The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Scratchy vs The Lobster Twins

Bill brought home a couple of lobsters last weekend, and while we waited for the water to come to a boil, we put the lobsters on the floor near Scratchy, just to see what would happen.

See the picture above?  See the fierce, predatory look on Scratchy’s face? 

That’s not at all what really happened.

Don’t Look If You’re Arachnophobic

I’ve got a couple of pictures below, but they’re not of REAL creatures.  The pictures are at the very end of the post, so if you want to keep reading, feel free.

Just a friendly warning for some of my friends.  :)

A Look at My Morning, So Far

This was my dining room table at 6:55 this morning.

Please ignore the bags of potato chips.  In this house we only eat homemade potato chips, of course.  Those were…for………the neighbors.

Anyway. 

On the table I’ve got some canned crushed tomatoes, other canned stuff that’s buried and you can’t see it.  Bowls of basil, sage, and kale, a little plastic container of cookes, a bowl of tomatillows, some apples, peaches, garlic, tomatoes, a few jalapenos somewhere, 6 ears of corn, that bag of shredded coconut…which is also……for the neighbors, because of course we only travel to tropical islands, climb up trees, harvest our own coconuts, and shred the flesh ourselves….

Booger Jam

This isn’t something you’ll be able to make all the time, of course.  In fact, in order to make the project worth your time and effort, it helps if you gradually stock up on the ingredients over, say, a year.

It really helps if you’ve got small children and your whole family gets massive head colds throughout the winter.  Just, you know, save the bits and pieces in ziploc bags in the freezer so they’ll stay nice and almost-fresh.

Ah-choo!

September’s Banner

I just put up a new banner for this month. 

Finally.

It went through several incarnations, but I knew I wanted to include images of yesterday’s harvest.

September is a big transition month, I think, garden-wise.  Lots of harvesting, lots of clearing out and preparing for the winter and the following spring.

Breakfast

Lizards.  And a blob of extra batter.

Alex had a friend sleep over, and I promised I’d make pancakes for breakfast.

Just to amuse myself (and score “best Mom who makes pancakes” points), I put some batter in a piping bag and had fun drawing. 

Pasta Prima Winner

Using Random.Org’s Integer Generator, I entered the number of entrants (12) to the Pasta Prima giveaway I mentioned a couple of days ago.

 

Here’s the result:

 

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

2

Timestamp: 2011-08-15 16:08:25 UTC

 

And that means Zoe is the winner!

Congratulations, Zoe! 

Please email me – jayne (at) barefootkitchenwitch (dot) com – with your full name and shipping address and a phone number.  The pasta will be sent via Fed Ex, and they require a phone number.

 

Thanks for playing along!

Getting Saucy with Pasta Prima (and there’s a giveaway, too!)

Nope, I didn’t make the ravioli.  Wish I had – aren’t they pretty?

The ravioli are Pasta Prima’s Butternut Squash Ravioli, and they are nestled in a fresh tomato, nasturtium flower (yes, really) and goat cheese sauce I whipped up for them.

And Then I Went Back to Bed

I haven’t been sleeping well. 

There’s a lot on my mind, and it gets kind of hushed during the day when I’m busy with other, more immediate things, but then at night it senses the silence, the lack of motion, and, like a baby in my belly, it starts kicking.  Hard.

So I woke up sometime after three this morning.  Couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got up in a feeble attempt to flee the babble in my brain.

I didn’t escape them, of course.  They came along for the ride.

I went downstairs and switched on the tv more as an aural distraction than because there was anything to watch…and I puttered.  I folded laundry, started another load, wished my cousin a happy birthday on facebook, read stuff online, added a rosary posting to my etsy store, and tried to feel like I was accomplishing something good.  Something to make getting up worth it.  Not sure if I accomplished that or not.

I did get drowsy again, though, and at about quarter to six, when I couldn’t form intelligent sentences for another etsy upload, I figured I could go back to sleep for an hour or so.

So up I went.  I fell asleep, wrapped in a blanket (the fan was on in the room because Bill and I have different air temperature requirements to sleep well, at least in the summer), and dropped deeply into a dream.

Bill and I had gone…somewhere.  To something festive, it seemed…a wedding, a party…somewhere away.  And during the course of the festivities, whatever they were, Bill ended up hanging out with a bunch of guys that were there and I ended up heading back to whatever room we were staying in that night.  The next morning, I texted him because I didn’t know where he was, and then somehow I was home, in the basement, and I found his cell phone there, plugged into the charger.

So he didn’t even have it with him.  And I didn’t know how to get in touch with him, or where he was, or anything.  I worry all the time.  Even in dreams, apparently.

And then, I heard his voice.

