Pasta with peas and bacon: A suggestion.

Remember than one-new-recipe-a-week thing I'm doing this year? It' part of my goals. Often I end up baking something or making a recipe I've seen somewhere in the blogosphere or elsewhere on the Internet. And while that is fine, my original idea behind this was to pull out one of my way too many cookbooks and actually cook something from it. Might have to tweak this next year and assign a cookbook per week or so. Anyhow.

This time I actually made something from a good, old-fashioned cookbook. No flimsy printout, no screen, no phone in my kitchen. Just a book. I pulled out Diane Seed's Top 100 Pasta Sauces. Because I felt like having some pasta. Hm. I always feel like having some pasta. And I didn't go grocery shopping for a week, so that sort of limited my options a little.

Looking through the book I came across a recipe for pasta with peas. Peas? I always have frozen peas. Let's see, what else.... bacon? Check. (Don't ask me why, I'm afraid there is no good answer for that). Parmesan? Check! Lots! And that was it. Easy peasy. (sorry) So here's my version:

Pasta with peas and bacon

500g / 1 lb pasta (I used Penne Rigate but pretty much anything will work)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
150g / 5 oz bacon

2 tablespoons butter
3 onions
3 cups frozen peas
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons Mascarpone cheese
100g / 4 oz Parmesan cheese

Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a large sautee pan. Cut bacon into small pieces and add to pan. Meanwhile, finely chop onions. Cook bacon until crisp, remove from pan and set aside. Add butter and remaining olive oil to the pan, add onions and cook until onions are very tender, about five minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta. Add peas to the onions, season with salt and pepper. Be careful with the salt as the bacon will also add saltiness to the sauce. Add some pasta water a tablespoon at a time and wait until absorbed. Add Mascarpone and stir to melt. Drain pasta. Add as much pasta as you like to the sauce, ass bacon and check seasoning. Grate the parmesan cheese and serve on the side.

Adapted from Seed, Diane: The Top 100 Pasta Sauces. "Pasta e Piselli con la Pancetta"

If you know me at all, you know that I have a hard time following recipes. This one is no exception. It said to cook the bacon with the onions, add peas and pasta and keep cooking. Sounds like soft, mushy bacon to me. But I wanted nice, crisp, crunchy bacon. So I started with the bacon, cooked until crisp, set it aside and then put the onions in the same pan to sautee in the bacon fat.

Also, the original recipe suggests (in my book recipes are just that: suggestions) you undercook the pasta, then add it to the sauce with some pasta water, cover and finish cooking. Nice idea. I'll try that someday. Someday when I don't have a picky toddler. Until then, I prefer to cook my pasta al dente, drain, reserve some plain pasta for my toddler-plan-B and add the rest to whatever sauce I am making. I don't know about your house, but at my house this has prevented quite a few screaming fits at the dinner table...

I also reduced the amount of peas - limited by what was left in my freezer. I still thought it was plenty of peas. The original recipe calls for 4 cups. I used something between 2 and 3 cups. Honestly, I didn't measure. I just threw the rest of the package into the sauce. I also didn't take any pictures of the process. It was dark outside. So what you see in these photos are the leftovers I had for lunch on Friday. Yeah, I'm that professional.

But my favorite change occured towards the end, looking at the onion and pea mixture. Hmmmm.... Something is missing here.... Mascarpone! There's some mascarpone cheese left in the fridge! That never hurts, now does it? Actually, it's wonderful. Creamy. And it makes this nice spring dish much more ready for fall. Yum.

So go ahead, use my version, use the original version or feel free to change it around. You know, it's just a suggestion after all.

Have a great week,
Swenja

PS: I made my first batches of the Spekulatiuslikör today. And since it's a very foggy, chilly day and from the two batches I made there was this small cup left over, I added it to our hot cocoa this afternoon. With whipped cream on top. Forgot to take a picture. But it is sooooo good.

Cure Week 3: A serious debate with myself, a resulting blog fast and scary curtain panels

 

This week was interesting. What was supposed to be a media fast turned into thinking hard about how I really want to spend my time and especially how much time I really want to spend reading blogs. To me, it’s addictive. I’ve talked before about how I need to be careful not to try and tackle too many of the great ideas I see. But what I hadn’t thought about before was how many useful or inspiring things I really get out of reading all those posts compared to the time it takes me. And that maybe there’s a reason why I still haven’t read any of the books I got for my birthday.

