What to Do With Leftover Halloween Candy

Halloween candy gets pretty tiring after a couple of days. Here are some ideas for using it up.

1. Homemade flavored vodka

Some candies dissolve beautifully in vodka, creating "infused" booze. If you plan on making flavored booze for holiday presents or parties, now is the time to start. Besides candies, you can add coffee, rosemary, cinnamon, pepper, citrus fruits, or dried flowers. I'll bet that Wether's Originals dissolved in vodka make for some tasty shots.

2. Baking and sweets

Many candies melt in the heat of the over, leaving you with a wonderfully gooey treat. Here are some possible recipes:

• Biscuits filled with tootsie rolls
• Cookies with peanut butter cups
• Candy corns chopped up and added to candied yams
• Crushed Jolly Ranchers and Dummies on top of challah bread
• Brownies with "fun size" chocolates
• Popcorn balls with pretty much anything
• Butterfinger cake
• Peppermints (the red and white kind or Peppermint Patties) mixed into hot chocolate or coffee for a cheap mocha
• Use as an ice-cream sunday topper
• Freeze until summer, and add to homemade ice cream

3. Cooking

Sweet and sour sauce (any sour candy will work)

Pixie sticks for a porkchop glaze (red or white wine, vinegar, pixie sticks, salt)

BBQ chipotle sauce with Smarties or Red Hots

4. Crafts

If candies get stale and seem rather inedible, consider using them for fun arts and crafts.

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5. Bribery/Doling

If you are swift enough to grab your kids' candy while they sleep, it can be doled out for MONTHS as bribes. Need the leaves raked? Two Hershey's kisses per bag (not adjusted for inflation, that's what I used to get paid). OR, just slowly dole out a piece a day in kids' lunches. My parents used to throw it in our Christmas stockings, too along with nuts and persimmons.

6. Donate it

Nursing homes, doctor's offices, women's shelters - everyone loves candy, and spreading the sweetness can be a great way to avoid gorging on it all yourself.

7. Send it to overseas troops

Not so much for chocolate (which doesn't travel well), but other candy is appreciated as a part of care packages for the troops (US only, not sure about other nations' deployments).

8. Take it to the office

Adults are sometimes able to restrain themselves a little bit more than kids - share those sugary goodies with coworkers.

9. Keep some in the car for emergencies

I keep a small stash of sugary candies in my car. I'm diabetic, and every now and again, I go into insulin shock, meaning that I need to eat something sugary, fast. Car candy has been a saving grace a number of times. Also, you never know when you'll be trapped in the car for hours with no food or water - candy can be a welcome distraction or sustenance if caught on a moutain pass during a rock slide or the freeway behind a massive accident.

10. Make an Advent Calendar, Pinata, or Holiday Centerpiece

The countdown to Christmas used to be one of my favorite things about the holidays. Alpha Mom has some really great ideas for decorating during November (she counts down the month of November with her adorable advent calendar).

What do you do with your leftover candy?

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