annual

It's that time of year again! 
Did the annual

change the clocks back from Daylight Savings time on Saturday night.

At the same time,
I also did the annual "changing of the batteries" -

smoke detectors, you know.

Then there's the annual 

rearranging of quilts...

refolding all the stored ones and
changing the main wall hanging quilt.
(Is refolding quilts on your annual list or is it just me?)

Then there's the annual

clean-up outdoors...

flower beds, leaf raking, sticks to the burn pile...

Because of high winds on Halloween again this year,
we had anther large tree down
(in the last picture you can see the freshly cut and stacked wood) 
AND
a WHOLE LOT'o sticks on the burn pile!
But it made for a great bonfire for our

Annual Chili Cook off & Bonfire!


We started the Chili Cook Off "taste testing" 
and it started to rain - but only for about half an hour.
We stuck it out, though and it ended up being
a beautiful night for a bonfire!

Six Chili cauldrons this year -
and the winner was...
Green chilies Chicken Chili
with fresh toppings of cilantro, avocado and lime.  YUM!

late afternoon -
 just getting set up and the fire started.
(See that newly-cut stack of wood?)




 

That was a whole lot of 'annuals'...
but sure fun. 
Might be time for a nap.
Or maybe some more stitching!!

Pumpkin Pie Cake and Bonfire

Crumb-topped Pumpkin Pie Cake

As we all know, the weather across the country

during the past few weeks has been,

to say the least - bad.

And that includes the Halloween/beggars night time period.

BUT,

this past weekend was beautiful here in central Ohio.

So, last hour (really two days ahead of time),

after I saw the weather forecast, 

I sent out e-invites

for the Annual Chili Cook-Off and bonfire

that I usually host on beggars night.

 
And we had a great turn-out!

Not as many chili entries

(that's what happens when I don't plan ahead :)

but what was here was Tast - y!!!

Yum, yum!!!

The "blind" taste test was close,
but the "Turkey Chili - medium hot",
was the winner!!!

I have to say, to my taste buds, 
the "medium hot" was a 
little under-rated in the heat department...
To my thinking, medium hot shouldn't make your nose run!!
But it sure was good!

I think the pot was licked clean!

No, it was NOT me licking the crock pot!!

  Anyway,

I had a request for a recipe that I thought I had posted before,

but I couldn't find it, 
and it definitely is an Autumn dish,
so...

Collin - this is for you!

Crumb-topped Pumpkin Pie Cake 

Crust:
1 yellow cake mix - dry (reserve 1 cup of dry mix for topping)
1/2 cup melted butter
1 egg
Mix those three and pat into 9 x 13 greased pan
Filling:
16 oz. canned pumpkin
3 eggs
2/3 c. evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
Mix the above ingredients and pour over crust.

Topping:

1 cup reserved dry cake mix

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup soft butter

Cut soft butter in with dry ingredients until crumbly, then stir in:

1 cup chopped pecans

Sprinkle topping over filling and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour and 5 to 10 minutes.  Cool and serve with whipping cream.  Refrigerate leftovers.

A beautiful and clear November night, a crackling bonfire,

great food, and some Pumpkin Pie Cake...

that's what I call the a WONDERFUL night!!

crusty bread & chili cook-off time

With all the weird weather and bad storms lately,
I postponed my
Annual Chili Cook-Off and bonfire
until this weekend.

Now that the 40 acre woods back and front yards
are cleaned up from storm debris
we have another brush pile
to add some logs to
for the bonfire.
The weather is supposed to be good this weekend...
And there's a bye this week for the state college football team...
I'm thinking it's CHILI COOK OFF time!!!

And, I made some bread!!

Crusty Bread
 easy, no knead!
Really!

(the left loaf is white, the right loaf is wheat with garlic and veggies.)

Crusty Bread recipe
3 cups flour
2 tsp. salt (I use sea salt)
1 tsp. yeast (not instant)
Whisk together in a good sized bowl
and stir in
1 1/2 cups cool water.
Mix only until incorporated, it will be sticky and messy. 
Leave in bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  
LEAVE bread BOWL ON COUNTER 12 TO 18 HOURS to rise. 
12 to 18 hours later:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Put cast iron, lidded pan* into hot oven for 30 minutes to bring to temperature. 
While pot is heating, turn the wet dough onto a heavily floured board or table and shape into a ball, using your floured hands or a dough scraper. 
Cover dough with the same plastic wrap and let rest while pan heats.
After 30 minutes, carefully remove pan from oven, remove lid from pan, and place sticky dough ball into pan. 
Re-lid and return pan to oven. Bake 30 minutes with lid on, then remove lid and bake additional 15 minutes.

Take pan from oven and with hot pads, remove lid and then carefully remove bread loaf.  Cool on rack.  Slice when cooled (if you can wait that long!)  and store in a paper bag. 

You can store in plastic, but it looses it's crunchy, crusty outside.
I have frozen the finished loaf, let it thaw and then re-warmed in a hot oven, it's not quite the same crusty goodness, but close.

