Halloween in New Town

I can feel the excitement in the air here in New Town!  We are a Halloween destination in our community of St. Charles.  Literally van loads of kids and parents will come to our neighborhood to collect goodies and tell a joke.  You didn't know about the joke part? It is a tradition in St. Louis to tell a joke when trick or treating. It is so fun to hear kids tell them! In the past years, we have had between 100-150 trick or treaters but this year I am expecting many more.  Why?  Our neighborhood has boomed in the past year with at least 30 new homes.  Last Halloween the street beside me had one home.  Now there are 10!  Our street had three vacant lots and now those are all filled with new homes.  So now, instead of being the last house on a long street, I am the middle house of a long street.  The numbers could be huge! Here are some fun photos of the decorations for Halloween.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!  Please note:  These photos came from the 1/4 section tha

Ghouly Pumpkin Butter Biscuits #SundaySupper

Halloween is just around the corner and I am so excited to see our neighborhood children in their costumes. This is the time of year that I love, and Halloween is one of the reasons why! I love making special recipes in the fall, and one of those is making pumpkin butter, which I shared earlier this month.  I am using that same pumpkin butter to make some ghouly sandwiches just for fun! The recipe for the pumpkin butter has simple ingredients and you make it in the slow cooker! You barely have to do anything besides add the ingredients and stir it a time or two.  Then when it is done, make these yummy and cute treats! Ghouly Pumpkin Butter Biscuits 4 baked biscuits 1/2 c prepared pumpkin butter 4 black olives, sliced 1 red bell pepper, sliced 1 green bell pepper sliced Split the biscuits in half.  Slather on a thick layer of pumpkin butter. Lay slices of green pepper on the top half of the buttered biscuit, to use as spiky hair.  Place the top back on the

Halloween with Truman and Wilson #hairynotsoscary

Truman and Wilson are not big fans of Halloween and since we know that, we don't subject them to much of the hoopla of the night. Events like Halloween are stressful to them and that generally shows up in their stomach and bowels, if you know what I mean.  We will kennel them up for the night and probably sit on the front porch so that the door bell doesn't ring. We do like to dress them up in costume, just for us, and this year we found these cute costumes for just $8 each.  As you can tell, that's not a highlight of the year for them, either.  However, they do love their chewy.com treats that we gave them this fall, these Blue Buffalo Halloween Boo Bars Mummy Morsels with Pumpkin and Cinnamon.  Sounds good enough to snack on! With Boo Bars, Tru and Wilson can have a healthy treat when everyone else is snacking on candy corn. They are crunchy and crumbly and the dogs do love them. The ingredients include wholesome foods like pumpkin, carrots, barley, oatmeal, fl

New Town at Saint Charles #fallingforautumn

When my husband and I were looking for a new place to call home, we were not aware that there were "new urban neighborhoods" with features like walkable markets and shops, a wide variety of home ranges, and planned green spaces for play.  We were looking for a city experience but knew it would need to wait until I fully retired from public school work.  We looked for a place inbetween his work near the airport and mine in a small rural school district.  We found Saint Charles, and then by a stroke of luck, we found New Town. As we walked around the area, we could feel ourselves falling for this community-within-a-community.  New Town is inside the city of Saint Charles' jurisdiction, but seems like its own small town.  We have a variety of restaurants, a bakery, coffee shop, a wine bar, a grocery mart, a yoga studio, a Pilates studio, an organic farm, small shops, small businesses, churches and more.  There is a large lake that supports fishing, floating, swimming, k

Missouri Wineries Near St. Louis

Fall is such a great time to visit the wineries in Missouri.  Near St. Louis, most are situated on hills and bluffs overlooking the Missouri River.  Several small towns welcome you and your taste buds to try some of the wines produced by vintners here. I love heading out on Highway 94, just west of Saint Charles where I live.  Those rolling hills take a keen eye so be sure to have a designated driver for this trip!  It is popular around here to rent a van and hire a driver to take you to and from the wineries. August was founded by one of Daniel Boone's followers and was settled by German around 1855.  There was a big boat landing on the Missouri River which helped the economy grow.  However in the 1870s, something caused the Missouri River to change its course, and Augusta's boat landing was no more.  Still, with an abundance of river bottom soil, it was inevitable that the vineyards would come back and they did, very strong in the late 1960s. in the 80s Augusta was recogn

Cabbage and Kielbasa Soup #SundaySupper

As the autumn nights cool down,  I start my cravings for warm soups and stews.  I have a few favorites, like my mom's Potato Soup and this yummy Cauliflower soup but I also like to try a new soup or two during this season.  This soup was inspired by a version that had potatoes and another that had pasta, both items I am no longer eating. This one has simple ingredients that pack a lot of flavor punch.  The kielbasa is precooked so all that has to cook up are the onions and cabbage.  This soup tastes great right out of the pot and usually it is gone without any possibility of left overs! Cabbage and Kielbasa Soup 6 c chicken broth 1 T oil 1 medium onion, chopped 1 small head of cabbage, cored and chunked into small chunks salt and pepper Heat oil in a large saucepan.  Add onion and cook until softened and gold brown.  Add in kielbasa and brown.  Add in cabbage and saute with the onion and meat.  Add broth and bring to a simmer.  Simmer until cabbage is fork tender.  A

BBQ Chicken Soup-Missouri

While fall is in full swing, it is hard for us to let go of the tastes of summer.  It is definitely time for warm soups to fill our belly and I am excited at how wonderful this soup combines the best of both worlds!  Saturday Soup Swappers is featuring soups from around the US and this one is to represent Missouri.  We love our BBQ, from St. Louis to Kansas City!  Thank you, Ashley,  Cheese Curd in Paradise , for hosting Soup Saturday Swappers. Tasty tender chicken, our favorite BBQ sauce, a couple of veggies and this soup is in your pot nice and quick.  Using a few supermarket shortcuts also makes this a weekday favorite.  It's not hard for us to pick out our favorite BBQ sauce as it comes from the local Sugarfire Smokehouse down the road from us, but the rest of the world might not be as lucky as us.  A sure winner for substituting is our next favorite:  Sweet Baby Rays. To make this soup a weekday dinner, I use a rotisserie chicken and pull the meat from the bones.

Hot Chocolate Tea

I love my hot chocolate.  I drink it all year around, but in the winter, I like to have a dark, rich, chocolaty drink that warms your insides with a creamy and thick coating of chocolate.  Since I have been working hard to cut back on unnecessary carbs, I don't indulge in my favorite fall and winter drink very often. Recently I discovered the Republic of Tea's chocolate tea.  I won't tell you that it takes the place of my creamy hot cocoa, but I will tell you that I get great satisfaction from drinking it from time to time.  I was recently introduced to Barlean products, particularly the Barlean's Chocolate Mint Essential Woman Swirl which is a delicious way to get your Omega 3s (say goodbye to fish oil!) and if you add it to your chocolate tea, you are going to love this drink! To give it the creaminess I love, I also added some Barlean's Butter Flavored Coconut Oil.  This is a wonderful product since it completely reduces the coconut flavor to zilch and