The Streak Goes On

Happy  Halloween !

Neil being Neil, our front hedge is covered in blinking orange and green lights and there are a couple of those .. moving spot light things casting creepy light patterns on our house. Also, some speakers playing Halloween songs and sounds. Go big or go home ( yes, I am a little frighted of Christmas already ) 

So, with out light and sound show in full view, I thought that like Linus : THIS WOULD BE THE YEAR! The little Spidermens , Batmans, Princesses and assorted ghouls would make it to our door. I went across the street and picked from the rag tag selection of candy left at four pm Halloween afternoon. But like Charlie Brown the football is pulled from me and no one came again.

Its not even that big of a deal, truthfully  I  would be all uneasy holding back the just woke up dog and doling out M&M's to strangers, but " tis the season " and all.

There really are just not that many real houses here - and there are crowded neighborhoods all around us - I'm sure that is where they all go. Or into the big city of Honeoye Falls - lots of houses close by there as well.

BEST THING YOU WILL SEE ALL DAY

Look around the internets of check out the White House Facebook page for more fun from tonight. We are all going to miss this family .

and

BEST THING YOU WILL SEE ALL DAY

NORTH OF THE BORDER EDITION

 Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau takes his youngest son trick or treating

The Little Prince and The Pilot.

dinners

A couple of dinners from over the weekend .

CHICKEN AND SAUSAGE GUMBO

or since it was Ga / Fla

GATOR TAIL GUMBO!

three Guinness roux

 The early snow storm of Thursday gave way to shorts weather come Saturday , but I was still craving something warm and did not want chili. This was a great choice. I had not made gumbo in a good long time, so I checked with a recipe and found one that I did like.

Bon Appetite January 2012

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo.

Followed the recipe for the most part, other than adding carrots and more garlic, which I always do as well. Use any smoked sausage, I used some pretty good smoked cooked chroizo, worked just fine, but really kielbasa works just as well. I dont think I used as much chicken stock.. just use as much as you want, depending on how thick you like your gumbo. I used a whole box and a little water. One bag of frozen okra, and I really like the trick of doing it in two batches, adds some good color.  Did not have any file...

Do try this recipe, the only hard part at all is standing over the pot for a half hour or so stirring your roux.

SUNDAY ROAST

Seared and Roasted Lamb Chops

Mashed Potatoes

Sugar Snap Peas

Roasted Honeynut Squash

The meat department at my second favorite grocery store Stew Leonards is just amazing - and a bit cheaper than Wegmans. Im not being unfaithful its a very sort of apples and oranges thing. Got a butch of these , well eight, nice thick chops. Marinated them all morning / day in olive oil, garlic ,salt pepper , lemon and the remains of some close to failed deviled eggs from the morning, celery and onion . Seared them in a hot griddle pan and into a hot 400º oven for ... 10 min is ... go with how well or rare you like your lamb.

These honey nut squashes are in full season right now - if you see them do give them a try. They look like little rich colored butternuts but in miniature form. Peel and seed, chop , toss with tiny bit of oil salt and pepper. I sliced an orange and tossed with the chucks, and added the slightest drizzle of honey. Cooked in a foil packed for 20 - 30 min in the same hot oven the lamb was cooking. VERY GOOD....

Don't Do It

GAME EIGHT

FAIL

24 - 10

Make that three in a row - not that it was not expected, I mean we did lose to Vandy two weeks ago, but still not a whole lot of fun to watch. Our qb has an arm - we just have no one to protect him or open holes for the pride of Chubbtown.

Four and Four overall - two and four in the SEC. Now everyone all at once : " Nick Saben lost to some woman's college his first year at Alabama ". Actually it was Louisiana Monroe , and we beat them as well that same year.

Time, time, time .. just seems like the Bulldawg Nation has been on the outside looking in for so very long. I was all the jealous tonight watching the Clempson / FSU game - jealous of my pals who went to both schools. They appear to be having so much fun.

The suddenly surging Kentucky Wildcats ahead of us, sitting on a three game winning streak and looking pretty good. For this weekend the word rebuilding is almost as horrible as the word eMail ....

Not that I dont bleed red and black and all that, like I said, it just seems that other folks are having more fun than we are, and that is just never a good thing.

A BREAK

OR

The Best Laid Plans.

 Neil had a meeting in Albany on Tuesday. 

We decided to all go - a night in a hotel in Albany, down to Ct to see a good friend, maybe a trip into NYC to see a show, maybe stop and say hello to the folks in Western Mass. Free as a Breeze. We got up and out at a good time for us. About 30 minutes out of Albany, Neil's cell phone rings - " oh yeah hey, that meeting is canceled - hope its not a bother "....

OK, day one down the tubes, good thing Neil had not taken the train. On to our pal in Connecticut a day early! Good to see her - a very chill house. Good food, nice conversation - did not turn on the tv or check 538 ten times an hour. Just decided to stay there for the entire time..

Took care of her daughters dog, and another dog pal - here they are waiting out side a pizza shop for some meatballs - something they do often.

 Koda, Maxie and Dudley

 A killer wedge salad - she is a really good cook, but my photos did not come out

 Lovely Weather

 Pumpkins, always pumpkins

 Stew Leonards - their pumpkins come with a hay ride! 

Plans to come home Thursday - woke up to some pretty decent snow - and the thing was , between us and Mendon was a whole lot of early snow and some sleet freezing rain - ONE extra day there

 This is all early in the morning, it kept coming down, but really was not that bad here, at all

 Just had one more day of relaxation

Some snow day Chinese Take Out 

Got up this morning to a lovely, ( but windy! ) day, glad we made the decision to wait a day, the drive home was just lovely. Downstate and Conn, are all past peak leaf wise, but it was still very pretty.

