Halloween 2009

Oh Lord. I know it's late but here's how Halloween with the Santillans went down. I'll be writing an update post as well to let you guys know what's going on and why I haven't been posting as much lately.

First off, Halloween was gunna be awesome this year. Dustin had heard from work that we could volunteer to sign in some local kids onto base to trick-or-treat. So I took off from work and we decided what our costumes would be. We were gunna be Mickey and Minnie and it was going to be adorable. I even took the whole day off from work and everything.

The first thing that went wrong was my costume. I ordered Dustin's costume for Disneystore.com because that was the only place that sold it. I, on the other hand, wanted a...well, sluttier version of my costume. So I ordered a non-official Disney costume from Amazon and it got here right quick. Only problem was...it didn't fit. And not only a little bit. It was a small and I'm not big by any means, but it seemed more like a dress for a toddler than for a size small adult. I got stuck in it when I tried it on! And since it was seasonal, I could only exchange it for another costume. I didn't wanna do that because I didn't want the same thing to happen all over again.

So I sucked it up and ordered the cute but way less slutty, Disney Minnie costume. That was about a week later. I ordered Dustin's costume on September 26th. Ordered mine the beginning of October. I thought that would be more than enough time. I thought wrong. It's November 17th today and the costumes still aren't here. I emailed Disney and they were very nice and informed me that with APO addresses, it takes about 6-8 weeks for packages to arrive. Wish I had known that before.

So we had no costumes. But I was determined to make the best of it. We would give out candy to trick-or-treaters for awhile and then we planned to meet some friends at the Banyan Tree Club and just have a good time.

But first! Since it was Saturday and I was off, I had to make Dustin breakfast in bed. I do this because I'm a nice girl and because I don't want Dustin to punch me in the mouth when I wake him up. Kinda like a peace offering. I knew I wanted to make something pumpkin because it's fall and that means everything I make should either have pumpkin, apples, pecans, and cinnamon. I searched on TastyKitchen.com and found the perfect recipe. Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal!

Let me take a moment to give props to the amazing woman that created TastyKitchen. Her name is Ree Drummond and it you haven't heard of her blog, The Pioneer Woman, then you're missing out on something truly wonderful. Her blog has reached such huge proportions that she now even has a cookbook out that I want but the BX doesn't sell. But TastyKitchen is her other website where you can search for recipes, add recipes, talk to other people, whatever. And it's grown a lot since she started it only a few months ago. It's pretty awesome.

Especially since this baked oatmeal was BEYOND good!

Oh man. I think I'm gunna make this again this weekend. It was so delicious and the perfect way to start the holidays. Those are glazed pecans on top by the way.


Here's our cauldron of candy with the flash on. The kids loved the Fun Dip more than anything else. Good thing to know for next year.

Flash off.

I made Dustin hold it up by our lamp so I could take pictures. Then I backed up and took this picture of him and then realized that he wasn't even paying attention. Can you tell the t.v. was on?? That's essentially the face I deal with on a daily basis when I try to talk to him while the t.v. is on. You'd think I would've learned by now.

We kept the door open so the kids would know we were giving out candy and Apollo could hardly stand it. He wanted to be let out and see the kids sooo badly. He basically stayed by the door like this the whole time.

I got his attention for about a second.

There weren't that many trick-or-treaters at all because it was pouring outside. That's Okinawa for you. I even heard a lot of kids crying and begging their parents to take them home because they were wet and tired. It was cute and sad. But at least we didn't have to deal with any obnoxious kids. It's nice living in base housing.

So then we got ready to go out. I was just gunna dress up in whatever and ended up with an 80's type outfit. Just from clothes I happen to have in my closet. I didn't plan it either. It just sorta happened which was cool. That leather jacket is actually from the 80's too. My Nana gave it to me when I was in NY in May. If you take a closer look you can see my orange nails.

These were my last Halloween nails for the year. :( Now I have no nails so I can give my real nails a chance to see the world. But as soon as December is here, you'd better believe I'll have Christmas nails up the wazoo!

This is what Dustin wore to the club. He calls it his "cock shirt" and I don't let him normally wear it out of the house. But it was Halloween so I said, "what the hey" and let him look weird. Oh, and he did put shoes on eventually before we left the house.

So we drank with some friends, had some fun, and laughed at some crazy costumes at the club. Someone was even dressed as Quail Man!! You know, right?? Doug Funny?? Anyone?

Anyways, even though I was mad about our costumes (and still am!) we made the best of the night and had quite a bit of fun.

