Creepy Chili and Cornbread

Chili and cornbread is pretty standard fare during the fall and winter.  Try giving this meal a creative twist by pulling out those wonderful cookie cutters and using them to transform the ordinary into something more. 

I simply baked my cornbread on a jelly roll pan, so it would be thinner, then I cut out ghosts with my cookie cutter.  Watch out though.  Because of the bigger pan, the corn bread will cook faster, so BEWARE!  We also cut out "boo" in sliced cheese to give our ghostly message. 

Cornbread--sweeter and moister than regular cornbread, my friends in the South call this Yankee Cornbread.  Your family will love this recipe!

1 cup oil (I prefer canola oil)
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups buttermilk (or milk soured with 1 teaspoon vinegar)
Mix together then add:
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups yellow corn meal
2 cups flour
Blend well.  Bake in greased 9"x13" pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  Or bake in muffin pans for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Frightfully good.

~Lena

Cheap & Easy Halloween Wreath

I LOVE Halloween! I think it is such a fun holiday. I mean seriously - it's a holiday celebrating costumes and candy - pure fun.

The past couple of years (thanks to M&M's), the traditional Halloween colors of black and orange have expanded to include purple and green. Because of this I thought it would be cute to make a purple and black Halloween wreath. I looked on my Pinterest wreath board for inspiration and thought this one would be perfect! Funny enough it comes from another sister blog. Looks like a fun blog!

I went to get my supplies and decided to try out an idea I found on Pinterest. You buy a piece of foam tubing for about $1 (mine was $1.19), cut it down to whatever size you want and make it into a wreath form. So I decided to try it out.

Here is the round of my supplies (with the foam tubing already cut to size). I had to buy everything (except for the glue gun and the glue). Total Price: $3.25! I just bought the cheap felt sheets and used a 40% off coupon for the yarn.

To get the tubing into a round shape I used hot glue and painter's tape. I should have used duct tape, as later on my wreath turned into an oval..but oh well.

I didn't take any step by step pictures, since I got the idea from another blog. The basic gist is - you wind the yarn around the wreath form twice, cut some felt and cinch it up (use the longest stitch on your sewing machine then pull one of the threads to get your desired ruffle effect), then glue the felt to the wreath. I did reduce all of my felt measurements since I used the felt sheets. So each of my pieces were only 12 in long. This didn't matter since the wreath form is so skinny. I also ended up taking an inch off of all the width measurements, but wish I hadn't have.. Oh well. :)

And the finished product:

And then after it turned into an oval... :)

In conclusion - I'm not too sure if I like how it turned out or not. It's so skinny and doesn't quite hang like I want it to. BUT none of this bother's me too much since it was so cheap and I still have lots of yarn leftover. If anything I'll throw it out after Halloween. :) I do love the texture the yarn gives and I might go back and make the ruffle wider. And I am going to try and experiment more with making the foam tubing into wreaths - I'm not giving up on it yet!

Scary Scones

We love to use our cookie cutters during different holidays.  Halloween is no exception.  This year we are putting them to even more use with cutting out different shapes from otherwise ordinary food.  Scones aren't exactly ordinary fare at our house.  I don't make them all the time, but my family sure enjoys them when we do make them.  Just take a favorite bread dough recipe, heat about 1/2-1 qt. oil in a pot or deep skillet.  When it is hot, test the oil by dropping a small bit of dough in it.  If the dough floats and starts to brown, the oil is ready.  If the dough sinks, the oil still needs to heat up.  To make the scones, simply roll the dough thin (as thin as you can get it), then cut out the desired shapes.  I usually just cut out squares, and the kids make their own creations.  We opted for cookie cutters on Saturday.  They worked quite well for making our scones rather scary. 

 Cook on each side until golden brown.  Put on paper towels or napkins to soak up some of the extra oil.  Eat with butter & honey or jam, or with a slice of cheese.  Add apples and carrots or a bowl of peaches for a fun meal. 

The kids got very excited about these "scary scones" and were very creative with how they wanted their food presented on their plates.

Happy Haunting! ~Lena

Menu for First Full Week of October

So, I love celebrating the different holidays throughout the year.  For the start of Fall and the beginning of the holiday season, I love to make fun and slightly spooky meals during the month of October.  This is the only month I really do this.  If I had to make festive holiday meals all the time, it would get REALLY old, but making fun Halloween meals almost every day for only one month a year just makes it something to look forward to.  Now, I do have fun traditional meals other times during the year, but they are spread out more and not every day.

Another thing, for me personally, I don't make anything that would be scary or gross me out--like the hotdogs cut up to look like slimy worms.  If that is your cup of tea--go for it, but I don't think I could physically eat it, and I want Halloween to be a fun safe time for my kids, not something to scare them.  


Unless something comes up, I will be posting pictures and how-to's about the different meals that I will be making during the week.


Here is the overview of the menu for the 1st week.

Sunday--Twice Baked Potato Ghosts and Baked Chicken

Monday--Our Family Decorating Party--see my post last week for pictures and the menu.

Tuesday--Spider Web Curry Pumpkin Soup

Wednesday--Ghoulash and Spiky Cupcakes

Thursday--Cheesy Bat Biscuits

Friday--Broomstick Bread

Saturday--Pizza (Some traditions never change)

I can't wait to show you the pictures!
~Deborah

Meal in a Pumpkin

A fun and easy Fall meal, is to make dinner in a pumpkin.  