It was saying “Jayne!  Jayne!  It’s trash day!”

I swam up, up, up through my unconsciousness and emerged, still wrapped in a blanket, still foggy-brained.  I opened an eye and looked at him.

“I heard the trucks,” he said urgently.

So my body rolled out of bed, dragging my sluggish brain with it, and we hurried downstairs to get our trash and recycle bins to the curb so we wouldn’t be stuck with smelly garbage fermenting in the sun for the next week. 

I tilted the gray garbage bin back on its wheels and started rolling it toward the street.  Bill was behind me, hopefully planning to carry the lawn bags, which were still wet from recent rain.  I hate carrying wet lawn bags – I’m always expecting them to break, and I really don’t want to have to deal with that.

Anyway, I’m also thinking, which week is it, green or blue?  Green is paper recyclables, blue is bottles and cans and metal things.  I’m pretty sure last week was green, but I scan the street to see what the other, more organized, neighbors have done.

Hmmm.

I see one gray bin over there.  But nothing else anywhere. 

It crosses my mind that everyone else on our street is SO efficient that not only did they put their bins out the night before, but they also ran outside IMMEDIATELY after the trucks ZIPPED THROUGH and returned the bins to wherever they keep them the rest of the week.

But that made no sense.  More foggy thinking…it IS Wednesday, right?

And then just as the dim bulb in my brain was starting to glow a bit, Bill said “Monday holiday!”

Rhode Island is the only state still observing “Victory Day.”  It used to be VJ day – Victory over Japan – but then a lot of states stopped celebrating it and then I guess the name got changed to sound more PC. 

Anyway.  Aha.  Monday holiday.  That meant our trash pickup would be…tomorrow.

I just looked at Bill, who kind of smiled and said “Sorry.”

I wanted to glare, but I laughed instead and headed back inside, up the stairs, and back into my blanket cocoon. 

I figured it might make for a good story later.

Firewood Camp – or – What Mom and Dad Forced Us To Do On Our Summer Vacation

While Mommy slacked off inside pretending to make beef stock and other nourishing foods, plus do laundry and dishes – OR SO SHE SAID – Julia and Alex were pressed into service as Firewood Transportation Specialists.

While I Make Cheese…

Here’s a picture of my arm from a couple of days ago

Bunnies

I was getting ice from the freezer, which is near the back door in the kitchen, and I just happened to glance outside.

And I saw a little bunny on the grass on the other side of our driveway.

Eeeeeeeeeeeee!  A bunny!  Only there was no one to tell, because everyone else was (and is) still in bed.

And THEN!

ANOTHER BUNNY appeared!

Barefoot Rock Climber

Among all the things to do and places to eat at the resort, there was a little area that included a batting cage and a rock climbing wall.  Or…tower, I guess.

Julia climbed some of it one day, and then, on our last day, she gave it another try.

Flower Girl and Ring Bearer

I’ve got so much to write about, but for now, I just wanted to share with you some pictures of Alex and Julia on wedding day….

Backyard Fireworks

Fireworks are now legal in RI – I think that happened last year or the year before.  Or, anyway, SOME fireworks are legal.  But anyway, the kids gave Bill some fireworks for Father’s Day, and the other night, he set some of them off in the driveway.

The Pork Butt Smokes at Midnight

Well, it smokes at one a.m., anyway.

Yep,  it’s the middle of the night, and I’ve just put a 9+ pound pork butt in the smoker.  It should be done around twelve hours from now.  Lunchtime tomorrow.  Or, actually, lunchtime much later today.

My husband thinks I’m nuts.

A Few Recent Meals, Courtesy of Our Garden, Farmers Markets, and Other Local Sources

Baby Bella Mushrooms stuffed with Ricotta, Fresh Herbs, and More Mushrooms.

I love being able to throw together dishes like these.  I have no real recipes for any of them; no measurements, quantities or times.  I just had a garden, a recent trip to the Farmers market, some homemade cheeses, and a few other ingredients – mostly local.  And a hungry family.

Herbivores of the African Plains – Julia’s Cake 2011

Originally Julia said she wanted a giraffe cake. 

Because I’d done elephants before.

And Beluga whales last year.

The plan was to have a bunch of fondant giraffes all over a grassy cake.

But then, as is her womanly right, Julia changed her mind.

Not Exactly a Nimbus 2000

But it gets me where I need to go.  ;)

Bill “surprised” me with this the other day.

And no, not for Mother’s Day.

Testy Snakes

Spammed comments are annoying, because I have to go and delete them and then ban the IP address, which takes time…it’s kind of like weeding the garden, only less meditative.  And it doesn’t smell as good.

