Post Card Collage # 2

Here is another postcard collage.  This one uses an 8 x 10 flat canvas.  I have sprayed the canvas with Walnut Ink.  (Walnut Ink is great for aging something, or giving a rustic feel.)  I applied various papers, stickers, rub-ons, and a vintage postage stamp. And, of course, this saucy western cowgirl postcard. 

I love the Mae West quote:

Whenever I have to choose between two evils,

I always like to try the one I haven't tried before.

Happy Halloween!

Project - Scary Centerpieces

Today's daily double is...............A Skull Centerpiece.  Project after project, recipe after recipe, that is what this season is about. 

This project was adapted from one I saw on Martha Stewart.  She puts her elegant glittered skulls under glass.  I have given it my own creepy twist, making creepy centerpieces with gross skulls and crawly creatures.  With a little hot glue, and some ghoulish imagination, the results can be stunning.

Materials:

Glass cake plate or large vase
1 bag Spanish moss
1 block green florist foam (optional)
1 fake skull
Assorted small bones
Assorted plastic bugs
Dry or fake leaves
Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Process:

• Glue the foam block on the cake plate. 
• Cover the foam with the moss, using hot glue.
• If using a vase, fill the vase with the moss (no glue, no foam needed)
• Arrange the skull, bones and leaves randomly around the moss.  Attach with glue if needed.
• Use hot glue to attach additional spiders and bugs to the outside of the glass vase or cake dome.  Hot glue can be removed from glass easily.
• I usually make several of these to place around the house for Halloween parties.
• You can remove the arrangement from the glass and store in a large ziploc if you want to use them from year to year.

Halloween is nearly here, and soon the decorations will come down.  What will I do next?  Look for me to post my first attempt at hand rolled chocolate truffles and kale chips.  I wonder how those will turn out (separately, not together!)

Enjoy your Halloween!

Recipe - Perfect Pumpkin Seeds

I know, it may be silly, recording all these simple recipes for all to read.... But I have tricks.  Tricks I would like to share.  So, there are two schools of thought to roast the perfect pumpkin seed:  hot and fast or low and slow.  I chose the later.  There are many permeation on the perfect pumpkin seed, but to avoid a dissertation on contrasting those methods, let me get to the point.

Soaking pumpkin seeds.



Pumpkin Seeds

2 or more cups of pumpkin seeds

4 T Olive Oil

Water
Salt
1 t Cumin
2 t Onion Powder

2 t Garlic Powder

1-2 t Chili Powder

Seasoned pumpkins seeds in pan

1/2 t Cayenne or Chipotle Powder
2 t Kosher (or Sea) Salt



Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

Roasted seeds.

As you clean your carving or baking pumpkins.  Reserve the seeds.  Sort the seed from the pulp of the pumpkin.  Soak the seeds overnight in several cups of heavily salted water.  Drain the seeds and spread out to dry (slightly) or pat dry with paper towels.  (Dry them so they roast in the oven - not steam)  Spread in a single layer on a sheet pan or two.  Toss with 2-3 T Olive Oil.  Sprinkle with spices (as much or as little as you want) and stir gently.







Roast at 250 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or more - look for them to be golden brown.  Stir once or twice during roasting.



Project - Halloween Pumpkin Candlesticks

I got the idea for these pumpkins at a chain store.  Their version was cutesier than mine.  Theirs was also pretty cheap looking.  I wanted to make a pair of pumpkin heads that would look a little vintage and a little spooky.  I like the dark effect of my two pumpkin heads.

Materials:

2 fake pumpkins

2 metal candlesticks

2 cardboard cones

black spray paint

orange and black lace and trim

tiny pumpkins or orange pompons
old buttons
hot glue and glue gun

Exacto knife

Process: 

• Paint the pumpkins, the cones, and the candlesticks black.
• Using hot glue, attach lace above or below the candlestick plate. Layer two laces or trims for extra interest.
• Using the Exacto knife, carve a face into each pumpkin.
• Attach the trim and buttons to the hats with hot glue. Again, layering works well.  I used buttons and pompon trim on one hat and layered two types of trim on the other hat. Top with tiny pumpkin, tassel or pompon.
• Assemble the two candlesticks with hot glue.

I like how mine turned out.  I wanted them to be a good pair; I like that one is happy, but wacky, and the other sad.   We will put battery operated candles inside on Halloween.  (you can find  mini battery lights to put through the mouth or eye hole, or cut a larger hole underneath to accommodate a small battery candle)

 I wonder how I can adapt this project for other holidays?  What can I use instead of pumpkins.  Good luck, and let me know if you try this one out.

Recipe - Pumpkin Soup

Another yummy pumpkin recipe.  This one come by way of my daughters' first grade teacher, and has been a favorite ever since.   We love it on a cool fall night.  You could probably substitute Butternut Squash for the pumpkin for a different flavor.  Try it, you'll love it!


Pumpkin Soup

3 cups chicken broth (low fat, low sodium)

1 cup half and half (use milk for a lower calorie soup)

1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin

2 tablespoon dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon (or more) chili powder

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

cayenne pepper (optional, to taste)

black pepper (to taste)

¾ cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Mix chicken stock and half and half in a pan over medium heat.  When it starts to simmer, mix in canned pumpkin and all the spices.  Reduce heat and simmer until soup thickens, 20 – 30 minutes.  Stir occasionally.  Add salt and pepper, to taste. 

• Top with cheddar cheese and toasted pumpkin seeds.
• This recipe can be made a day ahead and reheated.

This recipe was adapted from Ms. Laverdure’s 1^st grade Pumpkin Soup recipe.  It is enjoyed by adults and children, alike.

Late Harvest

I am an aspiring gardener.  I love to grow flowers, herbs and vegetables.  That being said, I really want a garden that takes care of itself.  Therein lies the problem.  While I strive for a beautiful perennial garden of native blooming plants, invasive weeds keep returning.  While I love the bright colors of annuals, they need lots of water.  And although I love fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs, my steam for tending them runs out some time in mid-summer.  It's a problem.



My late harvest, tomatoes and peppers from our  modest garden.

 Thankfully, some plants persevere.  Our strawberries continue to grow and spread even thought they are the repeated victims of the squirrels' digging.  The tomato plants, well cared for in the early months, continued to produce plenty of delicious fruits.  We also had basil, spinach, rainbow chard, greens, green beans and a variety of peppers.  And, though I didn't plant it, we are waiting on one "volunteer" pumpkin to ripen up in time for Halloween.  Now, the weather is cooling, and we are awaiting our first frost.  The garden is done for the year.

So, thank you little garden, for providing just enough for me to call myself a gardener.  Maybe next year I will tend you more.  And you, in turn, will provide more.  Until next year...