Happy Halloween

Remember that perfect pumpkin ?

P.S. Come back tomorrow for my 100th post!!

Don't Roast All the Seeds

Keep some of them for next year. I took mine and dried them on a paper towel. Then, I wrapped them up and...



...labeled them. And put them in the frig until spring and then...

...another perfect pumpkin will come next year:-)

Awarding Winning Cupcake Adds to the Freshman 15

Organizing Paperwork

This week, I decided to tackle the paperwork that I had building in the kitchen hall closet. This is how it looked before:


And this is how it looked after:


I guess dusting wasn't part of the tackle:-(

Cauldron Cake, Witch Cupcakes and Chili

Well everyone...I may have a cake wreck on my hands:-( My nephew's birthday was this weekend and once again, I made a Halloween themed cake and cupcakes. Behold, the Cauldron Cake:

This is a yellow cake with green and orange buttercream frosting to look like the gruel in a witch's cauldron. The pot was $5 at Walgreens and I put the cake inside the pot on a cake decorating stand. So, when you spun the cake with the spoon, it simulated stirring the brew. Although the cake itself isn't the prettiest, I thought the concept was cool.

These are the witches and Man, do they look pissed! I would be too if I were this ugly:-(

And here is what the whole table looked like. So everybody...what do you think? To wreck or not wreck...that is the question.

As for a recipe, my SIL, Lisa served this awesome chili at the party. It is perfect for any chilly outdoor event like Trick or Treating or a football game or even looking ahead to caroling for Christmas. Without further adeau:

Lisa's Awesome Chili Mac

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 can kidney beans

1 green pepper

1 onion plus more for garnish

1 can tomato juice

1 packet chili mix

1/2 lb elbow macaroni

1 can diced tomatoes

Shredded Cheddar Cheese, for garnish

sour cream for garnish

Oyster crackers, for garnish

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef in pepper and onions.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients (except macaroni) to slow cooker and cook on high for 45 minutes or low for 2 hours.

3. Meanwhile, cook the macaroni until almost al dente.

4. Add macaroni to the beef mixture in the last 30 minutes of cooking.

5. Serve with garnishes on the side.

Friday's Foto Fun at the Pumpkin Farm

It's time for Carrie's Friday Foto Fun:-)

Yesterday, my youngest and I went to the Pumpkin Farm!!! Finally!! We had a great time! We rode the bus for the first time. There was a hay ride and a corn maze. And, well....pumpkins:-)

They even had a ball pit:-) She had such a great time that she said, "Mom, I had a lot of fun with you today." Tell me that doesn't touch your heart:-)

I couldn't resist the mums:-)

So...what is next?

Garden List

I had a request to post about my indoor garden and of course, I am happy to oblige my readers:-)

So, the first step to any garden is to make a plan and for me, that was taking an inventory of my seeds. Here is what I have:

Basil
Chives
Iceberg Lettuce
Lavender
Green and Red Lettuce
Mesclun
Flat-leaf Parsley
Romaine Lettuce

And here is what I want:

Thyme
Rosemary

You will notice there is a lot of lettuce. That's on purpose. Lettuce is the easiest thing to grow. If you are at all shy about indoor gardening, start there. It will sprout in 3 days and give you immediate satisfaction for your work:-)

Anyway, that's 10. I can do 10, right? I had better go measure:-)

Organizing My Daughter's Room

This is almost embarassing but after a week being cooped up inside after her surgery, this is what my daughter's room looked like:



We had stripped the beds so we could flip the mattresses and clean the sheets, skirts and comforters. Then, after HOURS of work, this is what it looked like:



Not bad for an afternoon's worth of work? Right? The CLR part was washing some of her tub toys (not pictured here but part of her room). We have rock hard water and it worked like a charm!

No Recipe Monday:-(

Well, it's been one heck of a week and one hell of a weekend. My daughter had surgery that she and I are recovering from. My Microsoft Money decided to password protect my files for me so I can't get in. And, my camera doesn't work. So, no pictures today and no recipe:-( I am hoping that my faithful readers will forgive this indiscretion.

