BOO! {did i scare ya'?}

Happy Halloween, everyone.
♦ ♦ ♦

Friday night we did our annual pumpkin carving. Personally, I could take or leave it, but Carrie insists that we still carve Jack-o-lanterns every year. Jack-o-lanterns are typically put on your front door step to invite trick-or-treaters up to your door, but over the past several years the number of children trick-or-treating for candy has dwindled. I think we had 12 kids at our door last year, and several of them were teen aged boys taller than me and with deeper voices than mine! {This annoys me!}

.

I'm still nursing my shoulder {I have a tear in my right rotator cuff that I'm trying to re-hab in hopes of avoiding surgery} so I wasn't able to do a whole lot with carving my pumpkin this year. Carrie cut the top out for me and I made it as far as cutting the mouth before drawing the rest of my Jack-o-lantern face onto the pumpkin and having Doug cut it out for me.

.

Carrie teases me about the fact that my pumpkin face looks the same every year. She even noticed that the pumpkin face I cut from fabric for my nephew's treat bag earlier this month looked just like my annual Halloween pumpkin. {So?} Carrie's pumpkin looks different every year. This year she went with the vampire theme:
Carrie and I always lean toward the whimsical side of Jack-o-lantern faces, but Doug's is always scary. Boys!

♦ ♦ ♦

{This is not my photo and I have no idea who to give credit to.
If it's yours, or you know whose it is please let me know
and I will post proper credit!}

.

PS: Happy birthday wishes go out to my friends ~ Connie, who lives in Hawaii, and Amy down in Australia. Here's wishing each of you a fabulous day!!! ♥ ♥

Ta-da!!! Challenge complete.

Recently my friend Amy created and posted this PhotoShop template {after being challenged by Sharon to convert a paper page into digital} and challenged her blog friends to create and post their own version.

This was such a fun project, and I'm proud to say that I put it together with a fair amount of ease. My PhotoShop skills {while still at a very beggining stage} are coming along, and I can see that with a bit of practice {time and shoulder permitting} I could be seriously addicted to creating layouts in PhotoShop.

♥ ♥ ♥

PS: I'll admit, it took me longer to upload this "photo" than it did to create the layout! I finally realized that Blogger wouldn't upload it because I hadn't saved it as a .JPG file. Oops. Sorry, Mr. Blogger, for saying naughty things to you...it was my fault, not yours.

And PPS: Thank you, Amy, for being so generous and sharing your template! I loved playing with it and plan to use it to create a monthly page of happenings in my life. :o) xo

My Halloween Costume? Snap!

I can't remember the last time I actually wore a costume for Halloween. Ok, maybe a few years ago when I wore the witch costume that I've had for ages to my friend Vee's party. But that's kind of a lame costume. {It's just a black dress and a black hat.}

Other than that, the extent of a Halloween costume for me is usually a pair of orange and black socks and maybe a spider pin on my shoulder.

This year my co-workers at the chiropractor's office where I work decided that we'd dress in costume. And we decided to be Snap, Crackle and Pop ~ characters that represent the popular breakfast cereal Rice Krispies. We decided that Dr. Dave would be Pop {get it, he's a chiropractor?}, our massage therapist was Crackle, and yours truly was Snap. :o}

We pieced our costumes together with what we had on hand, as well as what we could gather up from our local thrift store. I made the hats, and I embellished Dr. Dave's jacket. We'll submit our photo to our corporate office and will know next week if we win the costume contest.

Because Halloween falls on the weekend this year, most businesses that dress in costume did so today. It makes for an interesting ride to work when the person in the car next to you is dressed as a clown or a zombie. Or Snap. :o}

The chef hat that I made for my costume was done using a tutorial I found here. Check it out ~ it's a cute little hat that would be adorable paired with a matching apron.

Have a safe and happy Halloween weekend everyone!
♥

Eek! A {bead} spider!!!

Carrie found this really cool tutorial for a spider made of
beads and we thought it would be the perfect project
for our Monday night craft.
♥

I have a decent amount of beading supplies left over from my beading phase {about 5 to 10 years ago I was crazy into jewelry making until I got totally burned out...} so I brought the spider supplies and she made a yummy corn chowder for dinner. It was a great trade!!!

It's been a while since I've worked with beads and wire. Turns out that my eyesight has faded quite a bit since the last time I tried stringing tiny little seed beads onto wire. I was frustrated and had to start over early in the game. :o\

Carrie found great satisfaction having her spider form done and two legs of beads strung before I even had my form together. She finally got tired of hearing me complain about not being able to see and brought out an extra lamp for me.

That's what I needed!

Each of us ended up making two of these little gems. So much for my high hopes of making six or seven of them to give as little tokens to some of my local friends. They weren't really difficult to make, just very tedious work with such small beads.

