Thanksgiving in the new kitchen

This was our first Thanksgiving in our new house, in our new city, with our new Newton. We cooked the entire meal ourselves(minus the cranberries) and it turned out just lovely. Our menu was a combination of old favorites and some new recipes. We were in the kitchen for the majority of the day, preparing both lunch and dinner feasts. For lunch, we made the same Butternut Squash Soup that we have been making for the past two years. It was just as good as I remembered it, and we were very thankful that our stock pot made it back from Virginia in time. In fact, all of our final kitchen items were shipped and we have a complete kitchen again. We also recently spent the day at IKEA purchasing some finishing touches for the kitchen, including some much needed storage for our pots and pans, and a butcher block table. These things made cooking our delectable smorgasbord much easier. 

For dinner, we prepared an herb and scallion bread pudding, a Tofurky with roasted carrots, shingled baked potatoes, a green bean casserole, and whole cranberry sauce from a can. It was a decadent meal to say the least. I can't tell you how many sticks of real butter we used, because if I did, it would put Paula Dean to

shame. There were also a great many onions and garlic cloves sacrificed to make the meal. If you don't like garlic, onions, or butter, don't come to our house. It's that simple. For dessert we had a store bought pumpkin pie with whipped cream. It was a nice easy ending to our homemade feast.

The entire day Newton wanted so much attention. He wanted to be held, I'm assuming so he could see the food being cooked. If we did not hold him he would scratch and bite our ankles. The compromise was, if we held him, he would wear a sweater the whole day. He did and it was adorable. He is getting very big. He weighs as much as Persie used to before we got him. She has put on some weight, probably from getting into the puppy food. One of Newton ears is about to stand up(the left one I think), and once that happens, the pups will look so much alike. I can't wait for everyone to meet him, especially Glorybee. 

I am happy with the way our Thanksgiving turned out. It was a nice relaxing day of feasting and enjoying each others company. We ate way too much, but that was expected. I can't wait for the upcoming holiday meals, which will be shared with family and friends back in Virginia. While preparing the whole dinner was a great experience, it will be nice to have someone else do it next time :)

We better get as many of these limp ear pictures as we can before they pop up! 

These are the carriers I'm going to fasten together to make one carrier for the plane
ride with Persie and Newton. Iggy is weird and like to get in them.
He wants to take another road trip.

So much garlic! Our new butcher black table from IKEA($58 including the legs).
I stained it myself with a lovely dark walnut stain. 

Our new IKEA things!

I like to have many dish towels ready when I need them.

Roastin' the butternuts.

Stirrin' the bread pudding, which to our surprise, is just egg bread. Like a savory french toast it was. 

Mmm... all roasty.

Sippin' on some egg nog.

Many inches of chopped onion in that pot.

Sweater goblin.

Mmm...

Chickenless Chicken Broth

Our amazing food processor and blender combo.

Giant bowl of soup.

Sandwich Face!

He was afraid of the blender!

Little old man.

It actually kind of look like a turkey.

Basting the Tofurkey with a soy sauce glaze.

So decadent! 

Teehee.

Butterball

Not the healthiest meal at all.

Carving it up.

It was well worth the effort...

Pumpkin time and harvest things

We've yet to finish unpacking from the move, but that hasn't stopped us from doing some of our most favorite things this fall season. I myself have been to the pumpkin patch twice this year, once with Tim and the second time with my new friends from work. We've dressed Newton, Persie, and Iggy up several times as the pumpkins and bananas they really are. Julian does not play this dress up game, and we do not try to make her, for fear of loosing an eye or something. We've made quite a few delicious meals with root vegetables and lots of butter. Once our stock pot arrives from Virginia, we will be making our butternut squash soup and apple sauce. I made a wreath that should be easily transitioned into a Christmas wreath. We've carved pumpkins and I have saved the seeds in the frig for roasting. We threw together last minute costumes for a party with hair gel and acrylic paint. We've drank about four gallons of cider last month alone, and it doesn't look like we are getting tired of it yet. As for candy(as we are famous for buying gobs of half priced goodies the day after Halloween), let's just say we have amassed quite the collection of Reese's, Twizzlers, Snickers, and Wonka goodies. Three popcorn bowls full. We are ready for winter!

This year was the first time that we tried to give out candy to trick-or-treaters. I say tried because we didn't have a single kid come to our door. We wondered what was up and decided to drive around the neighborhood and look for children (yes, we are aware that this sounds very weird). There were no children to be found! We went to the grocery store that night and actually saw children shopping with their parents instead of collecting candy! What has the world come to?! Both Tim and I were very disappointed to discover that most children now patron shopping malls on Halloween. I guess around here some parents find going door-to-door dangerous. Ridiculous! Our night was spent reminiscing about trick-or-treating and coming home with pillow cases full of sugar. I hear nowadays people are handing out fruit and pencils and dental floss. I hope that the people who give out these atrocious "treats" realize they are ruining Halloween, one of the best holidays for children and candy lovers.

The leaves are changing here and it is so nice. I may have already forgotten what Virginia's autumns look like, but the fall in Oregon is just gorgeous with it's mountains, rivers, and evergreens paired with red, yellow, and orange deciduous trees. It doesn't rain everyday yet, but that time is getting close. For now I am appreciating the blue unblemished skies. It's cold here, but not as cold as it is in Virginia. And the temperature only fluctuates about five degrees over the day and night. Tim and I both have some rain gear now for running and biking, and we are ready for the long gray winter ahead of us. We are still super excited for our trip in less than two months! We have already bought many outfits for the pups to wear while visiting.  Hope everyone else is as excited and happy as us!

Newton's first pupmkin.

My little goblin with giant feet.

It's so hard to get pictures of him because he is always in motion! 

Baby indian corns and flower bunches at the patch. 

Now that's a zucchini!

Crazy lady on the pumpkins.

Oh wait that's me!

Now the crazy lady is back.

Luminas

Siamese Lumina

Mmm... cider.

Wading through the pumpkins.

A very full patch. Well, we were the only ones there and went pretty early on in the month.

Geeses.

Pumpkin pluckin

Crows love wine grapes!

Tim in his fancy Central Catholic rain slicker.

Ima flamingo.

That crazy lady seems to be everywhere.

Nope, my head is not as big as a pumpkin. Good. But I am as pale as a white one.

Fields of dahlias. 

Our haul for the day.

Time to clean 'em up.

Picture perfect kittay. I love my Iggy.

Second trip to the patch with Heather and Gabriel. Gabriel, stop eating that pumpkin...

So many geese.

The war of the scary gooses.

Such a cutiepie.

Pushing a shopping cart through a pumpkin patch makes for a bumpy ride,  Gabriel. 

I love when I make crazy bad faces. We were riding a hay bale, though. 

The collective haul.

My beebee haul.

My favorite. A yellow square pear printed one.

My wreath pieces. I made the base out of willow branches from the back yard
and collected pine cones from the streets in our neighborhood.

Almost finished.

For Christmas I will add some red berries and holly leaves.

On our porch.

Pumpkin carving time.

We carved Newton into a pumpkin!

My little goblin.

Watching The Nightmare Before Christmas and having a little fun.

Tim made the baby vampire cyclopes, I made the boring one.

The porch with the new additions.

Before you even guess, we were supposed to be werewolves.

Acrylic paint really hurts when it dries.

No trick-or-treaters came to see the babies :(

Newton and I are making the same face somehow. 

One of the many feasts we have made in our new amazing kitchen!

A birthday card I made for Jesi. I like to label my gourds and things.