Also, I bravely faced my sewing machine and those way too long curtains in the boys’ rooms. Now, those of you who are on good terms with your sewing machines or have mastered the art of using iron-on hem tape are going to laugh at me, but for me, this is something s-c-a-r-y. But let’s start Monday.

Day 11: Floor & surface clean 1 room

Monday was not really my day. Anyway. I’m probably the worst housewife on the planet (hello. My name is Swenja and I don’t enjoy cleaning my house.), but with three men and three cats in the house I don’t have much of a choice. So I floor and surface clean at least one room every week anyway.

What I did notice since I started The Cure again is that I play more attention to detail. You know these things that always bug you but you sort of ignore them because you can’t seem to find the time to just get them done? Or the things you simply don’t (want to) see because they’ve been like that forever?

Every time I sat down with the boys on the carpet in our living room’s play area, I noticed the feet of a little chest I have in a corner being really, really worn. I guess it’s from vacuums and ride-on cars constantly bumping against them and maybe also from wet mopping the floor, I don’t know. But it looked shabby. And, as Jules from Pancakes and French Fries put it so perfectly in this post: “It’s the sort of small detail that can make your home look shabby, and not in a way that is intentional, franchised, and sold at Target. There is shabby-chic, and there is just plain shabby. This is just plain shabby.”

Somehow that thought has been sticking with me lately. As soon as I was able to bend down without having to throw up (which was sometime Wednesday) I took out some wood polish and took care of that poor little chest. Took me less than five minutes and that’s a lot less than it took me noticing this and planning to write it on my to do list for the last couple of months.

Day 12: Buy flowers

Uh, that took me until Saturday. I'll spare you my day to day excuses, ranging from "the store didn't have any good ones" to "I was too tired to run any errands after work". They're here now, they're on my dining room table (and in the sink at night in case the cats attack the vase...) and I think they're pretty. Some nice warm fall color before my color scheme will change to red, white and green for Advent decorations in two weeks (gasp).

Day 13: Declutter books or media

Having a hard time with this one. I’ve been decluttering books and media all year and sold a couple of boxes through Momox, which was great. But Maxwell’s assignment is to cut your book collection by 25%. That seems a bit steep to me. I get the concept of leaving room for things to add, but still, one quarter? I don’t even like the look of a shelf with one quarter of the books missing, the rest consequently leaning over (yes, I’ve heard about an invention called bookends. Really). Ugh.

Still I went and looked through my books. Again. Children’s books excluded, because I just did those a few weeks ago. I found a couple I don’t really use or need, so they went into my outbox. Nothing exciting, and certainly not 25%.

Day 14: Media Fast

Luckily this one fell on a workday. Still, it was really tough to ignore my phone. Not checking emails on coffee breaks. Not reading blogs when the kids are in bed. I think I could live without a TV. I don’t watch much. No, TV isn’t what gets me.

I don’t need a media fast. I need a blog fast. Just looking at the blog list in my bloglovin account makes me dizzy. And unlike TV, blog posts don’t just go away when I turn off phone and laptop. Thanks to the concept of following blogs, they’re waiting for me. And I just hate it when I haven’t been catching up for even a day or two and suddenly I have like 264 unread posts. Aaaaahhhh! Even though at least half of that is Apartment Therapy and related sites, i.e. TheKitchn and Ohdeedoh.

Do I really need to read that many blogs?

Please tell me I’m not the only one who feels bad and hesitates when she marks 136 Apartment Therapy posts as read without even quickly scanning the list.

No, I don’t read every single post. For AT sites, I read about 5%. Now, the interesting question is this: how many of these posts were truly inspirational? I’ve considered unfollowing (that isn’t really a word, is it?) these sites for quite some time. It goes something like this:

Tired Me: I would have a much shorter reading list, and I don’t read all that many of them anyway.

Blog-loving addicted Me: But what if I miss that one really cool, life-changing post?!

Tired Me: Like what?

