Pumpkin Bento Field Trip

For our second trip (of three) to the Thomasson Pumpkin Patch this year, her school wanted us to bring nut-free disposable lunches. Ughhhh. The whole POINT of starting all this was to go all re-usable! And I like showing off my EasyLunchBoxes and other bentos to show other people what they're missing! It's not like we don't have plastic baggies. We do. We have freezer bags for freezer-y stuff, and I buy cheaper ones for storing craft supplies, toys and bits for our sensory tubs, and whatnot. Plus Unka Seesee has those cheapie fold-closed sandwich baggies (which I mostly use as gloves for touching raw meat!) But still. Ughhhhh!

I had planned on doing a pumpkin bento for this week's Bento of the Week theme, but didn't want to toss out any of my boxes. I've seen other bento-ers use plastic clamshell left-overs or salad boxes before, but I don't save those. As I was digging through my supplies cupboard to see if maybe I had kept one, I found a 12-cup mini muffin plastic tray that some frozen Trader Joe's mini quiches had been in! Two, actually! I had forgotten I had saved those to make Muffin Tin Meals someday. But I was worried that 12 cuppies would be just too much food, especially as we were tossing leftovers (I usually whip her lunch out throughout the day and let her nibble on it as snack later.) But since it was plastic... I could cut it in half! Perfect! And use the other half for myself! Even better! I had planned to cover in plastic cling wrap but we apparently have none, so I went with aluminum foil, which is at least recyclable, for places that have can recycling bins. I also trimmed the cut corners to be rounder and not so pokey.
Since we had some ham and cheese still, I didn't have to worry about using peanut butter (nut-free!) And since we were going mini-muffin-tin-style, I could make my own little version of a Lunchable! PERFECT!

Left (my lunch): Special K Savory Herb crackers, ham and scraps, cheese nibblets,
carrot flowers, apple bits, zucchini w/purple cauliflower (a dab of Ranch underneath)
Right (her lunch): crackers, ham pumpkins, cheese pumpkins,
apple bits, carrot flowers, blueberries (and apple bit)

These crackers were on sale, and I had a coupon for $1 off 2, so I thought I'd give them a try. I REALLY like the Ritz herb-y ones. I got a box of plain and of these herb ones. REALLY YUMMY. I ate a bunch plain while packing lunch the night before. My lunch originally had cheese scraps instead of nibblets, and blueberries instead of zucchini, but I cleverly knocked the whole thing onto the floor while putting crackers in it. I was willing to rinse off the carrot flowers, and had plenty of extra apple bits, but the blueberries were so fuzzy from random cat hairs scattered, I just threw them out.

I used a super mini pumpkin cutter from a Wilton Fall set on two slices of ham stacked together (these were the thin-cut stuff. I didn't have any custom-cut double thick from the deli.) I managed to squeeze six pumpkins off one slice of cheese, and called it good.
The apple (organic, no clue what type) was from our farm tour in September. It was half mushy, so I chopped that half off and chopped up the rest and sloshed it in some apple juice to prevent browning.
The carrots are a mix of some pre-cut flowers I had stored in the fridge and an organic carrot from our CSA share last week. The pumpkin flag pick is from a cupcake liner/pick set I got at Dollar Tree last year.

Making a ham and "cwacker" sandwich... with all the ham!

She ate THE WHOLE THING! I knew going in that this would be less food than I normally pack, since I usually count on the leftovers as snack, or put them in our lunch the next day too. She did trade her cheese pumpkins for my nibblets, which was fine. After the first cracker-ham-cracker sandwich, she put all the ham one one cracker sandwich and then ate the rest of the crackers plain. See? YUM!

She said she didn't want the blueberries, so I ate some, and then put a bunch on the flag pick, and then she wanted them and gobbled everything down. And then proceeded to put all her food on the pick to eat it. She had an apple-berry-cheese kebab in her mouth with just the flag sticking out when one of her teachers asked if she was eating paper, since that's what it looked like. From then on, the teacher had to pretend to be 'fooled' for Every. Single. Kebab. Ah well. SHE ATE IT ALL though!

"It's too pah-wih-kah-yee!"

She was extra cranky since we'd had to get up early to get to school on time (we do afternoon classes, since we aren't morning people, but they were combining AM and PM preschool into one trip to the pumpkin patch.) Ugh. She cried in the corn box because someone "ruined" her corn snow angel. She cried when she thought the rabbits were gone (their cage had just been moved to make room for a KITTEN too!) She cried when she slipped a little going into the hay maze. Waaaaah. Then she cried that the pumpkin stems were too prickly. So I pointed her to the tiniest pumpkin I saw and told her it looked lonely. (It's easier to pick up the small ones without the prickles bothering you. Plus since I get stuck lugging it around, it weighs less! Boo-yah!)

