Halloweeeeeeeeen!

Last night we hosted our Halloween party.  I decided this year due to minimal response for a large party to do a small dinner party instead.  And I would totally do it again!  Lucas and I both agree that it was more fun to sit around a table and have conversations and laughs and good food with 9 people rather than run around cleaning up after and/or making sure there is constantly enough food out for 30 people and making sure they feel included, etc.  I'll save that for the Murder Mystery Parties.

This year my theme was dinner of the dead - I asked each guest to come as someone famous or historical who is dead.  What creative friends I have!!  Take a look at who came to dinner:

Cleopatra

Mr. Rogers and X the Owl

Frida Kahlo

Jim Jones (with his Kool Aid and Bible) and Jesus H. Christ

Amelia Earhart flew in...

Janis Joplin and Chris Farley as Matt Foley

Phyllis Diller!

Check those eyelashes!

So all told our death count went as follows:  3 old age, 2 OD's, 2 suicides, a plane crash and a crucifixion in a pear tree.... I mean a cross...

We played a couple games that had everyone laughing.  We drank wine, beer and ate really good food (turkey, mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, waldorf salad, green beans, chips and guac, deviled eggs, cookies, bread and cheese) including this beauty:

A Devils Food bundt cake with cinnamon chipotle fudge sauce served with cinnamon ice cream.  The only thing said during dessert was "mmmmmMMMmmmM".  Yep.

Lucas set up the tombstones outside - there was a spine model at work that was thrown out because it broke - I snatched that right up.  Can you see it?

Here are a few pictures of the dinner table and other decorations around the house:

Thank you to my wonderful friends for being outgoing, creative and just so awesome!  Can't wait for next year (you know I'm already thinking of themes)!

Homemade (Healthier) Egg McMuffins

I've seen people on various blogs and Pinterest who make homemade egg mcmuffins.  I've always wanted to do it so I finally did!  It was super easy, relatively fast and tasty.

You can really customize your egg mcmuffin anyway you want - here's what I did:

I started with enough for the week - grease 6 spaces in your muffin tin and crack an egg in each space.  I topped mine with salt and pepper.  I also tore up pieces of spinach (you can't taste it but it packs some nutrition).  Bake at 360 degrees for about 15-20 min.  When there is about 10 min remaining pop in your English muffins - I got mine at Trader Joe's.

After the muffins are toasted I added just a smear of butter for some flavor.  I then added low fat shredded cheese.   Again this is where you can get creative - add whatever cheese you like; you could also add some pre cooked sausage slices.

Assemble the sandwiches and put them in the freezer for about an hour - this helps get some of the moisture out.  After an hour wrap them individually in tin foil or saran wrap.  I reheated mine for about 45 seconds in the microwave and it was great.  Some people asked if the muffin was soggy - the one I had today was not - I don't know for sure how they will be come Friday.

I will totally be making these again (as long as they still taste good by Friday, haha) - they're convenient and a much better option than McDonald's.  These clock in at around 250 calories.  McDonald's clock in at 300 calories but they also make them with these ingredients:

Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, wheat gluten, soybean oil and/or canola oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, citric acid, calcium citrate, yellow corn flour, corn meal, rice flour, barley malt, artificial flavors, natural flavors (botanical source), dough conditioners (ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, datem, tricalcium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, calcium peroxide), calcium propionate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

CONTAINS: WHEAT AND SOY LECITHIN.


Prepared with Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil and hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, salt, soy lecithin, mono-and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservatives), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color).

I can't find the exact ingredients for the TJ's muffins, but I know they don't have all that crap in them :)  I would rather eat something with real ingredients and not a bunch of words I can't pronounce!

5 Question Friday

1. Where do you hide junk when people come over?


We don't have too much junk laying around but usually the office.


2. Do political ads help you decide who you are going to vote for?

Heck no, I hate ads.  Hate them.  

3. What's your favorite holiday party to host?

Halloween of course!  I love decorating.  I love how creative you can be with food.  Christmas is a close second but Halloween will always win!

4. You go to an island with your husband and can only take one personal item. What is it?

I first need to know how long we'll be on this island.... a day, a week, forever?  I'd either bring a toothbrush or soap so I can at least be clean.


5. If you found out your spouse was a Dexter style serial killer (only kills people to save others) would you rat?

Hmmm.... first of all, I love the show Dexter.  Love it.  Dexter doesn't technically kill to save others - he kills people who kill others (mostly serial killers) - so if that was the case I would keep it a secret.  

Sneak Peek....

.... at my Halloween costume...

Ghost Hunting in Minneapolis

On Saturday night a group of 4 of us went on a ghost tour (http://realghosttours.com/) in Minneapolis.  These tours happen every weekend, all year long.  Fridays and Saturdays tours are from 9-1030 pm and 11-1230 am.  The cost is $25.   Once a month they do a 4 hour tour later in the night for $65.  According to the guides the ghosts aren't mean or demonic.  One of the friendlier ghosts is Amelia - she was a "working girl" who worked in the bar that use to be Pracna.  

