halloween night!

mr. kitty jack o'lantern looked dashing sitting on the piano.

korrina sent a picture of her pumpkin . . another cute kitty . . with fangs and whiskers . . !

 finally . . dessert.

oh! after we ate, we played a round of set with greg . . and morgana won.

at 8:30 we walked over to janet's . . with our pie and cider. (on our way home later on, we found out that our neighbor on the third floor carved this pumpkin . . it was fun to find out as i had been wondering who had made it).

 many neighbors had pumpkins sitting on their doorsteps this evening . . 

it was nice to see. this guy is funny.

 our movie star neighbor's decorations. she always has a cute or artsy pumpkin out.

and our friends' had two pumpkins out . . and lots of candy for passing trick or treaters . . 

 counting the loot . . gael gave me two snickers bars and one peanut m and m's package.

 he and gabriel went around with janet as cowboys. 

 they said the neighborhood people were especially generous and nice this year . . everyone was making up for last year.

 the others were oblivious . . and lost in their game.

 apples to apples . . i've never played this!

 the pumpkin pie . . 

 

(formaggio!) happy halloween!

pumpkin carving

 we had a quiet day. morgana and chanda actually didn't work on costumes this year. they decided not to go trick or treating. we thought we would have a chicken soup dinner with greg at home along with pie and hot cider, and then go over to our friend's house in the evening for more pie and hot cider.

 do you think she likes cats?

 for lunch we had . . brains . . ! cauliflower with brown butter. this was actually supposed to go with the chicken for sunday dinner. however, the oven is broken and i couldn't bake the chicken as i had wanted, so i made soup today and we had the cauliflower for lunch.

 for dessert we had leftover pumpkin pie custard. i baked the pies in my neighbor's oven.

she used an exacto knife this year. she wanted to be very precise around the eyes. she ended up cutting the eyeball out completely and had to glue it back on. I found this very amusing.

 

meow!

a halloween puppet show

the story is courtesy of juniper tree puppets (they have a very nice monthly email newsletter).

baking and cleaning

 when i have a lot of pie crusts to make, i take out the food processor. i follow a mollie katzen recipe from her still life with menu cookbook for pie dough: 1 1/4 cups flour, half a stick of butter, 4 to 6 tablespoons ice cold water.

 the food processor whips the butter and water and flour into balls of dough very quickly.

 while i worked on the pie dough, morgana did her vacuuming chore.

 then she rolled out the dough and helped peel the apples.

 i follow my mom's recipe . . which she got from her mom.

 (it's the sturbridge redware pie dish m and c gave me for my birthday the summer before last).

 peel and core about ten to twelve green apples . . 

lay them in the pie dish . . 

 sprinkle with cinnamon and cover. i added a few drops of water as the original recipe calls for a squirt of lemon. however, morgana is allergic to lemon these days . . so . . no lemon.

 apple pie is really our favorite dessert. we could eat it every morning and evening.

 morgana fixed up the nature table on the piano . . 

 

and added some touches to the angel display.

what we're currently reading

chanda has been making me happy these mornings by waking and reading augustus caesar's world  by genevieve foster. she's also reading a book by cornelia funke . . but she knows i would like her to finish this first as it's part of our roman history block.

 morgana is almost at the end of the bronze bow, about a young man growing up in judaea during the time of jesus. she's been enjoying it just as much as i did. elizabeth george speare wrote two other books we really like: calico captive, and the witch of blackbird pond, one of my sister's favorite books also. in fact, it takes place near her home in connecticut and chanda saw the cottage in which the young heroine was supposed to have lived when she was visiting this past summer.

 

 we've been reading shakespeare's julius caesar aloud.

 we've been reading from the first folio which can be a bit challenging . . 

 all the "s's" look like "f's" and "u's" look like "v's." but it's been a lot of fun. i find it much more enjoyable than reading it to myself.

pumpkin expedition

 morgana, chanda and i walked the high line to chelsea market this afternoon.

 it was a beautiful day.

 we were on an expedition to get a pumpkin.

 on the way there i overheard a family discussing the bird they were observing in a tree along the path. they were sure it was an ovenbird . . taking a break in it's winter migration. i tried to get a picture of it (it did look just like the photo in the link . . impossible to tell with my own photo!) . . and i recorded the sighting on my phone.

 on the way home, i stopped to once again search for the ovenbird. instead i discovered these two sparrows cleaning themselves in the fountain water. 

 chanda says these are michaelmas flowers.

 paddington bear on the high line!

 morgana made dinner this evening.

she was making soup . . i asked her, why in the frying pan?

ahh! soup!

she made farro soup with sausage and carrots and celery. and then i made a fennel and spinach salad with toasted walnuts and pomegranates (chanda picked out the pomegranates to put on the salad).

two of the little pumpkins from chelsea market . .