MARCH GPD

[Gingerbug]

I am doing horrible at getting in my Great Pumpkin Day....so I am shooting for either the 13th or the 31st...either one will do as long as I get a little Halloween fun in this month!!! arty:

My main goal from Monthly Magic is to get out and update my notebook. I'd also like to try a new recipe...so may have to do it BOTH days!!! LOL

 

[SparkleNana]

I love GPD because I love Halloween. We have lots of neighborhood parties around Halloween. Last year, one block was closed to traffic. The adults set out tables in the street with pot luck food and all kinds of drinks (alcoholic and non.) The kids raced around from porch to porch, helping themselves to candy from bowls on the steps. And then we all continued trick-or-treating on other streets -- or returned to our homes to gve out candy.

So GPD is about friends and socializing for me. So for our March GPD - and hopefully every GPD - I will have a casual dinner or brunch for friends. This will take off some of the pressure of feeling I have to entertain friends at Christmas. Spread it out a little.
:hat:

 

[christmascreations]

I am off of work this GP day BUT I do have a doctors appoinment. My son has a baseball game that night so I might make the pumpkin pancakes as breakfast for dinner. My boys like them and put enough syrup on their plates that they don't believe me when I tell them they are pumpkin...lol Although this time I want to try them in a whole wheat version....crossing my fingers they will like them!!!

 

[cipalla]

Finally asked dh the best place to find cheap rope for my spider web and I am going to check it out in the next couple of days, hopefully it pans out for me. Everywhere else seems to be high and it would cost ALOT to get what I would need. Will let you know what I come up with. So my GPD will probably be on the 30th/31st this month.

 

[SparkleNana]

Yesterday, I bought some wine for our March GPD Sunday night supper. Yesterday and today, I did routines. Each day, I also did a bit of garden maintenance. (Picking up large pieces or trash and large dead branches.) I noticed there is a lot of wet muddy dirt all over the front walk from the last rain. I hope it dries out enough so that I can sweep it away by Sunday evening.

For some unknown reason. I spent a lot of time today cleaning out my closet. It was totally unplanned. However, I have become more and more frustrated by the fact that I can't find any shoes, because so many clothes have fallen on top of them on the floor of the closet. So -- a lot of clothes went to toss away and give away bags. I still can't find any shoes -- but I am not finished with the cleanup. :boo:

 

[SparkleNana]

Finished cleaning the house for the GPD Sunday dinner. :leprechaun: Tomorrow I will finish shopping and do some cooking.

 

[SparkleNana]

Along with other things, I did the grocery shopping for tomorrow's GPD supper at 6:00. Except for fresh bread tomorrow and anything I forgot.

I baked lots of brownies. I did buy two cooked chickens. (They didn't cost much more than buying the raw ones and cooking them.) I will slice them and arrange on a platter tomorrow. I bought tubs of cole slaw and potato salad. I will doctor them tomorrow - I'll boil small red potatoes and hard cooked eggs tonight, and put them with fresh sliced green onion in the potato salad. With the cole slaw -- I will add fresh red and green cabbage. Maybe a little carrot too. And correct the taste of the dressing if needed. And I bought the ingredients for two of Lana's terrific salads from our Recipe Board. I really look forward to making them tomorrow. Plus - cucumbers were on sale 3 for $1 -- and I already had fresh dill and vinegar -- so I bought them for a side dish. Oh -- I got spring flowers for the table. I'll set the table first thing tomorrow.

It took more time and energy to do the shopping than I thought it would. I am glad I did it today and didn't leave it for tomorrow! :hat:

 

[crazymo]

I'll do mine on the 31st. I am going to plant a big pumpkin/gourd/indian corn patch this spring so I think I'll plan that out and order the seed's I need yet.

 

[SparkleNana]

Great idea on the planting, crazymo!!! I bet you will be so happy with it in the fall!

OK, I'll start reporting on the GPD Sunday Night Supper.

At the last minute, I decided to add places for the 4 youngest kids at the big table -- so there were 14 (mismatched) chairs. And small tables from outside under the two (mismatched, but white) tablecloths in one long, very crowded table). Everybody had a wine glass and nice charmette paper plate) and white cloth napkin. Even the little kids drank out of the wine glasses (lemonade and gatorade and water) and nobody spilled. Although spills are perfectly OK and the tablecloths do have some stains already.