  

Pumpkin Patch Bento Fun!

Since she loved Thomasson Family Farms' Pumpkin Patch so much last year, I decided to go again with my MOMS Club this year, even though we are going with both her preschools later this month! So I decided on a pumpkin-themed bento to celebrate.

Pumpkin Patch Bento

Top (her lunch): PBHoney Jack-o-lantern, yogurt pretzels, green beans,
cheddar pumpkins, pluot Jack-o-lantern w/blueberries
Bottom (my lunch): PBHoney, cheddar scraps, blueberries & pluot, carrots w/Ranch

I used a fun pumpkin cutter I got from a set that has a second cutter on top to make imprints or cut-outs in cookies. So I used the cut-outs on the top slice only to make a Jack-o-lantern with her peanut-butter-honey sandwich.
The only veggie I had left other than carrots (and apparently leftover snap peas from the previous day's lunch, but I forgot about them in there) were some green beans. I told her they were like pumpkin vines.
I tossed in a few raspberry-yogurt-covered pretzels, since they've been sitting around in the kitchen for a while and should get used up. Plus they added color and filled up space. Win!
I used a super mini cutter from a Wilton set to make the cheddar pumpkins. I opted for cheddar since my husband had bought some pre-sliced for his lunches and I was too lazy to slice up some CoJack.
I made a face on half a pluot with a steak knife, and sliced up the other half for my lunch. Filled it up with some blueberries. Yum! The little pumpkin pick is actually from a tic-tac-toe set I got at Dollar Tree last year.

She ate half of the sandwich, some berries (said the pluot was too juicy) and a cheddar pumpkin or two. And the pretzels, of course. She was delighted that they had melted together into pairs (the bag sat in my car for a while on a hot day. Oops.)

This particular pumpkin patch has a lot of appeal for the Podling crowd. That's why both of her preschools chose it for their 3-year-olds classes (and why her co-op chose it for the 2's class last year.)
We started off at the hay maze, which is like a corn maze, but made out of bales of hay, so the kids can see over the top. And climb it. And it's covered, which was nice, since it was raining. There're also two slides going down into it, and some tubes to crawl through. And these round hay bales that Z called "hay trampolines" and spent most of our time there jumping on.

From there we went down to the pumpkin patch, where she chose the tiniest one she could find. Since I was the one designated to carry it, I was a fan of the small one! She refused to smile with her pumpkin for me. This is her "silly face."

After a ride in their hay wagon back around to the front, we played in the Kiddie Korral, which has wooden horses to sit on, with little wooden calves to lasso. There's also slides there, plus running water troughs for rubber ducky races, and huge tubs of bubble solution.

And a horsey tire swing!

I was starting to get antsy, since we had a limited amount of time left before having to leave for school, and we hadn't yet done the best part - the corn box! A huge play area, filled with dried corn kernels, plus tube slides. Sensory heaven! Luckily that part was next.

Right next to the corn box were some animals to look at and pet, but I couldn't get any good pictures. She got to pet a bunny, which just made her day!
On the way out, we stopped and took photos at the "How Tall This Fall?" pumpkin standee, where I got a photo of her last year too. I'll do another post with both pictures to compare!

(this week's theme: Smiles!)

  

Apple Orchard Bento

Our first school field trip was to an apple orchard. Sadly, the orchard they usually go to had no ripe apples, so they found an organic farm/orchard in Tacoma called Terry's Berries. Also without apples for us to pick, apparently. It was still a super-fun farm trip. But I would have gone with more of a farm-theme, had I known!

Top (Z's lunch): apples, Apple Straws, green beans,
apple PBJ and PBH, Baby Bell cheese
Bottom (my lunch): apples w/crunchy PB, carrots w/hummus,
Everything bagel w/cream cheese

For both our lunches, I used leftover organic apple slices we had bought from Costco for our turn at Soccer snack the previous Saturday. I added some hummus to my carrots since I was reaching for the Ranch and remembered an article I had read somewhere about using hummus instead, since it's healthier and has more nutrients. *sigh* Not as yummy though!

For her lunch I broke out the bag of Apple Straws (same makers as Veggie Straws) that I had bought on a whim during my last grocery trip. They are kind of like chips, and super yummy. 

