Halloween Part One

Today we had Halloween fun at work. Every year we have a pumpkin decorating contest that people take very seriously.
This was my cubes contribution, I painted the pumpkins last night and then blow dried them during commercials so that I could do a second coat. I think they turned out very cute and will look most impressive sitting on my stoop tonight.

My supervisor's award winning pumpkin. I claimed the little eyeball covered gourd as my own.

Hannibal Lector pumpkin.

Incredibly awesome candy corn blow fish pumpkin, courtesy of Suz's cube.

Joe the plumber, the pumpkin.

This afternoon Eli came to visit in his kangaroo costume, which he seems really into wearing thank goodness.

At first he just wanted to play with the water cooler bottles.

I'll have more official pics on Monday. I'm very much looking forward to trick or treating because as the food Nazi (Jason's words) I get to eat all the candy myself! Hurrah!

Casserole#10: Vegetable Alfredo Casserole

I made this last night and it was pretty tasty. I took very detailed pictures which blogger refuses to post in the proper order and I don't feel like posting them one by one. Please excuse my laziness. To make this you'll need:
4-5 whole carrots
1 squash
1 pint mushrooms
3 cups broccoli
1/2 cups rice
2 jars Alfredo sauce

First cook your rice and remember it's always double the water to rice so 3 cups of water for a cup and a half of rice.
Peel your carrots and slice them into what Amy Sedaris charmingly calls "carrot coins".
Place your carrot coins in a bowl with just enough water to cover them and microwave for around 6 minutes. This will help get them tender.
Slice your squash into "squash coins"
Spread your cooked rice into the bottom of a casserole dish.
Pour Alfredo sauce on top.
Place carrots and squash on top
Pour a layer of sauce over the veggies
Add layer of mushrooms and layer of broccoli
Pour last of sauce on top
Bake at 350 degrees for about half an hour.

Here are some horribly out of order pictures. Note the pic of the rice in the pot I finally make it perfectly.

Eli liked this a lot ( he finally has his appetite back ) and I felt great at how many veggies he ate.

Tonight there will be no casserole, we're just having frozen pizza before trick or treating.

Casserole #9: Tater Tot Casserole

Tater Tot Casserole was a let down. It reminded me all too much of Hamburger Helper. Here's the recipe if you want to give it a shot:

1 lb ground beef
1 bag frozen tater tots
1 can cream of mushroom soup
salt, pepper, garlic salt to taste
1 bag frozen green beans.
1/2 bag shredded cheddar cheese

It's really simple to make :

Brown and season your beef
Drain all the fat (I use my strainer)
Spread beef in casserole dish
Mix in mushroom soup, one cans worth of milk and green beans
Stir well
Place tater tots on top
Sprinkle shredded cheese across tots
Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes

Eli did like this a lot more than I did. I just was not that into it.

Casserole#8: Pasta Bake

Pasta Bake Casserole is very very good. And cheesy. And melty. I encourage you to make it. You'll need:
1 bag frozen or fresh ravioli
1 bag frozen or fresh tortellini
2 jars spaghetti sauce
1 pint ricotta cheese
2 eggs
pepper to taste
1 bag shredded mozzarella cheese
1 bag frozen asparagus or other veggie.

Get a large casserole dish and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Mix your eggs, ricotta and pepper. It'll look like mashed potatoes, that means you did it right.

Spread a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of the casserole dish.

Spread tortellini on top of that.

Cover tortellini with more sauce and then layer ricotta cheese mixture and shredded mozzarella on top.

The rest of my pictures are out of order again so here's what you do:

Put more sauce on top of the double cheese layer

Place ravioli on top of sauce

Pour entire bag of veggies over the sauce

Pour the rest of the sauce on top

Cover the whole thing with mozzarella

Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until cheese is brown and melted and sauce is bubbly.

Ready to go in the oven!

What it looks like after being dug into.

All melty just out of the oven.

The bare ravioli layer.

This was great. And toddler friendly though Eli was still feeling under the weather and more inclined to fling his food than to eat it. Under normal circumstances he loves anything pasta. He especially loves getting tomato sauce into his hair.

