Autumny Foods & Halloween

I've been enjoying all the autumn foods! I made some Apple Cider Spiced Donuts and they turned out pretty tasty! I've got pureed pumpkin in the freezer just waiting to be made into a pie. As today is a little laid back (waiting out Hurricane Sandy), I did some online searches for Halloween food and found two I really liked:

Making All-Natural Halloween Popcorn Balls

Creepy (yet healthy!) Halloween Recipes

And as for some creepy Halloween things to watch here are my humble suggestions:

1. Shaun the Sheep - Little Sheep of Horrors

2. Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

3. Any Alfred Hitchcock

4. 13 Ghosts - the old school version

5. House on the Haunted Hill - old school

6. The Addams Family


Enjoy and have a Happy Halloween!

Hurricane Prep

We're preparing for the possible landfall of Hurricane Sandy. I thought I'd post a small list of things I've learned from past experiences when preparing for an emergency. It's by no means comprehensive, but I'll put some links for other sites that talk about preparing for a hurricane below.

These things apply for a storm that you know is coming and that you have advance warning that you can prepare for.

1. Get caught up on all your chores like washing dishes, laundry, and that toilet or bathtub you've been putting off for a couple weeks! There is nothing so stressful as facing a power outage with a sinkful of dishes. Believe me! I know!

2. Have some cash handy. ATMs aren't solar powered!

3. Have a good supply of paper plates, paper towels, and plastic utensils. Who wants to do a ton of dishes in the face of an emergency? Not me!

4. Have a toilet back-up plan just in case. You never know!

5. Clean up your yard of anything lying around. The last thing you want is the rake flying at your window.

6. If you're able to - have a generator. They go for as little as $650 for a house electricity-wise and the price goes up from there. It's something good to save for! If there is a power outage, it can save the food in your fridge, keep your water running if you're on a well like me, (or keep your sump pump running - an essential in heavy rains!) and keep you warm as we head deeper into autumn.

7. Be prepared with alternative cooking methods. Even having some meals that just need boiled water or are heat and serve can drastically reduce your stress!

Just keep in mind that where you live can drastically change how you need to prepare for a major storm or hurricane. Are you in a flood zone? Which one? (Different numbers mean different levels of risk.) Is evacuation something you could face?  Do you have a lot of trees around? Would they threaten your home if they should fall? (The biggest cause of power outages is fallen trees/tree branches!) The weather guys are saying because a lot of trees haven't lost their leaves, there is a lot more surface area for the wind to blow around and increases the likelihood of downed branches.

How to Survive a Hurricane - scroll through the pictures. The information is to the right of each picture. It's a really great list!

72-Hour Kit ideas - The text is a bit funky, but the information looks helpful.

FEMA has a lot of great info and resources:
FEMA - Hurricanes
FEMA - Heavy Rains
FEMA - Basic Disaster Supplies Kit
FEMA - Blackouts
FEMA - Protecting Your Home from Hurricane and Wind Damage  (downloadable document)

Red Cross Disaster Safety Library

If you're on the east coast - good luck and be prepared early!

Nearly Finished...

The quilt top is nearly finished!

It's a little blurry, but it's the best shot I got from full view. I managed to have the same fabric touching in only 3 places. Not too bad! It was a harder job than I thought - the no touching thing.

I need to sew on two more rows to the side and then it will be just the perfect size for our queen-sized bed!

And the two fabrics I'm adding -
The brown is for the back. Since I'm quilting it in a gold-colored thread I thought it would show up nicely on the brown.
And the gorgeous glowing orange fabric I was planning on using for the border. I also like that they're the the same pattern, just different colors.

I remember someone telling me that when you make a quilt, always make the backing a surprise - something unexpected. My surprise is the brown with the gold stitching showing through. I'll be quilting in the ditch, stair stepping up the blocks, so it will be a zig-zag pattern. I'm excited to see how it will turn out! I originally planned on tying this quilt, but when it comes down to it, I can never bear to go through with it. I just think the ties would be a distraction to the pattern.

Autumn Quilt Progress

I had some last minute fabric additions:

Leaf print, yellow funky geometric design, green leafy, and red with gold leaf print.
Yummy!

I just felt I needed to add another gorgeous red, a yellow I had originally planned on using, but decided against, and now redecided to use, another deep green (I loved the texture!), and I saw that leaf print and fell in love. How could I not include a fabric like that with all the right colors?!

I've got the blocks all sewn end-to-end for each row and ironed. Now I just need to sew each row offset from one another to mimic a brick path. I think this is the perfect beginners quilt - no corners to worry about matching up!

Watermelon Success!!

