A Halloween Reminisce

Since Halloween is this week, I thought I'd dig through some boxes of old photographs and reminisce a bit about the Halloweens our family has celebrated. We've never embraced the scary/creepy side of Halloween, but we are all about the fun! For most of our kids' growing up years, we lived in a fabulous neighborhood for trick-or-treating...a real family affair of parents, kids, and pets going door to door, lots of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over costumes, and always the whispered, "Don't forget to say thank you!" in the dark. 

Bethany, our oldest daughter, using the same candy pail that I used growing up.

With Julia on her first Halloween - 1993.

Some years I got creative with the costumes and made them (like the pumpkins above), some years we purchased them, and some years we hodge-podged a costume together from whatever we could find in the dress-up box. What was I thinking with that Humpty Dumpty costume? Yikes! That's a blackmail worthy sort of photo! He looks a bit dazed, but the girls look happy!

And then there were three...Raggedy Ann, Humpty Dumpty, and Snow White. - Halloween 1997.

Our traditional Halloween night dinner was hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, because it was quick and there was almost no clean-up and everyone was just eager to get out the door. Inevitably, a small trick-or-treater or two would ring the bell while we were eating, and this would start the angst about missing all the fun. Then it would be into costumes and their turn to trick-or-treat.

Rapunzel, a dog, and a cat. - Halloween 1999? or 2000?

We would take the kids house to house on our block and on just two other neighboring streets. One of those streets, a cul-de-sac, would have a circle of homeowners in the middle of the street with their portable fire pit and bags of candy and would pass out candy to the kids there, while having their own little party with glasses of wine.

Princess Leia, a "fierce" knight, and Laura Ingalls. - Halloween 2002.

I hope all of you have a fabulous Halloween with your families...full of cutely costumed kids, fun, and lots of candy!

Tips for Planning A Harvest Party

We recently hosted a harvest party that I'd been dreaming about for years! The autumn gathering, beneath our oaks and maples on a splendid fall day in New England, brought together our family and some young families that are dear to us. We began with activities for the kids, moved on to a candlelit dinner of chili cooked over a roaring fire, and ended with a dessert buffet while an almost full moon rose over the treetops. 

So many people have written to ask for my harvest party planning tips, that I thought I'd tell you how our fall party came together, so it will make things easier for anyone who wants to host a harvest party for their family and friends.

DREAMING

Start by dreaming up what your ideal harvest party will be. No rules. No limits. Just dream. Ours began as a dream of mine and it just sort of percolated in my head for several years. When you have so many ideas in your head that you feel you just can't keep track of them anymore, go to Pinterest and start a Harvest Party board (click here to see mine), and pin images that encapsulate all your harvest party plans. Again...no rules, no limits. Mine contains images for: food, what I might wear, music, games...but mostly the images revolve around the feel or the vibe I wanted it to have.

EDITING TO A MOOD BOARD

Now it's time to move those dreams into reality. My Pinterest Harvest Party board contains (at last count) 322 pins, but I could certainly not incorporate all of those ideas into a single party. To help edit all your pins/dreams into a reasonable/real party, it is incredibly helpful to create a party mood board. It's not just incredibly helpful, it's a game changer. It's a lovely, visual representation (and a goal reminder) of what you want to create. I created mine by copying and pasting images from my Pinterest board onto four, 8 1/2" x 11" Publisher documents which I labeled: Snacks, Menu, Kids' Activities, and Ambiance. The mood board contains all the ideas you are actually going to use for your harvest party.

STRATEGIZING

Your mood board is an excellent place to pencil in notes to yourself as you make your plans more concrete. I used it to break down the pictures into lists of everything planned and lists of everything we would need. Here are how I elaborated on my mood boards to create our harvest party:

SNACKS

pretzels, popcorn, dried apricots, apples, mixed nuts, cider

sliced chicken sausage for roasting with assorted mustards

(Here I made notations that I would need cups for cider,

a crock for nuts, a nutcracker, etc.)

MENU

Chili (Jenny Steffens Hobick's is the best! Click here for recipe.

Note: 1 1/2 batches served 15 adults.)

Chili Fixings - tortilla chips, Frittos, sour cream, green onions, shredded cheese, cilantro

Mac-n-Cheese (for the kids)

Cornbread

Harvest Salad

Cheeses

Olives

Wine and Hard Cider

Plum Almond Crumble

Apple Pie Bars (click here for recipe)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread

S'mores

KIDS' ACTIVITIES

bobbing for apples

(need: a large, galvanized tub, apples with stems to make it easier for small children)

pumpkin carving

(need: pumpkins, tables, spoons, knives)

donut "catching"*

(need: donuts, string, slender piece of wood)

ring toss onto pumpkins

(need pie pumpkins with tall, straight stems, rings)

* Buy lots of donuts, because adults will want to play too!

