Carrot Cake

Yummy, yummy carrot cake

with cream cheese frosting

four layers high

on a new pedestal

to celebrate a birthday!


Happy Birthday to the Lord of the Manor!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Bishop Stone asked about how Thanksgiving is celebrated here in America so I'll try to explain it a little bit. Thanksgiving means many different things to the 300 million people in America, but here is a brief history:

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in the Fall of 1621 at Plymouth Plantation. The year before had been devastating because the Pilgrims had a poor harvest and many of them died over the winter. But the friendly Indians had shown them better planting techniques which resulted in a good harvest. To show their gratitude they hosted a three day feast, invited the Indians (who brought venison) and gave thanks for their bounty. They had lots of meats and some vegetables, but no breads or pastries because they had no flour and no ovens. Below you see a picture of what the first Thanksgiving might have looked like.

Thanksgiving was celebrated sporadically over the next two hundred years, but was not an official holiday. In 1863 Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the first official Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November and it has been celebrated in America ever since.

Below is the average American Thanksgiving dinner in the 1950s. My earliest memories resemble this photo quite closely. They were held at my Granny's house. There was always turkey with bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, some kind of jello salad, and pumpkin pie for dessert. It was all homemade from scratch by my stay-at-home Mom and Grandmother.

Now days families still get together to reconnect, relax, and feast on turkey, but the menu and preparations are much more flexible. Some families go out to eat, some order it all precooked from a local grocer or restaurant, some purchase premade things at Cosco while some still make it all from scratch. Some families don't feast at all, but volunteer at a local charity to serve food to the less fortunate. However we celebrate Thanksgiving, the important part is to give thanks for our blessings, and celebrate the bounty of the season.

There are also other traditional activities on Thanksgiving like watching football on TV, taking a nap after dinner, and planning your Black Friday Christmas shopping spree, but I don't do any of those things so I'll let others tell those tales.

(lifted from the Internet, not my family)

So how will your family celebrate Thanksgiving this year? I'm sure we'd all love to hear, so please share it on the comments. And Thanks for visiting Amongst The Oaks.

I Spy

When my girls were little we spent a fair amount of time looking at the I Spy books by Walter Wick. We loved those things and still have a few of them. Yesterday when I was trying to get all those windows washed I was reminded of the I Spy books. You might ask why...

It's because when I tried to wash the windows in Teen2's bedroom, I was confronted by this mess on her desk. So let's play the I Spy game, shall we?

I spy a penny, a light bulb, a bit of hot glue,

some sandpaper, a chain, and two felt pens of blue,

some green handled shears, a little green heart,

a purple controller, headphones, and a car called "Smart".

And that is just a tiny portion of the stuff in the way of washing Teen2's windows. Every surface and the extra bed in her room looks just like another I Spy game. There are miscellaneous electronic parts, a soldering iron, a hot glue gun, scissors, screwdrivers, pliers, colored pencils, books, games, an I Pod, papers, stuffed animals, toys, you name it, it's probably there. I guess that's what happens when you teach a kid to be creative.

Window Pains

When we started remodeling this house way back in the summer of 1997, we knew we wanted traditional building materials to reflect the style of a true English Cottage. So those first four rooms got new double paned, all wood, true divided light casement windows and we loved them. Compared to the old circa 1950 windows that were in the house they were a dream; they cranked in and out effortlessly, they were warm and quiet and they looked beautiful.

In 2001 when we did the "Big Remodel" we simply ordered more of the same type of windows from the same manufacturer and again, we loved their beauty and energy efficiency. And when we did the kitchen remodel we again ordered two more of the same windows to put beside the range.

So now we have seventeen fenestrations plus this interior door filled with these beauties. They have a lot of panes. Lots and lots of panes. Two hundred and thirteen to be exact. Which I am now in the process of washing. Inside and out, so that means four hundred and twenty six panes.

So far I have done about half and I intend to get them finished this afternoon. I like to have clean windows for the holidays, don't you? And with the sun lower in the sky this time of year, I like the way they sparkle. Wishing you sparkly windows too from here Amongst The Oaks.

White Pumpkins

I'm so predictable. I got two little whitish pumpkins and arranged them on some fall leaves on each pedestal. I know, I know, I really need to push myself to try something different now and then, but I'm planning Thanksgiving dinner now so my mind is elsewhere.

