Keeping All Those Kids Busy!

We had 8 cousins at one of our family gatherings. Granted 2 of them were small babies, but the rest were full of energy, happy to be together and ready for some fun. And we were sure they needed to stay out of the kitchen and out of the areas the babies were in and we we wanted to make sure we didn't lose our minds. So, we had a fun schedule:

Family Picture
Grandkid Picture
Free Play
Lunchie snack
Treasure Hunt
Hide and Seek/Sardines
Pinata
Free Play (Bikes, street hockey, etc)
Down time-snack/movie/free quiet play
Thanksgiving Dinner
Movies/Free play in a designated part of the house
Dessert
Family music concert
Home

Everyone slept soooooo well that night! Especially me.

Apple Pie Suggestion

I made a bunch of apple pies this weekend for various Thanksgiving events. Here are my suggestions on the pie...

-Use the Joy of Cooking Apple Pie Recipe
-McIntosh apples
-Pillsbury Ready to use crust in the red box...no need to do scratch..they work great.
-Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the top of the crust

Enjoy!

PS I opened up my cookbook, and on the inside was a note from my Grandma. It said "to Kelly, my oldest granddaughter, I love you very much, Love, Mama" It made both my husband and I teary. What a sweet note to have just before we made pies for one of her favorite times of the year.

So, what am I thankful for?

I am thankful for so much..it would be hard to list it all.

I am thankful for my amazing husband and sweet curly headed girls. For a supportive and loving extended family. For a neighborhood where I don't just wave at my neighbors, I actually know them and enjoy them. I am thankful for our church. I am thankful for how God took care two very sick little girls, both Lydia and Leighton this year. I am thankful for my home and how God took care of my family when my husband was laid off from his job earlier this year. I am thankful for our family trip to Disney. I am thankful for so much more...

But most of all I am thankful, that I am loved by a God who has no ordinary love for me. His love for me is extraordinary. He "gets me" and loves me anyway.

I Will Be An Expert

By the time this Thanksgiving Holiday comes to an end, I, Kelly, will be an expert on Thanksgiving. Because I, Kelly, will have eaten not one, not two, but THREE Thanksgiving Meals. I am not kidding.

The First one will have Louisiana Flare and Norweigen Traditions
The Second one will have North Carolina Roots.
The Third one will have mix of Upstate New York Born, but raised in NC.

I think I was counting and it is like 75 people in 3 days! Woo-hoo!

So I'll have everything offered to me from pickled herring to Rutabegas to carbohydrate heaven.

I promise to be report back. I am sure it will be fun, and the great part is I'll get to sleep in my bed every night and not have to venture to far.

Silly Quote on Thanksgiving

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

-----Anonymous


I am pretty sure that this isn't the right perspective to have on Thanksgiving, but I thought it was cute nonetheless. Actually I think it pokes fun at all the things that we really care too much about. Is the food good? Does it look good? Are we getting the praise we deserve for such a flawless meal? And how do I look when it all is over....

Thanksgiving Prep. Tips- 6,7,8

6- Do you have enough ice?

7- Do you have lite appetizers in case things don't go off in time and in case someone arrives late?

8- Keep the kids out of the kitchen, unless they've been specifically drafted for duty. We all love kids, but Thanksgiving meal is a hard time to keep them safe from hot water, hot food, the chopping of knives and anxious cooks. Do your part by keeping the kids out of the hosts' kitchen and play with them quietly and removed from the kitchen/dining areas.

Butter Cream Frosting For Sugar Cookies

Here is a butter cream frosting recipe to go with those sugar cookies you are going to make:

Butter Cream Frosting
1 16-oz box Confectioner's Sugar
1/2 cup salted sweet cream butter (1 stick), softened
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
4 to 6 tbs. of milk


Mix together with hand held mixer or with a fancy shamancy mixer (use the flat beater). Add more milk to make it thinner, more sugar to make it thicker. Note from a frosting expert (my sis): always end with sugar. We just made the recipe as is, and it was fabulous!

This is yummy frosting. My daughter said, "Forget the cookies, let's just eat frosting!"

It makes a ton of frosting. Remember the more food coloring you add, the runnier your frosting will be so add carefully.

Thanksgiving Tips 3,4 and 5

Many of you have read that my Grandma, "Mama" died in August. Thanksgiving and Christmas memories at her house are some of my fondest and favorite memories. So I decided to model Tips number 3,4 and 5 after what Mama would've done. She was one of the greatest hostesses, I've ever known.

3- Clean out your fridge the Sunday before and straighten your pantry.

4- Give your house a detailed cleaning the weekend before. Enlist the whole family. Little kids get dust rags and can organize books on the bookshelves. Big kids wash the windows and kitchen appliances.

5- When you are doing all of this smile, talk, hug and laugh with your children and grandchildren. This is vital. Because I never minded helping Mama clean up, because I was getting to clean up with her, my Mom, my Aunt, my sis and brother. And it wasn't such a big chore, because we did it together and Mama always had time to love on us.

We always watched an old movie or old movie musical when we were cleaning. It was nice background noise. And when anyone needed a break they took it.

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving! Tip 1 and Tip 2

I could not believe how crowded the Grocery stores were today 1 week before Thanksgiving!!! Over the next few days I am going to give my tips for getting ready for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays.

Here are my tips for getting ready:

1- Sister Shubert's Yeast Rolls (Parker House Style) the ones in the circle tin in the freezer section. Folks, these are the real deal. YUM! They have to thaw before you put them in the oven, so don't forget that! And buy two or three of these pans (2 for $5). It is very easy for one guy (I will not mention names) to eat the whole pan of them. They are packed with calories, but this is just a holiday tradition! They will sell out of these, so buy in advance.

2- Got kids? Go into the kitchen, go through what your kids eat and drink during the day, b/c you know they are kids---and they are going to not do things the way they are suppose to on a holiday--like break with their day to day traditions when it comes to food. Start with breakfast and work through the day...what do your kids eat for meals, snack and what do they drink? Make sure you or Grandma are stocked up to prevent crazy last minute runs to the Grocery Store. Make sure you have bread, milk, butter or in my house RAMEN for a 3 year old who has decided she can live on Ramen alone.

My Favorite, FAVORITE Stir Fry Recipe

Oh, this one is soooo good. My husband and I cooked it together on one of our date nights. Rice Vinegar can be a little expensive. We always fight over who gets the leftovers!!!

Ty and Kelly's Stir Fry Recipe

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts- cubed
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 small white onion, diced
4 carrots, cut in matchsticks
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup broccoli florets, bite size
1/4 cup sesame oil (or olive oil and add sesame seeds)
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
Directions
Cut all of the meat and veggies, so they are ready to cook.

Start your rice. The cooking time for the dinner is equivalent to the cooking time for rice. Start steaming your veggies.
Using a wok or large frying pan, heat sesame oil over medium-high. Add in the garlic. When the oil starts to sizzle, add in the soy sauce, vinegar,sugar, and ginger. Mix well.
Add chicken. Cook until there is no pink at all. Chicken will have a rich brown color from the sauce.
Add in the veggies (steamed & drained) and cook until the rice is done.
Serve over rice.

Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum, YUM!

Ok, Sugar Cookies!!

Alright, the point of this blog is to make sure I understand that Hospitality can be a gift for some folks, and it might be harder work for others. I find it can be hard work for me, but it is getting easier the more I try. The point is, sharing food with others, having them into your home, etc. doesn't have to be perfect every time. Doesn't have to be a candle light dinner, doesn't have to be gourmet food...sometimes sharing a pizza with your neighbors and a pan of brownies is a lot of fun!

Last night my 3 year old and I made sugar cookies together, but as we got closer and closer to the finished "dough", I realized it was looking more like cornmeal than dough. Hmmmm, I looked over the recipe about 10 times before I realized I used salted butter instead of unsalted butter.

I was frustrated. I had big plans to share these cookies with a friend and spend time with my daughters decorating them and they weren't going to turn out. I had to apologize to my 3 year old that they didn't seem to be quite right and we weren't going to be able to bake them.

Much to my amazement, she replied, "Mommy, it's okay--still tastes good to me!" She ran her finger a long the beater and put her finger in her mouth and smiled a cookie dough kinda smile.

