Trick-or-Treat, Happy Halloween!

Despite the rain tonight, I got out the walkway pumpkin lanterns, spooky sound effects and fog machine to greet trick-or-treaters.

We got 83 trick-or-treaters, which considering the rain, wasn't bad.

When my parents were visiting last week, my mom brought me this ghost that we used to hang up when I was a kid. It is sound activated and either cracks you up or scares the wits out of you. The pugs set it off all the time which makes them bark and set it off even more.

I hung it out on the porch for Halloween and every time kids would call out TRICK-OR-TREAT, it would go off and scare the pants off the parents standing at the bottom of the steps. Good times.

Ready to scare the socks off some trick or treaters then compensate them with candy.

A video posted by Jenny Cisney (@ljc) on Oct 10, 2014 at 2:59pm PDT

Halloween at the office

We enjoy a good holiday celebration (aka food) in my office so instead of just one day, we had two days of Halloween treats. This was part of the spread on Day One.

And this was a fresh spread for Day Two. Seriously we love to eat at work and sometimes I wonder what would happen if we had a situation like this... "Cake Left Out In Break Room With No Instructions" Hah hah - that article cracks me up.

"At press time, the sight of the company’s IT technician walking down the hallway with a slice of cake had reportedly triggered a mass scramble toward the kitchen."

Anyhoo - on Day One I brought in my old standby party food - artichoke dip (recipe). I added a twist though... Skelly here was crawling out of the dip.

On Day Two I didn't have time to make something because there was also a jack-o-lantern carving contest at work. I combined my snack food with my entry into this presentation - guacamole puking pumpkin!

There were some great pumpkins around the office!

Three monsters

The lil' monsters are ready for Halloween!

Whups... Stewie monster ate the other two.

Ode to the Snack Jack

I know I have sung the praises of Snack Jack Pumpkins on this blog before. They are cute little pumpkins, but it's the seeds that make them really special.

We are lucky to have a local farm market, Wickham Farms, that grows and sells them. I look forward to them every year.

Snack Jack's are unique because the seeds are hull-less. Well, they aren't really hull-less, but the hull is so thin it seems that way.

Snack Jacks have only been around since the 1980's when they were developed at the New Hampshire Experiment Station. These seeds are so delicious when roasted, I consider that an experient that went very, very well.

Alex and Ani - Charmed by Charity event benfiting VSAS

This evening Alex and Ani of Rochester hosted a fundraiser for Verona Street Animal Society. What a great chance to shop AND help homeless animals. I love my Alex and Ani bracelets Aaron got me for Valentine's Day and was excited to get this Feather bracelet and May Birthstone bracelet to add to my arm candy.

It was nice to hang out with my peeps for awhile too! Big thanks to Alex and Ani of Rochester for helping out VSAS!

Wally in costume

Wally is visiting us with my parents. Sorry Wally. When you are at my house you might have to wear a costume.

2014 Halloween Dinner Party

Aaron and I threw our somewhat-annual Halloween dinner party this evening. I say "somewhat" because we missed it last year.

Instead of the usual mingle-roni style party, this is a sit-down dinner party. I really like setting up a long table with place settings and creating a mood with only lit candles for light.

We don't have a huge crowd... just enough so we can all visit and catch up with one another over a meal.

I made these little ghost napkin rings/favors out of mini-gourds for the place settings.

I also made a spooky tablescape to help set the mood.

Pretty gross right?

My mom helped me make kimbap for appetizers and store-bought pot stickers went with them nicely.

Aaron grilled up the bulgogi that had been marinating for 24 hours.

Look at this dessert table! All our guests brought a fabulous dessert.

I was thrilled they all came in costume.

Aaron and I went as Day of the Dead characters. I couldn't bear the idea of wearing all that face paint at the last minute and got us masks instead. It was a great spooktacular evening.

Bastille Concert in Rochester

Months ago Aaron got us tickets to see Bastille because "go see concerts" was on our summer bucket list. We didn't realize how far off the concert was. It sort of snuck up on us but in a good way.

