HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Happy Halloween!
This is just the remnants of a mini Halloween celebration we had at our house this morning. I can't let a holiday go by without doing a little something fun for my daughter and husband - it's just not in me!
I don't go out of my way or over the top - but small things like this are what I hope my daughter will keep in her memory so that one day, when she's on her own, she might think back to these special mini-celebrations and a smile will warm her heart.
This morning's treats didn't break the bank and that's an important element in our current ecomony - not that it's not important all the time! I bought my daughter and husband the 'monster size' of their favorite candy bar and gave my husband a $5 Starbucks card....just enough for one Venti drink and a little change in his pocket. Because my daughter loves the Charlie Brown Halloween special, I bought it on DVD - Lord knows we've rented it enough times over the years to have bought it several times already! So in the end, it'll save me money! :-) I made the Happy Halloween sign and paper curls during down-time at work. They add a little zing and make the presentation more fun than simply a few wrapped items in a stack. Oh...and about that....I just used plain orange paper to wrap each item, then decorated the front of each 'treat' with a skeleton, pumkpin face and bat! Simple! Cheaper than Halloween bags and tissue and more personal too! I like to keep my special treats really from me and I like to draw, so....
Keeping things simple, I think, makes them a tiny bit more special. Heck, anyone can spend tons-o-money and buy lots of stuff....but Halloween and other days like St. Patricks Day and the like aren't about gifts. However, a small treat here and there make them a bit more fun and special and you can get so creative! Like the Valentine's Day I made individual, heart-shaped meatloaves, mashed potatoes with heart-shaped pats of butter melting in the middle and heart-shaped breadsticks. It made a regular meal totally Valentiney! People appreciate time and effort - and these sorts of efforts are full of love too, so everyone wins!
From me to all of you......have a very Happy Halloween!

Time to Carve the Pumpkins!

Guess what my daughter and I did yesterday? ;-)
What a great time we had carving pumpkins! Sure, it gets a tiny bit tedious near the end and your hand can start to ache a little, but once a pumpkin is aglow - it's all so totally worth it, isn't it? A jack-o-lantern says 'Halloween is here!' in the best way.
A few of these were done with those patterns you get in a kit with the all-time best sawing tool. Granted, they're not original....you might see one at another house a block or two over, but, you have to admit, they are super neat. The first three here are from patterns -my daughter did the tree and I did the skull and 'Welcome' sign. The homemade moon and stars is mine and my daughter carved the funny face after her hand stopped trobbing from an the tree sawing! Provided they don't get soft at all, these five pumpkin lanterns will greet the neighborhood trick-or-treaters to our porch on Friday night! Maybe a nice cool-down in the fridge will keep them hauntingly happy till then.
Of course, with five pumkins, comes lots of pumpkin seeds! Oh boy did the house smell delicious as they were roasting in the oven! Roasted pumpkin seeds are a fun snack and although I've never had a store-bought pumpkin seed from a package, there's no way they could top homemade. I don't have an exact recipe to share - I think most pople just wing-it on their seeds. But in case you have zero idea on how to make them, here's what I do....
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds ~
As you clean out your pumpkin, separate the seeds from the goo and place them in a bowl. Try to keep them as goo-free as you can. Once you have all the seeds from all of your pumpkins, dump them into a colander and rinse them well with water, turning through them a lot with your hands. Drain the seeds as well as you can, then pour them out onto a large kitchen towel (or towels) and pat them dry with an addtional towel. The seeds will kind of stick to the 'patting towel' so as you blot them, flick/pick them off. Once seeds are fairly dry (don't sweat it if they're not super dry...they're going on the oven anway), sluff them off the kitchen towel onto a sheet pan or into a lasagna pan (any large pan that allows them to lay in a mostly single layer). Pour approximately 6 tablespoons (like 1 tablespoon of butter per one cup of seeds) of melted butter over the seeds and use a rubber scraper to stir them well to coat. If you like, you might also like to shake a few squirts of Worcestershire sauce on them at this time too. Next, sprinkle the seeds with salt, garlic powder, onion powder - as well as a little cayenne pepper or some other spice rub seasoning if you wish. Roast the seeds in a preheated 275-degree oven. I check and stir them after every 15 minutes until they are dry and golden brown. This can take upwards of an hour. You can turn up the heat a but and they'll take less time, but you may want to check them more often as once they begin to brown, they can really take off. Once done, let them cool on a rack for about 15 minutes and serve them warm or once totally cool.
Enjoy this seasonal treat soon! Yum!

