It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

So Friday was nightfall.  Saturday was recovery from nightfall.  And Sunday we loaded up the baby and drove to Wilcox, about two hours away.  “What’s in Wilcox?”, you ask?  Not much.  Not much at all, except for Apple Annie’s Orchard!  Believe it or not, there’s not a lot of produce being grown in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, unless you count prickly pears.  Wilcox, however, is higher in elevation and therefore much more conducive to agriculture.  Driving on the dirt roads with cattle on one side of the car and apple trees on the other, I almost thought we were back in Missouri. 

We went to Apple Annie’s Orchard first, where they had everything from apple butter to apple pie to apple salsa, which is only so much fun when you have a husband that doesn’t like apples.  I swear, I will never understand that.  There’s still a part of me that wonders if he’s just playing a big joke, and on our 50^th wedding anniversary, he’s going to say “Gotcha!  Of course I like apples!!  Who wouldn’t?!?”.  Until then, he says he doesn’t like them.  So we didn’t spend a lot of time at the orchard.  We went on to Apple Annie’s Pumpkin Patch, which is open seasonally.  

The pumpkin patch had a gigantic corn maze, which took just long enough for us to get sick of being in the corn maze.  Then we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch.  You could pick your own pumpkin, which was cool, but we ended up just picking some gourds at the produce stand.  We also bought some zucchini and winter squash for baby food (also for us).  I know that next year will be very different with Elin running around, so we’re appreciating the ease of the baby bjorn.  It was a very good day, and I hope to make this a family tradition for us.  

This is actually an aerial photo of the corn maze!!!

Corn.

Hayride!

Sunflowers!

Pumpkins!

Big pumpkin!

Tasting the big pumpkin.

What time is it, Daddy?

I heart Nightfall.

Things have been crazy lately and we had a very busy weekend.  That’s why I’m still the…..Worst.  Blogger.  Ever.  Anyway, on Friday we had a big night.  Matt and I got a babysitter and went with Jennifer to Nightfall.  This is our 3^rd year in a row that the three of us have gone, and it’s always, always a good time.  I’ll back up.  If you’ve ever heard of “Old Tucson Studios”, that’s where Nightfall is.  Basically, ‘Old Tucson Studios’ are the remaining movie sets where they used to shoot a lot of the old western movies.  They’ve taken the sets, preserved them, and turned them into sort of a theme park, for lack of a better term.  If you go any month besides October, it sort of looks like Silver Dollar City, but without any rides.  That’s the best way I can describe it. 

So, during the entire month of October, Old Tucson Studios transforms into NIGHTFALL.  All of the old buildings turn into haunted houses, there are different “scary” shows going on, the train becomes a scary haunted train and there are creepy goblin monsters that walk around the park trying to scare you.  Oh yeah, and they serve beer, that you can take with you all around the park.  Yep.  We love this place.  

This is inside one of the haunted houses.

Jennifer with a clown.

Scary monster on stilts.

Me kissing a scary monster because I had had too much beer.

Worst. Blogger. Ever.

I know, I know, don’t even say it.  It’s been *gasp* three days without a word, or even a picture.  I really have no excuse other than the six month old that orders me around all the time.  (Yes, my teeny tiny little baby girl turned 6 months old on Tuesday)  It’s all Elin’s fault.  Also, this whole blog world has been motivating me to do all kinds of things, which is good. The problem is that it hasn’t been super helpful as far as motivating me to do laundry or pick up the house.  So I took some time to make our house livable again. While I was taking my blogging break though, I did get a few fun things accomplished:

-I made my sister’s Halloween costume (another apron) which I will post later. 

-I turned my guest room into a crafting/sewing room (and it’s still a guest room, don’t worry to all of you that use it).  It’s going to be pretty sweet, so I’ll make it into its own post later when it’s ready. 

-I got the materials for Elin’s Halloween costume; she’s going to be a pterodactyl.

-I also made a couple of cards that my sister needed to give to her bosses for Boss’ Day.  (see right)

The most important thing though, was on Wednesday.  My husband and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary!  Yay!  Actually we went out on Tuesday because that’s when Aunt Jennifer could watch the baby.  We saw an awesome movie, Catfish, you all should check it out.  We also went to one of our favorite restaurants, Amber.  Good stuff.  And then last night, since it was our “real” anniversary night, I made a dessert that Jon had told me about.  Oh yeah, Jon’s totally trying to out-Suzie-Homemaker-me.  Over the weekend he made his own yogurt, cheese, butter, bread, and then this dessert.  Whatever, Jon.  J Anyway, he gave me permission to share the recipe with you.  It’s not healthy in any way whatsoever.  Deal with it. 