Blog addicted Me: Well, like Sara Kate’s  skillet toffee last year. I loved that recipe, it made a great Christmas gift and is now considered tradition. Or the apple cake I even ended up writing a post about?

Tired Me: Exceptions! But if you must, just keep TheKitchn and delete AT and Ohdeedoh.

Blog addicted Me: And what about all the great blogs I found that way? Like the Ohdeedoh post that brought me over to Greta’s blogs which are now among my all-time favorites? Or the 20/20 Home Cure?

Tired Me: Oh that is just not fair, you know!

I’ve decluttered my bloglovin reading list a few weeks ago. Then I came across a new blog. I added it. And another one. Might come in handy for DIY Christmas ideas. Added that one, too. Oh and this one features really nice photography. Added. Somehow this is not working.

I went back to the list with the same rule in mind that I use for my home: Love it, use it or toss it. That translated into these questions:

Love it: does it make me feel better? Does it inspire me? Do I smile everytime a new post shows up? Do I know the blogger’s name? Have I written a comment on this blog before?

Use it: do I actually make some of the tutorials / DIY ideas / recipes?

Toss it: Have I been wondering why I was following this in the first place? Does it contain a lot of advanced sewing tutorials that I currently can’t do anyway? Do I read less than half of the posts? Does it feel like a chore when I see the number of unread posts?

I’ve started a list of blogs I no longer follow in an Evernote file for future reference. Just in case. And I’ve subscribed to AT, Ohdeedoh and TheKitchn weekly emails, hoping that these are likely to catch the week’s highlights so I don’t have to sift through all of the posts. I’ve had these in the past and it they often featured the posts I had ended up reading anyway. We’ll see.

Now, maybe I am actually going get to that pile of books that’s been sitting next to my couch. Or read my camera’s manual, something that’s been sitting on my list forever. Or *gasp* do nothing. Relax. Talk to my husband. Enjoy the silence in the house. Spend a summe evening staring at the sky instead of a screen. What a concept.

To read more about what Maxwell’s idea of a media fast is, click here. If you look through the comment section you’ll see that I’m not the only one with a blog instead of TV fast… Although it does seem a little strange for someone writing a blog to write about reading fewer blogs. So go read fewer blogs. Except this one. Of course.

Day 15: Fix one thing in your home yourself

This ties into last week’s list of Top 6 Home Needs. I chose to attempt the one thing that has been bugging me forever. Technically it’s not broken, but it’s not right either. It’s the curtain panels in the kids’ rooms that need to be shortened ever since I bought them.

My mom has helped me do this on the other curtain panels in the house, trying both the Ikea advertised method of ironing a curtian hem tape on as well as sewing them. In a household with three cats and two active kids it’s probably no surprise that the sewing method won. By far. Actually I should add “fix previously ironed on hems of living room curtain panels” to my list of things to fix. Sigh. Oh, and then there are the ones in my home office. She actually sewed them, factoring in the length that Ikea says they will shrink. Then I washed them. Uh, let’s just say they are not grazing the floor anymore. Nowhere near that. Agin, I should probably add those to the list. Again: Sigh.

There is a valid reason this task gets pushed down on the to do list. Again. And again. And that reason is not my cat who loves to sleep on the part of the panel that drags on the floor (yes, it’s that long). My mom has sworn to never, ever to touch one of these curtains again. And she’s been sewing things most of her life. Now talk about something being intimidating for a sewing novice!

Anyhow. It's done:

It's not really all that straight. But you see, the curtains are not straight to begin with, they're all wavy and curvy and twisted. Now I know why my mom hated doing this! I actually thought it wasn't all that bad - except for the measuring part. I had expected the sewing part to be the hardest. It wasn't.

I spend all of Friday morning on this and a lot of Saturday afternoon, but I did get it done: all four curtain panels in the boys' rooms are done! Yay!

Oh I'm sure there's a quicker, straighter, better way to get this done. But I don't care. I did this myself. Finally. Ha! So I may be learning to sew just a bit this year. If I learn to do some basic stuff like a tote bag, a hat for the kids, a little zippered pouch and maybe a pillowcase or two, that would be enough for me. 