Conquer your fears....

I was late to work today......I was at the Marriott in downtown Portland....at an open-call....for the Next Food Network Star! Our local paper ran a piece about the casting call for one of my fave TV shows on Tuesday, so ever since I downloaded the 12-page application, I've been knee-deep in answering questions about myself and my love of cooking. The application was very detailed and some of the questions were a tiny bit hard to answer - because, although I know what I can cook and what I like to cook, putting into words why, was new.
Anyway....I've been a little stressed out since Tuesday and decided to go to the call, then not to go to the call about 27 times. But I had just told my daughter last weekend (when she was apprehensive about a social event), that if she let fear of the unknown stop her from doing things in life, she'd never do anything. Well, what kind of a role model would I be if I only talked the talk but didn't walk the walk? Plus, I'd already filled out all 12 pages of that flippin' application - so, like, I pretty much HAD to go to the casting call!
I was at the hotel by 6:45 this morning - and the shindig was to start at 9 (contrary to the paper listing it at 10). I sat in the lobby for quite a while, listening to the radio and I put my name on a list when I was able. At about 8:25, I went up to a conference room to wait with a few of the other 'cookies' till it was time to be interviewed. I was to be 'number 8', so I knew I'd be outta there and back to work before too, too long.
All kinds of people showed up to try out for the show. The old woman with the ultra-tan, orange make-up and 4-pack-a-day voice was a real treat. If the super tall dude in the chef's whites had dressed to intimidate, he'd accomplished his goal. One guy oozed ego and smug-ability enough that you figured he'd HAVE to be cast because every reality show has to have 'the guy you love to hate', right? Some people just had that TV 'look', like, you could totally picture watching them on your TV screen. People were, skinny, fat, gay, straight and every color of the rainbow. There was a dude with the longest pony tail I've ever seen. Some people were way older than I'd have ever thought would try out for something like this although I don't know what age has to do with it. I guess I feel like most of the people I've seen in the previous 4 seasons have been about 40 or younger - but several today were easily 50+. All in all, Portland gave the casting folks a good mix.
The first gal - who'd come down from Seattle, went in for her interview at about 8:50. I was glad things got under way early...less 'personal time' away from work. By the time I went in, it was about 10:00. The gal who spoke to me was really nice - very personable. She asked me lots of things that were in the application. Why do I want to be the "Next Food Network Star"? What kinds of things do I like to cook? What's my 'style'? What are some of my 'signature' dishes? I felt I'd answered the questions well enough and we had a nice chat. Before I knew it, I was walking to the door with the gal and she thanked me for coming and told me she and the other casting girl would be discussing 'possible hopefuls' and they'd be calling those people tonight to return for their 'call-back' tomorrow. I thanked her in return, walked out the door and headed for the elevators admid a hallway lined with other poeple still nervous for their own interview.
On my way back to the office, all I could think of was "why didn't I say this ?"and "why didn't I tell them that?" I came to the conclusion that it was really hard to remember anything I'd said at all and that I must have just vomitted blabbity words for the entire interview. Oh well, even if I was totally fine, I'm sure I won't be one of the 'lucky ones' this evening. That's not me being Polly Pouter, that's me wallowing in my total ordinary-ness. Yeah...I think I'm just too regular, normal and ordinary to be on a show that usually has a more colorful cast. Among them - the competitive, controling bitch, the guy who's a gigantic ass and thinks he's God's gift to everything culinary, the catering assistant who wants to show up their boss back home by showcasing their own creations. True, true a cooking-mom does shows up now and then, and I suppose my chance is as good as any other mom's. But - I'm not gonna freak out tonight waiting for my phone to ring, because, already got what I went for.
I conquered a fear today. I tried my best to show strangers who I was for no other reason than to promote myself, really. That's what an 'audition' is right? A chance to show people that you're totally awesome and that you're exactly what they're looking for? Sounds so snotty and conceited that way doesn't it? Oh well....If The Food Network doesn't find me to be good enough, I know a few people who do ;-)
Thank you to my family and friends who always tell me I can do anything! Today, I did!

Whatever it is, it's not chili...