AMBIANCE

Here I listed everything we'd need for practicality and atmosphere.

pumpkins, cornstalks, tables/chairs, wool blankets, skewers, trash cans, firewood, napkins, string of lights, hay bales, flower/leaves, mini pumpkins for little ones to take home, flatware, lanterns, etc.

DOING

Issue your invitations and you've got the ball rolling! We kept invites simple with just a Facebook message group invite.

Yes, it's a fair amount of work to host a harvest party. But it creates such happy memories for everyone, that it's completely worth all the effort. I would say that it took me about four days of concerted effort to pull everything together -- shop, make food, etc. And it took three of us about four hours to set up the day of the party. Enlisting help of willing family and friends would be a great idea! In addition to the smiles on everyone's faces, the laughter of the kids, and the general air of relaxed happiness that hung over the party, I will long remember it as one of the funnest parties we've had in ages!

Happy Harvest Party planning!

Abundant Autumn Living

Autumn in New England can be a whirlwind of places to go and things to do before the last, gloriously colored leaf falls to the earth. Taking the time to savor all the simple autumn joys and make those lasting fall memories is a passion near and dear to my heart. Even though hosting a large, autumn gathering...a harvest party...is on our family's fall bucket list, we don't want to forget to embrace the simple things. We want to arrive at the end of fall feeling that we enjoyed an abundant autumn because in and amongst the big dates on the calendar were entwined all its simple joys. 

Here is a short list of simple fall joys. Which ones will you be embracing this autumn?

- gather acorns

- all the fall baking (Here are links to three of our favorites: Ina Garten's Pecan Shortbread Cookies, Half Baked Harvest's Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes with Whipped Maple Butter, and Iowa Girl Eats' Caramelized Sweet Potato and Kale Fried Wild Rice.

- eat cider donuts

- visit a pumpkin patch

- take the scenic routes

- gather leaves

- drink hot cider, hot tea, and hot chocolate

- go apple picking

-warm by a bonfire

-carve jack-o-lanterns with family and friends

Which other simple joys are on your list? Pull up a chair and join the conversation by leaving a comment! I love to be inspired by your thoughts!

Travel Destinations: the New or the Familiar?

Nantucket has been a vacation destination for our family for 21 years. Once, for our tenth anniversary, we lingered for a week in a bed-and-breakfast inn. We've gone to Nantucket for day trips, for overnights, and for longer stays. Julia and I just returned from three days there. From rounding the iconic Brant Point lighthouse to discovering new bakeries or new-to-us beaches, Nantucket never disappoints! There's something comforting...or rather wonderfully comfortable...about returning to one vacation destination over and over again. And I'm wondering how you feel about that? Do you prefer to always explore new travel destinations, or is your heart smitten with a traditional family vacation spot?

My immediate answer would be that I like exploring the new, seeing places I've always wanted to see, and making the unknown known and familiar to me. But Nantucket has me rethinking that. There is an endearing quality to renewing your acquaintance with a distant "friend", getting to know them better, and to part with a deepened love.

But even the familiar family vacation spot is enhanced and enlivened by new discoveries. So while I enjoyed my traditional dawn walks on the island, exploring its quiet streets and slumbering houses with my camera for a couple of hours before everything awakens, I also craved the thrill of new discoveries.

Bicycling to Steps Beach, a hidden gem accessed at the end of a quiet, residential street via a footpath and a staircase, was one such discovery on this trip to Nantucket. When we reached the beach, we almost felt like trespassers who had tread upon land too marvelous to be imagined...the roaring waves on one side, the windswept sand dune with waving beach grass within touch of our fingertips to the other, a generous sprinkling of seashells at our feet, and an ever changing cloudscape overhead. All those trips to the island and we never knew about this glorious site! I fell in love with Nantucket all over again!

How about you? I'd love to hear how you prefer to vacation! Please leave a comment to join the conversation. Do you seek the new or embrace the favorite?

Breakfast Picnic

A breakfast picnic is a novel idea. But a mountaintop breakfast picnic with a view that stretches for miles is even more enticing. Recently, I planned one for Dave and I, just the two of us, on the summit of Miller State Park, the oldest state park in New Hampshire and one whose summit can be reached via an auto road. I experimented with an easy frittata recipe, and we packed it (warm from the oven) and other tasty breakfast foods along to the top of the mountain. 

We took the narrow, winding road to the summit, where we parked the car and walked a very short distance (maybe .10-mile) down a shaded trail to an overlook with a picnic table and the most majestic view of the tree-carpeted countryside and Boston's skyscrapers at the furthest point on the horizon. The sun was warm, but the morning, mountain air was fresh and invigorating, and we were a bit thrilled to have the whole mountaintop area mostly to ourselves for our whole picnic.

In order to keep planning and packing for our breakfast picnic simple, I stuck with my plan (see previous post here) of a menu that was: foraged from the refrigerator, bought at a bakery, and one item that took a little effort.

strawberries and raspberries

assorted baked goods from a local bakery

Easy Breakfast Frittata

mimosas

Although I make quiche frequently, I had actually never made a frittata. It's an Italian egg dish which is really a crustless quiche. Eliminating the crust saves so much time and effort. This one, made in an 8-in. cast iron skillet, will serve 2-4 people and is the ideal, transportable, picnic breakfast food.

