The Science of Halloween

Yesterday was a busy day.  Addie's school had an apple tasting lab as a part of the Farm to School program and they needed extra hands, so I volunteered.  There were 3 types of apples brought in from local farms, the Gold Rush, the Stellar, and the Arkansas Black.  The kids formed a hypothesis about which apple they thought they would like best and why.  Then the facilitator gave facts about the apples and the kids tasted.  I sliced a lot of apples through 4 science classes.

On the back of the lab sheet where they'd recorded the facts about the apples, they also wrote down notes about the taste, smell, appearance, and texture of the apples.

 Then on the other side was a table to rate the apples from 1-3 on those characteristics.  They added up the columns to conclude which apple was their favorite.  One of the questions of the experiment was to find out if other things besides taste affected their choice.  A lot of the kids initially thought the Arkansas Black would be their favorite.  It really was the prettiest of the 3.  But the Gold Rush, which was kind of spotted and didn't look that appealing, was actually the favorite of many.  It was my favorite!  Very sweet and juicy.  Every time I cut those, I got sprayed in the face!  They'll eventually compile all of the lab sheets from both grades that participated and find out the favorite apple of the entire school.  I enjoy volunteering at the kids' schools.  The kids in Addie's class have changed so much since we moved here in 2008.  I love being greeted by waves and "Hi Mrs. Walker!" when I'm there. 


After school, it was time to get ready for trick or treating.  I made this for supper and it was delicious. I used turkey breakfast sausage and turkey bacon.  After eating, we headed 1 street over for a group neighborhood picture. This is just a sampling of the spooks that were out.

Here's the candy we passed out.  We didn't keep count, but a neighbor down the street tweeted that he counted 224 trick or treaters at his door.

 The girls posed for a few pictures before heading out.

What's in the Box Wednesday?

It's another spooky, scary, Halloween lunch!  There are pizza bagel mummies, apple vampire grins, spooky egg eyeballs, and crawly worms for good measure.  Addie's vampire grins are made with soy butter and almond slivers.  Caroline's are made with cream cheese and candy corn.  Caroline has a peanut allergy, and even though it's soy butter, she doesn't like anything with the look or texture of peanut butter. I think it's a defense mechanism.

 

Today I'm using Easy Lunchboxes.  Check them out here.  Also, pictured below is the soy butter we use.  It's the best "fake peanut butter" I've been able to find.  Poor Addie, she loves peanut butter.  When she goes to a friend's house or grandparents without Caroline, she eats a lot of peanut butter!  Happy Halloween!

Mulled Dr. Pepper and Weekend Events

 

 

I was browsing through a Taste of Home Halloween magazine and came across a recipe for Mulled Dr. Pepper.  I love Dr. Pepper and I really wanted to try it.  I got the opportunity this weekend when a friend invited us to her Halloween party.  I had never heard of drinking Dr. Pepper hot, but apparently, it's been happening for years.  While reading some reviews of the recipe, I noticed several reviewers talking about having it when they were younger when they had a cold.  Then, at the party, one of the guests told about how her Dad would bring home Dr. Pepper as a treat and heat it up on the stove.  I thought it was a warm and comforting drink, similar to cider in the spices.  Just don't expect to get the Dr. Pepper burn.  It goes away on heating.

Mulled Dr. Pepper

8 cups Dr. Pepper
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3 cinnamon sticks

Combine all ingredients in a 3 qt slow cooker and cook on low for 2 hours.  Discard cloves before serving.  I used one of my tea strainers to hold the cloves so I didn't have to fish them out.

I also took these caramel apples to the party.  Find the recipe here over at Our Everyday Dinners.  The homemade caramel was so worth the effort!

Here's our costume.  I'm glad I have a cooperative husband.  We usually do a couples theme costume.

The rest of our weekend was filled with activity as well.  We had Caroline's school carnival.  Addie didn't go this year.  Since she is in Middle School now, she thinks she's too old for such things. :(

Sunday afternoon, the Girl Scouts presented the flag at a Mashburn Foundation concert.  I met Mrs. Mashburn in the waiting area of the Toyota Service Department while we were both having our oil changed.  We chatted about different subjects, including Girl Scouts, and she offered us this opportunity of presenting the flag and the girls got to attend the concert for free.  The music was great!  It was a tribute to soul and the girls knew a lot of the songs.  They were singing, clapping, and dancing along.  Check out the Mashburn singers.  They do a couple of concerts a year to raise money for scholarships.

Mike and the girls finished out the weekend by carving a couple of our pumpkins.

Ghostly Shepherd's Pie and other Goodies

This one's from my magazine archives ya'll.  I'm a sucker for those little specialty cooking magazines at the checkout.  I pulled out the Halloween themed ones to look through and found this recipe in a Fall 2001 Pillsbury Come & Eat magazine.  I didn't even have kids back then!  Well, actually there was a kid on the way.  I'm not real thrilled about using jarred gravy, but it's better than burgers and fries at the fast food joint right?  The original recipe called for using mashed potato flakes also, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that.  I put Mike on potato peeling duty and we had homemade.

Ghostly Shepherd's Pie

1 lb lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
1 can Italian Style diced tomatoes, undrained
1 12 oz jar home-style beef gravy
Mashed Potatoes (I mixed in 1/4 tsp garlic powder and 1/4 cup grated parmesan to these)
1 egg slightly beaten

Heat oven to 375.  Spray large skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium-high.  Add ground beef and onion; cook and stir until thoroughly done.  Drain.

Set aside 12 peas for garnish.  Add remaining frozen vegetables, tomatoes and gravy; mix well.  Bring to boil.  Reduce to medium-low heat.  Cook 8 to 10 minutes or until veggies are crisp tender, stirring occasionally.