Casserole #7: Sweet Potato Casserole

I ate dinner with my brother and sister in law last night and at eight pm realized I'd have nothing for lunch the next day because of it. So I decided to make a super quick sweet potato casserole. It's insanely easy.
Get a big can of yams and drain all the syrup off before placing in a smaller sized casserole dish.

Then add brown sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup. If you like things sweeter add a bunch, if not just use a little.

Then put at least two big pats of butter on top and stick it in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

After it's cooked pull the dish out and sprinkle marshmallows on top, put the dish under the broiler so they'll brown and melt.

When it's done it'll be bubbly and brown like this. Delicious. Eli's had this and obviously loves it so it's very toddler friendly.

Last night while I was cooking I was tending to this nasty new cough he has. The poor little man was so miserable that eventually I just brought him down and we slept on the couch together.

Before the sleeping I rewarded myself with a piece of pumpkin roll and a glass of whole milk. It made dealing with a sick kiddo entirely more bearable.

Pumpkins! And Goats!

Yesterday afternoon Amy and I finally got the kids to the pumpkin patch, despite the fact that the weather was gloomy and it was quite hard to find a place that's open on Monday afternoons. Luckily I found this place http://www.simmonsfarm.com/Fall%20Activities.htm.

Trying to get a good picture of Dencey and Eli together was challenging. This was the best I could do. They're very cute.

Trying to get a good picture of just Eli was pretty challenging too.

Eli was very into the apples that were for sale in the shop. He kept going from bushel to bushel picking them up and smelling them then putting them back down. So, if you happen to buy some apples from Simmon's Farm you make sure to wash them before you eat them.

Eli was pretty positive that the pumpkins were just balls with stems. And he kept throwing them.

Don't worry nothing was broken, he doesn't yet have the strength to smash pumpkins.

The best part of the trip was the petting zoo and the fact that we were the only ones there. It was Dencey & Eli's private petting zoo. The goat above was adorable and incredibly friendly. I named him Paprika.

I think that a lot of kids would have been a bit scared of the goats but not these kids. They probably just thought they were dogs.

The only animals who weren't extremely cuddly were the ducks. Eli tried to make friends with them anyway.

The baby goats loved Dencey and kept trying to nurse on her fingers. And one tried to eat her hood. The goats also tried to eat my coat and purse. What they say about goats is true.

Eli didn't care that the goat wanted to eat him, he thought they were swell anyway.I didn't end up getting a pumpkin, but I purchased a gourd that looks just like a Super Mario mushroom! Very fabulous, I'm trying to incorporate it for my work pumpkin decorating contest.

Casserole #6: Banana Bread Chocolate Pudding Casserole

Yesterday morning I decided to make a cheater casserole. It's cheating because I used box stuff.

Ingredients:
1 box Trader Joe's banana bread mix
1 ripe banana
1/4 stick butter
1 box chocolate pudding mix
butterscotch topping

Basically you should follow the instructions on the back of the banana bread box. Use the recipe where you substitute a banana for the oil, but also melt down a 1/4 stick of butter.

Mash your banana in with the melted butter and resist the temptation to eat that with a spoon.

Stir everything very well. The box says you need a mixer but my wooden spoon worked just fine.

Grease your pan with butter. Do it.

Delicious banana-y batter goes into the oven.

While the bread is baking make your instant pudding. I used whole milk because that's the only milk we drink.

I adore chocolate pudding. Stephanie and I used to make boxes of this and eat it for late night snacks while watching an infomercial for a best of the 80's CD collection.

Perfect bread

Take that perfect maybe kind of healthy bread and spread your chocolate pudding over it.

Then take butterscotch ice cream topping (I'm currently in possession of two jars because I show hoarding tendencies) and drizzle it across the top of the pudding.

Feel free to use a heavy hand when you do this.

Cover it with foil and stick it in the fridge to set.

I had this for breakfast. It was delicious. I'm sure that toddlers would love it but we try to give Eli as little sugar as possible so he won't be trying it. I'll make it for him again when he's older. Then send him to grandma's for the night.