Halloween has always been a favorite holiday for us, mostly because it was the night of our first unofficial date where Joseph took me and my roomate to the hanunted theatre that the drama department did at SUU every year. We enjoy the fun side of Halloween and not the scary, creepy stuff.
This is my pumpkin that I carved. My first attempt in many years as it has always been Joseph and the kids doing the carving.
This one is Jospeh's. He has much more experience doing this.
Keith had plans to make a suit of armer for Halloween. He spent many hours designing the pattern and cutting out the cardboard.
He then put paper mache on it to give it strength. But alas the week before Halloween he got the stomach flu and was very sick and was unable to finish his masterpiece. It actually looked quite good on him.
He wanted to dress up for work, so a Jedi Master he became. Keith also spent Halloween with a friend from high school helping to take her siblings trick-or-treating and then watching a movie afterwards.
For our Halloween dinner I made Haunted Chicken pot pie. For dessert I made:
Caremel Apple Creme Brulee
From Taste of Home
3 medium tart apples, peeled and thinly sliced
6 Tbs. caramel ice cream topping
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs sugar, divided
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbls packed brown sugar, divided
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups heavy whipping cream
5 egg yolks, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
Place apples in a microwave-safe dish; cover with water. Cover and microwave on high for 3-4 minutes or until tender; drain well. Arrange apples in the bottoms of six 6-oz. ramikins or custard cups. Top with caramel topping; set aside.
In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar and cinnamon; sir in cream. :Heat over medium heat unti bubbles form around sides of pan. Remove from the heat; stir a small amount of hot mixture into the egg yolks. Return all to the pan, stirring constantly. Stir in vanilla.
Pour inot prepared ramekins. Place ramekins in a baking pan; add 1 in. of boiling wter to pan. Bake, uncovered, at 325 for 25-30 minutes or until centers are just set (mixture will jiggle). Remove ramekins from water bath; cool for 10 minutes. Cover and refrigerate.
If using a creme brulee torch, combine the remaining sugars (or use raw sugar) and sprinkle evenly over custards. Heat sugar with the torch until caramelized. Serve immediately.
If broiling the custards, place ramekins on a bakin sheet; let stand at room tepmerature for 15 minutes. Combine remaining suars; sprinkle over custards. Broil 8 in. from the heat for 4-7 minutes or unitl sugar is caramelized.
Creme Brulee is one of my most favorite desserts. This one is excellent and easy to make.
I also made donuts using a recipe that was in the Standard Examiner a few weeks ago. It is from a 13 year old boy who claims to make the perfect donut. He has been making donuts since he was five years old and now does demonstrations to groups. Wow! They probably were the best donuts I have ever made. He gave some good tips in the article as well so I am going to try other recipes that I have. We also had wassail which we always have on Halloween. Ashley and Tyler came over and watched Hocus Pocus with us. Sadly, we only had about 20 Trick-or-treaters so we had lots of leftover treats.
Raking leaves now won't be as much work as before. We really have had a beautiful fall this year.
This is a wreath I made for our front door. I have seen so many pretty fall wreaths that people have put on their doors this year, so when I had the same bug Keith had this was a good project for me to do. I started off at the dollar store and got what supplies I could there and then went to Michael's for picks that had the pumpkins, acorns and pinecones on. I cut the leaves and picks apart and then glued them onto a grapevine wreath.
We started off the week with beautiful weather and then on Friday we woke up to a snowstorm. It snowed all day long without breaking and into Saturday morning. We ended up with 10 inches of snow. I know; more snow pitcures but just wanted to show you how much we got.
By January we won't be as excited for the snow, but we certainly need it as the reservoirs are low.
I thought the pine tree looked beautiful with the snow hanging on the leaves.
On Saturday after this big storm, our Stake did a mock disaster where Joseph was able to participate as a Cert member. He wore his vest, ID and helmet. Then they had to go help a family that had been hurt in the mock disaster. Joseph has lots of experience with this sort of stuff having taught first aid in Scouts through the years as well as his Cert training. Those in his group were impressed with his resoursefulness and knowledge. The kids in the family that they helped had fun participating. All in all the mock disaster went well. Hopefully we never have to use these skills in a real disaster, but it is a comfort to be prepared as possible. I was at my sewing class so I wasn't able to participate. I got a new Bernina this past month as the one I have been looking at was on sale at a price I felt I could afford. I have had my Pfaff for 30 years (which I have loved) and can't get parts for it anymore unless they can get them off of another machine. Joseph has actually made parts to keep it running. Thank goodness for my talented husband. I really feel like my skills are outdated so this has been a fun class to attend. I still have two more classes. I will probably take other types of classes that they offer through the store just to learn some new skills. I don't sew as much as I once did and haven't made a quilt top in the last year as it has been a very stressful year. I hope things are calming down and I can actually do some fun sewing.
