Category “Halloween”

I Was Such a Baby, What Happened?

My parents had Angry Toddler overnight on Halloween. Angry Husband and I both had to work early this morning. We had an exciting night of putting together our new kitchen table, eating pizza, and handing out candy to greedy teenagers from our garage. My mom said that Angry Toddler had a blast and that they took him to a local neighborhood. We had already done Disneyland twice this month, the Pumpkin Patch, and a school party, I’m ok with not trick or treating on Halloween night. Does that make me a horrible parent? I hope not. So that is why you won’t see any trick or treating pictures from us, because sigh, my mom still can’t work her digital camera after two years.

But I’ve been trying to organize things on my desktop. I had some new/old Halloween pictures on there from this post. YIKES!!!! What happened to me? I found a picture from 2005, where Angry Toddler was five months old. I was 29. I compared it to this year’s picture. It looks like I’ve aged ten years! I think I have aged for the better, for the most part, but yikes, scary to see in pictures…my youth, oh my youth!


Angry Toddler Growing Up Via Costume

We’ve had several variations of Halloween costumes throughout Angry Toddler’s short life. We’ve gone from the oh my he’s soo cute, to this year, his choice, sigh. I used to agonize over his costume. I would jump on the computer in July, and have his costume ready, months in advance. This year, well, we went to Target. I chose several things in his size, and said, PICK! He pretty much picked what I thought he would.

But let’s take a little tour of costumes past and present:




And this year, he’s Jango Fett!

What and who is a Jango Fett? I know, most people are not Star Wars Freaks like the boys in my family.

Jango Fett was a renowned human bounty hunter, assassin, mercenary, and the “father” of Boba Fett, a genetic clone of his, whom he raised as a son. A Human from Concord Dawn, Fett was adopted by Mandalorian warriors following the murder of his parents and the disappearance of his older sister Arla in 58 BBY. Years later, he would go on to lead them through much of the Mandalorian Civil War. After being imprisoned by Jedi, Jango was responsible for destroying the Death Watch, a Mandalorian group who killed Jango’s mentor, Jaster Mereel.

Jango Fett information from the Wookieepedia.

Orange County Fare: Pumpkin Muffins

I’m a member of the Junior League of Orange County, CA. We had a new cookbook come out last month, Orange County Fare. I was finally able to get my hands on a hardbound copy of it, a few weeks ago at a general meeting. This is the second recipe that I’ve made from the cookbook. I made the Raspberry Oatmeal Bars last year, when I received the recipe as a preview.

I made a complete mess in our kitchen as usual. I could not locate any of the proper tools. We do have some cooking utensils. I had to improvise, but they turned out AWESOME! I made Angry Husband try the first one. He’s my test dummy…I mean victim…I mean taster. He said they were very good, but sweet.

Makes 18 to 24

Ingredients for muffins:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups canned pumpkin
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Ingredients for Orange Glaze:
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange zest

Muffins
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl. Combine the pumpkin, sugar, eggs, and oil in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Bake for 20 to 23 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the muffins pans for 15 minutes and remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Glaze
Combine the confectioners’ sugar, orange juice, and orange zest in a small bowl, stir to mix well. Place waxed paper under the muffins on the wire rack. Spoon the glaze over the cooled muffins, letting the excess run down the sides. Garnish with additional walnuts before the glaze becomes firm.

Disclosure: This recipe is from the Junior League of Orange County’s Cookbook, Orange County Fare. I’m a member of the JLOCC. My opinions and rants have nothing to do with the JLOCC, but they have a pretty swell cookbook that I paid for, with my very own checkbook. Oh yea, that’s right, I wrote a check.