♦ ♥ ♦

In my beading supplies I found an old magazine article I'd clipped out that showed how to make "bead buddies" ~ funny little people made with wire and random beads. When I showed it to Carrie and suggested that if we had time we could make some of those too, she rolled her eyes and said, "Mother. I'm not five." I answered, "You'll always be five in my mind and in my heart!"

We talked about how we used to craft together when she was little, always choosing projects that could be completed in one sitting. And we talked about how we'd gotten away from that once she got older, choosing projects that were more involved and usually ended up never being completed. I love that we have our Monday nights to craft together and that we are back to selecting projects to be done in one evening's time. And we agreed last night that I'll continue to provide the crafting supplies, and she'll provide dinner on Monday nights. Works for me!

:o} xo

First Annual Chili Cook-off

Doug and I hosted our first annual chili cook-off this past weekend.
The weather was perfect, the company was awesome,
and the chili was yummy!
♥

We spent Saturday prepping our backyard for that night's event. This always includes washing off the extra chairs we have, cleaning up the red tubs that will hold ice and beverages, and moving tables around to my satisfaction ~ Doug is a patient and accommodating husband. :o)
I had these jars and had the idea to make them into candle holders for the tables. I figured if it was a little breezy the candles would be deep enough that the wind wouldn't blow out the flame. I was going to use candy corn, but Carrie had the idea to use beans instead. LOVED the idea! When she got to the party that night and saw the little phrase I'd put on the outside of the jars she was not impressed. "Oh. My. Gosh. Mother. You didn't." Hehe. Yeah. I did.

A friend brought a few ornamental chili plants over early in the day and I tied them up with a piece of burlap to use as centerpieces.

The beverage table. I have an eclectic collection of wine glasses that I've picked up at my local thrift store. I like it that way.

{The lull before the action}

There ended up being 21 of us, and only four pots of chili ~ some of them small pots of chili at that. It was the first time {and it will be the last!} that I felt like my guests may not have had enough to eat. I hadn't made chili myself because I figured there would be a lot of it. Also, I didn't want to be in competition with my guests. {Not that I'm assuming that I would have won, I'm just still not over the embarrassment of having won the black-jack tournament at Doug's 50th birthday party last year. Not cool as the hostess, I thought.} I did provide pans of homemade cornbread, and all the fixings to eat with chili - cheese, onions, sour cream, crackers, and tortilla chips.

.

Anyway! The winning chili was really good and the chef reveled after the voting that he had used chorizo and chocolate in the mix. Interesting.

.

And a proud mom moment I want to share: Carrie made a really delicious white chili with chicken and white kidney beans. When she dished it up she placed a couple of tortilla chips on top in each of the cups. I had the honor of serving it to our guests and the joy of hearing, "Oh what nice presentation." :o) I wanted to say, "MY KID MADE THAT!" but had to keep my mouth shut. {Yes, I voted for her chili!}

.

So, this was our first experience with hosting a chili cook-off and we did have a great time, but there are things we will do differently next year for sure. For sure I'll make a big batch of chili as a back up ~ or we'll order a couple of pizzas if we have to!

>

All in all a great night with some of the wonderful
people we have the honor to call friends and family.
♥

Let's Eat Blog Hop ~ Chicken and Dumplings

Welcome to my corner of the "Let's Eat Blog Hop"
organized by my dear friend, Amy, in the land down under.

If you found me by way of Rhona's blog, welcome!!!
And if you're just starting with my blog, be sure to check out
the link at the end of my post to see what Karen is cooking up.
From there you can continue traveling around our planet to see
what the rest of my blog friends are serving.

♥
My entry is coming to you from Chandler, Arizona
and I'm featuring one of my family's favorites:

Chicken and Dumplings

It's a very basic chicken soup with fluffy biscuits on top and is also known as the meal that is a sure fire way to get our daughter, Carrie to come for dinner! It works every time.

The ingredients are simple. For the soup portion of this dish I use carrots, celery, onion, chicken breast, chicken broth, Italian seasonings {combination of oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme, rosemary and sage}, salt, and pepper. For the dumplings I use a Bisquick baking mix and make the dumplings as listed on the side of the box. You can also use a basic dumpling recipe found here. Oh, and a little olive oil for sauteing the veggies, and some milk for mixing the dumplings.

Here's how I do it: I prepare this in a certain order... Heat the olive oil in a large pot while you chop one medium sized onion. Saute the onion in the olive oil while you chop the celery (I used 5 stalks of celery, plus the smaller inside stalks with leaves). Add the celery to the pot and saute while you chop the carrots...then add the carrots to the pot. I cover the pot and let this simmer while I cut the chicken breast pieces into bite-sized pieces. I use about a pound and a half of chicken for this recipe. When I'm ready to add the chicken, I scoot the veggies to one side...

