Halloween!

Some of the houses on our block are REALLY dedicated to Halloween. This leaves poor little Casa Crustante feeling left out.

I wasn't keen on going out and buying decorations, but I did want to do something that would hopefully attract one or two trick or treaters. So I scoured the internet, discovered something called a House-O-Lantern, and was thus inspired.

5 brown paper bags + 1/4 roll of duct tape = sort of halloweenish!

Street view:

Need a close up? Here you go:

I love our creepy little window. :D

Oh, speaking of Halloween...


Abby's costume showed up yesterday! It's a little large, but it's easy enough to make fit. The good news - it's a perfect fit for the cat.

Halloween..

Halloween costumes have been ordered!

This will probably be the best $25 I've ever spent.

Spectacular, no?

The Jello Chronicles

Halloween 2010 Jello Shots were a success! I love the fact that these are biodegradable too.. no nasty plastic cups to waste.

1. Half a bunch of oranges from end to end (not through the middle). I split apart 12.
2. Scoop out all the guts. Save for peel-less marmalade or orange juice or both.
3. Place orange halve bowls on muffin tins.
4. Fill with jello mixture.
5. Put in fridge. Cool for about 4 hours.
6. Slice each half into thirds.

Jello mixture for approximately three oranges:

1 8oz packet of jello
3/4 Boiling water
1/2 cup of flavored liquor
1/2 cup of vodka

I made four flavors- Found this guide to be quite helpful in planning:

1. Twizzlers -raspberry jello + peach schnapps (by far most popular)
2. Princess Peach - peach jello + peach schnapps
3. Lemon Drops -lemon jello + citron vodka
4. Fuzzy Navel - orange jello + peach schnapps

I'm working on a vegan recipe. It'd be great to come up with a healthier version that is nearly guilt-free.

It's Halloween already??

Yeah, so we've been really out of it.

Turns out French restaurants have a much different standard keeping their food. Bacteria levels in their food tend to be much, much higher than in the US. And thus the husband became very sick, and we had to spend the majority of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with various doctors and in the hospital. They hooked him up to three liters of IV he was so dehydrated.

France was a bit of a crappy experience all around. Pun intended. Thank goodness for beer and Belgium.

So once the Hubs stopped the process of dying and started recovering, I got the flu. And so instead of taking care of him I've been getting high off of theraflu and sleeping. And suddenly it's Saturday. I have a Halloween party to get ready for. This whole week was supposed to be dedicated to sewing my costume. And I need to make jello shots. And now I'm panicking.

Drinking earl grey with lavender. It is delicious. It's not even 8am. I'm going to march into a Halloween store, pick out the gaudiest, ugliest garb I can find. And then I'm going to make jello shots and all will be well.

See? Disaster adverted.