But sometimes I just have to laugh.

Hoppy Easter

I hope the Easter Bunny brought you lots of chocolate, if that’s your thing.  Or lots of whatever else you like.

Unfortunately the Easter Bunny didn’t bring me what I wanted.

More hours in the day.

Ah well.

I’ll have to ask Santa.

Again.

Easter Eggs

I’m getting a lot of traffic for these eggs I made a couple of years ago, and for any of you new to this website, I figured I’d post the links to those original posts, just in case you’d like to give them a whirl…

Coloring Eggs

Wow!  And Welcome!  And More Egg Pictures!

The kids want to make these again this year, so we’ll probably be doing that next week, and I’ve got an idea for something new and different as well.  That’ll be a project for this weekend, maybe. 

I’ll keep you posted!

Poultry Patrol

It’s a turkey.

This morning after the kids ate breakfast, I was in the kitchen washing a small part at the base of the mountain of dishes I have to do today.

MOUNTAIN.

Why I’m emphasizing my dishwashing laziness I have no idea, but there you go.

Anyway, I’m washing and sort of zoning out to the intermittent SHHHHHHing of the water as I rinse things, when I hear, from upstairs, the too-familiar sound of Julia.  Shrieking.

Yep, it’s Bread Dough

Bill told the kids I’d butchered a large, purple dinosaur and included a puree of it in the dough.

Care to Hazard a Guess?

I’ll be back tomorrow with the answer.  :)

This Post is My Gift to You

Friday, after the kids were out of school, I zipped over to Stop & Shop to get a few things, including some ingredients for the veggie burgers Bill was making as part of our dinner that night.

Now, not all the stores have the same layout, but the one near my house is set up so that if you go in the door by the produce section, you pass through all the fruits and vegetables…the deli is to the left, then the bakery is beyond that, also on the left, and sort of behind all the produce, parallel to the bakery area, is the organic food area – boxes of cereals and flours and sauces and baby food and snacks and chips and all that.

Then, if you keep walking past that, you hit the seafood and the meats.

(I know, it’s deadly dull stuff, but stay with me.)

Amazing Cake

Just want to point you all in the direction of my future niece-in-law’s blog today.  She is an incredible cake- and cupcake-maker/decorator, and this weekend she competed in the National Area Cake Show Competition in DC.  (Besides THAT fabulousness, she is also an inspiring and tough athlete.  She’s quite awesome.)

If you’ve been reading this blog for at least a few years, you might remember the adorable cupcakes she made (and brought with her on the flight to RI) in response to this unfortunate incident at our house that same summer.

Anyway, her blog is Bertie's Bakery, and you really need to go read her post about the cake decorating competition. 

You really, really do.

Go.

Go NOW!

A Peek at My Day So Far

A clementine, for my Clementine-Almond Tart – a variation on the Orange-Almond Tart for French Fridays with Dorie. 

Yes, I’m a bit late with my post. 

But I’m multi-tasking!

What Would YOU Like Me To Cook (or Bake)?

Really, I want to know.

I recently made an apple strudel, which, strangely, I'd never made before.

And tomorrow I'm planning to make Baklava, which I've never made before, either.

I know, shameful, huh?

So it occurred to me that there are probably other things I SHOULD have made at some point but haven't. 

And I'd like to rectify that a bit.

So.

What do you think is missing from my repertoire?

Or, from this blog, anyway. 

(Sometimes foods I've cooked never make it to the blog for one reason or another - sometimes due to horrible photos, or no photos at all, or me being lazy.)

Anyway, I'd really love to hear some ideas, suggestions, wishes, whatever, about something you'd like to see me make and post about.

So...let's hear it!

 

 

With Julia’s Approval

On Wednesday we had yet another snow day.  No school for Bill or the kids.

Actually, snow day isn’t quite accurate.  More like sleet/freezing rain/yuck day.

Definitely not a day to frolic and play outdoors.

If You Build It, They Will Sled

We had yet another snow storm – and no-school-day – this past Thursday.  We awoke to somewhere around a foot of snow on top of all the other snow we’ve had this season.

Bill started mounding snow against the deck after the first major snow, and he’s been adding to it with each successive snow storm.

The kids have actually been skiing on it, but this past Thursday, they were all about the sledding….

Barefoot Kitchen Witch Public Service Announcement

Oh, hi.  I didn’t see you there. 

Jayne?

I don’t know, she’s somewhere around here. 

Scrabblephobic

Alex received Scrabble for Christmas (from Santa), and at dinner this evening he suggested we have a family game night – and all play Scrabble.

House on the Hill Nativity Sale

Just wanted to share this with you all because I love the gorgeous springerle molds at House on the Hill.