It felt like a big family Thanksgving dinner. Everybody stayed at the table the whole hour and 45 minutes. Even the little kids stayed a long time, and kept running back to sit down (from their TV and video games.) Remember -- these people all live next door to each other on our block -- and have for years. They spoke, but had never been in each others houses.

The ages ranged from 6 (four kids under 9) to mid-80s. The 80+ year old widower is as mentally alert and as charming and warm as anyone else at the table. The two teenage boys had been to our table for dinner before. They stayed sitting down and talking with the adults almost the whole time -- only getting up occasionally to help the younger children with a video game. I thought this was incredible -- since teenage boys are so shy around adults (and also usually so bored by adults).

There are many ways to feed and entertain people, and I enjoy them all. But these people are (1) all intimately connected by beng long term neighbors) and (2) I happen to know them all and they are warm, funny, nice people. I KNEW they would enjoy being with each other. And I think there is something magical about the long table with people of all ages, who have an ongoing relationship. I think it goes back to our subconscious national memories of family Holiday dinners.

I'll write about the food later (the hit was the Snickers Salad!) But I want to tell you about the role that my husband of almost 50 years plays when we entertain.

First of all, he HATES the idea of having people in our house. His rule is that he will do nothing to help get ready and he may choose to hide in the bedroom instead of coming to the dinner. All day Sunday, he lay in bed complaining of a terrible stomachache (I had bring him a tray with ginger ale and crackers and tomato soup for nourishment.) I begged him to take a shower by 5:00 if he was going to take one. During the shower (because I had made him hurry) he either got shampoo in his eye or scratched his eye with a fingernail. The last hour before the guests arrived was spent with me asking him if he would have to be driven to the emergency room.

When the guests arrived, he was freshly showered, dressed and sitting by the fire. (I didn't have time for a shower -- because of the terrible eye injury) but I did manage to change clothes.) He "revived" with the attention paid by the guests about his eye injury. He was able to make his way to the head of the table, and sat there throughout the entire dinner. He managed to enjoy the food and conversation tremendously.


Being Sunday night, with school and work, the guests were on their by by 8:00. Knowing that my husbands' intense pain wouldn't allow him to sleep, I then drove my husband to the trauma center. We sat in the waiting room for half an hour, but they were very busy. After that half hour, my husband declared he wasn't going to wait any longer. I drove him home. He allowed that his eye was feeling much better, and I begged him to take aspirin or something before he went to sleep. Apparently he did, because he slept well during the night. At one point I asked him how his eye was doing, and learned it was "better".

My husband slept very late this morning. When he was up at his computer, I asked how his eye was. He very gravely replied, "How does it look?" I carefully peered into his eye as he looked up, looked down, etc. "It looks normal", I finally said. "It feels normal," he replied seriously.

"I enjoyed last night tremendously," he volunteered. "I don't know why I get so upset about having people come over."
bunnylove

 

[luludou]

:rotflol: sparklenana!!! those DH sure are a handfull!!!

Loved reading your report!


As for me... didn't quite manage the 13th, so I'm gonna try for the 31st.... :boo:

 

[SparkleNana]

Here is a report on the food for the GPD supper. The hit of the evening was Lana's recipe for Snickers Salad. It is in the section under main dishes & salads in our recipe section. More on this later.

The food was all passed around family style. Cut up roast chicken (and a chicken substitute for the vegetarians.) Potato salad. Cole slaw. Sliced tomatoes. Two kinds of bread. When everybody was finished eating, we passed around a bowl of Lana's Snicker Salad -- which I called a "dessert salad". Everybody was really interested because they had never had anything like it -- and everybody really liked it!

(It is basically lots of very tart apples cut up and mixed with finely shaved dark chocolate snickers bars. It is then mixed with a dressing and chilled. I modified the dressing a little -- and made it cool whip and vanilla ice cream. I made the dressing quite generous -- I made 3x as much as the recipe called for.)

We then passed around brownies and more vanilla ice cream.

Everybody ate a lot and I packed up big bags of leftovers for everybody to take home. I find that children and teenagers love to take home goody bags of food.

