The Best Part of the Thanksgiving Meal

In my opinion the very best part of the Thanksgiving meal is the dressing, stuffing...whichever you call it. My great aunt shared with me her recipe for the dressing many yearer recipe for the dressing many years back and it is what I use every year. It has never failed me and is always, always, always delicious and continues to be my favorite part of the meal. It also is really nice because it is cooked in the crock-pot making for one less thing to have to cram into the oven.

Crockpot Dressing
1 c. butter
2 c. chopped onion
2 c. chopped celery
1/4 c. parsley
2 cans mushrooms, drained (8 oz. cans)
12-13 c. bread cubes
2 well beaten eggs
1 t. poultry seasoning
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. sage
1 t. thyme
1/2 t. pepper
3 1/2 - 4 1/2 c. broth

Melt the butter in a saucepan and sautee the celery and onion until tender. Add in the mushrooms. Add in the parsley, poultry seasoning, salt, sage, thyme and pepper. Pour over bread cubes. Toss well. Pour in broth to moisten. Add eggs. Mix well. Pack lightly into crockpot. Cover. Set on high for 45 minutes. Reduce to low and cook 4-8 hours.

Birthday Gifts

My girls were invited to a birthday party a couple of weeks ago. Our budget is pretty tight with Daddy in school so I decided to make a couple of things to give to the birthday girl. I made her a little cupcake fabric apron to use when she helps her mommy in the kitchen.

I like to make the neck loop a little big so they can grow into the apron. I just knot the excess so it fits better.

I also made her a little crayon roll out of the same fabric. I am not really that great of a seamstress when it comes to following a pattern. I like to think through the project and just kind of do it my own way and that is what I did here. My mother-in-law had made my oldest daughter one a few years ago so I just looked hers over well and came up with my own design.

I was so happy with how it turned out and it was really pretty easy.

There is something about a handmade gift that is so fun to give and to receive. These two gifts didn't take much fabric so I was able to use things I had on hand. They also really didn't take alot of time to make. Handmade is great!

Look Ma, No Recipe

First off I need to answer a question from the comments in my previous post because I just know some of you are losing sleep over wondering. The question pertained to how the neighbors responded to our peace offering. Well....I don't know. They didn't answer the door when we knocked so we hung our treats from their door knobs. Nothing has been said to us, but that is ok.

Now on to what I want to share today. I have always and forever been a fan of recipes. Like...I can't cook without a recipe. I do not just whip things up. There needs to be a plan otherwise known as a recipe.

Well, I have made 3 things in the past few weeks solely on what I know about cooking now from watching umpteen Food Network shows at my mother-in-law's house "back in the day" and having seen a recipe at one point or another.

The first thing was turkey burgers. We loooooove these and they are easy! I learned from Rachael Ray that you must add veggies to turkey meat because it is drier. The veggies will boost the flavor and juiciness. I rarely buy beef anymore and was craving burgers so I jumped in. I chopped up some carrots, onion, and garlic. I mixed this in with the turkey meat and fried them up in the pan. YUM! They were awesome. I went a bit overboard with the veggies but it worked. I have also used fresh basil and spinach in them. So good!!!!!!

The next thing that I made was Chicken Pot Pie. I had made THIS recipe a couple of weeks back so I had a basic idea. I started by sautéing carrots, onion, celery and garlic in butter. Then I whisked in some flour then added some milk and chicken stock. I let that thicken up and added some shredded chicken, sage, salt, pepper, and a bag of frozen peas.

For the pot pie part of the meal I used an old family recipe which goes like this:
Whisk one egg, add enough milk to make a cup. Add enough flour to make a sticky dough. Roll out and cut into strips or squares.

I cut mine into small-ish squares and dropped them in the pan. They cooked quickly. This was a hit with the family too. My oldest daughter had 3 servings!

My last thing was just something that I decided to try. There was no recipe that I had seen at one time or another. I melted half a stick of butter in a frying pan and threw in cubed summer squash. I stirred it around and covered it with a lid. Once the squash was tender, I added some dark brown sugar and let it get all syrupy. This was AMAZING! Again my daughter said, "Mommy, this squash is really good!"

I just need to share because I am a teensy, weensy bit proud that I can now just sort of throw some things together. It is a great feeling.

BUT I still love recipes and will be using them for probably 90% of my cooking!

The Peace Offering

It all began at 6:00 a.m. yesterday morning. She awoke screaming and crying as she has almost everyday of her 19 month old life. This time the morning cuddle did not help. She cried, she screamed, she squawked, she threw herself the floor in fits. IT.WAS.BAD. I knew it was bad because I heard the neighbors slamming doors and Daddy awoke from his deep sleeping state. Finally we were able to calm her down and she fell asleep in my arms for another 45 minutes.

