My little Pumpkin Carver

Halloween is over and today I took down all our spooky decorations. It was a good Halloween and the day was perfect for trick-or-treating. I was afraid it would be so cold, but it was actually pretty warm. The only problem was the slush! I can only imagine how wet all the little trick-or-treaters got. A few nights ago we carved pumpkins. I will admit at first I wasn't into it like I have been in the past. I wasn't looking forward to cleaning up the gooey, slimy, seedy mess. I was planning on doing a real simple design and at the last minute I got a little more excited about it and chose a design that was a slightly more difficult than I had planned.

Pacen, on the other hand, was very much into carving pumpkins this year. He carved an itty-bitty one and a very large one earlier in the month and this time he carved another large pumpkin. He carved a cute face into his itty-bitty pumpkin and a moose head into his first big pumpkin (I drew it and he cut it out). He turned his second big pumpkin into a murdered pumpkin. The funny thing about Pacen carving pumpkins is the fact that somehow he ends up in his boxers during the process. First the shirt comes off, next thing I know the pants come off, and a little later off come the socks, and then he's just carving away in his boxers! It's pretty funny. I guess real men carve pumpkins wearing only their underwear. :) I'm actually very grateful that I don't have to worry about washing pumpkin goop out of his clothes!

My Ghostly Lava Lamps

"Only the knife knows what goes on in the heart of a pumpkin." ~ Simone Schwarz-Bart

My Little Picky Eater

My son is probably the oddest picky eater ever! He is opposite of most picky eaters I have come across. He loves vegetables and salad and stuff like that and hates things such as spaghetti and macaroni & cheese! I thought all kids loved spaghetti and macaroni & cheese! Not mine! I am a total pasta person and if I want pasta I usually have to order it at a restaurant or make it while Pacen is gone...unless, of course, I want to hear a bunch of whining, which I don't!

Yesterday I was trying to decide what to fix for supper last night. I've been having major difficulties the past month because I have been oven-less! It has been dreadful! I always knew I used my oven a lot, but I guess I never realized just how much until mine died. Rest in peace old, ugly oven! I was suppose to have a new oven by now but there was an accident. My family owns two True Value stores...one in the town I grew up in and the other is in a town 30 miles from there. My dad drove to the other store, picked up my new oven, and on the way home a semi drove past him and blew my oven over (yes it was tied down) and broke the glass out of the door! It's my luck! Things like this always happen to me! I don't know what I ever did to deserve the luck I have, but I guess I just have to live with it. Maybe I can offer some sort of sacrifice to the gods/goddesses/higher beings/whatever so my luck will change. I offer my old oven! :) Okay, anyway...my new oven door has not arrived yet for my new oven so I am still oven-less!

Oh, I got really side tracked there. Sorry. So, I was searching for something to fix for supper, something that could be made on the stove top. That is when I came across a skillet recipe on this blog that I follow. I had almost all the ingredients and I had other things I could use to substitute for the ingredients I didn't have. No grocery store visit? Yay!!!! :) So, I fixed up the recipe when I got home from work and it looked nothing like the picture on the blog so I was a little leery about serving it to Pacen, but we have a rule in my house: I fix it, you eat it. Maybe I should make that rule with the pasta too, but I try to avoid making things that I know he absolutely does not like. Anyway, the time came to serve it up and he loved it! He had two huge servings and is excited that we are having it as leftovers tonight! Yahoo!!! I love it when I find a recipe that is easy and that Pacen likes! This recipe is definitely going in the "make again recipe box"!

So, without further adeu, here is the recipe (and my substitutions/changes):

Romano Ranch Chicken and Rice Skillet Dinner

- 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 packet Ranch Dressing dry mix, divided
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely diced (I used a little onion powder)
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 6 cloves fresh garlic, minced (I used the pre-minced kind in the jar, which is the best thing since sliced bread)
- 6 cups fresh spinach leaves, coarsely chopped (I used about a 1/2 bag of frozen spinach, which I would guess was around 10 oz.)
- 1 small can diced carrots and peas, drained (I used a 15 oz. can of just peas)
- 2 cups steamed long grain brown rice (I used instant brown rice cooked in the microwave)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp garlic salt
-1/2 cup shredded Romano Cheese (I used Cheddar Cheese)

The first step is to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Ha! I ended up cooking my chicken in the skillet over medium heat, which was a lot faster than baking it in the oven anyway. While the chicken was cooking I diced the pepper and started the rice. When the chicken was done I removed it from the skillet and drained any juice that was left. I then added the olive oil and let it heat up. Next I added the green pepper, garlic, spinach, and onion powder and let saute for 6-10 minutes (until the spinach was heated through). While the veggies were sauteing I cut up the chicken. Next I added the peas, cooked rice, salt, pepper, garlic salt, and ranch mix. I stirred it up and let it sit for a few minutes to heat through. I then added the chicken and cheese and stirred again. Time to serve! Easy and pretty fast! (It just sounds more time consuming than it really is.)