So that's Week 3 for me. Hoping next week will be a little easier. And I want to start baking cookies and crafting gifts for Christmas and get my annual photo book all done and order it. 

What are you up to? Any thoughts on the blog fast - other than quit reading my blog, of course...?

Wishing you a good one,
Swenja

Spekulatiuslikör

I love homemade holidays and there are so many great ideas floating around the Internet. I can never get enough and start bookmarking ideas in October. OK, September. Well, all year, really. 

So I figured it's not too early to contribute my own idea, briefly mentioned before in this post: Spekulatiuslikör, or spiced Christmas liquor. It's another quick and easy one. Hmmm, after the easiestapple cake ever and the quick and easy Halloween capes, there seems to be a trend here. Not sure if I sound very convincing when I say that I do like to take the time and do more complicated things and actually like cooking and baking from scratch. No boxed cake mixes in this house. And I've tossed sold cookbooks for the mere fact that the recipes contained too many pre-made ingredients for my taste. Anyway. There are times for cooking elaborate meals, and there are times when you need a couple of quick and easy but still delicious gifts for friends and neighbors. 

This is not even really a recipe. And it literally takes five minutes to put together, so I'm sparing you a photo tutorial here. All you need is

250g (that's about a cup) heavy cream, very lightly beaten (you don't want it to stiffen or your entire batch will not really like to come out of the bottle once chilled. Not that I ever did that) 

150ml (about 5 fl oz?) of some sort of clear alcohol without much of a taste such as vodka or a grain alcohol (for my German readers: I've used cheap Korn and it worked just fine) 

3-4 tablespoons Nutella (there is no way around this one, and the only reason and only time I buy a jar. All year.) 

2-3 teaspoons Christmas spices (for German readers: Spekulatiusgewürz)

50g confectioner's sugar (I think that's like 3 tablespoons...)

Mix Nutella with alcohol, carefully stirring until Nutella has dissolved. Congratulations, you just finished the hardest part. Now add spices and powdered sugar, mix, and add cream. Mix until blended. Pour into clean, recycled bottles, wrap and or decorate and chill until ready to give or serve.

Recipe based on German magazine Lust auf Genuss 13/2009.

That's it. Now, at some point I would like to make something requiring a little more effort for Christmas, such as limoncello perhaps. But that requires starting early. This one doesn't - it can be done the same day or four weeks ahead. The only thing I start in advance is collecting bottles. There is a certain brand of babyfood that sells tiny carrot juice bottles with nice, golden caps, so my kids will be drinking more carrot juice the next couple of weeks. They actually like it, which is completely beyond me. I mean, I like carrots, but juice? Ugh. Anyway. 

This year I'll be doing the first batch to give to Nikolaus on December 6 to my family and another batch or two in December to give to neighbors, friends and my mom's friends. After two years, it has already become sort of a tradition.

With all the decluttering going on here and more left to do, my appreciation for all sorts of food gifts (does this count as food? Hm, maybe I should say gifts from the kitchen) has increased. My friends can simply enjoy this, without worrying where to find a place for it. I think that's plus, especially for people I don't know well enough to give something I know they will love.

What's your favorite last-minute Christmas gift? Or do you think I'm crazy for thinking about that already?

Enjoy,

Swenja

Cure Week 2: Something Green, Some Berries, a List and not much more

This is a little late as I have been sick the past couple of days. I couldn't focus on anything close by, bend down or let alone close my eyes or lie down or I'd get very nauseous. Immediately. So I haven't been anywhere near a computer. But it's getting better, so here we go.

Obviously that means I didn't as well a I would have liked to on Week 2 of the 20/20 Home Cure. And I'm more than behind this week. But let's talk about Week 2 first. (Week 1 can be found here)

Day 6: Clean one room

As usual, Monday was a workday, so I did this on Sunday and Tuesday, and more than one room. I mean come on, for anyone with kids and/or pets, this is a daily chore. I'm sure this feels nice if you do this and it stays clean for a week. Or two. It sure does not in my house. But anyway, once it's done, it's nice at least for the next, uhm, five minutes.

