Thanksgiving Recipes!

Here are a few of my favorite Thanksgiving Recipes. Be brave...try em' out this year!

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes.

3 Medium Sweet Potatoes (around 2 lbs) *Scrub them well!

5-6 slices of Bacon

2 Tablespoons Dark Brown Sugar

3 Tablespoons butter

2 small shallots

1 teaspoon Fresh minced rosemary + a little extra for garnish

1 large egg

4 Tablespoons heavy cream

1/2 Cup finely grated Gruyere cheese (the recipe calls for about 2 oz...but I always use more than just 2 oz!) +extra cheese for garnish

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

1) Preheat oven to 400. Pierce sweet potatoes with a fork& line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Bake potatoes until tender...about 45 minutes. Remove potatoes and let them cool while you cook the bacon.

2) Line a baking sheet with foil. Place a wire cookie rack on the aluminum lined sheet and arrange bacon strips on the wire rack. Sprinkle with brown sugar & cook in the 400 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and roughly chop. *I have skipped the whole wire rack/foil lined sheet before & just sprinkled the brown sugar on the bacon and put it in the microwave on paper towels. Both methods have there drawbacks (they kinda make a mess!), but the sweet/crispy/crunchy bacon bits are worth the trouble...trust me!

3) Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a medium heat skillet and add shallots; cook until soft-about two minutes. Add rosemary and cook for 1 more minute. Remove from heat.

4)Carefully split potatoes lengthwise & CAREFULLY spoon out flesh, leaving about 1/4 inch shell; set the halves on a baking sheet. Place flesh in the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment. Add 2-3 more tablespoons butter, shallot/rosemary mixture/ egg/ cream/ and Gruyere. Mix until well combined. Season with salt and pepper.

5) *Transfer mixture to pastry bag fitted with very large star tip. Pipe mixture into shells. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Garnish with extra Gruyere, rosemary, and bacon. Enjoy!

*You can skip the whole pastry bag step if you are not a cake decorator :-) & just spoon the mixture into the shells. Or...you can put the mixture into a large gallon size baggie and cut the tip off the the end of the baggie and pipe the filling into the shells that way!

Caramel Apple Pie.

1 prepared 9 inch pie crust (deep dish). I make my own most of the time, but I won't tell anyone if you use the cheater store-bought ones...I've done it a time or two before (hanging head).

Pie Filling:

6 Medium apples (about 2 3/4 pounds), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced. I use Jonathan apples, and golden delicious apples most of the time.

3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar.

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

tiny pinch of ground cloves (*don't tell Jon I add cloves or he won't eat this pie anymore!).

*Stir together sugar, flour, and spices. Sprinkle over sliced apples & toss to coat.

Crumb Topping:

1 Cup light brown sugar.

1/2 Cup Flour

1/2 cup (rounded) quick cooking oats

1 stick of butter + 2 Tablespoons (1/2 Cup + 2 Tablespoons)

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 Cup chopped pecans

*Combine brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon & nutmeg. Keep butter well chilled & cut the butter into small chunks & combine it with the oat/flour/sugar/spice mixture until it is like course crumbs. *Add pecans and stir well.

*Pour sliced apple mixture into well-chilled pie crust.

*Sprinkle crumb topping over apple mixture.

*Place pie on a cookie sheet so the drippings won't burn to the bottom of your oven.

*Cover pie crust with strips of aluminum foil.

*Bake at 375 for the first 30 minutes. Reduce temp to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes. You may need to loosely tent the whole pie with aluminum foil during the last 20 minutes if the topping is looking too dark brown.

**You do not have to add the pecans to the crumb topping either. You can add the pecans AFTER you remove the pie from the oven if you want them to be a little more crunchy. Jon likes it when I add the pecans to the top after it's done baking, but it's a little easier (I think) to just throw em' in the topping mixture. It's your choice.

1/3 Cup Caramel Topping

*Let your pie cool for about 15 minutes and then drizzle top with caramel topping! Divine!!

How He Loves Us.

*I have this little memory I love to recall from time to time because it often makes me wonder if this is how God sees me.

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It was late. Everyone had left the hospital & I was all alone holding my firstborn in my arms & drinking in her beauty. I counted her toes, ran my fingers through her soft baby hairs, and kissed her chubby little cheeks. As I stared at her angelic little sleeping face I whispered to her: "I'm your Mommy...and...I love you SO much".

I think it was the very first time in my life that I felt such a deep, intense love for someone like that. Right after I whispered those words into her tiny little ears I gently pressed my forehead to hers & the tears just came streaming down my cheeks, soaking her tiny little tummy! It was as if someone had just released a dam that was holding a thousand years worth of tears & now they were all coming at once. I was so overcome with with love for my firstborn that I couldn't hold back the emotion, and the tears just seemed to flow effortlessly, soaking my tiny little babe in salty wet raindrops of pure unbridled love. It was one of the most awesome emotions I have ever felt in my entire life & it was as if someone had just awakened a new depth of understanding in my soul.

