Halloween 2013

Halloween isn't really one of my favorite holidays, but involves two of my favorite things: candy and costumes. I like dressing up more than candy, so when I can, I like to wear a costume on Halloween, just because it's fun. 

This year, Carson had to work, which was a bummer. I worked in the morning and we were allowed to wear costumes (yay!), but I was otherwise free that evening. I've never passed out candy before, so I really wanted to do that and so I invited some friends over to pass out candy and spend time together. These lovely ladies are all members of our community group, and it's always fun getting to see them outside that context. 

The night before Halloween, Carson helped out with my "real" costume. I wore a different one to work the next day because I didn't want to scatter glitter all over the place at work. 

He spent two hours creating the masterpiece you'll see later. 

At work, I was Ms. Frizzle from the kid's show The Magic School Bus. My costume wasn't the BEST representation of that, but people seemed to know who I was. My coworker Rebecca was a cat/fox.

Before my friends came over, I snapped a picture of Carson off to work. He had this blue jumpsuit on hand so we made him into an astronaut. I made the NASA badge out of cardboard and didn't have time to make the other patches before he had to dash off to his job. 

I mixed peanuts and candy corn for one of my favorite fall treats.

And made a toffee caramel dip that was simple and great with apples:
8oz softened cream cheese
3/4 C brown sugar
2 T vanilla
1/4 C Heath toffee bits

Mix all but Heath bits together, forth in ball, top with toffee bits and refrigerate until ready to serve!

And of course there was a huge bowl of candy. 

We had LOTS of trick-or-treaters! I was surprised by how many showed up, since it was actually rainy and windy that night. Trick-or-treating began at 6pm and went until 8, but we ran out of candy and had to close up shop a little early. 

Deanna, the 50's sockhopper, and me. 

 Probably didn't mention this, but Carson's delivering pizzas a few nights a week, so we ordered one and he delivered it to us.

 And here's our little party: Jen is a donut (a terrific last-minute costume, complete with halloween sprinkles), Deanna is a sockhopper (she even had the shoes), Malea is wearing her Guatemalan outfit, and I'm Tinkerbell.

 Our party got a little wild. We played Life, the board game.

 And Malea was the last to leave, staying to chat a few hours, until Carson got home.

All in all, a lovely Halloween. I'd wanted to have a party, and it turns out that last minute, very small gatherings are some of the best! 

Oh, and there is glitter EVERYWHERE. Fairy dust is actually a huge pain in real life. 

The Key is Pacing Yourself

I found this post in the drafts folder, written in December 2009. Since it's "Throwback" Thursday, it's as good a time as any to post it. 

--

I love to run.
I hate to run slowly.

I know, "run" and "slow" aren't equal. What I mean is that I don't like to jog. I like to see how fast I can go. Unfortunately, my endurance level is at a level -7 which means that I can go about 45 seconds before I get winded (okay, perhaps this is hyperbole... I can run for at least 50 :) ). Also, I don't love to run with others because I can only actually run with them for a short time (this is also hyperbole - by "short time" I mean two minutes tops; after that, I fall over).

With this background, our story begins:

My plans for today were as follows: get up at 6:15, go to school at 7:45, come home at noon, take a nap, do laundry, take another nap, go to work.

For one reason or another, the nap didn't happen. I'm disappointed by this, because it seems that when I plan a nap, it doesn't happen. And I got four hours of sleep last night.

It all started when I realized that I should wash the jeans I was wearing. I haven't done laundry in awhile (not enough quarters) so no clean pants were available. I changed into leggings and shorts and tennis shoes since flip flops were way out of the question (because it's cold, not because I'm too good for such a marvelous ensemble), so that I could wash normal clothes.
At that point, I got really ambitious, or stupid. My belief is that it came from the really weird adrenaline rush of not sleeping, but I decided to go for a run. Did I mention that it's 26 degrees outside?

