Halloween Party :)

Here comes Halloween, Here comes Halloween...Its that spooky time of year again! Most years we don't do much for Halloween. The last few years we haven't even been able to go to the haunted house :(. This year we decided to do something and had a Halloween get to together. We dressed up Candy and Molly in doggie costumes, stayed up late into the night watching horror movies, and ate ghoulishly yummy foods. It was so much fun.

 If you are thinking of having a Halloween party here are some creepy buffet ideas to get you started:

DEM BONES

Ingredients: Pretzel Sticks, Mini Marshmallows, White Chocolate Chips

take pretzel sticks and push a mini marshmallow onto each end of the stick. Melt white chocolate chips using double boiler (or a glass bowl on top of a simmering pot of water if you don't have a double boiler)

Then simply dip each pretzel stick in chocolate and set on wax paper to dry. If a few bones break while pulling them off of the drying rack or wax paper, serve them up too they add character!

SEVERED FINGERS

Ingredients: String Cheese, Almond Slivers, Marinara Sauce

Take string cheese and rip in half with your hands (don't cut because you want them to look like torn ligaments etc). Using a paring knife shape the un-torn end of the cheese. Add almond sliver for nail. using a butter knife add knuckle indention's, then place on platter and cover the severed ends with marinara sauce. Here is a link to a helpful video: http://youtu.be/gb3JRoQGOQM

SPIDER EGGS

Ingredients: Eggs (made as deviled eggs) and Whole Black Olives

boil your eggs and make them into deviled eggs (however you like your deviled eggs) If you don't know how to make deviled eggs here is a link to a recipe; http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/traditional-southern-deviled-eggs-recipe/index.html. Cut olives in half, place olive half in center of deviled eggs, then cut remaining olives into slices, cut slices in half and use as spider legs.

MUMMIES

Ingredients: Hotdogs and Canned Croissant Rolls

Cut croissant rolls into strips and wrap strips around hot dog. Bake according to canned croissant roll directions. (you can add mustard eyes but the mustard will dry out really fast which is why we didn't do it)

SPIDER DIP

Ingredients: Refried Beans, Salsa, Sour cream, Cheddar Cheese, Olives, Tomatoes

on a large circular platter layer, beans, salsa and sour cream, then top with cheese, olives and tomatoes. Add remaining sour cream to piping bag (if you don't have a piping bag a Ziploc will work just fine, push the sour cream into the corner then carefully cut off the tip off of that corner of the bag), then simply pipe on the web start by drawing the star then add the circles, if you can remember add a washed plastic spider (i had one but forgot to put it on)

SCREAMING SLIDERS

no real recipe here, just make homemade sliders however you like. Then get a Halloween cookie cutter and cut the sliced cheese into neat shapes. We find that Kings Hawaiian Sweet Rolls work great as the buns for sliders. 

And that's pretty much all the food, we also made some ghastly sandwiches with Halloween ghost shaped cookie cutters but i didn't get any close ups of them. I hope you all have a safe and happy Halloween! If anyone makes these or any other Halloween dishes feel free to share pics I would love to see how they turn out!

Halftime for Gamers ;)

So I am a total LSU fan but I came across this Halftime show on YouTube by The Ohio State University Marching Band and it is truly epic.  

I recognized tributes to galaga, pokemon, tetris, mario, halo, zelda, and pacman (pretty sure I missed a few since there were a few i didn't recognize ) but my favorite moment is the running horse at 6:00. 

enjoy :)

Do we need more banking regulation?

So I came across an article on ABC news that comes from the credit.com blog talking about how banks were still raking in massive profits using overdraft fees despite the new regulations. The article is calling for increased regulation on banks stating that, "these fees have fallen disproportionately on the people least able to pay them: seniors, the young, minorities, the disabled, and military families". and that "High overdraft fees are pushing millions of Americans out of the banking system entirely and into things like payday loans, which have significantly higher cost and significantly lower protection for consumers".   The articles author continues on saying that "The Fed's 2010 opt-in rule was a good first step. But banks have figured out ways around it to keep their pipeline of easy money flowing, with no regard for how much it hurts consumers --- or which consumers get hurt". The regulation that he would like to see enacted are: a ban on all overdraft fees for debit and ATM transactions, lower fees, overdrafts by paper check cannot be declined, post transactions in the order they are made in, and to treat overdraft fees as short term loans and inform consumers of the APR they are getting.

I can understand the need for the original legislation because we should have the option to choose whether we want overdraft protection. However, although some of the ideas above are not bad, i dont believe that we need additional legislation.

Its time for people to start taking responsibility for their actions and stop looking to blame someone else for their problems!  Every single person that has a checking account at the moment has CHOSEN whether or not they wanted overdraft protection. If you chose overdraft protection and you overdraft then you are being extended the COURTESY by the bank of covering your mistake. It is YOUR responsibility (not the banks) to keep your receipts and to record on a daily basis how much you have spent versus how much you have available in the bank. Every single person needs to be on top of their finances, it should not matter what order purchases post in if you are keeping track of how much you are spending.

If you are over 18 then its time to grow up and act like a responsible adult, handle your bills, handle your business, and handle your responsibilities.  Race, age, disability, etc should not matter. The bottom line is, that if you are capable enough to be legally responsible for your actions then you have no one to blame but yourself if you mismanage your money.

At age 17 I was living on my own and yes I made mistakes and I have paid quite a few overdraft fees in the 13 years since then, but I am not whining about it. I know I messed up.  Heck most of those times (although it was a struggle to pay the fees) I was glad that I had the leeway to make those mistakes.

As for payday loans, I truly doubt that overdraft fees alone are pushing people to obtain payday loans. I do agree that they are a terrible option and that they leave many people struggling to pull out of an ever growing sinkhole of debt. However, these options exist for the people who cannot obtain a traditional loan. Things inevitably come up in life and I am sure that in the moment the fees for the payday loan seem reasonable.  I do think that the interest rates for payday loans  need to be adjusted because 390% is just ridiculous. Then yet again it comes down to being a responsible adult. If you go in and sign for a payday loan you are given the terms and you agree to them. You need to have a grasp of your own finances so that you can figure out how you will repay that loan.

The consumer groups pushing for more legislation should be instead be pushing for education. Teach basic finance starting in middle and high school (more than just one chapter in a text book) or offer free courses at adult education centers on how to handle finances and the dangers of payday loans. Pour all that money and effort that is being spent to push legislation into efforts to truly help those who do not understand how to balance their finances.