Spooky Dinner

First of all, let me say Happy Halloween! Mrblocko and Blockette are out panhandling for sweeties while I am at home playing on the computer waiting to pass out candy to all the kids that never show up. So far they've been gone for a half hour and I've only eaten one piece of candy. I deserve some sort of medal for that...or another piece of candy.

Anyhow, all week I told Blockette that we were having spiders for dinner on Saturday while it was just us girls. Heh, she was pretty worried for a while. Sometimes she can't tell when I'm pulling her leg. I like to keep her on her toes. It's only fair. She keeps me on mine!!!

So yesterday I asked her if she would help me prepare our spooky dinner. She was pleased to find out our spiders were really hot dogs and spaghetti. I got the idea for the spiders from The Family Kitchen. I think the coolest part about making them is when they are fully cooked, the spiders dance around in the pot.Spiders weren't the only thing we had for dinner. We also had spider eggs (acini de pepe noodles), worms (more spaghetti noodles), Ogre skin with rolly polly bugs and witches' finger nails (salad with craisins and sunflower seeds) and brains. Well, Blockette had brains. They were too disgusting for me.

The brains were actually Blockette's idea. She thought scrambled eggs would make good brains. Don't ask me how she came up with that. I don't have a clue. It was my brilliant idea to add purple food coloring to the eggs before I cooked them. If you've ever tried to make purple frosting you know that purple food coloring makes everything elephant gray. Bleck. They made for some realistic looking brains. The photo does not do them justice in all their gory glory. In case you were wondering how to eat a spider, the best way is to shove the whole thing in your mouth at once. Then you can feel them squirming around. Oh, and you gotta dip them in blood(ketchup) too. Or if you want to live dangerously, you can do like I did and consume them with dragon's blood (Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle BBQ Sauce.)

After all that gory stuff, you gotta cleanse your palette with something sweet...witch hats! I totally stole the idea from Little Nummies. I made ours with cinnamon sugar that had been infused with orange zest. Who would have thought crescent rolls could make something so cute?

Our spooky dinner was a total hit, which means I'm going to have to find something even cooler for next year!

Halloween Parade!

Please click on the pictures to enlarge so you can see Blockette's facial expressions. In case you can't tell, she is Rosetta from Tinkerbell. The striped pants were her idea.

"Hmm Where is she???"
"I don't see her. Mommy said she'd be here."
"Heh. I know mommy's over there but I'm going to actually look at her. Why don't I make goofy faces for my adoring fans? They've all come to see me, right? I should give them a good show."

Thankful Thursday 34

1. Being able to help a friend.
2. A nice enough day to walk Blockette to school.
3. sleeping in bed the whole night.
4. Blockette was not at home to hear me scream bloody murder when I saw the rodent scurrying past me in the garage.
5. There was no malicious intent when Blockette said, "Mommy, I'm drawing a picture of you and I'm going to put some gray hair in it because you are getting old."
6. Blockette did not spit out the nasty tasting medicine like her Dr. said she might.
7. My cats who keep me so warm at night that I still only need to sleep under a light blanket even though it was freezing in our room.
8. Having enough money to go out and buy lots of mouse traps and poison for our new tenant in the garage.
9. Coming to a compromise with Mrblocko when I was fairly certain we wouldn't.
10. Getting to sleep in an extra 10-20 minutes this morning.

I'd Marry These Mushrooms

Do you like mushrooms? Even a little bit? If you don't, this recipe will change your mind. My best friend's husband is allergic to mushrooms and I joked with her that even he would want to eat these. Sure it would kill him, but he'd die happy.

The only bad thing about these mushrooms, of course, besides their calories, is that it takes 9 hours to make. Yup. NINE hours. They don't need to be stirred or babysat or nuthin fancy like that, but if you are paranoid about leaving your stove top unattended, you'll probably want to wait to make this recipe on a day when you are planning on being home for an extended period of time.

And really, while you are making these mushrooms, why would you want to leave. The house smells heavenly. Even Blockette thought the house smelled fantastic. At one point she said, "Oh the house smells so good I can't even draw!" Which, if you know Blockette and her propensity for drawing, that is saying something.

I forgot to take a picture before I started cooking. The picture below is after about 4 hours of simmering.
This picture is after 8 hours. See how the mushrooms soaked up all that liquid. Amazing! The recipe is actually called Burgundy Mushrooms from the wonderful Pioneer Woman. This recipe is in her cookbook, and she even made them on the Today show.

The original recipe makes a ton. If you aren't feeding a crowd you can make this half recipe below:

Pioneer Woman's Burgundy Mushrooms-half recipe
2lbs Button Mushrooms
1 stick Butter
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 liter Burgundy Wine (I used Merlot)
1/2 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 c Boiling Water
2 Chicken Bouillon Cubes
2 Beef Bouillon Cubes
1/2 tsp Dill Seed
3 cloves Garlic, Peeled (I used 5, which is the amt used for a full recipe, but I love garlic)

Wash mushrooms and put them in a large stockpot. Add all remaining ingred and stir. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 6 hours.Remove the lid and cook uncovered for 3 hours. The mushrooms will be very dark in color. Simmer until needed. Server straight from the pot or in a serving bowl. Dip crusty bread in the juices. (You gotta do that because that juice is as awesome as the mushrooms.) The leftover mushrooms can be stored in the fridge for several days and even taste good cold!