Yesssss!!!! And, boy, was it delicious!

Late Summer Harvest

My garden is slowly winding itself down. It's looking very weedy and overgrown (in case you were wondering if I weeded or not. haha!) I harvested our popcorn and got two more pumpkins! There's been a slow trickle of peppers and red zebra-stripe tomatoes. The most exciting thing was that I dug up the potato plant I planted from a sprouting red potato in the compost and we got 3 potatoes! I love growing potatoes. They're just so fun to dig up!

I still have one more pumpkin on the vine, and some watermelons. How do you know when they're ripe? And the sweet potato that sprouted in my kitchen and I planted later has grown into a large, beautiful plant. I had to ask someone how to harvest them - I didn't even know! She said I had to dig them up, just like potatoes. I'm really excited to see what's down there.

I realized that I haven't posted a recipe for awhile so, here's my recipe for baking pumpkins and roasting pumpkin seeds!

Baked Pumpkin

- 1 Pumpkin Pie Pumpkin, Sugar Pumpkin, or any smallish pumpkin (the flavor is better than a large one)
- parchment paper

Set your oven to 375ºF to preheat. Line a jelly roll cookie sheet (the kind with a lip around the edge) or large cake pan with parchment paper.

Cut out around the stem and remove. Then slice your pumpkin in half. Scrape out the stringy pulp and seeds (save the seeds for toasting later). Don't worry about being too meticulous and getting every single string out. We're not carving a jack-o-lantern! Place the pumpkins, cut part down on the cookie sheet. Slide them into the oven and allow them to bake for about 1 hour or until a knife passes cleanly & easily through the tough skin and inner pulp without resistance. Take them out and allow to cool for an hour or two. .

Turn the pumpkins on their back and scrape out the pulp, gently scraping as close to the skin as you can to get as much pulp as you can. Place all the pulp in a bowl and mash with a potato masher until fairly smooth (there will still be some lumps.)

Now you're ready to bake! I made some Pumpkin Muffins and they were delicious!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

- seeds from your baked pumpkin
- olive oil
- salt

Grease a jelly pan cookie sheet (with a lip around it) with cooking spray or oil and set aside. You can use parchment paper instead if you'd like.

Place the pumpkin seeds in a colander and run a trickle of water over them as you remove the threads. The water will help the seeds slide through your fingers instead of sticking to them. Remove all the pulp and threads, preferable watching a Jane Austen movie. It's a tedious job! Once that's done, set your oven to 350ºF.

Shake the colander to drain as much water as you can and transfer the seeds to a bowl. Drizzle 2 -4 Tbsp. of olive oil over your pumpkin seeds. You might want more or less, but the goal is to make sure the seeds are coated well. Shake salt to taste over the seeds and mix thoroughly. Pop a seed in your mouth to make sure the salt ratio is enough (you don't have to chew it if you don't want!).

Once it's to your taste, spread the pumpkin seeds over the cookie sheet so that it is an even thickness. You want a single layer here, without much overlap of seeds so that they roast evenly. Put the seeds in the oven and roast for about 10 minutes. Stir the seeds and roast for an additional 10 minutes or until the seeds are golden and dry.

Enjoy them with the rest of that Jane Austen movie!

Autumn Quilt

With the autumny feeling in the air what with the cooler temperatures, drippy clouds, and falling leaves blowing everywhere - already! - I am finally in the mood to get to work on my autumn quilt!

My actual design is based off Amy Butler's beautiful "Lotus Brick Path" quilt design:

I tweaked it a little because I wanted the blocks to be the size of an actual brick and I wanted it to be reminiscent of walking on a brick path in the autumn time with different colored leaves strewn on it, pressed to the path from an autumn rain. I don't know if I'll get that actual affect, but I did my best in choosing fabrics.

Here are the players:

These three are my favorite. The entire quilt was inspired by that pear fabric on the right. It's too bad the colors don't show up very well, because it's just as luscious as a ripe pear!
The left fabric is this cool Indian-inspired fabric I've had for 10 years and the middle is a reproduction 1860s pattern.
Beautiful!

That yellow is an awesome splash of color, just like vivid yellow autumn leaves!

I actually had a lot more fabrics, but I always tend to cut more blocks than I need. So this time I calculated out exactly how many blocks I'd need for a queen-sized blanket, using an actual old brick we dug up on our property for the proper brick dimensions, and starting with my favorite (the pear fabric - of which I didn't have much), I cut it all up and worked my way through the fabrics based on how much I liked them and the balance of colors I needed. There's about an average of 15 blocks of each fabric. I can't wait to start sewing!