11.29.2011
11.27.2011
What I took : Saturday and Sunday
Saturday evening we were with extended family from my mother's side. We're a close bunch, so it's always a guaranteed good time. My mum (who was again the gracious host) specifically asked me to bring this mix of mukimame, peas, and pearl onions. (Cooked over the stove with butter, salt, and pepper, and poured into warm slow cooker for portability.) It was fantastic along side the turkey rolls, sweet potatoes, texas caviar, fresh fruit, and cornbread biscuits. Dessert was a delicious hot fruit dessert (ala mode!) and pumpkin whoopie pies. I'm pretty sure I'm not even remembering everything there was - point being it was a huge spread of mouth watering food.
Sunday evening was spent with my husband's immediate family, hosted by my beautiful sister-in-law. She and her hubby roasted up and carved a turkey with Cajun spices...probably the best turkey I've had in my life, not kidding. I brought a pineapple bacon bites appetizer, chopped salad, and mashed potatoes. I followed the recipes for the salad and potatoes almost exactly and thought they each turned out very nicely. My husband took charge of the bacon bites. He tweaked the recipe a bit by putting them in a 9x13 pan and pouring the brown sugar over the top. He sprinkled cinnamon over the top (genius!) and baked them for 35 minutes. I believe he used the broiler for the last 2 minutes. Let me tell you, they were melt-in-your-mouth! Throw some roasted asparagus, homemade bread, and apple dumplings into the mix...you can imagine how stuffed we were!
Later on Sunday evening we Skyped with my husband's parents, who are missionaries in Africa. It was 3:30am their time, but I think it made the whole evening a little more sweet than bitter to be able to see them and talk with them.
So that wraps up our Thanksgiving weekend. The Christmas gear is coming out this week in our home, and the holiday craziness begins!
Sunday evening was spent with my husband's immediate family, hosted by my beautiful sister-in-law. She and her hubby roasted up and carved a turkey with Cajun spices...probably the best turkey I've had in my life, not kidding. I brought a pineapple bacon bites appetizer, chopped salad, and mashed potatoes. I followed the recipes for the salad and potatoes almost exactly and thought they each turned out very nicely. My husband took charge of the bacon bites. He tweaked the recipe a bit by putting them in a 9x13 pan and pouring the brown sugar over the top. He sprinkled cinnamon over the top (genius!) and baked them for 35 minutes. I believe he used the broiler for the last 2 minutes. Let me tell you, they were melt-in-your-mouth! Throw some roasted asparagus, homemade bread, and apple dumplings into the mix...you can imagine how stuffed we were!
Later on Sunday evening we Skyped with my husband's parents, who are missionaries in Africa. It was 3:30am their time, but I think it made the whole evening a little more sweet than bitter to be able to see them and talk with them.
So that wraps up our Thanksgiving weekend. The Christmas gear is coming out this week in our home, and the holiday craziness begins!
11.25.2011
What I took : Friday
When I think of Thanksgiving, I don't think in terms of one day. It's more of a four-day marathon, Thursday-Sunday. I have so much family living in close proximity that any given holiday leaves me wishing for more space on the calendar. Even though it makes for a super hectic weekend (and a totally trashed kitchen), I wouldn't trade it. It's a lot of time and oppotunity to soak in all of the things and people I'm most thankful for.
Tonight's celebration was at a cozy lodge in the state park. We got together with my dad's side of the family where there is always great company and lots of laughs. I took two pumpkin cheesecakes (recipe), which almost didn't even happen. Earlier in the day I had just preheated my oven when we lost power to our house. (It was 60 degrees and sunny...I still don't know what was up.) I thought about just throwing in the towel and buying a few pumpkin pies, but what else was I going to do with four packages of cream cheese? Luckily, a friend still had power so I packed up Little Miss, my ingredients, and an electric mixer and set out to borrow an oven. A few hours later we were on our way with this pumpkin goodness!
