a culinary success day

It's pretty fabulous what a Crock Pot can do...

This morning's festivities began at 8:31am and included cutting up russet potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion. These were layered in the bottom of my trusty Crock Pot, followed by a quickly de-giblet-ed and rinsed whole chicken. (Thanks my dear husband who got groceries last night!) I sprinkled on salt, pepper, and herbs de Provence...mmm.... and added 3 cups of water and a can of cream of mushroom soup. The soup was probably unnecessary, but I wasn't really thinking about it at that point, since I had to be out the door at 8:50, firm. I set the cooker for eight hours on low, tossed some salad greens into a tupperware, grabbed salad dressing, and took off for school.

The day at school was rather stressful - we've added another destination to our choir tour, and I'm responsible for contacting people and helping to make all the necessary arrangements. There are a lot of details to figure out! I'm working on a very detailed itinerary, getting hotel quotes, and finding activities for our free day in Florida (celebrate! warm weather sounds amazing right now). I also realized that I had done the wrong reading assignment for my Theory class - it's nice to work ahead, but I certainly didn't mean to, and now I'm scrambling to finish for tomorrow's class. My final task of the day was to finish the entrance counseling for the school loan we're planning to take. The loan process is rather detailed and scary. It's frustrating to have to go into an experience where the "helpers" are only interested in making money off of me. I really hope we get to take the education tax credit again this year...

The hubby has been working extra long hours, too. It's a special challenge to be able to relate well when we're both stressed and tired. I hope tonight is a beautiful, relaxing ten minutes together before we fall asleep.

Anyway, I came home to a house that smelled absolutely delicious. Mmm! Good thing I had a granola bar at school, or I would have been ravenous. I love the way that slow-cooked chicken just falls right off the bone! I separated the chicken, veggies, and broth into separate containers so that I could make sure there were no bone pieces in anything. It sure is an oily job, but I'm glad I did it. I'm hoping to make soup with the broth sometime later this week, and there's enough chicken for all sorts of fabulous meals. Ideas, anyone?

I also took out some frozen pumpkin and made a pie (surprise!). I guess I thought the crust I had made would be big enough, but I ended up having to dump some of the filling into my smallest French White dish. Oh, well. No one minds a bit of pumpkin custard, right? It's a souffle! (a yummy souffle...I couldn't resist.)
Both turned out well...

And here's my cute Oscar-cat to finish the post. Have a good night!

pumpkin carving party

this afternoon we had a pumpkin carving party at our friend, Sarah's house. here's how mine turned out:
to make the leaf cutouts, i traced a real maple leaf onto the pumpkin with a sharpie. it could also be scored into the pumpkin with a pencil, i suppose. i then cut out the bottom of the pumpkin to get rid of all the seeds and gunk. this makes it easier to light a candle inside - no reaching deep into the pumpkin. i made a little votive-sized indentation in the bottom part so that the candle would be more stable. finally, i cut out the leaf shapes, wiped the outside of the pumpkin clean, and put a candle in. ta-da!


for the little "happy fall" pumpkin, i used watercolor paint, and it's beginning to chip already. that's just all the paint we had there - should've used acrylic, i know. it still looks cute, and it's temporary. hooray for fall decorating!

decorating is an art

today while i was out running, i found these bright orange berries on a bush that looked otherwise dead. they're probably poisonous, but my curiosity got the better of me, and so i plucked a stem and continued to run with them in hand. it looked rather funny, by the way! imagine this: i'm wearing a pair of gray Nike capris, running shoes, a bright neon yellow athletic shirt, and here are these orange berries on a stick bouncing around as i run. not only that, but my hair is disheveled because it's morning, and there's only so much i can do to make my ponytail look somewhat decent. at any rate, i arrived home and put them in some water in a spice jar, and they're now decorating my table.

after, of course, a brief photo shoot. :o) i was pleased to find that the orange of the berries is actually a little redder and brighter than the orange of my little pumpkin, and the dark stems in the glass make a nice contrast. i like how it's a bit Asian-inspired, with its sculptural, spare look. these would make great little favors for a fall wedding! wouldn't that be cool? or for a Thanksgiving dinner...

i really think that decorating is an art. it's sometimes hard to find the right color combinations, or the right size item - the best container, the most interesting cloth that won't detract from what's on it. and not only that, but to arrange the materials in an attractive way, so that nothing overpowers anything else except for good reason. i think i did a good job today.

on the orange theme, i reheated some amazing butternut squash soup for lunch. i need to try to make this - what i had came from a lovely company called V8. someday i'll package my food and sell it for a ridiculous price just because i added eight vegetables to a product that should only contain one. i had a coupon for this soup, by the way, that made it about 40% off the original price. hooray, bargains.