I got a notice the other day that they’re having an end-of-the-year sale on Nativity molds, and I thought some of you might be interested.

One of the molds on sale is their Complete 1654 Nativity, which looks like this:

I have this one, and every year I make one huge cookie with it, which we break and share with family and friends at Christmas.  The detail is amazing, right down to the cracks from the original wood mold.

They’re all gorgeous (there are a total of 6 big, beautiful molds on sale), but if I was going to buy a new one this year, their Spectacular Nativity is the one I’d pick:

Look at the detail!  I love the sheep’s wool.

Anyway, I figured I’d pass this sale info along to you.

House on the Hill did not ask me to – I do it because I love their store and their products, and if I were a rich woman, I’d have a whole room full of their springerle molds.

That’s it for now…off to do some last-minute running around!

P.S.  Julia’s all better.  Bill’s sick now.  Hoping all the germs FEAR ME and stay far away!

Are YOU the Winner of the Rice Cooker?

Well, let’s see here.  I realize you’ll probably scroll to the bottom to see if it’s you, and that’s fine, but because I’m ME, I have to tell the Story of the Picking of the Winner, regardless.

Don’t Forget to Enter!!

The deadline for entries in my Aroma Rice Cooker Giveaway is Midnight tonight (Monday, December 13th), Eastern Standard Time.

More information here!

Time for a Giveaway!

But first, of course, there’s a story.

It’s Not a Cookbook, But It’s Got Recipes

I made a calendar.  It’s got 12 recipes and 25 pictures. 

Here it is:

It was hard to pick which recipes to use.  In some cases, I had to reject some because I didn’t have really good images to upload and, since I’m so last minute about things, I didn’t have time to make the recipe again and take new pictures. 

All of the recipes came from this website.  Some were sentimental, some were just yummy, and I tried to set them up seasonally, at least according to my little corner of the world.

Anyway, that’s been my labor of love and sleeplessness recently.

Hope you like it.  Or know someone else who would.

The Egg

My friend, Rosa’s Foster Mom, stopped by yesterday with some eggs for me, including a very special egg from Rosa.

It was a big egg.

No, make that a BIG EGG.

Here, let me demonstrate…

Romance Amid the Mucus

I know, that’s the kind of post title that just reaches out and yanks you right in, isn’t it?

Well, as you probably know, thanks to my moments of whining in recent posts, I’ve been sick, and Bill’s been sick.  For two and a half weeks.  It just started out with simple colds – annoying but tolerable.  But they just lingered, and lingered, and I’ve had aches and hoarseness and then my voice went completely for a couple of days and Bill had terrible sinus headaches.

Anyway, on Monday I thought I was getting better.  Sure, I couldn’t talk, but physically I felt a lot healthier.  So what did I do?  I spent most of the day running around the house cleaning.  Cleaning surfaces with germ-killing wipes, emptying every speck of trash, cleaning floors, dusting, vacuuming, doing laundry…and despite the fact that the power went out about 3 times due to all the crazy wind we had around here, I got a lot done.

And then Tuesday morning I felt much worse.  Of course.  My voice was back, kind of, but everything else felt horrible again.  And Bill still had the remains of a sinus headache he’d had the night before.

I told him I couldn’t take this any more, and I was going to the doctor’s.  He called in sick – very reluctantly – he HATES calling in sick – and said he’d go to the doctor, too.

Now, by doctor, we mean the walk-in clinic in town.  We’ve gone to them for years, so they pretty much ARE our regular doctors. 

Anyway, so I think Bill said, “Hey, we could go together!”  And I said, “Yeah, it’ll be a date!”  And really, it’s probably the first time in a long time we’ve done something together without the kids.

We don’t plan well, I guess.  We talk about going out and getting a sitter, but then we forget about it and end up doing other things. 

So really, this was our chance.

We slept in a little bit, or dozed and grumbled about how sick we are of feeling sick (because what’s more romantic than sharing the same cranky feelings?) and finally got up, had coffee, fed the kids, and dropped them off at school.

At last!  Our date!

So with a song in our hearts, congestion in our heads, and supplies of tissues clutched in our hands, we skipped out the door to the car and were on our merry way.

Bill brought a magazine and I brought a sketch pad, because the reading material in the waiting room consists of past issues of WebMD and Car and Driver or something like it.  Occasionally they have the morning paper or some other magazine, but really, there’s not a lot to choose from.

I said to Bill that if he wanted to go first, that was okay with me, since he gets fidgety when he has to wait more than, oh, three seconds, for anything.  But he generously declined my offer, explaining that he had his magazine (latest copy of “Brew Your Own”) and he would be fine. 

“I really don’t mind,” I said.

