A Very Harry Halloween

I'm not really big on Halloween. I absolutely was in the days of my youth, and I like to think I'll enjoy it more when I'm married and have babies of my own who I can dress up...but...Halloween just isn't my holiday.

My friends Lindsey and Dave hosted a Harry Potter Halloween party last Friday, and wouldn't you know? If somebody attaches a Harry Potter theme to a Halloween party, I'm suddenly all over the idea of Halloween. (Silly Gina.)

I was just going to dress up as an average Hogwarts student...

...and, nerd that I am, I took a Hogwarts House sorting test online so as to be sure to buy the right color of tie.

I was sorted into Hufflepuff, FYI. And, like the HP nerd that I apparently am, I was really bummed about it. Still am, matter of fact. I honestly think I was sorted into Hufflepuff by default: I'm not nearly brave enough to belong with Gryffindor, I'm not clever enough for Ravenclaw, and I'm not shady enough for Slytherin. Ergo...Hufflepuff. I'm still trying to talk myself into embracing it, telling myself I must have a kind and loving heart, stuff like that.

Anyway, I purchased a Hufflepuff House costume (tie and cloak) like a month ago, and nothing happened. The week of the party was upon me, and my order was still being processed. I was finally able to get a hold of someone, and they responded that they didn't, in fact, have Hufflepuff costumes. Sketchy, if you ask me. And it seems like, maybe, false advertising? Whatev. I canceled my order and got a refund and set about trying to figure out who I could dress up as. ("Creating my own costume" is possibly the number one reason I do not love Halloween.)

I texted Brooker, and she gave me a stellar idea...

Nymphadora Tonks!!!
I totally had a pig snout, too, but it made me feel ugly...

Other people who came to the party are all about creativity. Go ahead and see what I mean:

Rose was Hedwig (loved this!), and Ryan was a (very friendly) Death Eater

Lindsey was Professor Cybil Trelawny.
Totally owned it, too!

Lovely ladies! Beth was a squib, Keri ended up being The Gray Lady, and Brooke was a witch in lovely dress robes.

MAD EYE MOODY!
Can't tell you how much I love this costume.
Ross even made it himself.

Most of the crew (some people had to leave early).
Tasha was a witch trying to dress as a muggle, and Dave was Dumbledore.

They sorted us into houses...I was sorted into Slytherin (because when Dumbledore drew my name out of the sorting hat, it was Slytherin's turn) along with Rose. We played HP trivia, looked for the most hidden golden snitches (which we were supposed to leave them where we found them, but as a Slytherin, I had no choice but to sneak them and put 'em in my pocket; somehow, Slytherin found the most snitches), ate some HP themed foods, and other stuff!

Dang it, Harry Potter Halloween parties are fun!

Thanks for hosting, Dave and Lindsey! It was stellar!

my contribution to spud harvest:

I've lived in Idaho for 6+ years now, and although it's not Brigham City (my own Zion), I rather enjoy my life here, and I'm this close to considering it "home."

My friend Josh grew up farming potatoes; a couple of years ago, he showed me one of his dad's potato cellars, and I was like, "Holy crap, that's a lot of potatoes!"

Last week, Josh took me to another potato cellar when people were still actually working on the potato harvest. We got there at...I want to say eight...ish. After dark, for sure, and it was quite cold. Josh had brought donuts and hot chocolate for the workers. And then, when the trucks arrived with I don't know how many tons of potatoes, Josh gave me some gloves and "let me" help sort potatoes as they rushed by on a conveyor belt.

I was dizzy within seconds.

I learned, on my own, that it was better (much, much better!) to look ahead rather than back. (Wow. Just realized I could turn this into a life lesson, but that's not what I'm doing here. Not today, at least.) Anyway...I was much less dizzy when I looked ahead.

And I have to say: I'm not bad at sorting potatoes. Probably I'm not terrific at it, either. (I tell you, I was less dizzy looking ahead, but still dizzy.)

Don't worry, Josh got pictures!

