Nesting In The 21st Century

Halloween Reinvented

Halloween is almost here.  The kids can't wait.  For Halloween night I am going to make my usual triple batch of chili, a big salad and garlic bread.  People come and go all evening so it all just simmers away in the kitchen waiting to feed the passing goblin.

I usually do a special treat for dessert (not for the kids...they have more than enough sweets!)  I haven't decided what to make this year...I can't decide whether to do a chocolate-toffee trifle or something with pumpkin...a pumpkin cheesecake perhaps.  I better decide soon...time is running out. 

I am learning to do less.  I used to do tons of projects and now I am taking the time to concentrate on just a few.  I do have some things which carry over from year to year (the Halloween Chili dinner for one and caramel popcorn balls for another) but I do like to add something new.  It keeps it fun for me.  I have a not-so-secret fear of life becoming ordinary.  I like routine as much as the next person.  I like to have the security of familiar people and things and wonderful traditions to look forward to.  But I also love the idea that life is fluid and needs re-invention to keep us from taking it for granted.  That is one reason I love travel so much.  Seeing other places helps me to see my own in a new light.  And so I balance new ideas and influences in our holidays with the traditions which our family counts on.  The chili will be the same...but the dessert will be new.  And if everyone loves it and wants it again next year I will just have to find something else to tweak.

Tea Towels and Chess Pie

Here are the wonderful tea towels I received from Denise in the Tea Towel Swap.  I adore the cow one especially and I think Thursday is my new favorite day! 

Check out all the amazing tea towels here. 

Denise also sent two recipes I can't wait to try.  One is for Chess Pie (which I have never made) and another for an Apple Cake which sounds like the perfect dessert on one of these brisk Autumn days.  I love old-fashioned desserts.  Things like banana pudding, coconut cake, homemade chocolate pudding and berry cobbler.  I love the older recipes for them...the kind of recipes you can find in old community cookbooks.  The recipes aren't quite as sweet as some recipes can be today.  Also, they use many types of sweeteners and not just granulated sugar which gives them extra pizzazz.  I collect old community cookbooks and have more than I could ever cook from but I love reading them as others would read a novel...I can't get enough of recipes like  "Mrs. Wilson's Snowflake Cookies" or "Mrs. Smith's Triple Marble Chocolate Fudge".  I especially like it if there is a little something about where the recipe came from or who likes it.  Somehow the fact that Mr. Smith loved that Triple Marble Chocolate Fudge makes me even more eager to try it.   Yep, I can't get enough of those old fashioned desserts.  Thanks for the wonderful swap Denise and thanks also to you Jackie  for putting the whole thing together it was delightful!

Snow and Cupcakes

It is really looking like autumn around here although the weather seems more like winter.  It seemed so strange to see all the pumpkins covered in snow this week.  It was a bit sad as well.  I love autumn and I am not at all ready to give up on cool days, bright leaves and that wonderful warm autumn sunshine which makes everything glow.

I made cupcakes for the kids yesterday.  Nothing special.  The little guy wanted the box he saw in the store along with the matching frosting.  What he really wanted was the 4th of July cupcake mix with matching frosting & sprinkles which were in a sale bin but he finally agreed that the Halloween would do.  I was so bummed about the snow and desperate to return us to autumn that I agreed and within an hour we had our cupcakes.  They were rather flavorless (he could have cared less) and had a strange texture (again, he didn't care).  This was clearly a case of style over substance.  Nevertheless we put them on our Halloween-y black cake plate and on the dining room table.  He couldn't have been more pleased.  Seeing his little face, covered in orange frosting and Halloween sprinkles, certainly returned us to an autumn feeling. Sometimes style is all you need.

Woweee!

How incredibly exciting to receive this most amazing package from Laurie for the Red and Aqua swap.  Delicious.  It was so fun and personal.  The book is divine...it is called "Words In A French Life" and I am halfway through already.  I was actually kind of annoyed that the Pre-School pick up line moved so fast on Monday...I didn't get to read enough.

I am going to knit a dishcloth as Laurie suggested in the cute little card she sent.  I just got the Mason Dixon knitting book and so I have directions!  I have to admit that the chocolate/pretzel candy bar was gone before my mind could even register that I had eaten it.  I was so in love with it that I scooted over to Target to snag some more.  If you haven't tried it I highly recommend the Peanut Butter Pretzel Bar...oh yes...it is even yummier than it sounds and it sounds great. (It is a Choxie brand.)  There are note cards and a little red and aqua bundle of fabric.  Thanks Laurie.  It was so delightful.

I feel kind of back on board again.  I am doing the huge cleaning that I talked about before.  I went to Goodwill once a day all last week and will go again today.   It feels so great to get rid of the excess stuff.  I think I just don't really look at anything anymore.  I keep things because I have always had them instead of really evaluating whether I should keep them around.  Worst of all I don't have space for the things I  love.  I guess I am in the middle of a 10 year clean if there is such a thing.