“No, that’s okay, you can go first,” he told me.

We smiled googly-eyed at each other and headed into the building, where we were surprised and delighted to discover that there was no one else there!  Yay, no waiting!

I zipped past Bill to sign us in, and I put his name first, because I like to get my way when I’m trying to be generous.  He thought I’d just signed myself in, so he went over to write his name in and – Surprise! – he was already on there.  He just gave me a very patient and bemused look as he sat down beside me. 

The tv was blaring some morning show too loudly, but we didn’t watch that; Bill opened his magazine and I grabbed a battered copy of People or Entertainment Weekly – I didn’t look.  I just figured it would be perfect for the short amount of time we’d have to wait.

I started reading about various famous people and their escapades, and Bill perused beer recipes and articles about oh, different types of hops or something.  Then his name was called, so he went up to the little window to tell the receptionist why he was there.  I guess he explained to her that we were both there not because we were really sick, but that it was because we don’t get out together much.  I confirmed this and told her this is a big date for us.  I told her my symptoms – pretty much the same as his – and she had me sign the paperwork and told me, as I got my wallet out to hand over the co-pay, that Bill had already paid for me.  He’s a sweet guy.

“Thank you, honey!”  I yelled.

Then the receptionist asked if we both wanted to go in together, and I had to laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.

“Do we want to go in together?”  I asked Bill.

“Sure,” he said. 

“Okay,” I told the receptionist. 

Pretty soon the door opened and we were called in to the first room, where they take your pulse and blood pressure and temperature.  Bill went first, and when it was my turn to sit on the gurney, a nurse going by in the hall outside saw me and called in “You had the baby?”

I looked at her, and I think she’s been there for a while, but, well, the last time I had a baby was six and a half years ago…does she really remember me from some visit way back then?  Or does she think I’m someone else.

“Um…well, yes – eight and six years ago,” I replied politely.

She sort of shook her head and laughed.  “Two boys?”

“Boy and a girl,” I told her.

She said something approving and congratulatory and may have mentioned how time flies, before heading on her way.

It was a strange little interlude.

Next, we were off to our shared exam room, where we would wait our turns to be x-rayed.  They were only going to x-ray Bill’s head (oh, the jokes we could have made about the contents – but we didn’t, because we were on a DATE), but they were going to do both my head and chest, so I had to remove my clothes from the waist up and don a johnny. 

Didn’t realize the joint had a dress code.

So I switched garments, and we settled in with reading material (I never ended up sketching anything) until it was time for our internal portraits.  Bill went first, then me, and you know, I’ll admit this silly little thing to you – I take a certain amount of pride in being able to hold VERY still when my picture – internal or external – is being taken.  I think it comes from having a photographer for a father.  Sit very still.  Turn your head just a bit this way.  Lift your chin, now hold.  Don’t move!  Just like that.  Good!

I’m very good at holding my poses.

Yes, all those little thoughts danced through my head as I held very still and held my breath while the three x-rays (one head and two chest) were shot.

Then it was back to the room to wait some more.

The doctor came in, and though he’s seen me before, it’s never been with Bill.  Bill was there for some other matter not too long ago, but I haven’t been in ages, so he nodded at Bill and shook my hand and asked “Are you into music, too?”  I wasn’t expecting a non-symptom question, so it threw me for a second, but I quickly recovered and said “No, I just married into it.”  Har, har.

Anyway, he listened to my lungs, and told me there really wasn’t much to see in the x-rays of my chest, but both of us had swelling in our sinuses and whatever else we’ve go in our heads, so he prescribed, for both of us, a course of steroids to decrease the swelling, and an antibiotic to fight the evil infection.  He also prescribed some OTC decongestant/expectorant, but we had stuff at home so we didn’t fill that one.  Or, rather, those two.

And that was pretty much it.  Out of the building we skipped, multiple scrips in hand.  We swung through the drive-thru at CVS to drop them off, and then he brought me home.

Not much else to tell about the rest of the day.  For some reason I felt more and more wiped out as the day went on, and ended up taking a nap in the afternoon.  Bill was increasingly fidgety (he hates calling in sick – it triggers guilt reflexes and he feels he needs to DO SOMETHING to make for his slacker ways) so he decided to make the stock for another batch of pho, and make some kale and chard dish to freeze (and to use up our abundance of kale).  I did a few dishes and then took my nap.  Then it was time to get the kids from school.

And that was the end of our date.

