Parties:: Murders and Mustaches

To finish catching up on October, Amber and I held a most excellent murder mystery dinner party. I have always wanted to go to one, but have never had the opportunity, so I decided to make my own up. I created character bios and clues to reveal or conceal during each dinner course for each guest. Everyone came dressed up as different characters and we played parlor games until one of the guests (Miss Jane Body) was murdered. Mr. and Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Mr. Green, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, and Miss Scarlet then tried to solve the murder mystery over a scrumptious dinner of salad, soup, bread, chicken cordon bleu, and my amazing new recipe find, the almond pear cake. We had each guest bring something for dinner and we had a marvelous time!

The invite

The guests

Just this past weekend we also had a mustache/evil dictator party. Everyone came as different dictators and we had a blast eating cupcakes with mustaches (created by the wonderful Miss Amber and myself) and playing games like Curses, pin the mustache on Hitler, and The Game of Things.

Steve Jobs, Omar al-Bashir, and Joseph Stalin

Adolf Hitler, Kim Jong-Il, and Evil Sheriff Billy Bob

Halloween

I thought it might be noteworthy to show my different Halloween costumes this year. I went to quite a few parties, so I had some different costumes.

Party 1: YSA Dance
Red Crayon and "Gnome" Chomsky the Garden Gnome
It was really awkward dressing up as a boy and trying to dance like a girl. I'm glad I don't have facial hair normally.
My madre made the fantastic red crayon costume Amber is wearing.

Party 2: SigEp 20s Dance
2os Nerd and Flapper
Amber was born in the wrong decade, I swear she was made for the twenties!

Party 3: The Howl
Red Crayon and Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell (If you don't get my costume: click here to see the video that made this crazy tea-party goer SNL skit material)
This was definitely my favorite costume, but I don't know if anyone got it other than myself and the poli-sci majors...

recipe:: 1 can, 3 pumpkin treats

I took some of these cookies to my ceramics class and everyone was pleasantly surprised at their perfect moistness and not too pumpkin-y taste.

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 egg

FROSTING

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F . Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.

To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Muffins that combine the wonderful texture of apples with the warm taste of pumpkin. A simple streusel topping gives them a little something extra. You won’t even know you’re eating something good for you.

Apple Streusel Muffkins

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup wheat flour

1 cup quick oats

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup canned pumpkin puree1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup applesauce

2 cups peeled, cored and chopped apple

Streusel

1 cup quick oats

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease muffin cups or use paper liners.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, oats, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, pumpkin, oil, and applesauce. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stirring just to moisten. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together streusel ingredients. Sprinkle topping evenly over muffin batter.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

I loooove pumpkin pie, so I thought, why not try cheesecake!

Easy No-bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

CRUST

2 1/2 cups gingersnaps, crushed

1/3 cup melted butter

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

FILLING

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2-2 1/2 cups whipped topping, thawed

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Mix crushed gingersnaps with melted butter and spices. Press crumb mixture into pie tin.

Beat cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gently stir in the whipped topping.

Spoon cream cheese mixture into crust.

Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.

music:: Andrew Belle and others

Andrew Belle is probably one of my new favorites that I wished I listened to more. His voice is absolutely enchanting. I dare you to listen to any of his songs and see if you don't love it.

Greg Laswell is another artist that I recently found. One of his more upbeat made for radio songs is Take Everything, although he can slow it down in songs like Goodbye.

Stornoway reminds me of a lot of Kirstin's favorite artists. It is something like The Decemberists meet Mumford and Sons. This song, I Saw You Blink is pretty fun.
Now you'll know what I'll be listening to this week!

Weird name, but great music is coming from Landon Pigg. Being a girl, his Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop melts my heart, but his music can be a lot more versatile, with songs like Can't Let Go. Pigg is definitely a heartthrob when it comes to lyrics.

Here is a song worth a listen, Love is Not a Fight by Warren Barfield. Barfield was going to get a divorce with his wife of three years but then they decided to work it out and he wrote this excellent song, which is now in my guitar playing repitoire.

For those of you who are brave and don't mind potty words I love the Creep Radiohead cover sung by a Belgian children's choir by Scala & Kolacny Brothers. I heard this song on the new Facebook movie preview.