Gourmet Dinner Group for October

Gourmet dinner group was at our house this month. I don't have a  big enough dining room for 12 so we used a church size table and a round one and extended into the living room just a bit.  The long table had a black lace tablecloth and the small one had an orange one with spiders and webs on it. The decorations were small...mini pumpkins on candle sticks and a trick or treat glowing sign on the large table and a little witch brewing something on the small table along with an orange candle.  We had skeleton napkins to top it off. The food was likewise Halloween themed.

For the meal we had:

SNAKE BITES

Wayne had grilled pork loin and fashioned it into the shape of a snake.  I cut up a radish for the teeth and inserted red skittles for the eyes.

The Utley's brought

FUNERAL POTATOES

They were the best I had ever eaten and Jaymie offered us the recipe but we have yet to see it.  Maybe she has to retrieve it from the catacombs.  

Wayne also whipped up some potato rolls from my Mom's "dead" relative's recipe.

The Turners brought a Romain and avocado salad topped with "blood oranges".  OK they were only mandarin oranges, but I needed it to sound scary.

The Welton's brought this beautiful selection.

I wish I had taken the lid off this yummy "DINNER IN A PUMPKIN" for the photo.  It was a sugar pumpkin filled with potatoes, carrots, onion, ground beef,  brown sugar etc. and baked right inside the pumpkin. When you scooped out your portion, you also scraped some of the inside of the pumpkin and the taste was amazing.  

And last but not least we had "Death by Chocolate Cake" brought by the Ahlstrom's.  It was so rich and creamy it really could cause death if you ate too much of it.  DELICIOUS!!

Scott Bennett, Laura Turner, Susan and Paul Welton

Wayne, Joan, Rick and Laura Turner

Doug and Julie Ahlstrom and Jim and Jaymie Utley

Thank you all for coming and celebrating the holiday with us.

Oooooooooooooooooh!!  BOO!!

My favorite color is red.  I love ribbon and string and here is my find of the summer.  Colett and I went shopping in Lehi to a vintage store.  This spool is about 8 1/2 inches tall and about 7 1/2 inches across at the bottom.  That is a lot of string.  What am I going to use it for?  Whatever I want.....just to look at, wrapping brown paper packages, flying a kite, adding to home made cards, tying up flowers that want to droop over, and tethering the grand kids.  Every once in a while you come across something that you just identify with for no particular reason.  At $12.00 it was cheaper than a new pair of shoes and made me just as happy.

Gross Halloween Recipe

  I saw this on Pinterest. It is the grossest Halloween food idea I have ever seen.  You stack up a bunch of straws...the kind with the bendable top..into a jar and make sure they are straight and tight together.  Pour into each straw some Jello...purple/red combo and let set up.  Let the straws drop out their treasures when they have set up and you have a bowl of what looks like earth worms to feast on.  I can hardly look at the picture but it is a clever idea.  I don't think even gross little boys would eat these.

Edible Earth Worms

Ingredients:
1 pkg. (6 oz) purple gelatin (raspberry or grape work well)
3/4 oz. unflavored gelatin
3 C. boiling water
3/4 C. whipping cream
green food coloring, as needed
100 plastic straws
Instructions: 1. In a medium, heat safe mixing bowl, stir together plain and flavored gelatin powders.
2. Pour boiling water over, stirring until gelatin is fully dissolved.
3. Allow gelatin to cool til only slightly warm.
4. Stir whipping cream into the gelatin mixture. Stir in green food coloring (you'll probably need 10 drops or more) until your gelatin gets that purpley-brown-grey color of earthworms.
5. With your 100 straws fully extended and snug in your chosen container, pour the gelatin mixture over the straws, filling the container.
6. Cover container and chill at least 8 hours. You can make them and store them this way up to two days in advance of your Halloween party.
7. Remove straws from their container (cutting or ripping a disposable container away is easiest).
8. With hot tap water running, place batches of 4-5 straws under hot running water for a couple quick seconds.
9. Remove "worms" from their straw casings, pressing with fingers. Set on waxed paper to set up.
10. Repeat until all worms are removed.
12. Chill, covered, on waxed paper at least 2 hours.
13. Serve in a chilled bowl, as pictured. Then watch all the kids gobble up this fun Halloween party food.

ThisTime of Year

I love the autumn time of year.  I love the colors, the foods, the cooler weather, the harvest and the promise of holidays to come.  It's my favorite time of year and this Fall has been extremely beautiful and mild.  I found this picture online and loved it.  My thought was...how many pumpkin pies could be made out of these lovely squash?  My mom used to make pumpkin pies, but she also made squash pies that were even better than the pumpkin.  I miss those times and her pies.  I need to get her recipe.

The Perfect Apple

I went visiting teaching to Nicole's last month, and on the way out she was telling me that her apples were almost ready to can and maybe needed just a couple  more days.    I asked her if I could just pick one and she said yes.  I reached in and randomly picked one. "They are Jonathan's  she said".  That is one of my favorites ...not too sweet, not too sour and so delicious with just a sprinkling of salt.  When I got it home, I washed it up and shined it before I ate it.  Whoa, wait, I didn't/couldn't eat this....not yet.  It was the most beautiful apple I have ever seen.  It was perfect in it's shape, perfect in it's redness and perfect in it's shine. It did not have a scratch, peck mark, or a blemish of any kind. It was like a mini work of art.  When Wayne got home I showed it to him and he didn't even think it was real.  It stayed in my refrigerator for over a week before I gave in and consumed the beautiful orb.  It was as good as it looked.  Sometimes all you need it a tiny miracle to make you remember the giver of all miracles.