You can stuff it with just about anything.  This is my favorite way to do it.

Deborah's Pumpkin Stuffing Recipe

2 Cups of Rice (I like to make a mixture of brown, white and wild rice)
4 Cups of Water
1 lb. Hamburger
1 Onion diced
1 small Baking Pumpkin
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can Mushrooms
1/4 Cup Slivered Almonds (Optional)
1 Cup of Water

Take pumpkin, cut off top, scoop out insides, and set pumpkin aside.  Cook rice and water together until done.  Brown hamburger and then add onion and cook until tender.  Add hamburger mixture to rice along with Cream of Mushroom soup, mushrooms and slivered almonds.  Mix together.  Place rice mixture in pumpkin and put the top of the pumpkin back in place.  Place pumpkin in baking dish and add 1 cup of water to the bottom of the pan.  Bake in 350 degree oven until pumpkin is soft.  Make sure to scoop out some of the yummy pumpkin when the rice mixture is being served.

 Enjoy!!!
~Deborah

Cleaning Tip #2

Fall is officially here!  With the seasons changing and the Holidays around the corner, there are clothes to switch out, toys to go through and ovens to clean before Halloween cookie-baking or Thanksgiving turkey-roasting. Okay, well, my oven sure needed a thorough cleaning!  (If you own a rental, do your renter a favor and make sure the fridge, oven and kitchen cupboards are clean before they move in.) But in addition to any organizing/cleaning projects, the everyday cleaning as we all know never goes away. 

Here are two tips that help me in my cleaning.

#1.  Have LOTS of dishcloths and rags handy.  I LOVE having MANY rags.  And as you can tell, they are well used!



For the dishcloth department, I love having a lot here too!  I go through about two if not more dish cloths a day.  If I wash out a bowl that had raw egg in it, I get out a fresh dishcloth.  If I have to wipe up a lot of spilled milk on the table, I get out a fresh dishcloth.  I am sure you can imagine the many scenarios that would warrant a new dishcloth.  I personally don't use a dishcloth from one day to the next.  I am constantly changing them out.









#2. Wear something with pockets while cleaning.  It seems there is always some sort of tiny odd or end that is out of place.  Having pockets allows me to stuff that item away till I am done cleaning upstairs before going down, or finish cleaning the van before going inside.  Making multiple trips unnecessarily around the house can waste a few minutes of precious time.  Cleaning one area and then moving on to the next is more efficient. Along the lines of pockets, something I do when I clean out my van is bring two grocery bags with me.  One bag is for garbage, the other for everything else.  This helps me get everything out of the van quickly.  But, when you bring the bag of non-garbage in, make sure you sort through it and put away the items right away!  No need in creating yet another mess!

What are some of your little tips to facilitate easier cleaning?

~Ruth

Conference Traditions

Our family is looking forward to General Conference this coming weekend.  I'm going to share a few of my family's favorite conference traditions.  We love to combine these two ingredients: 

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A generous dollop of whipped cream

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Strawberry Belgium Waffles

Don't worry.  I'll share an awesome waffle recipe with you.  It's my husband's specialty.  I apologize for not having any pictures of these fabulous waffles.  Apparently we eat them and leave no evidence behind.  The secret is to separate the eggs, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the batter.  I've tried making these waffles without separating the eggs and they are just not as good. 

Waffles

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 egg yolks

1 3/4 cups milk

1/2 cup cooking oil

2 egg whites

In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder, and salt.  make a well in the center of dry mixture; set aside.  

In another medium mixing bowl beat egg yolks slightly.  Stir in milk and oil.  Add egg yolk mixture all at once to the dry mixture.  Stir just till moistened.  Batter should be lumpy.  In a small mixing bowl beat egg whites till stiff peaks form.  Gently fold beaten egg whites into flour and egg yolk mixture, leaving a few fluffs of egg white.  Do not overmix. Pour 1 to 1 1/4 cups batter onto grids of a pre-heated, lightly greased waffle baker.  Close lid quickly; do not open till done.  Bake according to manufacturer's directions.  When done, use a fork to lift waffle off grid.  Repeat with remaining batter.  Serve warm. Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, 2000.

Top waffles with strawberries that have been hulled and sliced and sprinkled with sugar and  whipped cream or whipped topping.  Yum!  We like to eat these for breakfast before the morning session of conference.  

We also love to make pretzels after the final session of conference.  Auntie Anne's Pretzels are a favorite.  We use a knock-off of the recipe that can be found here. 

 

We don't always make pretzels.  Sometimes we like to decorate cookies during the last session of conference.  Our kids like to play Conference Bingo.  You can find it at: http://lds.org/general-conference/children?locale=eng It's also called Conference Squares.  We set out a bowl of candy (like a mix of candy corn, m&ms and the like) and each time the kids hear that topic spoken about, they get a piece of candy out of the bowl.  The kids also love drawing pictures about the talks.  This helps them remember specific talks and we can discuss conference afterwards. 

Do you have any favorite conference traditions?  We would love to hear about them on our blog!

Enjoy this special Conference weekend with your family!

~Lena