Last Week of October

A busy week! We had the Ward Halloween Party sponsored by the Primary at the Whalen's on Tuesday. There was a chili & cornbread cook-off, a haunted alley for the kids and then a trunk-or-treat afterwards in their field. Very well attended!

On Wednesday, we had the missionaries over for dinner and tried out a new casserole recipe on them! No picture since we basically got home at 4:30pm and had them at our house and dinner on the table by 5:30pm. It was a keeper though, so here is the recipe:

Creamy Chicken Noodle Casserole
8 oz package egg noodles
2 cups cooked and cubed chicken (or turkey)
8 oz package frozen peas and carrots
1 cups milk
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoons melted butter
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
1/4 cup butter, divided

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile combine chicken, frozen veggies, milk, soups, onion, melted butter and salt and pepper. Add noodles and stir to combine. Transfer to a 9x13 baking pan. Cover top of casserole with cheese. In a small bowl melt butter, then add to the crushed Ritz crackers and mix. Spread cracker crumb mixture over shredded cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Thursday was Halloween. John had a potluck at work (they have a lot of potlucks, any reason to celebrate). Then Audrey had a costume party with some friends from her EWU club. She got all dressed up and then had trouble finding a parking spot (it was downtown) so ended up coming home and helping me pass out candy to the Trick or Treaters.

Finally, got some fun items from Kathy in the mail. First the Spooky blocks which were the project her ward did for Super Saturday. She added the Family to the back so I could display them year round. She also sent me a felt ghost and glass trick-or-treat block. I just had to add the tomato cage and lights under the ghost and the orange lights in the block to finish them off. Don't they look festive!?

Fall Activities !

Went to Super Saturday this morning. Each year my sister and I compare notes on what our particular ward is doing and if either of us interested in the other ones projects, we make sure to get them a kit. I was not interested in any of the projects my ward was doing, but Kathy was interested in the JOY blocks. Unfortunately the picture on the sign up sheet and what was presented that day was quite different. The tops of the blocks were 4x6 blocks and looked far too heavy for the spindles they were to be on. So I only painted the spindles and took the blocks home for John. He cut them down to about a 3x4 block and routered a nice edge to them. Definitely looked more in proportion to the spindles. I sent them to Kathy and this is the final project. She ended up putting not only the JOY on the front, but BOO on the back so she could have them on display during Halloween and Christmas.

Since I only had the black spindle portion to paint, I ended up sitting and chatting with Kathy Thompson for the rest of the morning until lunch was served. They had a Pasta e Fagioli soup, green salad, bread and then 4 different spreads to top the bread with. Below are the various spreads.

Spice Apple Cheese Spread
2 cups cream cheese
1 & 1/2 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 c. finely chopped apple
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
2 TB milk
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Ham Cream Cheese
2 c. cream cheese
1 c. sour cream
1/4 tsp garlic powder
5 oz deli ham, chopped
2 green onions, thinly sliced

Spicy Jalapeno and Olive Spread
1 block cream Cheese
Jalapeno, seeds removed and finely chopped
Green olives, chopped
1 TB lemon juice

Walnut Raisin
1 block Cream Cheese
Chopped walnuts
Golden raisins
Honey to taste

After a relaxing morning, John and I met up with Marcie and headed to the Incredible Corn Maze at Hauser, Idaho. None of us had every done one before. When we arrived they gave us a map. You could enter in the green, black or blue area depending on if you wanted short, medium or long maze. The older kids went off to explore by themselves while we took the easy route. I was not very good at this! But we did enjoy time with Marcie and her kids! Thanks for a fun fall quarterly activity!!

My Piano!!

When we started the music room remodel, we were not planning on getting a different piano. But one day we went window shopping and the rest is history. Thankfully they were able to store the piano until we were done creating dust. Today they delivered this beauty!! It is a red mahogany Baldwin baby grand piano.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookie

Chocolate? Peanut Butter? Yup, I loved them! And another week with cookies for the Young Men. John always tells me the boys like the cookies, even when I make ones that I don't post, but the most telling time was when I heard one of the moms say, "Oh, I've heard about your cookies and how great they are".

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CUP COOKIES
1 and 1/2 cups plus 2 TB flour
6 TB cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp course salt
6 TB butter, room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 TB peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TB milk
2 cups coarsely chopped peanut butter cups, divided*
* Freeze the peanut butter cups before you chop - helps to stay intact while mixing them into the dough.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of the mixed, combine the butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla and milk. Blend until smooth. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients until incorporated. Add in 1 and 1/2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups and fold in gently with a spatula.

Use a large cookie scoop and place them 2 inches apart. Gently press a few pieces of the reserved peanut butter cups into the top of each of the dough balls. Bake 12-14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. The cookies may seem too soft immediately after coming out of the oven, but they will set as they cool. Don't over bake them. Let cool on the baking sheets about 10 minutes, then transfer to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Music Room Remodel

When we were deciding what we would do for our summer vacation, every idea Audrey and I came up with was met with an "eh" from John. Until Audrey said "How 'bout we remodel the music room?". Then John became interested! He just loves to have a project going. So, we took the last week of August off and started the remodel project:

What seemed a great idea when we first remodeled this room (pink wallpaper circa 1989) tended to look a little outdated in 2013! We started by striping off the wallpaper - not terribly fun, nor very quick. We did use some great product to assist but first had to remove the top layer (vinyl) so the product could absorb onto the paper backing and adhesive. Then we scrapped it off, but if we took too long we'd have to reapply. And it did not all come off the first go around.