As I sat there sobbing love-filled tears that soaked my baby's little white hospital shirt, I wondered "Is this how the Lord feels about me". The thought kinda scared me at first! Surely not!! I don't deserve to have the Lord of the universe feel this for me... do I?? That's when it occurred to me that the whole reason He calls himself my "father" is because when He looks at me He DOES feel this sort of indescribable love for me. Nothing I could ever do or say would be able to separate me from that love that Jesus says He has for me! What an AWESOME thought!

I hope if you are reading this you take a moment today to feel God's love being poured all over you. Because I know that when He looks down at us, His beautiful children, He aches with a love for us that is so strong that our finite little minds cannot even comprehend it. In fact, the first time I started to tap into understanding that kind of love I was so overcome by it that I couldn't stop crying (happy tears of course!). Now that's a love that can only come from a savior that loved us so much that he would lay down His very own life for us :-). Oh, how He does indeed LOVE us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWgeUrD4MHI

Sick Day/ Turkey Day....My thoughts on both!

I have a sick baby today. He is coughing & hacking, crying and clinging, dripping with green snot & utterly miserable! It's a sad sight to see. McKenna was sick for about 3 days last week & then she perked right up & skipped back to school just in time for the circus field trip. I love how McKenna is very rarely sick & when she is it's never for very long. That kid has the immune system of the gods I tell ya! Nothing gets her down....nothing! Sometimes I wonder if that's an advantage of being the oldest kid?? Then there is my boys.....the "wimpy White boys"....oh, they are a mess! Chandler is guaranteed to get pneumonia once a year & if there is a "bug" going around, he's gonna get it. Every. Time. (sigh). However, by some small miracle he is not sick just yet! Let's not say miracles never happen-mmmm-kay? He could make it through this plague unscathed.....he could. I just know it....or, I just really HOPE it ;-). Either way, I'm wishing with all my heart that we get all this sickness behind us in time for Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, oh boy, am I ready to cook! I went to Sam's Club yesterday to get ready & let me tell you...I AM READY! I bought 4 lbs of butter, 6 bricks of cream cheese, a quart of heavy cream, a quart of half & half (because sometimes you have to go low fat...don't cha know!), 10 lbs of Yukon gold potatoes, 5 lbs of apples, 3 lbs of Ghiradelli chocolate chips, the 40 oz bag of walnuts, 2 lbs of cocoa, 5 lbs of sharp cheddar, and.......the 3 pack of sparkling ciders (my husband laughs at me for this one!). Can you tell I am mostly responsible for the desserts?

Every Thanksgiving I go over to my mom's house the night before and help her start the preparations. We brine the Turkey, fry bacon, make pies & jello salads, start the rolls, and the squash & beans get underway as well. Oh, I can already smell the glorious aromas!! I never thought I'd enjoy cooking this much, but the older I get the more I enjoy all the domestic-y parts of being a homemaker. I can honestly say I really enjoy the "work" that goes into fixing a big meal. There is just something so satisfying about serving your family a big meal that was planned and prepared by you for no other purpose than for everyone to find enjoyment in it! It's a thing of beauty!

If my clingy baby sleeps long enough today maybe I'll get to share one of my Thanksgiving recipes :-). Although, it's gonna be a tough choice between the twice baked sweet potatoes, or the caramel apple pie. We shall see ;-)

It's Cookie Season!

There is nothing I love more than Holiday cookies! I love to cook, but I LOVE to bake even more! And this, my friends, is COOKIE season! In my opinion the best part about Thanksgiving and Christmas is the desserts. It's taken me years to perfect a few of my favorite pies, cookies, and cakes, but I never get tired of trying new things either. A few years ago when I was on the hunt for a new cookie recipe I came across a recipe for peanut butter/oatmeal cookies, but I didn't have all the ingredients to make the cream filling (they were supposed to be a sandwich cookie) so I went to work modifying the recipe to fit the ingredients I had in my pantry. What I came up with is has become a big hit at our house & man oh man, are these cookies addictive. They make a huge batch too....so watch out! I make them all year round, but I think they are a nice addition to Christmas cookie tins too!

Hope you try em'!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

1 ½ Cups Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

½ teaspoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Butter, softened

1 Cup White Sugar

1 Cup packed Light Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 Cups Quick Cooking Oats

1 Bag *Peanut Butter/ Milk Chocolate Chips (Nestle)

*Just plain Milk Chocolate Chips may also be used J

** M&M's are also yummy!

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter, peanut butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs next and beat well.

2. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir. (do not use your mixer any longer) Add oatmeal and stir.

3. Mix Chocolate chips to cookie dough mixture.

4. Roll dough into balls & flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass, and place at least 1 inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until cookies are very light brown on top.

Please Note: These are not the PB/Oatmeal cookies, but I just wanted to show you this example of slightly flattened cookie balls (don't go wild on the flattening part). I'll be posting the recipe for these cookies (Oatmeal raisin) soon :-).

*If cookies do not spread out well enough “slam” (or drop) cookie sheet once on counter top or oven rack to deflate cookies and bake for 1 more minute J Cookies will look quite “puffy” until they are nearly ready…so watch them closely.

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

This past weekend my family spent all day on Saturday raking leaves, jumping in giant piles of leaves, and eating lunch on the porch on the uncharacteristically warm (75 degree) November day! It was GREAT! We even went to Jonathan's parents house that night for a bonfire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, sang songs by the campfire & played flashlight tag. Yes, it was a grand weekend full of fun and great memories...and not a single picture!! Yeah, I'm so not "on the ball" these days, but you know what....I could care less. It's just how I roll sometimes & I'm totally OK with that :-)

So......because I have no leaf jumping or bonfire pictures to share with you, I'll share another recipe. This is actually one I made up a few years ago when my mom gave me a gallon of rosemary from her herb garden & I tried my hand at being creative in the kitchen. OK, so It's not a very creative idea....but it's yummy & a HUGE crowd pleaser. Chances are if you live close to me and have a baby, or a surgery & I bring you a meal, this is what I will show up with. I'm SO original like that! Oh, and because I'm so not the "Pioneer Woman" I regret to inform you that I do not have detailed pictures of the whole preparation/cooking process. I even forgot to take a picture of the finished masterpiece because my family was experiencing a dinner time meltdown & when this happens my mind turns to mush, I cry tears of blood, and then I curl up in a ball and forget my name for a few days. Sorry... I'll try to do better next time :-).

Here goes nothin'

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

You will need:

-Salt

-Pepper

-4-6 garlic cloves

-1 red onion

-1-2 lemons

-1 stick of butter softened

-Rosemary (about 4-5 sprigs)

-Finely chop 2 cloves of garlic

-Pull rosemary leaves of the stem and finely chop (I use about two of the sprigs here)

-Make a "herb butter" paste with your salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary.

Next, get a big fat "roaster" chicken that is at least 5 lbs. (This one is about 6 lbs). Rinse the chicken well & then pat it dry with paper towels. Left up the skin on the breast meat & pull back very gently. Be very careful not to tear the skin though, you want to try to keep it in tact. Run your hand under the skin to separate the membrane from the meat. Do this on the drumsticks as well. Next, try to carefully pat down the breast meat with a paper towel (this helps the herb butter "stick" to the meat a little better.) Rub the herb butter under the skin of the breast meat & legs. If you have extra butter left over rub it all over the outside of the chicken as well.

-Now, for a little fancy "extra" you can very thinly slice some lemon wedges and slide those under the skin as well. This really enhances the "lemony" flavor of the chicken...and it looks pretty!

-Crank that oven up to a blazing hot 425!
-Chop the onion into wedges
-Chop the lemon into wedges
-Smack a few more garlic cloves with the flat side of a big knife to remove the peel...
Stuff the cavity of your herb-buttered bird with the lemons, onions, garlic, and then cram at least 2-3 sprigs of whole rosemary in there too!
-If you have any leftover onion wedges, or crushed garlic cloves throw those in the pan too. I usually cut up about 1.5 lbs or new potatoes and sprinkle em' with salt and pepper and place those around the bird too. It's up to you :-)
-Throw your stuffed, buttered bird into a roasting pan, or a "V" rack inside a roasting pan if you have one, and stick it in the 425 degree oven.
*I'm too lazy to truss my birds, but it does help keep the skin from splitting while they roast, so by all means...truss your bird if you want to...or don't -I really don't care!
-Roast at 425 for 20 minutes, then baste it, turn the pan, and turn the heat down to 375.
-Keep basting with a brush every 15-20 minutes. Turn the pan a few times too. It helps it brown evenly!
-I roast a 6 lb bird using this method for about 2 hours. Give or take about 15 minutes. I use a meat thermometer to know when it's done, so you will have to do the same :-). Every bird has different cooking times so it kinda varies.

*Because I usually throw potatoes in the roasting pan the only other side I serve with this is a salad, and some crusty bread! It sounds like a lot of work, but it's really not. Once you butter and stuff the bird you've got two hours to clean up the kitchen & get ready for dinner. It's pretty simple & SO yummy. Enjoy!

What's For Dinner-WEDNESDAY!