Chocolate Bread Pudding

4 c. bread, cubed, crusts removed, 6-7 slices
1/2 c. pecans, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 c. milk
2 (2 oz.) sq. unsweetened chocolate
3 eggs
1 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Whipped cream; optional

Grease a 1 1/2 quart casserole. Place bread cubes and nuts in prepared casserole. Heat milk and chocolate in a small saucepan until chocolate melts. Beat eggs and sugar, at high speed. Stir in chocolate mixture and vanilla. Pour over bread and nuts. Cover and let stand at room temperature (about 30 minutes). Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake pudding uncovered 30-35 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean, cool 1 hour. Serve with whipped cream.

I followed the recipe almost exactly, I used 3 oz of chocolate instead of 2, so it was more like dark chocolate.  Mmmmmm…………..pure heaven.  Soooooo good.  Even my non-dessert-loving-husband loved it.  We enjoyed this cuddled up on the couch with a glass (or two) of pinot noir.  And that makes a very good anniversary.  Enjoy!  

Aebleskiver or Oxtail? I’ll have both.

 Last night we went to ‘Tucson Meet Yourself’, a festival of ethnic foods, cultures and lots of interesting people.  I definitely had some high expectations because going all the way downtown on a Saturday night takes about an hour and a half with traffic, parking and dodging of drunk college kids.  Luckily those expectations were met, if not exceeded.  The main attraction here, for us anyway, is the food.  


Everywhere you look there are stands selling the most popular cuisines of various countries.  Each stand gives you several options, and most are small portions and small prices ($2-$6).  I loved this because Matt and I just shared one item at each place, letting us taste a lot of different cuisines.  

We had food from Costa Rica, Sweden, the Philippines, Korea, Jamaica and Denmark.  All of it was good, some was better than others.  My favorites were the Filipino noodle/chicken/eggroll dish and the Danish Aebleskiver (sorry Sweden, but there’s only so much you can do with a meatball).  Aebleskivers, from what I understand, are made from a batter that is similar to a buttermilk pancake, but they are round and cooked in special aebleskiver pans.  They are served with powdered sugar and raspberry jam.  Var sa god.  We also had oxtail stew, from Jamaica.  Not my favorite, but now I can say I’ve had oxtail.  There’s also quite a bit of entertainment.  There was the African group on one stage and then an ‘Iron Chef’ competition at another one.  A group of bagpipes marched by us at one point too, which was fun since I just found out that I’m part Scottish.  All of the sudden they sound much less like noise to me.  All in all it was a good night and worth the headache that is Tucson traffic.  Hejda!

Man I love my kid...

...because she let us sleep in until 9:00 today.  Elin, that officially makes you my favorite baby EVER.  That hasn't happened in about 6 months, probably longer.

“Ward, I’m very worried about the Beaver.”

I apologize for the wordless, pictureless, titleless, Thursday.  The day just got away from me, and to be honest, it didn’t even cross my mind until I got a harassing e-mail from my sister about it.  Hi Jenn.  I did technically did have two posts on Wednesday, though, so that should count for something. 

Anyway, after finishing my first apron, I stumbled upon Anthropologie’s website.  I often forget about Anthropologie because it’s almost too painful to look at.  I love EVERYTHING about this store.  If I designed my own line of clothes or home furnishings, I’d have some major problems because everything would end up looking exactly like their stuff.  I take it back.  I love everything but the prices.  At $78 for a t-shirt, I don’t love the prices.  I can hear myself now, “Sorry, Elin, you don’t get any diapers this month because Mommy REALLY needed this $148 sweater.”  I actually haven’t really even purchased much from the store for that reason alone, but I love to look and fantasize about winning the lottery so I can buy the store out.  Ahhhh…one day. 

So back to aprons.  Anthropologie has aprons – really cute ones.  Once I saw these I couldn’t help but make another one.  This one will be my hostess apron.  Or I can vacuum ‘June Cleaver style’ in my heels and pearls with it.  You know, just like I do every day.  

Retraction!! I do have words this Wednesday!

I almost forgot!  Last night's meal from e-mealz was 'Tuscan Chicken'.  I wanted to share it with you, because it was SO GOOD.  I really wasn't expecting it to become a blog post, so I didn't take a picture, and by the time I thought of it both of our plates were empty.  Matt suggested taking a picture of the empty plates to show how good it was though.  J  Here’s the scoop:


TUSCAN CHICKEN

For 2 servings you will need:

            -2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded out thin

            -sprinkling of Italian seasoning

            - olive oil to coat pan

            -2 t balsamic vinegar (I probably used a little bit more though)

            -a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

Instructions:

1.      Season chicken with salt+pepper and Italian seasonings.

2.     Heat oil in skillet, add chicken and brown on each side, about 3 minutes per side.

3.     Add tomatoes and cook about 4 more minutes, you know, until they look cooked.

4.     Add the vinegar and cook about 5 more minutes, when you notice the vinegar is starting to reduce.

5.     Serve chicken with the reduced vinegar and tomatoes on top. 

I made this with couscous and roasted asparagus and it was awesome.  Let me know if you make this!  Enjoy!