Speaking of my faithful readers, I would like to thank a bunch of them. Where do I start?

Oh yeah, Lex from The Life and Crimes of a Mom gave me this little number:

Now, I will list 6 things that make me happy. Then I will give it away to some of my faves. They can drop by if they choose to accept. I decided I like to let people choose if they want the award or not.

1. My Family

2. Mr Friends

3. Baking

4. Gardening

5. Blogging

6. Music

Then, Emma at Musings of the Mindless Banterer gave me this:

So here is how is this award works. I have to choose 4 bloggy friends who I consider to be "Blogging Friends Forever" PLUS 1 bloggy friend from another country.

And finally Frizzy and Bird from Heaven's Gift bestowed this award on me for my Bye Bye Love post:

And I get pass the torch on. You can accept any or all of the awards in this post because you are all creative, full of bloggy love and have fabulous fall decor:

1. Shannon

2. Jennifer

3. Shell

4. Betty

Pumpkins

This is the one and only pumpkin that my garden produced this year. I guess if you don't have quantity, you have to have quality:-)

Bye, Bye Love:-(

Before I get to this week's gardening post, I want to give you an update on my daughter. She came through the surgery with flying colors. She is understandably crabby but healing well. Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers that you all gave to my family during this time. It really helped us to get through. Thank you:-)

This weekend, the weather was beautiful and a perfect time to clean out my veggie garden. So, Bye, bye loves:

Bye, bye basil.
Bye, bye pumpkins.
Bye, bye weeds...oh wait...that is a good one to go:-)

As you can see, I couldn't let go of my parsely yet. I am still using them in soups and stews and such and I haven't started my indoor herbs yet so, he stays. The peppers and the tomatoes still have buds. I did a fair amount of pruning today so, we shall see if I can extend the season just a little bit more. Wishful thinking? Maybe.

Remodeling the Bathroom

Today, my baby is going in for eye surgery. So, I am doing a flashback with 5 Minutes for Mom by posting the biggest tackle of the year: Remodeling our bathroom.

Here's the teardown:

And after declaring myself the Spackle Queen of the Midwest, here are the results:

Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launches

I usually don't post twice in the same day but, there is a lot going on!! You may have seen the Foodbuzz banners on my site. Well, here is what all the buzz is about:

San Francisco – October 13, 2008: Foodbuzz, Inc., officially inaugurates its food blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.

“Food bloggers are at the forefront of reality publishing and the dramatic growth of new media has redefined how food enthusiasts access tasty content,” said Doug Collister, Executive Vice President of Foodbuzz, Inc. “Food bloggers are the new breed of local food experts and at any minute of the day, Foodbuzz is there to help capture the immediacy of their hands-on experiences, be it a memorable restaurant meal, a trip to the farmers market, or a special home-cooked meal.”

Foodbuzz is the only online community with content created exclusively by food bloggers and rated by foodies. The site offers more than 20,000 pieces of new food and dining content weekly, including recipes, photos, blog posts, videos and restaurant reviews. Members decide the “tastiness” of each piece of content by voting and “buzz” the most popular posts to the top of the daily menu of submissions. Foodbuzz currently logs over 13 million monthly page views and over three million monthly unique visitors.

“Our goal is to be the number-one online source of quality food and dining content by promoting the talent, enthusiasm and knowledge of food bloggers around the globe,” said Ben Dehan, founder and CEO of Foodbuzz, Inc.

The Foodbuzz blogger community is growing at a rate of 40 percent per month driven by strong growth in existing partner blogs and the addition of over 100 new blogs per month. “The Foodbuzz.com Web site is like the stock of a great soup. The Web site provides the base or backbone for bloggers to interact as a community, contribute content, and have that content buzzed by their peers,” said Mr. Dehan.

