Pumpkin may be my favorite fruit. They are good to eat, and lots of fun.
This year we decorated, carved, glittered, and lit them.
Natalie and Ian got to decorate some with friends. Natalie REALLY liked the glitter.
At our house, Cali and Kimi did their pumpkins without help and I was quite impressed.
Ian and I worked together on his. He’s good at supervising.
Ian (I) did the ghosts, Cali did the “welcome” and kitty-bat, and Kimi did the ghoul coming out of a coffin.
Happy National Candy Corn Day!
I bet you have all been counting down to this day. Or maybe not.
Seems like people either love or hate this tri-colored confection.
I grew up thinking it was only useful for breaking off the white tips and sticking them on my teeth as fangs.
Alas, I have developed a fondness for this stuff and am munching on some as I write. (It is a holiday after all.)
Go to this article if you want to read some more fun facts, or watch a funny video about this misunderstood candy. Like this quote from Erin Zimmer at Serious Eats:
“If you drank a bottle of Karo Syrup and ate a candle, that’s what candy corn would taste like.”
So which camp do you fall in? Love or hate?
(Don’t worry, we can still be friends if you don’t like it.)
I like to watch a movie on Halloween after the kids are in bed.
(Someone has to stay up and go through all that candy to make sure it is tasty safe.)
But here is my problem: I don’t like movies that are too scary, evil, gory, gross, adult, and/or stupid. That definitely limits things.
A google search of clean, scary movies gave me a quite laughable list (the Exorcist?) and I guess it should have because the two adjectives are kind of in opposition of each other. But I would still like to see something new.
Anyways, here are some movies on my list of Halloween movies past, and if anyone else wants to suggest one worth watching let me know.
So this is the classic that I grew up watching on Halloween. It still creeps me out, and I always feel like writing “Narek” on steamy windows and mirrors.
This is another classic from my Halloweens past. Alfred Hitchcock knows how to scare me without freaking me out.
This is what I have watched the last couple years. Plenty of comic relief, but it does make me watch my neighbors a little more closely.
This movie is just scary enough for me, a little too scary for my younger children.
So this is another classic that I LOVE. It is in black and white, but Cary Grant looks even more handsome that way. It is a great funny/scary movie about cute little murdering aunts and a completely psychotic murdering brother. Who knew the two could mix so well.
On the other end of the spectrum: I HATE THIS MOVIE! I am not even sure why, but maybe it creeped me out during some too impressionable years.
My list of movies I hated would probably be pretty long, now that I think about it, so I had better just leave it at that.
So do you have one that you love or hate to watch?
We finished up with Fall soccer recently, and it was Kimi’s first time playing. We decided to rotate seasonally and Cali gets to play in the Springs.
I didn’t know how excited she was for it until I heard her mentioning it in family prayers. That is where I know I am getting the truth.
She had a good time, but the most excitement seemed to come from what snack they got after the game.
She’s definitely my daughter.
I know I didn’t get the best picture, but I had to snap one before there was nothing to take pictures of anymore. This is one of my favorite things to eat, but this is also not one of my healthy recipes so it doesn’t get to come out of my recipe files more than once a year.
This is just a great doctored cake mix recipe that is moist and yummy. I love pumpkin, and have a few more of my favorite pumpkin recipes to share.
This is also my favorite recipe for cream cheese frosting, which, as I have stated before, could probably get me to eat a brick if it was slathered on.
Spiced Pumpkin Cake
1 package Yellow cake mix
1 package (4 serving size) vanilla pudding
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup water
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Cloves
(You can substitute 1 Tbsp of pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon and cloves, but it does make the flavor slightly different. I prefer it because I like nutmeg.)
Preheat oven to 350
Beat all ingredients together in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed just until moist, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently.
Beat on medium speed for two minutes.
Pour into a greased pan.
Bake 9x13 for 30-35 minutes or a Bundt pan for 50-55 minutes.
Cool on wire rack.
Spread with Cream Cheese Frosting when completely cool.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened (butter is better)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
4 cups powdered sugar
Beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and almond extract in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended.
Add sugar, gradually beating until well blended after each addition.
(The frosting is soft when warm, and easier to spread, but sets up in the fridge.)
So, Tino has actually been an official sister-missionary for over a month now, but I just found these pictures on my memory card, and didn’t think she would mind. Plus, it was probably good to wait to stick a giant picture of her in my post until she couldn’t comment about it.
The pictures made me remember how good it is to go back to my homeland in the summertime.
