pie shell



Perfection! Now place your pie shells on cookie sheets (I like to put each one on its own sheet to prevent spilling and it makes it much easier to place in the oven and remove) 




Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 40-50 minutes mire or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. (I never need to stick a knife in the middle after 45 minutes it should be cooked through and through)



Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. 
Do NOT cover pie with lid, foil, or wrap it in anyway while it is cooling, this will cause pie to sweat. I usually let my pies cool for 2 hours if I don't have a wire rack 
And my favorite topping for pumpkin pie is whipped topping

OoH La LaBone appetit!!