On Saturday night the Deal family celebrated THREE holidays – Suzanne (Mama Deal) and Connor’s (son Deal) birthday AND Halloween!  

Our extended family celebrated two birthdays at Halloween - Suzanne Deal's and her son Connor's. You didn't have to threaten a trick in order to get a yummy treat ... plenty of yummy morsels.

Everybody dressed up – it was a great opportunity to pretend to be something you aren’t – at least not in public on a regular day.  The house looked great and the food was delicious!  Can’t wait – let’s do it again next year!  

Some strange people showed up for this party. Len Wilkinson with Connor Deal, Gracie and Renny.

Lauren and Jacob Boyett apear to be having a good time!

Ashlyn King takes no prisoners on Halloween! Argh!

The host and hostess of the party - Alice Cooper and Snow White. (Bill and Suzanne Deal) on their front porch to greet (or eat) guests,

Techno geek and Morticia just came as they were ... (Avery and Claire Gimble.)

Little Red Riding Hood (Kimberly Golden King) and the Wolf made their peace at the party!

The cake was delicious - half vanilla and half chocolate all under chocolate icing!

Deb in her everyday attire next to Len in his. Deb holds Gracie in her butterfly costume.

Michelle Prytula came as an Identity Crisis - pretty clever costume!

Everybody wants to be a comedian! Even the skull ...

The table was set eerily appropriate!

Shari Boyett came as one of Suzanne's cupcakes - how cute!

Coupon Queen rides again!

An up close look at those face tattoos!

The Fairy Princess Ballerina (Len) and Alice Cooper (Bill) take a break on the porch with the Butterfly (Gracie).

No particular holiday - It was just ghouls night out ...

Now, I know it’s not exactly a dinner worthy of being noted on a blog called  ”A Romance Renaissance” but it tasted pretty good nonetheless.  And besides, sometimes one wants to focus on other activities besides cooking.  Such was the case tonight.  So wrapped up in a bunch of other things, including settling back in from a trip to London, I had neglected stocking the pantry.  

What to do with an overabundance of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls before they start to get old? Well, start using it for other things -- like Pizza Crust in a Pinch!

Just a few things – including an overabundance of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls left over from a Christmas stock-up spree at Costco – were all that was left in my house. But, I made the best of it … and it was pretty tasty nonetheless!  

 If you have other ideas about what to do with Crescent Rolls please share!     

Some reduced fat Sargento cheese, Harris Teeter frozen spinach and jarred olives, canned Del Monte tomatoes, and a jar of Shitake mushrooms was all that this Mother Hubbard had in her cupboard tonight!

I just rolled out the Crescent Rolls like pizza dough! I made sure the perforations were smashed together so there were no holes for the goodies to seep through onto the parchment paper, however. (I love parchment paper - one of mankind's greater inventions...) Then, I layered on a little oil, canned tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, dispersed the spinach on the top with a few of the olives and mushrooms, then layered on the cheese. I also used some salt, garlic powder and oregano to season. I always have spices hanging around no matter what! Popped it in the oven at 375 degrees and took it out when it looked done. Voila! Pizza dinner in a Pinch!

This recipe has been in my family for years and typically is made during the Christmas season.  However, it is a great cookie for anytime of the year and is an especially nice goodie for serving at an afternoon tea.  Note variations below and that the dough takes well to food coloring for special events.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter                                                        

These "Mexican Wedding Cakes" aka "Christmas Angel Tea Cookies" are as light and sweet as this Angel doll. Mom gave me this doll with light up moving wings as a birthday present in 2005.

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

1/2 cup nuts, finely chopped – walnuts, pecans or half & half of each

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

Cream butter, shortening, sugar and extracts together. Add the nuts and flour, and distribute evenly.

Chill for easier handling. Form into balls

Bake on cookie sheets covered with parchment paper at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes.  Do not let them get too brown.

Roll in, or sprinkle, confectioners’ sugar while still warm.   Keep in tight container.

Variations:  For the Ladies’ Holiday Tea November 2011, I doubled the entire recipe.  I  also divided the dough before chilling and used green food coloring and a bit more almond extract in one half.  For the other half, I added coconut extract, shredded coconut and red food coloring (to make pink cookies.)

I took the time to look over the cereal shelves really well this time and look what I found ...!

So, I’m checking out the cereal shelves in my Harris Teeter grocery store tonight after a meeting of the “Friends of the Gum Spring Library” (aka the FROGS) and look what I found …! The fact that I bought it, would make Mom proud — it’s CREAM of WHEAT! Just like Mom used to make for us.

Same maker and everything …

The fact that I ate some should make Michael Pollan, author of “In Defense of Food” happy too. Why? It’s WHOLE GRAIN. In his book, Mike goes into some interesting detail about why we shouldn’t be eating crappy refined, bleached, adulterated, not-good-for-you grain products. He really believes we miss a whole bunch of inter-related nutrients if we don’t eat Whole Grain.

I know I always felt better throughout the morning when I had HOT cereal for breakfast. Sure the sugary cold cereals taste good going down, but they soon evaporate. They certainly don’t stick with you long. I feel sorry for the little kids that don’t get a good breakfast before dashing out the door to school.

What does this “new” Cream of Wheat taste like?

Well … kind of “wheaty” but in a good way. It doesn’t have a real strong taste to it, but then regular Cream of Wheat never did either. You can buy microwave packets of the regular Cream of Wheat in the grocery store and those come in “flavors.” But the objective with trying the WHOLE GRAIN Cream of Wheat is that its WHOLE GRAIN without a whole laundry list of chemicals in it. Much of the packaged “food” we buy on the shelves today doesn’t even qualify as FOOD anymore, it’s a mix of artificial chemicals. No wonder our kids have autism, ADD, allergies and more. (By the way, if you have an allergy to wheat, obviously, don’t buy the product I’m discussing here.) In the U.S. at least, we’ve been feeding them a Frankensteinian brew of chemicals.

So, it doesn’t have a whole lot of taste. Neither did oatmeal in my opinion. But we added stuff (hopefully natural) to it and we ate it. Why? Because its good for us. In addition to being warm and cozy and filling, it has 50% of the recommended daily value of iron, 20% of folic acid, 30% calcium and more.

I think i’ll finish the box for sure and go back for more. If you have ideas on what to add to it to make it taste more “exciting” please share a comment.