Halloween

We went to a neighbours house for hot dogs and chilli before heading back to our place and getting into costume and doing an early trick or treat. This photo is of some other babies in the street. They start at about 6pm. By 7pm, the older kids are out, and by 8pm, the street was quiet. This year was quieter in our street than last year, leaving us with left over chocolate, in addition to what the kids collected. Most people I talk to agree that the candy aspect is getting overwhelming. The plan is to pick out a bit of what we like, and send the rest to the troops, wherever they are. Not sure how it works, but reduces wastage, in my mind.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

This was surprisingly nice - but I am a fan of cheesecake...

Peak Foliage

Peak foliage has come and gone. I think the best week was the 19th - 25th October. The leaves had all more or less changed, but were still hanging on the tree. Then we got a big storm through, with violent rain, and it was obvious that it was the beginning of the end.

I love love love the foliage!!

Chef Moment - Cannelloni

I had to put this up - decided on the spur of the moment to make cannelloni. Couldn't find the tubes at the supermarket within walking distance, so bought lasagna sheets, semi cooked it, pulled it apart very carefully with tongs, and then made my own tubes by roughly rolling with the cheese mixture inside, laying on a bed of savory mince.
I felt disgustingly capable, it was tasty, easy (the mince was premade in the freezer) and the kids ate it without complaining. I don't often cook interesting things without a cook book that work out like this.
After the photo I ended up completely burying the pasta in mince so that it wouldn't dry out when it got heated in the oven for the final cook.

Carving Pumpkins

I'm sad that I didn't realise that you can toast the seeds that come out of these big orange pumpkins and that they're quite tasty. But we have successfully carved more pumpkins with our $2 carving set from last year...

This photo is where you use a drawing pin to put little holes in the pumpkin that outline your face. Then, you can just join the dots with the carving tools.

Here they are installed on the step with the garden in the background. Half of that is the neighbour's garden.

Halloween costumes

This year we feel a lot less nervous about Halloween. Except that the costuming didn't go as smoothly as planned - my plan - little one as fireman (handed down from last year), big one as costume of his choice from shop. Reality - both insisted they wanted to be cows. I thought, easy, stick spots onto T Shirts like we did earlier in the year. Reality - by end of October it is getting pretty chilly at night. So, go for extended drive one Saturday, try to find child onesies, don't exist, found second hand warm white top for Mr 6 that he can wear with black jeans, add spots, a bell, a headband with ears and a tail. Found dalmatian dog costume for baby, convert to cow by adding big spots, make an ear black, add black tassel to tail. Which all equaled about three nights sewing.
This picture is not the finished product. It was take I where I thought gluing spots on the costumes would work. It sort of did for the shirt, but not for the furry costume...I ended up zigzagging around all the spots, and buying more felt for bigger spots for the onesie.

Pumpkin Bread

The last time I tried this it turned out flat and sort of soppy. This is a packet mix, and it is very tasty. We have bought six packets for later (when they're not in stores anymore).