Oh boy did we have a good dinner last night at my house! I made a savory, cheese bread and....well...I hardly know what to call the stuff in the bowl. I know it looks lke chili - but it's not. It's not really soup, but I guess it could be. It's meaty and beanny so entirely yum-filled I can hardly stand it! Maybe I could call it meaty-beany stew? Yup - I think that's what it'll be -

you get a good idea about the dish from that name, no? Stew isn't as thick as chili yet it's thicker than soup - that's just what this is. And although this has a bit of chili powder in it, there's no overwhelming chili taste - like at all - which is fine with me 'cause I really don't like chili - like at all. Real chili can be so dang strong that you can't taste the meat or the other yummies in it and this has lots of yummies! It's not spicy, but it's full of flavor. The following recipe makes a lot - so be prepared for leftovers unless you have a large group to feed! You can cut it in half by eliminating a few cans of beans and just halving the water and tomato paste etc. Trust me though.....you will NOT mind eating this a few meals in a row - it's that good!
Meaty-Beany Stew ~
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 can each (approx 15 oz)- great northern white beans, butter beans, pinto beans - rinsed & drained
2 cans kidney beans (approx 15 oz) - rinsed and drained
2, 6 oz. cans tomato paste
1 can (14.5 oz) peeled, diced tomatoes
1 large onion - medium dice
1 green pepper - medium dice
1 red pepper - medium dice
1, 3-lb package all-white ground turkey meat (could use beef, but you'll need to drain off the rendered fat)
4 beef boullion cubes disolved in 8 cups of water
4 garlic cloves - minced (put through garlic press)
1 packet powdered brown gravy mix
*1 - 2 teaspoons Salt
*2 teaspoons Pepper
*1 tablespoon Garlic Powder
*1 tablespoon Onion Powder

*2 teaspoons Butt Rubb
*2 teaspoons Pampered Chef Crushed Red Peppercorn seasoning
*2 teaspoons Chili Powder
In a large stew pot, over medium high heat, heat olive oil, then add onions and garlic and stir until onions just begin to soften - about 5 minutes. Add in ground turkey and season well with salt and pepper. Stir frequently to break up turkey into small pieces. When turkey is just about cooked through, add in red and green peppers and stir to combine. Add in all of the rinsed, drained beans stirring again to combine. Pour in the 8 cups of water with the disolved beef boullion along with the two cans of tomato paste and the packet of beef gravy mix. Add in all of the dry spices. * * Note - you may not have Butt Rub or the Pampered Chef spices on hand. You can substitute a red peppercorn seasoning/bbq-type rub from your grocer's spice isle for each f these. Use seasoning that you love! Also....season this dish to taste...you may need/want a little more/less salt, garlic powder etc.
Gently stir everything in the pot and turn up the heat a bit, stiring now and then until it comes to a boil. Once it boils, turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pot and let it simmer for about 45 minutes - stirring occasionally. After that, remove the lid and let it simmer another 30 minutes - again, stirring occasionally. Your Meaty-Beany Stew is ready to warm and fill you up!

Savory Cheese Bread ~
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups shredded jack cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup roasted garlic cloves, mashed (2 heads of garlic) or approx 20 cloves peeled/roasted
3 large eggs, beaten
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/3 cup chopped chives
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes (packed in oil), finely chopped
1 egg yolk and a few tablespoons of water for the egg wash
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, cheeses, baking powder, salt and roasted garlic. Add the eggs, chives, evaporated milk, metled butter and dried tomatoes. Mix until combined and
then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work area. Knead lightly until it comes together into a ball. It won't be real smoooth and will still be a bit tacky. Divide the dough into three equal pieces and roll each piece into a rope that’s between 12 and 14 inches long. Transfer the ropes to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Secure the ropes together at one end and then braid them loosely. Tuck the ends of the braid under the loaf.
Combine the egg yolk and the water and brush the loaf with the egg wash.
Bake for 40 - 50 minutes or until the bread is a nice golden brown colour
Let the bread cool completely before slicing. Serve with above Meaty-Beany Stew!

Sausage, Peppers & Pasta.....

