Happy Halloween!

I thought this was a cool picture. This is the punkin my parents sent and I put a candle in front of it to cast this spooky shadow.

Got a Haircut!

I got a new hair-do and my family wanted to see it. Ta Da! I didn't like it at first, but I went back and had her cut a little more, and now I'm just having to get used to it. I was sick of my hair because I would always just wear the same dumb braid every day and I didn't know what else to do with it.

The lady who did my hair was showing how I could have a curly look or a straight look.


This is supposed to be "The Curly Look"...




And this is supposed to be "The Straight Look"...


I like it best smooth with a little curl at the end. The top "curly" pictures I think look like a shaggy dog. Hahhaha!

Christmas Oatmeal!

I'm just calling it Christmas oatmeal because it smells and tastes like Christmas. I put it all in the pot last night and let all the flavors just soak and mingle. As you can see, I added a couple spoonfuls of powdered milk, some chopped up apple, raisins, a dash of salt, a small sprinkle of ground cloves, a bigger sprinkle of nutmeg, and a lot more cinnamon, and some brown sugar. You can also add a couple spoonfuls of flaxseed or wheatgerm for extra fiber and protein. (You might want to slowly add this (flaxseed/wheatgerm) to your diet...it's very good for you, but if you put too much all at once it will be hard on your stomach and not feel very good. Well, my stomach hurt anyway when I tried it) So you can just kind of figure out how you like it. I didn't measure anything...I just put it in til it smelled and tasted good to me. Yum!

More Plum Jam

I suppose you can tell from my numerous very exciting posts how exciting my life is. Hahhaa! Actually, making and canning plum jam is pretty fun...so much fun that I made up another batch of it. This time I picked yellow plums and used the fruit part as well as the juice to make jam. I like that it's thicker and has more substance to it than the jelly. It looks kind of odd, as you would normally expect plum jam to be a beautiful dark purple, but I can assure you it tastes great!


A nice bowl of yellow plums....




...And Wa-La! Lovely Plum Jam!



Especially good on fresh homemade bread!

Pumpkins Don't Last

Our Poor Pumpkins don't look so good anymore! Hahahaha! Full of mold and falling in, looks like a person without teeth. And Greg's pumpkin that had frightening horns now appears to have curly pig-tails on both sides of it's head. Hahahhaa!



Greg fixed up this picture for me so we can easily compare the fresh pumpkins with the old, tired and depressed pumpkins.

Halloween Box from Ma and Pa Warlock!

We got a box from Ma and Pa Warlock today! Yipee! Candy and candles and costumes!...And yes, Greg did eat the candy that was stuck in his nose. Yuck! He's such a boy!

I used the candy to help decorate, but I think it will probably disappear before Halloween arrives.

I've got some muddy worms hanging out of my mouth. Yum!

Thanks Mom and Dad! That was really fun to get!

Carving Pumpkins!

Making Salsa!

Dinner Ideas

I like getting ideas for dinner from friends who have made something good...That's a lot easier and more trust-worthy than a cookbook. So! I'll give you ideas as I get them, and hopefully when I visit your blog, you will have some too!

Idea Number 1
Split Pea Soup
It's super easy. Just buy a bag of dried split peas--the recipe is on the back. I like to add a cup or two of small chunks of ham, chopped carrots and onions. It takes about an hour and a half all together (one hour at least just to cook the soup). It's very good with corn bread, or the pretzles I told you about. Hope you like it!

Salsa Recipe

Part 1
1 head of garlic
3-5 cyranos (small jalapenos)
1-2 pesquillo (dark bell pepper)
2-3 jalapenos (cut out seeds under running water for more mild salsa...seeds at head)
1-2 yellow jalapenos
1-10 tomatillos (green with husk)

Put in a pan with oil and scorch until dark brown. After peppers are scorched or browned, put all the above indredients into a blender with a few cut tomatoes, and blend.

Part 2
2-3 green and/or red peppers
1 large yellow onion
1 gallon diced unpeeled tomatoes (we got this in cans)
2 Tbsp salt
1 large purple onion
1 bunch cilantro
2 limes juiced

Combine cut vegitables with puree and serve. Our friend said that sometimes he just puts the whole thing into the blender and cuts the time from an hour to ten minutes. And again, make sure you open all the windows and doors in your house and turn on fans and don't touch your eyes! If you think onions make you cry, this recipe will really make you weep! Hehahahh~! But it's worth it!
Some of the ingredients are hard to find, but make sure you get the cilantro and limes. Those are very important flavors that make this salsa so special. Enjoy!

Pretzle Recipe!

I found this recipe when I was poking around Kaela's blog and looking at the links she had listed. This comes from a link called "Sugar Doodle." Greg and I like them so much, we've made them about four times in the last couple weeks. It's fun to do with friends too. We've taken the dough to our friend's houses and then let everybody make their own pretzle to bake. It's a little tricky getting it to twist just right....I usually just make a long snake and then roll it up and squish it together in a big blob. I like them better softer.


You'll need:
1 package of dry yeast
1-1/2 cups lukewarm water (not hot)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups of flour
1 beaten egg
extra salt

Dissolve yeast in warm water and let rise a few minutes. Add sugar and salt and blend in 4 cups flour. Turn dough out on floured table or breadboard and knead until smooth. Refrigerate until you are ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease cookie sheet or toaster oven tray. Cut off 4" piece of dough, roll into ropes about six to eight inches, or a length you can easily twist. Twist into shape with loop at top and two arms folded over. Arrange on lightly greased toaster oven tray or cookie sheet allowing space between pretzels for expansion. Brush with beaten egg -- those places you miss will not brown. Sprinkle with salt. Bake 12-15 minutes. Ovens may vary so check after 7-8 minutes.

We found 10 minutes to be the perfect baking time for our pretzles. I haven't tried this yet, but my mom suggested sprinkling cinnamon and sugar instead of salt. We've had our pretzels with split pea soup, tomatoe soup, spaghetti, and with jam...all very good!

Salsa!

Our friends, the Lee's gave us some salsa the other day and it was SO Good! We got the recipe and then Greg went shopping for all the peppers and different spicy ingredients. Last night we set everything up and went to work. Half of the ingredients need to be chopped and sauteed, and the other half are chopped and added fresh to the mix. Even though it was very cold outside, I opened all the windows and doors and put our fans on full blast. Chopping and sauteeing all those peppers and onions fills the air so much with eye-watering and nosing burning chemicals.

Greg did most of the work as I practiced the piano, and then I helped towards the end with some final ingredients such as two limes and a large bunch of cilantro. Greg was so excited as he mixed everything together in our biggest mixing bowl. We grabbed the chips and dug in! And the salsa WAS good! I had to get sour cream to mix in a bowl for myself because it was too spicy for me. Brother Lee warned us not to touch our eyes for at least 24 after we make the salsa....so we were being very careful....However, a couple hours later (and after scrubbing with soap) as Greg was working at his computer, he forgot for a split-second and touched his eye. I didn't know what happened, but I knew he was in pain. He bolted to the bathroom and stuck his head in the sink letting the water pour full-blast into his eye. After a few minutes when everything calmed down a little, he could hold his eye open just long enough for me to see that it was very red and watering profusley. I could even see the actually spot on the eye that he had touched, as it was especially red and disturbed looking. It cleared up after about a half an hour. He was really careful after that.
That salsa is very good! We ate it until our stomachs were so full and on fire!