Easy Breakfast Frittata

6 eggs

1/2 c. heavy whipping cream

1/2 t. salt

pepper

1 1/2 c. chopped vegetables (use a mix of anything you'd like: peppers, onions, mushrooms, leeks, asparagus, etc.)

1 T. butter

1 T. flour

1 c. shredded cheese (any type you like: cheddar, Monterey Jack, pepper Jack, Gouda, Swiss, etc.)

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Melt butter in an 8-in. cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add vegetables and saute a few minutes until softened. Sprinkle flour over vegetables and stir for one minute to blend.

While vegetables are sauteing, in a medium-sized bowl, whisk together: eggs, whipping cream, salt, and pepper. Add shredded cheese and whisk to incorporate. Pour eggs over finished vegetables, give a very brief stir to mix the vegetables into the egg, and cook until just the edges begin to firm.

Remove skillet from stove top and transfer to oven. Bake for 15 minutes, or until center is almost set. It will continue to cook after it's removed from the oven due to the lingering heat in the cast iron skillet.

Transport hot skillet in a towel-lined picnic basket.

Serves 2-4.

After we had polished off half the frittata and more of the baked treats than we should have, we packed our picnic back up and returned everything to the car. Then we turned our attention to the fire tower. It is open to the public to climb, and the park ranger at the entrance had given us a map of the view. I'm always a bit thrilled with a summit map, because they're round, since you're standing at the top and everything you see is 360° around you. With it as our guide, we were able to identify several nearby peaks, as well as Mount Washington to the north, the mountains in Vermont, and Boston to the southeast.

Our breakfast picnic on the mountaintop was a refreshing break from our normal routines, and it was a good reminder to go on dates more often. We decided while we were there that we definitely need to bring friends and visiting house guests back here. I imagine the view in the autumn will be enchanting!

Useful Links and Info:

Miller State Park 

     - entrance fee per person

     - hiking trails

     - bathrooms at the summit

     - fire tower could be easily climbed by people of most ages, but stairs are steep and treads are narrow

Pack:

- tablecloth and napkins

- plates and glassware

- silverware, knife, and a pie server (for the frittata)

- bug spray

- sunscreen 

- binoculars

Mountaintop Picnic

My short summer bucket list included "picnic on mountaintops". Picnics are always fun, but if you can picnic with a view, they become a mini-vacation -- a sort of removing oneself from the world for a bit -- but with tasty food! One lazy, Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, we packed a picnic and headed to our mountaintop destination, nearly 3,000-ft. above sea level, to the summit of Mount Sunapee, New Hampshire. I had been to the top before (click here) and was excited to show Dave and Julia this unique destination where we could picnic with a view.

Mount Sunapee, which is indeed a mountain, is also a ski resort which offers summer lift rides to the top. To be perfectly honest, heights and chair lifts are not my thing, but I knew the view from the top was worth it. And after some pleading to please lower the safety bar and some admonishments to not rock the thing, I settled in and enjoyed the ride. We could feel the temperature getting cooler as we ascended and the fresh mountain breezes rushed refreshingly over us. Negotiating the on and off of a chair lift with a large picnic basket and a smallish (but heavy) cooler was not as difficult as expected, and before we knew it we were on the top of the mountain with the world before us. What a view!

For once, I think I finally hit on the ideal sort of picnic fare -- simple, delicious, and not too much work. This meant that most of it was purchased from the market, some was foraged from our refrigerator, and an effort was made for dessert.

From the market: rotisserie chicken (sliced), salami, crackers, Brie, Fontina, crusty bread, really good butter, strawberries, plums, French soda.

From our refrigerator: homemade dill pickles (click here), leftover tomato-mozzarella salad.

Dessert: chocolate ganache tarts

We sat there, munching away, having almost the entire mountaintop to ourselves. Julia, at one point, asked, "Is this when bears smell our food and come eat us?" Happy to report that didn't happen! We brought binoculars and playing cards, but amusements paled compared to the simple enjoyment of the view. Occasionally, another group of people would wander close for a good view of the lakes and forests beyond. We'd chat for a few moments. I'd offer them some food. They'd decline and move on. They didn't know what they were missing! The view was great, but the view + picnic was sublime!

By far, my favorite memory of our mountaintop picnic was the several times Dave threw his arms wide to the breeze, smiled, shook his head, and said, "Ahhh...I LOVE this!" I think another trip here in the autumn just might be a good idea!

View on the way down.

Useful Links:

Mount Sunapee  - for year-round fun!

Metal Cooler - This is our absolute favorite cooler! It will pack food for four people tightly, or for two with ample room. All the food you see here that needed to be refrigerated was packed in it (plus room for ice). I'm also quite fond of giving it as a wedding gift!

Artisanal Cherry & Lemon French Soda - Yum!