I would say I'm a natural, but that would be a lie...

Don't I look like I'm having so much fun?!

Awww! We found a heart-shaped potato as we sorted!

 Josh showed me around the cellar again.

This passageway may or may not have scared Josh in his youth;
I'll never tell!

This is only a partially-full cellar of taters. Ri-dang-diculous!

This was on the other side of the cellar.
Josh told me to stand on the potatoes; I felt guilty as soon as I did...

...but not guilty enough to NOT take a picture of my feet first.
I think he said I was standing on two stories of potatoes?
AWESOME, huh?!

 Anyway...that was my contribution to the Spud Harvest of 2012. 'twas fun, indeed! Thanks for showing me around, Joshua!

Sometimes I'm a Nervous Nelly...

For those of you who know me well, this is no big surprise: I'm sometimes a Nervous Nelly.

 I'm mostly confident in myself and most of my abilities. But some things throw me for a loop, and I get all nervous.

Maybe it's because I'm afraid of failure? Not sure why; I've failed at stuff before and I've totally survived each failure. It's just an icky feeling and I hate it.

But I digress.

Here's the story:

My mom had an over-abundance of tomatoes in her garden this year, and she ended up making a rather tasty homemade sweet and sour sauce, and then bottled it. Two batches.

When I went to visit my family in Utah the first weekend of the month, Mom still had an over-abundance of tomatoes, and Momma gave me lots of them so I could make (and bottle) my own sweet and sour sauce. (Yay! Hooray!)

Last Friday, I holed up at home and hunkered down the kitchen (after running a million errands that morning), and I got to work!

Now, dear readers, I don't want you to think that COOKING turns me into a Nervous Nelly. I rather enjoy cooking. The part that made me  most nervous about this whole...process (and it was quite the process) was the canning/bottling part.

I'm pretty sure I remember "helping" my mom can food in the days of my youth, but I feel pretty confident that Ma did the bottling portion. Oh, come on, self, let's just be honest: Mom did most of the work. I was mostly there to keep her company, occasionally squishing the fruit for jams, or helping to wash various fruits or vegetables, or to (maybe) get in the way.

The fact is, I'm a 30 year old Mormon woman who has never really bottled anything.

This is a perfect example of one thing that turns me into a Nervous Nelly: doing something all by myself without someone around to look over my shoulder and guide me through the process. (It's a wonder I survived--and graduated--my Master's program at USU, huh?)

What if, after the long process of peeling tomatoes, cutting vegetables, doing everything my recipe told me to do...what if I ruined the bottling procedure, and I was left with 14 bottles of (hopefully delicious) sweet and sour sauce that ought to be eaten within the next week or so before it went bad? OR! (My brain rarely shuts off with just one "what if," so you know.) Or what if I actually followed the recipe wrong and my sweet and sour sauce wasn't actually as delicious as I knew my mother's was? OR! What if (even worse!), I made a nasty sauce AND the bottling process went awry?! Surely, my inner demon would mark me as a rotten homemaker altogether and I'd die inside just a little bit.

Y'all are probably glad you weren't in the kitchen with me last Friday.

I got busy boiling water to pour over my sinkful of tomatoes, peeling my sinkful to tomatoes, realizing I had too many tomatoes to do just half a batch and running to the store to buy more bottles, chopping up onions and bell peppers...it was a long process, but one I enjoyed up until I had added my final ingredients and the sauce was thickening on the stove top.

peeling tomatoes, even after trying to boil their skins off, isn't exactly "fun"

these bad boys were POTENT...
maybe i should invest in goggles?

nom, nom, nom!

i think this was after i added the "sour" portion
(meaning soy sauce and vinegar)

the "sweet" part:
pineapple juice and sugar!

LOTS of questions came to my mind. Questions like:

*Do I need to wash my brand new bottles before I fill them with sauce?
*When do I start timing the 35 minute hot-bath?
*How long do I put the lids in hot water before I put them on top of my bottles?
*Only 7 bottles fit in my hot-bath pot at once; what the what do I do with the other seven bottles just waiting to be filled? Do I fill them all at once? Do I top them all with warm lids and rings and hope for the best? The bottles need to be completely submerged for their hot bath, right?
*Plus some other questions.

as it turns out, you should clean out your new bottles before using them
(thanks for the advice, Ma!)

