Halloween

Thursday night, Jamie and I carved pumpkins while watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" Always puts me in a holiday mood! And yes, I do the same pumpkin face every year.



It was the first time we had both girls for Halloween, so I was really excited. Halloween is my favorite holiday, so it was awesome to be able to take them Trick or Treating. We went to my parents' neighborhood and took them around for the full two hours. My parents and my in-laws were there and we had pizza and salad and ate my leftover cookies, as well as the Apple Spice Cookie Bars I made from Good Things Catered (and forgot to take pictures of). The kids were passed out early and I spent some time rummaging through all the stuff I still have in my parents basemen (Dad wants me to clean all my crap out so they can finish their basement). All in all, it was a great and relaxing night and we had a blast with the kids!

Sugar Cookie, Attempt 1

Sugar cookies have been the bane of my baking existence. No matter what recipe I try, I always have a difficult time. While reading Heather's blog, she went through the recipe she uses for sugar cookies from Katie at Good Things Catered. Heather's cookies were definitely an inspiration and it was ironic because I had just bought the same cookie cutter shapes that she used. Decorating gave me a chance to use some of the supplies I bought for my Wilton class, which begins tomorrow!

Thanks, Heather, for the great decorating ideas! Unfortunately, my cookies were not as cute as yours!

Fabulous Sugar Cookies
(Recipe from Ashlee)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks - 24 tbsp.) butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tbsp. lemon zest
5 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Powdered sugar, for rolling

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly.
4. Add vanilla, almond, and lemon zest.
5. Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time. Do not over mix, this process should take about one minute.
6. Chill dough for up to a week in the fridge, or roll out and cut right away. (I chilled my dough overnight. It was really sticky and would have been REALLY hard to roll out)
7. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake cookies for 7-8 minutes. Wait until cookies are cooled before icing.

Here are the cookies as I cut them out. I used a TON of powedered sugar to roll and cut out on the counter.

My ghosts and pumpkins, after baking. I did realize that they thickness was inconsistent, so I will definitely be more aware of that the next time I bake them.
Next I attempted royal icing for the first time. What a disaster and a mess. I did not have ANY idea what I was doing, so this was definitely a new experience. With the pumpkins, I outlined, but then did not thin the icing, because I had no idea what flooding was. Then, after some online research, I figured it out.

So I was able to give flooding a shot with the ghosts. It worked out pretty well, although this time my icing was too thin while flooding. I also needed to use a thicker tip while piping the outline.
The finished pumpkins! All in all, it was an interesting experience and I learned some things about icing. I am REALLY excited to start Wilton Course I with Rachel tomorrow! Since Project Runway is over, we have hardly seen each other! Now we have a new date night!

Sick Day #2

I feel like I have been sick for the entire month of October.

I had a bad cough for two weeks, finally kicked it on Thursday, and Saturday I woke up feeling like crapola again. Now it is a sinus thing. I called off sick yesterday and only went in for first period today. Now I am home, getting ready to take a nap. I wish I had some chicken soup.

And I should probably go to the doctor.

Halloween party

Last night we went to a Hallween party at our friends's house. My lovely husband was a lawn gnome, and wanted me to go as a LAWN GOOSE, but I refused. Not that it would not have been funny, but because I could not bring myself to do it. Instead, I went as Mother D. My friends refer to me as Mother D because I am so "motherlike" and tend to be the responsible one. They mocked me because of my cute Old Navy Halloween t-shirt, so I went all the way and brought Mother D to the party. The best part were my old lady glasses, which are not on in this picture.

I would post more, but most of the costumes were inappropriate and I would hate to offend anyone ;)

It was a great time, even though I felt like total pooh and we were home by 12:30. My husband was a silly drunken gnome, and even went to get a pizza in his costume!

Very much looking forward to taking the girls Trick or Treating on Friday. We have not had them since their dad and I got together, so this is a first for us!

Picking Pumpkins

At Red Wagon Farm, picking out pumpkins on 10/18/08

"I have it, I swear" Jamie, with her 25 pounder.

With my girls!

They are the cutest

Alexys, with her pick!

Catching up

Even though I am miserable about my weight these days, there seem to be many positive things happening. Here are some:
1. It is fall. And I love it. And it will be soon time for all things Christmas, which makes me happy. I love shopping for gifts and wrapping presents and decorating and all that nonsense. Plus, I am one of those weirdos who loves the hustle and bustle and insanity of the malls and stores at Christmas time.
2. I seem to love my job again. For the past two years, I have not enjoyed teaching. But I love it again. And I know that is being conveyed to my students, but it is making it difficult to throw myself into my internship because I am so happy where I am right now.
3. Rachel and I are signed up to start our Wilton Course I on November 3!
4. My costume for the party tomorrow is going to be hilarious. Let's just say that Halloween will have thrown up on me.
5. So many birthdays in November: me, Jamie, Sara, Jenny, plus several of my friends at school. It is crazy!
6. I am starting to scrapbook again and can't wait to do all my fun fall photos! I have some great ones of the girls while pumpkin picking last weekend. As soon as I have time, I will upload some.
7. My credit cards are almost ALL PAID OFF.

I could go on and on about this, but really, I am just...content. That is probably a great word to describe it. We are struggling with money, but things will be ok. I am going to start blogging again more often, because I miss having this outlet. And I want to start working out because I know it will give me the energy I need, and I desperately need to go to meetings on a continual basis. All in all...things are good.

Thursday, 10/16

Today was a good day. Definitely a Starbucks day, so I had a NF/NW peppermint mocha (5 points) which was what I needed to start the day.

Had a normal lunch and then came home and polished off the rest of the ice cream. At least it is gone now, right?

Rach and John came over for dinner and we made quesidillas (sp?). I bought the lowest-point wraps I could find that would fit the 'dilla maker and a rotisserie chicken, which I shredded. I sauteed some mushrooms with EVOO and bought LF cheese. We topped them with LF sour cream and salsa (and some lettuce), and I had some spanish rice on the side. Our dessert was pumpkin spice muffins and some cider that I had simmering all afternoon.

We have both girls this weekend and I am super excited to take the kids to get pumpkins! I really hope it does not rain!