We are having the families over as usual, but I think only 17 will be here, so {miracle of miracles!} we get to all sit down and eat together at the same table. It's so much more relaxing that way; I'm actually looking forward to it.

I wish I had time to post more often and put more into these blogs, but juggling a full time job, two teenagers, the house, the bills, the laundry, shopping and cooking leave very little time for blogging. Please just know that I read every comment and enjoy them immensely, and I appreciate all your help and suggestions. And thanks for taking time out of your busy day to visit us here Amongst The Oaks.

Red Cliff Tureen

I'm almost finished with the buffet, but I need a little advice. Here's the basic arrangement, but do you think I should put small white pumpkins on the Martha Stewart cake pedestals? (I got those yesterday at Macy's. They were on sale for only $16.00 each! Regularly $28.00 each, which I wouldn't have spent.) Or maybe something else? Please leave a comment with your suggestion.

So here is the soup tureen from my MIL that started this arrangement. I Googled Red Cliff soup tureen and found {gulp!} that this baby is valuable. Replacementsdotcom had one just like it for $479.95! Nearly fell off my chair.

Anyway, it is beautiful, and I've always displayed it, but I'm glad I put it in a more prominent position where everyone can admire it.

Nice contrast against that dark wallpaper. Don't tell Julia (aka LOM, aka the Lord of the Manor) but I'm thinking of getting rid of that wallpaper and painting the dining room gray. A sort of dark gray, then overglazed with a lighter gray which I would comb to create a grainy texture. What do you think?

These pitchers are from Home Goods and are definitely not Red Cliff, but they support the grouping nicely and since I already have lots of pitchers they add to my collection.

So here it is, almost done except for some accent on those pedestals. Any ideas?

White Project

After the old, crumbly, creepy, decaying mess of Halloween, I'm feeling like I need something fresh, and clean, and bright, and white! So I'm sprucing up my dining room with white. I was inspired by the white ironstone soup tureen my MIL gave me many years ago. It sits on top of the china cupboard all the time, but I put it front and center on the buffet the day after Halloween.

Then I shopped the house and found this mirror from Home Depot which I painted white.

And these two lamps got painted white too.

Then I mixed some glaze with just a little gray....

and painted it over the two coats of white. Then I rubbed almost all of it off leaving a slightly grayish look in the details.

Now, won't these look nice next to the ironstone? I should be able to put everything together Saturday and show you the results. See you Saturday here Amongst The bright, clean, white Oaks.

Halloween Party 2009

I thought my blog would be back to normal today, but of course I must tell you all about the party, so I'm thinking tomorrow things will be back to normal. I promise.

The Fire Roasted Flesh Worms were wonderful! See their toothy little mouths? The chutney complimented the roast pork perfectly, and although we cooked four of them, I think we should have made more.

The Scream Cheese with Bloody Jelly was just a classic treat with a creepy presentation.

The Swamp Water tasted surprisingly good! It was lemonade concentrate, limeade concentrate, 7-Up, and rainbow sherbet. Really simple, but kind of brackish looking.

Horse Woman made these Devil Eyes. The green stuff looked a little like Wasabi, which would have been fiery, but it was regular egg yolk stuff tinted with food coloring.

This was just guacamole and blue corn chips, but we called it Guacamoldy and Petrified Bat Wings.

One of Teen2's friends made this graveyard cake.

And I made these with the leftover bread dough from the Mummified Mice. Hmmm, I can't seem to find a photo of the Mummified Mice, but they were precooked sausage links wrapped in this bread dough and cooked for 20 minutes. The kids seemed to like them, but I didn't get one so I can't tell you if they tasted good.

Here are some of the adults: Dead bride, Batman, Plan Bee, Lost Hiker, Julia Child, Bat Woman, and me, a Witch.

Here are some of the kids: Flapper, Pippi Longstockings, Pirate, Tourist, Doctor, ?, Chef, Cop, ?, Link, The Center of the Universe, Witch, Alice In Wonderland, Geisha Girl, Taco.

And I must tell you all that a famous chef came to help in the kitchen. Isn't it amazing? Julia Child came out of "retirement" to help us prepare our hors d'oeuvres. And look, she has her trademark glass of wine. And she said, "Bon Appetit" a lot too. And there was lots of food on the floor this morning.