Triceratops

About a year and a half ago, or longer, Alex asked me to make him a Triceratops.  A stuffed animal version, not a real one.  I’d made Julia some dolls, and my son, understandably, wanting something less frou-frouey.  I sketched out parts, and got some of it pieced together, but I wasn’t really…feeling it.  I don’t know how to explain that, but for whatever reason, I just kept putting it off.  Lack of confidence?  Probably.  I’m sure I expected perfection from myself.  I wanted my soft sculpture to look real, at least from a distance.  Children would scream in fear:  “MOMMY!  LOOK!  A TRICERATOPS AT ALEX’S HOUSE!  RUN!  RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!”

So I took the bits and pieces of it out every now and again and quietly put them back.

This morning I was up very early, and I decided to start over.  I just finished it a little while ago, and so here’s what it looks like…

Did You Enter the Newman's Own Thin and Crispy Pizza Giveaway?

Well, I've picked a winner.  Go on over and see if it's you!

Halloween Costumes and the Monster Mini Dash 5K

First – I hope you all had a great last-weekend-of-October/Halloween-weekend.

Important things first – here’s my kids in their Halloween costumes:

 

Julia, as you can probably guess, is a very stylish and beautiful little witchling. 

We took her devil costume from last year, removed the sequined pitchfork, changed the stand-up collar into a cape, and i put the sequin strands that dangled from her pitchfork around her cute little hat.

  

I also made her an earring with a little spider dangling from it. 

Unfortunately, you can’t really see it in these pictures.

Oh well.

Oh, and she wore black tights (and two shirts under the costume – it was pretty cold last night) and sparkly red shoes.  Everything the fashion-forward witch-girl-on-the-go needs!

Now, Alex’s costume took a little more work and might need a little more ‘splaining for some of you.

First of all, in case you’ve forgotten what he really looks like, here’s my little boy:

And he wanted to dress up as Billy the Exterminator.   (No, don’t bother clicking on the “watch video” thing below – that’s just a picture from the site.)

We love Billy.  We first saw him in an episode of Dirty Jobs, and recently (we’re a little slow) discovered his show on A&E. 

The kids, of course, love watching Billy tackle ‘gators and big snakes, mostly. 

I love the fact that Billy prefers to set animals free whenever possible, and he uses environmentally safe pesticides and animal deterrents whenever possible.  AND I love that fact that he exemplifies the whole “Don’t judge a book by its cover” thing. 

But enough of that. 

There is an actual “Billy the Exterminator” costume you can buy, but I didn’t want to buy it – I wanted to make it.  I’m wacky like that.

So I went shopping one day for a few items of necessity…a black hat, a black tee shirt, some black gloves, some studs, and some white paint.

The first, and easiest, thing I did was to make the gloves.  I just cut off the fingertips and sewed the little studs on.  (The studs were part of a Halloween “goth” set of earrings, a bracelet and a necklace.  I just removed the earring backs and cut the sections apart on the bracelet and necklace.  The studs were in little groups of three. 

Next thing I had to do was make the shirt.  I took a look at the VexCon logo and did my best to paint one like it.  I think I did pretty well.

Now, for the studded wrist bands, I just cut the ends off the shirt (which was an adult small – couldn’t find a long-sleeve kids’ tee in black), reinforced the cut sections with some denim, and then I sewed some more studs along there.

And once the shirt was dry, I stitched some studs along the shoulders, too.

I made the belt out of a piece of chain and a plastic skull with the back cut off.  Easy.

Now, the hat.  I had to get the hat right.  I started off with a cheapo black almost-cowboy-style hat I bought at iParty.  It was kind of like Woody’s hat in Toy Story, only black.  Very simple.  And the brim was easily bent, which was important.

OH!  Almost forgot.  I needed hair, so I could create a kind of mullet for Alex.  I looked at all the wigs – male and female – and didn’t like ANY of them, not even the actual mullet wig.  (It was a really weird color, and I’m all about realistic-looking fake hair on my child at Halloween.  I’ve got standards.)

I finally settled on the “Surfer Dude” wig – it was a shorter, shaggy style on an adult, but long enough for the back of the mullet on my boy.

So, back to the hat.  First, I wanted to make the sort of band thing that runs around it.  The real hat has what look like sections of chain, but I didn’t have any of that, so I drew on a piece of gray denim with a sharpie and glued it on. I’m pretty happy with the result.  Then I folded the sides and stitched them down.  And, finally, I stitched part of the Surfer Dude wig to the back of the inside of the hat.

We used Bill’s (my husband, not Billly) sunglasses, and for the skinny little beard?  It’s actually deer fur (or whatever you call it) from Bill’s fly-tying supplies, trimmed and stuck on Alex’s face with double-sided tape. 

OH – and Bill made the little cage for Alex to carry around.  (I didn’t get a good picture of it – sorry!) It’s fashioned a bit like a Have-a-Heart trap, only smaller and lighter.  Alex put a little stuffed animal fox inside, and then used it to collect candy as he roamed the neighborhood.

