This Monday morning we are …

• Recovering from a wonderful but action-packed weekend away
• Ready to trick or treat (Already. At 6 a.m.)
• Grateful for simple traditions
• Thankful for a rhythm we can begin again tomorrow
• Wishing you a VERY HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

What are you up to this fine Monday morning?

A grandmother pretends she doesn’t know who you are on Halloween. 
~Erma Bombeck

An assortment of recipes, books, blog posts, or other things that inspired me this week.

Annie’s Halloween Treats

Embroidered Pumpkin

Pumpkin Bread with Topping

Pipecleaner and Felt Ghost

Halloween crafts from The Magic Onions

What is inspiring you this week? Please tell us about it in the comments below!

I used to be very frightened of crepes.

They seemed so fancy. They seemed so involved.

I thought I would need expensive equipment and some serious skills.

But a few years ago, my mom’s friend Jan gave me her old Crepe Cookery cookbook.

It opened my eyes to the exciting world of ’70s photography.

My favorite part of this book, hand’s down, is this piece of random note paper I found inside (It says Holy Cow!). My second favorite part is the author photograph. My third favorite part is the actual recipes.

This is not to say that Crepe Cookery is not an excellent resource for all things crepe. It really is. Especially if you want to get fancy and make savory crepes, filled with things like Steak Diane.

I do not do that. I make sweet crepes for breakfast, and sometimes I make mu shu, but that was really only like twice.

Most often, I am still bleary-eyed and dangerous when I make breakfast crepes. My favorite recipe actually comes from my friend Rebecca, who adds ground walnuts to her recipe. It is definitely worth the teeny bit of extra effort in my opinion.

The other thing worth a little extra effort on the mornings that I am not quite as bleary-eyed is setting up some fun fillings. My kids are often happy with a little bit of jam, but they get really excited when I let them experiment with mashed bananas, yogurt, sliced apples or pears, nut butters, and even cheese.

It turns out, crepes really can be quite simple.

Of course, that’s from a girl who isn’t sticking seafood in them.

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

Mix 2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon cream of tartar, a half a cup of salt, 2 teaspoons of oil, a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and a 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg (or 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice).

Add two cups warm water and heat on the stove over medium heat, stirring constantly. (Add red and and yellow food coloring at this point to make it orange, but this is an optional step. Natural food coloring also works well here.)

Remove from heat, and knead carefully.

Store in a covered container for up to one week.

I am, by definition, a fly by the seat of my pants kind of knitter.

I am not a directions reader. And I am a big fat cheater. If I have too many stitches, I’ll just knit some together. If I don’t have a enough, I have no problem making a few whether there is technically space to do that or not.

What I have learned, is that this generally works OK with hats. It works less well with sweaters and pretty much not at all with socks. I mean, it might work with socks sometimes, but I have so many problems already in that arena that I find it better not to try.

All that being said, this pumpkin hat is really a piece of cake. It is a basic ribbed hat with a make your own rules type of stem.

I used an orange Cascade brand worsted weight yarn and size 8 circular needles. I used the same pattern for my 4 year-old and my 7-year-old. It is a little tight on my 7-year-old so if you are making this hat for an older child, you may want to use a larger size needle.

Pumpkin Hat

Cast on 80 stitches. Place marker and join to knit in the round.

Begin a K7, P1 pattern and continue knitting until hat is about 3 1/2 to 4 inches, depending on the age of your child.

Begin decreases. K8, K2T around.

Work on3 row in pattern

K7, K2T

Work one row in pattern

K6, K2T

Continue decrease until you need to switch to double point needles. Continue decreases until final round (K2T all around), and sew up top.

To create a stem, cast on 8 stitches using green yarn leaving a long tail. Knit until stem is about 3 inches long, again, leave a long tail. Fold in half and sew to hat. Weave tails ends into hat to create curly tendrils.

One of our favorite Halloween traditions here is to carve pumpkins and then roast the seeds.

It’s a yearly celebration that began even before our children were born, way back before we knew that pumpkin seeds are a really healthy treat.

They are packed with magnesium and have a hearty dose of zinc too. And they are just really fun and festive to make.

Each year, we try to come up with some new and different ways to serve our seeds.

We begin with this basic recipe, and then add various seasonings to the bowl to coat the seeds.

This year’s winners were:

•  Pumpkin Spice Pumpkin Seeds, flavored with pumpkin pie spice blend and a little evaporated cane juice in place of the salt.
• Taco Seeds, coated with cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper and salt
• Garden Seeds (Owen’s very own creation) seasoned with garlic and celery salts plus oregano and parsley.

All were yummy and fun, and disappeared faster than a ghost at sunrise!

Do you have a favorite way to flavor your pumpkin seeds?

This Monday morning we are …

• Making some trick or treat bags using this method
• Choosing some of our favorite treats to share at upcoming parties
• Putting the finishing touches on a couple of costumes
• Preparing to shower a very special mommy- and daddy-to-be with good wishes

What are you up to this fine Monday morning?

I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. ~ Henry David Thoreau

An assortment of recipes, books, blog posts, or other things that inspired me this week.

What a mommy is …

Banana and Peanut Butter Flax Seed Cookies

The Kind Over Matter site

Waldorf Strawbale Pre-school

The Inspiring Quotes Facebook page from Hip Mountain Mama

What is inspiring you this week? Please tell us about it in the comments below!