Day 7: Buy Flowers and Sit for 10 Minutes

I bought the flowers on Wednesday, since Tuesday was a holiday here. That green potted plant is supposed to be a type of cyprus that lives well indoors. We'll see about that. I thought it would transition nicely to my Christmas decorations later in the month and last a bit longer. I also got the red berries and so far the cats have left the vase alone. Shhh, don't tell them, but I think I tricked them with that tiny vase.

I also sat for 10 minutes where I usually don't sit, and I chose the small sofa in my home office for that, looking straight at my desk and all the things I want to change in that room. Next year, I guess. Sigh. But we can't do everything at the same time, can we? At least I can't. Let me know if you found a secret.

Day 8: Establish a Landing Strip

That's a tough one, actually. Wrong week for me, too. You see, the hallway is on my list. I went to Ikea for that a little while ago, full of creative energy. Coming back with all my supplies I realized it wasn't that easy and I wasn't going to get this done in half an hour. Let alone that same weekend. It got pushed down on the to-do list. I told myself it didn't make much sense to do something about the hallway while the pavers on the driveway still had to be put in and our street was being paved as well. Too much dirt. Wouldn't be pretty anyway. Right.

I'm still hoping the driveway will be done sometime this month. I doubt that the hallway will be done this week though. Sorry, Maxwell. But you see, in our house that is NOT a 20 minute project.

We have a tiny hallway. And I mean tiny, even by European standards. Put two people in there and it's crowded. Put two people plus kids in there and it's overcrowded. Put two people, two kids and all the cold-weather clothes in there and it gets ugly.

Actually, we did improve both looks and functionality a lot since we moved in. We got an Ikea (of course) bench with shoe storage and turned a shelf that my dad made for the kids' room in the old house and that didn't fit anymore into a coat rack. We hung another coat rack at kid level so they can hang their own jackets. We added a magnet chalkboard  for messages and I even spray painted the frame white. Unfortunately I didn't cover the rest well enough so the chalkoard has an, um, custom design. Oh well. And we added three hooks that we had on hand where we hung bike helmets, big brother's kindergarten bag and the occasionally used other bags & stuff. There's a mirror on the other side, and the magnet board also hold those essentials for getting out the door quick but still looking somewhat groomed: hairbrush, sunscreen, lipstick, shoeshine. I even added two baskets to the bench that hold the kids' hats and mittens. With labels. I know, so organized. It worked like a charm.

Until this summer when little brother started kindergarten (I guess that's preschool in the US). Suddenly, there is two kindergarten bags. And big brother has English lessons Mondays, his preschool-thing Wednesdays, gym "classes" Thursdays. That equals lots of bags for three hooks. Then there are those papers they bring back from kindergarten or the signs they have up on a board there. Little brother needs to bring new diapers and wipes. Big brother's lunch money is due. Big brother got one of those friendship books and needs to return this. Now, any organized mom keeps all this in her head - or on her to do list or home binder or wherever. There's probably an app for that, too.

But it was getting tough remembering all that early in the morning. Plus, on two days a week I leave the house at 5:30 am. Yes, that is early. And my husband has to get the kids to kindergarten / grandmas on his own. Poor guy.

Clearly I needed a solution. Staring at the kids' coat rack it hit me: it has five hooks. There are five kindergarten days a week. Hmmmmm..... So, proposed solution is to take a second coat rack, hang it where the magnet board is currently sitting, label it with weekdays and use to hang all the stuff the kids need for the respective day. If little brother goes to grandma's house on Mondays, you hang his kindergarten bag on the Tuesday hook, while big brother's English bag needs to go onto the Monday hook. Brilliant, don't you think?

Now I only have to get that done. Hang the magnet board somewhere else. Figure out a cute way to store the lipstick, hairbrush and all that. Maybe add some art. I love the print above. All those postcards I put up on the magnet board look too cluttered for my taste. But that's a general problem, with a tiny hallway even the few jackets, shoes and kindergarten bags I keep there look cluttered too easily. So I try to keep stuff in baskets and keep the number of jackets, shoes and hats to a minimum. Everything else goes into a nearby closet. Still, this is a real house and not a catalog, so no, the coats don't necessarily match the interior design and there might be more than two pairs of shoes. And those are likely to be quite dirty, too. Oh well.

