Thanksgiving Squash Recipe

Here is one of my favorite throw together recipes for your Thanksgiving meal (or just to eat on a cold fall day!!)  It uses my harvest bounty:

 

Buttercup Squash

 

Apples off the neighbors' tree

 

 

First peel the squash and chop into random smaller pieces.  Then do the same to the apples. 

 

 

Sometimes I do not peel the apples.  However, at the end, if you want smooth consistency, you will want to peel them. 

 

**Now, I can't stand to waste all those apple peels, so here is a recipe to use them for jelly:  http://www.food.com/recipe/apple-core-and-peeling-jelly-99636?soc=pinterest -- A few notes:  Because it is peels, yes they get soft, but are still thick peels, so I did throw mine in the blender, then tied up the cheesecloth to let the juice drip out.  And instead of adding water to make 7 cups at the end, just poured water thru the cheesecloth to try and take as much apple with me as possible.  Again, I hate to waste any part of those delicious apples!!  The jelly ended up super yummy ~ Sunday School teacher gifts?***

 

So, anyway, butter (real butter) up the bottom of the casserole dish.  Add squash and apples. (**I have done this recipe with canned peaches or apricots, fresh peaches, and raisins.  I like them all.***)  Add a dash or so of cinnamon, a tablespoon or so of butter, and a tablespoon or so of brown sugar.  These are all to taste.  If you want a hint of those flavors, try less; if you want them more thick and syrupy, go for more!!  Pop on the cover, put in the oven at 350, bake for one hour (or until soft enough to mash.)

 

 

 

What you end up getting at the end is pictured on the left - the right side is all mashed up. 

 

Then I add the cranberries and walnuts at the end, either I put the dish back into the oven on broil and brown/warm those up a bit, or I have also put the mashed squapples into a pretty serving dish and sprinkle those on top.  **OR, I have thought of this recently, one could also chop the bits up finer at the beginning, not mash them, just stir the craisins and nuts in and serve a more chunky dish.  I think I would pull the casserole out at like 35 minutes a check.  I don't think I would want them as soft as I usually bake to mash them.**

So that's my twist on the good ol' Thanksgiving squash side that I lovity love love!  Hope you and your family do as well!!



Recipe:

• 1 Buttercup Squash, peeled and diced to desired thickness
• 2-4 Medium Apples, peeled (or not) and diced to desired thickness.
• Apples can be substituted for fresh or canned peaches, apricots, or raisins.
• 1 Tablespoon (or so) of butter, plus some to butter the dish
• 1 Tablespoon (or so) brown sugar
• 1 dash (or so) cinnamon
• Craisins/Roasted Walnuts (Pecans or an oatmeal based streusel can also be used.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until desired tenderness.  Mash (or not) and add desired topping. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Homemade Halloween Warts DIY

As promised, here is the tutorial on how to make homemade Warts for your Halloween Witch Costume.  It is actually super easy!  And I search Pinterest and Google for some diy instructions and this video is where I found the answer.  So while I blog about my creation, I was mostly inspired (taught) by this special person on YouTube:

 

Fake Wart make up tutorial  -- I literally Lol'ed watching this girl!

 

Here is is, step by step,  via pictures.  You will need

1. Hot glue gun
2. Dark hair (I cut it off my witch hair wig)
3. Make up base or green paint (whatever matches your costume skin tone)

 

 

Make the warts on wax paper, add the hair sticking straight up.  Let dry.

 

Color the wart the desired color and then apply with the foundation or green paint you are using that day, just a dab on the bottom.  I also tried Spirit Gum, the glue used in theater productions, etc, but didn't find it to be that much more effective than just a dab of make-up.  Also, could use double sided tape. 

 

I found with the green (cheap) face paint I purchased, it worked better to just apply foundation then brush with some green eye shadow I had on hand.

 

Good luck fellow witches!!!  And thanks to the YouTube girl for her fabulous tutorial!

Amazing Apple Cake!!!

Fall is my favorite time of year.  And this year in ND, we actually had a long fall, an actual season.  It seems like most years our seasons are more like winter, winter, winter, and summer.  Not this year.  This year has been wonderful.

I feel like fall is the most communal time of year.  Winter, we all huddle in and hibernate.  The only run in with the neighbors is when the guy with the bobcat clears my driveway for me.  Spring, yes we start to move around outside, but it is wet and muddy and there is work to do!  Summer, most of my neighbors are out at the lake with their campers.  I can jump on the trampoline and see into their backyards, but that's hardly relationship building.  Then there is fall....

Fall is when their leaves blow into my yard and I rake them into the giant spider bag to decorate my front yard.  Fall is when I give away my tomatoes in exchange for your cucumbers.  And fall is when my kid climbs the fence to help you pick your apples.  Fall is when it is appropriate to knock on your neighbors door and have a two minute conversation, face to face, and from then I can wave at you because we've met.  I am a huge pro-door-to-door trick or treating for that reason: I get to meet my neighbors!

Back to Apple Cake -- Poor Pinteresters, having to read my rambling before I get to the recipe!!  It has a point, my kid who climbs the fence to help... our neighbor over our south fence blesses us with apples every year and this fall they have had an abundant harvest!  I have made every apple crisp I can find, dehydrated, froze, and dumpled apples for over a month now.  And I still have three more apple boxes full! 

Here is my creation, a recipe to share with your neighbor:

Layered Apple Cake to Share

• 6-12 apples depending on size and preference

Batter Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• Mix these and set aside
• 1 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup softened butter (go ahead and use butter people!!)
• Cream these with mixer - then add:
• 4 eggs
• 4 tsp vanilla
• 3 cup flour + 3 teaspoons baking powder
• This will be stiff.  Add milk until "thick" pancake batter consistency ~ no more than 1 cup.

• Grease two round cake pans.  (This is what I used.  You can do a 9x13 or muffin pans or loaf pans, etc.) 

• Add enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan.

• Cut up apples as shown here - first peel (I only half peel, keeping some of the skin for the nutritional value). Then core.  Then cut into "c" shape.  Apples from the tree vary is size so much, I use either 6 larger apples or 12 smaller apples.  I really like the apples, though.  If you are more into cake than apples, you know, you can adjust.   

 

 

1. Add two layers of apples.  I took a picture of layer one -shown here:

 

 

 

• After you have the double layer of apples to both cakes, pat the apples into the batter.

 

• Then sprinkle your brown sugar and cinnamon on top of apples. 

 

 

 

 

 

Then repeat the layers!

 

• Use a spoon to plop the rest of the batter on top of the sugar/cinnamon layer.  Spread with spatula.  It will get mixed with sugar/cinnamon, but that's just fine!
• Add one-two layers of apples.  Pat them down!
• Top with cinnamon and sugar!

 

 

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, or until the toothpick comes out clean.   While still warm, top with frosting:

 

• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 3-4 tablespoons softened cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup (to start, may add more depending on consistency) of milk, I use skim because that's what I have on hand.  Whole or Half and Half would be a lot better (tasting.)

Now, the best part of this cake is that you can SHARE!!  Take that other cake pan to a neighbor this fall, just because!!

 

Or.... you can also freeze the unfrosted cake for 1-2 months, take out and frost at a later date. 

 

Or.... I suppose if you doubled the frosting, you could make a giant layer cake out of the two round pans.  That'd be a super impressive potluck dessert!

 

Hope you enjoy!  I should add, this cake also makes your house smell delicious while baking! 

 

Of course the family didn't wait for me to take a decent blog picture before cutting into it!!  I think that's probably a good sign!

 

 





Halloween Pinterest FAIL

Less like a feminine book, more like a cast!

 

 

 





So, my daughter wants to be a witch for Halloween!  Also, I should note, that while I had access to Pinterest last Halloween, October was a big month for us - we were all involved in a wedding and my littlest had surgery, so making Halloween Pin-fabulous was not my priority.  This year, I have made up for that!
Back to my little witchy.   Upon the first dress rehearsal, she puts on her black dress shoes.  Mom has an issue with this.  Yes, they match and look great.  But honey, when you are Trick or Treating Hardcore, like we do, your feet are going to get really sore in those shoes.  Mom turns to Pinterst:

http://sugarnspicecreations.blogspot.ca/2010/10/costume-party-musketeers-part-6.html

And that is what I found.  Adorable right? 

Notice she starts with a church shoe.  This is already my issue.  So we start with a tennis shoe one size too big, so it can be slipped on:



 

Add the socks we are donating to the cause:

 

 

 

So far so good.  Now, we have so ducktape around that she can choose from.  Her costume has mostly black with hints of bright pink, but her witch hat has green hair.  So she picks the zebra pink/black tape.  I however have to add my personal touch and make green bottoms, for that little extra flair.  I also feel like we should make the toe pointy.  This was later veto'd strongly by my little witchy, who felt the point made her boot too "elfish."

 

So here we are mid project, and lo and behold, our ducktape runs out.  Funny stuff, we can't just stop mid-project - can't get them off at this point and too early to cut them off.  Yep, you guessed it, she has to go to Wal-mart with those on her feet!!!

 

 

 

So we back, we get them taped up, she insists on doing the cutting off. 

 

 

 

 

Then I finish them up (and cut off the point.)  And here is our pin-fabulous witch boot.

