Trunk-or-Treat!

As I'm sure everyone is aware at this point, today is Halloween! I've been pretty bummed lately because, after leaving Homecoming last week, I realized how much I've been missing college. And Halloween has only served to reinforce this, because Halloween in college is a blast. We get dressed up, get loud, and have awesome parties, and I'm not doing any of those things this year. Growing up doesn't seem like a lot of fun. So, I was starting to get pretty disappointed.

But then, something awesome happened. My church happened. Halloween kicked off for me this past Wednesday, when my church had our weekly dinner. After dinner, I always take the 2-5 year olds for Mission Friends class while their parents enjoy their own class, and since Halloween was approaching, I tried to gear the class towards that. I brought in a carved pumpkin, sat it next to an uncarved pumpkin, lit the carved pumpkin, and then turned off the lights. I compared the lit pumpkin to the Bible verse, "Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house" (NIV Matthew 5:15). We talked about how it's better to let your love for Jesus shine so everyone can see it, and then we colored in a pumpkin from a coloring book that I'd made copies of. This wasn't exactly a wild party, but it gave me such a nice feeling that it beat out every college Halloween I've experienced.

The kids in my class with their pumpkins.

Then, the next night, our church hosted a Trunk-or-Treat! To give you an understanding of what this is, I'll have to explain a little bit. I live in the boonies. Literally, the middle of nowhere (I say that lovingly. Don't walk away thinking I'm not COMPLETELY in love with where I live! I wouldn't trade my town for anything). Our very rural area has few neighborhoods, so most kids don't live in a neighborhood where they can go trick-or-treating. My neighbors are actually cows and chickens. Oh, and a couple horses. So, knowing this, a lot of churches in the area (and some other organizations) put together fall festivals, including trunk-or-treating. Everyone opens their trunks, decorates them, and then passes out candy as kids come around trick-or-treating out of the trunks!

My candy bowl before it was raided.

Because my church is pretty awesome, we host a trunk-or-treat every year, and this year, I got to include my trunk! I was told that we didn't want to do anything scary, so, since I wasn't really sure what people did, I got some pretty simple fall decorations; some colorful leaves, a fall-patterned ribbon, some scarecrows, and then I included our pumpkins! Chris and I set everything up, and, when he was whisked away to man the fire (where kids were cooking s'mores), I settled in to pass out candy.

Chris on fire duty.



This was nothing like a college Halloween party. It wasn't crazy, and it was geared towards the kids. But it was a blast! I had so much fun getting our trunk all decorated, watching the costumed kids come through as I passed out candy, and fellowshiping with my friends who were participating. This was such a drastic change from how I spent my Halloween last year, but it was a nice change of pace, and I really can't remember when I enjoyed Halloween more. If this is what growing up is like, maybe it won't be so bad!! Happy Halloween y'all!!!

Our trunk all decorated!

Food Friday! Corn Pudding

The weather this week has been absolutely gorgeous! Because of this, Chris and I have been spending a lot of time outside, enjoying the last bits of nice weather before it inevitably gets too cold to be enjoyable. So, Chris has been manning the grill for a lot of the week as we enjoyed the beautiful weather!

Let me tell you though- that grill is beyond me. I'm lucky if I can turn the gas on without the whole thing exploding. So, I haven't been doing a lot of cooking this week, and what I have been cooking has been indoor, and fairly easy, so I was wondering what I was going to put up today! We're having people over tonight, but one of our guests wanted to cook, so she is bringing a casserole, and another guest wanted to bring the dessert, so I still wasn't sure what I was going to put up! I decided to fix a side though to go with the casserole because I really hate having people over and not having something to feed them (you can ask anyone who comes to visit me- I'll feed you till you pop!).

So, with all that being said- here is the corn pudding recipe that I'll be serving tonight!

Ingredients:

• 1 package fresh or frozen corn
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

1. In a small bowl or pan, heat the butter until it is melted.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs, and then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix together, and then salt and pepper to taste.
3. Pour mixture into a greased pan and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.

Like last week's, this week's recipe is pretty quick and easy, which is wonderful when I don't get home until 5:00 and dinner is at 6:00! I've had this several times before, and am excited to serve it again tonight because it's just delicious! A note of caution- I know a lot of people who always add a little bit of extra sugar when they're cooking something that calls for sugar, and I often do that myself. However, because the corn already adds a sweetness, adding more sugar can make the dish too sweet, and a little overwhelming.

There's No Place Like Home

This past weekend was Homecoming at my alma mater, Christopher Newport University, and I could not have been more excited to see all the friends that I've been missing. I am incredibly happy with my life after college- it's exactly what I wanted! I was prepared for married life, my full-time job, and taking care of a house. However, I was entirely unprepared for how much I would miss college once I graduated. It's not the classes I miss, but the people. And by people, I mean of course the fraternity, Tau Delta Phi. The brothers of this fraternity are some of the greatest people I've ever met, and I miss them all so much! So you can imagine how excited I was to get to go down and see, not only my friends who are still in their undergrad there, but also other alum, some of whom I haven't seen in over a year!! So, Saturday morning, Chris and I loaded Evan up in the car and prepared to spend an awesome day in Newport News tailgating with his brothers.

We played cornhole:

We ate ridiculous amounts of food:

We got to see my little brother Cory (who just started at CNU):

Evan made new friends:



And we just generally had a wonderful time seeing all the people who we haven't gotten to see near enough. I love you CNU, Tau Delta Phi, and Cory!!!