Global Blogging Event
Demonstrating the talent and scope of the Foodbuzz community, 24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs offered online food enthusiasts an international, virtual street festival of food and diversity. The new feature showcased blog posts from 24 Foodbuzz partner bloggers chronicling events occurring around the globe during a 24 hour period and included:

· Mid-Autumn Festival Banquest (New York, NY)
· The "Found on Foodbuzz" 24-Item Tasting Menu (San Francisco, CA)
· Aussie BBQ Bonanza – Celebrating Diversity (Sydney, Australia)
· The Four Corners of Carolina BBQ Road Trip (Charleston, SC)
· Criminal Tastes – An Illegal Supper (Crested Butte, CO)
· From Matambre to Empanadas: An Argentine Dinner (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
· A Sweet Trompe l’oeil (Seattle, WA)

“24 Meals, 24 Hours, 24 Blogs” captures the quality and unique local perspective of our food bloggers and shared it with the world,” said Ryan Stern, Director of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community. “It illustrates exactly what the future of food publishing is all about – real food, experienced by real people, shared real-time.”

About Foodbuzz, Inc.
Based in San Francisco, Foodbuzz, Inc., launched its beta Web site, foodbuzz.com, in 2007. In less than a year, Fooduzz.com and its community of over 1,000 exclusive partner food blogs have grown into an extended online property that reaches more than three million users.

Carmel Apples

This weekend, we went a Halloween party at the neighborhood fun house (you know, the one house everyone gathers at). The hostess asked me to bring carmel apples. No problem right? Wrong.

You see, it is the neighborhood fun house however, the mom is a little...shall I say scattered. In the short time I have known her, I have learned that plans have to be confirmed and reconfirmed and even then, that doesn't mean that it going to happen as we agreed. Many a play date have been rescheduled at the last minute and lately, she just doesn't even show up for them at all. It's becoming very frustrating.

So, as the day of the party approached, I still didn't know what time, how many apples to make or even if the party was still going on. So, I called and left a message. She called me back...the night before the party to confirm it was still going on. She asked if I was still bringing carmel apples and I said that I was prepared to bring a dozen. She said, "Oh no. You have to bring at least 2 dozen." Have to bring?? My annoyance grew.

After a couple minutes of bitching about how completely rude that was, I grudingly went on to make the 2 dozen carmel apples that she requested:

So, because I was doing this grudgingly and because it was last minute, they turned out less than pretty:


So, I designed a plastic wrap smoke screen to hide their ugliness.
Then, I further disguised the ugliness with this basket:

Now, I feel better.
By the way, she wasn't even expecting 24 people at the party!! She was expecting 15 at the most! After all was said and done, I left a dozen there. So, here's my question...would you have been annoyed?
Carmel Apples:
Ingredients:
12 apples
12 sticks
2 bags of carmels (approximately 40 pieces)
1 small jar of peanuts, chopped

Directions:
1. Unwrap all of the carmels and melt them over low heat.

2. Twist stems off of the apples. Insert sticks into the apples at the stem.

3. Dip apples into carmel and then the peanuts. Place the apples on waxed paper to set.

Makes 12 apples

Friday's Foto Fun with Superheroes

Preparation for eye surgery. Super Girl with super vision.

Welcome to the Jungle

That Guns and Roses song is song by my husband every year. It is a reaction to me bringing in my plants the night of the first frost. And this is why:

Christmas Card

So, did I grown my own Christmas Card?

Reese's Peanutbutter Cereal Cupcakes

I competed in the Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee bake-off. The last time I finished fourth but this time, the theme was Cereal. The idea was to create a cupcake that featured your favorite breakfast cereal. So, I worked the weekend and I think I found it.

May I present:

Reese's Peanutbutter Cereal Cupcakes

These chocolate cereal bowls are peanutbutter cupcakes filled with white chocolate "milk" for the Reese's Peanutbutter Cereal.

Oh, by the way....

I won!!! Check it out:

So, can I Tempt Your Tummy this Tuesday ?

