Got Boo'd: Get Boo-ing Part II

They say patience is a virtue.


...


Lord knows I am NOT a virtuous woman.

As you saw in a previous post, earlier this month I ran around my new neighborhood like a fool in the rain, dropping boo buckets at the two most "festive" looking houses I could find (choosing the people with the most Halloween decor in their yard seemed like the best bet I had in getting a neighborhood boo-chain going). 

That was October 1st.

Almost every day thereafter, I've obsessively driven really slow down my street, counting ghosts hanging on front doorways. 

Oh, I suppose this may help if you don't know what I'm referring to:

Anyway - one day last week I must have been obnoxiously slow in my driving, because some kids in a car jetted around me in their rush to get to school, giving me a very irritated look as they passed. 

Nerds!  Are you in THAT much of a hurry to start class for the day?!  Heh.

Much to my satisfaction, it didn't take long for things to carry forward after my initial drop.  First, the people I booed put their ghosts up right away.  And then, within maybe a day or so, two more people had ghosts up.

I could barely contain my excitement when that happened.

And then ... it stopped.

For maybe three days straight, there were no new ghosts.  Only two ghosts popped up on new doorways after I passed out my buckets, and nothing more appeared to be happening.  Disappointed, I chalked it up to one of two possibilities:

(1) I started something in a neighborhood I didn't know well, and maybe this wasn't the "cool" thing to do around here

- OR -

(2) October 1st was a Monday, and maybe people needed time over the weekend to go out and get boo supplies

No secret, I'm sure you know - I was hoping really hard the answer was #2.


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A few days later ... queue angels singing ... or maybe imps rejoicing since this is Halloween?  Whatever the joyous noise came from, the weekend after I dropped my boo buckets: hooray!  Up sprouted a few more ghosts.  About 7 or so days from my initial drop, there were maybe 4-6 additional ghosts hanging around the neighborhood, none of which were from my original delivery.

And then ... it stopped again.

Since I had no real expectation of success after the first slow down, I figured that maybe the excitement ran out of steam and that was the end.  Or maybe the neighbors that knew each other at that end of the block all had ghosts up, so they decided to stop.  Who knows?! 

Imagine my surprise, then, when I left this past Saturday morning (10/13) to go teach my fitness class ... and there was a boo basket on the steps of the neighbors across the street from me!  Yes!  I was so happy they received a basket, since I had wanted to give them one of my original ones.  However, they had some personal things going on at the beginning of the month, and I figured they really didn't need the added stress of chasing down supplies for boo baskets.  It only goes to prove that karma works in mysterious ways!  (The funny thing was, SPOILER ALERT: later in the day when I stopped at Target for my own re-up of supplies, they were there shopping for their own baskets as well - LOL!)

With weekend #2 of boo-ing in effect in my neighborhood, I noticed a few more ghosts had sprung up during my drive in to teach.  And since I had other errands to run that morning, I was looking forward to the opportunity to drive around a few more times to survey the neighborhood. 

There wasn't a HUGE uptick in ghosts, but there were a few at least.  That was enough to make me happy as I went about my errands, and then came home mid day to settle my son in for nap.


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And then ...

My doorbell rang.

Me: "WTF?  Is it some political door knocker again?!  It's nap time.  I'm not answering the door."

Also me: *let me check my Ring doorbell videos*

Still me: *What the heck!?  It is NOT that cold outside.  Why is that person wearing a HOT PINK, full on down parka with the hood up, sunglasses, and a neck gaiter covering their entire face ... ???*

Finally me: "OH!  They're running away!  Heh!  I KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!"

Well, gee.  That didn't take long at all!  Just under two weeks, and a surprise landed on my step ... plus, I don't even think the person who left it knows me, or knows I started the whole dang thing!  LOL!