(The lighting in my kitchen is dreadful!)

"When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste." ~ Laiko Bahrs

Halloween

Halloween is by far my most favorite Holiday! I don't know why...maybe it's the mystery that surrounds the Holiday or maybe it's the fact that we get to dress up and pretend to be somebody else. I honestly can't tell you why I love Halloween so much...I just do and I always have. This past weekend a friend of mine and I threw a Halloween party at my house. It took us a couple weeks to plan it all and get everything prepared, but it was so worth it. We made many of the decorations ourselves and created a list of nasty looking food. We also made the invitations and that alone took us two nights and two bottles of hard booze! :) We had fun planning and preparing, but I must say that I'm glad it's all over with (I think she's glad too) as it was a lot of work and took up a lot of time.

One of the best things about preparing for the party was the fact that I had no choice but to get off my lazy rump and thoroughly clean my house. I've been needing to do it for a long time but I just haven't felt like conquering it! :) Unfortunately, some major cleaning had to be done the day after the party too. :) Okay, actually, all that really had to be done was some major mopping...my kitchen floor was so nasty! My friend, Alex, did a pretty good job of picking up stray beer cans/bottles and cups the night before! Raine, Dawn, and Sham helped me sweep and pick up the rest of the trash. It's so great to have friends who are willing to help with the nasty, not-so-fun aspects of such things as a party! :)






"Eat, drink, and be scary." ~ Unknown

"When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers, 'tis near Halloween!" ~ Unknown

Grape Harvest

There is a cute little white picket fence in my backyard that runs along the driveway...from the back gate to the garage. Unfortunately you can't even tell there is a white picket fence there because it has been overrun by about three different kinds of vines! Fortunately a couple of those vines produce grapes. A few weeks ago I was taking the trash out and I happened to glance over at the vines closest to the garage and lo and behold there were tons of marble size grapes (the other grape vine produces pea size grapes that I feel are kind of pointless so I let them go to waste every year). I tried one and boy was it good...a little tart, but much better than the small ones. That night Pacen and I picked most of the bunches of those grapes off the vine (at least 98% of them).



When I got done removing every grape from each bunch we had around 11 pounds of grapes!


I decided to make some jelly and juice. I found a couple recipes online. You will not believe this but I used a recipe that did not come from recipezaar.com. :) Here is the recipe:

Easy Homemade Grape Jelly

5 pounds of fresh grapes
Pectin
Around 7 cups of granulated sugar
Canning stuff (jars, lids, strainer, etc.)

Wash your jars. Now wash the grapes and then chop or mash them very well. I used a potato masher to mash them, but you can also use a food processor. (We're hoping to get at least 5 cups of juice from the grapes.) Put the mashed grapes in a large pot on the stove over medium to high heat and heat to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes (stir every so often so the grapes don't stick or burn). Meanwhile, measure out the sugar. Mix the dry pectin with 1/4 cup of sugar and set aside. When the grapes are done simmering put them through a strainer or cheesecloth. Pour the hot grape juice into a large pot and add the pectin/sugar mixture stirring to dissolve. Put the pot on medium to high heat until the juice is at a full boil (the kind that can't be stirred away). Make sure you stir frequently so it doesn't burn. Put the lids in a pan of hot water so they can begin to soften. Add the remaining sugar (6 3/4 cups) to the the juice and bring back to a boil and boil HARD for 1 minute. Fill the jars, put the lids and rings on, and process the jars in a boiling water bath (how long depends on altitude...I processed for 10 minutes).






After making the jelly I still had 6 pounds of grapes sitting on my counter. I would've made more jelly, but I was out of jars and didn't feel like going to the store so I opted to make juice. Here is the juice recipe:

Homemade Grape Juice

5-6 pounds of fresh grapes
Cheesecloth or sieve
large pots

Mash the grapes with a potato masher and put into a large pot on the stove over medium heat. Slowly heat to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally and halfway through cooking mash the grapes some more. Prepare the cheesecloth (I put some cheesecloth in a colander over a bowl). Ladle the cooked grapes over the cheesecloth and let sit for several hours or overnight in the fridge to strain completely. Now you can remove the cheesecloth and rinse and then strain the grapes again, but I just strained once. Pour juice into a container and enjoy. Mine made about 2 quarts. It was good but kind of tart.



Maybe next year I'll decide to use the little grapes too. We'll see. Everyone keeps asking me why I didn't make wine. Well, to be quite honest...I HATE wine! I do have a lot of friends that love that nasty beverage though, so maybe next year I'll make some wine for my "wino" friends (using the little grapes). :)

"The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do." ~ Galileo Galilei

" We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne." ~ Marcus Aurelius