Trick or Treat

Somehow, we have arrived at the last day of October.  Time is flying by, and soon it will be Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a whole new year.  Ugh.  We'll just stick to Halloween for now, if it's all the same to you.

I finally christened the Dream Dutch Oven on Friday.  I made a huge pot of Chicken and Dumplings.  Yum.  I haven't made either for years, and though the dumplings were a bit like gnocchi, they were still good.  

I meant to take a photo just after I took off the lid, when the dumplings filled the pot, but I forgot, so this is a crappy picture with half the gnocchi dumplings, and minus two bowls of the chicken.

In the future, however, I will stick to the tried and true recipe passed down from Granny, to Mom, to my sister and me.  I lost the original somewhere, so had to use a different one.  Oh well.  Live and learn, I guess.  I asked Mom to email me the right one for future dumpling making events.  The Lodgeware lived up to its reputation, and it cleaned up like a dream, too.

Yesterday my mother drove up from Grants Pass and we hit all the thrift shops in town.  It was really fun, and she found some really cool stuff.  I bought three Hawaiian shirts (I'm addicted.  I could have bought a dozen, though reined myself in and only got the three to add to my collection.  I don't know of a better thing to wear on a hot day than one of these shirts.  Big, loose, comfy.  Maybe I love them because I lived on Maui for a time, or because they're beautiful, or just because.  Whatever.  I now have three more.)

After she left, I spent the evening doing the last tweaks to The Book.  Today I will attempt the pdf nightmare process, send it to CreateSpace for the final, I'm-really-done-this-time-I-swear-it, proof copy, then tomorrow NaNo begins.  Yikes.  So not prepared, but what else is new..??  I write in the "divine inspiration" style, and though it freaks me out, it somehow works.  I think.

So, have a great All Hallows Eve, don't eat too much candy, and beware of what goes bump in the night.  Here's an adorable Halloween photo to brighten the day.  This little kitty is just too cute, especially with those wee ears poking out of the hat...