French Onion and Fontina Cheese Soup

A couple weeks ago, I promised recipes from my French Menu . Today is my final installment on that promise in publishing my side dishes.
Here they are:

French Onion & Fontina Cheese Soup with Susie’s Homemade Ciabatta Bread
Ingredients
3 tbl olive oil
2 large Vidalia onions
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 pepper
3 to 4 sprigs fresh thyme
4 cups beef broth
4 slices Susie's Homemade Ciabatta Bread Croutons (see recipe below)
4 slices Fontina Cheese

Directions:
1. In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender (about 10 minutes). Add thyme and broth. Simmer, uncovered for 15 minutes.

2. Divide soup between 4 ovenproof bowls. Add croutons evenly among the bowls. Top each bowl with a slice of cheese.

3. Broil for 4 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and enjoy immediately.


Susie's Homemade Ciabatta Bread
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cup water
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbl olive oil
3-1/4 cups flour and more for board dusting
1-1/2 tsp yeast

Directions
1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order that they are listed here. (it is really important to keep the yeast away from the wet ingredients until you are ready to mix). Select Dough cycle and Start.

2. The dough will be really, really sticky. Don't be tempted to add more flour because the flour on the board is enough. Divide the dough into two pieces and form them into 3x14 inch ovals. Place the loaves on baking sheets, dimple surface and lightly flour. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Dimple the dough for a second time and bake for 30 minutes.


Leafy Greens with Apples and Dijon Mustard Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
4 bowls of your choice of leafy greens
1 red apple, thinly sliced
1 tbl shallot, finely chopped
1 tbl apple cider vineagar
1 tbl Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tbl olive oil
Fontina cheese, thinly sliced for garnish
Walnuts for garnish

Directions:
1. Bowl up the leafy greens. Top with apples.

2. In a small bowl, add shallot, vineager, mustard, salt and pepper. Whisk briskly while slowly streaming in olive oil.

3. Dress salads with the dressing. Garnish with Fontina cheese and walnuts and serve.

Serves 4

Getting to Know Me

I got tagged today by Frugal Finds and Mommy's Perfect Project .

Now, I get to tell 7 random or weird things about me. So, here we go......

1. I want 80's fashion to come back especially, the big hair. I looked really good in big hair:-)

2. I am a NASCAR fan.

3. I have never lived in any other state but Wisconsin.

4. I have one older brother.

5. I sleep on my stomach.

6. I love bubble baths.

7. Weird...birth control pills didn't work for me either 1 surprise and 1 planned (on our honeymoon!!).

Now I tag......

Just Add Laughter

Outnumbered 2 to 1

Heaven's Gift

A Constructed Life

Barrick Times

Controlling My Chaos

Miss Hollywood's World

Grandma’s Homemade Pecan-Filled Butterhorns with Sugar Glaze

My faithful readers remember that I had a dinner party with a French Menu this weekend. As part of this menu, I served my Grandma's Butterhorns for dessert. This was in honor of my uncle and he was touched by the gesture and he even said that they were pretty close to his mother's. So, without further ado, may I present:

Grandma’s Homemade Pecan-Filled Butterhorns with Sugar Glaze

Ingredients:
Dough:
4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cake fresh yeast
1-1/4 cups butter
3 egg yolks
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
Powdered sugar for dusting the board

Filling:
3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-3/4 cup pecans, finely chopped

Glaze:
1 tbsp milk
2 cups powdered sugar
pink food coloring

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut in butter until it looks like cornmeal. In a small bowl, mix egg yolks, sour cream and vanilla. Add to flour mixture. Shape into 5 balls and chill at least an hour but overnight is better. Do Not Freeze This Dough!!

2. For the filling, beat egg whites in a small bowl. Gradually add sugar while constantly beating. Fold in pecans and vanilla.

3. Rollout each ball in powdered sugar. Cut into wedges (about 12 from each ball). Place 1 teaspoon of the filling on each wedge. Roll from the widest end. Bend each roll in the center to form a horn.

4. Bake 15 mintues in a 375 degree oven. Drizzle with glaze while warm.

Makes 5 dozen