Stopped at Stew's for some bagels for the ride home

It was just very nice to have this little mini break - I had worked myself into a state ... we get in the car ready to head home, all refreshed psyched for the coming week and a half and BOOM! Email, the return ....

Welcome freak out , Fahoo Fores 

Funny Because It's True

Lets see if this one sticks around , unlike debate number three

Dance this mess around

We are off on a bit of a road trip , points east. Not 100% sure when we will be back, will be before Saturday and the game. Ill do my best to post on the road, but you know that can be tricky. I am not stopping doing this really I'm not, I have just been slack as of late.

I am just , like a lot of folks I guess, ALL out of sorts over this election - more than a little obsessed with Nate Silver yet again. Fingers crossed and just needing time to go faster for once. When we are back we will just hunker down together and get through this.

Dinner

Getting a little preview of Thanksgiving. Wegmans had these bone in split turkey breasts today - didn't realize how big they were, one would have done us both. Brinning would have helped a tad.. just salt , pepper, old bay and into a 400º oven over some veggies.

Turkey

Brussels Sprouts

Roasted Carrots

Rice

Sweet Potato

Cranberry Sauce

Daily Koda

 The rain stopped but still cool and mostly cloudy, these two pics were just in a sunny patch, the exception not the norm as we were out this morning

 This tree in our side yard is just beyond beautiful this year

Back to being cloudy when we got back from our walk - more rain and cold on the way this week , first hard freeze. There was some snow to the south and east of us this morning.

A slug wearing a houndstooth hat

Did nothing today other than watch football . At least when UGA has a game I try and do some tailgating . Today was nothing. It was interesting watching other teams play with detachment . Yes, Alabama really should be the #1 team in the country, Im not exactly even sure that they are playing the same sport as UGA is.. and if they are it is not at the same speed.

It stopped raining at last and Koda and I did get in a good long walk. It was not a bad day at all, just sort of a sober lost weekend when we dont play. That very loud sound you heard this evening was the Clempson Nation spending all that energy that that waisted last week rooting for Wisconsin. Urban and his script Ohio's going down hard in a white out in Happy Valley. The Death Vally folks should wake up to being #2 or #3 tomorrow. IN>

SEC Gameday light is heading to JAX this coming weekend, and Uncle Vern actually said the old magic words today ( worlds largest outdoor cocktail party ) but was quickly reprimanded .

WORK IN PROGRESS

My Italian State Dinner post, which are some of the most popular ones on here IS in the works, they just take me a while... 

rainy fall day

 Putting a real dent in the drought - hard rain this morning and tonight, much needed, but put a damper on the day. Just feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment - nothing major at all. A lot of it is pure political exhaustion and the State Dinner, the Debate and tonight's Al Smith dinner all sort of piled up.

 Busy week coming up as well, so I need to get caught up! 

dinner

Pork Chop

the size of your head

Green Beans

Roasted Farm Stand Butternut Squash

with red onion and sage

Wild and not wild rice

I had to go to Costco to get gas today, and ran in to get a few things - seeing these pork chops, 12 of them. I was in a hurry and just tossed them in the buggy. Not realizing that the white Styrofoam tray they were in was curved like a bowl. When I got home to cook them I realized they were just HUGE, the thickest pork chops I have ever cooked. Two plus inches...

I seared them in a hot lined pan then put them on some veggies with a little stock , and did 45 min at 350º covered in foil.

Virginia, the priest of St John's asked me last night if I would take dinner to a family where the guy is not doing so well, and of course I said yes. But either I did not ask or I assumed ( you know...) that it was only for two people and it was not, four I think.  This is what I took them, same dinner that we had, and I took A LOT... but only two of these huge chops, and I would have done four. But goodness they are big enough for two.

Indigenous Peoples Summer

We had about three seconds of freezing temps this past week, just enough to kill off the last of the dahlias. From that night on it has been July, really. Today, late mid October and it was 80 + here in Mendon, and as you can tell from this pic bright and sunny.

NO ONE is complaining at all.. none of us talk about it, as if it were a no hitter. " Nice day, isn't it", folks on the trail will mutter in passing.. hoping I don't answer back and jinx us all. It can happen here. This week is the 10 year anniversary of a monster surprise snow storm that hit Buffalo and points west of here dumping feet of sudden snow . 

Nothing like that today, even though it is the last day of it, some big rain tonight and some slightly cooler temps to follow, with even the threat of the lone drippy wet snowflake falling from the sky this weekend.

RIGHT WHERE WE WANT THEM. eh ?

After going down to a 3 - 1 in the ALCS to the Clevelands ( ALL of Canada refused to say Indians ) the TORONTO BLUE JAYS came roaring back to life in a 5 - 1 romp in an afternoon game across the lake in Toronto.

Other than me and the 400 MLB fans in Canada - the entire baseball universe is rooting for the cursed  Chicago Cubs, that and Cleveland JUST won a championship. Now all they have to do is win three straight to be in the World Series again !

getting old is not for....

 IF you have to go to a meeting on 

THE JOYS OF MEDICARE

you should have snacks!

 including graveyard dirt cupcakes!

Then went to a dinner at a nice little place right there in Honeoye Falls.

 Neil had a Guinness Beef Pot Pie

I had a kitchen sink burger.

Hate

A BUNCH OF PHOTOS OF KODA

 Daily Koda's from over the past few days, so confused about the weather....