Joyful Abode

Almost two weeks ago, I posted about a Halloween coloring contest here at Joyful Abode.

Since then, I have received… zero entries!
So I am amending the contest. If there are fewer than FIVE (5) entries submitted by the deadline (October 29th), the contest will be called off. If five or more entries are submitted, the winner will be announced when one picture receives 13 votes or more, or the deadline occurs, whichever happens later.

I took a few copies of the coloring page to the preschool class (where I am the assistant teacher), and I tried to get the kids to help me figure out the lack of interest.

I said to each child, one-on-one, “I drew this picture and gave it to a lot of people, but no one wanted to color it! What do you think is wrong with my picture? Why doesn’t anyone like it?”

(All children’s names have been changed to protect the REAL kids in the school. Just in case.) 

Nate said, “The bat isn’t black.” Then, when I explained to him that it was the color-er’s job to make the bat black, he reconsidered and speculated, “Maybe ’cause everybody don’t like spiders.”

Aiden plainly said, “It’s too scary.”

Julie-Ann said, “Well I like it!”

Kenny’s answer was, “I don’t know. Hey, I like it! I can draw (color) it for you. Want me to show you how?

Russel said, “Because the ghost can’t move. It’s stuck.”

Samuel’s answer was, pointing to the grave, “I think it’s ’cause that think’s broke.”

Mary Ann, the sweetheart, said, “Nothing’s wrong with it. I like it.”

Basat’s answer was a very grumpy,  “Because you make it not good.” Then he pointed out all of the things that weren’t good in the picture one by one, which ended up being everything.

After these conversations, several of the children asked for their own page to color. Their pictures really turned out well.

We already know that my husband is a “Meat… po-tay-toes” kinda guy. So any excuse for that combination seems to be reason for celebration to him.

Well, having had country fried steak (again) earlier in the week, we had two more defrosted cube steaks sitting in the fridge, wanting to be used. The man was cool with having a repeat of country fried steak, but I wanted something that tasted a little different.

So I improvised. And want to know something? It turned out well.

Instead of just using a flour breading, I used half flour and half breadcrumbs for this one. I also sauteed some onions with a bit of Worcestershire sauce, then made a (from one of those mix packages) mushroom brown gravy.

The mashed potatoes were homemade too… just boiled some potato chunks (with skin. mmm), then squished them with milk, sour cream, and a cheese blend.

Yum!

The lighting in our new house isn’t too conducive to taking good food pictures… hence the declining quality (in my opinion) of images here. I need to figure something out.

This was really good, though the chicken was blandish. I think next time, I will marinate the chicken in the oil thing PLUS balsamic vinegar, rather than just the oil thing.

I got the recipe from the Tyson Foods website.

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 pears, cored and thinly sliced

1/2 cup red onion, thinly sliced

3 teaspoons olive oil (why didn’t they just say 1 tablespoon?)

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Wash hands. Place pear and onion slices in a single layer in 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Combine oil, thyme, salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Spoon half of mixture over pears and onions. Cover dish tightly with foil; bake 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, place chicken in remaining mixture, turning to coat on all sides. Wash hands.

3. Uncover pear and onion slices; arrange chicken on top and drizzle with vinegar. Discard remaining oil mixture. Bake uncovered 20 minutes more or until chicken is done (internal temp 170°F).

If I make this again, I will do step 2 first, adding balsamic vinegar, and let it marinate for about half an hour…

Also, I know I used more than what they recommended of the oil/herb mixture AND the vinegar. I don’t understand how you can make 1 tablespoon of something drizzle over a 13 by 9 inch baking pan! Anyone? Is this possible?

Also, I only made 2 chicken breasts, and used a white onion instead of red, because I don’t like red onions.

This homemade pizza had not one, but TWO glaring errors.

Number 1… the crust didn’t rise. I haven’t used yeast successfully yet. This was my first experience with it. But I thought that you’re supposed to add the yeast to the warm water/sugar/salt, let it do its thing, and THEN add dry ingredients. This recipe didn’t do it that way, so maybe that’s why. Or maybe my yeast was dead. I’ll try something else later and we’ll see.

Number 2… you know how most pizza sauce has a bit of sweetness? I added sugar to my sauce, but I added WAY too much. Not a fan. Oops.

The husband said, “Well, it’s not totally disgusting.”

Ha.

Anyway, do you have a failproof yeasty pizza crust recipe? Preferably something that won’t take an hour and a half to do? What about turning spaghetti sauce into pizza sauce? AND… I used mozerella cheese, which I love, but it didn’t do that stretchy pizza-cheese thing when I bit into it. How is that achieved?

I love pizza and I’d love to know how to make a delicious restaurant-quality pizza at home, but this was NOT it. Please help me!

Vaguely inspired by this post in VeganYumYum (it looks positively delicious, but I didn’t have a lot of the stuff on hand), I threw together this pasta salad.

Boil some salted water and add shell pasta and tri-color rotini.

While that’s happening, throw some frozen spinach in the microwave. Of course, fresh spinach is great, but I always have a big bag of spinach in the freezer.

Meanwhile, mix some sour cream and balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Drain the noodles, toss them with the dressing, and combine with the spinach. Add dried cranberries and chopped walnuts.

This was really delicious, served hot. Really.

It might just be me having a weird idea while having a cold, but I think that a touch of orange juice added to the dressing would’ve been nice too. The orange/cranberry thing.

I hope you saved your seeds from when you carved your pumpkin! They are delicious roasted and topped with various things.

