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October Round-Up

I haven’t mentioned enough how much I love fall. October is a standout month due to Thanksgiving and Halloween.

This Thanksgiving I hosted at my mom’s house for my family and my in-laws. Cooking at someone else’s house is always a challenge. I don’t know where everything is kept and their tools aren’t the same as mine. One thing that made up for all of this was my mom’s AWESOME CONVECTION OVEN. Holy crap! I’ve never cooked in a convection oven before and I don’t ever want to go back. The 17.5lb turkey took 2.5hrs to cook fully, instead of the 4.5-5 hours it would normally take. Combine the ultra-quick cooking time with my brine made for the absolute juciest turkey I have ever had.

Like always, I forgot to take pics after the first hour of prep so I don’t have finished shots. Here are some pics of the prep:

I used this recipe from Martha Stewart for the brine. It’s pretty amazing, except I think the amount of water she has in there is wrong. Water can only dissolve so much salt. Nevertheless, it was easy to add a few extra cups and everything turned out fine. I used my iPad extensively. Last time I made turkey dinner I used my laptop. The good thing about the laptop was the conversion widget. However, getting gross food stuffs in the keyboard was not good. That is where the iPad excelled.

Everyone loved the dinner and I was happy with that. Though I’m definitely going to need a break from making such a huge meal.

The other highlight of course is Halloween! Admittedly, this year I wasn’t feeling it as much as previous years. I still took part. I attended a Zombie make-up work shop at Complections school of make-up artistry. It was a demonstration but I paid the extra $45 to get the make-up kit. It was totally worth it. I did the make-up for my sister-in-law, her room mate and boyfriend for the Toronto Zombie Walk! Here are pics of them:

I also did the make up a week later for my friend and Hubby. I myself went in the exact opposite direction and dressed up as the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Had a good time and lots of candy!

 

All in All, I had a great October.  It’s just a few days into November and it’s shaping up to be a great one, too.

 

 

 

Tags: cooking, cooky wooky club, dinner, fall, halloween, make-up, october, thanksgiving, zombies

Friday Five List-o-Matic: 5 BEST things about Fall(Late Edition)

I flaked on giving you a list this weekend, so I’m making it up to you! Since today IS the first official day of fall, my favourite season, I decided to tell you why!

1) The Smell. Yup, it’s pretty obvious but that crispness in the air that almost hurts my lungs when I inhale – it reminds me of going back to school, possibilities, change, the future and all that can go well. Even though when I was in school I’d start slacking by the 3rd week – those first three weeks were full of so much promise!

2) Sweaters. Sweater weather is the most ideal weather, but it’s not just ANY sweater – it’s hoodies – actually being able to wear the hood I suppose. I wish I had one of those ponchos with pom poms like I had when I was little. You know the kind:

3) Pumpkin Pie/Impending Gingerbread cookies. Not JUST pumpkin pie, but also turkey on thanksgiving and all those wonderful foods. My mom never made Turkey for thanksgiving, and I’d only RARELY get it for xmas. We did have family friends who indulged in this white custom and I loved it. Turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes… delicious – but perhaps the crown jewel of this meal is Pumpkin Pie. I eat so much of this stuff!  The best part is when the pumpkin pie starts to get scarce, I can be calmed by the fact that gingerbread is just around the corner!

4) Crunchy, colourful leaves.  Who doesn’t love this? Nazi’s. That’s who.

5) Halloween. Maybe I’m a secret goth kid… or just a kid… but dressing up in costumes is the best freakin’ idea in the world. No, I’m wrong, it’s the second best. The best idea in the world is BEING REWARDED WITH CANDY for dressing up in costumes. Seriously folks… does it get any better? No. Even if you don’t go trick-or-treating there are lots of benefits:
- Kids look less ugly and even cute
- Discounted halloween candy
- Being able to dress up! For some people this includes being able to dress up as a trollop… but I’m not on that list.

Anywho, that concludes my list. I know it wasn’t ground-breaking and well… it’s actually quite obvious because everyone loves fall and probably for the same reasons. Whatever.  I decided to not be a hater like I had been in my previous post.

In other news my friend Triton had a b-day party this weekend and I put together these:

I didn’t put the smarites on it, they migrated from the other cake beside it. This was my 2nd time working with fondant, and the first trying to put it on a cake… ok, well cupcakes. that was easy. The real cake – didn’t turn out so well. Maybe next year.

Tags: autumn, baking, cupcakes, fall, fondant, list