My Week (Really a Fortnight) with Jane: Part II

Back in summer of 2020, everyone was glum about restrictions and most of us were not having fun.

Then I saw that the Jane Austen Society of North America: East Washington and North Idaho (JASNA EWANID) was doing a Flat Jane.

They decided for the summer they would be sending Flat Jane about, she staying with a person for a week and then moving onto the next home to visit. They asked people on instagram if they wanted to sign up and I was like, yes please!

I wrote about our adventures in a previous post, My Week With Jane

This became so popular that they made multiple Janes and allowed people to have Jane revisit, which I requested. Now this visit didn’t happen recently but two years ago!

Yes, I’m really behind in my posts. Jane’s second visit happened in October 2021 and I was sidetracked by Horrorfest X that I didn’t get a chance to post it. Then I completely forgot about it as I was sidetracked by other things.

From Clueless

This visit happened from October 6th to October 20th 2021. I held on to her longer than a week as I was in the middle of moving out of my apartment and didn’t get to give her as much attention as I would have liked.

The parts that are italicized are from 2021 (my postings on Instagram) while anything not italicized are my current thoughts.

Day 1) Wednesday, October 6th

Today Flat Jane returned to me, and just in time for our tea party/book club/Bible study. I was also gifted some Pride and Peppermint tea that I cannot wait to drink while I read all about what Jane has been up to.

While I was in the middle of writing Horrorfest X, I also started my own 31 Days of Hallotean on Instagram when Spilltheteawithlucy choose not to do it again.

Day 6/31 of the 31 Days of Hallotean. Today’s prompt is Apple tea and we had a homemade apple, calendula, and green tea blend. “Indeed they are very delightful apples…”-Emma
Jane thoroughly enjoyed this tea, and the lovely teacup (a birthday gift). I can’t wait to see what we end up doing this week! I know I will be busy as I have a lot of moving to do, but I’m hoping we can still have some fun.

Day 2 & 3) Thursday, October 7th and Friday October 8th

On Thursday I left Flat Jane occupied at home watching The Moonstone while I packed and moved things to my new place. I was going to leave her again on Friday, but she insisted on coming with. First we stopped at Walmart to pick something up and she was amazed at all the Halloween things as she had no clue what Halloween was. Afterwards we packed up my remaining miscellaneous items and then used my matcha wipes to relax after all that hard work.

Day 4) Saturday, October 9th

Day 9/31 of 31 Days of Hallotean prompt is Fall Flatlay! I meant to post this last night, but I fell asleep-I was so tired from moving. I had just received my September Quaintly and Co Jane Austen box and decided to use it for my fall Flatlay. It included all the items seen here (minus Flat Jane and the teacup).

Day 5) Sunday, October 10th

Yesterday Jane and I went to church and then she took her daily constitutional in the cemetery. She was surprised how “young” the graves were as none were earlier than the 1870s. Afterwards we went to the Dollar Tree to get some movie snacks, and boy was she surprised at all you could get for a dollar, and at all the candy available. Then it was movie time! My niece and I went to see Scream, but Jane declined as it wasn’t her type of film. Instead we met her in the lobby after and she told us she saw a movie with a character named James. She said he had a British accent and the film made her cry. After the movie we dropped my niece off and it was back to Wal-Mart to exchange my purchase for new drip pans and more cleaning. I feel bad that she came when I’ve been moving, but I do have a few fun things planned for later this week.

Day 6 & 7 & 8) Monday, October 11th; Tuesday, October 12th, and Wednesday, October 13th

[Monday] was Game Night! Last time Jane visited she and I played my Pride and Prejudice board game (as I had just received it as a Christmas gift). This time we played Clue: Mysteries and the very fun card game, Marrying Mr. Darcy. I won at Clue Mysteries, as I figured out who revealed Miss Scarlet’s secrets. Jane won Marrying Mr. Darcy as Georgiana Darcy; although it was very close as I played the nearly unbeatable, Caroline Bingley. I tried to sound her out as to which of the single Austen men (from any of her novels) would she set Georgiania up with (I lean toward William Price, the best man in Mansfield Park), but she said she was too tired to comment and went to bed. Maybe by the end of the week I’ll be able to swindle it out of her (or maybe not).

[Tuesday] my mom made albondigas (Mexican meatball soup) and I told Jane she had to try some as she had never had Mexican food before. It was different than the soups she had growing up, but she enjoyed it! It turned out to be a soupy day as she then helped me prepare the soup we will be having for tea, when we have our tea party/book club/Bible study.

Today [Wednesday] we met for our tea party/book club/Bible study and had a good time discussing The Power of Six, drinking Thai Green Milk Tea, eating Iron Rich Black Bean Soup, Roasted Carrots, and gluten free lemon and chocolate chip cookies. Flat Jane of course joined us, and enjoyed the tea and the soup she helped prepare the day before.

Day 9 & 10) Thursday, October 14th and Friday, October 15th

[Thursday] I had to work and do some moving out errands, so I left Jane at home with my cat. My cat hates getting her picture taken, but I managed to get a cute shot.

[Friday] Flat Jane and I went to a Halloween party. We ate spooky snacks and watched some horror comedies! The only downside was the fact that we ordered dominos and it was late, then the delivery person gave us the wrong order, they told us they would remake it but only IF we didn’t eat the pizza, and then it was another hour and a half until the new pizza was delivered. I am never ordering from dominos again. Jane was fine with it as she was having fun enjoying the food and watching the movies.

Day 11) Saturday, October 16th

Day 10 Road trip! Jane is buckled in with a snack as we head out to visit with some friends. It’s nice to have company on this trip.

I used my current reading stack of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, To Kill a Mockingbird, Katie the Catsitter, and Mexican Gothic so that the seatbelt could actually fit around her.

Day 16/31 of 31 Days Of Hallotean! Today’s prompt is Tea for a Halloqueen so I thought what better thing to do then a trip to Royal Tea Garden. I highly recommend this place as it was beautiful, had wonderful food, the staff was extremely friendly and efficient, and the tea delicious. It was a delightful experience and I will most definitely be back. We had Lavender Earl Grey Tea, Duchess Grey Tea, Irish Blend, Scones (with clotted cream, jam, and lemon curd), chicken salad sandwiches, cucumber cream cheese sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, a mini hand pie, spinach puff, and corn & bean salad. Everything was so good, I couldn’t even have dessert! Unfortunately I brought Flat Jane with me but she’s missing from all my pictures. I don’t know how that happened. Oh, well. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Day 12) Sunday, October 17th

Day 17/31 of 31 Days of Hallotean. Today’s prompt is an autumn bake and I made pan de Muertos por la dia de Los Muertos y té de Rosa aźucar. This was my first time making Pan de Muertos and it was fun, although I didn’t squish the bread down as well as I should have. I paired this autumn bake not with hot chocolate like you are supposed to, but with the dia de Los Muertos tea blend that Madsen Creations made and is currently selling a limited amount of. I bought three tins, two are to send to friends and the third to go with flat Jane on her next travel. Of course if the theme of the bake is Dia de Los Muertos, then of course I also had to use my Madsen Creations Jane Austen Catrina mug. (I love that mug so much!) I’m glad for my first try these came out well and plan to freeze a couple to save and use when I set up my ofrenda.

Flat Jane did help with the baking of the Pan de Muertos and was grateful for this view into another culture.

Day 13, 14, & 15ish) Monday, October 18th; October, Tuesday 19th; and Wednesday, October 20th

My time with Flat Jane has come to an end. On Monday we had game night, where we played the Pride and Prejudice Board Game and Loteria (she won the first, I won the second).

On Tuesday we had a movie night (the films pictured may or may not be part of this years’ Horrorfest X, you’ll just have to wait and see. 😉) They were Northanger Abbey (1987) and Ghostbusters 2.

Today I helped get her ready for her next destination, taking a welcoming gift to her new hostess. It was sad to see her go, but I know she has plenty of adventures ahead.

It was a ton of fun having Jane and now that I finally reviewed my last trip, I’m itching to ask for her again.

If interested in having Flat Jane visit you then contact JASNA EWANID to signup. I recommend it as it is a lot of fun.

For more Jane Austen, go to Jane Austen Witty and Wise Coloring Book

You’re Kids. I’m a Vampire!: Mom’s Got a Date With a Vampire (2000)

Seven years ago a I did a 30 Day Disney challenge and one of the prompts was your favorite DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie). I didn’t talk too much about this film as I planned to review it in October of that year, but I didn’t, so finally after all these years I’m going to share my thoughts on this film.

I wouldn’t normally have two vampire movies next to each other (tomorrow I will be posting my review of Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part I), but as usual-I’m nearing the end of Horrorfest X and I’ve fallen behind in some of my reviews. So we are just going to end up with a double dose of vampires this weekend. That’s okay, I’m prepared.

And today my review is so late as I shared the film with my niece. The two of us watched it and had some tea (today’s 31 Days of Hallotean prompt)

I remember being so excited when this film came out as I had been eagerly awaiting it. And when my brother shared his Disney+ password with me, the very first things I watched were The Phantom of the Megaplex and Mom’s Got a Date With a Vampire.

This film had so many people in it too, which also made it exciting! It had Mr. Sheffield from the Nanny, Lizzie McGuire’s dad, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s aunt. Rewatching it as an adult I realized it also has the actor who was Gary Giggles in Spy Kids 2.

Adam Hansen (Matt O’Leary [Gary Giggles]), is big into monsters and loves to watch horror films and the like. Instead of doing his homework like he was supposed to, he watched vampire films. The next day he has no paper and instead presents his history paper on Malachi Van Helsing, Vampire Hunter. Mom, Lynette Hansen (Carolyn Rhea [Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s aunt]) isn happy and grounds him.

From Nightmare on Elm Street

His sister, Chelsea, heard about his “report” and belief in the supernatural and calls him a dweeb. Her mom hears this and Chelsea is also grounded and now she has to break a date with her boyfriend Peter to the Harvest festival. She’s not happy, but mom won’t budge.

The next day at school, Adam’s friend-who I just realized is the same actor who played the jerk Craig Manning on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Ooh his character makes me so mad for how he treated Ashley and Manny. Anyways I digress, his best friend, Duffy, has tickets to see Adam’s favorite band at the Harvest festival this weekend. There is no way he can talk his mom into letting him go, but maybe if he can distract her with something else?

So Chelsea and Adam try to plot a way to distract their mom in order to have fun this weekend and decide maybe they will be able to if they can get her to go out on a date.

But where to find a date? Adam decides to check the personals in the tabloid magazine he subscribes to (the one he found the Van Helsing article in). They find a weirdo, but settle on matching up the mom with an ad that sounds pretty good.

Continental gentleman, handsome, debonair, suave. Enjoys long strolls beneath the full moon. Loves adventure, travel, wild animals, and women who long for romantic nights that will never end. Hates Italian food and turtlenecks. Wolfsbane@netherlink.pro.

As a kid I remember thinking, hates Italian food so weird (I’m part Italian so of course I eat a lot of it). As an adult all I can think is this is a movie so of course he’s debonair and suave but in real life he would probably be nothing like his ad describes him.

They arrange to meet him at the grocery store and plan to trick mom into talking to him. They see a few single men-one dressed in a trench and fedora looking like Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files, but before they can continue with their plotting mom bumps into Dr. Dimitri Dentatos (Mr. Sheffield from The Nanny [Charles Shaughnessy]). As a kid I was like, oh it’s Mr. Sheffield from The Nanny of course the mom thinks he’s handsome. As an adult I’m like wow, mom found a man who is suave, debonair, nice, and looks like Charles Shaughnessy; no wonder she’s like yes I’ll go out with you tomorrow even though I don’t know you.

Also I completely forgot that he was a doctor in this, so now this meme has popped into my head.

But this man is not the perfect dreamboat that Lynette thinks he is. He is actually a vampire, as the youngest Hansen, Taylor, watched him transform into a bat. Of course, no one believes him.

It turns out that Adam’s friend gave his ticket away. Since he can’t afford he trades a date with his sister to his friend’s older brother. Yeah, Adam is quite the jerk.

Saturday night comes and Dimitri arrives unable to come in unless invited in. He and the mom leave for dinner while Adam and Chelsea plan to call a babysitter and leave Taylor at home.

Taylor, however, decides that he will go save him mom. First he tries to get Adam to help him, but no dice. Then he calls up Van Helsing from the number left in the article and leaves a message. As a last ditch effort, he bikes after his mom to warn her. Adam and Chelsea follow him as if mom finds out they are not staying home grounded-the date will be over and they will be in even more trouble.

Meanwhile, Van Helsing is hunting the vampire and uses this cool coal trick or something to track him.

Wow!

Taylor will not leave as he is not convinced at all that Dimitri is not a vampire. The only way to convince him to go is to prove it. Of course no one takes Taylor seriously and they come up with a “spoon test”, which Dimitri passes. Taylor now satisfied agrees to go home, but as they leave the restaurant Adam notices that Dinitri doesn’t have a reflection. Uh oh, it turn out Taylor was right. He is a vampire!

That’s not good.

Adam convinces Chelsea to break her date and help him save their mom, they follow the two. Dimitri and Lynette are not having a ton of fun together as they have nothing in common, although Dimitri clearly wants to take her somewhere alone…and drink her blood!

Lynette takes Dimitri to a rockabilly club and Adam tries to keep her safe by tricking a guy into asking her to dance-but unfortunately Dimitri uses his vampire powers to make him leave instead. Adam then points Lynette out to the band and she goes up on stage and sings. While she’s preoccupied, Adam tells the security guard that Dimitri is a stalker and the bouncer gets rid of him. But not for long-he’s a vampire.

From Dracula

Back at the Hansen house, Van Helsing has checked his messages and he been trying to get a hold of Taylor but can’t get through as the baby-sitter has it tangled up. Van Helsing heads off to look where he thinks that a Vampire would be hiding out at, while Taylor follows and stows away in his car.

Chelsea who has been waiting outside the Rockabilly club sees him climb the wall: cool, creepy and the effects are still good.

So when Dimitri was thrown out of the club he broke Adam and Chelsea’s bikes having a little tantrum. They call Duffy, Boomer, and Duffy’s brother. Boomer reveals the “deal” and Chelsea is furious at him. She is 100% in the right. Although they make up rather quickly and resume the search for their mother.

Lynette has had a wonderful night out with Dimitri and thanks him for helping her to have fun again, but then she rejects him as they have little in common and she’s just not attracted to him. This makes Dimitri confused and angry so he puts Lynette in a trance to make her come home with him. The kids see this and try to stop him. Dimitri does a really creepy Vampire speed run and threatens Adam.

Dimitri tries to take Lynette to his lair, but Adam’s friends have sabotaged his car. Adam and Chelsea call a cab and head off to the Mather House.

At Dimitri’s lair, the kids look for a way to defeat him. Adam gets the idea to steal his coffin which is a really smart one, and put it in the lake. Vampires cannot cross bodies of water unless they are in their coffin, they must rest in dirt from their native soil (in their coffin), and during the day reside in their coffin. It’s a triple whammy and opens Dimitri up to negotiations. I really liked that they kept with this vampire lore, especially as Adam is supposed to be a monster expert.

Adam tries to trade foe his mom, but Dimitri grabs his sister. Adam has no choice but to give the coffin back as otherwise Dimitri will kill at least one of his family members. While they are in their standoff Van Helsing and Taylor arrive which distracts Dimitri.

Adam, Chelsea, and Taylor plead with their mom which awakens her from her trance (love is stronger) and they defeat him.

After their adventures, they invite Van Helsing over for breakfast and all ends well.

This film was super cute and adorable when it first came out and is still a really fun watch. I love it and recommend it!

For more vampire films, go to Edward and Jacob Fight Over Who Should Be With Bella, And We Get Jasper’s Back Story: The Twilight Saga, Eclipse (2010)

For more Disney Channel Original Movies, go to A Modern Mummy: Under Wraps (1997)

Heirloom Tomato Tart

Do you like pie? I love pie!

LOL j/k

So when I saw this recipe on Tea Time Magazine‘s instagram I pinned it with plans to make later.

Back in October, @SpilltheTeaWithLucy did a 31 Day Tea Challenge and Day 17/31 of 31 Days of Hallotean was an Autumn Tea Bake. Since I had just baked some sweets prior to this with The Magician’s Nephew Tea Party/Book Club/Bible Study, I decided to make something savory instead. This is my take on Tea Time Magazine’s Heirloom Tomato Tart (I had to substitute a few ingredients) and since tomatoes are red I decided to pair it with Cederberg Tea Co.‘s Classic Red Tea. I also had to use a pink and red mug to match. This cat mug was a gift from a friend Christmas 2019 and part of a 4 set of cat mugs.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 Heirloom Tomatoes
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
• 1/2 Package of Refrigerated Pie Dough (I used Phyllo dough I had bought to make the Fotina Flower Puffed Pastry as the store was out of puffed pastry, but my sister had bought me some so this was all leftover)
• 1.5 Cups of Coarsely Grated, Sharp Yellow Cheddar Cheese (I used leftover Fotina Cheese from Fotina Flower Puffed Pastry)
• 1/2 Cup of Mayonnaise (I substituted with Hummus)
• 2 Tablespoons of Chopped Fresh Flat-Leaf Parsley
• 1 Tablespoon of Green Onion
• 1/4 Teaespoon of Ground Black Pepper
• 1 Tablespoon of Red Wine Vinegar
• 1 Teaspoon of Olive Oil
• Garnish with pepper and additional fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Slice tomatoes, cutting larger tomatoes into 1/4 inch slices and smaller ones into 1/8 inch slices.
3. Arrange tomato slices in a single layer on paper towels, sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 30 mins.
4. Unroll pie dough, and press into a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom, trimming and discarding extra dough.
5. In a medium bowl, combine cheese, mayonnaise, parsley, green onion, and pepper-stirring to blend.
6. Spread half the cheese mixture into the bottom of the pan, in a thin even layer.
7. Blot tomatoes dry with paper towels.
8. Place a large tomato slice in the center of pan on top of the cheese mixture.
9. Cut several tomato slices in half and arrange around the center slice. Fill every space.
10. Spread remaining cheese mixture in an even layer on top of the tomatoes.
11. Apply thinner tomatoes on top of cheese mixture in a pleasing pattern.
12. Sprinkle with vinegar and drizzle with olive oil.
13. Bake until crust is deep golden brown and cheese mixture is hot and beginning to bubble.
14. Remove from oven and let cool, before removing from pan.
15. Garnish with pepper and parsley if desired.
16. Serve at room temp within 3 hours of baking.

 

This was delicious, it was like eating a fancy tea pizza, and you all know how much I love pizza.

It was incredibly delicious and I would most definitely make it again.

For more recipes, go to Lemon Gingerbread Cake

For more Tea Time Magazine recipes, go to Fotina Flower Puffed Pastry

For more pie recipes, go to Mini Apple Pies

For more on pizza, go to My Week With Jane

For more tea posts, go to Turkey-Apple Tea Sandwiches