So, we had a great party, and I hope you had a nice Halloween too. Now, it's back to our regularly scheduled programing. Thank you for your patience.

Gross Halloween Food

I'm pretty sure my obsession with Halloween has driven off most of my regular audience, so I'm going to go all the way here and show you the gross Halloween snack I made last night. If you're squeamish, better change channels right now and come back after November 1st when everything will be back to normal.


I warned you....

First you make Rice Krispie treat stuff and shape it into rough cylinders in your hands. Like giant slugs. Oh, butter your hands first so they don't stick and lay them on wax paper to cool.

Then while those are cooling, cut the bottom yellow part off of candy corn. Make sure to get rid of all the orange color, then cut those in half again.

Then melt a bunch of chocolate chips slowly in the microwave and...

coat the Rice Krispie treats with the chocolate. While the chocolate is still soft, push a few pieces of candy corn into it.

Corn Poopies! Aren't they cute?

And speaking of disgusting stuff, I made the "guts" for my Fire Roasted Flesh Worms this morning. I used Julia Child's cranberry chutney recipe and it looks perfect. The original recipe called for chili (!?) for the guts, but this is a Gourmand Halloween party, and a sweet chutney will go nicely with the roasted pork. Much better than chili, don't you think?

Dining Room Decor

Our Halloween Party is next Saturday so I've got the dining room all decorated. The potions ended up on the buffet along with one of those pots of fire and a dead rose bouquet. And lots of spiderwebs courtesy of Teen1. I supported the pot of fire on three branches wired together to form a tripod. And I hung the old tapestry from last year.

And nearly all my potions are arranged here on the buffet. I made a few more over the weekend....

like this Polyjuice Potion.....

and this Pepperup Potion...

and these toad spleens....

and this jar of poisonous mushrooms.

To prepare the dining room table I first put some boxes and books on the table to provide different levels for the various dishes, then put several tablecloths crookedly over that, then layered on some more old books, tarnished silver platters, old candlesticks with blood dripped candles, and a skull, some cockroaches and some mice. And of course, more spiderwebs.

I also printed out these little tombstones where I will write what each dish is; like Fire Roasted Flesh Worm, Kitty Litter Cake, Scream Cheese with Blood Jelly, etc.

I guess that's it from Amongst The Oaks where we are just hanging around waiting for Halloween.

Potion Bottles

Every haunted house needs some Potion Bottles, right? So I've been working on Potion Bottles and strange ingredients that a witch might use. First I scoured the house for odd jars, bottles, and glass containers. Then I started gathering creepy ingredients. For some of them I just used weird seed pods or fruit from the garden. Like those things called Deadly Nightshade; they are merely fruit from my Pittosporum shrub. And below are some tiny figs from a tree out in the field.

For Wool of Bat I used some fake fur that Teen2 had lying around. I just snipped it into little chunks and suddenly I had bat fur.

This is an idea I found on the Internet. You take a little plastic skeleton, wrap some spider web stuff around it, bent it into an awful position, immerse it in colored water and make a disturbing label. Mine says: Shrinking Potion Trials, June 1867, Test Subject No. 013, Healthy Male 22 years, Survived 2 days, 14 hours. The idea came from this wonderfully creative person who just happens to have some other great ideas I'm going to use too.

Here are more strange things from the garden. I think these are quince, but I'm calling them Datura stramonium. I know, I know, actual Thorn Apples are spiky little seed pods, but I'm hoping no one else will know that.

Oh, and this one was fun. It's a little yogurt, some lemon curd and some chunks of strawberry jam with green food coloring. The red jam chunks make a nice surprise when you pick it up and inspect it.

And some of my potion bottles are nothing more than things from the frige re-labeled. These are capers, but suddenly they look a little like Eye of Newt, don't they? And below are dried cranberries, re-labeled as Zombie Scabs.

For the labels you can snag images off the Internet and rearrange them in Photoshop like I did, or you can use felt pens and write your own. But whatever you do, make sure you antique them like I showed you here. Have fun with this, but be careful! You're messing with magic you know!

Old Family Photo

I found another old family photo in a long forgotten box the other day. I wonder how I'm related to these folks. Why are they posing near what appears to be a tombstone? And what is with that young woman's dress? It looks like it's all tattered. And why does the old man look so grouchy? Strange, strange ancestors....