Happy Halloween

Russell can be so helpful at this time of year. He was helping to carve the pumpkin all summer. I have named the jack-o-lantern "Scar Face" Later on Russell is going to help me make his famous poop-corn balls.

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Well the King of the Woodland is off to school, sorry no pictures just yet, I didn't think about it. Might be that I'm not a morning person...

On the menu for today:
Lunch
Bat sandwich and mummy's skin (fruit leather) Macey's is selling black and orange sandwich bread. I used the black bread and orange cheese to make Eric's sandwich this morning and cut it into a bat shape. "How spooky!"
Dinner
backbones
more mummy skin
eyes of newt
worms (on the black bread)
Russell's famous poop-corn balls
and some pumpkin pasta I made last year but forgot to serve so I saved it for this year instead, might be a little green...

Pictures to come later. Happy Haunting ;)

Happy Haunting

Witches Fingers
Use your favorite bread machine recipe for dough. Before adding the dry ingredients add 8 or so drops of green food coloring and stir. After the dough has risen once, form it into breadsticks. (we like to make ours lumpy, it looks like knuckles) Then press a sliced almond into one end. (Press it in really deep because when the bread rises it will push out some.) Brush with egg wash (1 egg and 2 tsp. water wisked together.) Bake as directed for rolls.


Baked Bones
Bones made from manicotti shells and mushrooms, blood tomato sauce, and cheese "marrow" make for this spooky and fun baked dish. Easy to put together and to make ahead of time, this is a great dinner party dish. Don't be tempted to omit the mushrooms even if you don't like them. They keep the manicotti rounded and "bony" looking.

14 manicotti shells
28 medium white mushrooms
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 eggs
2 pounds ricotta cheese
2 cups Parmesan cheese, divided
2 cups mozzarella cheese, divided
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
Salt
White pepper
3 cups favorite smooth tomato sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease individual baking dishes or a large baking dish. Cook the manicotti shells according to the package directions until al dente, but not too soft. Drain well and toss to remove most of the water. While the manicotti is cooking, clean the mushrooms well and toss with the lemon juice to prevent browning. Beat the eggs, ricotta, half the Parmesan, half the mozzarella, and the spices in a medium bowl until smooth. Pour the sauce into the prepared baking dish(es). Stuff the manicotti with the ricotta mixture using a long handled small spoon or a pastry bag and tip. The filling should be packed, but not so tightly that it cracks or breaks the shells. Add a mushroom to the end of each shell and place in the baking dish. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and sprinkle the remaining cheeses over the bones. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the filling is hot and the cheese is melted. Serve hot. (The mushroom kind of fell out of the shells during baking so I recomend placing the "bones" close together so they can't fall out. I guess mushrooms shrink while baking.)

Makes 6 servings.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Three little words...

Hot Dog Flavoring,

think about it.

New Winter Fashions

Eric is one lucky kid. He got to wear his shorts and T-shirts all through Sept. But alas all good things come to an end. And so on this wash day the winter wear emerges from it's clearance rack cocoon.

And so the new clothes ritual begins, the snipping of tags, the pulling of stickers, the measuring of sizes... What's that you say, all sizes are created equal? Not so my friends, I have five different brands and three different numbers that are all the same size, and that's just the pants. And last but not least the dreaded color bleed test. Most years this is an uneventful test, but not this time. Sonoma must have moved production to China because all three Sonoma shirts failed the test. But not to worry. Red and Blue make purple so everything will have a nice lavender tint when it comes out of the wash. And you know how antiqueing is "in" right now, well the third shirt is brown. Maybe we'll start a new trend, who knows?

P.S. Don't get me started on the jeans. You can now buy them looking pre-worn so that you don't have to go through the work of wearing them out yourself. Fashion designers think of everything.