Halloween at the Hoyt's

After having only one trick or treater last year, we opted to go to my parents for all Halloween festivities this year.

I was having a really hard time getting into my favorite holiday this year and didn't even pull out my decorations.

Finally on October 29th, I managed to muster up enough energy to carve a pumpkin and make a few Halloween treats.

Matt and I developed carver's block this year and could not think of anything to carve. Eventually we came up with a few ideas. Mine is supposed to be an owl on a tree. Matt's is obviously a bunch of skulls. He did much better than me this year.

After carving pumpkins, we decided to make use of a few of my mom's gingerbread houses that she's been whipping out for a Super Saturday. We quickly turned them from Christmas to Halloween.

Like Matt's graves?

We also made chocolate covered pretzel rods.

Matt and his co-workers gave them an A+.

The next day I still wasn't feeling to 'Halloweeny' so I made sure to get a Halloween pedicure to help boost my spirits and I can honestly say it did. There's something about having a tiny little spider on a glittery web on each toe that makes me absolutely giddy.

On Sunday we returned to my parent's house to hand out candy and throw together a Halloween themed meal.

My parents and their 2 new dogs- Andy and Wallace.

Tucker does not appreciate the new additions to the family and is one butt sniff away from taking one of them out as you can see below. He's such an old man.

Since I didn't get out any Halloween decorations, Tucker's Lobster costume was packed far away. So instead I threw a bandanna on him and made him a western dog.

Tucker refused to look at me for a picture...

so I grabbed him and forced him to look. :-)

Dinner was weak...really weak. It consisted of a vegan chili that had no Halloween theme to it, Mummy Veggie Dogs, and French Frights...(I was really stretching on those fries).

Dessert was test tasting of Orange Crème Brulée...

Chocolate Crème Brulée Ghosts...

And these fun Candy Corn Cupcakes that I had always wanted to make!

Sadly, I did not portion my orange and yellow batter well enough and you can't tell they're striped...but they were!

After dinner the Trick or Treaters arrived and we were ready with tons of candy! There's even more than this hiding around the corner.

AND we of course made a few special bags for the polite children. Manners are hard to come by these days- they should be rewarded!

I'm glad I have sweet parents that let me use their house, humor my lame meals, willingly try the copious amounts of desserts I'm always making, and then help me clean it all up when I'm quickly exhausted from it all.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween.

Oren Lavie

This video is great...

Texas State Fair 2010

This year Fried Frito Pie was the winning food at the Texas State Fair.

Unfortunately, it was not a winner for Matt's taste buds.

A very disappointed face followed this bite.

After trying out the fried food, we headed straight over to the midway to find more fried foods and to ride a few rides.

It was here that I realized that my body is not as young as it once was.

Perhaps I was just weak from the lack of food I was able to find to eat at the fair, but as far as I can tell...I am just plain old.

The ride below was the first ride we agreed to go on with a co-worker's daughter and sister.

It looks harmless while it's not moving...but once it starts it's very harmful.

When I got off, I had lost the nail polish on one foot, had a bruise the size of a silver dollar on my thigh, a bruised shoulder, and the bruise below on my elbow which became very swollen as the night went on.

After that, I decided that my place was with my friend, the stroller, and her other baby Trinity. Isn't she just so beautiful?!

Alas in the middle of everyone feasting on fried snickers, fried honey buns, turkey legs, and fried cheese on a stick, I found a chocolate covered banana.

While Chocolate is definitely not vegan and definitely a food allergy for me...I was ready to take what I could get and eat that sucker. However, it wasn't as good as the bananas always looked on 'Arrested Development' in the Bluth family banana stand and I had to throw it away after a few bites.

Fruit + Chocolate = GROSS!

Tired, bruised, and in the midst of a full on food allergy attack; we headed out... but not before stopping by the animals so that I could feed the ostriches and Matt could feed everything else.

It was great getting out to the fair again. We missed going last year for the first time in many years and I feel we definitely made up for it this time.

Charity Auction

This year I am not participating in my work's charity campaign for several reasons, but the biggest one is that my company spends more money on luxuries than it does on the benefits for their employees. Thanks for nothing Encana! (I had to get the word out there somewhere)

However, Matt's company is not like that, so when I was asked to bake something to be auctioned off in an auction there, I happily obliged.