I used an apple cutter from a Wilton set for her sandwich (PB and apple butter! Home-made by a friend of ours who is a master-jammer!) The other half of the bread was used to make a regular PB-honey sandwich. 

I used a mini apple cutter to cut out some of the wax from the Baby Bell cheese. And since it came out clean, I placed the wax apple cut-out on the beans, for visual effect.

At the farm, the kids got to ride in a tractor-pulled hay wagon to the far end of the farm. (The mommies and teachers had to walk. In the mud. SO glad I brought my boots!)

The lady doing the tour (turquoise jacket) did a really great job. She'd take them to an area with stuff planted, then ask them questions to see if they could guess what was growing there. Our first crop was potatoes.

The farmer used a pitchfork to loosen the soil, then each child got to harvest 3 potatoes!

After a walk back along the (muddy) path, the next crop was carrots! Teeeeeeny tiny carrots. Each child was invited to pick 3, although apparently my child stole an extra 2.

In addition to apple and plum trees, potatoes, carrots, raspberries, assorted lettuces and herbs and assorted other foods, this farm also has chickens (and farm-fresh eggs!) The guides carried baskets of bread scraps and lettuce for the kids to feed the various animals.

They also had a pen of turkeys, another with goats, and yet another with ducks!

"Heeere turkey! I have some yummy leafs for you!"

They had big bins of already-picked apples out in front of their store, so each kid got to choose 3 apples to add to their stash too!

 

  
 

Alpaca Lunch

[Get it? Alpaca/"I'll pack a" lunch?]

We got to go visit the alpaca farm again this year, and I again packed lunch - only this time we each got our own!

I'm sure many of the ones we saw last year were still here, a year older, but I couldn't possibly tell. The rancher lady would know for sure though! She knows all their names and can tell you who is who, and whether they are friendly or shy. Amazing.

The guide/rancher let the kids pet some of the baby alpacas. Super cute.

This year Z wasn't afraid to touch an alpaca. I think this one is named 'Spirit.'
Z liked that, since Auntie Kayneen's dog is also named Spirit.

There's a willow tree growing in one of the pens, and the leaves are a real treat for the alpacas. Z remembered getting to feed leaves to the animals last year, and was eager to do it again. We had the best luck with the pen of pregnant and to-be-bred females (males are separated, as are moms with new babies.)

Bad picture, since she wanted me to hold her up
so she could feed them over the fence.

 We also got to feed them grain pellets. Last year she was too afraid of them getting that close to her hand, but this time she was delighted when they'd lick the pellets off. Alpacas only have teeth on their bottom jaw. The top is just gums. So a low chance of getting bitten!

After the tour and a fun purchase at the gift shop, we sat in the grass with the only other mom who had packed a lunch.

Her lunch: Mac 'n cheese, green and white wax beans, Ranch,
string cheese nibblets, raspberries

Guess who cleverly forgot to pack a fork? Doh!

Mine: PBJ, Ranch, broccoli and carrot, PB, apples

The little white thing on her right knee is an alpaca finger puppet,
knit from alpaca wool yarn! She loved it!

She went for the beans first, and polished most of them off. She refused to eat the macaroni with her fingers, and I couldn't find a disposable fork anywhere in the car. She may have eaten a few cheese nibblets. Not sure. No berries though, which was a shock.

On the way home, we stopped at one of the local parks. Our city's Parks Department has a Summer program where they bring toys, games, crafts and activities to a few of our parks, plus a free lunch program ( for all kids aged 1-18) through the School District, M-Th. We made it in time to get a free lunch too, and since she had only eaten her beans, she wanted one. It had an Uncrustables sandwich (she ate roughly 1/3rd,) a small apple (ate most of it,) carrot sticks (I ate them,) and a cheese stick (also me.) Plus milk. She did some coloring in the coloring books they had, and played with some sidewalk chalk, and ran around using their balls and pool noodles and some kind of sports scooper thing (like Lacrosse? Only with a short handle.) I haven't been posting as many food posts, since mostly I fancy up our lunches, and we've been either getting McD's or the free lunch at the park the last few weeks.

I'll be linking this up with bentolunch.net's WFLW. It's good to be back!

mighty yummy dOnuts!