It was a very warm and happy night.
bun1

 

[jackfrosty]

How Wonderful! bun1

 

[Christysue]

Sounds wonderful! Glad your night was a big hit. bun2

 

[rachelw713]

So, the only thing I have planned to do for GPD is find some Halloween fabric for a table runner and things for my dining room and some more fabric for an outfit for DD (who will be five at that time). I CAN'T FIND ANY!!! I know that stores don't really get that some of us are obsessed with certain holidays and events year round, not just a couple of months before, but can't they leave it online just in case? Has anyone seen such fabrics lately? Preferably online...also looking for some with an under the sea theme and patriotic-I have found several, but none yet that I really care for.

 

[starflake]

Has anyone seen such fabrics lately? Preferably online...also looking for some with an under the sea theme and patriotic-I have found several, but none yet that I really care for.

Have you tried JoAnn Fabrics? They have some Halloween fabric on clearance, and patriotic fabrics are on sale.

I'm eager for Great Pumpkin Day. I thoroughly enjoyed Undead and Unwed and have started planning out my Halloween costume (including a trip to browse fabrics). I hope to narrow down my options to The One and start more serious preparations tomorrow. :rudolph:

 

[luludou]

I won't have time to do much but I'm looking at websites today at lunch.... here's a preview to get you into the mood ...http://www.marthastewart.com/photo-...=2&chapterCounter=1&lpgStart=1&adnumber=1#lpg.... LOVELY! SPOOKY!! :boo: :jack: :hat: :ghost: :batty:

 

[Cathymac]

Sparklenana-that is hysterical and sounds so very much like my house!! Why are men such babies when they are sick/hurt/acting childishly? I have to say, though, that my DH doesn't mind company, which is a good thing since we entertain so often!! I loved reading about your party and am delighted that it went so well!! Congratulations!!

I didn't have time to work on Halloween on "the day" so I'm doing it today. It's cool and raining (and raining and raining-still!) and the kids are at school, so it's a good day to do this! And, we're not entertaining this weekend, so the house is not a big issue-not until my next party on Tuesday!! It wouldn't do much good to clean floors today anyway..they'll have to be redone Tuesday afternoon before guests arrive at 6:30! Anyway....I digress!

I'm just brainstorming again about Boo!Bash2!, our Halloween party. We had so much fun last year, and DH and I actually discussed it yesterday at lunch, so I know he's on board! I am going to amp it up a bit this year, and add hotdogs etc. instead of just desserts like last year. We had over 60 guests in our back yard! It was a huge hit!

So, here we go!

Date: we agreed that the party will always be the Saturday before Halloween. This way, over the years folks won't have to wonder when it is...they'll just know!

Menu:
*hot dogs with the works-chili, coleslaw, onions, peppers, cheese, mustard, ketchup and relish
*chips-tortilla chips for nachos, Fritos for Frito chili pies
*cheese dip
*brownies, cookies and other pick up desserts
*popcorn, roasted peanuts in the shell, Harvest Yummies (candy corn and salted peanuts) in snowcone cups
*sodas, iced tea, coffee, hot chocolate station and hot and cold cider

Decorations:
I really like a vintage look, and the porch is going to be decorated French country this summer, so I'll play off of that-sort of muted tones instead of brights, fallish rather than scarey..

Fall elements, such as pumpkins, hay and Indian corn (all grown in our backyard and/or at our farm), including white pumpkins and orange pumpkins of all sizes and shades

Last year I used just plain old crepe paper and folded orange and black together to make garlands-very vintage looking, very cute. I'm going to do some more of those this year, but I'm going to start earlier-it took longer than I thought it would to fold them and make them as long as they needed to be.

I'm wanting to take some of the bigger whites and brush them with glue then sprinkle clear glitter on them to use as centerpieces both for this party and for Thanksgiving. I'll work on that...I may get faux pumpkins to do this with so that I can use them again, but the ones we grow would be cheap decorations!!

I'll have mums and other fall flowers sitting around

Last year my brother brought a tractor and trailer for a hay ride-hope to do that again. We live one block from the movie theater, and he toured the kids around the movie parking lot! I"m sure people wondered what in the world was going on!

We also had a fire and soft throws for folks to warm up with, which was a big hit. I have most of those still (not counting the ones the dog took over as his own!!)

I'm getting excited!! I'm going to work on my Halloween section in my fall notebook today! I love this stuff!!

 

[Gingerbug]

Great Cathy....now you got me all excited about my next Boo Bash...and I am suppose to be focusing on our big Summer Backyard Bash...we are using a Pirate Theme this year!!! I love to entertain!!!

 

[coffeenut]

I just got to read this. Great ideas on the Boo Bash.
:jack: