Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween!

My day has laready been full of festivites. I just returned home from co-organizing the girl's schools Halloween Parade. I have never seen so many princesses in one place before in my entire life!!! Itwas very cute and the children had a ton of fun. We were able to donate the remaining candy that we had (about 4 grocery bags full!) to our local Children's Hospital for their trick or treat festivites this afternoon. They do this every Halloween for the children that have to stay in the hospital over the holiday. So on top of everything else we have done our good deed for the day!

The pumpkin bread that I posted yesterday was a real hit with my youngest daughter's class. I have to go back to the school in a little bit for my older daughter's class party. Pretty exciting day for both of them!

As you can tell by the picture we have a pro pumkin carver in ourhome. T. has truly outdone himself this year. Kyra wanted the pumpkin to have squiggly eye brows and as always T. delivered! Amazing.

Well off to the school once again...

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
http://www.nofearentertaining.com

Halloween Tomorrow - Pumpkin Bread

I had to make a choice today...one tat I didn't want to but I just ran out of time! I had said that I was going to make some apple snacks that I had seen but I have been going all day and that one was going to be a little time consuming. We have Karate and Ice Skating tonight so that kind of eliminates the evening hours. As it is I can't even figure out dinner!!! Rotisserie chicken from Costco will have to cover that tonight! I went ahead and made Pumpkin Bread. Still Halloweenish and seasonal but not quite as labor intensive as the apple snacks.

No Fear Entertaining Pumpkin Bread (this will make 2 loaves)

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups sugar (I used organic cane sugar)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

2 cups canned pumpkin puree

1 cup milk

4 eggs

2/3 cup butter

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large mixing bowl combine 1/2 of the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, pumpkin, milk eggs and butter.

Mix with an electric mixer on low speed until blended. Turn mixer to high and mix for about 2 minutes. Add the remaining flour and mix well. Stir in pecans and raisins.

Pour batter into 2 greased loaf pans and bake in your preheated 350 degree oven for 60 to 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in a wire rack.

Remove bread from pans and allow to cool completely on the rack.

Cool completely before slicing and for best results wrap and store overnight before slicing.

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

http://www.nofearentertaining.com/

We ate our way through the weekend!!!

What a great party we went to on Saturday night. We got to meet a some new people and to hang out with a bunch of old friends. It was nice, casual and comfortable! There was plenty of stuff to keep the children occupied and tons of food and drink to occupy the adults! What more could you ask for???

I took a hollowed out pumpkin filled with a roasted garlic, french onion dip. Very simple recipe...I cheated. I used the Lipton French Onion Soup and Dip Mix, but roasted 2 heads of garlic and added that to is. Made for a nice even blend.
One of my girlfriends made a pumpkin fruit platter which went over really well and was sooo cute! She took a cantaloupe and cleaned out the inside through a hole cut into the top. She then peeled all of the rind off to the orange color and carved a pumpkin face into it. Served with other fruit it was a real hit with everyone! Great job Lynn.

The host of the party contributed the best adult beverage! Patron Tequila. If you have never ventured beyond Jose Cuervo tequila you are missing out! We have been drinking Patron Silver and it is like a totally different drink. Smooth, warm, with just a slight bite. This has made me want to venture deeper into the world of tequila...I'll save that for a later post!

Yesterday (Sunday) we packed up the kids and took a road trip to Bradenton for our yearly pilgrimage to The Hunsader Farms annual Pumpkin Festival. You need to understand where we live. We are in Southwest Florida which is way, way down south. We don't have many pumpkin or apple festivals here. Nothing like that will grow here. It is way too hot. So when we found this pumpkin festival years ago we were so excited. Hay rides, pumpkin patch (pumpkins lined up under a big white tent), pony rides, craft fair, bands, great food, farmers market...what more could you want? Well, temperatures under 90 degrees would be great!!! The one downfall to living here is that it is very warm. I remember growing up in Canada and going trick or treating with winter coats stuffed under our costumes. Here you have to make sure that the child's costume is thin enough so they won't over heat!!! But despite all of that our children have never known any different and think this is all the norm!

The food was really amazing especially for the dreaded "festival or fair food". T. had a huge Smoked Turkey Leg that looked juicy and nice and smoky. I had a hamburger and some roasted corn on the cob. Yummmm. we don't get a lot of that here at our festivals!

This is set to be a crazy busy week. I have to make a bunch of things for the girls class parties on Wednesday. I know it will be Pumpkin Bread and Slobber Gobs but maybe something else as well. We have several appointments and I have a fundraiser in there somewhere as well.

Hope you weekend was great as well!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

www.nofearentertaining.com

Halloween Party Tonight!

The children are all excited. The food is almost ready and I still have time to post this entry!

