Halloween Fun

Halloween 2009

I'm sure through the years lots of evil has appropriately been attributed to Halloween and its festivities, but in Park Slope only good things happen. Already, there is so much community in the neighborhood of Park Slope, but on Halloween night this community is experienced maybe like no other night of the year. There is a huge Family Halloween Parade, maybe like several hundred thousand people watching and walking, that goes right through the heart of the Slope. We have walked in it every year for the past 5 years. You should see some of the costumes, amazing, creative, beautiful, elaborate homemade creations mixed in with the old stand bys... the witches, the Disney princesses, the creeps. One of my favorites this year was the father who was the peddler from the book "Caps for Sale" and his sons who were the monkeys. They did a fabulous job of recreating the characters from this great children's book. One of our friends was musician Bloody Holiday (you can see pictures of him on my facebook page). We saw a family of Star Wars characters, numerous pirates, a little boy dressed as an excavator, another boy as a streetlight, some dad in the hugest, weirdest, googly-eyed mask we had ever seen, and cats, farmers, scarecrows, mermaids, etc. Ali creatively chose to be a fly this year, her best friend being a Venus fly trap. Not only did Ali have to escape death by fly trap but she also had to avoid becoming bait for her fly fisherman father. Tori and I chose some of the oldies but goodies, witch and 50's girl. Tori's best friend trick-or-treated with us as a dead pajama girl. Anyway, by 3 p.m. Ali was out with friends trick or treating and by 5 Tori, her friend and Brad and I were out. The parade began at 6:30 and ended an hour or so later at the park right by our house. As we walked in the parade we saw friends from Church!, friends from school, friends from our block, friends from the neighborhood; cheers, greetings, and screams of fright were exchanged. Fun and creepy times!

Butternut Squash Apple Soup... delish! It was a little thick, so if using a bigger squash you might want to add more stock.

Butternut Squash Apple Soup Recipe
Ingredients
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 rib of celery, chopped
• I carrot, chopped
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, chopped
• 1 tart green apple, peeled, cored, chopped (squash and apple should be at a 3 to 1 ratio)
• 3 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth if vegetarian)*
• Pinches of nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper
*If cooking gluten-free, use gluten-free broth.
Method
Combine butter, onion, celery, and carrot in large saucepan. Cook for 5 minutes. Add squash, apple, and broth. Bring to boil. Simmer for 10 minutes or until squash is soft. Puree. Add spices to taste.
Serves 4-6.

Saturday, October 10th we made our 6th trip to Terhune Orchard in Princeton, New Jersey. We've been going the last 5 years with Church!. Gabe, one friend from Church! says this is his favorite activity of the year! It is tons of fun, plus you get delicious apples, apple cider donuts, chili, apple cider, etc. etc. There's a fun, although fairly lame, corn maze, old farm horses to ride, pumpkins, wagon rides, fuzzy baby chicks, and fabulous company. This year 34 from Church! went. We make a day of it, leaving at noon and getting back by 8. Now our family has about 30 lbs. of apples, yummy -- one family came back with 72 lbs. ... Wow! It's always fun to share this day with old friends and get to know a lot of new friends too.

Ali's 10th birthday

Ali turned 10 on September 25th. Due to busyness we are having her party tonight.... a sleepover with 3 friends. Pizza, ice cream cake, donuts... what more could you want? On Ali's birthday we went for a family dinner at the Hibachi Grill, delicious! She also had donuts with a candle in them for breakfast and 2 days later, on a day off from school ate breakfast casseroles for dinner -- she loves those and wanted them on her birthday, but we couldn't swing it because it was a school day. Hopefully bedtime falls before morning tonight :)

There's a man that stands on the corner of 9th Street and 5th Ave. who knows he can ask me for a cup of coffee every time he sees me. If I have money, I buy him one. Sometimes, if I'm in a hurry or if I have no money, or only have a $20 or something, I keep my eyes looking straight ahead, or across the street, or looking at something or someone else, rather than having to say "no" to him. The other day I saw him on the corner, and I had no money, I had groceries, several bags, but I had purchased them with a credit card. Whenever I have purchases but no money I always feel like he must think I'm lying when I tell him I can't buy him coffee today. As I tried to walk by unnoticed he began to speak to me, I fully expected him to ask me for money for coffee. Instead he asked me if I needed help. Boy, did I feel sheepish, trying to avoid him, and he wasn't even asking for anything, he was offering something. I guess it just goes to show me what consecutive kindness can do.... maybe now I will offer my kindness in a more willing way, and hopefully soon I will learn his name, I've been wanting to for awhile, just always feel awkward for some reason. Lesson learned, at least I hope.

Urban Gardening????

Well, for the 4 summers prior to this one I have had a little bit of ground to plant in. Four years ago it was tomatoes, and lettuce. Three years ago, tomatoes, two years ago, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, green peppers, lettuce, spinach, peas, last year tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce, spinach. This year, no ground to plant in. So, I thought I'd try container gardening on my balcony. There must be some trick I just don't know. Maybe it was the organic soil I used, maybe it needed some organic fertilizer in it, or some yummy chemicals. Or maybe it was the cold, wet summer. Or maybe I overcrowded my containers, I think this may be very true. I planted spinach, it died, I planted lettuce, it died, I planted green peppers, they grew to be about 8 inches tall,obviously no peppers. I planted basil, got enough for one recipe, I planted tomatoes, I got 1. Now, let me tell you about this dear little tomato, for it was the only thing that grew this year. It grew very late, so at the beginning of September it was still green on the vine and I was nursing it along. One day I realized I had overwatered my plant. In an attempt to empty some of the water I knocked my precious solo green tomato off the vine. What sadness. So then I placed it on the window sill, it would still be home grown, just not vine ripened. And it turned, it turned a beautiful orange and then a delicious looking red. One day Brad said, "looks like it is ready". I failed to retrieve it from the window sill on my balcony. That night a major rain and wind storm. I awoke to my precious tomato on the floor of our balcony. Poor little guy. That day we ate him, he was quite delicious, although a little smushy on one side. I think I need to research container gardening before next spring.