Add a beaten egg to your prepared mashed potatoes.  Spoon beef mixture into an ungreased 8 x 8 baking dish.  With large spoon, make 6 mounds of potatoes on top to resemble ghosts.  Place 2 reserved peas on each for eyes.  Bake 20 -25 minutes or until potatoes are set and thoroughly heated.

Last night and this morning, we had parent teacher conferences at both schools.  I'm on the hospitality committee at both and we provided dinner and breakfast.  I brought these pumpkin streusel muffins to Addie's school.  The house smelled wonderful while they were baking.  Find the recipe here.

For Caroline's teachers I made my old standby Sausage Spinach Quiche.  And from the picture you can tell I used a store-bought crust.  Oh the horror!  I don't like doing that, but I was trying not to be Superwoman and make things a little easier on myself since I was baking for two schools this time.  Find this recipe here in an old blog post.

What's in the Box Wednesday?

  

It's a Halloween inspired lunch today!  Today was one of Addie's "eat at school" days, so I had a little more time since I only had one lunch to prepare.  Caroline has pumpkin pizzas made with a pumpkin cookie cutter, tortillas, pizza sauce, cheese, and turkey pepperoni for the faces.  Her spooky lunch also contains air popped popcorn with a little candy corn mixed in and a cat cut out of fruit strips, and a banana. 

Speaking of Halloween, both girls went to the annual Girl Scout pumpkin carving event with the Kappa Delta's last night.

I always love driving by the sorority houses and looking at the neat signs they make for different events.

Girls Scouts are one of the Kappa Delta's national philanthropies.  They have several events throughout the year for the Girl Scouts and this one is a favorite.  They carved pumpkins, played games, had snacks, and trick-or-treated in the house.  It was a fun evening.

Blood Orange Brownies and Branson

  

Blood Orange Brownies.  Does that sound good?  It sure did to me when I heard the idea on a Twitter chat a few weeks ago from Devo Olive Oil. They tweeted a link to a recipe for Blood Orange Brownies using Blood Orange Olive Oil from their store.  I was intrigued, so I googled them and lo and behold they're in Branson at Branson Landing!  We had a little weekend trip planned there anyway, so we stopped in.  Wowza, was I overwhelmed with all of the oil and vinegar choices.

 

Addie samples Black Currant Balsamic Vinegar

We had a good time sampling the different varieties.  And the sales clerk was very helpful with ideas of mixing different flavors for marinating options.  I took home a bottle of the Blood Orange Olive Oil and whipped up some brownies today.  I decided to use my Mom's tried and true recipe and just substitute some of the oil.  Now, these are the brownies I grew up with and still make.  Actually, Addie is the brownie maker in the house now.  It's a recipe easy enough for a 10 year old to do without any intervention from Mom.  The original recipe is so, so good, but with the addition of this Olive Oil.....Oh My.....   Next time you're in Branson, stop in at Devo.

Blood Orange Brownies 

2 cups sugar
10 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/2 cup Blood Orange Olive Oil & 1/2 cup canola oil)
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Mix sugar and cocoa together, add oil and eggs.  Beat smooth by hand.  Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes.  Do not over bake.

Here are some more pictures from our little trip.  I took my Kindle so I could try and get my book club book read, but I never even picked it up.  My eyes were looking out the window the whole time.  The leaves were so beautiful.

Our main destination was Silver Dollar City, so that's where we spent most of our time.  I just love their Harvest Festival decorations.

 I'm not sure who's kid this is that wants to ride these crazy thrill rides.

Addie on the Electro Spin

Caroline and I on the swings while Addie was off thrill-seeking

We had a great time, ate some yummy food (love the skillet meals!), and the weather was perfect.  On the way home we stopped at a roadside produce stand and bought these lovely Arkansas Black Apples.

These are supposed to be good for eating, cooking, and baking and have a long storage life.  In fact, the produce guy told me if I keep them cool, they'll probably last until April or May!  I'm thinking they'll get cooked, canned, or eaten before then.  Addie wants me to make applesauce and I'm brainstorming other ideas as well.  If anyone dares to comment on my blog, please give me your ideas and suggestions for these beauties.

Baked Potato Soup

Mike has been out of town on business all week, so I wanted to have a home cooked meal for him when he gets back tonight.  He's generally a healthy eater and always says he'd much rather eat at home than at a restaurant, so a solid week of eating out is not something he enjoys.  He may not be hungry, but it will be here just in case.  I don't remember where I got this recipe.  I've been making it for at least 11 or 12 years, because I remember sharing it with my co-workers when I worked full time before kids.  There's a restaurant in Tulsa called Charleston's that has the best Baked Potato Soup.  I remember wanting to try and make something similar at home and this is what I found.  Normally, I serve the Bisquick Red Lobster style cheddar garlic biscuits with this soup.  I didn't have Bisquick, so I used this recipe instead and I think I like them better.

Baked Potato Soup

4 large baking potatoes
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
6 cups milk
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper (don't substitute black pepper, the white really makes this recipe)
4 green onions, chopped and divided
12 sliced bacon, cooked and crumbled (I used turkey)
1 1/4 cups cheddar cheese, shredded and divided
8 oz sour cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Wash potatoes and prick several times with a fork; bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour or until done.  Let cool.  Cut potatoes in half, lengthwise; scoop out pulp and set aside.  Melt butter in heavy saucepan over low heat; add flour, stirring until smooth.  Cook one minute, stirring constantly.  Gradually add milk; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and is bubbly. Add potato pulp, salt, pepper, two tbls green onions, 1/2 cup bacon, and 1 cup cheese.  Cook until thoroughly heated and stir in sour cream.  Add extra milk, if necessary, for desired consistency.  Serve with remaining green onions, bacon, and cheese sprinkled on top of individual servings.  Serves 10.