Kitchen Failure and Success

I just love casseroles for many reasons. Not only do they define comfort food for me, but they are usually easy to prepare in advance and are great for hectic evenings (and the lazy ones). Fall and winter are perfect times to have a casserole. Now, I never make the ones that call for "cream of something" canned soup. The combinations of noodles, cheese and buttery crunchy toppings just make me salivate. I do tend to get into a rut, I have a rotation of just a handful that are my go-to recipes.

I was so excited to find a new cookbook called The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever. There are yummy photos and a huge assortment of casseroles that are outside of the norm, but easy to prepare without exotic ingredients. Those of you who have been in my kitchen know about my large number of cookbooks and the fact that I have more storage for cookbooks than for dishes. I even had to bring in a bookshelf to hold more of my growing collection. I read cookbooks like others read novels. This leads me to another point for those of you who know my cooking style....I am completely unable to follow a recipe or measure ingredients. I just get inspired and go off on my own tangent.

Now on to my failure in the kitchen. I tried my first recipe in the cookbook that struck my fancy...South African Spiced Biryani. This recipe looked like something I would find in an Indian cookbook, one of my favorite ethnic cuisines. I had everything on hand, so I threw it together and actually followed the recipe (this was my first mistake - I know better than to follow a recipe!)

I was so excited about dinner, the house smelled wonderful from the combination of spices, the cardamom especially. I was so excited to dig into this meal that I even skipped taking a picture of it just so I could eat faster. The whole family agreed unanimously and in unison that this meal SUCKED!!!!!!! It tasted terrible. A complete failure! I quickly made some shrimp quesadillas as a replacement meal, at least they were good.

I am not going to let this bad meal keep me from trying other recipes from this book. It is just a disappointment to see a meal that I was so looking forward to end up in the trash.

You may remember my recent post about the death of R2D2. I had not attempted bread since he went to bread maker heaven. It is now time to move on from my grief and attempt to make bread without a bread maker. I know it is possible. I tried a recipe from a friend for Whole Wheat Bread. The bread came together and the kneading process was not nearly as bad as I remember as a kid. I felt so productive making bread for the family. A simple pleasure I should do more often.

I should have taken pictures along the way, but all I did was the finished product. The house smelled delicious from the bread. The bread was perfect! Soft, moist and light. Perfect with a generous amount of fresh butter on top. I gave one loaf to a friend and the girls and I have done a successful job of polishing off the second. I see more bread baking in my future...I do own many cookbooks on the topic...now I just need to find them in my collection!

More Halloween Party Pics!

To see more of the Halloween Party fun, check out Lora's blog!

Yes, this does qualify for a very lazy post. he,he,he!

My life in a comic strip

I am a huge fan of the comic strip Stone Soup. It is delivered to my inbox every morning. This one came through and I swear that it is about ME!

Stone Soup
by Jan Eliot

Olive Fingers

On Sunday we had leftovers of chili and beer that needed to be consumed. This was just another excuse to have friends over again! We ordered a pizza for the kids and threw some veggies on a plate so there would be some food that resembled healthy. I put some black olives out. Nora Beth is convinced that they taste better when eaten off of her fingers. I remember getting in trouble for doing this as a kid. Sometimes you just need to have fun with your food.

Nicole stopped by to say goodbye after her short visit. Shianne is so attached to her. I so wish she lived closer to us. Darned her for wanting to lead an adult life. She needs to live with us until all my kids are grown and out of the house!

We said our goodbye's to her. We hope to see her near Christmas.

This was another fun night. Lora came over with her boys and her friend Brad. I am so glad that Lamar and Brad are hitting it off - they have bonded over sports, beer and obscene jokes sent to each others phones!

Pumpkin Carving Party

On Saturday we hosted our annual Pumpkin Carving Party. We had close to 100 people at our house. This party seems to get bigger each year! Here are some of the pumpkins that are gracing the front porch of our home.
As always, I cooked a lot of food. Chili is a staple for this party. There was Casper the Friendly Ghost mild and From the Witches Backside hot. The pot of queso dip was just about licked clean. I made a Kitty Litter Cake that the kids really enjoyed. It did look like the real deal, and believe it or not, tasted really good.

Here is a group having fun around some pumpkins. We got smart this year and rented a large patio heater to keep the garage warm. We were so impressed with how well it worked that we are keeping our eyes open to purchase one.

Here is Shi working on one of her pumpkins.

There were some organized games for the kiddos. The gross-out table was a hit along with the Jello Brains. The little kids had a pinata and the older kids made mummies of themselves. The mummies were a huge hit!

Here is Holly mummifying Shianne.

Lamar even got in on the action. Here are Lamar and Shianne. They were laughing so hard.

It was a great party this year. It is always fun to have a party where the adults and kids argue over who had the most fun. This will be a tough party to top next year.

Our Nicole, All Grown Up

Ok, I know that she is not ours, but she is so important to us that we will make that claim. Nicole came into our life just before Shianne was born. She started watching Shianne when she was 3 months old and continued up until about 3 years ago when she decided to go to the Air Force. Now look at her. She is married with a beautiful baby. Coincidentally, Courtney is 3 months old. Lamar and I are so excited to finally be Aunt Stacey and Uncle Lamar to this little girl.
Nicole came home for the weekend for a family event. We were so excited to see her and finally meet Courntey in person. It is so unreal to see Nicole as a mom. I am so happy for her in her new phase of life.

Shianne was so excited to hold Courtney. It won't be long until Shianne is babysitting Courtney. That means we have to convince Nicole to move back here.

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round....

During a recent conversation with a friend, she learned about my anxiety around public transportation. I am not against public transportation in any way, but the thought of figuring out a bus schedule and changing buses really causes my palms to sweat. Now my friend is a regular on the bus...and by choice! She was determined to show me that the bus is not all bad.

She took it easy on me and we met at the West Salem Transit and made our way across the bridge. We got off the bus and walked to the Carousel.

Nora Beth was so excited to ride the bus. Here she is with her friend. This excursion was a big deal for her. A bus ride, carousel ride and playing at the park...sounds like a great day for a three year old. To top it off, she got a chocolate ice cream cone on the way home. I definitely scored some points today!
Now the bus ride was not bad. I still have no plans on making this a regular event. The thought of changing buses and being on the other side of town with the bus being my only form of transportation, still causes my heart to race. Baby steps.