October Mishmash

I was a teenage werewolf, and no one even said thanks.

Boo! Happy Halloween!! I hope you all get lots of treats and no tricks this year. We ate our way very quickly through a mini Snickers variety pack (all types of Snickers, and none of the other related candies!) Matthew and I both like the peanut butter Snickers the best! We don’t get trick-or-treaters at our place, so the candy is all for us!

Food!

• First butternut recipe of the fall: One Pot Kimchi and Squash Mac & Cheese! I like to add more kimchi mixed in at the end with the cheese, and don’t skimp on the green onions!! This is a bit gluttonous but YOLO, right?

• And another butternut recipe! I made this for a group and everyone loved it: Butternut Squash Lasagna with Greens & Mushrooms. I also made a really great salad to have with the lasagna, using this Apple Cider Vinaigrette. The salad was just mixed greens, sliced apples, goat cheese, and pine nuts. It was so delicious!

• Another recipe we loved this month that happens to be vegan: Ginger Sweet Potato Coconut Milk Stew with Lentils and Kale. An excellent pantry meal! I tend to keep sweet potatoes on hand more often than regular potatoes, because they seem to last longer? This would also be good with squash in place of the yams, and with any other greens or leave the greens out, or add peas or even green beans! The coconut+ginger broth is super delicious and the lentils soak it up and are delightful, and even better the next day—a perfect make ahead lunch. This is a vegan meal that I think even meat die-hards would approve it. It is extremely comforting, hearty, and delicious. Serve it with super fluffy naan and I can’t see anyone complaining that there is no meat involved!

• One more super fall dish that we loved recently, Creamy Sage Gnocchi with roasted Delicata Squash. I love Delicata because you don’t have to peel it and it gets all caramelized in the oven. I’m really into sage right now, so this meal was great! The sauce is a bit rich, so if you make this I’d suggest cutting the cream with more broth.

Books/TV/Movies!

• https://bookshop.org/shop/michelleflook Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

  I have two books to talk about this month, one I really liked and one I was less into.

  • The one I really liked was Three Girls from Bronzeville by Dawn Turner. This is a memoir but it reads like fiction. I listened to the audiobook and it was really great narration. The story follows three girls (two of them are sisters) from their childhood in Chicago’s south side in the 1970s, through a variety of circumstances, into adulthood. Each of them had pretty different paths through life, and it was a very engaging memoir.

  • I also read Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new book, Carrie Soto Is Back. I probably wouldn’t have finished it if she hadn’t written it. (I’ve LOVED three of her previous books!) This has more to do with me than the book, because it’s about a tennis star. I am just not at all interested in sports, and though the character herself was interesting, she was VERY consumed with tennis, and the book was about 75% about tennis. Just not my thing. But you will probably like it if you are a competitive person, if you like challenging/unlikeable main characters, and if you have enjoyed TJR’s other books!

• I’ve been enjoying Bad Sisters on Apple TV. It’s a dark comedy set in Ireland about five sisters, and I love Sharon Horgan!

• We watched Black Bird on Apple TV. It’s only six episodes, and is based on a true story. It is definitely a disturbing story but really interesting, and Matthew and I both really liked it! If you like true crime stuff, you will probably enjoy this miniseries.

• We watched NOPE this past week, and I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. Matthew and I both loved Get Out and Us. This movie is a lot different, and had some very cool and interesting ideas and visuals, and we both had a different perspective of the ending, which was kind of neat. I liked it overall but I just liked the other two better. I think Us is my favorite of these three.

Projects!

• I am waiting on a fancy leather thimble that I ordered to get back to work on my puffy quilt, but in the meantime I finished this cutie Prairie Rose Quilt that I had started a little bit ago. It’s definitely bold, but I love the limited color scheme I went with on this. My first time using so much black in a quilt and it won’t be my last.

  

Miscellaneous!

• Whenever Halloween gets near, I have this intense urge to listen to The Cramps. I went to see them live on Halloween at the Fillmore in San Francisco years and years ago, and it was one of the best concerts I’ve been to. Halloween and the Cramps go hand in hand forever in my mind.

• The end of October this year marks 15 years since I moved to Portland! Definitely one of my better decisions, even if it was not the most well thought out plan initially.

• I baked my first cake for For Goodness Cakes! It was a Halloween themed birthday cake and I hope the kiddos love it and aren’t too scared! All the bones, ghosts, and gravestones are candy!

  

Medical!

• My daily radiation treatments are going fine. I opted for early morning appointments, and I go each weekday before work. Getting up early makes the days and weeks feel long, but this will be over soon (11/8 is my last one!). I am driving to and from the treatment center for more time than I am actually there getting treatment, so it’s not so bad. The nurses are all so nice too.

Remi!

She’ll put a spell on you!! Cutest little witchy babe!

Goodbye, until next month!

xoM