11/3/2010 - On Wednesday we skipped ballet class to go on a tour of an organic donut shop with the MOMS Club. I got up on time, checked traffic online, and let the princess sleep until the last possible second, since she's had a very mild cold and has been sleeping extra lately. It was a little further than we usually like to go, but I felt that this was an opportunity not to be missed! We left 40 minutes before it started, for the 30 minute drive. I gave us an extra 10 minutes (instead of 30) to get there, since traffic was 'green' on my map the whole way. Pfft. Green traffic, my butt. It took an hour. Plus I got lost, since one of the streets the Google directions told me to turn on to isn't actually called that at the intersection I was at, so I drove waaaaaay past it.
So after much gnashing of teeth, angry FB status-update-composing in my head, and pulling over to plug the address into my iPhone to get new directions from where I was when I realized I was lost, I waltzed in to the donut place a little over 30 minutes late. For a 30 minute tour. But after driving for an hour I was DARNED WELL gonna get me some DONUTS!
As luck would have it, only one other mom even showed up, and she had been 20 minutes late (she got lost the same way I did,) so they were just mixing up the batter when I arrived. We got to watch the lady put the batter into the... thingy that drops out donut-shaped dough, and hook it into their donut robot.

The donut robot plops out little donuts (or big donuts, if she uses the other dropper thingy. But we were making mini ones) into the heated oil, and they float lazily along the oil river. 

Then they reach the lochs. They get to a place and a shelf under the oil scoops them up and fwips! them over so they can cook on the tops the rest of the journey.

Then they land neatly onto a wire rack, where we gaze droolingly at them while they cool enough to get cinnamon-sugared.
She gave us like 16 mini donuts to share. They were pretty tasty.

The other MOMS' kids each had 2, she and I each had 1, and Little Z ate 1/2, because she wanted a big one... a pink one... out of the case. I waited until our friends had left, since they weren't buying big ones, and I didn't want to cause a ruckus. We bought 6 assorted flavors. Chocolate Raspberry (for the Princess,) Pumpkin Spice, Grasshopper (chocolate mint,) Vanilla w/ Sprinkles, Lemon Poppyseed and Vanilla glazed.

She picked off around half of the Raspberry glaze, then started face-bombing the ones in the box when I got up to get more napkins. 

"Nibble, nibble, little mouse..."

She wanted to try the sprinkle one next, so I tore off 1/4th for her.

After picking off all the frosting, she wanted to try the minty one. Repeat. Then the lemon. Then I made her actually eat some of the donut cake, since I was tired of licked-off donut bits. Then I cut her off and we packed up our half-chewed donut remains (and leftover cinni-minis!) and headed home.

Mom's Night Out - Blown Glass, Hummus and Pita Crisps

My MOMS Club has a Mom's Night Out every month. Some months I can't make it, some months I plan to go but completely forget, and some just don't interest me. But I've been waiting all year for this one to come around again! Last year it was the same night as Bob and Jessica's Halloween party, and I always go to that. Always. This month we get to go to a glass blowing class! And make something to take home! Last year I guess they made pumpkins, but since many of these ladies have been doing this once a year, they didn't want any more pumpkins, so this year we requested different options. I could choose to make a small concave bowl or a ball ornament. I really want an ornament, since it's less likely to get broken, as it will be packed away at least 10 months out of the year!

Since there's a lot of hanging around waiting in between learning and getting your turn, we're having a potluck dinner as well. I decided to bring hummus and toasted pitas. I got the idea from a new cookbook Gramma Barp sent to Z. Just out of the blue! And it arrived just the other day, in time for me to remember I'm supposed to bring something! It's a kiddie cookbook called Little Monsters Cookbook by Zac Williams. Z was so excited, she put it on her bookshelf with her story books and refused to let me flip through it until the next day.
I debated even posting about this, since Z is off with her dad having a playdate with one of his friends' daughters, who's around 5 months older. So the only involvement she had in this project was being adorable so Gramma Barp would send us this book, and behaving herself while I bought supplies in the grocery store so she earned a $3 cupcake.

I gave her a spoon, since I knew she'd just eat the frosting.
It was much less messy this way.

But it's a fun and easy(ish) idea, so I'm posting about it.

