We have long since outgrown Trick or Treating and Halloween has become somewhat of an awkward holiday.  It was never really a favorite of mine (although the loads of candy was cool) and now that my kids are all teens it's almost an annoying "holiday". 

This year was a bit different, however, because the girls got to go to a dance!  Rather than doing the costume thing and having a plethora of "thou shalt not's", the organizers decided to employ black lights and have a "who is the brightest" contest.  It was soooo much fun!

The kids have recently become card game aficionados and the idea of dressing with a deck of cards theme was enthusiastically embraced.  They spent a couple of hours creating their assigned/chosen card and this was the result. 

Josh was supposed to be the jack of clubs, but he decided to hang out with some buddies instead. 

I bought a couple of chickens (the already dead kind) earlier this week and didn't get around to doing anything with them, soooo I needed to cook both of them today.  As I was rummaging around the kitchen trying out different pans to see if I couldn't pop them in the oven at the same time Papa suggested that we try out the rotisserie-chicken-making gadget we have sitting out in the carport closet.  Well, that sounded like a mightly fine plan to me and so I went out and fetched it.  

Papa loves gadgets and kitchen gadgets are no exception.  I have to be very careful what I wish for gadget-wise because he has been known to go out and get it!  He's like my Kitchen Fairy Godfather (OOOHH!  Doesn't that sound sinister!).  Anywho, he played around with hooking up the gadget and I prepared the chickies.  I decided a simple brushing with olive oil and a sprinkling of white pepper and Spanish paprika would suffice for our first time out.

Drum roll, please!

Ta-da!

Of course being the logical blogger that I am, I did NOT take a picture of the finished rotisserie-style chicken, but I DID take a shot of my boring, oven baked chickie.  Go figure, sometimes my logic astounds me.

While the chickens were cooking away I went on an internet quest to find a recipe for dinner rolls just like O'Charley's makes.  There are very few restaurant foods that I really wish I could make at home, but this is one of them.

These turned out nice and soft and of the correct texture, but not quite sweet enough which somewhat concerns me as this four-cups-of-flour (or thereabouts) recipe called for a THIRD of a cup of sugar.  I just don't see myself adding MORE.  I might try a touch of honey and decrease the sugar next time and see what that does. It may be a while, however, because I'm not a big baker or white flour products.  Except for dessert. 

I feel like a whirlwind raced through my home today.  It took the form of a husband and two daughters, but they were pulling stuff out, dumping it here and there, stuffing it, throwing it, folding it, washing it, filling it, yelling at it, freezing it, cooking it, and finally in a last minute, we-are-going-to be-soooo-late, next-time-we-pack-the-night-before flurry of motion, jammed it into the van.  They've gone backpacking for two days and it just might take me that long to straighten out the mess they've left behind!

Oh, well, I do look forward to a quiet, gardening-filled weekend and since I don't have the van, it's the perfect excuse to go NOWHERE!  YAY!

Last year Papa built two wonderful raised beds and he did it for me again this year!  These are freshly painted with linseed oil and this weekend I plan to place them out in the yard, LEVEL them, move the soil from the old boxes, LEVEL those and then add new soil a bit laterin the week. 

It was such a lovely day that I brought lunch outside to eat in front of Papa's workshop!

Papa had a VERY rapt audience.

Yesterday we spent mucho time painting the newly acquired "robotics lab" for our open house TOMORROW!  Our coach is renting a bit of warehouse space to house all of the paraphenalia needed for three levels of competition!

Although Elizabeth has not been involved in robotics, she came along to help out with the painting.

That last shot is Elizabeth perched up high watching her red paint dry.  Rebecca, wanting to be equally helpful, decided to wash her sister's toes as they had aquired a red coating.  We are nothing if not an extremely efficient family!

Rebecca also was useful.  She painted the gray.  A second coat of gray.

Gray is a somewhat monotonous color and with such a loooooooong stretch of it to do, she quickly grew bored...and stuck!

Oh, help me PLEASE!

Are you seriously going to blog this?!

But I'm sure other painting opportunities will eventually arise.  The girls had a lively discussion about the next color their bedroom should be.  The argument wavered between this shade of red, royal purple, or lime green!

Definitely not gray.

Elizabeth loves, loves, loves Taco Bell and so when hamburger goes on sale, we quadruple (or more) this recipe and freeze it in meal-size batches for future use:

Taco Bell Tacos

1 pound lean ground beef
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

`

 1. In a medium bowl, combine the ground beef with the flour, chili powder, salt, minced onion, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. Use your hands to thoroughly mix the ingredients into the ground beef.
2. Add the seasoned beef mixture to the water in a skillet over medium heat. Mix well with a wooden spoon or spatula, and break up the meat as it cooks. Heat for 5 to 6 minutes, or until browned. The finished product should be very smooth, somewhat pasty, with no large chunks of beef remaining.

Umm, Mom, are you seriously wanting me to put my HANDS in this yuckiness?

Eeeewwwwww!

That was DISTGUSTO!

We use a large cup to hold a quart size freezer Ziploc (or generic counterpart) bag in place.  By turning over the top of the bag, the zippy part stays clean and you have a better shot at a good seal.  For gallon-size bags, I use a pitcher.

Now just label and freeze flat.  I usually date these as well, but taco meat never lasts to the next hamburger sale!

For more Tightwad Tuesday fun, go to Mary's blog!

Dan's been keeping busy with quite a few jobs.  Here he is in the basement shop preparing for tomorrow:

I've had a ton of work myself, which is excellent.  Maybe next month will be a little easier on the wallet!

Wahoo!  It came!  Josh is now officially out-of-his-mind excited about going to Italy. 

Really!  He just looks like that because I have to use the still camera in our video camera and even with a basic point and shoot I am a less than talented photographer.  With this particular, er, tool, I am stunningly rotten at photography.  The above is the expression you get at photo number 34.

This is what you get on photo number 79.  And doesn't he need to clean his room!  I might just do that while he's in Italy (insert evil cackle here).

When I quizzed my kids earlier this week, one of the things that Rebecca said that I did as a child was read books in the floor of my closet.  Apparently she is taking a leaf out of my book (hardeeharhar).

She is still not fond of starring in my blog. 

And I just now noticed that we never finished the trim on the closet!  AMAZING!  Maybe a project for later this week...or not!