Find out the latest news and topics of interest from Dr. James G. Hood, D.D.S., M.A.!
Archive for October, 2011
Mountain Valley View Farm Featured on Prominent Horse Enthusiast Site
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Exciting news! Mountain Valley View Farm is now featured on BestofHorses.com, the best online search engine for horse enthusiasts. It is a real honor to be listed among the other great websites in the Best of Horses directory. You can view our page here.
Mountain Valley View Farm is proud to be a small, family owned and operated farm dedicated to raising beautiful Icelandic horses and growing fresh, organic produce that we sell at local farmers’ markets. We also have a small herd of Nubian dairy goats and Babydoll Southdown sheep that provide us with rich, creamy milk from which we craft a line of delicious artisan cheeses and handmade soaps that nourish and rejuvenate the skin.
Our Getaway Studio features a beautiful Bed & Breakfast where you can relax in a peaceful country setting, as well as the Dining Room that is open year-round for catering, hosting small dinner parties, and cooking classes taught by Karen Jean Matsko Hood, author of the popular Cookbook Delights series.
In our fully-licensed commercial kitchen, we use time-honored family recipes to make small batches of scrumptious artisan baked goods, candies, jams, jellies, fruit butters, and syrups from high quality local and organic ingredients that have a fresh, unbeatable taste. We also craft lovely gift items, including cookie and soup mixes packaged attractively in jars, sachets of lavender and potpourri, and our signature potpourri strings that add a decorative touch to any room.
As you can tell, there is always something new and exciting happening at Mountain Valley View Farm! Of course, we also have a great selection of organic produce and fresh eggs from the free-range chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys that live right here on our farm. We love serving the Spokane area with fresh, local food and handmade products that hearken back to a simpler and more friendly era. You can purchase any of our items directly at the farm, located at
4301 South Chapman Road
Greenacres, WA 99016
Or visit us year-round at the Spokane Public Market, and seasonally at other area farmers’ markets.
Spokane Public Market
32 W. 2nd Ave
Spokane, WA 99210
10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Wed – Fri
We look forward to seeing you soon!
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Halloween is Just Around the Corner!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
All Hallow’s Eve is less than a week away, and if you haven’t started planning for the holiday, you may be in a panic right now wondering what costume you will wear, how you will decorate your house, and what to do for the party you promised all your friends. Not to fear! First, take a deep breath and take a look at some of the excellent articles preceding this one. From costumes to harvest festivals, they’ll give you some great ideas to get started on your Halloween celebration no matter how much you’ve procrastinated.
Another quick and easy tip to jumpstart your Halloween planning is to peruse a copy of Karen Jean Matsko Hood’s Halloween Delights. Far more than just a cookbook, Halloween Delights is a treasure trove of ideas that will help you create the most memorable Halloween possible. Packed with innovative recipes that will both delight the tastebuds and send shivers up and down your spine, this book gives you everything you need to quickly develop a theme around which to plan your entire holiday. You will find yourself inspired by just a brief glance at the recipes–there are over 200 to choose from, and they can help create an atmosphere that is spectacularly ghoulish, fun and playful, or anything in between.
For example, you may be inspired to use a monster theme by such treats as Goblin Dip with Bone Crackers and Eerie Eyeballs , or perhaps the Graveyard Cake and Disappearing Ghost Cookies will prompt you to decorate your house as a cemetery and dress up as a haunting spirit. Doubling as both a decorative centerpiece and a tasty treat is the Bleeding Human Heart, a delicious red gelatin that bleeds when you slice it. You could design an entire party around that one item: imagine the lair of a mad scientist, perhaps even Dr. Frankenstein himself, and all the grisly things you might encounter there. Witches, vampire bats, even less frightful symbols of Halloween like the black cat and jack-o-lantern, and so much more can be found in Halloween Delights. You will be thrilled with the abundance of creative ideas, and your party guests will be impressed and delightfully spooked.
Halloween Delights Cookbook – Paperback ©2008
Personalized Poems Make a Fabulous Gift
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Please click on the above image to view and print in a larger, easy-to-read format.
Have you ever wondered what gift to give that special someone in your life? They already have everything they need, and you’ve been racking your brain each holiday and birthday for the last several years to come up with something unique, something that is truly as special as they are–and now you have completely run out of ideas.
A personalized poem by Karen Jean Matsko Hood is the perfect answer. Affordable on any budget, personalized poems can be anything you want: fun and lighthearted, romantic, friendly, or sympathetic; they can be tailored to fit almost any occasion including birthdays, engagements or anniversaries, holidays, bereavement, as well as any other important event or milestone. A Personalized Poem by Karen gives you the opportunity to select extra options that many other personalized poems don’t bother with, such as whether or not you want the poem to rhyme, and whether or not you wish to add artwork or have your poem printed on special paper. Furthermore, most personalized items simply add the name of your gift recipient to an already-existing poem, but a Personalized Poem by Karen is always a unique creation, written specifically for you.
Karen Jean Matsko Hood has been writing poetry for many years, and her poems have appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals both national and international. You can read a review of her first volume of poetry, Frost of Spring Green, here. Karen’s experience and expertise in writing well-crafted, poignant poems makes her a natural for personalized poetry. Her deft touch and finely-woven words are guaranteed to touch the heartstrings no matter the subject or event you are looking to commemorate. Give a gift that will be treasured forever–give a Personalized Poem by Karen.
Halloween Parties
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Perhaps the easiest way to plan any party is to pick a theme and design your food, activities, favors, and decor around that central idea. If you have already chosen a theme for your Halloween decorations, as discussed in our earlier article, why not use this as the theme of your party as well?
For example, if you chose to decorate your house as a spooky graveyard, build on this by serving creepy skeletal treats like Brittle Meringue Bones or create an entire edible cemetery with the Haunted Halloween Forest Platter, both fabulous recipes from Karen Hood’s idea-filled cookbook Halloween Delights. Play Pin the Skull on the Skeleton, bob for apples in a coffin–whatever you do, be sure to include plenty of ghosts, vampires, and other creatures of the night!
A great party idea for younger kids who may frighten easily is to base it on the classic holiday cartoon It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Decorate your house as a pumpkin patch with hay bales and pumpkins; serve pumpkin bars, roasted pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin-shaped cookies as treats; hold a Jack-o-lantern carving contest–and be sure to designate one very special gourd to be the Great Pumpkin himself!
Party ideas for Halloween are almost endless. Invite your friends to a Monster Mash, and you decide whether the theme is traditional Hollywood monsters like The Mummy and The Wolfman, or a more open theme that welcomes all beasts of fur, scale, claw, and fang. A creative costume contest for this party would be a blast. Go with today’s popular trends and throw a vampire party complete with Blood Punch, flitting bat and coffin decor, and party games like Mafia are easily adapted to suit the undead. Another trendy choice is, of course, the zombie apocalypse. A ghoulish game of tag would be the perfect end to the evening.
Harvest Festivals
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Photo by Ethan Miller, Getty Images
Harvest festivals are a wonderful way to enjoy the autumn season for those who do not celebrate Halloween for religious reasons, or who simply don’t like to be scared.
Decorations concentrate on rich fall colors of gold, yellow, orange, red, and earthy brown. Pumpkins, corn stalks, apples, and colorful fall leaves can be incorporated into the décor to invoke a welcoming, harvest atmosphere. You can even go farther and make your home look like a farm—try bales of hay, friendly-looking scarecrows, horse or chicken themed pictures and items, rustic gingham prints, straw hats, and other items that can be found on a farm.
Food should concentrate on traditional autumn fare like apple cider, roasted pumpkin seeds, oatmeal cookies, zucchini bread, caramel apples, and popcorn. Hot, hearty dishes like soup and chili will warm up your guests. Try butternut squash soup as squash is plentiful at this time of year. Don’t forget that Halloween Delights, the fabulous cookbook by experienced chef Karen Jean Matsko Hood, contains a host of delicious and creative recipes that are perfect for autumn, not just Halloween.
Some traditional Halloween activities can be easily adapted to a harvest festival. Bobbing for apples and carving pumpkins are always fun, and you can invite your guests to come in costume as long as they don’t choose anything scary. Wheelbarrow races and other relay games provide excitement and competition for all ages. Carnival games, like beanbag throwing and ring toss, are also popular at harvest festivals, and of course there is the traditional fall hay ride.
Don’t let the frights and commercialism of Halloween stop you from celebrating this gorgeous time of year! A harvest festival is good, clean family fun that will create treasured memories for years to come. Be safe, be creative, and above all have fun!
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