I made up a dish several months ago. When I make up a dish, I gotta make it a few times before I know I have it right . It needs to taste the same and be good each and every time. Well, I have this one down. It doesn't have a name...so I call it Sausage, Peppers and Pasta because it has , well, sausage, peppers and pasta in it! But it also has garlic, onions and lots of good seasoning. I love this dish. It's easy and not too fattening as I like to use turkey sausage - but you can use any sausage you want. The key to the sausage is to use two kinds...I use sweet and hot. Makes each bite a little more interesting! The brown bits that coat the pan end up making the 'sauce' for the dish so it's very flavorful. My picutre doesn't do the color justice...should be nice a caramely.....lighting wasn't great. :-( Also, the sausages come 5 to a package...I use four of each kind for this recipe, but cook all of them, sending one of each in my husband's lunch the next day (if he doesn't eat them before dinner's ready!). If you end up really liking this recipe, you could always increase the pasta by a half a package or so and use all of the meat and have even more for leftovers. My family of three gets two dinners out of this recipe 'as is'. Anyway.... without further delay, here's my recipe for.....
Sausage, Peppers and Pasta ~
2 packages Italian turkey sausages - one sweet, one hot (should be three to 4 sausages in each package - use regular pork sausage if you like)
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red pepper - seeded, sliced into 1/4" strips and strips halved
1 green pepper - seeded, sliced inot 1/4" strips and strips halved
1 large yellow/sweet onion - halved and sliced fairly thin
3 cloves garlic - peeled and sliced very thinly
1 pound (16 oz. package) linguini
1/2 teaspon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspon garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons thyme
2 teaspoons Pampered Chef Crushed Red Peppercorn & Garlic seasoning (if you don't have this, use a comparable spicy, red peppercorn seasoning from your local store's spice isle)
3/4 - 1 cup water
Fill a large pot with water and begin to heat the water for boiling the pasta so it boils super fast later - don't forget to salt the water. Drizzle olive oil in a large pan (chicken fryer size) and once heated, add sausages to pan and cook over medium heat. Turn sausages regularly to brown them evenly. They should get really nice and brown but not black - you want lots of yummy brown coloring on the bottom of the pan, but not burnt coloring. When sausages are almost done, crank heat up on your pot of water so it begins to boil. Once the sausages are done, remove them from the pan to a cutting board and - your water should be boiling by now, so add the pasta (broken in half) to the water and cook it acording to package directions. Put the sliced red & green peppers and onions into the sausage pan and stir them in the brown, yummy drippings. After about 2 minutes, add about 1/2 cup of water - this will begin to deglaze the pan and get all that sausage flavor into the veggies. At this time, add all of the dry seasonings and the sliced garlic. Stir frequently until veggies are cooked through - but not super soft - you don't want mushy veggies. They should be nice and brown from the deglazing process. Add more water to the pan if any brown bits remain stuck to the bottom of the pan. You want to have a 'sauce' from the drippings...you may add up to a cup or so of water, total. Some of this recipe is an 'eye' thing...so judge for yourself, this is not a 'dry' dish - but not 'soupy' either. Turn heat down on the veggies if the they progress too quickly before the pasta is done. Slice the sausage you set aside, into 1/4" slices - I cut mine at an angle. Add sausage slices back into veggies and stir to combine. Once pasta is done, use one of those 'claw' type tools or a pair of tongs to lift pasta from the pot and put it, 'claw-scoop-by'-claw-scoop' directly into the sausage/veggie pan (this allows a little pasta water to drip in with the pasta...a little more liquid at this point is just fine. Draining the pasta can leave it too dry and it can get sticky). Once all of the pasta has been transferred, use two large wooden spoons to toss and coat pasta into the veggies, sausage and 'sauce'. Your delicious dish is ready to eat! Serve it hot with a crispy, fresh salad of greens and some hot, crusty bread. Soooo good! Enjoy!

Betty's and My Apple Pie.....

This is my old, tatttered, tried-n-true Betty Crocker Cookbook. I ask Betty how to make lots of things...classic things. She's not wild and not quite as up-to-date as some cookbooks you'll find elsewhere, but when I need a good, solid, basic recipe to build from, she's always there for me. We've been through successes and failures together...and even though her stovetop-scar makes her a little less attractive to some, it reminds me that she's all mine.
Now - down to business....To Die Apple Pie.
This is Betty's recipe for two, 10" pie crusts, followed by the sumptuous apple filling.
Standard Two-Crust Pie - 10":
1 cup shortening
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons salt
7 to 8 tablespoons cold water
Cut the shortening into the flour and salt until particles are the size of small peas. Sprinkle in water 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork until the mixture is moistened and pastry almost comes clean from the sides of the bowl. I found I ended up using little water...about 5 tablespoons worth. Gather the pastry into a ball and divide it into two portions. Shape each into a disc and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Diameter of rolled pastry should be 2 inches larger than inverted pie plate. Fold 1 pastry into fourths, transfer to pie plate, unfold and ease around sides of plate - try not to stretch it/handle it too much. Trim sides leaving a 1 inch overhang. Once filling (recipe to follow) has been spooned into bottom crust, fold top crust into fourths, place atop filling, unfold and trim to within 1 inch of plate rim. Fold and roll top edge under lower crust, pressing on edge to seal and flute as you wish. Using a knife, cut slits in top crust to allow steam to escape. Baking directions follow the filling recipe.
Apple Pie Filling -
10" pastry as prepared above
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash of salt
8 cups thinly sliced, peeled, tart apples - about 7 medium (I used braeburn)
3 tablespoons butter
Heat oven to 425-degrees. Mix sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt in large bowl. Stir in apples. Spoon apple mixture into bottom crust-lined pie plate and dot with butter. Cover with top crust, remembering to cut slits for venting. After sealing and fluting egde, cover rim with strips of foil to prevent over browning - but remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking. Bake until crust is golden and juice just begins to bubble through slits in crust - approx 40-50 minutes. Cool on rack as long as you can stand it - 'cause warm pie is the best!
Enjoy!!!

Mmmm....Homemade Apple Pie.......

I was painting the top of an unfinished wooden side table on Sunday afternoon, just having a little arts-n-crafts time, when my daughter came to me and said "I feel like baking something!" Little did she know that I'd been thinking about apple pie all weekend - so I put my paints away in about 10 seconds flat we we headed out to find the perfect apples! We've never made a pie together - heck, I can hardly remember the last time I made a pie myself. But I can tell you that whenever it was, it was not a two-crust pie. I've thought about baking one now and again, but like many people, when you think of pie, your brain automatically thinks 'Pie means pie crust! Noooooo!!!!!' All of the pie crust 'anthems' run through your mind....'it has to be flaky!', 'don't handle it too much!', 'you cannot have a tough crust!', 'it's gonna be hard to roll out!' and on and on and on.... Well, for the good of conquering my own hang-ups and showing my daughter that we can bake anything we want - I decided we would indeed tackle an apple pie if for no other reason than to prove we could do it. I did not want to teach my daughter that 'a pie is too hard' to make. That's like telling her, 'math is hard for girls'. Blanket statements like that can be so harmful - especially coming from a parent. Besides, for a young girl who is enjoying cooking/baking more and more, think of all the wonderful dishes that she might never make just because a crust is involved! I had to start her off on the right 'pie foot'. And...being a pie novice myself, it was fun to kill the crust-ghosts together.
Mixing the pie crust ingredients was so simple - and the crusts rolled out with ease. I used my Pampered Chef Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer to prepare the apples. What an awesome tool - every apple was uniformly sliced into 1/8 inch slices, ensuring a soft and tender apple filling. I do not like crunchy apples in my apple pie! We spooned the apples into the bottom crust and dotted the top with tiny bits of butter, put on the top crust - then I realized I'd trimmed the bottom crust too close to the pie plate to allow proper closure/sealing of the two crusts. So....the pie crust challenges began. We took off the top crust, emptied the out the apples, and made a brand new crust for the bottom - one I wouldn't trim so closely. That second crust.....was pie crust hell. I rolled it too thin and couldn't roll it or fold it to get it in the pie plate. I tried rolling it once again - knowing in the back of my mind that a tough crust was looming. That second roll-out was worse than the first, so I tossed the dough and made more, again. This one - with a lot of finger-crossing and praying and breath-holding, came out well - so into the pan it went. The apples were re-load, re-buttered and another new batch of dough was made for the top crust as I had to toss the orginial one. This new top crust came out fine and we placed it atop the arromatic apple filling, brushed it with a little milk and then put our labor-heavy creation into a nice, hot oven.
All in all it was a really fun baking project. I ended up making tons of dough (first batch made two crusts...then I made three singles). Thinking about it afterwards, I figured it might've actually been a good thing that I had to make all those extra crusts. Here I'd told my daughter why so many people shy away from making pie -and then our very first attempt almost turned out too perfectly (until I'd trimmed it incorrectly)! In the end, she saw alot of what can happen, and that it can be a bit frustrating but also very fun. And that's what's important.
After dinner on Sunday night, we were so excited to cut into the still-warm pie - I'd bought vanilla ice cream to have along side as well. With the first bite, my husband's eyes rolled back into his head and his pleasure was easy to see - he immediately requested a pie for Thanksgiving. My first bite was a little more exporlatory - but it was pleased....the crust flaked with my fork...it was tender and beautfully golden - the apples...not a crunch in the bunch - it was heaven in my mouth.
My daughter.....her first bite, "It's pretty good..." by the third bite, "I don't think I like apple pie'. Oh well :-) We shared the experience and that's what counts. Baking together is a real joy - like it, or not ;-)