Rocktoberfest

Today I'm writing about Rocktoberfest. Which was almost a month ago on October 10th and 11th. Oh well. I had the pictures uploaded for quite awhile now but when I tried to upload the videos it wasn't working out. So then I would get frustrated and walk away. I think the video files are maybe too big. I'm gunna try and upload them in a separate post so we'll see. I really want you guys to see them but I may have to shorten them a bit and well....I like to procrastinate those sorta things.

Anyways, Rocktoberfest was basically an excuse to see the beach one last time before it got "cold" (I mean in the 70s), and to see a bunch of Japanese and Okinawan rock bands. It was at Torii Beach (where the jazz festival was) and it was a two day event. Originally, we were only gunna go on the first day but we had so much fun we decided to go the second day as well.

It gets dark really early here. Even in the summer the sun's down between 6 and 7pm. By the way, that's Adams in the picture with me. We brought him along (my suggestion actually) because he's a nice boy and we like him.

Even though he did this.

Lots of people were there sitting on the grass. We were the smart ones that brought towels though. Then I was the stupid one who wore a dress. Every time I had to use the bathroom or wanted to get food, it took me awhile to get off the ground in a way that wouldn't expose anything naughty.

The first night was more heavy metal type rock. Not my stuff but still fun to watch because they were mostly locals. This is a Okinawan band even though the lead singer had a Mexican wrestler's mask on.

We've actually seen this band before at a club! They're called FOD (don't ask me what it stands for. I still don't know) and the lead singer is American and I believe the rest were all Okinawan. They do all covers but really amazingly good. They got the biggest crowd. I think a lot of people were there just for them.

Uh...I don't remember. I think Dustin was taking pictures at this point.

Day 2! Official Rocktoberfest mugs with beer! Not for me, of course but the guys seemed to enjoy them.

There were a lot of pretty good food stands. And even though it was Rocktoberfest, there was only one stand with German brats. And the beer was Miller light. They were also selling a few Halloween costumes here.

It rained earlier that day but by the time we got there the sky decided to chill out. It was still pretty cloudy and windy like always.

Day 2 had more oldies rock and just more fun happy stuff. We loved this band and I have a video of them that I hope to get on here. They did all covers and were super cute and happy.

Dustin wanted to take pictures. I was having none of it.

But Adams is always up for a picture. As long as you keep him happy with beer.

Eventually I gave in. But there was no way I was gunna smile pretty.

So we were enjoying the music, eating and joking around blah blah blah, when this amazing lady got on the stage. Lord Almighty. If she was the only act that night it still would've been well worth the trip. She's Aria Asia and she's a rock violinist. She's been playing since she was only 2 years old and is hot shit in Japan. Especially Okinawa. She's adorable and completely amazing. She played beautiful original pieces and then also some covers. She got all the drunk Marines amped with her rendition of Smells Like Teen Spirit and Green Day's Basket Case. Her videos were the main ones I wanted you guys to see. Keep your fingers crossed.

Look how fast she's going! She likes to dance and sway while she's playing as well. The rest of her band were really talented too. If you're really interested, look her up on youtube. She's there.

We decided to buy her CD and DVD because we seriously could not get enough of her. She was nice enough to sign autographs and take pictures with everyone that wanted to. Look at her tiny top hat! She was so sweet and there was a line at her merchandise booth through the next two bands.

Adams pretty much wanted to marry her. He had been saying, just that day, that he had always wanted to learn how to play the violin. He has a long way to go if he ever wanted to be as good as her.

After Aria Asia, we were pretty much content with the night. But then All Japan Goith came on stage and Dustin really got excited. I don't know if you know this, but Dustin loves ska.

He bought their CD as well. They sang all in Japanese but were really fun to watch. There was one girl in the band who was super full of energy. She was like a little Jack Russell puppy. They pretty much ended the night for us. We had new local music and we were exhausted so we went home.

Sorry this took forever to post and I will try to upload those videos!

Sometimes I love being a girl

Being a girl means I can decorate my nails for the holidays with Jack Skellingtons! I'm pretty much in love with these. I can't stop looking at them.

All that work for nuttin'

Last week we made stuffed acorn squash. We (Dustin) carefully cut the tops off.

We (Dustin) scooped the seeds out.

We stuffed them full of rice and other tasty fall goodies. Sorry, no picture.

And then we realized that we pretty much hate acorn squash.

Go figure.

That being said...go see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs!!

