Countdown to Halloween

I spent the morning of my only morning off this week doing the laundry. There wasn't really a lot to do. I ran to CVS while the laundry was in the dryer. Picked up shampoo (I'm almost out) and a cute little stand-up wood jack-o-lantern, his face colored in black glitter. I love end-of-the-holiday-season sales.

Uncle Ken was the only one around before I left for CVS. By the time I got back, Dad was home, too. I asked him if he and Uncle Ken had any plans for Halloween night. He said not really...but I could help them distribute trick-or-treat candy, if I wanted to. Sure! I haven't done anything Halloween night but work in at least six or seven years, and I've never given out candy to the kids here. They supposedly don't get many trick-or-treaters, due to their out-of-the-way location on a dead-end street, but what the heck, it'll still beat sitting around in my apartment, watching Charlie Brown and mildly spooky movies.

Headed home with my laundry after talking to Dad. I quickly put the laundry away, had a short peanut butter-and-apple butter-on-home-made-bread lunch, then jumped on my bike and rode over to the Haddon Township Library for this week's session. I debated doing it later in the week, but I'd really rather get it done while I have the time and don't have to worry about running to work later. There were piles of DVDs this week, and I mostly organized them. Also returned Easy Reader children's books. I debated taking a couple of items out, but ultimately decided I wouldn't have the time to watch them this week and didn't take rent anything.

Made a couple of stops at the Westmont Plaza on the way home. The Halloween items are already on major markdowns at JoAnn's, but I didn't see anything I liked. Bought leeks at Super Fresh (I forgot them at the farm market last Saturday and the Acme didn't have them) and a bag of sponges at Dollar Tree.

(I'm kind of disappointed that Halloween Adventure hasn't appeared in it's usual spot in the old swing set store this year. I'm assuming they either found somewhere bigger for it, or didn't have the money to open it at all. The latter wouldn't be terribly surprising. A lot of people just don't have the money to be buying a ton of fancy holiday anything right now.)

Spent the rest of the evening baking and cooking. I made two nice little loaves of Wheat Germ Bread from the Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Bread. The loaves came out nice and nutty and crusty, and just the right size. A lot of bread recipes make too much for me. I either have to toss the extra in the freezer or give a quarter of stale bread to my fuzzy squirrel "neighbors." These are just the right size. (It originally called for them to be in loaf pans, but I only have one. The round loaves on the cookie pan came out just fine.)

The chicken breasts I pulled out for dinner hadn't defrosted by dinnertime, so I improvised with pantry goods instead. The Mickey Mouse Cookbook has a recipe for "Thumper's Tuna-Noodle Casserole." I updated it a bit. Used Healthy Choice Cream of Chicken Soup instead of regular Cream of Mushroom. Eliminated the milk (mostly because I'm almost out) and replaced the can of peas with fresh carrots, mushrooms, and leeks. The green pepper called for remained, and I added red pepper, too. Used whole-wheat spiral pasta for the noodles, and added some Parmesan cheese on top.

I'm 2 for 2 with cooking and baking tonight. The casserole is really delicious, filled with yummy veggie-and-fish flavor.