Halloween Hijinx

I hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween – it’s one of my favorite holidays.  What’s not to love?  Candy, awesome costumes, parties, drinks – all some of my favorite things.

Today I decided it would be good to reflect on some of my favorite costumes through the years.  Now don’t get me wrong, I definitely had some “off” years such  as a hershey’s kiss, western witch (what the crap, right), devil farmer (again, lame) and little Edie from Grey Gardens (which would have been cool if people had heard of Grey Gardens – I was mistaken for a crazy cat lady, which is kind of related I guess).

I think I pretty much went as a princess from grades K – 5.  After that is when some of the costume fails listed above occurred.  Anyway, on to some of my faves.

We’ll start with the most recent.  This year, I went as a voodoo doll.  I love New Orleans and enjoy the mystery of voodoo (don’t freak out, I’m not like a devil worshipper, etc etc) and the culture that goes along with it.

I was at first going to go as Julia Child, but that seemed too easy.  Thus, the voodoo concept was born.

Meet the inspiration for my costume -- my sometimes cranky voodoo doll.
I took her along to JoAnn's to reference while buying supplies and her head
like seriously started popping off (in anger I think) -- more white pin!

This part is quite shocking.  I was able to restitch my sash without a major sewing machine melt down.

Here's a bird's eye view of my hair. 

And here's the whole ensemble!  Features -- tutu featuring mardi gras colors,
black and white pins, a little pouch for treasures, giant hair, crazy makeup.

And now onto some other faves from years gone by.

2011 - Cigarette Girl

2010 - Alice in Wonderland


2009 - Costume fail as Little Edie from Gray Gardens. No photos, haha.

2008 - 1950s Housewife

I pretty much didn't do Halloween costumes from 1995 - 2007 so I guess I'm making up for it now.  But, here is one last treasure from my youth.

1990 - Little Bo Peep.  My mom made me take the puppet.

Happy Halloween!! Can't wait for next year already!

We Can Can! Part 3 of 3

Later in the season I visited home and basically took the rest of the tomatoes from my Mom and Dad’s.  Since Mom was pretty much done canning, I was glad to take the remaining tomatoes back to the Cbus.

I had about 6 pounds to work with, not a lot, but enough to make a few jars for sure.  I decided to make some tomato jam, as I was inspired by my friend Leah Curtis who told me of her love for the oddity.  I highly respect Leah for many reasons, but really value her tips and advice when it comes to cooking and food.  She’s a natural!  So anyway, she told me stories of egg sandwiches with tomato jam and how the tasty treat was basically one of her favorite things.

Leah was right.  Tomato jam is the bomb.  I used the recipe from Food in Jars and it was prefect.  Some of my favorite days are when I can spend the whole day in the kitchen canning.  The tomato jam simmered pretty much all day before being put in jars.  The recipe caught me a little off guard at first since no peeling or anything but coring was required.  But hey, less work, so score!

Here are my pretties.  These may be my MVJs (most valuable jars) this season.

If you have a few tomatoes, make this stuff.  I have already been through 2 jars and am practically hoarding it!  Tomato jam is an egg's best friend.

We Can Can! Part 2 of 3

My sister friends Abby and Lindsey love to can, too.  They are basically can-iacs, so we work pretty well together.  This year, we did several different things in our approximately 12 hour canning spree but spent the majority of time doing peaches.  Linds picked the peaches up from Branstools, (pretty sure anyway) and they sure were real nice.

I was thrilled when the jam turned out.  One time we tried to do strawberry jam and didn’t follow the recipe closely (big mistake).  We kind of go something more like strawberry gel / sauce. 

Peach jam photo session.

The peach jam is awesome over cream cheese.  It will be great to break out for Pinterest nights, work birthday parties when I don’t feel like cooking, or pretty much anytime I want a delightful snack.

We also canned some peaches.  My favorite trick here --- drop the peaches in some boiling water for a few minutes so the skins will come off more easily.  It’s about the only way to go, people.   The peaches floated to the tops of the jars again this year.  Someday I figure out how to stop this nuisance. 

I see them floatin' I hate it (you know, like to the tune of Ridin' Dirty).
Even though they float, the taste is not affected - they are still awesome.

Thanks Abby and Lindsey (and their mom Mae) for a fun day!  Can with your friends! 

On an additional note, I need to finish a peach themed cross stitching project.  Better get on that!

We Can Can! Part 1 of 3

I sure wish I had a garden.  Luckily, my mom and several friends have great gardens!  And, Ohio is full of flavor and offers a variety of tasty treats.  I love canning.  It’s one of my favorite activities.  This year, I had a few different canning expeditions – each turning out pretty good.

My mom had tomatoes growing in like three different places on the farm.  There were a few vines behind Dad’s shop, several behind the horse barn and a few more by the wood stove shed, I think.  Mom and I picked some tomatoes for a while one day, until I saw a snake skin and fled.  Stupid snake.  Anyway, after we picked about 10 pounds, we got the tomatoes washed up and ready to go for making sauce and ketchup.

The tomato sauce was easy.  The ketchup was a little trickier.  We had to make a spice pouch, which was a little creepy.  But it turned out OK.  We should have let it cook down a little longer, but I think for the first time at bat with ketchup, it's just fine and dandy.  It was lots of fun canning with my mom.  And since we didn’t have to pressure can, I was allowed to stay in the kitchen the whole time, haha.