Project #14 Recycled Jumbo Coaster

My husband has this ginormous water mug. It's great because when he is out doing yard work or running he drinks a lot of water. He had a smaller mug but it was teeny and he got tired of constantly filling it up. I found this blue monster as a replacement. The only thing is that the mug is not insulated, so when it's hot out, it sweats.

I had made him a quick coaster out of fleece and denim scraps, but I saw this tutorial for a coaster made out of the seams of jeans over at Polka Dot Pineapple. Of course the idea got lost in my head for a while until Mrblocko decided that it was time to lay a pair of old jeans to rest. These jeans were hole-y beyond what I feel comfortable passing on to Goodwill, so I stuck them on the chair of my craft room for recycling. See I tend to stick a lot of stuff on the back of my craft room chair. Things have a way of getting hidden for months or years that way.

Flash forward to this weekend where I reminded Mrblocko he agreed to caulk around the window in there. See, at this time of year, my craft room becomes the Ladybug Dance at the Ladybug Picnic.


Every time I go in the craft room I have to kill at LEAST 5 ladybugs. Bleck. Hopefully caulking around the window will stop them from coming in.

Anyhow, Mrblocko needed to caulk on the top of the window and he asked if I could move all the junk off the chair. I did and found the lost pair of jeans. So I snipped em up and made this guy!Goodness! Can you see the ruler, the coaster is almost 6 inches in diameter. That's a jumbo coaster!

And here is the coaster under the big blue monster mug. It fits perfectly.

OK, so if you went to the link up top to look at the tutorial, you will see that the directions specifically state to NOT use a hot glue gun. Well I do not have any fabric glue and have lots of glue sticks left over from my wedding. (Yeah from my wedding, NINE years ago!!!!) I figured it would be safe to use the hot glue because I'm using this coaster for cold beverages and not as a trivet for hot things. If it falls apart no big whoop cause I spent all of zero dollars to make it. So far it is holding together. I guess if it does come apart I could always go out and get some fabric glue.

Project #13 Tooth Fairy Pillow

Do a little dance of joy for me because I'm actually working on craft projects again! I'm really trying to force myself to be productive for the few short hours Blockette is at Kindergarten. Sometimes I amaze myself at how much I can get done in an interrupted two hour stretch of time.

When I was little I remember I had this really cool little yellow gingham pillow with a lace ruffle for the tooth fairy. I don't remember if someone made it especially for me, but I do remember thinking it was the coolest thing. Since I enjoyed having a tooth pillow, I figured Blockette should have a special tooth pillow too.

I did make one huge improvement on the one I had as a girl. Mine was just a small pillow you placed under your big pillow. I figured I'd make it a little easier on the tooth fairy and make it so the pillow could hang from the door handle. That poor tooth fairy, it must be difficult to lift all those heavy sleeping kids' heads. She deserves a break.

Here is the front: The cross stitch is a freebie from Brooke's Books Publishing that came out in January of this year. Here is a link to a pdf of the pattern. The design is supposed to be of a wintry type fairy welcoming in the new year. I altered the colors on the chart to make the fairy look more like Tinkerbell.

Yeah, I know Tinkerbell is a pots and pans fairy, not a tooth fairy. Tink's color scheme works much better with the cross stitch fabric than the original. And you never know, the tooth fairy might call on Fairies from Pixie Hollow in a pinch. Stranger things have happened I'm sure.

Here is the back:I found this piece of fairy fabric at the bottom of my scrap fabric bin. I saw it and thought it was really cute. Then it became even more awesome when I realized that it was the exact size I needed. No cutting needed! Whoohooo! Then the awesome increased tenfold when I saw that the word fairy was situated in the perfect spot to allow a pocket for teeth/coins. Isn't it awesome when things come together like that? (Isn't it also awesome when I am too lazy to use a thesaurus to find another word for awesome? AWESOME!)

Just for a frame of reference, the pocket is just slightly bigger than a dollar coin. I'm sure that if the tooth fairy was feeling generous she could stick a dollar bill in there as well.

When Blockette came home from school the other day, I hung this on the door handle to the pantry. She came into the kitchen and noticed it immediately. She ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug known to mankind. Then she said, "Oh mom! You are the best mom ever!!!! This is the coolest!!!" Then she stuck her fingers in her mouth and proceeded to try to wiggle all of her teeth loose simultaneously.

Poor Blockette. If she is anything like me, she's got a long way to go before she looses her first tooth. Most of her friends have lost multiple teeth already. If my memory serves me correct, that first loose tooth sneaks up suddenly. At least now, whenever that tooth decides to come out, we will be prepared for the tooth fairy.

Thankful Thursday 33

1. The very bad day was followed by a very good day
2. Blockette has only had one bad day so far this month.
3. Blockette can almost blow her massively slimy nose completely by herself
4. Mrblocko found a cheap(er) place to eat while visiting a client in Chicago where he didn't have to pay for parking. (How does that happen?!)
5. I got my bulbs planted.
6. Blockette discovered that my yard stick is a great tool for squooshing Asian death beatles hanging out on the wall way up by the ceiling.
7. Finishing a weird but good book.
8. Blockette's new found interest in helping out in the kitchen.
9. Sleeping in the bed two nights in a row. (If I have a coughing/sneezing fit in the middle of the night I sleep on the couch so as to not wake the whole house.)
10. Bread that actually rose when I thought the yeast might have lost it's mojo.