So I grabbed my iPod, zipped my jacket as high as it could go, sipped some water, and went for a run. Somewhere during the first five seconds, I decided to pace myself this time. I usually go down a certain long stretch of sidewalk first, and try to run about half of it (it's half a mile... yes, my endurance stinks, remember?). This time, I ran slowly and made my way to the end without stopping. Then I kept on running, not stopping. This went on for a very long time, until I found myself back at my apartment, 1.8 miles later.

My lungs are not thankful that I did that to them and for some reason a bunch of pressure is hanging out in my head now... but I don't care... even though it's a small accomplishment, I'm super proud of myself :) I will be trying that again soon!

The key IS pacing yourself!

Stuffed Mushrooms

I LOVE mushrooms, and I really love stuffed mushrooms. 

I've had my eye on a few recipes for them and decided to go for it when making an appetizer for a baby shower a couple of months ago. 

These were flavorful, fairly easy, and I think a pretty fool-proof recipe. Make this. No really. 

Stuffed Mushrooms

(original recipe here)

You will need:

16-24 oz mushrooms (I counted and this added up to about 35 mushrooms)

4oz cream cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

8oz bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 clove garlic (or 1/2 tsp minced garlic)

1/2 cup sweet onion, finely diced (this equaled half of a medium sized onion for me)

What you'll do: 

Set your oven to 350*

Cook the bacon until it's nice and crumbly. Reserve a little bacon grease in the pan and set aside. 

Wash your mushrooms and take off the stems

Chop those stems into little pieces (I actually started off with 2 packages of mushrooms and only used the stems from those. When it came time to stuff, I realized I had a LOT of filling leftover so I opened the other pack of mushrooms and used the caps but not the stems... so do whatever you want here, but it will make a little more filling)

Dice your onion 

Toss the onion in the pan and cook for about five minutes, or until they've softened. 

Throw the diced mushroom stems and the garlic into the pan until everything is softened. 

Enjoy the aroma of your kitchen. It smells like you're an amazing cook. You are.

Add your cream cheese and Parmesan cheese to the pan and cook until melted

Turn off heat and season with salt and pepper as needed. I added a little parsley for no reason other than I really like parsley.

Stuff your mushrooms. If you used two packs of mushrooms, you will probably have mushrooms that are overflowing and that's probably a great idea. YUM. If you used three packages, that's fine too. 

If you want to prep this early for something, you can just refrigerate the filling. 

Pop them in the oven for 20 minutes at 350*. 

Enjoy. These are exceptionally tasty. 

Corn Maze

We went to a corn maze with our community group after church a few weeks back. I've never been to one, but they seemed like such a fun fall activity. I was glad to share this experience with a group of people - I now think that corn mazes are best conquered with a group. 

The maze was in this shape and the objective was to find the little numbered stations. Each one had a little punch that corresponded with the station's number. Carson led the way through the maze and we all followed, sort of amazed (pun not intended) that he could actually tell where he was going. 

There were two mazes. We did the big one first, then took a break by enjoying the other things the farm had to offer, like a chance to be the American Gothic painting. 

I'm actually 5'1", so this can't be correct. 

And he's 6'2".

They had this pumpkin rolling chute. If your pumpkin made it past a certain point down the hill, you received a free admission.

We went into the barn. There were several ways in. Deanna and I chose the one that was meant for children. 

I felt sorry for this calf. I think he was sleepy, and not embarrassed by his ear tags.

Carson sort of milked a cow. 

And Lana bonded with this piglet, while we discussed Charlotte's Web.

This donkey's name is Jenny, and the sign on her pen warned us that she bites. She was attracted by the sound of my camera's shutter.

And also by the fabric of Deanna's scarf, which she nibbled.

Cornhole was played. I didn't know that there are actual rules, but they were taken seriously.

See Carson's green pumpkin bumping around down there?

Then we decided to do the second maze and finish getting our punches.

And celebrated by shooting the corn cannons (which actually shot tennis balls). Carson and Bryce took this seriously.

We finished off the afternoon by going on a hayride. 

 But we really wanted to ride the bumpy cow ride. 

Instead, we packed up and went home.