I have, of course, changed up the recipe - that's just how I roll... (ha - roll:)
I've added chopped fresh veggies along with freshly grated garlic... yum!
I've swapped out 1/2 cup of the white flour for rye flour & added caraway seeds...yum!
I've swapped out 1/2 cup of the white flour for wheat flour - also yum! but don't go any more in your wheat flour exchange, 'cause it's a not so good bread - too heavy and dense.
I've added grated cheeses (sharp white cheddar often, Gruyere a few times, Asiago mostly)...YUM!
I also have done fresh or dried cranberries with walnuts or almonds; raisins and cinnamon; cherries and chocolate chips;  I'm sure that are more variations that I've done but not remembered to list.  Guess what I'm getting at is if you like it together, put it in...
you probably won't regret it. 

Lastly, this bread recipe should come with a warning. 
So here it is:
WARNING: this bread is so quick and easy to make that it's addictive -
both to make and to eat :) 

Ask me how I know.

I love to make bread,

but I'm not really a bread "fan" when it come to the eating,

but I can scarf down this bread when it's hot from the oven!!!

*Any heavy, lidded pan will work as long as it can take the 450 degree heat.

Have fun!  and don't try to blame me later for any new addictions :) 

Busy, part two

First, I never heard from Alecia of NY - one of the cinnamon-grunge candle winners, so I re-drew and the new winner is.....
DRUMROLL.....
Diane - the first comment left.  I've emailed her and will get these gifts out ASAP!
Thanks for playing along!!!
Now, on to the busy-ness:

It's been super busy around here -
as Sunday night was The Annual Bonfire/Chili Cook-Off. 
It was a great gathering! 
Lots of friends/neighbors, lots of great chili,
and the weather was cool cold and crisp!
And of course, lots of laughs and visiting!

Someone asked how many years I have been hosting this event,
and I decided I don't know. 
I'm going to have to make a sign:

*ANNUAL* CHILI COOK-OFF and bonfire
*don't know how many years, as we are all gettin' older and can't remember :)*

The chilies were all great - there were eight contenders!
I had to triple taste before I voted :).
The was even a potato chili soup for the non-chili eaters!


neighbor Mike on the left - he knows how to sample chilies!!

The winners this year were
Taco Chili and Male Chauvinist Chili.
Both had a great, hot bite to them,
but not so hot that you couldn't taste them.
There were also fifth-pound franks to roast over the fire.
Of course, there were breads & corn breads, corn chips, cheeses, onion cassarole, and toppings galore.
AND a big ol' chocolate cake, cookies, a couple of apple pies and ice cream in case you were still hungry.

Going to have to add another tent and more tables for next year, as it was packed full this year!

Oh, and, the things you can learn about your neighbors
as you sit around a bonfire to talk!!!

neighbor Jim counting his fingers

It's nice to laugh that hard.

another fall, another chili bean...

The chili cook-off was a hit again this year!

There were six peeps

that got out their

"cauldrons".

They stirred up their

bat wings

and

eye of newt

and spider webs,

and cooked up a big pot of ...

chili...

yeah, chili...

for All Hallows Eve.

There was food aplenty.

Besides all the chili there were

corn bread and zucchini pie and all kinds of chili "toppings"

at the bonfire.

And inside, while watching the game:

Veggies and snacks - plural.

Cakes, pies, cookies and candies - plural.

Kettle corn, caramel corn.

Way too much!

Here are a couple of pics before it got really dark

(and before we went inside to watch the state football game) :

The "cauldron row":

 The fire that sure felt good as the

temperature dropped into the low 40's:

This year's winner was called "Game Day Chili"

It had a real "kick" in the spice department!

Next year,

I told everyone it was going to be

BYOB....

Bring Your Own Bean-o

:)



It's that time again!

Time...
it sure seems like it has been flying, lately...
And, since it's almost the end of October,
that means it's chili cook-off time again!

Can't wait for Saturday night this week!
Nice, cool, fall weather with a bright moon and clear skies.
A great bonfire,
and a Party!!!

I invited the neighbors and friends and family.
So far, RSVP's are great!
Among others, these are the cook-off chilies that are coming:
a "famous chili",
a "turkey-10-alarm-chili", and
an "Italian chili"!   

Going to have to step up my recipe, it sounds like!!!

Oh, yeah, and get some more tables down to the fire pit!

cool breezes

The evenings are cooling off - a lot!
The local county fair is this next week.
Already, football season has come!
I don't know what happened to spring and summer.


The signals are saying it's coming into Autumn.


And I am torn...
I really like Autumn.
But I really like Summer, and don't think I am ready to give up on it.
I am still wearing my white shoes, for heaven's sake!


I AM ready for some comfort foods -
making soups and stews, noodles and biscuits,
throwing some flour around on the butcher block...
Chili Cook-Off time will be here soon, too.


I wonder if it would be OK to do my Chili Cook-off this year in white sandals?

1st: Happy Halloween and 2nd: It's Here!!!

1st:

Happy Halloween!

The weather came in rainy and cool in the a.m., but during the day it had dried off and warmed up just a little, so by trick-or-treating time it was a beautiful autumn evening.  (Only 3 little beggars stopped by.) 