Let's see, landing strip: I have place to hang my coat, put my shoes, hang my keys, drop the mail and, best of all, I'll soon have plenty of space to put that kindergarten clutter. So for Day 8 of the Home Cure, a plan for an improved landing strip will have to be enough.

 

Day 9: Find a new recipe and cook tonight

By Friday afternoon I was miserable. You know when you're getting a bad cold and all the vitamin C you're taking and tea you're drinking doesn't help at all? Still, I felt I needed something nice and healthy to eat. I have no idea where I got the energy from, but I ended up making a recipe that I've been wanting to try for weeks. It's simple, and although it's called Moroccan Chickpea Chili I thought it was more like the Indian vegetable curries I make, with the addition of cinnamon. I love it when all the spices (cumin, turmeric, paprika and cinnamon) are added to sauteed onions, garlic and ginger. Oh, and I used all fresh ginger and none of those (nonsense, if you ask me) bottled garlic or prechopped onions. This is old Europe, after all. Besides, I don't have these things around, but I always have onions, garlic plus some ginger in the freezer. I also added way more carrot than the recipe calls for, which was fine. Yum. Made meel feel so much better. Until the next morning. At least I tried.

Day 10: Make a List of the Top 6 Home Needs

Luckily I had been thinking about this Friday morning already as I came nowhere near a computer or notepad all weekend. So here it goes, my Top 6:

1) the basement (you guys are SO surprised, aren't you?). As in finish the basement. Someday. No near-term goal here. But continuous progress is the near-term goal.

2) kid's rooms: need to hang a recently finished project and finally shorten the curtains. Finally. Was going to attempt that over the weekend. Guess that's some other weekend then.

3) hallway projects: see landing strip above.

4) driveway: we're waiting for the pavers to be delivered! Last big house project open, well, apart from that basement-from-hell.

5) kitchen cabinets: the upper cabinets need to be purged and re-organized, there is too much stuff in there I haven't used since I put there when we moved in. Not good.

6) recipes and inspiration file: my eletronic inspiration file is Evernote and I recently re-sorted and cleaned that up. It also holds recipes I come across. But I also have a real-world paper inspiration file, or rather a neatly organized binder from three years ago plus a huge pile of magazine clippings ever since. Add to that all the print-outs of recipes I do since I don't like reading recipes from my phone in the kitchen. Needs to be organized and if my to do list were any shorter than it is, this would actually make a nice winter project with a cup of hot chocolate. If. Only. I. Didn't. Have. Anything. Else. To. Do. So we'll see about that one. Maybe between Christmas and New Years, between putting Christmas decorations away and making homemade dipping sauces for our traditional Chinese fondue. Yeah...

So that was my Cure week. What did you guys do while I tried to focus on some point in the distance to keep myself from getting nauseous and keeping the migraine medication down?

Swenja

Fall impressions

Today I have a brand-new, never-been-done-before topic for you: fall pictures. Amazing, right? Like no other blog on the whole, (world)wide Internet has ever shown these during, well, fall. And you are never going to guess who is starring in these photos: leaves! Berries! Mushrooms! More leaves!

Anyway. I have to admit I still haven't turned the auto settings off on my camera, but still, I do think I'm inching a bit closer to one of my 2011 goals: take better pictures. So you'll just have to bear with me here and have a look at this tiny selection of the gazillion photos I took while we went for a walk last weekend. And leave tons of encouraging comments. Of course.

 I like this one.

 Very yellow. Little brother would love it.

 We went to visit these guys.

Of course the pedal go-kart had to come along. Love the rear seat since little brother can just sit there and relax, which is especially good when he didn't have a nap.

 More yellow!

 Up close.

 Yep, summer IS over. Even though it was almost warm enough go without a jacket.

 I have never seen one this big.

Daddy going for a ride into the fields. Like really into the fields, so much that big brother had to help him get out there while mommy was busy taking pictures of yellow stuff.

 Leaves. Colorful leaves. Such an novel concept.

 But they are pretty. (Aren't they?!)

 Big brother and his loot. He loves letting them fly and calls them helicopters.

 Hmmm, there are more up there...

 Little brother wanting in the driver's seat.

 Riding home.

