Countdown to Halloween...

Since I'm SO excited about fall and HALLOWEEN, I'm planning to blog of ideas, decorating projects, recipes, etc. for Fall or Halloween. Hope this gives you some ideas! I've been doing a Halloween party at my Mom's every year for a long time. But these pictures are of our first Halloween party at our house. It was in our basement and all the kids (and some grown ups) dressed up. I don't remember a whole lot about it, but I do remember my little brother was too scared of all the costumes, so he had to stay upstairs and I remember bobbing for apples. This was around 1979....looks like we drew some pictures on construction paper to decorate the walls.

Here's an easy fall recipe that I made last year. I just melted Kraft caramels to dip some granny smith apples in with a bamboo skewer as a handle. You could get creative with the handle--I've seen them done with sticks and that was really cute. You could add nuts, drizzle chocolate over them, add sprinkles, or what about some of those candy eyes? I like my caramel apples pretty plain though, it's one of my favorite fall treats and I just can't let myself pay $3 or $4 at the fair for one apple!!

31 Days of Halloween

Well, I had this bright idea of having my own "31 Days of Halloween" and my husband didn't even disagree with it! A different Halloween show/movie every night. I want to do some Halloween/fall things to, but not necessarily every night. So on the first night, we had homemade vegetable soup in the crock pot and caramel apples. I made hot chocolate to drink while we watched Hocus Pocus....my husband fell asleep before the movie was halfway over! The second night we watched The 'Burbs and we both fell asleep...it took us 4 nights to get that movie watched! I watched Monster House with my nephew on the way to a reunion on Saturday. Sunday I spent the day taking pics and visiting with my sister and my new niece. I have a new movie coming tonight and thinking I'll do a Pumpkin Pie. Here are a few of my favorite Halloween movies. I subscribed to Netflix and I have way more than 31 on the list:

1. The Great Pumpkin/Charlie Brown

2. Monster House

3. Hocus Pocus

4. Frankenweenie (the old one--can't wait to see the new one!)

5. Nightmare before Christmas

6. Young Frankenstein

7. Ghostbusters

8. Edward Scissorhands

9. Beetlejuice

I will watch some scary ones, but I really prefer the fun ones, especially Tim Burton stuff!

Some fun ideas for Halloween/fall:

*Hayride

*Haunted House

*Caramel Apples

*Pick out/plan Halloween Costumes

*Sunday Drive to look at and/or photograph fall foliage

*Visit a Pumpkin Patch

*Bake a Pumpkin Pie

*Roast Hot dogs

*Roast Marshmallows & make smores

*Make Popcorn balls

*Make popcorn & watch an old scary movie (The Blob, anyone?)

*Tell Scary stories around a bonfire

*Decorate your porch or yard for Fall or Halloween

*Visit a store and try on masks

*Make your favorite soup in the crock pot (ours is potato soup) when it starts to get cool

*Paint each other's faces

*Melt caramel in crock pot and have apples ready to dip with extras to dip them in after the carmel (mini chocolate chips, nuts, crushed candy corn, pistachios would be soooo good)

Brrrr....its gettin' cold!!

Hey, Strangers! I've been pretty busy--cooking, canning, going to the beach working....etc, etc. etc. I was talking to my friend,

Helena

this morning about how long its been since I blogged. Shame on ME!

For some reason, when the weather starts to cool off, I love to cook and do stuff around the house. The other night I made one of my favorite cold weather recipes, White Chicken Chili. I toasted some sourdough bread and poured the chili over it and it was SO good! I promised Helena I'd post the recipe....

White Chicken Chili

4 T. olive oil, divided

3 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into ½" pieces

1 T. ground chipotle chile pepper (I couldn't find this--left it out and it was fine)

2½ t. ground cumin

1½ t. salt

1 t. ground coriander

1/4 t. ground red pepper

1½ c. chopped yellow onion

3/4 c. chopped pablano pepper

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded & minced

2 T. minced garlic

4 bay leaves

1 quart chicken broth

2 (4 oz.) cans diced green chiles

2 (16 oz) cans canellini beans

2 (16 oz) cans navy beans

4 c. grated monterey jack

1 c. sour cream

Heat 2 T. olive oil over med-high heat. Add chicken, chili pepper, cumin, salt, coriander, ground red pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, 8-10 minutes or until browned. Remove to bowl. In same pan, heat remaining olive oil. Add onion, pablano, jalapeno, garlic & bay leaves. Cook 4-5 minutes, until tender. Add reserved chicken, broth, green chiles. Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add beans. Cook 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove & discard bay leaves. Add grated cheese and sour cream, stirring until cheese is melted.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Pumpkin Patch with 2 of my sisters, brother-in-law & nephew. We had a good time even though we missed the ones that didn't get to go! My pumpkin is still sitting out there waiting to be carved. Maybe I'll carve it this weekend! I finally ordered Hocus Pocus so I can watch it before Halloween. I planned on dressing up as one of the Sanderson sisters for our party this year, but we decided not to have one this year. I guess I have a head start on next year's costume!