Not wanting to be the reason the momentum slowed on my end of the block, as soon as nap time was over ... well, two things:

First, I offered something to eat to my two year old son, who was thrilled to have a "pumpkin snack" (AKA pumpkin peeps from the surprise boo basket ... which has encouraged him to ask for a "pumpkin snack" every day since, hahaha).

Second, after snack, we headed to Target to pick up one more bucket and a few additional goodies for my next boo drop. 

Being that I already purchased quite a bit of things for my initial drop at the beginning of the month, I decided this time to only do one bucket.  And since I don't have kids old enough to utilize all the things that came in my surprise basket, I decided to re-gift a few of those things in my second round of boo-ing.  The net result of my "new" basket was this:

I chose the Halloween Treatz Crackers because I heard my immediate next door neighbors are visiting Danish executives.  My thinking was that crackers are somewhat of a European tradition, and since they appear to have tween/teen aged kids (which, let's face it, teens are hard to find "cool" things for), I hoped the entire family would be able to appreciate the novelty of seeing crackers done with a Halloween twist.  The only catch was I had to work fast enough to boo them before someone else got them.

Besides the crackers, I purchased a couple of pairs of socks from the dollar section at Target, re-gifted the writing utensils and brooch I received, added two spare copies of the boo sheet, and then topped of the basket just like I did last time with the last LED ghost I had. 

Photo from previous post for demonstration only, 

not actual photo of this new basket.

I was pleased with the assortment, even if it was a little slap-stick.  I thought it seemed like an age and culture appropriate surprise. 

And yes, I did in fact work fast enough ... there was no ghost on their door yet.  So then, of course, I did what any normal 37 year old woman would do at 5pm on a Saturday afternoon. 

I ran up like a bat outta hell, threw the bucket on their step, hit the doorbell and beat it - snickering like a four year old the entire way home.


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So now, I'm back to where I was for the last two weeks.  Watching.  Waiting.  Hoping to see more ghosts spread through the neighborhood.  Oh - and watching my son enjoy playing with his newly inherited Halloween snow globe! 

Here's to hoping a ghost shows up on every doorstep!

Recipe: Delicious Slow Cooker Meal - Easy Vegetarian Coconut Curry

Having just settled into the new house, my husband and I have been entertaining a lot of visitors lately who've been patiently waiting to check out our digs.

BUT ... since we are still working on the final details of unpacking and moving in, and also want to ensure the house is relatively clean and tidy for visitors, there hasn't been a ton of spare time for us to invest in long and drawn out meal preps for said visitors.

Thank goodness it's fall and slow cooked crock pot meals are seasonally appropriate.

This past weekend, I was really in the mood for something curry and slow-release carb friendly (read: diabetic appropriate for my guests).  After googling, I stumbled across this recipe and figured it was worth a shot.

Following the recipe mostly as written, the only substitutions I made were:

     (1) I used regular soy sauce instead of gluten free tamari
            (I didn't want to buy another bottle to clutter up my fridge)

     -and-

     (2) I used 36+ ounces of coconut milk
            (my cans were 12-13 oz each, and I wasn't going to waste the last bit for no reason)

Serving the curry over brown rice, which I prepared on the stove top separately, I found my end dish to be somewhat watery (likely due to my excess coconut milk), and in need of more seasoning.  For the future, to help with the excess liquid and to save myself the need to make a side of rice, I plan to omit the rice all together and just pump the quinoa in the slow cooker WAY up (maybe 1-2 cups into the cooker directly).  I also plan to swap the turmeric for curry powder in order to add more spices into the mix, and will likely double or triple that portion as well.

For those of you must have meat people, this curry would pair perfectly with seared chicken breasts.  After letting the slow cooker go all day, about an hour before serving simply cook a few breasts on your stove top, cut the meat into slices or cubes, and stir into the slow cooker.  This will allow the chicken to absorb some of the flavor prior to serving without it getting over cooked in the coconut milk.

Also - when I made this, I put my slow cooker on high for close to 4 hours and my vegetables were all still mostly raw, despite the original recipe's instructions.  To speed things along, as this was lunch and we didn't have time to spare, I transferred from a slow cooker to a stock pot and simmered on the stove for another 20 minutes or so ... which proves that any slow cooker meal is also stove top friendly in a tighter time frame, so don't be shy to make this directly on your stove top if you don't own a crock pot of some sort.  I'd guess an hour simmering on the stove top, omitting slow cookers entirely, should suffice.

Anyway, since the original recipe as is was still quite good - below is the recipe as I prepared it, without the modifications noted above.

Enjoy!


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Easy Vegetarian Coconut Curry

Ingredients

• 1 medium-large white onion, diced
• 1 medium-large sweet potato, scrubbed clean and diced
• 1 large head of broccoli, cut into bite sized florets 
• 15 oz can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons tamari (or regular soy sauce)
• 2 teaspoons salt (or omit salt and add extra soy sauce)
• 28 oz can diced tomatoes
• 3 cans, 12-13 oz (+/-) each, coconut milk (or 30 oz if you can find it)
• 1 cup water
• optional: cooked rice for serving curry over, chopped parsley garnish

Directions

Spray interior of slow cooker with non stick olive oil spray.

Place diced onion and sweet potato on bottom of bowl.  Top with broccoli florets, drained beans, and uncooked (dry) quinoa.  Layer in garlic, ginger, turmeric, tamari (soy sauce) and salt.  Pour in entire can of diced tomatoes, including juices.  Top with coconut milk and water.

Place lid on slow cooker and turn on heat.  High setting will take 4-6 hours, low setting will take 8+.

Makes a very large dish.  Will feed 6-8 hungry adults, likely with leftovers to spare.

Get Boo-ing

It's my favorite time of year.  Halloween!  You know me and costumes!!  And being extra!!!  And gift giveaway planning!!!!

All these factors combined, this year I decided that I'd try to kick off a round of boo-ing in my new neighborhood.  If you're not familiar with the boo concept, here's the summary - I borrowed inspiration from the internet but re-wrote the poem to make it less wordy:

Since I am in a new place and basically have no Halloween decor anymore (I never had much at my old place, and most of what I did have was either broken or dirty and not worth moving), I've been spending the last couple of weeks scrounging around the Halloween isles at local shops and online.  Hard to believe it, right?  Me over planning for a holiday a month in advance!?

Honestly, though, despite the early plan of attack - I haven't had much luck finding things that (1) I like and (2) aren't an arm and a leg price wise.  I have had some small successes finding a few indoor things, and something to give away on the big day (I always have a specially chosen toy to go with my candy hand out for the kids), but more on that in a future post.

Anyway - while this shopping was mostly for my own personal gain, knowing I wanted to do some sort of boo basket, I ended up collecting an interesting assortment of little goodies here and there to give away:

FYI the place mat shown was not included in the basket.

I will admit - many people do something much less ornate and more candy based than I ended up putting into my basket.  But, I felt like I wanted to avoid eatables, since we all get bombarded over the holidays with snacks anyway.  Plus, I don't know my neighbors well enough to gauge who should or shouldn't get booze or other more "adult" oriented gifts.  So the above is where I landed.

After pulling all the little treats together, into the bucket the goodies went.  I thought the LED battery operated ghost on top was kind of cute:

And then ... tied shut, they were ready to send off!

Obviously I was too excited and couldn't wait, so as soon as October 1st hit, the buckets were launched.  Not wanting to ding-dong-ditch, I just threw the buckets on a two neighbor's steps and booked it.

It seems like the gifts were well received.  I mean ... can anyone ever really tell if something is well received?  LOL!  But, the ghosts are up on their doors indicating they've been "booed".  So hopefully that's a good sign!

Now I wait to see ... did my excitement catch?  Will boo-ing spread through the neighborhood?

If I get a boo basket myself, I'll be sure to update!  :-)


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Do you boo in your neighborhood?  What kind of basket do you build?  Add your comments below!