And now, since no post of fall pictures seems to be complete without this statement: I just love this season. So cliche, I know. But it's true, I really like it, especially when it happens to be sunny and warm and colorful and not dreary and rainy and cold like it sometimes is in Germany when it goes straight from summer to winter.

Want to see more fall pictures? And really (I mean REALLY) good ones? Go have a look at Yvonne's blog. She recently also posted these very yummy looking pumpkin cupcakes with the cutest ever leaf decoration (and the prettiest ever cupcake wrappers). Hmm.... I didn't do the new recipe for this week yet...

So, honestly, what is your favorite season?

Swenja

Winter time + black costumes = bad photos

We went trick-or-treating the first time this year. Monday was a workday for me, so I took a couple of quick pictures over the weekend just before it was getting dark, figuring that I might not be home early enough to take some decent photos on the big day. We did pumpkins and candy and ghost cookies before but Halloween was never such a big deal at our house. Until this year. The kids were beyond excited to dress up and go trick-or-treating.

Ignore the stripey tees and colorful socks for a minute, ok? Oh, and nevermind that nothing they're wearing matches. The kids were playing outside all day and then went inside to bake ghost cookies with me, decorating themselves and every horizontal surface available liberally with flour. Sigh. So they're wearing whatever they (or their dad) first grabbed when told to go change into something less covered in flour. Oh well.

They had fun. The magic wands I whipped up earlier that afternoon, using some leftover round coasters from Ikea that we got to make the stovetop for the kitchen in their playhouse outside. They're the perfect size and they come in red and black, but for the stove I only used one red so the others came in handy for this little "project". I just cut them into stars, tied some ribbon to two sticks and sandwiched the whole thing between the stars. Then I glued it together. Which barely lasted for the photo. So it got stapled for Monday - not so pretty, but very effective. And quick.

After making the capes out of a fleece blanket I didn't have the time or energy to make hats, too. And I'm not even talking skill level or talent here because we all know that I'm seriously lacking that when it comes to sewing or crafting. So sewing was out. Then I figured I'd do paper hats, but after the rain we had earlier this month and little brother being very likely to toss his hat on the floor repeatedly (which he ended up doing), maybe that wasn't such a brilliant idea either. I finally gave up and ordered some cheap ones. They fit, they're still going to fit for years to come and they are quite sturdy. So there you have it, two little magicians.

Here they're off back to watching some TV while mommy finishes cleaning up, makes some dinner and prepares the candy bowl for the next day.

So this is on Monday. As I said, coming home late from work, winter time, black costumes and a mommy who still hasn't learned to switch off the auto mode on her DSLR equal some very dark, grainy and not so pretty photos. Sorry about that.

They had such a great time though and I had NO idea, Halloween was this popular over here. I knew it was getting more popular, but I never thought we'd stop and get candy at every other house! It took us well over and hour to complete our tour.

We went with their best buddies, who are five months older each and go to the same kindergarten. The kids had SO much fun. They kept running to the doors, ringing doorbells, saying trick-or-treat. Little brother right in the middle of the action, not scared at all. Amazing.

So at the end of the night, little brother was getting a little tired and mommy was exhausted. And wearing his hat for most of the time. My feet hurt so bad after wearing heels all day and then walking around in still fairly new boots all night. But it was so worth it.

I think we'll go again next year! Now I only have to figure out what to do with all that candy and chocolate they brought home. What do you guys do? Ration? Separate per child? Just throw in one big jar and let them pick every now and then? It's less than a month to go until the Advent calendars...

Swenja

Happy Halloween

We did the pumpkins last week. It only takes me a week to post the pictures. Oh well.

I'm hoping they're going to make it until Halloween... But even if they don't, we had a great time making them.

 Little brother was helping, too. For about a minute.

 That's big brother's pumpkin.

 Scooping out the next one!

 A kitty cat pumpkin. Love.

 Now the big one.

 Ouch.

 Our pumpkin family 2011.

 Little brother coming back and announcing the cat is his pumpkin. Oh. Ok.

 Another cat interested in what's going on here.

 The sun is setting...

 ...Pumpkins start glowing.

 Watching from a safe (and warm!) distance. It's getting really chilly outside.

 And spooky.

Wishing you all a happy Halloween!
Swenja