Halloween funnies

I thought I'd share a few Halloween funnies.

Here is Loki after the pumpkin festival in Havana Florida.  He was a bit uncooperative on that hay bale.

Cute costume on this little girl! Neighborhood Crazy Cat Lady

Cheese man 

Creative!

Chicken Pancetta and Mushroom Stew from Donna Hay

 Halloween trick-or-treating and parties are quite different these days in comparison to when I was growing up. For starters it was colder this time of year as I was in Pennsylvania then instead of Florida.  It would be such a drag when mom insisted we wear a coat because of the chill.  Kids would always complain that our costumes couldn't be seen - very important back in the day when you were a kid!

A group of us would wander off to visit the houses on our block, up and down streets without adults and without fear. No cell phones then, just a check-in time before the curfew siren went off at the fire station at 10:00 p.m.

I wonder if they still do that in Parkside, PA.

We would have a hot meal before going out and collecting candy and that's what made me think about the "before-sweets" hearty fare.  For the Spooktacular Supper theme at I Heart Cooking Club I made a Donna Hay recipe - Chicken Pancetta and Mushroom Stew.

For the mushroom haters who visit me I would recommend skipping this recipe as, in my opinion, it's the mushrooms that make this such a great combo and so hearty.  

Donna Hay's Chicken Pancetta and Mushroom Stew

8 bone-in chicken thighs

all-purpose flour for coating

1 tablespoon olive oil

5 oz pancetta, diced

2 leeks, sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

7 oz button mushrooms, halved (I doubled it)

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 cup white wine

1/2 cup cream (I used half-n--half)

1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon chopped tarragon

sea salt and cracked black pepper

Flour the chicken, shaking off any excess. Place half of the oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium heat. Brown the chicken; remove and set it aside.

Add the remaining oil and cook the pancetta, leeks, garlic and mushrooms until golden; remove and set aside.

Bring the chicken stock and wine to a simmer in the pan, scraping up anything from the base of the pan. Return the chicken to the pan and cook, covered, for 25 minutes.

Add the pancetta, leek, garlic and mushroom mixture, the cream, parsley, tarragon, salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until reduced and thickened.

Serve on plates or in bowls with potatoes or steamed rice.

Sharing with

Marg at The Intrepid Reader for Weekend Cooking

Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for Souper Sunday

I Heart Cooking Clubs

Cheddar Cheese Risotto from Nigella Express

It's Potluck time at I Heart Cooking Club and this week I am bringing a Cheddar Cheese  Risotto from Nigella Express. This is a colorful side or main dish with bright orangey cheese and green chives.

This calls for a little bit of wine and I think that makes a difference overall in the taste.  The wine I added is a Joel Gott unoaked Chardonnay.  It blended well. 

See.  Looks pretty and festive plated :-)

 

Nigella's Cheddar Cheese Risotto
(from Nigella Express)

1 tbs. butter

1 tbs. vegetable oil

2 baby leeks or 2 fat scallions, finely sliced

1 1/2 cups risotto rice

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard

4 cups hot vegetable stock

1 cup chopped Cheddar cheese

2 tbs. snipped chives or parsley

Melt the butter and oil in the pan and cook the leeks or shallots until softened.
Add the rice and stir for a minute or two, then add the wine and mustard, stirring until it is absorbed.
Start ladling in the stock, letting it become absorbed as you stir before adding more. Continue until rice is soft, about 18-20 minutes. Stir in the cheese then transfer to warmed bowls and sprinkle with chives or parsley.

Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter.

Sharing with 

I Heart Cooking Clubs for Potluck

Marg at The Intrepid Reader for Weekend Cooking Series

 

In My Kitchen

This month I only have a few things to share from my North Florida kitchen. I love seeing what others across the globe have in their kitchen and gardens so I'll be sure to visit all the submissions. Here's a shout out to Sherry and I hope you are on the mend soon!

Ok, into the kitchen. I saw these on sale at our local grocery store. Normally we don't do much frozen food but with a name like Boomerang's Aussie Pies I couldn't resist! We have tried the mac and cheese one and it wasn't bad but I probably won't buy it again. It's nice backup for lunch in case we run out of options.  Looking forward to trying the beef and chicken pies. 

They are made with puff pastry so the crust is very nice and light.

Death Wish Coffee was an impulse purchase when we visited our son in Omaha.  It was actually purchased online, not an Omaha staple.  Tristan loves this brand and we love coffee so we decided to try it.  It's very strong and so we have it as our first cuppa of the day.

For mojo we loved this brand called Mr. Mojo but I can't find it anymore.  This brand Kirby is new to us but we like the Kirby black beans so hoping to like this mojo. We also had some Badia leftover.