And I think that’s everything. 

By the way, they raked in the candy last night. 

I’m thinking their costumes had something to do with that….

~~~

Now, Bill and I’ve had colds of some kind since last week – sore throats, congestion, aches (me), and other various afflictions, but we managed to accomplish a few things over the weekend.  We picked up Bill’s and the kids’ skiis and the kids’ new ski boots and a pair of goggles for Julia, so they’re all set for the winter. 

I took a nap.

Pretty exciting. 

And then Sunday morning I ran/walked the 1st annual Monster Mini-Dash 5K in Providence with my sister and a couple friends.  I’d signed up a while back, and though I felt lousy, and Bill sort of urged me not to go, I went anyway.  My head had that kind of swimmy feel from the congestion pressure, and my throat still hurt, and I ached, and – during the race – I discovered a particularly nasty, metallic taste in my mouth whenever I coughed.  That was fun.

In addition to the 5K, there was also a 1K for kids, and most of the people – kids and adults – wore costumes.  The kids were adorable, and a lot of the adult costumes were really impressive.  Next year, we’re dressing up.

(I said I was dressing up as a runner this year.  HAHAHAHA!)

I actually did okay.  Especially when you consider that I haven’t run AT ALL since the NK5K in September AND I was sick.

It doesn’t seem right, I know.  But I think I’ve discovered a secret that runners don’t like to share, and since I’m not reeeeeally a runner (yet), I’ll go ahead and blow the lid right off it:  when you’re sick, you run FASTER, because you just want to get it over with so you can guzzle some water, eat some bananas, and curl up in a little shaking, coughing ball on the sidewalk.

Okay, I didn’t curl up on the sidewalk.  But I did move faster, and I swear that at least PART of the reason was because I wanted to STOP.  I didn’t want to be out there running and race-walking, even though it was a gorgeous Autumn day and perfect for running and race-walking. 

I wanted to sit down.

And since I had to get back to the finish line in order to get back to my sister and our friends and my sister’s vehicle, I kind of had to keep going.

So I did some of what I did last time – I picked out people I thought I might remotely be able to move past, and I’d run enough to go past them and put some distance between us, and then I’d drop down to a walk.  A fast walk.  A fast, coughing walk.

But, of course, some of those people I passed were doing the same thing I was (minus the coughing), so eventually they’d pass me and get ahead a little bit.

So that’s how it went – a little group of us passing and re-passing each other.  If we’d had the breath to talk, we might have even introduced ourselves.  But it’s hard to talk when you’re gasping and coughing.

Funny thing – before the race we (Mere (my sister), Beth, and Stephanie) were talking about hills, and types of hills – long, slow inclines vs. steeper hills.  I sort of like the steep ones better, and (not that I’ve got a great long history of running) I tend to like to run up them.  It gets them over with quicker.

And wouldn’t you know it, there was a little hill at one of the turns, – a very little one – and I ran right up it.  So there!

And another thing…at each mile marker there was a digital time display, so, you know, you could keep track of how you were doing.  To my surprise, at the first marker, I was apparently doing better than I’d done in the NK5K.  Hm!  So I made sure to RUN to it and past it, just to psychologically keep my time low.  Mental games. 

And when I got to the second marker, I was still (amazingly) doing better than before.  Wow! 

And, yes, at the third marker I was still in good (for me) shape.  And then it was just that little tenth of a mile remaining.  Just a tenth of a mile.  And then I would be done. 

So I ran.  And I ran most of it.  I had to stop to gasp and cough briefly, but I made sure to run the rest of it, and I even tried to crack a smile a bit, so that in the pictures I wouldn’t look like I was wearing some really scary, ominous mask.

I haven’t seen any pictures, but I did check out my time this morning. 

And the funny thing?  My time was almost exactly TWO MINUTES faster than last time.

So now my sister is trying to get me to run in the Jingle All the Way (or whatever it’s called) race in December.

I’m planning to get the flu, just so I can shave off another two minutes.

Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling and Marshmallow Spider Exoskeletons

Full disclosure:  These didn’t turn out exactly the way I’d intended.

But that’s okay – I think they’re cute just the way they are.  (I don’t want to hurt their feelings, you see.  Exoskeletons are rather thin-skinned.)

My original intent was to dip them in chocolate.  But that didn’t work out.  The spiders…they, um…didn’t really like that.

But I should probably back up a bit.

FIRST, I made some pumpkin muffins.  I used the one in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours, but you can use whatever your favorite pumpkin muffin recipe is.  And they don’t really have to be pumpkin, now that I think about it.  Carrot cake would work well.  So would chocolate.