Still to come: mixed vegetables, pineapple bacon bites, chopped salad, and mashed potatoes.
Tonight's celebration was at a cozy lodge in the state park. We got together with my dad's side of the family where there is always great company and lots of laughs. I took two pumpkin cheesecakes (recipe), which almost didn't even happen. Earlier in the day I had just preheated my oven when we lost power to our house. (It was 60 degrees and sunny...I still don't know what was up.) I thought about just throwing in the towel and buying a few pumpkin pies, but what else was I going to do with four packages of cream cheese? Luckily, a friend still had power so I packed up Little Miss, my ingredients, and an electric mixer and set out to borrow an oven. A few hours later we were on our way with this pumpkin goodness!
Still to come: mixed vegetables, pineapple bacon bites, chopped salad, and mashed potatoes.
11.24.2011
What I took : Thursday
The other day I shared the recipes for the food dishes I was taking to all of our family get-togethers this weekend. I decided that I'd rather share my own photos of the food and deleted the post. In hind sight I'm not really sure what made me so delete happy and I wish I would have kept it around. Oh well.
So tonight the hubby, Little Miss, and I made the 25 minute trek to my dad and mom's for Thanksgiving. While every holiday spent with my family is great, this particular evening was especially sweet with my brother home from the east coast.
The menu was spinach salad, duck, wild rice, red beets, and grilled garlic toast. (My mouth literally just started watering and I've already eaten it!) We ended on these pumpkin mousse parfaits...recipe from Good Housekeeping, recommended by mi madre and made by muah.
Not super easy, but very delish. Had I not made this recipe I would have never known how easy it is to make your own whipped cream. (Beat 1 c. heavy cream, 1 T. sugar, and 1 t. vanilla until medium peaks form.) It went over well and I would make it again.
Still to come before our Thanksgiving celebrations are over: double layer pumpkin cheesecake, mixed vegetables, pineapple bacon bites, chopped salad, and mashed potatoes.
By the way, use the code Black15 for 15% off in the Lynn David Etsy shop, good through Cyber Monday.
So tonight the hubby, Little Miss, and I made the 25 minute trek to my dad and mom's for Thanksgiving. While every holiday spent with my family is great, this particular evening was especially sweet with my brother home from the east coast.
The menu was spinach salad, duck, wild rice, red beets, and grilled garlic toast. (My mouth literally just started watering and I've already eaten it!) We ended on these pumpkin mousse parfaits...recipe from Good Housekeeping, recommended by mi madre and made by muah.
Not super easy, but very delish. Had I not made this recipe I would have never known how easy it is to make your own whipped cream. (Beat 1 c. heavy cream, 1 T. sugar, and 1 t. vanilla until medium peaks form.) It went over well and I would make it again.
Still to come before our Thanksgiving celebrations are over: double layer pumpkin cheesecake, mixed vegetables, pineapple bacon bites, chopped salad, and mashed potatoes.
By the way, use the code Black15 for 15% off in the Lynn David Etsy shop, good through Cyber Monday.
11.19.2011
New Look
What do you do when you can't justify spending money on a blog overhaul? Do it yourself, of course. I rolled up my sleeves and was up to my elbows in html. I even have a little code under my fingernails.
There are several things I'd like to touch up, but it's 2am. I believe the last time I was up this late was New Year's.
If you hail from Google Reader or other subscription you won't notice a thing. So if it's been awhile, swing on by!
Bed....is....beckoning.....
There are several things I'd like to touch up, but it's 2am. I believe the last time I was up this late was New Year's.
If you hail from Google Reader or other subscription you won't notice a thing. So if it's been awhile, swing on by!
Bed....is....beckoning.....
11.16.2011
20/20 Cure : Days Six, Seven, and Eight
"Robo-Virus" decided to camp out at our house for an entire week (Monday-Sunday!) and last week I was busy with building inventory for a Holiday Bazaar. (Which went awesome, by the way.) I hope some of you can relate when I say that if I had a consecutive 20 minutes go by and I wasn't doing something urgent, I certainly did not want to spend it doing a home cleaning/organization project.
