Halloween FOOD!

I love October! I love Halloween or what it used to be. I don't like all the gory stuff.
I have tried to be festive in my cooking.
WE have had mashed potato ghosts

pancake ghosts

and spiderweb pizzas



I intend on making something twice a week to fit my halloween theme! My punks don't appreciate my creativity. I barely got a "good job" mom! ::PUNKS, I tell ya, punks!

All recipes found here.

I wonder why I never posted this post! It was from years ago!

Drive Thru Windows

Hold the pickle Hold the lettuce Special orders DO upset us. GRRR, what is it with drive thrus and the speakers and let's not mention the invisible person, the VOICE that takes your order!
Now, that soccer and football games are in full blown mode. We tend to frequent Fast Food restaurants more than I care to.

Thursday nights are the worse for us. I get home around 3:45. My two youngest arrive home at 4pm. Warrior is at football practice. Two children have soccer practice. One from 5 to 730 and the other is 6 to 7. Two different parks. As soon as practice is over with we dash out to the junior varsity football game so that I can take pictures for the team.
We eat around 930, 10 pm. Friday nights are game nights. We always go out. Usually to a sit down restaurant.

When it comes to ordering through drive thru. I have everything completely ready. I have all 6 orders, sizes and drinks ready to go. I over articulate and am extra kind to the munchkins in the little black boxes. (BTW, I despise those automated messages that come out). It makes me always say, What the??

My orders are always ready and 99% correct even when I order 3 special burgers. I used to work a drive thru when I was in high school. I know the frustration on the other end. I also know what high school people do to food items, especially the special orders. It is best to be on the speaker as little as possible. If you are asking questions upon question and having an issue. The chances of having your order tampered with has just increased considerably.

Mr. Incredible has created drive thru high maintenance children. Yes, can we have 3 hamburgers only mayo, catsup, lettuce and tomato? Then he would like a bacon double cheese burger only mayo, catsup, lettuce and tomato. Why not just say no mustard, pickle or onions. That is what they want to know! WHAT YOU DO NOT WANT ON YOUR BURGER!

Mr. Incredible places his order'just his way'
drive thru attendee, 'our burgers don't come with pickles on them'.
Mr. Incredible, GOOD, because I don't want any, no onions right?
drive thru attendee, They don't come with onions on them.
Mr. Incredible, GOOD.

We receive the order and verify that everyone has their meals. Mr. Incredible is hungry and tired. He is the first to find out after he leaves a big gaping hole in the burger that his burger has onions and pickles on it. SLAMS on brakes. Atmosphere in car changes considerably. In fact, it is darn right cold and I have to turn the heater on. I don't even have to look over or say a word. I know he has found a pickle or an onion.
I look over and a pickle is hanging out between his lips! (I kid you not) :: I roll my eyes, oh no, here we go!"

I can determine how much patience he has. Does he drive back around or does he stomp his half eaten burger inside?
STOMPS his burger inside along with the other 3 burgers.
YOU SAID, THESE BURGERS DO NOT COME WITH PICKLES ON THEM!!"
Yes, sir. We thought you wanted pickles!
I ORDERED, NO PICKLES, NO ONIONS, NO MUSTARD!
He comes back to car. I knew I should have ordered the way I always ORDER! ONLY mayo, catsup, lettuce and tomato. YES, dear! I'm sorry. Now, Chill out! what's the big deal? I ask. Which is very unfair because had it been my meal. I would have had a tizzy, too.

When it comes to Friday Football nights after a game Mr. Incredible is always very hungry and depending on how well they played can be extremely grumpy and is usually tired. If they lose. He is grumpy, hungry and tired. These three things are highly volatile when combined. We will not eat out or frequent TGI Friday's on a losing Friday night. He will have no patience for poor service and incompetency. Please waiters and waitresses be on your top game for Friday nights! I promise if you keep his drinks filled and his food is brought out as ordered you will receive a very handsome tip.

Family Time with Gma Janice and cousins

It is very rare that Mr. Incredible's family comes to visit us. Our home is always open to them. We are the ones who make most of the family trips to both sides of our family. I love that we do this because it keeps our children close with their relatives.  It used to bring the Mr. a lot of frustration but he has resolved that when we want to go we go! I think it's perfect. Everyone does what makes them happy and if you are happy we are happy! This goes to both sides of our relatives and we love them both. 

We had the pleasure this time of having Uncle B and Gma come visit us! We had so much fun!! One St. Louis is the perfect spot for families there is so much to do and it is all free! I love St. Louis!! I love that you can watch a Cardinal game for relatively cheap and it's such a great place for people to visit. We got to share a part of our amazing city with them this time! We are also only a few hours away from Nauvoo and Kansas City!! 

This dessert was a huge hit! I had to make it 3x! It is a bit time consuming because the chips you have to cut the tortillas into 8ths with a pizza cutter and then you brush melted butter on top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and bake in the oven! These chips are AMAZING!!!  from there you just make a gigantic ice cream sundae! I laid the chips down on a platter and then scooped vanilla ice cream, drizzled caramel, chocolate and strawberry syrup and fudge on top and cut fresh strawberries and bananas and sprinkled some peanuts on top! Then scoop and serve! It's dessert nachos and sooo yummy!!! 

Gma treated us to pizza and QT drinks! Lucky for us the Cards scored 7 so we got 50 cent drinks at QT!! We love when our Cardinals score because we head out to QT

Sweetheart giving some of her sugar away! Gma loves it when you love on her! I'm grateful my children get to spend time getting to know their grandparents.

