Hi friends!
Happy Halloween! I still can’t believe it’s October 31 and tomorrow will be NOVEMBER! It really is true what they say about time going by faster as you get older!
While I know it’s not yet Thanksgiving, I’d definitely like to give thanks that we are going to have great fall weather for the trick-or-treaters (65 degrees today!). Check out last year’s Halloween Eve and Halloween posts – it was the complete opposite!
I’d also like to give thanks that no one was hurt or lost their home in the most recent Boulder wildfire that started on Friday. Here are a couple of pics I took as I was driving to school on Friday:
About 20 miles from school
Still about 10 miles away
When I got to the block where I normally park for the walk to class (in order to avoid paying for parking, I need to park about 5-7 blocks away), the smoke was VERY thick so I decided it would be worth a few extra dollars to park in the paid garage right at the school, just in case they blocked off any streets. As it turned out, they did evacuate to one block from where I normally park. About 2 hours into class, the administrator for our building informed us that power for that whole area would be cut and it could happen in 20 minutes or 2 hours. So we hustled to get our food prepared and our Kitchen Manager washed everything up as we used it. We didn’t end up losing power while we were there, so we did finish out the day.
The firefighters plan to have the fire 100% contained today. After the huge fire Boulder had in September, losing 6000 acres and 170+ homes, this is the last thing that community needs. So I’m glad everyone is safe.
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Back to Halloween….!
Allison inspired me to want to carve some pumpkins this year (you have to click on her name and go check out her pumpkins – they rock!) so we had a couple of our good friends over for dinner and drinks Thursday night, and carved away.
Can you see the "woof"?
The Riley & Rascal Jack-o-lantern
In honor of our dogs, Jeff carved their names into his pumpkin (with WOOF on the backside). SO COOL!
Somehow my pumpkins always look like Mickey Mouse:
My Happy Pumpkin
I saved the pumpkin seeds to roast later, and I’ll be delivering some later today to our friends who came to carve!
Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds "Delivery Style"
I did three batches (all were doused in macadamia nut oil): one with nutritional yeast and sea salt, one with soy sauce, and one with some cinnamon, Sucanat, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. My favorite was the nutritional yeast.
My friends were game to let me try out a school recipe on them, Braised Tempeh with Coconut Curry Sauce served on a bed of Cauliflower Couscous. I so appreciate that they were willing to try some vegetable protein since I know that’s not something they would usually eat. I didn’t do any fancy plating while they were here, but I did practice with the leftovers:
Mmmmm curry & coconut milk!
It was even better as a leftover!
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From a workout standpoint, this past week was a little lacking (that’s an understatement) so yesterday MSP and I did a solid lower body workout and today we are both feeling the fruits of our labor! 
My slow walking should come in handy if/when I transform into a witch this evening for our trick-or-treaters! (If I dress up I’ll be sure to share a pic!)
Have a WONDERFUL HALLOWEEN, friends! Share pics if you dress up!
See you next time with recaps from last week at school as well as some of my externship fun!
– Shari B. =)