We entered several of our canned goods in the competition at the Brown County Fair.  And despite not taking the major prize, I think our display of goods looked the best.

A good project for mother and daughter.  What's more wholesome than such
a duo competing with canned goods at the county fair?

The display included corn, tomato sauce, tomato jam, blackberry jelly,
mint jelly, blackberries, ketchup, green beans, peaches, peach jam, tomatoes, etc.
A pretty good variety I think.

We also entered some of our tomato sauce.  We were pretty excited to see this ribbon.
While it's not blue or purple, Bro Co Fair is tough competition, people!

And one of the best parts of this story – Mom got me my OWN canning pot and supplies.  Thanks for empowering me, Mom!  I felt like Forrest Gump when he got his Nike shoes from Jenny.  Like Forrest, I was inspired to use my new treasure.  But unlike Forrest, I have to wait until next season to put my treasure to use.

Can you spot my new precious canner?  I hope she likes her home on
top of my fridge for hibernation. Ten points if you can locate the other
 canning tool in this photo!

Check back soon for more canning stories!

Corn Bread Success!

A few friends and I founded a tailgate this season -- one of my dreams for the past few years.  We named it Shenanigate and it is basically a smorgasboard of flavors, friends and fun.  I’ll blog about it in more detail when the season is over (GO BUCKS, btw).

Having a tailgate allows me to pressure myself to make amazing food to share.  For the Purdue game, I made chili and cornbread.  At the last tailgate, I made pimento cheese sandwiches (although kind of not because I couldn’t find pimentos and the cheese wouldn’t mash up so it wasn’t quite right).  The pimento cheese, umm, I mean cheese sandwiches, looked good, but  I was half embarrassed to put out them out on display. But this time, my stuff was the bomb.

I made a crock pot full of chili using a new recipe.  I usually make sweet chili, but I figured people would think that was weird.  So this time, I seasoned it with cumin and chili powder.  Magnificent.

The real crowd pleaser, though, was the cornbread.  I used the recipe from one of my favorite restaurants, DeSha’s.  The flagship DeSha's is in Lexington, but there's also one in Maysville (which is very close to Ripley, aka, hometown).  They are famous for many dishes, but their cornbread is kind of a classic.  I grabbed a recipe card from the restaurant after one visit and had been wanting to try it.  The tailgate was the perfect opportunity!

While emotionally drawn to the recipe and opportunity to create it, the recipe kind of intimidated me.  It called for a crap ton of things.  Umm, 6 eggs?  For real?  6?  Yes – it called for 6.  OK.  Here goes nothing!

I’ll tell you folks, the recipe is legit.  People actually WANTED to take a plate of leftovers home from the tailgate.  This kind of phenonema has never happened to me.  Probably one of the greatest moments of my life, haha.

The Recipe:

DeSha's Homemade Cornbread

3 cups self rising corn meal
1/3 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups sour cream
2 2/3 cups cream style corn

Combine all ingredients in order listed, mix well.  Pour the mixture into greased 9x13 inch pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.  Makes 12 squares of cornbread.

If you go to DeSha's, you too can pick up such a postcard
with the cornbread recipe on the back.

My recommendations:

• The recipe instructs you to use a 9 x 13 pan.  I really thought the stuff was going to overflow for a while, but it didn't  The amount of batter used in a pan this size will give you a very thick corn bread -- almost like a cake.  I think next time I will cut the recipe in half to see how it works.

• Also, the recipe card says to bake the cornbread for 30 minutes approximately.  My oven is a little janky, so that could explain this, but it took about 50 minutes for the corn bread to fully cook.  Just be sure to test with a toothpick of skewer for doneness.

• It makes 12 HUGE squares.  I would think it would be more like 36 servings approx.

Enjoy!

Keep on Cooking!

If you’ve seen this blog before or know me at all, you’ll know that the recipes I prepare usually rock or suck.  In the summer, I thought any cooking skills I had were vanishing as everything I tried to make ended up as an epic fail (black eyed pea dip, macaroni and crab, etc).  You can imagine my discouragement. 

But, I think I’m getting back on track!  Most things I’ve made the past month or so have turned out deliciously.  Here is a list of the things I have learned that will hopefully help cut back on recipe fails moving forward:

1 – Read the recipe fully.  Don’t skim it.

2 – If not quite sure what an ingredient is, look it up on the google.  For example, processed cheese loaf is NOT cream cheese.  I learned this the hard way.  FYI, processed cheese loaf is supposedly Velveeta. 

3 – Don’t make substitutions - ESPECIALLY when it comes to spices.

4 – If an ingredient sounds gross, add it anyway.  Follow the recipe.

5 – Use trusted sources for recipes.  I love Pinterest and all, but some of the recipes I’ve made from there are not quite right.

6 – This kind of goes along with lesson number one, but before you start making the recipe, make sure you have all of the crap required for it.  The lack of following this rule may lead to substitutions, which can lead to fails.

7 – Make sure you have the equipment needed to prepare a recipe.  For example, pimento cheese cannot be smoothly processed with a fork.  For serious.

Moral of the story, if you have a recipe fail, keep trying.  Don’t be afraid to try the recipe again if you know what you screwed up.  I believe in you!

And I leave you with this treasure: