Chicken Kievs & Mashed Potatoes

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween, we sure did! Friday morning I got out early and did my grocery shopping and came home and put them all away (whew!) before going to my first parent/teacher conference. I am happy to report my daughter is doing great in kindergarten! Then we went to Target for odds and ends and the new Tinkerbell movie. Next up was cleaning out and carving the 4 pumpkins I got at Aldi, except one of them was rotten on the inside - yuck. Oh well, we had fun with the other 3. My kid loves scooping out the goopy insides and helping me pick out the seeds!

Saturday morning was spent cleaning the entire 1st floor of the house. My husband said I didn't need to clean every room because "we aren't having an open house", but I did need to clean every room! The living and dining rooms and kitchen are obviously where we would be most of the time, but the bathroom needs to be clean too - duh. Then because we would put all the coats and purses on our bed in our bedroom that had to be clean, and the kids would be in my daughter's room and playroom which means the parents would be in there too, so that had to be clean as well! Men just don't get this. Then I got around to baking the pumpkin seeds. This is the way my mom taught me to make them.

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PUMPKIN SEEDS

Remove as much pulp as possible. Soak the seeds overnight in salt water. Drain water - do not rinse. Dry seeds on paper towels. Spread seeds on ungreased cookie sheet and sprinkle generously with salt. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Flip seeds with spatula. Bake again for 5 minutes, flip seeds. Repeat as needed. Seeds are done when slightly golden and crispy.
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I had 3 large pumpkins worth of seeds and they took about 25 minutes to bake. YUM!

Around 3:15pm my neighbor J. and her daughter and J.'s boyfriend and his daughter came over and we all walked down to the park district for the Halloween festivities, but BIG OOPS, the party was the day before! I felt like such an idiot! I know when I checked the website I looked for 'Halloween Party' and definitely checked the time, but I guess I didn't check the date and assumed the party would be on Saturday. And we all know what happens when you assume something, right? LOL Thank goodness my neighbor is such a sweet lady and her guy is a cool dude, they took it in stride and we did some trick-or-treating on the way back to my house. The girls played while we had hot apple cider with rum and I ordered pizza. Around 5:30pm our friends T. and R. and their 2 kids from the suburbs got here and then it was really crazy! 6 adults and 5 kids in my little house, plus the doorbell ringing every other minute with trick-or-treaters made for a chaotic but really fun time.

Seriously, the doorbell rang every other minute. I had bought 10 bags of candy and had about 15 pieces left when we stopped answering the door. I only give 1 piece per kid because I only buy the fun-size candy bars. That's a LOT of kids in 2 hours.

We left around 6:30pm to do our own trick-or-treating and the streets were a sea of people. There are tons of kids in our neighborhood, plus we have seen carloads of people park and jump out to do their trick-or-treating here. Our city blocks are very long with about 15 houses per side and really good street lights. Plus 99% of the homes are bungalows with garden basements, so almost every house has front stairs to climb up and down. It's a great way to get lots of candy in a short distance, yet the kids get tired from all those stairs! We got home around 8pm and our neighbors went home right away, but our friends stayed awhile longer and it was nice to visit with them.

On Sunday it was all I could do to get out of bed - I was exhausted! All the running around from the previous 2 days had done me in, and I considered it a victory that I showered and did the dishes. Today it was back to the routine, and there are no extra activities this week, thank you God!

For dinner tonight we are having frozen chicken kievs from Aldi, the brand is Kirkwood and for $1 a piece they are really good. Plus I will make instant mashed potatoes, and gravy from a seasoning packet. It's more like "preparing" than "cooking", haha! Oh, and there will be a salad too (I always have torn lettuce with cucumbers and green peppers in my fridge).

Now I get to go read all the blogs I follow that I have not read since Thursday!

Happy eating!