Coffin Crunchers 

6 round pitas (not pocket pitas) [I only used 5 originally]
3 tbsp olive oil [I didn't need that much]
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 c fresh grated Parmesan cheese [the picture shows shredded rather than finely grated. I did what it said, rather than what it showed.]
2 c prepared hummus or marinara sauce

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Line two baking sheets with foil
2. Using a knife or kitchen scissors [I used cookie cutters,] cut various size coffin shapes from the pita flatbread. Discard leftover bread. [I saved some of the larger chunks to cook and eat myself.] Place the pita shapes on the baking sheets.
3. Lightly brush each shape with olive oil. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cheese melts.[WAAAAAAYYYYY too long. Try 5 minutes.] Remove from oven and let cool until crunchy

Here's how it went down:
Since I was also making hummus, I knew I could let the oven heat up and the pitas cook while I opened and combined ingredients, and mixed the hummus, I did all the shape cutting and ingredient-brushing/sprinkling before pre-heating.
I had planned on doing tombstone shapes, since I knew I had cutters in my Halloween set, but while digging through to see if there was anything interesting, I found both a coffin just like in the pictures, but also a bat! I was worried that they might not work on the pitas, but they did fine!

My hand started getting a little raw from all the pushing, and I had to really grind the cutters in to get them all the way through, but they turned out great. I saved the larger scraps to season and snack on. My pita packs were only 5 pitas each, and since they had cost $4 [!!!!] each, I decided I'd try and return the other pack, so I didn't use it. Plus the 2 cookie sheets were pretty full, with the scraps and all. Without the scraps I probably could have fit another pita's worth of shapes on. [I got around 4 coffins and 4 bats per pita; or 3 coffins and 6 bats.]

Bats, coffins, and in the lower left corner, scraps.

I poured just a little olive oil into a bowl and wiped it around with my silicone basting brush. I was able to do 3 bats or 2 coffins per dip of the brush into the oil. [I just dipped the ends of the 'bristles' since it said to brush lightly. I didn't want to make them too oily.] I saved the excess oil to use in my hummus. I just took pinches of the Italian seasoning and sprinkled them around until I was pleased with how it looked. I was really tempted to do some salt too, but was worried it might be too salty with the hummus. But I love salt! They would have been fine with a little salt, and a salty version would have been tasty without dip as well. I used my 4-sided grater and used the finest side for the parmesan. I used waaaaay less than a cup. My whole wedge of cheese was around a cup total (8oz - and yes, I know 8oz weight doesn't equal 8oz volume, but it usually does with most heavy solids around the weight of water.)

There was maybe 1/4th cup grated before I quit. And lots of chunks.

I used less than 1/5th of the wedge, and just the skinny end, at that. And much of THAT crumbled off and was too small for me to grate anyway. And I still had lots left over, enough to do another half-batch, as it turns out.

I just eyeballed the seasoning and cheese. Enough so that it looked right.

The cheese started to get clumpier as the kitchen got warmer from the oven, and as the cheese got warmer from being out of the fridge. At first I was able to dust parmesan around. About halfway through I was dropping little parmesan balls.

I baked the first tray for 10 minutes. I almost put both pans in, but (luckily) decided since it was so fast and I was going to be in the kitchen anyway, to do them separately. My oven runs hot, so when the recipe asked for 425, I set my oven at 375, since we're usually around 50 degrees hotter. And I use the lowest cook times, and often check it 10% earlier. So at 9 minutes I gave a peek. EEEEEK! Well. At least my bats were a realistic color. >.<

I did the next tray at 5 minutes. Brown and crisp. Perfect. Stupid lying recipe.

Theirs. Note the cheese shreds, versus grated. Maybe they think grated like other
cheeses is the same for parmesan. But the lady at the deli told me grated was the
powdery stuff and shredded was the long skinny ones.
(Photo in book by the author)

Mine.

I had to open up the other package of pitabread and I cut up 3 more pitas. Since the coffins had been easier to cut, oil and season, I went mostly with coffins this time (plus they stayed chewier in the middle.)

Really this recipe would work for any cookie cutter shape. I recommend a larger shape without too many skinny bits, since my bats and scraps were a little crunchier than I'd like, because they were so skinny.

Braaaaaaains! (Hummus)

2 15-oz cans of chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 c extra virgin olive oil [I use a smidge less]

1/2 lemon, juiced [1 lemon is approx. 2-3 tbsp, so I used 1 tbsp juice]

3 to 4 cloves garlic, crushed

3/4 to 1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dark sesame oil [use a little more for light]

1/2 to 1 tsp ground cumin [I used a heaping 1/2 tsp]

12 to 15 grinds black pepper [I used maybe 1/4 tsp shaker pepper]

1/4 c water - add slowly until right consistency, may not need it all

Combine all in food processor [or blender, but I don't know how that affects the consistency.]