 We set up a couple of small awnings, strung up some lights and put a couple of tables underneath.  Looked very fall-ish.  Here's some stuff I took down to the bonfire:

Weenie roasting stuff, hand wipes, chili toppings, cups with ballots for the best chili voting, smores fixin's.  Oh, and Prizes!  Runner-up ladles, and grand-champion Chef hat and chef-looking glasses with wiskers.  (A lot of those professional chefs have facial hair, don't they?)

 The bonfire/chili cook-off/reverse trick-or-treating was a hit! 

Hard decisions on the grand champion chili! 

There was a white chili, a 3 Bean Italian with spinach and a kick, and three, more traditional versions: one with sour cream, one with cheddar cheese and corn chips, and the last with a side of pasta, three beans, chipotle and jalapenos topped with fresh onions and cheddar cheese-this one had an after kick also!  Really, hard to just vote for one, but we did!  The 3 Bean Italian, spinach,kicker won!  Winners below, right:

Had to keep tasting and tasting and tasting though!  

Look at those slow cookers...15 or so of us and we pretty much wiped them out!  Yum!!! Thanks to all who participated in the cook-off.  It was nice to see everyone and visit and the friendly rivalry was a blast.  We will definately do this again!

And 2nd:

It's Here!!!                                     Rouenneries:

  the long awaited line of fabric by French General for Moda.  It arrived in my mail box today.  I think I might have done a little dance roadside at the mailbox when I saw that box had arrived!  I'll have to ask the neighbors later if they saw mailbox dancing!  And they know me well enough to not think I'm really nutso.  Not crazy for mailbox dancing and not even crazy for asking if they saw me mailbox dancing!  O.K., maybe a little, but hey, this is worth it!

I checked around all the local quilt shops AND the not so local quilt shops and no one had ordered the line, so I ordered from http://www.quilt-this.com/ .  It's a great on-line store.  They get the complete lines of fabrics and the customer service is extraordinary.  Shipped within 24 hours, plastic bagged inside the box and had a nice, personalized hand-written note and ink pen as a gift! 

Thanks, Jennifer!

Look, what do you think? 

Doesn't that make you want to dance just a little?

The red print fabric on the right will be the outside border and some of the piecing.  The cream fabric second from the right will be the background for the hand stitchery for all the birds and applique baskets.  The rest will be all the Irish chain piecing. 

And leftovers for my stash!

I am planning on making the "Irish Birds" quilt, pattern by Lynette Anderson. 

I'll post this pic again:

That is Lynette and me standing in front of her origninal "Irish Birds" quilt at the quilt market in Houston last month.  Isn't it just gorgeous?  I can't believe I have so many things lined up to do this week already, when all I want to do is cut into this delicious stack of fabrics!  Patience, patience, patience.  I keep telling myself this.  Maybe I can start with some of the hand embroidery tomorrow night!   Oh, yeah, patience.  I almost forgot!

Thanks for stopping by, hope your Halloween weekend was spooktacularly beautiful!

reverse trick-or-treating and chili cook-off

I live in a rural area. 
Not many kids come around trick-or-treating here. 
Too far to walk between houses.  
Evidently hitting a bunch of houses close together in a neighborhood is more fun?  Little beggars (he he)  don't realize that I give out the big, good stuff since I don't have many coming through. 
Not like the neighborhood houses that get hundreds of kids and have to resort to the bags of little, used-to-be penny candies.
Anyway, reverse trick-or-treating.........
since I have candy left over after the beggin' hours are done,  and I know I don't want all that candy sitting around here, I know I have to get rid of it somehow, before *I scarf it aaaaallllllllllllll*!  (my voice just dropped 3 octaves, scary).  
SOOO....
1--you gather up all most of the candy,
2--put it in big bucket or bowl that's easy to carry,
3--put on your hiking shoes and a jacket appropriate for the weather, and
4--start walking to all the neighbors houses. 
5--When you get to a door,
6--ring the bell,
7--smile, and when the neighbors answer,
8--GIVE them some candy! 
9--costumes optional
10--problem solved

In conjunction with reverse trick-or-treating we usually have a bonfire and wiener roast.  Family, neighbors, and friends stop by after the beggin' and have a little dinner to go along with all that candy they have eaten. 

This year I'm planning a chili cook-off to be our dinner. 
You, your chili, your family. 
Outside by the bonfire. 

So, the gauntlet has been thrown:

Saturday, October 31, 2009

7 o'clock p.m.**

BRING-IT-ON:  your best and favorite chili.

Judged by anonymous ballot.

Prizes may be awarded for best in catagories: 
traditional, non-traditional & vegetarian.

I'll have tables/chairs, table service, sodas,
electric for the slow cookers & ballots for voting.
Oh, yeah, I'll also have the bonfire and weenies to roast.

You can bring along side dishes if you'd like:  something you always have with your chili.

**if you'd like you can drop off your chili before begging,

I'll keep watch over it and keep it warm 'til you get back
(promise, no sabotage).
Please let me know if you think you may attend. 
It's gonna be a fun all Hallow's eve !  And good eats!
Oh, yeah, reverse trick-or-treating optional.