Halloween 2015

Happy Halloween!

Well, okay, it's over with now.

So here I am recording how it went for me this year.

First, I must express a special thanks to my friend Tammie who helped make it all possible.   I worked her like a slave.  Thank you Tammie!

Before she came, I got most of my decorating done.  Here is my pathetic looking tree:

Here are a few more pictures of my decor:

Tammie arrived on Wednesday night, and I set her to work on Thursday and Friday, helping me get all the food prepared.  Most of you who read my dreary blog have received my menu in the mail, and I suppose you are wondering what all those items are.  I will explain what they all are by starting with the appetizer.

Jack Splat

Jack Splat was pumpkin hummus.  Very tasty.  When I went to the store to get some dipping veggies, I ran across some "rainbow carrots" which added a nice touch of fall colors.

After whetting the appetite with Jack Splat, we served a bowl of Wiley's Swamp.

Wiley's Swamp

Wiley's Swamp was a bowl of White Bean and Spinach Soup.  I wanted something with spinach in it to give it that "swampy" look.  I also added a can of black beans to give the broth a more swampy color.  I wish I had gotten a better picture of the spinach dangling from the spoon, but you get the idea.  Oh yeah, the soup was served with "Brom's Bones", which were - you guessed it - dinner rolls.  Somehow I neglected to include that in the picture.

For the main entree, our guests were given two choices:  "Sliced Cranium with Jack's Squat" or "Ichabod's Bane".

Sliced Cranium with Jack's Squat

The "Sliced Cranium" was a baked slice of acorn squash, and then I filled the hole with arborio rice, topped with toasted panko crumbs and bacon bits.  And of course, the guests were also free to add their own "Ichabod's Psoriasis Flakes".  I'm sure you are smart enough to figure out what that was.

The second entree choice was "Ichabod's Bane".

They are chicken and cheese quesadillas.  I was trying to go for the pumpkin look, thus "Ichabod's bane", but I was quite pleased with how they turned out, even if they don't resemble a pumpkin by a long shot.  After cutting apart the jaw and pulling it apart, the gooey cheese really added a nice effect that I wasn't expecting.

Now on to the desserts:

First there was "Headless Redneck"

They are Rhubarb-Strawberry Chia Seed Pudding Parfaits.  Tammie did a good job dressing them up with black toulle. (did I spell that right?)  I called them "Headless Redneck" because they resemble a decapitated neck (with blood and pus), and they have a red color marbled in, so a red neck with no head was the first thing I thought of, and no one would be able to guess what it was.

Then there was the "Ichy Schnoz"

How did I come up with "Ichy Schnoz" for pumpkin pie, you ask?  Good question!

Pumpkin pie is pointy and long, like Ichabod's nose.  As you know, a schnoz is another name for a nose, and "Ichy" is short for Ichabod.  So there ya go - "Ichy Schnoz".  I know it's lame, but I was desperate.

And who would be smart enough to figure out what that one would be?  

The last dessert on the menu was "Gunpowder Plop"

"Gunpowder" was the name of the horse that Ichabod rode when he was invited to a dinner at the Van Tassel's house.  (If you read the original story, you would know this.)  So, now you can figure out why I called chocolate pudding "Gunpowder Plop".  I wanted to called it "Gunpowder's Poo", but thought plop would be funnier, just because of the sound that it would make if the horse really did, well you know.........plus "Gunpowder Plop" would be harder to guess than "Gunpowder Poo", especially if they hadn't read the book. I wasn't going to serve this at all, but I knew I needed something on the menu that my kids would eat.   In order to not waste any good food, I generally don't let them order something that I know they will not eat.

As for the drinks, the "Hudson River Sludge" was coffee, and "Tappan Zee" was tea.

By the way, notice in this picture how Chuck's whipped cream has "melted" over his "Ichy Schnoz"?  Now compare his whipped cream to the whipped cream on mine and Tammie's.  See how our whipped cream is still nice and fluffy?  That's because Chuck is eating Reddi Whip.  Tammie and I are eating homemade whipped cream, made with coconut cream - okay I cheated a little and whipped it up with a packet of "Whip It".  But it was SO good.  And since Tammie and I are both watching our dairy intake, we had to make our own cuz, after all, "Ichy Schnoz" just isn't the same without whipped cream. And I gotta say - whipped cream made with coconut cream tastes WAY better.

And I refuse to eat Cool Whip.  Have you read the list of ingredients on a container of Cool Whip? 

Nuff said.

Okay, now here's the bummer part.  Tammie and I spent TWO WHOLE DAYS cooking for this meal, and we were supposed to have 3 more guests show up.  But at the last minute, they bailed out on us.  Wow, talk about a big let down!  However, it turned out they had a very good excuse, so I could not be mad at them - only terribly disappointed that they weren't able to enjoy our hard labor.

But I am so glad that Tammie was there - at least we had ONE guest!  And she even stayed at my "Bed and Breakfast" for a whole week!  And survived to tell about it!

When Saturday came, our hard work was all over and we were able to just relax. Throughout the week, Tammie came and went, visiting with some friends, and I'm really glad she was able to do that.  When she wasn't out, we did a lot of things together and it was so fun having her here.  We went to a play at the Valley Theater  ("Bell, Book, and Candle"), did some shopping, and also did some scrapbooking together.

After she left, I still waited for Halloween to come.  I transferred a few decorations out to the front porch to greet all the kiddos, even though we don't get very many trick-or-treaters at our house.

And then I talked Chuck into helping me carve those big pumpkins.

And of course, we set them out on the porch and lit them up after it got dark.

So now that it's all over, I'm spending two days packing everything up again for next year.

Hmmm........I wonder what next year's theme will be?

"Let me in!"

Goodbye Dominic

Last week Monday we were asked to watch Dominic again for a few hours so his foster parents could run some errands in Anchorage.  I'm glad we did because we hadn't seen him for a few weeks and we were supposed to watch him again for a few days in November, and I wanted him to stay used to us.

While he was here, he took the opportunity to "play" with Kiska since she was dumb enough to sit there and take it.

Notice how his little fist is tightly clasped onto her fur?

Dominic got his little pickers nipped at a couple times, which of course resulted in a few tears.  But, I guess that's one way for him to learn.

After giving us the evil look, Kiska finally did the smart thing and left the room.

Another reason I'm glad we got to watch Dominic that day is because, at the time, we didn't know it was going to be our last time.  The day after these pictures were taken, we got the news that he was leaving us.  His "parents" brought him over to our house on Tuesday night so we could say goodbye to him because they weren't sure exactly what day he was leaving. It was nice of them to think of us - they know how much we love that little man. It turned out we got to hold him through the sermon one last time yesterday in church, but now he's really gone.  He left this morning.  I sure am gonna miss that widdo guy.  (sniffle, sniffle)

Thankfully, although stressful as it can be, I have the distraction of my Halloween dinner, which is this Friday already.  Now that Dominic's parents will be "free", I invited them over to be this year's victims. Hopefully, it'll be a good distraction for them cuz I know they are having a really  hard time.

So I have been staying busy trying to get things ready.  I made my giant tree, which looks really pathetic.  I'll post a full view of it later after I get the room fully decorated.  But here is a picture of the sign that I put on it.

You have to read the book to understand some of the stuff I'm doing.

Since Ichabod was a school teacher, I wanted one of my walls to resemble a school, so I made this chalkboard:

I don't know if you can read Ichabod's schedule, so here is a closer look at it:

I wanted it to be clever and funny, but I'm not very good at coming up with clever and funny, and I didn't want to waste a lot more time trying to get my empty brain to come up with anything better, so that is what I ended up with.

