One Last Hurrah

It has been in the 70's and 80's around here, which is highly unusual for this time of year. There are still some blooms hanging on around the neighborhood, though it has been unusually dry, as well, so some are a little ragged. The bees and other pollinators are working frantically to gather as much as they can!

Thanksgiving

Frankly, Thanksgiving is not one of my favorite holidays. This is especially true now that I am trying to eat fewer carbs! Here are some pics from this Thanksgiving, though. I made the pumpkin soup above with chicken stock, some sauteed garlic and onions,pumpkin puree, chinese five spice powder and smoked paprika. I was hoping it would be smoother but it tasted good - especially with real bacon and toasted pumpkin seeds as a garnish.

Our centerpiece! Yes, this tree probably looks familiar from Halloween. We didn't have a cornucopia handy and had a leaf theme going on with the other serving pieces so decided to go with it.

Last, here's a pic of the pumpkin spice cupcakes I made for my friend's birthday. I used a different recipe but you could use the quick bread recipe from my previous post. They taste about the same. The cream cheese frosting is what makes these cupcakes extra awesome, of course.

Nerstrand Woods and facing the inevitable

We went for a nice fall walk in Nerstrand Woods State Park (down by Northfield, in, well, Nerstrand). We haven't much in the way of fall foliage since the weather was very warm in September and suddenly cold in October. It was a nice little hike, only to wake up on Monday to.............

.............our first major snow in the Twin Cities! Ugh. Way too early. It reminded me that I need to get out and enjoy any decent weather we get.

Happy 2nd Blogiversary to Me!

Today is the second anniversary of this little blog. I have to say that I still enjoy it as much as I did at the beginning. It's nice to have a place to put photos of all my projects for people to see and to look back on. Publishing a blogs helps motivate me to finish projects and paintings and to try new recipes.

Above is a picture of one of the random heirloom tomatoes my sister, Emily, is harvesting from her garden by the bucketload. I guess it's been a pretty good year for tomatoes, although they ripened a little later than usual.

Big News! In honor of two years of blogging, tomorrow afternoon I will be announcing my first ever

GIVEAWAY!

That's right - a cool prize will go to one lucky winner. Check back tomorrow to see how to enter.

Halloween is right around the corner

Oh, okay- I know Halloween is still almost two months away. And I love September so I'm not trying to rush it. BUT.....I love Halloween. It's such a great time for creative, crafty types. Here are some awesome Halloween ideas/decorations I found around the web:

Above: Halloween stencils on www.fancyflours.com. They also have a ton of cute picks and sprinkles.

Below: Creepcakes by Martha Stewart. It would be a fun activity with a kid, wouldn't it?

Above we have some cute mummy pops from Oriental Trading....

....and here we have some awesome vintage-looking Halloween cards from Plum Party.

Or maybe you like your Halloween stuff on the gory side? No problem. Above is a candy blood treat from Oriental Trading, and below is a drink dispenser from www.spirithalloween.com

I like my Halloween cute or atleast cheesy-scary (not really scary, though. I hate those Scream costumes). The ornaments above are also from Plum Party.

And finally, here is a cool decorating idea from Country Living. Just creepy enought, right?

Fall Tree and Links to Other Projects

Here is a picture of a cool fall craft project that I did with some friends a little while ago. It was fun and pretty easy. The idea was originally posted on this blog:

http://thatartistwoman.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-paint-fall-trees.html

It was also posted here, along with a lot of other really cool projects:

http://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/

Autumn Walk

Day of the Dead and Frida Kahlo

Today marks the end of the Mexican celebration of Day of the Dead or Dia Des Los Muertos. You can find tons of info about the celebration here: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/

Below is a picture of my jack o'lantern decked out in the fashion of a "calavera". I did a little bit of research on traditional ways of celebrating the Day of the Dead in preparation for a party in honor of celebrating the life and work of Frida Kahlo. The Walker Art Center is hosting an exhibit of Kahlo's work in honor of the 100th Anniversary of her birth http://calendar.walkerart.org/canopy.wac?id=3156. It opened last Friday so I threw a party to celebrate.
The party was a great excuse to visit the Midtown Global Market in my search of authentic Mexican candy and maybe even some sugar skulls for our ofrenda or altar honoring Frida. I visited Fiesta in America (http://www.midtownglobalmarket.com/?q=shopping/groceries/15) where I found the much needed skulls in addition to a huge array of candy. When I mentioned that I had tried tamarind candy before and not liked it much, the woman at the store threw a few different kinds of candy into my bag (chili spiced tamarind and some sweet pulp) and couldn't have been more helpful. Unfortunately, I still didn't like the tamarind candy but I have to think I'm missing something since a whole nation of people seem to love it. I also stopped at Cosecha Imports to stock up on Jarritos soda (http://www.midtownglobalmarket.com/?q=shopping/groceries/26).

Above is a picture of our ofrenda. Guests were asked to bring something to add to the altar, if these wished. Guests were also encouraged to wear their most festive, Frida-like outfits. At one point we had six or seven unibrowed guests in one room - a little surreal, sure, but lots of fun. Below is a detail of the altar; you can see one of the cool (inedible) sugar skulls. Also pictured are some of the postcards I picked up at the Walker gift shop.

