Boo pumpkins

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest which led me to this blog
http://adiamondinthestuff.blogspot.ca/

A late night shopping spree at the dollar store had me staring at foam pumpkins and remembering that post unfortunately dollar store pumpkins aren't as cute

painted white waiting for the black letters and tops

I painted each pumpkin white. I wish I had spray paint on hand but I didn't. Some simple kids acrylic paint I white two coats later. I traced the letters on then painted on with a paint pen. And some more acrylic paint for the stem

These will get a final spray with sealant only because my plan is to put them I my planters out front. Im hoping a small dowel through each one down into the dirt will keep them in place

Fried Roasted Garlic Cheese Potato Balls

You know those mashed potatoes sitting in the fridge? SURE we all know they are just as good reheated but want to make them even BETTER? This recipe is how.  Would be a great appetizers as well make ahead- and then just fry them up the day of.

Kids loved them.  I had to hide the rest in the fridge behind things so I would have some for today for me!
Inspiration recipe here

2 cups mashed potatoes
3/4 cup Gruyere Cheese
Roasted Garlic-2-3 Cloves 
2-3 Eggs
Panko and regular bread crumbs (about 3/4 cup total)
Salt
Oil to fry with 

Get your garlic roasting in the oven (Hint since i didn't need the oven for anything else I just used the toaster oven). I put a dab of butter in with the head of garlic- wrapped in aluminum foil and in at 400F until soft (room starts smelling I took it out. about 30-40minutes. Reasons to love roasted garlic- peels ooh so easy- no need to mince it just smashes right up!

Meanwhile shred your cheese, get your potatoes to room temperature. In a bowl place the cheese, roasted garlic cloves and fold in the mashed potatoes.  In a seperate bowl whip 2-3 eggs (For drenching) and in another bowl/plate mix the panko and regular bread crumbs.

Take about a tablespoon of mashed potatoes and roll into a ball. Drench in eggs, roll in bread crumbs and repeat so they are double breaded. I will fully admit the last few I got lazy and only breaded 1x- trust me do the 2x it is OH so worth the small amount of extra work.

Once you have them all rolled and breaded get some oil heated up in a sauce pan. I used just enough to cover the bottom. You could fill up with a couple inches of oil- but personally that just seemed wasteful. Place the balls in and rotate around so all sides are golden brown- 2-3 minutes total on average. Remove with tongs or a slotted spoon and place on a dish with paper towel to absorb extra oil.
Sprinkle with salt.

Serve sit back and enjoy all the adoration you deserve for these delicious bite fulls! 

Corn Salad

This is a tasty easy side dish.  Original recipe I based this off had roasted corn, which would work great if you were BBQ'ing at the time.  We didn't roast.

4 Cobs of corn
2 tomatoes
Cilantro (fresh or dried)
Hot Sauce (We used Siracha sauce)
1 Lime
Salt and Pepper

Cook your cobs of corn until they are al dente.  Ifyou wanted to roast them this is where you would then brush with olive oil and some salt and then roast for just a couple minutes.

Remove the kernels off of the cob and mix in the chopped tomatoes.  Juice the lime, add a dash of hot sauce to your taste and finish with Cilantro, salt and pepper to taste.

Voila easy and delicious!

Fall Wreath

Me and my daughter made a great christmas wreath a few years ago. I  got it into my head we need a fall one. Eventually like our christmas decorations for the front porch I want to build up a nice one for fall/halloween.

Inspiration for this wreath comes from here.

I wish I had been able to find some other colors of oraments.  But it's a bit early in the season to find much options.  Being in Canada our thanksgiving comes a fair bit further away from Christmas season! I like it so much this one may end up moving on to the back door and a new one made for the front door :)

Tips

•  use the plastic ornament balls- they don't break! 
• if this requires your first hot glue gun purchase- splurge- omg that $5 cheapo one from michaels does not work well.  Trust me it's worth splurging- you'll use it eventually again 
• try the dollar store for flowers and leaves 
• try to find a fairly round wreath to start with- guess what harder then you'd think! 

This is a 18' grape vine wreath for the base. You could use a evergreen base or a straw base.  This worked out cheapest for me and green wouldn't work color wise for my goal of a gold tone.

I'll admit- i couldn't find ANY ornaments this early in the year (michaels or walmart) well not in my el cheapo budget requirements.  So these are stolen directly from my christmas tree stash. We'll get some new fun ones for the tree.

I glued the large flowers down first.  Then started layering the ornaments around.  I removed the tops- to make it easier to glue. and often glue them together where touching to help stabilize and keep the spaces between less. 

Fill it up- and around the edges inside and outside. I used more flowers- because that's what i could find (vs lots of ornaments like the inspiration blog post)

Now take your leaves, the small flowers what ever you picked out for filling in the gaps and fill it on in.

Almost finished.

There's still a few gaps to fill in with leaves (need to go by some more).  And it is rounder in person- it' sorta leaning on a funny angle here. Really im super happy with how it turned out.  Different from the original one- but mine!

Turkey Walnut Meatloaf & Asparagus

Turkey Meatloaf.  This comes from an inspiration recipe here. I followed it pretty close- but I came home to not able to find my sage. Eek! So we tweaked
The walnut taste was not very apparent- my plan is to up the walnut content next time and to use sage as planned not rosemary! Paired it up with saute asparagus and parmesan mashed potatoes (we tossed some asiago cheese in those this time to add a bit different taste) 

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 large carrot, grated- we used several smaller ones straight from our garden
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 2 slices whole wheat bread
• 1/4 cup fat-free milk
• 1 egg beaten- we used from our own chickens
• 1.5 pounds extra-lean ground turkey breast (99% fat-free)
• 1/2 tsp Parsley (Dried)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp Rosemary (dried) 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

 Preheat Oven to 350F
In a sauce pan heat oil and carrot, scallions and garlic until soft.
Chop until fine walnuts and bread (I toasted mine to make it easier) with a blender/processor.
In a bowl mix milk and the eggs. Add in turkey, an slowly gently mix in the  mixture from the sauce pan and the bread crumbs/nut mixture and any remaining ingredients..

Transfer to a loaf pan and cook until 155F in center or around 45-50 minutes.

While this was cooking and we got the potatoes boiling we got the asparagus started.

Did you know easy way to tip them is to just hold each end and bend.  They magically will snap where the woody area starts (If you think it through really this makes total sense).
Place a small amount of butter in sauce pan, I added some minced garlic (1 clove) as well.  Saute until the tenderness you prefer. Remove from heat- add parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste.

Delicious meal folks!