Thanks goodness the party is not here at our house this time. As much as I love entertaining at home I also really love it when we are invited to someone elses house for a party! I am taking some food with us though...can't arrive empty handed now can we? I made Apple Cheesecake Squares to take and also a roasted garlic, onion chip dip. I found the cutest little pumpkin that I am going to carve out to serve the dip in. Very cute idea isn't it? I am sneakingmy camera tonight so should have some fun pictures for you next week!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

www.nofearentertaining.com

No bread today...but we have pie!

I think after my post yesterday about my bread making fiasco, I am going to circle the wagons and try and figure out how to make a better bread loaf! I guess the only real way to do it is to do it by hand...There is always next week.

Today I have to make a cheesecake and some chip dip for the Halloween Party tomorrow night but I want to tell you all about the amazing dinner we made the other night. I say we because it was both T. and I bumping around in the kitchen trying to get the girls fed by 8:00! We had an appt. in the aftenoon that ran us much later then we would have liked (but was it ever worth it!!!) so we scrambled home and decided to stay on track and make dinner. We are trying to make sure that the girls (and us) stay away from processed foods so cruising through a drive through on our way home was just not an option! I did take a huge shortcut when making this but only because I was very strapped for time!

Tortiere(This recipe is from one of my favorite Blogs - Janet is Hungry

Double 9" Pie Crust:

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
5-6 tbsp cold water

****I did not have time to make my own pie crust so I used one from the refridgerated section of the supermarket.

Meat Filling:

1 1/2 lbs ground pork
1 onion, chopped fine
1/4 cup celery, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground summer savory
1/3 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp allspice
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup water
1 small potato, boiled and mashed
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk

1. Prepare pastry: Cut cold shortening into cubes (TIP: In my pastry I always use a mixture of butter - for flavour, and shortening - for flakiness). Place butter/shortening in food processor with flour and salt. Pulse a few times.

2. Dump flour mixture out into a bowl and start adding water a tbsp at a time until mixture forms a dough that will hold together. Wrap with plastic wrap and refridgerate for about 30 minutes.

3. Make filling: In a non-stick skillet with a cover, cook pork, breaking up the larger chunks.

4. Add onion, celery, garlic and cook until the onions are tender.

5. Add salt, savory, pepper, allspice, bay leaf and water. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove lid and simmer 5 more minutes until most of the water is gone (it should still be quite moist).

6. Add mashed potato and remove bay leaf.

7. Roll out pastry (TIP: I roll my pastry out between two sheets of plastic wrap, when it is the right size, peel one sheet away and use the other to pick up the pastry and flip it over into the pie plate). Fill with meat mixture, cover with second half of pastry and seal edges. Cut a few vents in the top.

8. Brush top with a mixture of egg yolk and milk.

9. Bake at 425F for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

This was truly delicious and great for a hectic week night! We served it with some frozen mixed veggies on the side and it was a well rounded full meal. As T. say's "What could be bad about pork and pie?"


As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Score: Bread Machine - 1, Me - 0

I posted earlier in the month that I have been trying to make some bread. I used to make it all the time when my oldest was an infant but sadly have gotten away from it. Now that we are trying to keep the family free of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which unfortunately, is in almost everything including whole grain breads, I need to get back to it. I used to make it with my Kitchen Aid mixer See all KitchenAid Countertop Appliance Special Rebate Offers available at shopKitchenAid.com! and then finished it by hand but then I got a bread machine. I hate it!!! I have the hardest time because I can't "read" the dough. When you work it by hand you can. I think after yesterdays attempt I am giving my bread machine to Goodwill. I need to get back to doing it by hand.

So yesterday I made bread:

I thought I did everything right. I even added more water during the second kneading cycle. Peeked at it through the little window on top and thought it was all good. Then I heard the beeper go off which tells me that it is going to start cooking the bread. So I ran over and looked through the little once again, fully expected to see a perfectly formed dough ball that will look like the perfect loaf of bread that I have envisioned. But, alas, it was not meant to be. I allowed the cooking cycle to complete but this is what I ended up with...

PIG BREAD!!!





It got a lot of laughs and some more food for the compost pile at the girl's school but definitely not bread for their sandwiches for lunch!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Oh, do I ever love a great cookie!!!

I have been trying out a bunch of different cookie and muffin recipes lately and while they have all been very good I think I need to go back to my favorite ones. I absolutely love the taste of homemade Raisin Oatmeal Cookies! The taste combination is great. Cinnamon for a spicy taste, raisins for the sweet and the great texture of oats! I was checking out some healthier recipes and I came across a cookbook made by Sun-Maid (the raisin company). I am going to try their recipe for "Really Good Low-Fat Raisin Oatmeal Cookies"

Click here to download or order the Sun-Maid Fruit & Sunshine Recipe Book

Maybe I can take some of these cookies to the Halloween Party on Saturday night?

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com