Food Friday! Potato Soup

I am a happy member of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, and, since moving back to the area, have had the wonderful fortune of being able to start being a larger part of the church. I have started attending the meetings for the Ruth Evening Circle, and at our first meeting of this new year, we decided to hold a fundraiser for those of us going on the Operation Christmas Child trip.

Every Wednesday night, our church has dinner before breaking up into our different groups, and this week, the REC had the opportunity to have our fundraiser dinner on this night. We all brought in different soups, made grilled cheese sandwiches, and had ice cream sandwiches for dessert! Since it wasn't a very expensive meal to make, our fundraiser did very well! We raised over $400 for our trip and got to eat some absolutely delicious soups!! I think we had just about every type of soup imaginable too. We had chili, vegetable, chicken noodle, and I made potato soup from Chris' grandmother's recipe, which I was very pleased with. I altered the recipe very slightly to make it a little creamier, but just about all the credit for this one goes entirely to her! I don't think anyone makes it quite as well as she does, but mine turned out well, and when I left, I only had a small container leftover that someone had thoughtfully set aside so that Chris would have something for dinner.

Ingredients

• Several potatoes (peeled, washed, & diced)
• 1 can corned beef
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup half & half
• salt & pepper (to your own taste)

Directions

1. Boil diced potatoes with butter, salt, and pepper until soft, then reduce heat to medium.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, milk, and half & half.
3. Add flour mixture to the pot. Let cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally
4. Crumble corned beef, and then add to pot. Let cook about 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, and let sit until ready to serve.

This recipe is pretty quick and easy, and is very good! Just be careful not to use too much water or you won't get as much flavor out of the soup. Just to give some reference, I use about 4 and 1/2 quarts of water when I cook it.



It's the Great Pumpkin!

After a fun day of church and family-lunch yesterday, Chris took me to the berry farm by our house to go pumpkin-picking! I was really excited for 2 reasons. (1) I'd never been to the berry farm before and (2) I love the holiday season! In my mind, the holiday season starts in September (because that's when my birthday is), doesn't end until January, and is always worth getting excited about. And luckily for me, Chris tolerates my over-the-top enthusiasm with smiles and, in some cases, encouragement.

We got to the berry farm and had to wait in a LONG line to even get in, and then an even LONGER line to get on the hay ride out to the pumpkins, but it was fun to get a chance to look around at everything, and once we started riding out to the pumpkins, it was well worth the wait. There were about a million pumpkins out there, and Chris and I both had an idea of the pumpkins that we each wanted. He wanted a big one that would have a lot of seeds to eat, and I wanted a round one with a pretty color. I found what I was looking for pretty quickly because most pumpkins are round and orange, but the one Chris was looking for took a little longer.

Me with my pumpkin!

Ok, that's an understatement. He literally walked through most of the pumpkin patch (and it was a HUGE pumpkin patch) looking for the one that he wanted. When he came back to where I was waiting though, he had with him a pretty decent sized pumpkin as well as several cute little ones for me! Success!! We took our prizes and bypassed what looked like an hour wait for the hay ride back, choosing instead to walk. For about a mile. With 6 pumpkins. Lucky we're determined! When we finally got back to the main farm to pay for our pumpkins, Chris had to get loaded down with all our pumpkins in order to get the "as many pumpkins as you can carry for $20" deal. I still don't know how he did it. But somehow he did, and we got to take all 6 pumpkins home with us, to be carved next week before Trunk or Treat at our church!

Chris carrying all of our pumpkins!

While we did get some pretty awesome pumpkins out of our time at the berry farm, the time we spent together was the best thing to come out of it, which was really the whole point of going anyway! We could have gotten pumpkins from WalMart for way cheaper, but part of why I am still so in love with Chris after our 6 years together is that we take time to do things like this every so often. We get out of the house and just spend time together. And we're silly, ridiculous, and, some people might say immature, but we always have fun! It feels like when we first started dating, but even better because of our years together. And that is even sweeter than the AWESOME pumpkin pie that I'm going to get to make with some of the pumpkins we picked.

All of our pumpkins on our front step.

Food Friday! Parmesan Meatballs

Fridays are going to be recipe days here on my blog, and I'm going to be giving you one of the recipes that I've fixed over the course of the week! I cook just about every night when I get home from work, and I like to encourage other women to do the same for their families! It makes the house seem more comfortable, and gives my husband and me a chance to sit down together without the distraction of TV, books, or a rambunctious puppy. It's turned into a great de-stresser after a long day at work, and even though some recipes are time-consuming, they are definitely worth it.

Chris and I had another newlywed couple, Cathy and James, over last night to eat with us. I'd like to add here that they are SUCH a joy to be around, and being around their love for one another is a really positive experience. Couples nights, where we can fellowship with other Christian spouses is great for our own relationship, besides being a lot of fun, and Cathy and James are just wonderful people.

Anyway, since we were having people over, Chris asked me to make one of his favorite dishes- parmesan meatballs. Before they left, Cathy asked for the recipe, so, Cathy, here you go!

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 can beef broth
• 2 tablespoons parsley

Directions:

1. Mix beef, cheese, breadcrumbs, egg, and 1/2 cup of the milk together with your hands in a large mixing bowl. Salt and pepper to taste.
2. Shape mixture into meatballs and set aside.
3. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add meatballs and brown quickly on all sides. Remove from pan and set aside.
4. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to the pan drippings and melt. Whisk the flour and onion powder into the butter and then gradually add the beef broth, whisking constantly until smooth. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk. Return meatballs to the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.
5. Top with parsley.

I serve this with rice and green beans, which complement the flavor of the meatballs well, but I think mashed potatoes and peas or broccoli would work well too.