What to Do with Halloween Candy &

How to Make Hobo Stew

Hobo stew in the Sixties was a potluck of all kinds of canned foods cooked together in one pot. There was no recipe. Everyone attending the event brought a can or two from their home pantries.

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Hobo Halloween night was always a fun event. My dad was the pastor of a Texas church. One of the families held the party at their farm. I recall the giant kettle cooking the potluck hobo stew over a fire in the front yard. I’ve forgotten just how the hobo stew tasted, but I do remember the cake and Halloween candy.

The cake walk was my favorite activity, so it didn’t matter to me if the hobo stew tasted good or not. Going home with a cake was exciting.

The fall hobo outing was fun. There were hay rides, games, chili over Fritos, and we all dressed up as hobos.

Dressing up the first time in a costume as a little girl to go Trick-or-Treating created a memory I wouldn’t forget. My parents took me to neighbors’ houses. I walked up to one door that slowly screeched open. A basket of candy was there for me to reach my hand into to grab a piece of candy. I never did see a person and couldn’t wait to get out of there.

I relived the Halloween candy fun tonight with my granddaughters. They had fun dressing up in their costumes, and I had fun watching them climb in bed asking me to open their candy got them. And then their dad came to take the bags of candy to put up for the night.

What to Do with Halloween Candy After October 31st

Halloween Candy Corn
Candy Corn & Peanut Mix

Kids love to go Trick-or-Treating, dig into their candy to see what all they got, and EAT as much of it as possible before Halloween night is over. But what happens to all that candy after October 31st? How do you handle Halloween candy for your children? Which of these fits you?

  1. You allow your children to eat all of their candy on Halloween night.
  2. You ration your children’s candy.
  3. You don’t allow your children to eat candy at all.

Maybe it’s the Trick-or-Treat experience you don’t want your children to miss out on, so you take them Trick-or-Treating even if you don’t want them eating candy. It’s not like you can hide the fact from them. They will hear about their friends’ Halloween candy or see it for sale in the supermarket you shop in. So what are some options?

First, of course, you can ration the candy. Let them have a little every day until it’s gone. Consider these other ideas to have fun with your children, using their Halloween candy:

  1. Make a Gingerbread house.
  2. Decorate a cake or cookies.
  3. Use some of the candy in a cookie dough or cake mix.
  4. Teach about sharing, and have your children decorate a gift for Christmas with wrapped candy.
  5. Fill a pumpkin pinata with all the candy. Invite family and friends, including your children’s friends, for a fall party and pinata candy treats.
  6. Ice cream toppers.
  7. Thanksgiving snack trays.
  8. Mix with nuts and add to baggies for later.

Hobo Stew

Since there wasn’t a recipe for the Hobo Stew I had as a child on Halloween, I can’t share that exact one although I do have a Hobo Chili recipe that’s great for cooler fall days.

But this is how you make it: just imagine opening every can of food from your pantry and dumping the contents into your slow cooker. It doesn’t matter if it’s turnip greens or cranberries. It all goes in. I can almost taste it now – cranberry chili. Hmmm. Sounds good. I think I just came up with an idea for another recipe. Are you up for the challenge? See what you can create in a hobo stew or chili from your kitchen.

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