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:

Turkey ready for brine

Martha Stewart's Turkey Brine

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:

Zombie the first

Zombie the second

Zombie the third

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!

Zombies

White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland

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.