Oh yes, this has happened too! She has her permit and is driving and she is a really good driver!!

                               I love St. Louis and I love the city and this beautiful arc! It's amazing!

Delicious Recipes

Yadira came to visit us for spring break! I have so many pictures and posts to share! We have been having a great time!
Here is some yummy grub that we have been eating. Recipes can be found at SolomonRecipes.

Home made steak tacos and Home made pico de gallo! Thank you Yadira, we love you!

RECIPES

I've done some cooking and loading of recipes onto my long neglected recipe blog.
Here is some of the dishes that you may find and I have many more still waiting for my time
to load! Amazing Lemon Chiffon light and airy sweet and a NY coffee cake that will just rock your socks off! The crumb topping is to die for!
All recipes and more found here Solomonrecipes

Guy Fawkes night

We have a family in our ward who hail from England. There is a tradition there called Guy Fawkes. It is an English celebration of burning and effigy and setting off fireworks. I missed the explanation of Guy Fawkes so I googled it and this is what I learned. It's pretty dang cool! I didn't realize that as a teenager I was actually celebrating a holiday somewhere in the world. However, we seemed to celebrate November 5th year round.
Guy Fawkes Night is an annual celebration on the evening of 5 November. It marks the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy the Houses of Parliament, in London, United Kingdom.
It is primarily marked in the United Kingdom to celebrate the deliverance of the King of Great Britain; but, it is also celebrated in former British colonies including New Zealand,[1] Newfoundland, South Africa, and parts of the Caribbean.

I believe our entire ward was invited. The party was to commence at 6:30pm. We arrived at 7ish. When we arrived it was in full blown swing of things. Cars were streamed for a block or even two and people were walking the side of the road, in the same direction we were going. (hmmmmm... I thought to myself turn around and get out now). I tend to stress in huge party environments,unless I am in control and have planned it. I get itchy like I'm wearing a wool sweater and want to bale. I prefer a more intimate one on one gatherings. But, I perservered. Mr. Incredible is very comfortable in big settings. After all I had this warm tray of delicious smelling s'more bars that were calming my nerves.

It was very festive. Everyone was very happy and there were children everywhere. It looked like the party started at 5! The fireworks were going,


the bomb fire was blazing

and the church boy band
was strumming and the dinner table and the beverage table gave the only tell tale signs that this was indeed a mormon party. If an outsider had just walked by he would have no clue other wise.

There were remanants of many casseroles and crock pots on the buffet and the beverage center was full of soft drinks. The dessert table was demolished, these people came hungry. I know a good party will do that to you.

I originally replied saying 5 of us would be in attendance but it ended up being 3. The girls quickly found other homes to spend the night at. Even my youngest had asked to spend the night at his friends. I believe he would have if his friends parents didn't impose such a strict bedtime on the weekends. He however was very happy he chose to come with his "BORING" mom and dad! ::gaspuh:: me boring?? getaouttaheeya. I think they missed a pretty good shingdig.
There was roasting marshmellows the traditional way....

and then a more conventional way...

Good food, Good people and good fun! Here's my little effigy. Dash was the only one who truly dressed up for Halloween. He is just so dang cute!>

His friend is Brandon, he is men in black and his other friend is Tony Hawk or some skater guy.

Just wanted to say Thanks for the invite and glad I worked through the wool sweater.

halloween owls, witches hats and broom sticks,

Each of these were so fun to do and can be found here.
Do you have any favorite foods that you give prepare for this holiday? We have a halloween dinner too!

A ghostly breakfast and Dinner

All recipes found here.


For breakfast this morning we had ghostly pancakes! yum yum! I just love pancakes and chocolate chips! And in Ghost form they are even more delish! Gourmet mom on the go is also featuring her own little ghost pancakes but I mean who hasn't made these before! I love making mickey and mini mouse pancakes too!

Well the ghost on the end was being so friendly! He must have woken up on the wrong side of the griddle! I don't handle whiners and complainers very well in the morning. Something about his eyes were all smeared! Well, I put an end to that!
YEP! I bit his head off! Right in front of the other ghosts who were cooking. See them quivering in the back ground?? Yeah, I thought so... and for the record... How many of my children wake up grumbling in the morning?? YEP! that's right. NONE of them. Because I'll bite their heads off too! LOL (seriously)

Notice the one ghost chose not even to have a mouth. He knew he couldn't be trusted!


For din din we had shepherds pie! Only I piped the mashed potatoes into cute ghosts and used chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth! What?? you say chocolate chips and mashed potatoes don't go! Who says so?? Ok, so you are suppose to use peas for the eyes but I didn't think they looked as cute and I didn't have any peppercorns.

Another Quickie and mmm... good!

NO! not the other! this is a Family blog and I may be brazen but I'm not that crude. (ok, I am but...not this time)
I found this wonderful recipe on Cynthia's blog. Cynthia and I have very similar taste buds!
Her pictures are better than mine and definitely more appetizing so please check her out for her pictures alone. This takes less than 5 minutes from start to finish.
I read this and read the simplicity of it and my heart just began to flutter! We like flavor, we like chicken and we like flour tortillas. This will work, especially after a football game where everyone is tired and hot and did I mention tired?
Another absolute plus is this is one more recipe that my EIGHT year old DASH can make all by himself! Click HERE to see Dash's first meal. He has learned to make his favorite dinner and this will go down as another. I'm all about teaching children to do for themselves!
Please visit my recipe blog for the details! CLICK HERE or THERE!