I had the standard view of the back of people's heads and hands waving in the air.

Bastille was great though and well worth seeing live. Lots of engergy.

At one point Dan left the stage and ran around the entire bleachers while singing. Security looked alarmed but the crowd loved it.

Closing Bastille concert with Pompeii.

A video posted by Jenny Cisney (@ljc) on Oct 10, 2014 at 7:57pm PDT

Glow in the Dark nails

Aaron surprised me with a bottle of glow-in-the-dark nail polish! Perfect for Halloween! When I saw that it goes on clear I was skeptical that it would work, but it does! I put on two coats and sure enough the tips of my fingers lit up in the dark.

Red Pack Tomatoes 2-a-Day Crock-Pot Giveaway

Just in time for fall, I got a slow cooker recipe kit from RedPack Tomatoes! I certainly did not grow enough tomatoes in my garden for cooking into the winter so these ready to go cans of tomatoes are dinner time lifesavers.

There is just something about fall that makes me want to get out my crock-pot for making meals. It's warm and comforting to come home to a stew bubbling in the crock-pot and the entire house smelling delicious.

RedPack is giving away TWO Crock-Pots every day for 22 days! You can enter every day for a chance to win.

Enter here --> http://bit.ly/tomcpot

There are several slow-cooker recipes on the RedPack website that I want to try. They have even more on their Pinterest page.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork - pulled pork is a crock pot classic. So well suited to slow cooking.

Sausage & Sweet Potato Chili - I thought the sweet potato sounded like a fun twist for this chili!

Golden Tomato Soup - Fall means soup right? This one looks hearty!

Mozzarella Meatballs - I almost passed out when I saw this recipe. Cheese inside meatballs? Genius!

I can't wait to fire up my crock-pot and try these dishes out. Enter for a chance to win a crock-pot from RedPack and you will be well on your way to slow cooked comfort food too!

May Designs calendar planner: Sunday through Saturday

I spent years searching for the perfect planner... not too big, not too small... plenty of space for notes on the calendar, a space for making lists... I even restorted to trying to make my own.

I was so thrilled when I found the planners from May Designs. They were exactly what I was looking for. Except for one thing.

The calendar pages were Monday through Sunday. It totally threw me off. I kept marking Sunday appointments on Monday.

You would think I would be more used to it considering we use a Monday through Sunday calendar at the office... but no.

I started thinking about my 2015 calendar about a month ago. On a whim I tweeted May Designs mentioning how I wished there were a Sunday through Saturday verson of the planner. Moments later they tweeted me back telling me it was my lucky day! The new Sunday through Saturday planners came out just a couple weeks later.

After that the toughest thing was deciding on what pattern I wanted to choose.

Party Food

I totally dropped the ball taking pictures of the refreshments at our Pumpkin Carving Party. This WAS a vat full of apple cider. The sticks of cinnamon made it extra tasty.

This USED to be a crock pot full of barbeque kielbasa.

I did get a pic of some leftover hot corn dip.

and couple caprese salad bites.

I made two pies for the party.

And there was just a smidge of one pie left.

Everyone left the party with a treat bag full of votive candles for their jack-o-lantern.

So there wasn't much food left but that's the sign of a good party.

Pumpkin Picking Party

Today we had our Pumpkin Carving Party. We started off by getting our pumpkins at Wickham Farm. Tina was engrossed with finding Snack Jack pumpkins.

Everyone seemed determined to get the pumpkins that were at the bottom of the bins.

Aaron was looing for the biggest pumpkin he could find. By digging through every bin.

Some just found a pumpkin on the ground and demanded it get in their pumpkin wagon.

Success.

I found a pretty hefty pumpkin too.

Then back to the house to carve.

A lot of pumpkins were gutted today.

Look at these! The twins pumpkins couldn't be better or more different from one another.

Aaron's pumpkin is always great.