Wake up, wake up, wake up, it's the first of the month

And I swear in 10 seconds I'm going to go make my math posters, which is what I came up here to do.  But first, an update! Nothing to do with running, since I haven't done any of that all week. I have either a) a cold or b) allergies, but whatever it is, it's preventing me from running properly, because my lungs/nose are all clogged up.  Apparently every time I long run now, I'm going to have to take a week off due to clogged airways.  It's really going to make my training so much better.  I guess it could help with lung capacity, so that's something to think about.  Since I have no running info for you, I thought I'd share my Halloween instead.  If you're super pumped to hear about how exciting it was, I hate to let you down, because it wasn't anything fancy.  We handed out candy for two hours on our front porch listening to Halloween tunes.  It was fun, but it wasn't a wild party.  I did upgrade my skeleton costume from last year.  This year I added skeleton feet shoes and a mask.  At first I was just going to go mask-less and face paint free, but then I found a plain white masquerade mask in our Halloween bins.  Since I had it, I figured I might as well add to it and make it a full on skull mask.  All in all, I think it came out fantastic.  It was super easy to make too.  I cut out a top half of a skull, taped that to the top of the eye holes, and then cut out a lower half.  It was a little tricky to get the teeth and the mandible right, but I managed to pull it off.  I taped that part to the bottom of the eye holes, colored in some excess areas black, and added some cracks.  Boom. Instant mask.  The top and bottom probably should have been glued on, but I was in a time crunch since I decided this super last minute, at 4 p.m. yesterday.  Aside from that, today we raked up all the leaves in the yard, filled seven lawn waste bags, and died a little bit because the trees still look like they have the majority of their leaves.  Then I went to Michael's on my way to the grocery store and found out that Fall decor was 80% off.  I bought a few items because I realized that our house is lacking in the Thanksgiving aspect of decorations.  We have tons of Halloween and Christmas, but for the month of November, we're really boring.  So I bought some things to make a wreath.  That's basically it for this weeks exciting adventures.  One more thing, I can't remember if I shared this already or not, on Tuesday Title Boxing Saugus was looking for a new design for their blank chalkboard wall, so I went over and drew a boxing Mickey.  It came out real nice, considering it was the first time I ever really worked with chalk, especially on a large scale.  Alright, that really is all for now, check out the pictures to see the mask, wreath, and boxing Mickey!

Full costume - all hand-painted!

Fall wreath

Hit it Hard

A pinteresting week

Warning: This has absolutely nothing to do with running.

This week has been full of projects that I decided to do.  Couldn't tell you why this week became the craft week, but here we are.  Monday night I decided to try a new recipe I found on Pinterest two years ago....the person who wrote it called it armadillo eggs. I call them reverse stuffed peppers.  Anyways, the basic concept/way to make it is this.  Get some peppers, chili are recommended, by since RyGuy doesn't love spicy, I also used some regular small assorted peppers. You'll also need some cheese and some ground beef.  For cheese, I used a block of Cabot Vermont Cheddar, but you can switch that up to your liking.  Cut the top off the pepper, scrape out the seeds, and stuff in some cubes of cheese.  Then, take your ground beef, which should probably be mixed up like you're making meatloaf or meatballs.  (Eggs and bread crumbs recommended, but I never use that stuff in my regular meatballs, so I skipped it here too.) Wrap your pepper so that it covered in ground beef, like a giant pepper meatball, and stick it in a pan.  I made nine of them, using a little more than a pound of beef.  Bake at 300 degrees for 45 - 60 minutes.  The end product, while a little hard to eat as one, is delicious.  Totally worth it.

These are the after they came out of the oven.  Be warned, there is a lot of grease, but some of that is cheese mixing in.

Tuesday, I found a delicious dessert that I also wanted to try, so that was my next project.  This is called the blooming baked apple, but I feel like that name is also kind of ridiculous, so I'm going with just plain old baked caramel apple.  This one is also super easy, all you need is an apple, some caramels, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon.  (But I use apple pie spice in place of the cinnamon.) As far as apple variety goes, I don't think it matters what kind you use, it depends on your preference.  Generally I love Granny Smith apples, but since the original post called for honeycrisp, I went for something more similar to that.  So I've been using Gala apples, because I like to do things my own way.  To make, cut the top 1/3 off the apple.  Find a way to scoop out the core, if you don't have a corer.  I use a paring knife and a spoon, because I definitely do not have a corer.  Once the core is out,  take your paring knife and cut two circles around the inside of the apple.  That is actually not as easy as it sounds, because without the core, the inside gets a lot smaller.  Basically though, you just want to slice down and around, like you're carving the top off a pumpkin.  Then flip the apple over and make narrow slices around the outside of the apple.  I didn't take pictures of all this, so if you want to see the steps, you'll have to find the original recipe.  (SORRY!) Once you have everything cut, stuff two unwrapped caramels into the center of the apple.  Melt 1 tbsp of butter with 1.5 tbsp of brown sugar in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Stir, and then microwave for another 30 seconds.  Once that's done, add in one tbsp of flour, and as much apple pie spice, or cinnamon, as you want. Pour that little mixture over the top of the apple, put the apple in a pan and bake in a preheated 350 oven for 25 - 30 minutes.  

Note: I've been making them one at a time, so all the ingredients that you need to mix to make the sauce are halved.  You need to double it if you're going to be making two. 

If you look at the picture, you might be able to get an idea of how your cuts are supposed to be made.

This is pre-bake, after everything is ready.  It was too delicious to take a post-bake picture.  But definitely add vanilla ice cream to the side.  

Finally, today, I decided to try out our pizza stone, which worked great.  I also made a costume for school tomorrow, because I didn't want to be the buzzkill that didn't dress up for Halloween.  Even though I have no face make-up, I think the costume came out fairly well for a last minute effort.  All in all it took me about two hours.  In hindsight, I probably could have used fabric paint instead of regular acrylic paint, but too late.  So I made a skeleton costume using an old pair of black running pants, a black short sleeve t-shirt, black gloves, and black nylons that I cut up into arm sleeves.  Not bad overall. 

It kind of bugs me that everything looks super wide, but I think it's just the camera.  Plus the shirt is crooked.  On the plus side, it's covered in glow in the dark paint, so that's exciting!

I still have one more project that I started this week.  It's about half way done, but it's going to be a gift for someone, so I don't want to put out any details until after it's been finished, packed up, and sent off.  So don't worry, next time I write, it's back to running!