So, while it didn't turned out as a planned, I did get to spend some time with her and I learned a lesson about carefully checking my indgredients.

I love kids, they take things in stride a lot better than us adults do sometimes.

Sugar Cookie Dough Recipe

Picked up a new book on Cookies. I know, I know...what an odd book to purchase, but honestly I needed a good sugar cookie recipe. Now I need to bake some, so you can see a picture!

And a great recipe for sugar cookies and butter cream frosting I got!

Sugar Cookies
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbs. water (optional)

Mix together and set to the side flour, salt and baking powder. In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar on medium speed. Beat in eggs Add the flour mixture (SLOWLY) and blend on low speed. Add vanilla extract and blend. You may add a tablespoon of water if the dough feels dry.

Knead into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll dough out and cut your cookies. (The more flour you add to your surface the tougher the cookie)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes (small) or 12-15 (large). The cookies are done when the edges are golden brown.

Recipe from:Meaghan Mountford's Cookie Sensations

Veggie Based Spaghetti Sauce

Okay, so not everyone is going to love this recipe. My husband said I should let you know that you have to like vegetables to appreciate this sauce and it is sort of sweet. We love it at our house. It is inexpensive to make, freezes well and most of the time we have all the ingredients.

Special Tomato Sauce from Linda Fraser's Pasta cookbook

700g of tomatoes, fresh or canned (I use canned, and I like the Red Gold brand)
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
5 tbsp. of olive oil
a dash of basil or pinch of dried oregano (or both!)
salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a sauce pan, simmer for 30 minutes. Puree sauce in a blender or food processor. Return to the sauce pan, correct the seasoning and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes.

We've found that it tastes great over penne, elbow or bowtie noodles.

Yummy Pumpkin Dessert

(Picture from the Food Network Website)

We were introduced to these this weekend. Love, them! They taste more like a cake than a bar. But the were sooooo yummy. Our baker/friend got them off the Food Network's website. It was a recipe by Paula Deen which honestly, I haven't tried a recipe of hers that I haven't loved.

Prep time 30 minutes Yields: 48 small bars or 24 large bars

Paula Deen's Pumpkin Bars
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Icing:
8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.
To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Black Bean Mexican Casserole

So last night we had dinner with friends and friends of our friends. One of these couples is about to move to Kiev, Ukraine where they are going to be teachers!! While we sat around the table enjoying conversation with this folks, we enjoyed a yummy mexican casserole. Thanks MWB for the recipe! And for your friendship! :-)

Black bean mexican casserole

10-15 corn tortillas
2 cans black beans
2 cans corn
1 can diced tomatoes
1 bell pepper (any color)
1 yellow onion
cumin
smoked paprika
chipotle (canned) or chipotle tabasco
oregano
chili powder
1 bag shredded (8 ounces) Colby Jack blend
sour cream
guacomole

1. Shred up corn tortillas with a pizza cutter into strips; douse with olive oil, smoked paprika and cumin and bake in oven for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees until a little crispy.

2. Chop onion and pepper; sautee in olive oil until cooked a bit; add beans, corn, tomatoes and mix. Season with about 1-2 tsp. chili powder, smoked paprika, cumin; 1/2 tsp. oregano and as many dashes of chipotle tabasco as you can handle.

3. Layer tortillas on the bottom of a casserole dish; add the bean/corn mixture. Top the entire thing with a bag of cheese and bake about 30-40 minutes in the oven until the cheese is melted. Serve with sour cream, guacomole and corn chips.

Stars of Thanks

Hundreds of paper stars with comments written by children about what they were thankful for.

They were precious. I even found myself tearing up at some points. They are hanging up at school right now but when I get them back I'll post some of the comments.

We placed the stars on big sheets of poster board and hung them in two teachers' lounges. Then we made star shaped cookies and cupcakes. We also discovered a fantastic new recipe for sugar cookies. I'll post the recipe soon.

Answered Prayer

Earlier this week I asked you to pray for Karen, guest contibutor, and her family. Her daughter has been diagnosed with a treatable condition and she does not have cancer. And she is home!

I am so thankful to God for caring for this sweet little girl and my dear friend's family. Thanks for praying!

Election Party

Well, the thing to do on November 4th this year was to have an Election Party. I don't know if you saw all the magazine articles on how to throw one, but I thought it was a really cool idea. I saw everything from Donkey and Elephant sugar cookies (symbols of the two major political parties) to suggested wines to drink with your All-American Dinner.

I walked into a friend's house today and she had a table decorated because she had an Election Party. She got the bottom tablecloth for $1 and the other one she had. She had some leftover flowers and stuck them in flower container she had. Isn't this fun?

I talked to another friend last night who wasn't sure she was going to like the way the elections turned out, she isn't unAmerican-she just voted for the other guy! But she gathered with other like minded people and cooked comfort food that they all enjoy.

Guess I need to mark my calendar for the first Thursday in November 2012 for my very first Election Party.

Frozen Bread Tip

When I was living in St. Louis, we had a friend that was an amazing hostess. Good grief, she had the gift! She introduced me to Rhodes frozen bread. Now you can get five loaves of this frozen stuff for what you pay for a regular old loaf of Honey Wheat Bread from the grocery store. The thing is you have to bake it. So you probably break even in the end.

But, we love to bake this bread for people when we prepare meals for them and my eldest daughter loves this stuff. When she's had a long week at school, I will lay the bread out to thaw and rise overnight and put in the oven before she gets up in the morning. She'll eat a slice for breakfast and I'll pack some in her lunch.

This is a good alternative for people like me, who don't have time to make bread from scratch, but enjoy warm bread from the oven.

The trick is to find out the method of thawing that works best for you. You might have try it a couple of times before you get it right. You can find this bread at SuperWalmart or SuperTarget or the grocery store in the freezer section.

Prayer for Leighton

Karen, who is a guest contributor to this blog, has 5 adorable children. The youngest of the kids is a set of twins, Matthias and Leighton Ann. Leighton is in a Children's Hospital in Florida and tomorrow will have a biopsy, b/c they've found a mass in her neck. The mass is pressing on the traecha, making it hard for Leighton to breathe.

Will you pray for her? Will you pray for her mom and dad too? And for the 4 other kids that are anxious to have their sister healthy and at home with them?

Thanks dear reader and friend...I appreciate it. And I know Karen does too.

Yum! Church Lunch.

Look, I don't know what you are doing on the first Sunday of the month about 11:45am-but let me just say that I know what I am doing. I am eating. And eating really good food.

It's probably not right to brag and this isn't bragging- this is just the truth. One of the best places to get lunch on the first Sunday of the month where I live is at our church's monthly fellowship meal. This is not a great picture, but check out this dessert spread. And this isn't even all of it!!!

My husband ate two pieces of that cake with the rasberries on top. I am trying to track down the baker, but haven't been successful yet.

Cake, Ice Cream and Family

Angel Food cake, with whip cream icing, strawberries and halloween toys for decoration.

Ice Cream with warm apples, vanilla carmel ice cream, chocolate sauce and crushed nuts. It was really good!!! (T.O.- if I forgot anything let me know!)

Simple flower centerpiece. I love the sunflowers.

We had a birthday party this week for my friend and brother-in-law. The cake was yummy and something that was introduced to me by my in-laws about 10 years ago! (I can't believe I've been a part of this crowd for that long now!) You have to keep it in the fridge b/c the icing is actually whip cream. It is so yummy, especially with the strawberries. Kids can help decorate, which makes it more fun. My kids are traditional birthday cake lovers, so this doesn't go over well with them...but that's okay with me, more for me!

My sister does a variation of this cake. She gets and angel food cake, puts it on an cake stand. Ices it with cool-whip (or maybe it was whip cream as well). And prepares frozen strawberries as directed on the package and pours it over top of the cake as garnish/decoration. Puts it in the fridge. It is gorgeous and yummy too!

Menu:

Spaghetti with meatballs (homemade YUMMMMMM!)

Bread

Simple salad with lettuce and tomato, with some sort of citrus dressing

Cake and Ice Cream for dessert

Red Wine, Water