Last year, I read a bunch of methods of and recipes for roasting seeds… and combined a few of them to do mine. It turned out very well. Of course, I’m sure there are plenty of ways that work just as well. Feel free to post your recipe/method in the comments!

Wash your seeds and get off all the goop.

Soak overnight in salt water.

Dry and toss seeds with olive oil.

Sprinkle with toppings. Lawry’s seasoned salt is really good. I did a garlic salt version last year, but it wasn’t my favorite. Cinnamon and sugar is a delicious combination. Try whatever you think sounds good!

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for about 35 minutes or until they’re toasty and delicious.

The cinnamon sugar ones were my favorite last year. Mmmm…

This is a guest article by Laura of The Golden Road.

If you are interested in being a guest author for Joyful Abode, please send an email to “contribute at joyfulabode dot com”, and I will contact you.

Hopefully, guest articles will become a bi-weekly event here, so step up and make it possible! (Come on… I know you’re out there!) It can be a recipe, a craft project, a home decor project you recently did, organization tips, some no-fail cleaning advice…

Laura writes:

I seriously love cooking and food. I’m addicted to the Food Network. As I (obsessively) check my email, I scan through the sponsored links that g-mail offers, to view several recipe feeds.

So, when my brother decided to cook today, I seized the opportunity for company in the kitchen, and sought out a recipe that looked somewhat easy and tasty for us to make together.

The recipe we ultimately chose was a Food Network gem: Farfalle with Turkey Sausage, Peas and Mushrooms. Don’t you just love descriptive titles?

We weren’t able to find turkey sausage in our grocery store, which the recipe obviously calls for, so I decided that we would buy some lean ground turkey and improvise. What’s life without a little excitement, hm? We got everything else that was required for the recipe, with the exception of the kind of cheese that the recipe calls for. We instead got a package of pre-grated “Italian” cheese (not, perhaps, the most quality way of cooking but it still tastes good!).

The cooking part was quite fun with my brother around to help (or man the camera, as the case was half of the time). We got our things together: put the big pot onto the stove with water in it for the pasta, and got that going.

Because the recipe called for turkey sausage, and the best we could come up with was ground turkey at our local grocery store, I improvised. After breaking the ground turkey into the pan, I sprinkled in some herbes de provence and a very small bit of red pepper. My family doesn’t like things very spicy, so I went very, very light on it. I went a bit too light, all things considered, because we found that the dish could have used a bit more “kick” in the end. I’m sure actually using turkey sausage would remedy this.

While the turkey was browning, I rinsed the mushrooms and began chopping them. I left rather large pieces of mushroom so that those in our family who are picky about mushrooms could easily spot them and pick them out. This didn’t seem to affect the cooking time or process at all. After the turkey was fully browned, I drained it (what little there was to drain - the wonders of lean meat!) and set it aside. Then, I tossed the mushrooms into the pan.

The mushrooms cooked for about five minutes, “until there [was] no water left,” and then we added most of a package of frozen peas. Sure, the recipe gives an exact amount, but who needs measurement?

I cooked the peas for another five to ten minutes, mostly to warm them, and then combined the mushroom and peas mixture with the ground turkey.

Here is where we ran into our one minor hiccup: we put our water on a burner that takes far too long to get the water actually boiling, so the mixture had to hang out for a little bit while we waited for the water to finish coming to a boil. Once it was boiling, it was just a matter of waiting for the farfalle noodles to cook fully.

After the pasta was drained, I mixed in the turkey, mushrooms, and peas. Then I added the rest of the olive oil and our shredded Italian cheese into the mixture. We stirred it together, and then served it!

(photo courtesy of Food Network)

The general consensus was that it was very, very good, but a little bland, which I attribute to not using enough spice on our ground turkey. Next time I make this recipe (and there will definitely be a next time!), I will add a bit more red pepper to the turkey if I am unable to locate turkey sausage. My whole family - even the mushroom hater - gave this recipe two big thumbs up.

I actually haven’t carved pumpkins this year yet. I’m going to wait a bit longer so that the pumpkins don’t rot before Halloween, BUT… I wrote up this tutorial last year, and I thought it would be helpful to some people who might be reading Joyful Abode this year.

Before:

The pumpkin awaits its transformation. Tools await their destiny.

Step 1: Cut a lid. Make a notch in the back, so that you can easily replace it the right way.
Mine’s bleeding!

Step 2: Remove the lid and cut off all the nasty stringy stuff.

Step 3: Scrape out all the gooey stuff from the inside. Save it so you can get the seeds for baking!

Step 4: After everything is all scraped out, tape your pattern to the pumpkin. If you are drawing it on, go ahead and do that instead. I made mine in paint and printed it out. If you like my jack-o-lantern carving template, it’s available in free stuff.

Step 5: Use a poker (a toothpick or a seam ripper would work if you don’t have one just for pumpkins) to poke holes around your pattern lines. If you drew on your pumpkin, you can skip that.

Then remove your pattern.
It’s hard to see the pokey holes, isn’t it?

Step 6: Rub flour into the holes so you can see them. Wipe off excess with a damp paper towel or sponge.

Step 7: Carve away! Start with the smallest holes, then proceed to bigger ones. This will help keep the stability of the whole thing as you cut.

Step 8:
Light with a tea light, and turn off the lights! (I rubbed cinnamon onto the underside of my lid, so that when I burn the candle the room smells yummy.)

This is a really cute box template I found, and I added illustrations to it to make it Halloweeny. It’s a milk carton style box that would be perfect for filling with candy for party favors or small gifts. I hope you enjoy it! The template is in free stuff.

It’s just print, fold, and glue!

It’s just waiting for its turn in the sewing machine!