 

 

 

She hates them.  Because (I can't blame her here) they look like a cast or a fancied up boot you have to wear when you break your toe.  Way too bulky!  And the tongue of the shoe wants to curl in as she slips them on and there isn't enough room to stick your finger in there and fish it out. 

 

The boot is a fail. 

 

What did I learn?  Probably that the lady who made the pin first was on to something, using a dainty shoe! 

 

Luckily for us, when we were at Walmart we found a pair of slip on shoes, not the church kind, but canvas fake Toms kind, that were like lace patterned and match her costume perfectly.  She will probably be fine to run from house to house in those.  Not as glam, but now that I have ordered her a prosthetic nose, no one will notice her shoes anyway!

 

So all's well that ends well.  Happy Halloween Y'all!









Fun Halloween Treats that aren't Candy!

So this year for Halloween, I didn't want to send candy to school with my kids for them to give out in calss.  I can't help but feel guilt already for the amount of candy my own kids are going to bring home.  But there really is no way around it - if you are going to participate in Halloween, you are going to have to live with the consequences.  Which happens to be kids bringing home their body weight worth of sugar. 

So I saw on Pinterst dressed up juice boxes.  Thought I'd go that route.  http://www.karaspartyideas.com/2011/11/colorful-monster-bash-party.html  This is the link to the site I found pinned, the juice boxes are towards the bottom of the page. 

But then I found these taller numbers that I loved (they were cheaper.)  Now.  Are they calorie for calorie better than a Butterfinger?  Nope.  But I think the distinction can still be made, they are not candy.

Probably the most important "supply" in this project was time - it took a couple hours.  How do I justify spending a couple hours on this, you may ask?  Well, first of all, creating fills my bucket - happy mom means happy family, right?  And second, we JUST this month got a DVR in our house.  So I had some stuff I had to get watched and deleted.  I can not justify just sitting down and watching a movie, but I can justify watching a movie while making something special for the kids' school. 

Here are my supplies when I first sat down:

 

Everything pictured but the "juice" I had on hand.  Once I got into it, I got out some googly eyes, construction paper, white out, and my bag of  nail polish, too.  Pushed play on the new DVR (how did I live this long recording on a VCR????) and started creating! 

 

Living in a boom town, my kids have 24 kids in a first grade and 28 kids in the fourth grade class.  That's a lot of "juice" to decorate!

 

Ended up with some jack-o-laterns and Frankensteins...

 

 

 

Some monsters and mummies.

 

 

 

Now that I got this all written up, I suppose I should go clean up my mess!!  And pay attention to the rest of the work of the day, you know, dishes, laundry, etc...

 

 

Happy Halloween you all!  Next blog: a Pinterest inspired Halloween FAIL.

Halloween Spiders!!

It was a crisp fall day and I was feeling punk.  Kids were feeling restless, tired of keeping quiet because mom wasn't feeling well.  Managed to put on a hoodie and take them to the park, a park where I could stay in the car and watch them play.  As I sat there, in utter stillness and relative silence (with the windows rolled up), I let my mind just wander.  And behold, giant spiders made from sticks were created in my brain. 

There is a public area that is trees and leaves and trails and we headed there directly from the park, with the goal of finding two sticks each as tall as the youngest!  It didn't take us but 10 minutes to get all we needed and more!  Here's what I did with the kids, making it up as I went along!

Step one:  Cut off all the extra thin branches to make the sticks just long.  Then tape them with black electrical tape, weaving the tape in and out of the intersections to secure the shape.

 

 

Step Two: Get some helpers to spray paint your sticks black. 

 

Now during the next steps the camera batteries died.  And you moms know, if you are on a roll, better to just roll with it than bread the momentum!!

Step Three:  While the legs dry, we cut a black yard bag (Hefty, etc) in half the long way.  Removed the red plastic ribbon from each side.  Then, in the corner where the side of the bag meets the end of bag, we rolled up a wad of garage rags and stuffed them in there.  Then tied off the "head" with a twist tie.  Then, we used random balls from the garage for the "thorax" - I think one of them is an old tether ball - and wrapped the rest of the bag around that, securing with some thicker black wire I had lying around.  Then I cut the excess bag off.  Voila - the body of the spider done.

Step Four:  I used that black electric tape to secure the body to the legs, wrapping through the intersection and around the twist tie between our head and thorax. 

Step Five:  Purchase some "spider web" stuff from Walmart and secure the spiders to the front steps.  One I added wire around the tape to make a ring and hung it on the Xmas wreath spot.  The other one,  I used this old bed frame we usually have in the garden to let the peas climb.  I thought it added to the creep-tastic effect.

 

 

The final effect:

 

At this point, we could have added eyes or glow paint or my son thought a red diamond (or hourglass??  He's the one into critters) would be great.  I'm good the way they are!

 Thanks for viewing!  And may your Halloween be super spooky!