Naturally, I called my mom. She's a stellar homemaker, and she's got this "bottling" thing in the bag. *Sooooo grateful my mom has a cell phone! And sooooo grateful that I didn't actually start making the sauce until late enough in the day that my mom was available to take my calls.

Because, of course these questions only occurred to me one at a time.

My poor, dear, sweet mother. I called her, I think, four times. Maybe five...

35 minute hot bath

Anyway. As nervous as I was (and I was nervous!), it was actually kind of fun. And now I kind of understand the bottling process. I feel quite confident that I will bottle stuff again in the future.

the final product: all 14 of them sealed!!!

I also feel quite confident that I'll be calling my mom the next time I bottle...anything.

And now...the recipe:

SWEEET & SOUR SAUCE

Anita Thurston

10-12 cups peeled and chopped tomato

4 cups chopped onion

4 cups chopped bell pepper

---cook down until tender (about 15 minutes)---

5 cups sugar

8 tablespoons soy sauce

3 cups white vinegar

---stir and cook---

In a blender:

drain two 20 oz pineapple tidbits

blend to juice:

juice of pineapple

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cup "ultraset" or "clear jel A"

---Add to hot mixture and cook until hot and thickened---

Add the pineapple tidbits

Stir and pour into pint jars

Hot-bath for 35 minutes

1 batch makes 14 pints

Enjoy! 

And don't let it turn you into a Nervous Nelly!!!

softball, schmoftball...

Hello, October!

How on earth did you creep upon me with such ferocious velocity?! Didn't 2012 just barely start? I mean, really!

Anyway...I totally played co-ed softball again this past summer, and although it was kind of a disappointing season (lots of forfeits and the likes), it started off interestingly enough.

It had to have been the second or third game, but it's hard to recall (since the season ended, like, two months ago). Anyhoo...the short story is that I caught a pop fly IN THE FACE.

right in the jaw, as a matter of fact.
this picture was taken the night of, i do believe...
see the stitching from the softball etched into my face?

the next morning...

day three...

it eventually faded to a nasty greenish hue before it went away...

There is, of course, a long story, too.

And it's rather embarrassing, if you must know. You see, I didn't get hit in the face by some crazy pop-fly off a mad hitter. No, no. It actually happened before the game. During warm-ups, even. I was warming up with Elliot, and Aaron was next to Elliot throwing to...someone else. Welp, Elliot and Aaron decided to throw pop-flies at the same time, and Aaron's was totally coming in my direction, too. And, like a fool, instead of paying attention to the one that was definitely coming my way, I paid far too much attention to the one that Aaron threw. Right about the time I realized that Aaron's was a few feet away, Elliot's dropped. Right onto my face.

It hurt, folks. It hurt a lot.

And I was humiliated, too. (But not so humiliated that I won't share it on this public forum! Gosh, no!

Then sometime towards the end of June, I rounded second and ran to third when maybe it might've been more prudent to just stay on second? Whatever, though. I can't remember all the details, except that I hit third base right before the left fielder threw the ball to the third baseman...and I somehow tripped over third.

But! I scooched back onto third base just in time to be called safe.

Also, I twisted my ankle. Which kind of hurt.

you can totally tell which ankle, right?

yeah, it's the one on the right side of your screen...

 Then there was the time I dove for second and got kicked in the face.

And also I embarrassed myself quite frequently. Usually when it came to "sliding," which is more like "flopping" the way I do it. But! I was sometimes (usually) called safe when I flopped onto base, so I probably haven't learned my lesson, have I?

We won most of our games. Quite comfortably. We just got really bummed when (a handful of times) the other teams forfeited. UGH.

Also, we played in the tournament this year and we took third. We won shirts and everything :)