Halloween 2010

This week was a lot of fun. It started with an early Halloween party at the USU Field House for the kids. Then the girls also got to head to “Nana’s” (Grandma Linda) house for some holiday fun like decorating a candy haunted house, painting pumpkins, and eating pumpkin cookies. Later in the week carved pumpkins at our house. And after carving a traditional Jack-o-lantern for Ru, Adam broke out the power drill and made a polka-dot-pumpkin for Viv. It was a big hit.

On Friday, we went to Advent Creative’s 4^th annual Halloween party. The costume contest was intense, as usual. I’m always impressed that people go all out. Adam and I went as H.I. McDunnah, Edwina, and Nathan Jr. from Raising Arizona. Bailee, our babysitter, asked if people would recognize who we were. I thought that it would be terribly obvious, but when we got to the party, less than half of the people there had ever seen the movie. Boo. I guess we are getting old and Raising Arizona is a generational show that has past its prime. Too bad. Oh well, I still thought our costumes were funny.

We spent the holiday cleaning out the garage and house and trying to keep the kids at bay as they waited patiently for the moment of trick-or-treating. Olivia chose to be a "Vampire Princess" for Halloween and did her face make-up all by herself (she was so proud). Ruby wanted to be a "Princess Unicorn". The blended costumes were adorable, and the girls felt so cool. Sonoma and I weren’t feeling well, so we stayed back while Adam took the girls around to the Morse’s, Kidd’s, and a few houses in our neighborhood. We finished the evening at my mother’s house where she had prepared a Halloween feast. It was a great day.

I splurged this week after being completely sold on a product. It will be my birthday and Christmas present and a few other things as well, but I was sold. It is a Blendtec. You can check out some of their viral marketing youtube videos by searching “Will it blend” (they blend things like marbles, an iphone, etc.). It is insane. So far, we have LOVED using it. It makes hot soups, icecream, peanutbutter, juice, smoothies, grinds wheat, etc. The clean up is incredibly simple as well. I am a big fan. It really helps if you are serious about eating a lot of produce, raw food, and “real” food...which we are. This morning (while I stayed in bed sick) Adam made 6 loaves of banana bread, and an amazing “Fall Harvest Vegetarian Risotto” (See photo above and recipe below). It was delicious!

Fall Harvest Vegetarian Risotto

1 cup hot water

1 small can tomato paste

6-8 roma tomatoes, diced

3 cloves garlic

1 red onion

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 green pepper (whole)

¼ cup chives

2 large carrots (cut into chunks)

¼ cup pepper jack cheese

6-8 cups cooked rice

3 cups black beans (warm)

In a powerful blender, combine everything but the rice and beans. Blend until smooth. Pour over rice and beans in a pot and heat (unless you have a Blendtec, in which case, it will already be hot!). Garnish with chives and grated cheese. Can be served with tortilla chips. (The blended ingredients will be mostly raw). Enjoy!