This hazelnut spread was bought for upcoming brownie plans.  At I Heart Cooking Club they are featuring the recipes of Tieghan Gerard and her hazelnut brownie recipe attracted me right off.  More on that treat later.....

Now that we are home and have been able to cook some healthy meals we have been enjoying vegetables and homemade fare.  Restaurant food for several days got to us.

Here is a simple salad of  lettuce, beefsteak tomato, fresh Parmesan cheese, cucumbers, scallions and red onion.

The weather is holding onto summer instead of moving into Autum so we have been able to eat outside on the porch quite a bit.  This BLT on toasted potato bread made a semi-healthy lunch a few days ago.

Inside the kitchen you will find this living Hoover named Loki.  He stands behind me and hopes crumbs or cheese or anything will fall from the counter.

I know just posted this bread but I had to add it to my In My Kitchen roundup. 

Sharing with

Marg at The Intrepid Reader for Weekend Cooking

Sherry's Pickings for In My Kitchen event

Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for S

ouper Sunday

Soft Garlic Herb Cheddar Cheese Bread - A recipe from Tieghan Gerard

 Okay, trying to get my blogging/cooking mojo back by joining in with I Heart Cookiing Clubs  and their featured chef Tieghan Gerard.  For the next six months her recipes will be the focus.

I am going to start with one of her breads.  This is a soft garlicy, cheesy and herb filled bread. The bread was enormous when it came out of the oven. I immediately froze half of it as we have no business eating this much bread.  It's just the two of us

So, you make the dough. Once the dough rises as you roll it out into a rectangle. Then sprinkle all the cheeses, herbs and garlic - as if you were making cinnamon buns.

Roll it

Then the tricky part! Once you roll it up as you would a cinnamon roll you need to cut down the middle lengthwise. Just so you know, there’s going to be cheese and herbs all over the counter. Now twist the two pieces around each other.

Once it's twisted up you take this rope of dough and coil them into just a round mass. Very carefully place this on parchment paper on a baking sheet.

The aroma will have your mouth watering. In spite of all the cheeses I was actually expecting it to blend more, those little ribbons of cheese all the way through. That said, it was a very good bread to have with dinner

The recipe from Tieghan Gerard may be found HERE.  She also has nicer photos 😉

Sharing with

I Heart Cooking Club 

Marg at The Intrepid Reader for Weekend Cooking.

Roaming around The Market place in Omaha

 Omaha trip again.  One of the days we off on our own Doug and I spent time in a great Vinyl store.  They had other forms of entertainment as well such as DVDs and BluRay, CDs, loads of vinyl and even 8 Track!  We bought several B.B. King CDs,some Samantha Fish and a few movies.  

I can see we would be frequent customers at Homer's Vinyl if we lived near Omaha.

It was pretty wandering around the Market Place which is only a few blocks from our hotel.  This sign made me want ice cream.  Never did get it.

There's a little place called The Table and they make THE best waffles I have ever had. I'm usually a bigger fan of pancakes but these waffles.....so light and flavorful.

The owner spoke with us a few minutes and Tristan noticed his cell phone had a FSU Seminoles cover so he just said go noles. The man asked if we were fans, we told him we lived near Tallahassee and then he said he used to live there and his parents are still there! Small world.   But the waffles....seriously. we are eating there again if we go back.

Street signs adorning the walls

 This is a hidden gem tucked away on a main street in the Market Place.  When you enter through beautiful iron gates you'd think you'd landed in Italy. 

This is the portal and it attracted us immediately.

It was cooler in this courtyard, plants overflowing from windows in such abundance.

Lots of stairwells to check out.  This is Tristan at the bottom of one staircase.

Back onto the streets to see other businesses. A cigar shop here.

Travel shop with newspapers.

This plate and door attracted us as it's a throwback called The Gentelmen's Club.  We spoke with the lady who runs it as she was outside enjoying the sun on the terrace.  She took it over from her father and told us many of the decorations, windows, barware, etc were brought from England.

This photo does not do the windows justice.  They are stunning.

This looked like we were back in England.

The Spaghetti Works is a reasonably priced restaurant decorated with items that were in the old building when they  renovated.  The Italain dishes looked good and we enjoyed splitting a pizza and getting salad, saving our appetite for the Woodfire Grill at the hotel.

Such cool old lighting fixtures.

This salad......I just can't tell you how much I wanted salad and some veggies after a few days of eating restaurant food. You can't see all the wonderful (to me) ingredients I have stacked here but it's lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, cheese, beets (lots of beets) which are hidden under the pasta salad on the left. Broccoli, radish and peas. 

So. Good.

I could bore you with more photos of the trip but I will end this post with a photo of my sweet little granddaughter sporting a cool Harry Potter dress. We are both Potter-heads so that was fun.

Sharing with Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for Souper Sunday.