Feast Day: All Hallows Eve

All Hallow's Eve -- the night before All Saint's Day when we remember all the saints, named and unnamed, of the Catholic Church. We have so lost the whole point of this feast, but y'know, tonight we had a blast!
LegoManiac was a "ninja warrior", String Bean was Mary Poppins herself and BamBam was a knight. The costumes were organized a bit last-minute as I usually just don't agree with kiddoes roaming a neighborhood and begging for candy. But tonight was different.

Dh and I met up with another home-educating family and walked their neighborhood ... with the little ones running back and forth, alternating between being scared out of their costumes and laughing and bragging at all the candy they were reaping! Besides our three, we had with us another Ninja, Batman, a ghoul and "Raggedy Ann" (altho the sweet little girl kept saying she was "Maggie Ann"). Here's a close-up of the "practically perfect in every way" lady. Note the paper flowers in the hat ... and yes, the shawl, gloves and carpetbag are all designed and knitted by String Bean's official hand-knit designer (me!).

We did make the kids eat before heading out ... I made empanadas (in honor of the Mexican "Day of the Dead") and lentils with rice -- a meal that kept that charged for the great candy-collecting!

Here are the recipes:

Pisto Manchego Empanadas
Ingredients:
16 oz. can of diced tomatoes
2 sweet onions, chopped
3 peppers (mix of colors)
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 zucchini
1 tsp sugar
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 double-crust pie crusts

Preheat oven to 350. Chop the zucchini and peppers into bite-sized pieces; open and drain the tomatoes. Heat olive oil in frying pan and sauté onion and garlic until onion is clear. Add peppers and sauté five more minutes, constantly stirring. Add zucchini and stir five more minutes. Add tomatoes, cover and simmer 15 minutes. Remove cover, add remaining seasonings and increase heat, allowing the extra juices to boil off. Be careful not to allow to dry to the point of sticking.

Roll out pastry dough and cut into 6” circles. Fill with 2-3 tbsp of filling and dab olive oil around edge of circle. Fold circle in half, forming tarts and pinch closed with fork tines. Place on cookie sheet and brush with olive oil. Bake at 350for 30 minutes. Turn on broiler and brown tops for 5 minutes.

Lentils and Rice
INGREDIENTS:
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 large white onion, sliced into rings
1 1/3 cups uncooked green lentils
3/4 cup uncooked brown rice
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup plain yogurt or sour cream (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onions, and cook about 10 minutes, until browned. Remove from heat, and set aside.
2. Place lentils in a medium saucepan with enough lightly salted water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer about 15 minutes.
3. Stir rice and enough water to cover into the saucepan with the lentils. Season with salt and pepper. Cover saucepan, and continue to simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until rice and lentils are tender.
4. Mix half the onions into the lentil mixture. Top with yogurt or sour cream and remaining onions to serve.

I'm thinking this meal may just become a tradition: fun to make, the kids ate it all, and it seems to have held them nicely.