The Ghost and Mrs. Vaughan

Mary came to town!

She was here primarily to visit her mom and we were able to get the Cupcakers together for an afternoon of fun, food and crafting.

We started right in crafting, so our ghosts would dry to transport home.  We used these instructions right here, but there are many basic ways to make them and you can find them on-line.

Here is the cheesecloth, soaked in fabric stiffener and draped on the armature we made.  This one is Jills.

Here they are dried and lifted off there armature and making a little quartet.  From the left is mine, Susan's, Jill's and Marys.  Aren't they fun? They are held up by the pool of draped cloth around the bottom.

We painted our ghosts with some glow in the dark paint - here is a long exposure spooky photo of how it looks in the dark.

And now we've earned our lunch!  We were celebrating Mary's and Susan's October Birthdays, so of course we had to have cupcakes.  Dark lavender was about as close as I could get to purple on the frosting.

For lunch we had New England Squash Soup (recipe at the end of post).  My other good friend named Susan made this for me and Pauline a couple of weeks ago and was it delicious!  I also made the first pop-overs of the season.

I was lucky - again! and won the Halloween fabrics we used for our game of LCR - sorry girls!

This is the view out of my computer room window on the second floor.  I have a love hate relationship with this huge Maple tree.  Today I really love it :)

It was great seeing you Mary!  Come over and play any time!

New England Squash Soup

1 cup diced onions

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 cup unsweetened apple juice

1 butternut squash (about 1 pound) peeled, seeded and cubed

1 potato diced (we used yukon gold)

3 cuts water or chicken or veg. stock (I used half water half chicken)

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2/3 cup evaporated skim milk

salt and pepper to taste

(we also add crushed red pepper or cayenne pepper for some heat)

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2 cups sliced mushroom (6-8 oz)

3 Tbsp dry sherry

1 Tbsp soy sauce

pinch of dried marjoram

Combine the onions, celery, garlic and apple juice in a large soup pot.  Cover and simmer about 10 minutes, until the vegetables are softened.  Add the squash, potato, water or stock, bay leaf, thyme, salt and nutmeg (and red pepper if using).  Bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat.  Simmer until the vegetables are very soft, about 20 to 25 minutes.

While the soup simmers, saute' the mushrooms in an uncovered skillet with the sherry, soy sauce and marjoram until the mushrooms are tender and most of the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes.  Set aside.

When the squash and potatoes are very soft, remove the soup pot from the heat.  Remove the bay leaf and working in batches, puree the soup with the evap milk in a blender or food processor.

reheat gently.  Add salt and pepper.

Serve topped with the sauteed mushrooms.

Enjoy and thanks for the recipe Susan H.