The tour takes place along the Mississippi River near historic St. Anthony Main.  The buildings in this area are among the oldest in the city.  These buildings are now restaurants (Pracna, Vic's, and the Aster Cafe) and a theater.  During the 90 minute tour you are taken to a few areas in the buildings along with the basement of the building where the tour starts.   You are given ghost hunting equipment to use along your tour.  We had dowsing rods - these are pretty cool.   They've been around about 8000 years.  I won't go into the long winded history behind them or how they work right now but feel free to google them if you want.  We were asking the ghosts to do things with the rods and they complied!  Here is a picture of Lucas using his:

We also used EMF detectors - you've seen these on ghost shows - they light up when paranormal activity is around.  The tour guides were doing EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) work and also taking video.  I downloaded an app on my iPhone called Ghost Radar.  This not only picks up EVP but it also shows paranormal activity in the room - the paranormal just look like little blobs of color on the radar ranging from yellow to red being the most intense.  

Onto the experiences - of course nothing happened to me.  Sigh.  However, something did happen to my skeptical friend Julie - actually a few things happened to her.  First her dowsing rods were pretty much doing exactly what she told them to do.  Secondly we (me, her, Lucas and Lynda) were standing in a room alone chatting.  I was watching my Ghost Radar and I said "Julie there is a red dot right behind you."  Right after I said that Julie got this look on her face that I can't even explain - then she started freaking out.  After she calmed down she said that something brushed her across her back.  I promise there was nothing human standing behind her.   And finally Julie and I were standing in another room filled with junk and knick knacks.  Once again I told her something red was standing right by her. Then my Ghost Radar kicked out the word "Richard" - Richard is Julie's dad who passed a couple years ago.  After I told her that she said "Dad is that you?" and my phone kicked out the word "correct" and then Julie felt something on her hand.   Moral of the story - if you want to have a ghost experience hang out near Julie.  I took a bunch of pictures and didn't come up with anything.  Julie took 9 million photos - if she catches something I'll be sure to let you know

Pros:  I liked that they let us do alot of our own investigating.  They let us spend about 15-20 minutes in each area doing our own thing.  I liked that we were able to explore dark buildings that don't normally see much human activity.  It was also nice having a 90 minute tour.  And I liked that they didn't use any fake haunted house scare tactics.  It was just straight up ghost hunting. I liked that they supplied us with ghost hunting equipment.

Cons:  Ghosts only come out when they want to haha.  

I would definitely go again - maybe next summer (when it's warmer) I'll look into doing the 4 hour overnight tour.  

Five Question Friiiiiiiiiday

TGIF!  What's up for the weekend?  We're going on a ghost hunt tomorrow night.  Review to follow.  Its Five Question Friday ya'll.....

1. What album/cd/download are you embarrassed to admit you have?  Hmm..... I have quite a collection of Christmas tunes.  :-)    

2. What's the one thing your spouse does better than you?    
Loads the dishwasher - true statement.  He can get 3x times more stuff in there.

3. When do you start buying Halloween Candy?
I don't really buy it because we don't have trick or treaters.  However this year I bought some of those candy pumpkins to make cookies and that was about mid September. :-) 

4. Family closets - Yay or nay?
First question - what is a "family closet"?  Like everyone puts their clothes in there?  No thanks. I have two closets.  Lucas has one closet.  

5. Which home/cleaning chore do you hate the most? Why?
Washing floors on my hands and knees.  Ugh.  Hate it.  Hate it. Hate it.  It's uncomfortable. 

October!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend.  We had the day off on Friday and celebrated Lucas turning the big 3-0.  Sunday Lucas participated in the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride.  This is a worldwide event happening on the same day - gentlemen dress in their finest suits and mustaches and ride their vintage motorcycles around town.  Ladies are invited but they must have a stache.  :-)  It was a fun time.  There were about 60-70 motorcycles at the run in Minneapolis.  Here are a few pictures taken by Julie to enjoy:

Ok, onto October.  You guys know its my favorite month!  I've enjoyed a few pumpkin chai's already.  This weekend we are gearing up for a ghost hunt in NE Minneapolis - I'll let you know how that goes on Sunday.   This month we're also planning on visiting Fright Farm (a haunted attraction), attending a paranormal photography lecture at the local art institute, hopefully hitting up the orchard if the weather holds up and lastly having Halloween Dinner Party with a few select guests the weekend before Halloween.   I was going to have a big Halloween party this year but there didn't seem to be a lot of interest so we're doing a more intimate dinner party - I've asked my guests to come as someone famous or from history who is dead... should be a fun conversation at the table. :-)

If you haven't started following my other blog I'm co-authoring with my cousin, please check it out - it's all Halloween!  We're even having a giveaway soon!

Frightfully Delightful