My Black Friday...

I love Halloween time.

I wish I had an all white house,

just so I could decorate with black for Halloween.

www.sweetpaul.typepad.com

Last year I painted a pumpkin and

woke up one morning to a mess on my front porch.

Who knew pumpkins needed to breath?

I love the black on this pumpkin.

It looks so ethereal.

I also look forward to Sweet Paul's on line magazine,

check it out here,

www.sweetpaul.typepad.com

A cute pop up book,

check out the video here,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGehXwzI-4c

unknown source, but it might be from sweet paul magazine last year
Black Apples and one shiny red one.

Don't they look tempting?

country living magazine

and I have no idea 

why I have a thing for black crow's at Halloween time,

but I love these little jars.

What a great way to make use of
jars that I would normally throw away.
On a side note,
I pretty much throw everything away.
My sister on the other hand, keeps everything!
She is Mary and I am Martha of the Bible.
I envy her.
I want to be a Mary.
My Grandmother on my Dad's side,
never threw anything away.
She had a small, chain link fence surrounding her back yard,
and she would hang everything that you would
normally throw away,
on this fence.
It drove me crazy.
I would love to have some of those old jars today.

Happy Friday early,
Petie

Artichoke Heaven

I die...

as Rachel Zoe says

and gone to heaven

for my new no bake artichoke recipe

this is to easy not to try...

pie ranch photos

NO FUSS EASY BAKED ARTICHOKES

Preheat oven to 425

1 whole artichoke rinsed and trimmed ( as you can tell I skipped the trimming)

lots of chopped garlic

juice from one half lemon

2 T olive oil 

1/2 tsp sea salt 

3 T broth or water

2 squares of heavy-duty aluminum foil

Spread artichoke petals open

Between the petals, squeeze lemon juice, drizzle olive oil, broth and garlic

Sprinkle top of artichoke with sea salt

Tightly double wrap and seal the artichoke with the foil

Bake for 60 to 90 minutes depending on the size of the artichoke

Remove from oven and let cool before unwrapping (good luck with this one, the smell in my house was so intoxicating that we couldn't wait to tear that sucker open. I now have a burnt tongue)

Because I rarely follow a recipe, below are my changes I made:

The recipe called for 2 cloves of garlic, quartered.  I used fresh garlic that I chopped in my food processor and I used a lot of garlic.  Probably, 1 to 2 Tablespoons of chopped garlic.

I mixed the chopped garlic, PIZZA PEPPERS, and lots of olive oil together.  Then drizzled this mixture on top and on the sides of the artichoke. Followed by squeezing the lemon and pouring the chicken broth on top of the artichoke.

I used the large artichokes and they took the full 90 minutes to bake.

Pizza peppers were my addition to this recipe because I think they make everything taste better.

If you try this recipe, I am not responsible for your burnt tongue.

Enjoy!

Petie