Halloween

Every year my office has a halloween party during office hours. It's a pretty nice way to spend a Friday afternoon. There's always a competition for creepiest appetizer and dessert. Last year I spent about 3 days making oreo truffles and dipping them in chocolate and decorating them so they looked like ghosts and witches hats. And I lost. Which is fine because they were more cute than creepy anyway.

But this year I decided I would only spend an hour working on the treats total. So, I saw these cute little guys online somewhere and thought they would be fun. So, make some brownies. While they are cooling take Milano cookies and dark icing with a very small icing tip. Write RIP on the cookies. Then bash some oreos so they are crumbly. I think they are pretty cute. The only problem is, the brownies mix I used (Ghirardelli) is tasty but pretty soft so they are having trouble staying together and holding up the cookies. I should have overcooked them a little I think. I mushed them all together and hopefully they make it to the party tomorrow!

Dinner dinner dinner time

This week I didn't do much cooking. I've started taking pilates classes twice a week which is a lot of fun. However, this weekend I'm going home so I won't be able to take my regular Saturday class so I doubled up during the week. Getting at home at 7 makes it a little hard to cook very much. On Monday V made yummy baked potatoes green beans... and steak for the meat eater of the family. Last night I had leftovers and tonight we had whatever we found in the fridge.

Luckily, the one time I did cook this week it was yummy! I found a blog about a year ago, budgetbytes, that has been kind of hit or miss. It's about budget recipes which is good since I've been trying to stick to a strict weekly grocery budget. I don't make a lot of recipes from the site but every now and then I'll find something yummy. I forgot to take pictures when I was cooking (I get hungry and forget) but I would definitely recommend this for an easy weeknight meal.

Spinach Artichoke Pasta

4 cloves garlic

olive oil

1/2 cup sour cream

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup white wine (I used more.. maybe like half a cup)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup grated parmesan

14 oz canned artichokes

10 oz chopped frozen spinach (defrosted)

Red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper

1 lb farfaille pasta

Saute garlic in olive oil. Then add in wine and reduce (this is why I added extra, so it could reduce and be more flavorful). Add in sour cream and cream cheese until combined. Add milk and parmesan. Allow cheese to melt together. Then stir in spinach and chopped artichokes. Salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. Stir in cooked pasta. I also ended up adding starchy water to the sauce before I added the pasta to make it more sauce-like than dip-like. V and I both loved this one. Enjoy!

Bake sale

The place where I work is funded by the United Way. I think UW is a great organization and they help pay my mortgage but, somethings about them annoy me. One thing is, when a business receives funding from the UW, they are required to have an inner-office fund raiser. I'm not opposed to fund raisers and I like to make donations to organizations I believe in. However, it does bother me that I am repeatedly ask to essentially take a pay cut from the people giving me my pay. It just doesn't seem right. It's no surprise that people in public interest areas are poorly paid, so why add insult to injury.

But, I always feel guilty not doing anything. So, each year I make something for the fund raising bake sale. That way I feel like I'm doing some good, I get to bake, and I don't feel as bad about not donating money. This year I decided to make mini-pumpkin tarts. They were surprisingly easy. Basically, take puff pastry and cut it out in the shape of a pumpkin. Brush with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Then spoon over any pumpkin pie filling you like and bake a 350 for 25-30 minutes. I don't really like any pumpkin pie except the one made by my brother but Victor said it's tasty. So I'll bring them in tomorrow and see how they sell.