It’s that time of year again: pumpkin carving! I love Fall and pumpkin carving kicks off the holiday season! This year we had quite a few participants (which meant more roasted pumpkin seeds, yum!). Check out these fancy works of art:
Kenny’s Jack Skeleton
Krissy’s Gus-Gus
Kim’s Pac-Man Board
Kari’s Goofy Pumpkin
Kate’s Cerberus
Chris’s Pissed Off Pumpkin
Jen’s Creepy Pumpkin
Amanda’s Scared Pumpkin
Katie’s Spider
Bob’s Angry Birds
Happy Halloween, everyone!
A while back, there was a Groupon for G&W Sausage. Because the men in our group have the emotional age / sense of humor of a 12-year-old boy, we decided to buy a bunch of those Groupons and have a Sausagefest. Kenny came up with the brilliant idea of hosting it and combining it with an Oktoberfest celebration and the party was on. Due to our insane scheduling requirements, we planned this months ahead on the only available October Saturday, and that turned out to be on the evening of the Mizzou / Oklahoma game. So, yeah. Basically, this was the perfect storm of parties.
We started out with a trip to G&W. That place is basically meat heaven. There were so many styles of sausage to choose from that we needed a complimentary Busch in a camo can to help with the decision. Perfect.
Once we got the meat, we descended on the Marcantel household. I had swung by early to help Kenny set up his projector for the Mizzou / OU game. When the game started with a kickoff return for a Mizzou touchdown, we knew we had a big hit on our hands.
There was plenty of beer …
… food …
… and basketball for all.
The Mizzou game ended with the good guys on top and the goal posts coming down, but the real stars of the evening were the sausages.
Let me just say that the sausages from G&W were the best that I have ever had. The variety of styles was a nice departure from our normal burgers / brats / steaks / pork steaks grilling menu — you could eat pretty much whatever you were in the mood for. Additionally, Colin brought a reuben dip that you scoop onto mini rye-toasts that was awesome.
Long story short: Sauktoberfest 2010 was a big hit. We’ll be looking forward to next year’s edition, and pretty much any other reason to go to G&W. Click here for the rest of the pictures.
We penciled in this edition of the FPC Youth Group Trivia Night well ahead of time to avoid some of the scheduling conflicts that have plagued us in the past. Thankfully, we were able to get the Trivia Dream Team (Katie, Kim, Jen, myself and my parents) together to put together another run at the trivia title.
In addition to being an alumnus of the youth group, this trivia night is one of our favorites because of the time and creativity used in coming up with the theme and the question categories (plus we win it frequently). This year, the theme was all about movies. One category required you to name the movie when provided a famous quote. Another had us match the movie with the original book it was based upon. Movie theme songs and freeze-frames were popular categories as well.
Overall, our performance was solid, and the food we brought fit the bill nicely (mmm … bacon-wrapped potato bites) but we came up just short of total victory as my old friend Kara and her table beat us by a point. We settled for a respectable second place, and look forward to redeeming ourselves in the spring
Appetizer: Green Onion Bacon Dip. Katie made some delicious dip with some seasonings. I have no idea what she made but it was good, take my word on it.
Entree: Gingerbread Pancakes with Apple Slaw. This was a fun pancake with the slaw on top. It tasted like gingerbread cookies. I do have so say though, it did have more of a cake consistency rather than a pancake (probably be due to a few ingredients being left out).
Side Dish: Bell Pepper Egg-in-a-Hole. An ingenious way to create an egg-in-a-hole. I did enjoy it but you have to serve it with some sort of bread to sop up the gooey yolk.
Dessert: Apple Crisp. This is Bob’s mom’s recipe, simple, straightforward and good. This is my go-to apple crisp recipe. Why waste my time finding another recipe when I’m satisfied with the one I have?
Someone found a sunbeam.