Early Halloween

Yesterday we celebrated Halloween!  We kicked it all off by waking up at 6:45am to pick up our Bountiful Basket!  Ha, but really, that's how our day started.  Then we bought bagels at Einstein Bagels for David's Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honor Society) Trick-or-Can activity.  When we finally got to eat them 2 hours later, they were so delicious we decided if we ever work in the food industry, it will be at Einstein so we can bring home lots of free bagels.

For the Trick-or-Can we collected canned food at the student housing just south of campus.  We quickly decided that was not the best idea for two reasons: 1) students aren't awake at 9:30am on a Saturday morning and 2) they don't own any canned food (I guess they haven't figured out how cheap it is, and they have no year supply yet, which would be FULL of canned food).  Anyways, we had little success, but it was still fun.

Later in the day we went to the women's soccer game, which BYU won 5-0.  Then we went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat/Halloween party. That was sooooo fun!  We were too cheap to buy real trunk decorations, so we used newspaper.  And, we are already over on our food budget so we couldn't buy candy and instead handed out Snickerdoodles and Vermont Molasses cookies (which turned out to go well with my costume of Little Red Riding Hood)!  I got to carry the cookies in my basket to hand them out.

David bought his wolf mask on Amazon and I sewed my red hooded cloak.  We were pretty excited about our Halloween costumes!

Also at the party we had apple pie and hot cocoa.  Amazingly, I won the "Guess How Many Candy Corn Are In This Can" contest (I've NEVER won one of those before, and I LOVE candy corn), and David almost won the "Doughnut Eating Contest" where you had to be the first to finish eating your doughnut off a string.

It was a great "Halloween!"

Pie!

Yesterday I made Key Lime Pie.  We've made it once before with a recipe from Emeril, and it was  delicious!  It didn't disappoint last night either.  It's a pretty easy recipe, except for the zesting and juicing of the limes.  Zesting takes forever because you generate such a tiny amount at a time.  Then, I had to juice by hand, and boy was it tedious!!! I had a few tiny cuts on my fingers, which burned like crazy, and I splattered some lime juice on my shirt (prior to donning the apron) which resulted in tiny bleached spots.

The other thing about pies is that there are so many separate steps with waiting in between.  It always seems to be quiet the process.  Of course, I've only made pies by myself three times now, so maybe I just haven't mastered multi-tasking and using that down time productively.

Needless to say, just when I start to think that I need to make pies more often, I remember how much work it takes, and reconsider!  However, there is no denying that pies are extremely delicious and make the husband very happy :]

The College Life

Last night was "Seps" homework night at our apartment.  "Seps" stand for "Separations," one of David's engineering classes.  So while I was watching the vice-presidential debate, reading a novel, and browsing Pinterest (not all at the same time), these poor boys were slaving away in the living room:

Highlights from the night:

"Take that Math Cad, DUMB HEAD!" -Greg

"Guess what my sister's doing this weekend?" -Desta
--Discussion about renting puppies, huskies, and cat litter fumes--

"Desta you're pregnant!" -Greg

"Why do you have to multiply it by something else?" -Brad
"'Cuz this is what's left, so if you want to know..." -Greg
"Listen to Brad, he's doing it right." -Lindsey

--Face time with Rachel--
"Rachel, did you know Desta's pregnant?"- Greg

"I'm having a baked potato, anyone else want one?" -Desta
"Is anyone else weird like me and like the potato skins?" -Brad
"Yes, they're the BEST!"-David

"Desta's pregnant!!!!" -Greg

"Wait, you're having a GIRL?" -Greg
--Discussion about baby names and cool initials--

"Do you notice how we get nothing done when the women folk are around?" -Greg

Thanks, Greg ;]

Brazilian Dinner

Last night we enjoyed a Brazilian dinner!  And, it was fairly healthy.  Here's how it all came to pass...

A few Saturdays ago we got collard greens in our Bountiful Basket. We have come to expect receiving at least one rather bazaar fruit or vegetable each week in our basket, and have actually enjoyed learning how to prepare new foods.

However, I groaned within (and out loud) when I saw those collard greens.  We have actually tried them before, because we once learned how healthy they are for you.  As is the unfortunate truth with most healthy foods, collard greens are NOT tasty.  They are very bitter and take forever to chew and choke down, at least when they are raw...

Hence, I scavenged Pinterest and the internet until I came across a recipe for couve, a Brazilian dish made from collard greens!  What luck!  We love all things Brazilian, and this recipe instructed you to cook the collard greens with salt, garlic and bacon, some of my favorite ingredients.  So, we learned how to make decent couve (minus the bacon, unfortunately, because we also pinch pennies around here), and on Monday when we went shopping, we actually ELECTED to buy collard greens.  Never saw that one coming, huh?

So, last night David cooked some more delicious couve for us, and we also had black beans and rice.  Even David agreed it was very Brazilian!