Busy Weekend...

Yah, I know I say this but man are we busy. Lucky for us the girls are at an age now where being too busy doesn't put them off schedule and ruin the rest of the week.

They were off school Friday and unfortunately it was a very, very rainy day but we made the most of it and went to Ft. Myers beach for a nice rainy stroll along the shore. found many treasure and were just able to "be" for a while.

Miles of beach and not a soul around!

Saturday morning came on strong with skating lessons bright and early but we were able to get the rest of our chores and errands done by noon. I spent the rest of the day making food for a Halloween party that we were going to at 4:00. I made Pico de Gallo and Hot Spinach Dip (recipe below). Fun party, nice to catch up and see everyone again! Wendy looked so scary as a witch!!!

My headless Genie and Hula Girl!

The girls woke us up bright and early Sunday morning and the weather was nice and cool so we decided to go for another walk on the beach. What a beautiful walk. We needed sweaters but it made for a nice leasurely non-sweaty walk for a change!

Saw starfish...lots and lots of starfish!

Saw this dolphin right up on shore hunting for his breakfast, 2 big snook that went past! The girls were up with that group of people so they got a really close up view!

Hot Spinach Dip

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp AP flour
1-3/4 cups heavy cream
2 packages (9 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained
1 can of sliced water chestnuts, drained, chopped
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 package dry vegetable soup mix
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp ground black pepper
1-1/2 Tbsp hot pepper sauce (Tabasco)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 F. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, cook and stir until onion is crisp tender and the garlic is fragrant. about 2-3 minutes.
• Stir in flour, cook and stir and additional minute. Add the heavy cream and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens, about 2 minutes.
• Remove from heat. Stir in chopped spinach, water chestnuts, cheddar and the vegetable soup mix, sour cream, black pepper, and hot sauce. Spoon into a 1 quart casserole dish or the pot from your crock pot and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
• Bake dip until bubbly and the cheese is melted, about 15 minutes. Serve warm or in your crock pot.

I served this with tortilla chips but bread would work just as well. This went over really well and was something rich but different!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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

8 days til Halloween!

Halloween is such a fun holiday! The colors are great, no presents to buy and lots and lots of CANDY!!! I think that I can honestly say that there is not a candy in existence that I don't like. How sad is that???

We have a Halloween party to go to on Saturday night so I thought I would bring a cute little chip and dish thing.



This is an idea that I found on the Internet (I have no idea where...if anyone know let me know so I can give credit) with a sweet dip for graham cookies. I think around Halloween the very last thing that we need is more sweets so I am just going to steal this idea and fill 2 small pumpkin with some chip dip and some veggie dip and serve it with veggies and potato chips. I really liked the idea and it will look so cute on a table!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

OMG...It's almost Halloween

Oh well...It's happened again! I got lost in the day-to-day and missed the fact that Halloween is going to happen whether I am ready or not, in just over 3 weeks! Do you have all of your stuff yet? I sure don't, but....when I was looking for some ideas for decorations ( really need to get that done) and goodies to hand out (we don't like to give out candy so we give out pencils, erasers etc.) I came across a site that will take all of the brain work out of it for me.

I signed up to bring plates and napkins to my daughter's class's. Well I found my source and I don't even have to go out and try to find it at Target or your other place of choice! They even have a really neat Halloween themed bowl that I just might take filled with Popcorn for the kids! This site has made it easier for me and maybe it can help you as well! Cool source for Pinatas as well!!!

Pinatas

Check it out at Party Supplies .

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com
www.nofearentertaining.blogspot.com

Pumpkin Tortellini - Yummmm!

I made the pumpkin tortellini recipe last night. The recipe is in my post from yesterday. It was incredibly delicious. Just an amazing blend of flavors that I would never have attempted to put together myself!!! Pumpkin, goat cheese, figs, hazelnuts....The only thing that I did change was not adding the honey. I really don't like my food to be real sweet (dessert yes, but dinner no). So I omitted the honey and I thought it turned out wonderful!

I just found another little Halloween or autumn party idea. I got it off of the allrecipes.com website. Very simple but very cute! I might make it for my youngest daughter's Halloween Party!

INGREDIENTS
1 (16 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, mix together instant vanilla pudding mix, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Fold in the thawed frozen whipped topping. Chill in the refrigerator until serving.

As Always....

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

http://www.nofearentertaining.com/

Halloween craft for a party

I know this isn't really about entertaining but it is really cute and would make a cute easy decoration for a Halloween Party either at home or at a school party. I am not even sure that most children even have school party's anymore. I think I remember hearing that they weren't allowed to in public school here in our district but my children go to a private school and they have a real fun Halloween walk where we set up stations for them to go and get treats. Then they have a little party in the class and then it is back to work for them!

My friend Barb, has graciously given me some pictures of the craft that she has done for the classroom every year that she had been at the school.

This is what you need to make the spiders. I was able to find the webs last year at Big Lots. Which is a close out store. Maybe try one of those places or dollar stores?

Lollipop Spider Materials:

Lollipop (We use Tootsie Roll Pops)

Three 6 inch pieces of black pipe cleaner

Small movable eyes

Glue

1.Wrap pipe cleaners around base of Tootsie Pop, in the center of the cleaners to form an x.

2.Glue eyes on pipe cleaner.

3.Bend ends of pipe cleaner to make them look like legs.

That's it! ( other than attaching to the web!)

Let me know if anyone else has any quick and easy decorating ideas for Halloween!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

www.nofearentertaining.com

Halloween Treats

Can you believe that Halloween is just around the corner! What a great time to be a kid. But I am always trying to find some treats that are a little healthier than the average candy bar (that's not too hard now is it?). We don't let the girls eat a whole lot of candy and Lauren can have nothing with red dye in it. We always end up with enough candy to last them a whole year and I am not exaggerating in the slightest. If I were to look on top of the fridge I am sure in the "candy bag" I would be able to find some Halloween candy from last year. But anyway this year I have made it a goal to be able to have fun and most importantly healthy treats. http://www.familyfun.com/ is a great resource for all kid related things.

Check out some of the recipes that I have found that I am going to try for the Halloween party at school this year!

Family Fun: Apple Bites Recipe

Family Fun: Bat Chips which will go well with the Carrot Finger Food Dip!

Family Fun: Carrot Finger Food

Family Fun: Crunchy Witches Brew

Contact me with any other fun ideas that you may have for a Halloween Party this year!

Have an amazing day!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com