Containers, Red, Flaming Food, Firemen, Squash, Buffet

Wednesday evening I attended a Tupperware party at my neighbor Deborah's house. I hadn't been to one in years.

Always impressed with their ideas for food storage.

I bought an 8-piece set of these. They will keep fruits and vegetables farm-fresh picked for weeks, some even months. Yep, you read that right. The best part was they were being offered bu the consultant at a low price.

I was busy minding my own business yesterday afternoon making red pepper jam to can.

When I had barely finished the doorbell rang. When I answered it there was a young woman I didn't know standing there.

She is staring me in the eye and tells me that there was a fire behind my backyard fence in a gated area owned by the county. She said she had called the fire department. She explained that it looked like a cup-of-soup container that was on fire, that someone threw it there from over a fence perhaps after catching it on fire in the microwave.

I was shocked to say the least, and it was very clear she felt I was the culprit! I asked if the firemen were still there and she said yes. Then she walked back to her car, at this point I think she was reconsidering her belief that it was someone in our house to tossed it there.

As she walked to her car, I walked around the corner of my house towards the back, when I ran into two very young and very handsome firefighters. I explain that a woman came to my door and what she said, and we talk. At first I could tell that they thought it came form our house too. However as we spoke it was apparent they were changing their minds. I explained I was making red pepper jam and canning it for holiday gifts and didn't even hear anything. I thanked them for coming out and how scary it is to think my fence could have gone up in flames as well as my entire garden because someone did something so foolish. Then one of them said it was a good thing it wasn't me because they would have had to give me a bad time. (Little bad-girl inside the back of my head filled my head with this thought; go ahead you hunky firefighters, punish me!) After they left David and I went back to see where the flaming food had been. It was very close to our fence, however the angle it had to have come from was right out the path of the slider of the people on the street behind us. For us to have thrown it out there we would have had to go through our slider, walk the path from it, turn to the left and walk another path for a while and then toss it over the fence. Now why would anyone walk that far with a flaming container of food? Trust me, I am not blaming the people back there until I talk to them and find out what happened. It could have even been the people on the side of us as well. What I will say is if that woman wasn't driving by and saw the fire, we could have lost our fence and everything growing in our garden. So thank you anonymous woman, even if you came to my door accusingly.

Spaghetti squash for dinner last night. Cut in half and seeds scooped out.

Baked in a 375 degree F oven for about 45 minutes for this size squash.

I heated up some store-bought mushroom-garlic pasta sauce while the spaghetti squash was in the oven.

With a fork I scooped out the spaghetti like flesh and tossed it with the sauce.

Presto! A healthy, simple, delicious meal prepared effortlessly and quickly.

I spent a little time working on the buffet tables for the holiday party yesterday.

The bags of non-perishable food items that guests will be bringing to donate to "Food For Families" will go under the longest buffet table to be out of the way and not take up room I need for guests to be. The number one priority on my list yesterday was to finalize the menu for the party, then make the grocery list so I can get started shopping. I almost have it written in stone. Almost. There are a few things I want to change. I had better run. This morning I have a hair appointment and I am going to be late if I don't get moving. Have a great day!