I'm only halfway done with my decorating, so that's all I want to show for now.  But here is my skeleton sitting in my living room, waiting for the festivities to begin.

Kiska decided his lap was comfortable enough to take a nap on.

In the evenings, if I have the luxury to relax, I feed my Halloween mood by watching a movie from my Halloween collection.

There are a few that I absolutely HAVE to watch every year!!  And then there are some that I watch because they somehow relate to my theme and I can get ideas from them.  But I have too big of a collection to watch ALL of them.

My Halloween dinner is only 4 days away.  Yikes.  I am so thankful that my friend Tammie is coming all the way up here from Michigan to help me with it.  Well, actually she's coming up here for a different reason, but she timed it just right to help me with the most hectic part of it. She is even going to stay at my "Bed & Breakfast" for a few days.  BWAAHAHHAHAHAHAH!!!

I am so looking forward to her being here!

Fun times ahead.

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Halloween cometh.

A few days have gone by since I last posted, so I thought maybe I better sit down and say "hello, I'm still here".  My brain has been getting a lot of exercise lately, being so preoccupied with the coming festivity.  I'm starting to get that nervous panicky feeling because my "Bed & Breakfast" is only 2-1/2 weeks away, and I have SO much to do.  I'm still trying to figure out my menu, which is the worst part because I can't finish my flyers until I know what my menu will be, and I am really STUCK.  But here is a little taste of what my flyer cover looks likes.

I am making 10 of them.  Eight of them will get sent out in the mail, which is why I feel rushed to get them done.  After I get those done, I have all the decorating to do.  Oh my, there's so much to do!  Stephanie, I need you!!

In line of trying to figure out my menu, I came across this little book in the commissary:

Chuck always snaps his tongue and protests every time I buy another Halloween recipe book, but I had to have it because:

#1  I am doing a pumpkin theme this year and want some ideas

#2  I have all these pumpkins to play with:

And I'll probably buy more pie pumpkins if I see them.  Walmart is usually the place to buy them, but they sell out real fast, so I consider myself pretty lucky if I can get any. The general manager is a friend of mine, so I have that going for me - she knows I'm looking for them and will let me know when she's got some in stock. 

So, I am planning on trying all kinds of new pumpkin recipes in the next couple weeks.  Some are good, some not so good.  I tried two different recipes for homemade pumpkin pudding and both turned out of to be bombs.  The first one (made with chia seeds) wasn't that bad, but Chuck didn't like it.  Maybe he's like it better if I toned down on the spices. The second recipe, made with cornstarch, didn't taste good at all, so I chucked the whole batch in the garbage.  What a waste, I know.  But the way I look at it, if I learned something from it, it wasn't a total waste. 

I give up on making homemade pumpkin pudding.

Time to move on to something else.

Today I'm going to try making a pumpkin coffee cake.

Here are a couple smoothie recipes that I tried out of that little book:

In case you're interested, you can try them yourself.  I thought they were both pretty good, and as you can see from the ingredients, they are also good for you.

I think I like the bottom one a little better.  I added some coconut water to make it a bit thinner.

Here is another idea that I've been playing with:

This is a slice of acorn squash.  Usually I just cut them in half so they are a bowl, but that is always too much to eat in one meal.  So I tried making slices and it was just enough.

So basically, I've been awfully busy with visions of pumpkins dancing in my head at almost all times.  

So it's nice to think about non-related things once in awhile.  Such as our first snow:

It's not much, but it came early.  We woke up to this on the last day of September.

Kiska's summer adventure days are starting to wane:

"Hmm...should I or shouldn't I?"

 

She LOVES to go outside, but when she saw the snow, she hesitated.  She did finally go out there, but only just long enough for her paws to get cold.  She wanted no part of it.  To her benefit, the snow was all melted by the afternoon, and she disappeared for several hours as usual.  We haven't seen any new snow since then, except for what falls on the mountains.

That's about it.  Gotta get back to wracking my brain on those menus again.