You guys are freaking me out. Long time ago when I was in the Air Force the girl across the hall used to tell me about the ghosts in the family home outside Philadelphia. She said both her parents were dr's and her mother could also read aura's and see ghosts and she once had some sort of wild nature ghost bothering her and they had to call people in to evict it etc. etc. and I just didn't believe any of it. Why would the daughter of a doctor be enlisted in the Air Force? She didn't even have a car. Anyway one weekend I went home with her. Oh my. Big old huge white elephant just off the Main line, mother comes home from volunteer teaching CPR and tells us to get bread from the freezer in the basement. I'm down there trying to get their dog to come down and she yells down "oh the dog doesn't like it down there because of the ghost" She reads her sons friends aura at dinner and tells me on the way to the train the next day that at the present time my guardian was a woman. Man I didn't get ANY sleep. The girl also said the more you think about spirits the more they are drawn to you. So I used to lie in my barracks bunk thinking "i'm not thinking about spirits I'm not thinking about spirits" like some sort of idiot.

We made them from ballons attached to tomato stakes. We got round plastic tablecloths at the $ store & draped over the ballon & tied at the stake. We used a sharpie pen for faces. We attached them at their hands but I can't remember exactly what we did. I think overlapped & punched holes in both edges & tied.

Hi Karl, use less butter / lard in the cookie mix next time. That's the usual cause of cookies going a bit flat and not keeping shape when baked. i first heard about chocolate chili cookies about 10 years ago, in a Discovery channel documentary about chili addicts & growers. The cookies were part of the buffet spread at a convention. Always wanted to try them.

The cookie cutter will be perfect for the Halloween Cutout Cookies recipe above. :-) King Arthur has "Gluten-Free Measure for Measure Flour", which is their version of Cup4Cup and is available at Wal-Mart in our area. Test kitchen tips for Gluten-Free Measure for Measure Flour This flour is best suited for non-yeasted recipes. Directly swap the amount of all-purpose flour called for with the same amount of Measure for Measure flour: No need for additional specialty ingredients. Works beautifully in your favorite recipes, whether you’re substituting just a few ounces of conventional flour or several cups. Grainlady's soapbox: The biggest drawback with most of the all-purpose gluten-free blends --- rice flour being the main ingredient. I wouldn't recommend using large amounts of rice flour for anyone, and especially children, due to the arsenic associated with it; and nearly all gluten-free flour blends and commercial gluten-free foods contain rice flour. For more information: http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/glutenfreecookingbasics/a/Arsenic-In-Rice-And-Gluten-Free-Diets.htm  I also dislike the large amounts of high-glycemic flours and starches they contain. To use an old idiom: Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Trading one health concern for another potential health concern - gluten intolerance followed by diabetes and other health issues due to food choices. Therefore, just as before I was gluten-free, I mill gluten-free wholegrain flour myself and use coconut flour and almond flour over rice flour. The brown rice flour I do use I make myself in order to reduce the amount of arsenic in it by rinsing, soaking, sprouting (which includes more rinsing), dehydrating the sprouted grain, and milling it into flour myself. With that much work involved, you use it sparingly. After a 10-day detox from all grains at the first of the year, I soon realized how other grains, even gluten-free grains, still affect your wellbeing. They initiate inflammation and auto immunity. Phytates block nutrient absorption, and oats contain higher levels of phytates than almost any other grain - unless you know how to soak and prepare them to reduce the phytates. Going gluten-free and maintaining your health is more challenging than just "going gluten-free." Especially with all the commercial gluten-free choices now, and most are really just more junk food - without the gluten. In the end, I would suggest using coconut flour and coconut oil, and a dairy-free margarine for the butter, like in this recipe: http://www.healthextremist.com/coconut-flour-cookies-recipe/ Or this one which uses almond and coconut flour with dairy-free choices: http://blog.meaningfuleats.com/the-best-almond-flour-sugar-cookies-gluten-free-grain-free/ -Grainlady