I got the recipe from my sister, since several visits ago she had some hummus and freshly pan-heated oiled pita bread. Omnomnom! So 2 visits ago she asked if I'd need her to get anything for my visit, and I asked her to help me make hummus. She laid out all the ingredients and the recipe with notes for her alterations [my recipe here reflects the changes/notes] before going to school, and I made it while babysitting. The recipe called for a blender, but all she had was a Cuisinart (food processor?) I couldn't find a container to put it in, and I didn't know if it was all for me, or if I should take a smaller amount, so I just put the whole Cuisinart bowl into the fridge until she came home. Turns out I made a genius discovery! 

She had always been displeased that her hummus wasn't as fluffy or creamy (or something) as she'd like, but didn't know how to fix it. But I had done such a crap job of mixing the hummus that it still had chunks in it, so she took it out of the fridge and blended it again, and was thrilled that it was looking the way she'd been trying to get hers to look. So apparently refrigerating it and then blending again is key! Really cold water for the 1/4 c water part might work too, but no promises.

So my second attempt went much like the first. I opened the cans, sloshed bean juice all over my counter, drained and rinsed the garbanzo beans (I used S&W brand, if that matters.) Dumped them into our new Cuisinart (my husband got it to make a fancy cake. Plus, you know, to process foods, in general. It's our first one!)

I used a little less than 1/2 c olive oil. I just used whatever comes in the big double jugs at Costco, which is virgin, but might not be extra virgin [insert virgin jokes here.] I dumped in the remains of the oil used to brush the pitas and added more to measure it to just below the line, rather than at the line.

Since I didn't have a lemon this time (my sister had half a lemon,) I looked online for a lemon-juice conversion. The consensus was that a lemon can contain 2-4 tbsp juice, depending on size and whether the lemon is warm or cold (cold ones are harder to juice, so you get less.) But most contain around 3. But I read that lemon juice from a bottle is often a stronger flavor, so to use less, so I opted for 1 tbsp instead of 1.5 tbsp. It's easy to add more. Not so easy to cancel it out after adding too much!

I used 4 cloves of garlic, since I loooooove garlic. Maybe a little more. I had one big honkin' clove, which was the size of 2, plus a regular one, plus 3 teeny tiny ones. I flattened them with my knife blade [flat of the blade on the garlic, and press down with the palm of your hand. Be careful not to cut yourself!] and chopped them finely, since I don't have a garlic press, and I wasn't sure if "crushed" just meant flattened, or if it meant through a garlic press. I figured making it unnecessarily smaller would be better than having to fish out big hunks and cutting them later.

The original recipe called for 1.5 tsp salt, but my sister said it was way too salty, so she recommended 3/4 to 1 tsp. I did 3/4 tsp, but in 1/4 tsp increments, and let some extra spill over.

Same for the sesame oil. I used the 1/4 teaspoon twice, and let some extra spill over.

Again for the cumin. At my sister's, I was conservative and only used 1/2 tsp, but she added more later, so this time I did 4 quick-and-dirty 1/4 tsp measurements [Quick-and-dirty means I didn't worry about filling the spoon fully each time, as long as it was close.]

In case you hadn't noticed, I could only find my 1/4 tsp and 1 tbsp spoons!

Since our pepper grinder was completely empty, and I don't know if we have any peppercorns, or where they are if we did, I used regular black pepper. I didn't really measure. I just did a bunch of shakes. I don't like pepper much, and so had only done 10 grinds at my sister's house, and she added more later, telling me that her grinder was pathetic and you really have to grind it to get any out. So I shook a little more freely than I was comfortable with this time. For a while I was actually worried that I'd added too much, since I could see soooo many black flakes, which was unlike at my sister's. 

I ended up adding most of the 1/4 c water. I added half of it, mixed, then put the bowl in the fridge to chill. I added more later when I re-blended.

At some point during the hummus-assembly [about 9 minutes in!] I checked on the first tray of pitas to find them too crisped. Yargh. 

I forgot to take a picture of my hummus and pita crisps in the Tupperware party tray my mom handed down to me before it was picked through, so here's what was left.

All glass-blowing pictures below (and the one at the top) were taken by Kristen.

[Insert childish suggestive 'Blow' jokes here]

We got to choose up to 2 colors each. I chose the reddish pink in the lower left corner (which was a translucent mix) and a little bit of opaque pink (not pictured.)

As you can see, I slaved away, working hard to perfect my art.

She had been taking pics of everyone and I kept egging them on to pose for the camera.
I jokingly hammed it up and she snapped it just at the right moment!

This one isn't mine, but it shows him finishing the ball
ornament off and making a glass loop for hanging.