Only seven

Only seven trick-or-treaters this year. But a five year old did tell his mother to tell me that we had good jack o'lanterns, which I was glad to hear. It was fun to carve them.

The smiling fella is copied from an October 1926 Good Housekeeping (one of the ads), and the other a product of my retro brain. I think he looks the part, too.

I hope you had a happy Halloween. Ours was good...and I've got lots of roasted pumpkins seeds. A nice dividend from the pumpkins!

Food for Thought

As it were.

I haven't made this yet, but here are my plans....

Pumpkin Chili

1. Make a chili paste with cayenne & vinegar. Cook until it turns the color of burnt sienna.

2. Caramelize 3 yellow onions. Roast a couple of tomatoes in the oven. Roast bell peppers.

Ingredients list:

pureed pumpkin
vegetable stock
garlic
yellow onions
corn
pureed tomatoes
tomato paste
small white onion
bell peppers: red, yellow, orange
hot peppers (fresh & pickled)
carrots
crimini mushrooms
vinegar
chili powder
cumin
cocoa
oregano
thyme
Tabasco
dark beer
olive oil

After caramelizing the onions, add in chopped mushrooms. When they're browned, deglaze the pan with dark beer (probably porter or stout). Mix in a tsp. of tomato paste, pureed tomatoes and the pureed pumpkin.

Saute chopped white onion, chopped garlic, chopped carrots, roasted tomatoes & bell peppers till they sweat. Add to the onions and mushrooms.

Mince hot peppers. Add those, the corn, herbs, spices, a tsp. of chili paste, dash of Tabasco. Add stock and simmer for at least 3 hours.

Season to taste with sea salt, vinegar or lime juice, etc.


Tonight I'll get the ingredients, and tomorrow I'll make it. A few people in the office have requested samples! (They'll get them.)

It's going to be a very, very busy week. We got quite a bit done over the weekend, but of course it was a little less than we'd have liked. DH got the front lights up. They look terrific, if not exactly what we'll put up eventually. They are in the style, and don't look plastic and drunken. A good start.

Yesterday I sewed (by hand) all day long, and we have curtains for the cabinets. If I say so myself, they turned out very well. Next the windows. I'm going to use sheers to make hourglass curtains, and tie them in the center with the material I used for the cabinets. All of the cabinet doors in the kitchen are up, too.

I still need to put the lower doors on to the china cupboard, but the top is done for now.

The rest of the week will be cleaning and cooking and all that. I really hope I have time to carve even a simple Jack O'Lantern. At least I know where my carving tools are. That's promising...

I Lied

About taking pictures.

But I did get a LOT done. Thanks to a thread on Knitty I listed it all out:

Put the final coat of paint on the pine cupboard doors
Measured for the kitchen curtains (window & cabinet)
Scrubbed the dining room carpet
Stripped all the paint off an Art Deco stand I found this weekend
Organized the linen closet
Cleaned and organized the upstairs bath
Made a batch of apple cinnamon muffins
Started mending the dining room curtains
Went thrifting/antiquing
Washed and used the old canning jars we found (to store dry goods)
Picked up repro wall sconces & ceiling lights in Narragansett
Knit several pattern repeats on the stole for my mother
Took off the label on the side door, and washed some windows
Did some spot priming and painting
Cleaned out the fridge
Washed the Art Deco repro fabric for the kitchen cabinet curtains

DH took up and bagged the rest of the mulch and got his clothes put away (I swear I thought it would never happen).

Next weekend, we'll see. It would be great if we could get the pillars done, and the lights on the front entry. It looks lousy in this half-way stage, and we are having a Halloween party, after all.

I'm having quite a time with the menu. We have guests who are vegetarian (not too hard, really), vegan, and lactose intolerant, as well as gluten intolerant. Any one--not tough. All--really difficult.

None of them are difficult guests, but I would really like to have a menu that allows everyone to have at least a few choices.

The toughest things for me are vegan and gluten intolerant. I am not going to bake with tofu or fake dairy. That stuff I'll have to buy as is. It's a lot of work to prep without a food processor, and besides, the chemical fakes aren't any too good for you. I do have some gluten free "flour". Brownies should be pretty simple, but they won't be vegan.

But...these guests are good people, and I want them to feel comfortable! I have a feeling that Whole Yuppie will provide some of our menu items. And it won't be terribly accurate, historically, but people are more important than effect.