I Love Halloween

This is basically me every year:

Time to start preparing for Halloween 2016.  No joke.  I take this very seriously.  I don't think my fervor really took off until I was in high school.  That was when my family moved into a house that had a generous downstairs family room and I was allowed to decorate nearly as much as I wanted for Halloween parties - which meant black plastic on all of the walls and windows and creepy light bulbs in all of the light fixtures.  My mom was a little annoyed every time she had to walk through to the laundry room.

As an adult I have lived primarily in walk-up apartments that didn't attract Trick-or-Treaters.  Until two years ago!  When we moved into our townhouse all of the pent up excitement resulted in some pretty fun decorating and scaring the pants of the kids in my neighborhood.  This year will be no exception.

The only difference is that I will be out of town from early to mid October.  When I get back I will have only two weeks to get ready for Halloween!  That means I need to start ordering and collecting any new decorations I've got my sights on.  I still haven't picked a theme for the outdoor decorations but as I've gotten a little older my interests have moved toward vintage Halloween for indoor use.

If you're a serious collector you could easily spend a lot of dough.  For example, this plastic candy dish sold on eBay for $1,000.

I'm more of a reproduction market kind of girl.  There are some great options out there for people without the budget or time allowance to hunt down hot-ticket Halloween antiques.  There are patterns and clip art out there for free or purchase online.  One of my favorite finds are reproduction prints of vintage Halloween decorations that you can buy brand-new from the The Beistle Company, who've been making decorations since the 1920's.  Recognizing that there is high demand for their vintage cardstock cutouts, they've begun printing reproductions of old faves and selling them at pretty reasonable prices.  Here's a link to their website but you can find other small business and niche merchants all over the internet.

Winter Fun

We had a record-setting blizzard at the end of January and our neighborhood saw 29" of snow.  It was several days before the plows made any real impact because the area lacks the funding, contingency, and infrastructure to deal with significant accumulation.  But we didn't mind.  We had a couple of days off work and plenty of beer in the fridge.  We were kept busy by taking turns with shoveling since we owned only one (!) shovel.  Poor planning on my part.  Of course, after a snowfall last winter I vowed to buy some extras but by the time this storm was imminent the stores were sold out.  Still, one shovel is better than none.  I heard from a coworker that their neighbor was trying to scoop out their car with one of those dustpans at the end of a long stick.  Umm.....

But as of today we own THREE shovels.  One scoop, one basic, and one garden spade that can be used for ice breaking.

What I'm most excited about these days is my newly acquired skill: canning!

It started with blueberry pepper jelly.  I've been obsessed with it ever since I bought a jar in Maine back in 2011 but I can't seem to find it anywhere in Maryland.  Hans grew some Tabasco and Serrano peppers last summer.  I missed out on the local berry picking season but I really wanted a project that would use up the last of Hans' peppers and also give me some practice with canning.  I found a basic recipe online and acquired store-bought berries.  I was glad that I bought the low-sugar pectin because if I hadn't I wouldn't have had enough sugar for the jelly!  Other than the fact that I should have packed the final product into smaller jars, it turned out well: sweet, tangy, and with a hint of spicy.  We shared a jar with the Weilands during the holidays and it was a popular garnish for pork chops.  Yum.

Last Sunday a friend shared some Meyer lemons from a small crate that was shipped to her from California.  I'm trying to minimize the amount of sugary stuff we have around the house, otherwise they would have gone immediately into a pie.  However, I found a recipe for lemon marmalade, and it turned out just lovely.  I had some on toast with a cup of Earl Grey.  The cooking process didn't remove the heavenly flowery smell of the fruit at all and the peels are slightly caramelized.  Like the website with the recipe says: it's like having a jar full of sunshine!  It should brighten up the last remaining winter months around here.