Kristin's Jack-o-Lantern - nice carving!
Trick-or-Treating at Aunt Kristin's
Gillian and Hayden
We spent last week between Kevin’s parents house and my parents in Garnet Valley, PA while we waited for our new heating system to be installed. After a very cold 24 hours without heat or hot water we were thrilled to finally have our heat up and running on Saturday afternoon. It was an impromptu vacation of sorts and the girls enjoyed a little extra time with their grandparents. Kevin’s sister Kristin hosted us for dinner on Halloween and the girls got a kick out of helping her give out candy to an endless stream of trick-or-treaters. Despite Aunt Kristin’s full schedule, she still found time to carve a terrific pumpkin and cook up a delicious pot of chili. Thank you to everyone who shared their warm homes with us!
Picking Brussels Sprouts this afternoon
After a welcome week off from cooking thanks to our mothers turned bed & breakfast innkeepers, I’m eager to be back in my kitchen. Kevin and I harvested our paltry Brussels Sprout crop this afternoon in an attempt to glean enough tiny sprouts for this favorite Apple Bacon Brussels Sprouts recipe. (Goes great with pork tenderloin cooked in the slow cooker with a cranberry sauce.) Overall, the Brussels Sprouts were disappointing this year but we’re making notes to improve our crop next time around. With a few things left in the garden, I find myself planning this week’s meals around the remaining gems – small heads of cauliflower, chard, kale and the like. Not a lot, but just enough to sustain us with fresh produce a little while longer! At this point, we’re not going to see any additional growth given the cold night time temperatures and what’s standing won’t survive too many frosts.
Tractor trailers full of soy beans have been rumbling up the lane all day, much to the delight of the girls, to unload this year’s soybean crop into the 3 waiting grain bins. Here they will stay for a couple of months or so until the day they are loaded up and sold. Other than that, a nice quiet weekend around here. We celebrated our favorite nephew’s birthday last night. I remember getting the phone call five years ago while in Montreal with my friend Sowmya and being so excited about becoming an Aunt for the first time. Max is the coolest five-year old we know!
Feeling good about being FIVE!
