I've Just Seen a Face

On Monday, we ventured over to Waldoch Farm to check out the corn maze and to grab a couple of pumpkins. I live ridiculously close to the farm and it was a beautiful afternoon, so we walked over.

Gotta love the '89 Radio Flyer!

How tall?

Can someone please settle our argument? I swear we're the same height, but Travis claims he is taller.

Aerial photo of Waldoch's Corn Maze found on Jeff Joyer's Flickr.

The Tralle family eats Waldoch sweet corn by the dozen. I swear my dad sits at the dinner table fifteen minutes after the rest of us just to get his fill!

Exploring the maze

At Waldoch Farm, you can pick your own... I pick Travis. :-)

I helped to pick wagon upon wagon of pumpkins at Waldoch's for our annual 4-H club fundraiser for years. I do not miss pumpkin picking, but I do miss the post-picking potluck!

Pedal cart racing.

I came in second place! (Out of two racers...)

Hauling our pumpkins home.

We decided this would be the year our pumpkins would look like they weren't carved by six year-olds. We hit up the internet for some stencils and got started...

"Grim Creeper"

"Garth"

Cutting it open.

Cutting and concentrating.

Finished products!

Later that evening, we went to Trav's where there was a grand total of FOUR trick-or-treaters. My parents only had nine trick-or-treaters... I remember our neighborhood being full of kids on Halloween when I was little!

I Am the Walrus

Happy Halloween!

Because it isn't socially acceptable for a 24 year old to Trick or Treat, I celebrated on Saturday with friends.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water...

...Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after.

You may be wondering where the lederhosen came from. They belong to my dad! Many, many, many years ago he and my mom went to Germany and he bought these bad boys. They must have been awfully short on my dad considering he is 8" taller than Travis!

Ron Burgundy, Forrest Gump, and Jack

You stay classy, San Diego.

Where's Waldo, Forrest Gump, Black Swan, Ron Burgundy, Jack, MacGruber, Hunter-girl, and Jill

Jack and Jill Nutcrackers.

We had a really fun time going out for Halloween. My favorite costume was a loofah. A woman covered herself in tulle and attached a rope to her shoulder: genius!

Cayenne

This entry is all about food: weird, home made, or delicious...

Saturday evening, Mom and I had the rest of the food we bought at Hmong Village. The strangest of all the food we got was eggs. They came in a package and looked like this:

We asked for more information about the eggs and the vendor told us that the egg shell is poked open, contents are removed and mixed with soy sauce and fish sauce then returned to the shell and baked in the oven. I found this recipe online and it seems somewhat similar to the vendor's description (minus the barbeque step). Mom peeled the shell away, cut the egg into pieces, and this is what it looked like:

I was warned that it may look blue-ish, but I didn't expect it to be so blue! At the time we bought the eggs, I was really excited. As the day went on and I had time to think about it, my anxiety grew. By the time I sat down for dinner, I already decided it would be disgusting. Turns out, they aren't that bad. Still, we only ate one between the two of us. It had the texture of a hard boiled egg, which was strange because there was no separate yolk. Overall: strange.

Also that evening, we tried stuffed chicken wings (tasted fishy to me), Hmong sausage (too rough and fatty for us), and cream cheese won-tons (finally, something familiar!).

On Sunday, I made Potato Leek soup from scratch. There was waaaay too much bacon but I enjoyed it anyway. I used this recipe from Allrecipes.com (my favorite place for recipes.) I used home made turkey broth in place of chicken broth, so it is fairly dark in color.

At the St. Paul Farmer's Market on Saturday, I bought Indian Corn popcorn and gave it a try on Sunday.

The instructions are as follows:

• Place one cob in a covered microwave bowl or a small lunch bag and fold over top of bag.
• Place bag in microwave and set on high.
• After approximately 20 seconds, corn will start popping (the loud BANG scared me half to death). When popping begins to slow down to one second between pops, remove bag from microwave.

I emptied the bag into a large bowl, poured a little melted butter and salt on top, gave it a couple of shakes, then devoured it! .

The bag overflowed a little bit. I'll have to figure out how to keep the bag closed next time!

This is what the popped cob looks like.

The yellow variety goes well with a glass of Pinot Noir. :-)

And now, I should probably unpack. I have been chipping away at it slowly, but at this rate I won't be done until 2012! I sure could use a helper... any volunteers?

Shakin' in the Sixties

I had a busy weekend! I got together with a couple of college roommates, went out with friends, went to Hmong Village and Shuang Hur Oriental Market with my mom, and saw Ides of March with Aly.

Erin, Kayla and I went out to Mortimer's in Uptown after a delicious dinner at Wilde Roast Cafe.

At Wild Bill's with Brooke and Lisa.

'

Lisa, Matt, Travis and Brad at Wild Bill's.

Lumpy dog! Angel has been sick the past few days so she went to the vet and got subcutaneous fluid injections.

On Saturday, Mom took me to Hmong Village in Dayton's Bluff. I've been reading reviews on Yelp to find a good description, and here are a few that seemed most accurate to me:

"Other cities have Chinatown, Little Italy, Japantown but we've got Hmong Village."

"Walking in reminded me of my old storage unit building.  There are a bunch of garage-like stalls with a variety of vendors.  One end of the building is filled with food vendors serving various asian dishes.  The other end is a produce market.  In between are small shops selling anything from DVDs to clothing." 

Hmong Village is located at Johnson Parkway and Phalen Boulevard.

Various unmarked and unidentifiable spices, herbs, and sticks for sale in the produce market.

Lychee

Hmong DVD's for sale.

You could buy darn near everything at the market!

Hand made Hmong dresses.

Cooked pork and duck for sale by the food vendors.

Our papaya salad was made right before our eyes.

Papaya salad.

Hmong meatballs: dense like Swedish meatballs, but served cold. Would have been much better served hot!

Tri-Color.

Tri-color is a drink made with colorful jellies and coconut milk. My favorite by far!

I enjoyed Hmong Village so much because I felt like a tourist. I had no idea such a rich cultural experience was just twenty minutes away from my house!

Next, Mom and I went to Shuang Hur Oriental Market. Again, it was another place I felt like a tourist. The market had everything including: beef tongue, blue crab, tripe, chicken feet, pig ears, octopus, squid, fish, and a whole duck!

Live Blue Crab

Mini Octopi... or was it squid???

Whole duck.

Coconut, mango, and coffee flavor Swiss Rolls. Certainly nothing like the Little Debbies I grew up with!

And last but not least, I saw Ides of March with Aly. We both enjoyed the movie and our catch-up drink at Flame afterwards.