Jack-be-Little

 

I love these little pumpkins! I always thought they were just for decorating, then one year I discovered you could eat them too. HOW FUN!

 

I just cut the tops off and clean out the seeds, there aren't many. (For a bonus, toss them in the compost and you might get a surprise next year. I usually get a few vines growing in my compost every year.)

 

Add some butter, a shake or two of salt, brown sugar, nuts and dried berries. My favorite to use are walnuts and cranberries. Put the top back on and bake about 45 minutes. They are the perfect single serve size. If you want to get really crazy, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream too!

 

Watch for these on sale after Halloween too...they will be really cheap and last a while.

 

Halloween Party Ideas

 

Here are some pics from our party last year.....First are some monster cake balls. I just made some simple cake balls (bake cake, crumble, mix with icing, roll into balls), them iced them with bright colored icing. My favorites were the neon green ones! I used candy eyes I dound in the baking department and put the in little mini cupcake liners.

 

This platter has a mixture of bones and mummy pretzels. For the bones, I put a mini marshmallow on each end of a pretzel stick and dipped them in melted white chocolate. For the pretzel mummies, I drizzled melted white chocolate onto pretzels and added candy eyes before the chocolate cooled. The witch hand is something I found at Cracker Barrel on clearance one year!

 

 Closeup of our table--I drug out all my pumpkins, Orange & black Halloween serving dishes, etc. The skeleton head is one of my favorites, I use it to serve dip! I decorated with those black & orange wrapped peanut butter taffy candies. I put them in small ice cream dishes.

 

 

 This shelf held all our "fear factor" specimens. Everyone got to check everything out ahead of time and think about what they wanted to try.

 

These pics are making me excited about this year's party! Only a couple of weeks away, on October 19!!

 

 

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)

A Little Help from my Friends...

I had a little help from my friend, Strawberry, when I was painting my Halloween chair. Pretty cute, huh? I just painted around him as long as I could. He was too cute, I just hated to disturb him! 

Spoiled Rotten

This is Hadley, getting a good head scratching from my husband. She is so spoiled! She loves to be carried around, follows me around while I do laundry, clean or whatever I'm doing around the house. And she's always so happy when I get up in the mornings, greets me with her sweet little meow as soon as I see her. Now I'm glad the guy didn't want to take her back. He didn't know what he was missing! :) Pumpkin agrees, I'm sure....he loves having her around.

Check out my new Halloween chair....I'll be taking it the show in Dalton, GA but will have it for sale on my site until then. It will cost extra for shipping, or if you are local, I can deliver it or arrange to meet you. If you are near Dalton, you could pick it up at the show, which is the first Friday in October. I'll post more info soon. Chair is listed at www.fullmoonfolkart.com and www.thecatspyjamas.com

Fall is in the Air!

I love the cooler weather...so do the kitties. This is Luke--he's getting fattened up for the winter, I guess. LOL! Its been several months since he was neutered and he has been growing (wider) ever since. But doesn't he look sweet and cuddly this way? I've got my pumpkin ready for the porch and a few other decorations to put out pretty soon. I try to wait until October, but sometimes I just can't wait that long!! I listed some new Halloween paintings on my site this week. Here's one of my favorites....a spooky cemetary scene. If you want to buy, click here to find it on my site. Would love to hear your thoughts on my new Halloween art too!

Art Sunday

Had a great time at Art Sunday yesterday! Bruce at Talk of the Town provided the tent for artists that display at his shop, so that was REALLY nice! All I had to do was set up my tables and put out my stuff. It was a good show with lots of people. Its just down the road from my house so I saw lots of people I knew. I'll look forward to doing the show again next year! Below are more pics from the show....enjoy! I'm trying to get all my new Halloween stuff listed on my sites, but if you see something you've just gotta have and can't find it on my site, email me and I'll get to it as soon as possible. Have a great day!!

 
 
 
 
 
 

Carving Jack-o-Lanterns

We finally carved our jack-o-lanterns last night! Mine is the classic looking one on the left and my husband's is the one on the right with one eye! While we were carving, I roasted the seeds and they were yummy! I had 1½ c. of seeds, so you can adjust your recipe accordingly. Be sure to wash the seeds, remove any stringy pulp and pat dry. Mix seeds with 1/4 c. melted butter, ½ t. garlic salt, ½ t. onion salt, a dash of paprika and a dash of chili powder. Mix well, spread in a large casserole dish or cookie sheet and bake at 300 for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until roasted. We could barely wait for them to cool!

I have some new patterns, new doll hair, glitter, etc. on my supply site! Click here to see my newest stuff. I have Pee Wee the cat (pictured)...he's so funny, don't you think? I have Pineapple Annie & Sissy the cat--they were recently featured in Create & Decorate magazine. Then there's Snowflake the Snowgirl. I don't have any finished stuff listed lately, but I'm working on a lot of paperclay things now. I like to let them dry a long time, to be sure they won't crack, so it will be a while before they're done. I'm planning to go to a show in May, so they are for that show. Trying to get started early this time. :)

I haven't really started much Christmas stuff--anyone else working on anything Christmas-ey or for the holidays? I have all this cool new glitter that I'm dying to try on some Christmas projects. I even have a new Christmas CD to listen to while I'm working on them. But I just can't make myself listen to that CD until after Halloween. ;) Sometimes I do listen to Christmas music during the year to inspire me, but I just can't do it too close to Halloween. Its my favorite holiday so I want to enjoy it all I can! But I'd love to hear what y'all all have planned for the holidays. What about your menus? Planning those yet? You know I always love a new good recipe if any of you want to share! (Hint!)

 

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!