After the preparations and party, I was too worn out to actually go to the exhibit last weekend. Anyway, tomorrow is the Walker's free first Saturday so I am planning to go then. There are lots of fun activities planned so I'm sure it will be mobbed. I'm really excited about the exhibit itself.

Pumpkinpalooza Continues...

Here is a picture of the sugar and spice pumpkin seeds I made last night. We had a ton of pumpkin seeds from the five pumpkins we carved at our house. The seeds are good for you and tasty when toasted.

I used this recipe on Allrecipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Toasted-Pumpkin-Seeds-with-Sugar-and-Spice/Detail.aspx

The only change I made was to use butter in the skillet (instead of oil) and I didn't exactly measure the ingredients so there might be some variation there. It is a time consuming process but well worth it if you like toasted pumpkin seeds; they come out nice and carmelized.

A-maize-ing

Here are a couple of pictures from my recent trip to Sever's Corn Maze. Having never been to a corn maze, I wasn't sure what to expect. I certainly wasn't expecting the giant Corn Pit (think dry kernels, not creamed corn - less of a "Double Dare" challenge and more Chuckie Cheese ball pit).

If you read the rules above, you'll see that one of the rules is "do not bury your head". Although I didn't bury my head, Laura did shovel some kernels into my ear accidentally, so I can attest to the fact that it is easy to get them lodged there. Corn kernels were also found to be lodged in my jeans pocket, cuffs, socks, bra and underwear - don't ask me how. So, you see, I broke the "no removing corn" rule, too.


The maze itself was fun in a laid-back kind of way. It was the first sunny day in weeks (and one of the last nice days before winter) and good weather to be wandering around in a field. Not being from corn country, I didn't realize that corn mazes have themes. This year's them at Sever's was the Wild West and the maze was in the shape of a cowboy on a bucking bronco. Yee-haw!

The highlight of the day for me was the roasted corn from the concession stand, though. By that time, I was ready for some corn that could actually be eaten. The food area also offers the usual kettle corn, bratwurst, and assorted fried things.

Other available activities included a petting zoo, pig races, a pumpkin launcher, and live music.

Due to my procrastination in posting this, I think the corn maze is closed for the season now. I'm sure they will be back next year with an even cooler theme and even faster pigs.

http://www.severscornmaze.com/

Pumpkinpalooza Part 2 - Finally

Last weekend I finally found the time to make the Pumpkin Chocolate Covered Raisin Muffins (recipe here: http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2007/09/03/a-rant-and-a-muffin/). The change that I made is using a total of 2 teaspoons of pre-mixed pumpkin pie spice instead of the individual spices. I really would have liked to have used ginger but I didn't have any. These are moist and keep for several days (I ate the last one on Thursday and it was pretty much as good as the one I had on Sunday). They don't rise very much so feel free to fill the muffin cups up pretty much to the top.

Fall Leaf Project

I like to collect things. I collect pebbles from the lake shore. I collect shells from the beach. And I collect leaves in the fall.

However, I don't really care too much about the collection once I have it; it's the act of looking and sorting that I enjoy. I have recurring dreams where I am sorting through a pile of junk and find some kind of treasure in the bottom. My biggest thrill in life! What does that say about me? I don't know for sure, but I sometimes feel like I should be one of those people who is satisfied to just take a picture or just look and appreciate. But, no - I want the physical object itself. Maybe it is pure greediness, but I like to think it is my attempt to hold on (literally, I guess) to those fleeting moments of beauty - so startling in everyday life, kind of electrifying really.

Anyway, some of you probably did this little project in elementary school but I didn't discover it until after college. It's pretty simple. All you need is:

Fall leaves
2 sheets of wax paper
An iron
Some newspaper

Lay down a sheet of newspaper to protect the table or surface you are working on. Put down a sheet of wax paper on top of it. Arrange your leaves on top of the wax paper - taking care to leave some space between the leaf and the edge of the paper (maybe an inch?). Place the other sheet of wax paper on top and another layer of newspaper over that. Then iron the whole thing for a few seconds. The wax will melt together and seal in the leaves. They still won't last forever, sadly (but if they did, then we wouldn't appreciate them so much probably). They will last a few weeks. I hung mine in my windows to allow the sun to shine through the leaves. I would think that this probably contributes to their eventual decay, but it seems to be the best way to display them.

PumpkinPalooza!

Just a quick post to show one of the things I've been working on this week - when I really should be painting. I'm trying to improve my carving skills so I can do more complex relief prints. I have to keep muttering, "the carved part is the color of the paper, the carved part is the color of the paper". The technique is opposite from drawing with ink or pencil and I can't seem to get used to it. Anyway, I bought the blank bookmarks at Michael's (50 for about $3). The linoleum to make the print block cost about a buck. Add in the ink (maybe another $5? I bought it a while ago), carving tools (about $10 and you only need to buy them once) and this is a pretty cheap and easy project. After I printed the black outlines, I colored the pumpkins yellow and orange with pencil. The tassel is some embroidery floss I had left over from some other project. That's the nice part about having so much random crap - if you can find it in all the boxes and drawers, of course.