Later while getting ready for church Daddy said, "Maybe we owe the neighbors an apology." IT.WAS.THAT.BAD. I decided my oldest daughter and I would make pumpkin cookies to give to the neighbors as a peace offering.

That is exactly what we did. We made these Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and they were so good. I love making cookies for others because after you've given some away there aren't many left to tempt you.

The cookies were so good too! I love oatmeal raisin so the addition of pumpkin, well that just puts it over the top!

Simple Crafting

I have made a few things over the past couple of weeks that I wanted to share with you because they were ridiculously easy.

The first were super girl capes for my girls. I just cut out a rectangle piece of fabric, angled it a bit going up the long sides. Then I stitched a hem all around it and sewed a piece of ribbon to the top for them to tie their capes on with. I also cut their initials out of felt and sewed those to the capes. EASY!

My oldest daughter is OBSESSED with baby dolls (well, so is the younger one) so I made her a sling to carry her babies around in. I do have to admit I was so excited for her to play with this and she hasn't been that into it. I'm hoping that over time she will.

This again was so easy! I just cut a large rectangle out making sure it was long enough to go around her like a baby sling and wide enough to fold in half. Then I sewed the long sides together and then the middle seam. EASY!

The last thing I made was trick or treat bags for the girls to use on Halloween and in the years to come. I got the idea from this post Kayla Aimee wrote (If you don't read her blog, you need to. She is HILARIOUS!) and she got the idea from HERE.

I am in love with banners/buntings...whatever you call them so I went with that for my bags and because I try to stay away from the "spooky" side of Halloween. I tried out Liquid Stitch for this project because sewing things on to a canvas bag with the sewing machine is too frustrating. This was awesome stuff. It was messy on the fingers but it washed right off. It has held up through one night of trick or treating so far too! I made sure to put the glue as close to the edge of the fabric so that it would not fray which seems to have worked. To finish the bags I stenciled the word "CANDY" across the top with orange paint.

Love these!

Blessing Others

I am so guilty of getting stuck in my own little world and not reaching out to others. This is an even bigger problem now that we are in a newer community. I don't know a lot of people here so I don't have anyone to reach out to, right? WRONG!

I have really been feeling the need to bless others around me. I want my girls to look back and remember the times we reached out to those around us. I want them to know it is important to show kindness to others.

A couple of weeks ago at our church's mom's group a woman from within the church came to speak to us about our true value. This was a quote that she shared with us that I have been trying to cling to:
"Comparison is the thief of joy."

It is!!!!! Comparing myself to anyone robs me of joy and the blessings that God has given me and the desire to bless others. It makes me feel dissatisfied with how things are. A direct result of that is that I don't reach out to others. We are called to pursue people but when I am selfishly consumed with me and comparing myself, I don't.

I am so bad about comparing myself. It's not what God wants from me. I am enough. I am perfectly and wonderfully made.

So....last week my daughter and I made 10 dozen cookies that we bagged up and took to some of our new friends. We blessed them with something so small as cookies but it was a delight to see smiles on their faces when we knocked on doors and handed over a bag with a yummy fall snack in it. My daughter and I talked about how it made our friends feel that we did this for them and how it made us feel. She was so excited about this little thing.

I am brainstorming other things we can do together that will bless others and hope to make this a part of our routine for years to come!

We made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies from THIS recipe. They were yummy and it made 10 dozen which is perfect for giving away.

Comforty Food

It is fall. I am basking in the glory of cooking comfort food type things. They go hand in hand with the colors and smells of the season. Tonight for supper I made a recipe from Everyday food : Fresh Flavor Fast : 250 Easy, Delicious Recipes for Any Time of Day. I tweaked the recipe a bit by changing one thing and adding some other things. I will give you my tweaked recipe.

Chicken and Dumplings
3 T. butter
1 onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1/2 t. sage (or thyme)
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 c. flour (divided into 1/4 c. and 3/4 c.)
1 - 1 1/2 cans of chicken broth
1 1/2 lb. chicken thighs, cut into 2" pieces
3/4 t. dill
1 3/4 t. baking powder
1/2 c. milk
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen peas

Melt butter. Add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and sage. Cook 5 min. Add 1/4 c. flour stirring into vegetable mixture. Add chicken broth, bring to boil, stirring constantly. Season with salt and pepper. Nestle chicken in the pot, reduce heat to med. low. Cover, cook 20 min.

Dumplings: Whisk 3/4 c. flour with dill, baking powder, and 1/2 t. salt. With fork gradually stir in 1/2 c. milk.

Stir peas in the pot. Return to simmer and drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls, leaving space between dumplings. Cover and simmer 20 or until dumplings are cooked.

***Tonight I boiled a whole chicken for one hour then took the meat off the bones. I used about half of the meat in this recipe so I didn't need to cook the chicken for 20 minutes. It worked fine!