Happy Halloween

Our Halloween festivities were a smashing success! We decorated cookies, licked our fill of icing off of our fingers and made a Halloween gingerbread house. Who said gingerbread houses are only for Christmas! *grin*

It had never occurred to me to make a little haunted house. The kids did all of the decorating themselves but I just couldn't resist adding a skeleton to the grave :)

Of course we had our monstrous candy apples.

And talk about perfect, a 'mummy' for the mommy! LOL

I am totally thrilled with my finished brain to. It turned out awesome!! The jelly covering oozed & dripped like blood and the parts that fell off gave the perfect effect of blood that was congealing or clotting. It was a perfect treat for Halloween!

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween :)

~ Rosina

Halloween Party Preperations

It's become a yearly ritual to make a special trip to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory just before Halloween so that each of my 3 children can pick out a special candied apple :) I think each year those apples get bigger and better to!

With so many wonderful monsters to pick from it posed quite the dilemma for my 3 year old who insisted he needed more than just one for himself *grin*. With our treats picked out it was time to head to the grocery store to pick up supplies for our Halloween birthday bash.

Hubby's birthday is on Halloween and we always put on a mini Halloween bash for fun. We don't actually go out trick or treating but it doesn't mean we can't enjoy partaking in some of the creepy party foods. So far I've managed to keep my party menu a complete surprise and can't wait to serve brains, eyeball hors d'oeuvres, monster jaws & a nice tall glass of bloody punch should wash it all down*grin*.

I can't wait to see their faces!!
~Rosina

Sausage & Bacon Soup ~ Recipe

With the snowy cool weather upon us I thought it would be the perfect time to share a recipe for one of my favorite soups :) I actually took these photos during the summer months when I had an odd hankering for hot soup during a heat spell! LOL



Ingredients:

Roast chicken bones left after meal
1 whole head of garlic
2 or 3 ribs of celery
3 or 4 carrots
5 onions

1/2 pound of bacon
6 sausages
pepper & salt
basil

Start by grabbing a large stock or soup pot and add your chicken bones, peeled carrots & onions and the entire head of garlic. I love to cut the head of garlic horizontally across the middle so that it opens up the making it even easier for that wonderful flavor to escape. Don't worry about the skin on the garlic as you are going to strain it all out before finishing your soup :)



Once you have all of your veggies in your pot fill it until the water level is just under the rim and place it on the stove. Turn the heat on high until it comes to a boil. As soon as it boils you can put on a lid and turn it down to low so that it can gently bubble away for a couple of hours to infuse your water with all of the yummy flavors.



While you are waiting for you chicken stock to cook you can start to get your meat ready for frying. Take your half pound of bacon and slice it up. I cut mine about a 1/4 inch thick but you can do it thicker if you like. There are no rules to how chunky your bacon has to be!



I love using our homemade sausage for this soup which is a garlicky beef & pork blend but you can pick up any of your favorite flavors at your butcher. If you want a soup with a little bit of a kick you may want to find yourself some spicy Italian sausages! To prepare your sausage for frying take a sharp knife and slice through the outer casing and peel it off of each of the sausages.



So it's been a couple of hours or perhaps an entire afternoon if you got busy and forgot about your simmering stock , but now it's time to strain it. Taking your largest colander and another large soup pot, place the colander into the empty soup pot and pour the hot stock into it. Be very careful trying not to splash any of the hot liquid onto yourself. Quite often I actually wear my oven mitts when I do this to protect my hands from splashes and steam burns :) Let your colander drain a couple of extra minutes to catch the final drips of stock and then place both the stock and colander of bits to the side for later. If you have chickens the boiled veggie leftovers is a delicious treat for them :)



Now that your soup pot is empty again, return it back to the stove and add your chopped bacon and sausages to it. You are going to fry them right in your soup pot. That way you won't loose any of the good flavors. Fry until nice and brown :)



As soon as you have browned your meat you can add your homemade chicken stock and all that's left to do is to season it with salt and pepper. I LOVE adding basil and usually add about 3 tablespoons of dried basil as I don't have any fresh at this time of year, but that's not set in stone and if you hate basil just leave it out and add your favorite spices :)

Mmmm, so delicious and I think I've got some fresh Portuguese rolls that are just begging to be dipped in it *grin*.

Enjoy!

~ Rosina