Ick. Raw chicken really grosses me out.

Cover the pan and let this simmer for a few minutes, stir, put the cover back on and continue cooking until all of the chicken pieces are white - about 5-10 minutes. It should look like this:
Now add 8 cups of chicken broth - or if you're me, you do 8 cups of water and 6 chicken bouillon cubes. Also add a generous sprinkling of Italian seasoning at this point, and you can add some salt and pepper if you like. Bring to a boil then cover and reduce the heat. Simmer until close to the time you are going to eat. This varies for me. I've done as little as 30 minutes on nights that we're in a hurry, or an hour and a half on this occasion because I had a little extra time.

Oh, hi. Cheers!
♥

Ok, now it's time for the dumplings. If you are using Bisquick or a similar baking mix, I use three cups of Bisquick and one cup of milk. {Or if you don't have access to a baking mix like this, use this recipe instead.} Mix it together and drop it by big spoonfuls on top of the soup. Please note: you want your soup to be hot enough that there's a slow boil - not rolling bubbles if that makes sense. If your soup is boiling too aggressively, it will pull the dumplings down and they won't cook up nice and fluffy.

Yum. My mouth is watering.

Now cover the pan and leave it covered for 10 minutes.

Then, uncover the pan and continue to cook for another 10 minutes. Sprinkle some black pepper on top and you're ready to serve.

~clink~
To us!

This girl loves chicken and dumplings.

Now, it's a well known and understood fact that Doug is the king of our household. It's also a well known and understood fact the Carrie always gets dibs on chicken and dumpling leftovers.

♥ ♥ ♥

So there you have it. I hope you'll give it a try!
And now, head on over to Karen's blog where she's cooking
up something yummy for our"Let's Eat" blog hop!

♥ Oh, and if you use the dumpling recipe from the link above, you
may need to convert the measurements by using this site here.

Bon appetit!

Some Things About Candy Corn

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought
I'd share a few things about candy corn.

♥

* There's just something about candy corn that screams

H A L L O W E E N ! ! !

* It's a sure sign that fall is upon us.
.
* It's a candy treat of solid sugar that {honestly?} isn't really all that great tasting - it's the texture I like.
.
* You have to eat it one section at a time: bite off the white tip...then the orange middle...and the yellow base gets eaten last. It's just the way it's done.
.
* Until this year I thought candy corn was enjoyed around the planet. Come to find out, some of my international friends have never tried it. {I should have done a blog giveaway for candy corn...next year!}

* I used it as a decoration last weekend when my SIL's came over. The photo above is of our table centerpiece and we picked at the candy corn throughout the night. The next morning there was one lone "kernel" by the spider. :o)

I did a little internet search and found these facts {the source}:

* October 30th is National Candy Corn Day
* One serving of candy corn contains only about 140 calories
* Candy corn has 3.57 calories per kernel
* More than 35 million pounds of candy corn will be produced this year. That equates to nearly 9 billion pieces -- enough to circle the moon nearly four times if laid end-to-end.
* Halloween accounts for 75% of the annual candy corn production
* A cup of candy corn has fewer calories than a cup of raisins. {who knew?}
* Candy Corn was invented by George Renninger and produced by the Wunderlee Candy Company in the 1880's. In 1900, the Goelitz Candy Company, now Jelly Belly Candy Company, started mass producing the candy, but, due to the lack of machinery, it was only made available seasonally from March to November. Its recipe has remained unchanged.

♥ ♦ ♥

There you have it. Don't you feel
really smart about candy corn now?
;o)

♦ ♥ ♦

PS: I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend. Doug and I are hosting a "chili cook-off" tonight at our house. We're expecting 25 guests and about 9 different kinds of chili. We'll do a taste test and vote for the winner. Our weather is beautiful so our back patio will be buzzing with activity, fun, libations, food, friends/family, laughter... {mmm...probably should have invited all the neighbors...}

Carrie's Pumpkin Patch

:o)
Carrie posted pictures of the pumpkins she made.
You can see them on her blog.
♥

My pumpkin patch

Monday night football consumes our house, per Doug. Monday night football also cuts into my desire to watch Dancing with the Stars {unless I watch it back in our bedroom which means I fall asleep half way through and miss my favorite dancers...never fails!}. So, the past few weeks I've headed over to Carrie's house on Monday nights. We have take-out Chinese food and watch DWTS together while Doug is at home doing his guy-thing.

Last night we decided to craft together while our show was on and it was so much fun, although in the process we forgot to really watch the dancers. We became so wrapped up on making these little pumpkins that DWTS was nothing more than background noise.

Ugh! Gotta' watch out for wild animals
during a photo shoot in my craft room!

Carrie found the tutorial for these cute little guys here. I changed it up a little and used bows on top instead of stems.

~sigh~
Don't you just love a good pumpkin?
♥