Mini muffins will be the death of me

I was gunna put these pictures in the fall post but decided they needed their own post. These muffins were that good. I made them twice in one week. Dustin and I consumed 24 Sweet Onion Mini Muffins in one night. One night of pure bliss.

Pretend this is a picture of chopped walnuts and not a picture of chopped walnuts and chopped pecans because I ran out of walnuts. Pretend these pictures aren't from the second batch of mini muffins I made because we ate the first batch too quickly. No time for pictures. There are walnuts in these muffins which we weren't too sure about until we tasted one.

First batch had yellow onions which turned out to make a far superior muffin than the second batch with red onions.

Sweet amazing deliciousness. I actually turned down dessert one night just so I could shove more muffins into my face. I chose onions over sugar! Am I turning into Dustin??? Scary.

Eat it. You want to.

*Sigh* Now I'm considering making these for dinner. Nothing else. Just mini muffins.

I'd happily email anyone the recipe so you can have the amazing mini muffin experience for yourself.

Tara gets excited!

Fall is here! I don't know about officially or anything, but to me it's already fall. And it has been since September first. I get a little excited at the idea of fall. Fall means that Christmas is right around the corner. And Christmas is the most exciting time of the year for us. And lucky for us, it happens every single year! I love consistency.

Last Christmas was lame. We spent it in a hotel, watching season 2 of 30 Rock and eating Cup of Noodles. Oh, and I had a random allergy attack where I would completely exhaust myself by sneezing 57 times in a row. It totally sucked. We essentially didn't even have a Christmas. We were too busy planning to move here. No time for baking or decorating. Nothing fun.

So this year we plan on having a super duper Christmas extravaganza! Operation BEST CHRISTMAS EVER! That's probably why I'm extra amped this year for the holidays. We already started inviting people over for Thanksgiving at our place. We decided to have a big bad potluck which should be delightful. A friend of ours is gunna deep fry a turkey for us since I don't make turkey. We prefer ham so I normally just wouldn't bother.

For Halloween we'll be signing up to take some local Japanese kids trick-or-treating on base. I'm super excited for that, of course. People don't really celebrate Halloween too much here. You would think they would since they jump at the chance to dress up for everything else. Dustin and I are going as Mickey and Minnie. We already ordered our over priced costumes. Hopefully, they'll come in on time. We wanted a Pluto costume for Apollo but apparently none exist. What's the deal with that?? They have Goofy costumes for dogs but Goofy wasn't Mickey and Minnie's pet. I suppose we'll just have him be himself since he's super cute anyways.

Work has been busy for both of us. We don't like it but it makes our days off and time spent together that much more special. Or whatever.

Here's a few shots of what the fall season means to me.

Baking! Because I don't bake the rest of the year.

Pumpkin bread. I cannot tell you how good this recipe is. When I was a kid, my mom made this in cute little mini loaf pans and would wrap them up all pretty and give them to friends and family. Now that I'm an adult, I make them normal size and keep them all to myself.

It's actually more like pumpkin pound cake but it says bread on the paper I have so I get away with eating it for breakfast. With apple butter. That's pretty much the best fall treat ever. OR, cut a slice and drizzle caramel sauce on it and sprinkle some pecans over that. Hot damn, I love fall!

If you have seen the Martha Stewart Cookies book then you may recognize this cookie from the cover. Dustin got the book for me for my birthday and this is the first thing I made. I needed to relieve some stress and this recipe totally did the trick.

Ready for this? Chewy Chocolate Chunk Gingerbread. Are you dying inside yet? They taste like Christmas and happy.

I fed some to people at my job and (reluctantly) made Dustin take the rest to his job where they were quickly devoured in a matter of minutes. These cookies are trouble. They made me wanna not leave the house so I could just sit in bed and eat them all day. I debated calling in sick so I could do just that.

Acorn squash, apples, oranges, sweet potatoes and a giant pear without the flash on my camera.

Acorn squash, apples, oranges, sweet potatoes, and a giant pear with the flash. I think I like the first one better. It looked more Autumn-y.

This is the only kind of pear I can find at the commissary. It's Asian and huge.

Asian Twilight book cover? They should change the cover to this. With my face and everything.

It's so fat.

This has nothing to do with fall or the holidays. I just decided to post this so you could all feel sorry for me and send me presents. I would like some MAC makeup brushes please.

Fall also means typhoon season. From August to November I believe. Mostly lots of rain for us. Apollo loves this because it means that after his walks he gets to be rubbed down with a fluffy towel and I honestly don't think there's anything he loves more.

Fall also means Franken Berry cereal. But I don't have a picture of that.