After work yesterday I ran to the store to pick up some non-vegan food to begin creating my masterpieces.

I was shocked to find that the eggs I purchased had little breast cancer logos on each of them! How gross, yet perfect is that? I didn't know they could do that.

When I got home, I began baking cupcakes in my giant cupcake pan, making little pink ribbon chocolates, and simmering cream on the stove to begin the long, tedious process of making my ganache.

And to my amazement, it all went completely well and I was even able to watch 'Modern Family' and 'The Middle' while I did it all. I felt like a super chef!

Below are my creations! I hope they sell!

Random Summer Happenings...

At the beginning of the summer I got a craving for french macaroons. Had I had one before? No. Had I ever seen one? Not that I knew of. Did I even know what I was craving was called? No again. Thank heavens for Google- with it's aid I eventually figured out what taste I was wanting and located these little healthy gems at Central Market.

Yes that price tag does say $7.74 and they were worth every penny. I ate the entire container before we had pulled out of the parking lot.

Later on in the Summer, I got a craving for pot pie.

What sucks about pot pie is that it's so fattening and full of unfriendly animal products....SO I created my own vegan pot pie and it was delicious and low fat! I had to take a picture it was so pretty.

I also broke out the Crème brûlée torch finally and with Matt (and Martha Stewart's) assistance made the world's best chocolate Crème brûlée....or so Matt says.

On a very rainy day, Matt and I went over to Central Market again to buy some exotic fruit (that's my new thing) and were lucky enough to see a double rainbow! Matt took this video, but it's doesn't do it any justice.

And finally, one night we stayed in a hotel with this written on the toilet which made me laugh and gag a little.

That's all for now....

Out and About

You can never go wrong with a day at the Zoo or Ripley's...even when it's 1,000 degrees outside and you're the only ones there without children and looking totally out of place.

Matt got pooped on-I got bit.

I've found that I have many pictures of myself whispering to statues like this...I'm not sure why it's my automatic pose.

My mom's sofa and curtains are made out of the same fabric as this shim's sarong. I'm pretty sure I'll always think of this when I sit on her sofa now which is pretty gross.

Matt Cruise

Turtle Saver

This is Matt and Ruth.

Every time it rains, Ruth comes up towards the road seeking higher ground. Each time this happens, Matt takes her back down to the creek afterwards so that she doesn't get hit by any cars, baked in the sun, or beat up by some of the crazy birds we have in our area.

He's such a nice fella.

Clean Sweeping

There's never really much to post for Matt and I these days.

When you don't have children, spend a lot of your time going to doctors to find ways to have children, and save all your money to go to those doctors- it doesn't leave many options available for having fun.

However, several months ago I did get this sweet Electrolux Ergorapido bare floor vacuum that I absolutely love using! I've always been a sucker for household appliances, especially if they're colorful. This vacuum rocks and Matt rocks too for letting me take pictures of him using it.

I highly recommend it.

Valentine's Day

So I recently moved offices within my building and relocated to the top floor of the building.

It seems here on the top floor I have lost all concept of time. I no longer know what day it is, what time it is, and occasionally, I have no idea what month it is. As nice as the view from the top is, I miss my old office and knowing what time of day it is and if it is time for me to go home.

Because of this new time warping office, I lost track of time and had no idea that Valentine's day was this weekend...I know...some wife I am.

In an attempt to savage this over commercialized holiday without battling the mall to buy gifts for each other; Matt and I left the apartment today without a plan except to have some type of Valentine's date.

So, we tried a new (new to us) restaurant called Mango Thai on Lovers (lovers = valentine's day, right?) Lane.

Drank fancy drinks with little umbrellas!

I marveled at all the pretty vegetable garnishments on the food. (There's nothing I love more than radishes turned into roses, carrots turned into butterflies, miniature corn [I know they don't do anything fancy to make miniature corn...it's just so darn cute], and any other vegetables shredded up into little curls.)

And we finished up with dessert from Sprinkles cupcakes!

I got Vegan red velvet cupcakes and they were DELICIOUS! Especially because I had no allergic reaction to eating them!

Matt got a Black and White cupcake and a Red Hot Velvet cupcake. (The icing is suppose to taste like red hot candies)

Oh and did I mention that we did all of this before 4pm?

I know that makes us sound like 2 old fogies, but I'm choosing to take is as we've got the whole night ahead of us to find more fun stuff to do!