And I remembered how good it is to see some of our favorite cousins.
And I remembered how much we wish we could see them all more.
And I remembered how good that ice cream tasted.
And I remembered how much this girl makes me smile.
(Cheese!)
We appreciate Tino for going on a mission so that we could have that little get-together.
I was looking for something to use up some ripe bananas besides banana bread, and came across this recipe. It was actually for a chocolate chip cookie, but not everyone in my family likes chocolate. (something I can’t fathom, but try to be understanding about)
These made a nice, cake-like cookie. I had some leftover cream cheese frosting from a different treat and decided to pipe it on some of the cookies. Those disappeared very quickly.
I feel bad that I don’t remember what website I found the original recipe on so I can’t give the source. Thanks to whoever you are!
1 cup Margarine
1 cup Sugar
2 whole bananas
1 whole egg
3 1/4 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup butterscotch chips (or chocolate)
Cream together margarine and sugar. Add mashed bananas and egg.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
Add half of the flour mixture to the banana mixture and mix well.
Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix well.
Stir in butterscotch chips.
Scoop onto greased cookie sheets using medium scoop. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
Enjoy!
Have you ever thought about the top ten reason’s why Pres. Uchtdorf is cooler than the rest of us?
Or the ten reason’s you shouldn’t mess with Elder Nelson?
While looking at ideas for general conference I came across the blog of a Middle-aged Mormon Man and I couldn’t stop laughing, or reading his posts.
Here’s his plans for conference weekend that were very helpful. Especially the benadryl + kids idea.
Also, this post which is an imagined council of the Adversary with his minions which was funny, but chilling.
Just one more to share. Why the men won’t be hearing about flowers at priesthood.
Cali is a builder. In every sense of the word.
Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk on Saturday night at the Relief Society Broadcast was one of those that will surely become a classic.
While I was fixing breakfast on Sunday morning I looked up at my calendar and saw this:
It was like getting an extra little hug from my Heavenly Father.
It technically isn’t Fall yet, (though I saw Walmart had some of their Christmas stuff out on Saturday) so I figure I can still catch up on a post from the summer.
One day, really not so long ago, we had a trip to the zoo with some cousins.
The statues and fake animals were the bigger attraction for my kids, even though they were in the middle of a zoo. Sometimes I felt like saying, “Look! That animal is actually alive!” They were happy though, so that’s all that mattered.
Natalie loved them as long as they weren’t moving.
There were some dinosaurs that did move. Those statues freaked Natalie out.
Luckily, we had Indiana Jones and his trusty map as our guide.
Measuring up.
This last picture is about the closest I’ve come to capturing a photo of Natalie with a full-blown grin so I have to include it in all its blurriness:
No, she’s not in pain. That is one very happy girl.
Ian and I have had a lot more one-on-one time thanks to school starting and Natalie’s afternoon naps.
A few days ago to keep busy we got out some of his Lego magazines to cut things out and make some collages. Little did I know how much he would enjoy this.
We had to peel him away from it to go to bed and then he was back at it as soon as he woke up.
He also had a mysterious little bald spot on the back of his head now.
Those pesky scissors.
Yesterday afternoon the Polly Pockets were out and Ian was getting them dressed.
Then he told me they were going to “girl’s night out.”
I was thinking this was something I would not be able to blog about, so as not to embarrass him in later life, until the Polly’s all tackled each other, and one yelled “touchdown!”
I admit I was relieved.
I’m glad I have my little buddy around.
I have a few reasons I like book club.
First, I enjoy reading something new and talking about it with other women.
Last month we read These is My Words by Nancy E. Turner.
It was a fabulous book. One of the best I’ve read in a long time. I just finished the second book in the series. I recommend it as well.
Another reason I love book club, is that it gives me a reason to make a treat to share. I am always looking for excuses to do that.
A peach cobbler went nicely with this book, and I found a recipe that may be the only peach cobbler I ever make again.
It wasn’t super light because of the amount of sugar, but I did make mine with whole wheat flour, and served it with light cool whip so it was a low-fat dessert.
It’s preparation is also different from most cobblers. You mix the flour mixture in with the peaches and then pour a boiling syrup over it before you bake it, like a pudding cake recipe. It all comes out like magic in the end.
Here’s the recipe from Taste of Home:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
3 cups sliced fresh or frozen peaches
Topping:
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tblspoon butter
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Ground cinnamon, optional (I used it)
Half-and-Half ( I used light cool whip instead)
Directions:
