SpruceHill

BOOOOOOOOO!

   

Doesn't she look ferocious? (Sorry Sadie! I just had to do it!)

   

This Halloween I opted out of carving pumpkins. Really! You carve them and with in three days they are in the trash or in our case thrown out into the woods. So I decided this year we would paint the pumpkins instead. I have to say that the kids really enjoyed doing it and I enjoyed, well not doing it. It was as simple as getting the paints and some news papers and I just sat back and watched. It was fun. They got to do their pumpkins exactly the way they wanted and I got to not carve their pumpkins.

 

Little E chose the traditional pumpkin design. Hers however had hair. Which of course everyone knows you can not carve into a pumpkin.

 

Big E chose a bit of a happy semi traditional theme. A smiley pumpkin (teal) with polka dots. Very non- scary and welcoming.

 

HES chose a nontraditional fashion theme that included accessories, and hair. Very clever and very grown up. Her pumpkin looks a bit naughty though. don't you think?

I hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween. I myself am trying to save up all my calories for tonight so I can over eat and enjoy all the candy the girls will get!

Thai chicken and red curry-coconut milk bisque soup

        

My friend KP has made this soup for me before and I recently found a store bought version that was almost as good. I really like making things with fresh ingredients so I thought I would try to make the soup myself. I am glad I did because it is yummy! Now, I changed a couple of things in KP'S recipe (sorry) but it is basically the same. She did not give me any measurements for any of the ingredients. I had to wing it!

Here are your ingredients…..

3 TBS butter

One small scallion

One package of mushrooms, what ever kind you like

Freshly grated ginger to taste, I used about a tsp?

2 cans of coconut milk

5 cups of chicken broth

One package of fresh chicken diced

¼ cup of fish sauce (you can find it in the Asian isle in your local market)

About 1 TBS of red curry paste. Use as much as you like. It is all about how hot you like it.

½ cup of brown sugar

A nice handful of rice noodles

Fresh cilantro as garnish

 

Chop the scallion and mushrooms and brown in butter in a nice sized soup pot. Add freshly grated ginger. After a few minuets add chicken, cook through.

Pour coconut milk in and let it simmer until it thickens. Slowly add the chicken broth.

Add fish sauce, brown sugar and red curry paste. Simmer until all the flavors get blended together. I like to simmer my soups for a good amount of time, not too long though about 2 hours or so longer if you like. Right before you serve the soup, add you rice noodles and chopped cilantro. Make sure you prepare the noodles before you add them to the soup. They only have to soak in hot water for 5 minuets or so. After you add the noodles let them sit in the soup for a while so they can absorb some of the flavor.

This can be a quick soup, it’s easy to make and it tastes good right away. It also is good if it sits a while.

Enjoy!

Have you read your Starbucks cup today?

That's right you heard me right. Have you read your Starbucks cup lately?

 

What can I say? I am just sitting there is Starbucks with my friend KP and she looks at her cup. Really looks at it and hands it to me. This is what it said. Wow! I could't believe it.

I found the best way to fight your fear during cancer treatment  is to be able to smile and laugh at it once and a while. I bet if it could, it would be pissed off!!!!???????

Cross posted on Mothers With Cancer

Knitting, Knitting, Knitting............

   

I have been traveling around lately with a bag of knitting. I have been working on this for a week or so and could not seem to finish it. I finally had enough time yesterday to sit down and finish it up.

 

I am in love with the yarn. The texture and color, so warm and soft.

   

I am not much of a knitter. I can do small things, I have not mastered anything complicated. My one problem is that I always want to keep everything I knit, because I fall in love with it. This time I can't because it is a gift. I think I am going to go out and get more of this yarn. Because it's so yummy!

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It is the end of October and November is upon us. I just wanted to remind every one to.....

My friend Throwslikeagirl has a great post everyone should read. She and I went through treatment at the same time and she really summed things up well. So I thought instead of writing my little post about the end of breast cancer awareness month I would send you over to her.

Remember Young woman get breast cancer too! So Don't forget to do your self exam and listen to your body. I did and it saved my life!

First IEA Show

(I know I know I have been posting a lot of horsey stuff! Bear with me ok?)

Yesterday was our first school IEA show of the year. IEA  stands for, Interscholastic Equestrian Association. It is a different type of show because you do not take your horse with you. You go dressed and ready to go in your show clothes and a school horse is picked out of a hat for you. So the playing field is relatively even so to speak.

It was a very cold morning, but it turned out to be a beautiful day for showing.

 

The show is a hurry up and wait game, so we were there all day but HES only rode for 10 minutes. We watched all our girls ride. They all did very well considering we had no coach. Our coach was traveling and could not get back in time. That is a big handicap but the girls overcame the hurtle and did well regardless.

 

HES happened to have a good pick and was relieved she did not get a spazzy mount.

 

Her class was in equitation. All the horses go around the ring and the judge tells them what she wants them to do. Walk, trot or canter. Their form must be just so. That is what they are judged on.

         

  

I do not know what the final results are, but the team had a good day.