Food for thought Friday

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, "The Chance for Peace," speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Apr. 16, 1953 (h/t Hume's Ghost):

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

Brownies and Salad and Cakes, oh my

I have been in a festive fall mood lately, especially now that our veggie and fruit boxes are including winter squash, pomegranates and soon oranges! I made one of my favorite salads last week, both Matt and Orson loved it:

Organic Delicata Squash Salad with Pomegranate Dressing:

 It is super easy, you will need:

1 Delicata Squash

1 tbs Herbs de Provance

1 or tbs olive oil

1 Pomegranate (see this cool video on how to remove the seeds)

 Some organic greens

1 cup toasted peacans

some Honey

Some Basalmic Vinegrette

Tbs or 2 of red wine
2 tsp mustard

salt and pepper

2 tbs olive oil

First half and seed the squash and then remove the outer skin (I do this using a potatoe peeler).  Cut the squash into inch rounds (like in the picture) and then toss with herbs and olive oil.  Spread out on cookie tray in a single layer and place in 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes (check for crisp outside and soft in and turn at least once).

Meanwhile, seed pomegranate and set aside half of the seeds to go on top of salad, with about a quarter of the other seeds, press out juice and mix juice with honey, around a tbsp or so.  Add mustard, S&P (to taste), vinaigrette and wine (if you have red wine vinaigrette you can just use it and skip the wine and balsamic, I think) to the honey mix and stir, slowly add in olive oil...taste and adjust as needed.

Once squash is done, take out and let cool and pan toast the pecans (watch closely so they don't burn).

Then create the salad, wash greens and mix with most of the pomegranate seeds and all the pecans, lightly coat with some of the dressing.  Plate.  Add squash and some more pomegranate seeds to the top and then drizzle with a little more dressing.  If you like grate some parmesan-romano cheese on top.

Orson loved it!

I have also discovered my favorite gluten free cake and brownie mixes...Dowd & Rogers, I can get their dark chocolate brownie and lemon cake mixes at a local health store and they are so good!  To the brownie mix I add nuts, GF oats, chocolate chips and cranberries or pomegranates when I feel like it, or just make it as called.  I have also made it into cookies.  So good.  I made the lemon cake as called for and then added an orange, lemon rum sauce on top.  I also poked little holes in the cake with a tooth pick so it would soak through.  To make the sauce: melt one stick of butter in a pan with 1/2 cup of sugar.  Combine and then add 1/4 cup OJ, a little lemon extract and some lemon zest.  Taste and add more as needed, when completely combines, pour over cake.  I reserved some and added slowly to let it soak through.  I only ended up using about half of the sauce, so I poured some over chocolate cake later in the week.

Hope everyone is enjoying fall!

Halloween

 Happy Halloween!  We had the best fun at the Gordon's house last night parting, eating and trick or treating.  This year I gave into social pressures (aka my husband) and school work and let Matt buy Orson a super cool costume.  He was the neatest Astronaut on the block!  He loved his costume and I foresee him wearing it many more times before he outgrows it.

 He is really into planes at the moment, thanks in part to the I'm a little Airplane now Sesame Street song that Jamie taught him....he loved Lucy's airplane swing, it is only attached with one rope, so it not only swings but also turns and spins through the air.  Good practice for space flight training :)

There were so many awesome costumes, with more then 15 toddlers present, the mix of hand made and store bought costumes was something to see.

Olivia came as Eeyore.

Sophia came as the Man in the Yellow hat and her new sister came as the monkey she poached :) Sarah handmade there costumes!

Maddox and Gus came as Thing 1&2, I couldn't get them to hold still long enough for a picture together. I wonder if their hair will still be blue when I see them Wednesday?

Penny and Griffin came as Sesame Street characters Elmo and Abby.

Madeline came as a cute pink bunny...she wasn't entirely sure of the whole dress-up thing :)

  

Eva came as Buzz Light Year and her new sister came as the littlest pumpkin.

 and Lucy came as the cutest white duck, made by Gina (or geese as Orson calls her) ever.

Watching all these crazy interact and have fun was amazing!

 Here are our efforts at a group shot and then a little movie that captures trying to get that shot.

  Then, it was time to Trick or Treat! We thoughts the kids would only make it a couple of houses but they walked more then two blocks and loved every second of it.  You can tell they are use to safe, supportive adults though...they tried to get into every house that opened its doors!  Orson could say Trick or Treat (Well trickytree) by the end and he even got over asking house for a train.

I told Lucy to grab her candy bag...she went for the tote and dragged it out the door!  Gina had a slightly different bag for her to use :)

 I didn't get to make his costume but I did make his cool candy bag :)

Job well done!

Time to take a rest...and boy did O sleep well.