I picked up the 20/20 Home Cure project again on Monday. The tasks were:
Day Six: Surface Clean One Room
Day Seven: Buy Flowers and Sit for 10 Minutes
Day Eight: Establish a Landing Strip
(click each day to see video)
So Monday I had a clean master bedroom (ceiling too!), Tuesday I made a foliage arrangement using pieces of what's left of our landscaping (and literally just sat for 10 minutes), and today I organized our already established "landing strip" (for keys, phones, mail, coats, shoes).
Admittedly, this isn't the most exciting blog venture to date. But I do feel like I'm making more of an effort to go "above and beyond" around the house. So what I'm trying to say is this challenge is for me, not you. Bahaha.
Like I mentioned, yesterday I went on a hunt around the perimeter of our house for something I could call a flower arrangement. When James came home and saw it he said it was festive. Then cautiously asked which tree I hacked to get the greenery - like I've had a history of doing that or something... ;)
(What's this 20/20 thing about, anyway? Click here to be in.the.know.)
I picked up the 20/20 Home Cure project again on Monday. The tasks were:
Day Six: Surface Clean One Room
Day Seven: Buy Flowers and Sit for 10 Minutes
Day Eight: Establish a Landing Strip
(click each day to see video)
So Monday I had a clean master bedroom (ceiling too!), Tuesday I made a foliage arrangement using pieces of what's left of our landscaping (and literally just sat for 10 minutes), and today I organized our already established "landing strip" (for keys, phones, mail, coats, shoes).
Admittedly, this isn't the most exciting blog venture to date. But I do feel like I'm making more of an effort to go "above and beyond" around the house. So what I'm trying to say is this challenge is for me, not you. Bahaha.
Like I mentioned, yesterday I went on a hunt around the perimeter of our house for something I could call a flower arrangement. When James came home and saw it he said it was festive. Then cautiously asked which tree I hacked to get the greenery - like I've had a history of doing that or something... ;)
(What's this 20/20 thing about, anyway? Click here to be in.the.know.)
11.03.2011
Break
We're taking a couple of days off of the 20/20 Cure. We've got some kind of creaazzey robo-virus going on and all my energy is going into my new roll as house nurse. Hope to return after the weekend!
11.01.2011
20/20 : Days Four and Five
Day 4 - 20/20 Home Cure - Fall 2010 from maxwell gillingham-ryan on Vimeo.
Day four : Remove one item and set up outbox. This is not hard for me. I am a very non-sentimental compulsive throw away-er. After watching the video I wasn't sure I would really have much to blog. Things laying around serving no purpose is not the way I roll. However, I got to thinking that between the two of us, James and I have three computers. One of which, gasp!, never gets used. So we had a sit down last night and decided to gift the third computer. As far as an outbox goes? Skipped. The idea of designating a box for the purpose of holding junk that we no longer use is not compatable with my get-rid-of-it brain. Sorry, Maxwell.
Day 5 - 20/20 Cure - Fall 2010 from maxwell gillingham-ryan on Vimeo.
Day five : Buy or replenish one eco-cleaner. I have been replacing my regular cleaners for eco-cleaners over the past year. Method brand is the easiest brand to find where I live, and so far I really like it. Last week I bought another bottle of multi-purpose cleaner...so can that count for today's challenge?
If you're like me and would consider that a semi cop-out (after all - I rebelled against an outbox yesterday) I added window cleaner to my list of "to buy" for next week which will replace my non-eco brand that I currently use.
Two more products I'd recommend adding to the ol' cleaning caddy.
I must say, my house so far isn't much cleaner, nor am I getting any richer - but this experience is forcing me to do things I might not have otherwise done. (Wondering what this 20/20 thing is all about? Click here for the 411.)
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