So…make some muffins.

Then, make some cream cheese frosting.  Very easy – a stick of unsalted butter (room temp), a block of cream cheese (room temp), a pound of confectioner’s sugar and, in my case, about a teaspoon of “pumpkin pie spice” and a teaspoon of vanilla.  Whip the butter and cream cheese together, then add the other ingredients, beat together until smooth, and there you go.

Now, cut the muffins in half cross-wise, and scoop out some of the innards of the bottom half.  Like this:

Then fill those holes with a generous amount of the cream cheese frosting/filling.  Oh – and that ziploc bag with the piping tip in the picture before this one?  Yeah, I squeezed too hard and broke the bag.  Turns out it’s much easier to use a spoon.

Oh, and I meant to take a picture BEFORE I put the top half of the muffins on, but I forgot, and so here’s a picture after I remembered to show you how it looks inside.

Sorry about the crumbs.

Next, I mixed some Nutella with some of the cream cheese frosting.  Equal parts, but I didn’t measure.  And I smeared some of that on top of each muffin.

See, originally I was going to make a nice flat surface and pipe a white spider web on top of each muffin, but…changed my mind.

After the muffins were duly smeared, it was time to add the spiders.

Oh – in case you were wondering, each spider is one standard sized marshmallow, one mini marshmallow, and 9 chinese noodles.  8 for the legs, one to hold the head to the body.

Then I took the end of a bamboo skewer (a toothpick would also work) and dipped it in red food coloring to paint on the eyes and mouths.

At the time I wasn’t thinking “exoskeleton;” I was thinking “albino spiders,” which was also rather creepy.

As I finished each spider face, I took another chinese noodle, poked it partway into the spider’s tummy, and then poked the other end into the top of each muffin.

 Who you lookin’ at, human?

I must say, I kind of like them. 

And, more importantly, I think my kids will, too, although it’s pretty much a given that Alex won’t like the cream cheese filling. 

Ah well. 

I’m pretty sure he’ll like the spiders.

Have a Happy Halloween!

Technorati Tags: Halloween desserts,halloween cupcakes,spider cupcakes,marshmallow spiders

End of October Recipe Roundup

Looking for something to bake this week?

I’ve got a few ideas for you.  Some are Halloween-themed, and others are simply seasonal.

Help yourself!

Cookie Cutter Giveaway!

I admit it.  I have a lot of cookie cutters.

And not too long ago, I got four more. 

Would you like some bright, shiny new cookie cutters, too?  Then click here for a chance to win some!

Sometimes I Heart Spam

Not all the time, mind you.  Too much isn't good for you.  And it has to be a certain kind of spam.  Not the obviously mass-produced kind.  No, I really enjoy spam that has that personal touch.  Like this comment that I received from a "reader" who apparently goes by the name of "dining table," 

Wow! This could have been so delicious. I might try this one on the weekend. Try if my kids will also love it

Well thanks, dining table!  Not only could it have been delicious, it was!  I certainly hope if your kids will also love it.  I also hope you find that missing bit of punctuation you most likely meant to leave at the end of that last sentence!

I delete these, of course, but they do provide me with a bit of amusement now and then. 

I'll be back a bit later with another delicious recipe you might all want to try if your kids will also love it.

 

Why Barefoot Kitchen Witch, and How Popcorn Is Keeping Me Humble

Yesterday we went apple picking and pumpkin selecting at Jaswell's Farm with a friend of ours and his daughter, who is a year younger than Julia.  The two girls get along really well, and they leave Alex alone, and we adults don't have to get involved in any altercations, so everyone's happy.

Assistant Decorator

I bought a couple of gauzy white drapes the other day to hang in the center section of our big front window.  Partly for a bit of privacy (after 9 years) and partly mainly to use as a backdrop for my witch silhouette. 

Last year when I first put her up there, she looked cool (of course), but if the room was dark, you couldn’t see her from outside. 

This year I wanted to do something about that, so I got the curtains. 

My Fifteen Minutes

Back in April I threw together a quick post about a batch of spaghetti tacos I made for my kids.  You can read that post here.  It was a quick post, just for fun, and I didn't think much of it after that.

But I've noticed, in the last several months, that "spaghetti tacos" is one of the top searches that leads people to my blog.  Spaghetti tacos.  I was, at some point, in the number 2 spot on Google when you looked up spaghetti tacos.  Interestingly, the iCarly website link was in the number 3 spot.  Bizarre.

And then last week I got an email from Helene Stapinski of the New York Times.  She said she was doing a piece on spaghetti tacos and wanted to know if she could talk to me.

Me?