We painted the upper half of the wall a sage green (Valspar #5005-4A Filoli Ballroom) which was a color listed on their Historic Preservation choices. Then we installed a board and batten design on the lower two-thirds of the room. Ended up installing wood on the entire lower portion as that meant we did not have to remove the wallpaper thoroughly on that portion. (It was taking a long time - we were now into mid-September). Then we installed new trim around the windows and doors.

Next up - the ceiling! This view shows what it looked like in August including the old stove pipe vent that was still there even though the stove was removed prior to us purchasing the house in 1988.

We installed antique copper style ceiling tiles (style CT-201 from Pro Ceiling Tiles) and a new copper ceiling fan we found online. The room is starting to come together at this point!!

John took the opportunity to re-work my closet. I store all my serving dishes in this closet. He added a lot of shelves to make the space very useful. Then added new door handles on the closet door and the patio doors. We also removed the folding doors that were between the music room and the dining room.

Last project was refinishing the wood floors. They weren't horrible, but did have some wear since the last time we finished them was probably 1990. Below is before.

And during. We rented a sander and took off the finish and stain down to the bare wood. Fixed some squeaks and filled in some gouges. Below are a few during pictures when we were staining the floor. After that dried, we varnished the floor with a high gloss. The smell was pretty bad. We kept the doors closed in the rest of the house, opened some windows (we are now into October on the remodel so was a little nippy) and Audrey's visiting teacher Mickey even lent us her air purifier to help with the odor.

And here is a view of the finished wood floors. All shiny!!

Finally, the finished room - only took 2 months!!

Greenbluff

We went to Greenbluff today to get our annual apple cider fix. We wanted to try something different than we normally do, so hung out at the open market adjacent to the store we buy our cider at. It was fun! There was a booth where a couple were selling different flavors of scones and was willing to sample A LOT of samples to us. But of course, that made us feel like supporting them more. So we filled up on scones (my favorite was a chocolate coconut one they called Almond Joy). Loved their business name, "Scone Ranger". They have a store front on 2nd Avenue the rest of the year - we will have to visit them again. And then, instead of getting the pumpkin donuts we do ever year, this year we tried an assortment of Aebleskivers from another booth. They are a Danish pancake cooked in a cast iron pan (so they look like donut holes) and served with syrup, jam or powdered sugar. The booth owner was awesome also, giving us both types of berry jams to try and splitting our order between traditional and pumpkin. We had a fun time today...but had to go home to get something less sweet in our tummy!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

These were delicious! Another attempt to use up "chips" at the Carter household while making treats for John to take to the Young Men. Had white chocolate chips and usually I bake with chocolate chips, so went on the hunt for this recipe. Spent $8 on macadamia nuts to make them, but they were so worth it.

WHITE CHOCOLATE MACADAMIA NUT COOKIES
1 and 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts (unsalted)
1 and 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

In large bowl add flour, baking soda, salt and set aside.

Melt butter, then add to the bowl of the electric mixer. Blend melted butter with both sugars and beat until well combined. Add the egg, then the egg yolk, and continue to beat until fully incorporated. Add vanilla and blend well. Pour flour mixture slowly into the wet mixture, then add the nuts and white chocolate chips and blend just until all the flour is incorporated.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put cookie dough in the fridge until oven is to temperature. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and scoop the batter using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop. Bake cookies, one sheet at a time for 10-12 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven when the edges of the cookies are just beginning to get golden brown and the centers appear slightly under-baked. Allow the cookies to cool about 5 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a cooling rack. Keep dough in the fridge while baking the other cookies so they keep their shape while baking.

8 Can Taco Soup

This was billed as a Slow Cooker recipe, but we just heated it on the stove. Tasted great!

8 CAN TACO SOUP
15 oz black beans, drained and rinsed
15 oz pinto beans, drained and rinsed
14.5 oz diced tomatoes, not drained
15 oz corn, drained
12.5 oz chicken breast, drained
10.75 oz cream of chicken soup
10 oz green Enchilada sauce
14 oz chicken Broth
1 ounce taco seasoning mix

Put all ingredients into a pot and cook until heated through and boiling. Serve with grated cheese, sour cream, salad and chips (we used Fritos).

Paycheck

Audrey's first paycheck from EWU !!

Heath English Toffee Bits Cookies

Note: There are two types of Heath toffee bits. One is called Bits 'o Brickle (just toffee) and one is called English Toffee Bits (milk chocolate and toffee). I got the recipe off the Hershey website and it called for just the toffee ones, but using the milk chocolate and toffee was awesome. With John now in young men's, I'm using this opportunity to make treats for his activity nights. I have a habit of buying "fun" baking chips (white chocolate, toffee bits, cinnamon chips) so have a few choices in my food supply to try.

TOFFEE BITS COOKIES
2 and 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 and 1/3 cups Heath toffee bits which is one bag
*Can use Bits 'o Brickle or English Toffee with Milk Chocolate

Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended. Add eggs; beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in toffee bits. Drop by rounded teaspoon on greased (or parchment paper lined) cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly; remove from sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 48 cookies.

Betsy Ross Spinet

Here is the Betsy Ross Spinet that I've played for about 10 or 12 years. It was unique in 2 ways. The keys are curved / rounded so no edge to the white keys at all. That was actually a very nice feature. Second, the lighter brown in the picture? That is some type of Naugahyde or some other faux material. When I first looked at it, it was in a dark room and I did not realize it was not wood until we had gotten it home. Seems obvious in this picture because of the sunlight. I kept it covered with a crocheted doily my Grandma Whisler had made for me - she is the one who taught me how to play the piano. We were able to give the piano to the daughter of someone in our ward.

Before they picked it up, I tried to take pictures of a few more interesting details. These were added by young-artist-Audrey. First there is a smiling man on the wood where the music was placed and next, the words "Zorro" along the section behind the keys. I was able to be reminded every time I sat down to play!