HALLOWEEN 2011 (a little late)...

When I posted the chandelier yesterday with all the hype for Halloween, I realized that I had never posted Halloween from last year.  Fall was nuts around our house and blogging wasn't happening... Scott came home from his mission mid-October, Erin had a birthday, we took the family to Disney Land for a bonding experience, we were in charge of MORP (PROM spelled backwards) at the high school, Scott had his homecoming and then there was Halloween... all in the course of two weeks.  Anyway,

"WELCOME TO THE GREATEST SHOW UN-EARTHED!" 

 The Draper family ready to run away and join the circus!

 The Ringmaster and Mistress!

 The stage is set... just waiting for nightfall for the party to begin.

 

 Nighttime on the midway...

 Welcome to the freak show... ENTER IF YOU DARE!

 Be careful where you sit... it is never wise to turn your back on a creepy clown. We learned that at Knots Berry Farm the week before....

 Sami (left) was an acrobat, Deni (center) was a fire eater and Erin (right) was a Gypsy fortune teller.  Scott was "Boris, the Strong Man". His line for the night was "I pick things up and I put them down" delivered in a thick Russian accent. Hilarious. 

 Welcome! We have been waiting for you!...

Detail of the entrance...

Halloween was awesome... even if I never use that word. Big things are already in the works for this year... after all, we only have two months and it is going fast!

Come see us on All Hallows Eve.... if you dare!

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

IT'S COMING.....

 

What's coming???

Oh, I think you know... 

 

...only two months until 'All-Hallows Eve'!

 

'Stay close to the candles, the stairs can be treacherous...'

SUMMER IS DRAWING TO A CLOSE!

 The hot weather is continuing to cook us on a daily basis but July has come to an end. August is here and it is time to put away the patriotic decor and start thinking about Fall. Before summer goes into storage I thought I would share some of our 'things and stuff' that help us celebrate Independence Day and SUMMER!

 Patriotic gumballs and a variety of stars and stripes mix with everyday items.

 The paper straws are now red and white but the decor always works around the ever present jar of raw almonds.... a quick, healthy snack on the run!

 What says summer more than watermelon! And remember.... "Love is All You Need!".
 

With lots of summer entertaining, the back yard gets into the spirit of the season also. Flags and party lights set the mood while the white sail awnings help keep the patio cool.


The time has come for summer to go away and to make room for the coming holidays of Fall... and you know how we are about those holidays!  BWAAHAAHAAHAAHAA!

'WHAT TO DO WITH OVER-RIPE BANANAS'

In the 'olden' days, when someone asked what you do with over-ripe bananas you would say, "make banana bread", right? Now days every 'THING' seems to about 'STUFF' like cupcakes!

The other day we had a pile of over-ripe bananas for some reason so Sami decided she would make Banana Cupcakes. She had made them before and they were delicious! Now however, she is on a 'health' kick and decided she needed to use whole wheat flour. No biggie. We Googled the instructions for substituting whole wheat flour for white flour and she mixed up the batter. Well, the instructions said to either decrease the amount of flour or increase the amount of liquid. We missed the 'either' part and did both....

Kind of a SAD result! They till tasted delicious but they were not very attractive at all... and you know, presentation is very important in my book!

When we cut them in half to check out the texture, we found they were still really moist and that they resembled something we have seen before... a bowl. Amazing! Inspiration! Delicious!

Strawberry filled banana cupcakes with cream cheese icing! SO GOOD and not hard to make.

This is the original recipe:

Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup mashed bananas (2 usually make a cup)
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, bananas and buttermilk. Combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt and add to banana mixture.

Fill paper cupcake liners two-thirds full. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

We decreased the flour to 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour and increased the eggs to three and ended up with a really delicious accident!

Sorry... our cream cheese icing recipe is top secret so I can't share that with you... at least not right now....

 

WHAT IS FINALLY FOR DINNER???

 So, I decided to do this post just to see, after my long absence, whether I have any followers left. Most people have so much "stuff" going in their lives that often "things" get put aside if there is not much of interest going on... 

This was for dinner last night. Why not have a nice meal on a Wednesday night... just because it is Wednesday! A nice petite fillet mignon with mushroom marmalade, loaded twice baked potatoes and a green salad. Delicious!

If I do have any followers left and you want the marmalade recipe, let me know and I will post it.


 

ST. PATTY'S IS A HOLIDAY TOO!

If you know us at all, you know that holidays are a big deal in our house and just because St. Patrick's day is a fairly small holiday that is often passed over doesn't mean you can't decorate! There are 'things and stuff' that can be done for even the most obscure holiday's!

We like to decorate our bannister for the holidays. It is easy to do, doesn't take a lot of time or energy, but it makes the entry fun and inviting. I just used stuff this year that I picked up at the grocery store.

A green glitter derby, a feather boa and mardi-gras beads combine with a variety of ribbon to create a St. Patrick's day garland.


When we remodeled our kitchen this year (I know... I haven't posted the new kitchen yet) I put in cabinets above the new wet bar that could display all of our fun holiday theme collections. Everything in the cupboard is not St. Patrick's day but it is amazing when you start looking around how many things you own that can be combined into a 'themed' collection.


Lighting the inside of the cabinets and using glass shelves allows you to showcase a collection.


Yes, these are really Christmas angels... I just missed them when I was cleaning up after the holiday. Now they are St. Patty's angels! After all, the medallion says "Kiss me, I'm Irish". Now you can kiss me under the mistletoe!


Shamrock's on the front porch welcome visitors! The large shamrock is cut from Masonite, the smaller shamrocks are from the dollar store. I painted the spots on them to make them look like they all go together.


May the luck of the Irish be yours!

WHAT'S FOR DINNER TONIGHT? #1

So, I was browsing through Pinterest the other day and saw a recipe on SimplyReem.com for Japanese Soba noodles that looked amazing so I decided to try it out. It didn't just look amazing, it was amazing. I made some additions and changes to the original recipe for my family but it was defiantly a "do again"! You should try it out... the recipe is below.

SOBA NOODLES WITH SWEET GINGER SCALLION SAUCE
2 12 oz. packages of Soba Noodles
4 TBSP sesame seeds lightly toasted
1 cucumber thinly jullienned
Lime wedges
2 chicken breasts, baked or grilled, thinly sliced ( I added this for protein)

FOR SAUCE
2 bunches of scallions finely chopped to make 2 cups
2 TBSP minced ginger
4 eggs, scrambled (I also added this because I like eggs in Pad Thai)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 TBSP minced garlic (adjust to your taste)
6 TBSP oil (like peanut or grape seed)
4 tsp chili oil
2 TBSP soy sauce
4 TBSP rice vinegar
4 TBSP honey

METHOD
Mix all ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside for 10-15 minutes to let the flavors develop. The soy takes the moisture out of the scallions and creates a really nice sauce.
Boil the Soba noodles per the package instructions.
Add the sauce and sesame seeds to the noodles and toss well.
Plate the noodles up into individual servings. Top with slices of chicken, julienne cucumber and a couple wedges of lime.

This recipe is good served hot or cold.

Fresh ingredients add to the flavor of good food! Let me know what you think!