What???? Yes, I'm back at the "What's For Dinner, Wednesday" posts again! Woohoo! Umm, yeah, I know that no one probably even noticed when I gave up on my "What's For Dinner" posts, but it's fun to pretend like you cared very deeply about reading new recipes. :-) Oh, if everyone were as big of a dork as me, then this world would be one big, cellulite loving, recipe sharing, cookie making, comfort food craving, long-distance-running-because-I-eat-too-much-crap, happy place! And I could die knowing I did something good ;-). But.....let's get on to the recipe(s) shall we?

It's Fall, which means I make a LOT of soup. I love soup. My husband sometimes wishes I didn't love soup so much, but he will live. Last week, when Jonathan came home to the THIRD batch of soup for dinner that week he said something like "Can you make some sort of soup that has kielbasa in it.....please?". I'm not a huge fan of sausage, but I aim to please, so I came up with this yummy recipe to please my kielbasa-loving husband. For the record: He gave this a "two thumbs up"!

Ham and Bean Soup (with Kielbasa)

*Don't you love the clever name?

1- 20 oz package 15 Bean Soup Mix (throw out that "ham flavor" packet that comes with it-ick!)

-3 quarts water

-1 quart vegetable stock (oops-not pictured)

-1 quart ham stock (not pictured-go to the link!)

-1 cup apple juice

-1 lb cooked cubed ham

-1 lb Kielbasa (sliced and browned in bacon drippings before you add it to the soup)

-1 diced green pepper

-1 chopped onion

-2 stalks of celery diced (leave those leaves on the celery stalks!)

-2 good-sized carrots sliced (but not too thin.)

-3-4 garlic cloves, crushed with the knife blade and then chopped super fine

-2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

-1 teaspoon dried basil

-3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or go wild and add the whole teaspoon, I won't tell anyone.)

-3/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper (or.....well, never mind!).

-1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram (yes, it makes a difference...just go buy it!)

-1/2 teaspoon tabasco sauce

-1 16 oz jar Medium Salsa (or mild for you wimps!)

-1 can petite dice tomatoes, undrained.

-1 4 oz can chopped green chilies.

1.) Rinse dry beans and place in large stock pot/dutch oven with 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil; boil for 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat; cover and let stand for one hour (or two hours, because you forgot you didn't have enough stock, so you had to send your sister out on a "stock run" at the grocery store while your two small children sleep).

2.) After one hour (or two....) drain and rinse beans. Return to the (rinsed out) pot; add stock, (that your sister so graciously ran out to buy for you!) juice, veggies, and seasonings. DON'T add the salsa, tomatoes, and green chilies!!! We will get to that later.

3.) Bring all ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 3 hours (until beans are almost tender).

4.) Add salsa, tomatoes, and chilies now. Bring to a boil again. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

*No soup is complete without a tasty bread, am I right? Of course I am! I love, love, love these super simple Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits! My butt is not a fan of them, but I can always run a few extra miles, or just embrace my jiggles. I wasn't born with a tiny rump, so what do I care-ha!

Cheddar Biscuits

-2 Cups all-purpose flour
-2 tablespoons sugar
-4 teaspoons baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-1/2 cup cold COLD butter (don't you dare use margarine!).
-1/2 cup (well, it's more like a HEAPING 1/2 cup) SHARP cheddar cheese.
-3/4 cup buttermilk (cold!)

1.)Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cayenne. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the cheese & toss to coat the cheese in the flour. Stir in buttermilk until just moistened.

2.) Turn onto a lightly floured surface & knead a few times (8-10 turns). Pat or roll to just about 3/4 inch thickness. Cut with a floured 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.

Happy Halloween.

I know I'm a few days late posting these Halloween pictures, but I'm having a hard time caring about that right now! I even forgot to take pictures of my kids cute carved pumpkins this year....such is life! One of these days I might get it together....or not. Better late than never I suppose. Enjoy!

On Friday I took Maya and Judah to Daddy's work for a visit. His work really went all out this year and the whole place was decorated and several of the employee's got into the pirate theme & dressed up. Maya LOVED it!

Judah and Ann...or is it Anne.....I should really know this!

Maya and Davey Jones-arrrrrgh!

Maya demonstrating how to "wave the wand" properly.

Soaking up all the attention.

This was Halloween morning!

McKenna and Daddy carving the pumpkins.

Working hard....

This was the first year that McKenna did a pumpkin all by herself. We really didn't have to help her very much & she was SO proud of her handy work!

Halloween night!

From left to right we have: Zion as "Spiderman", Chandler as a "Pirate", Maya as "Wonder Woman", McKenna as Super Girl", and last but not least Judah as "The obligatory Pumpkin" (ignore the large thigh he is perched on!). A pretty cute crew if I do say so (well, all but that thigh...that wasn't very cute)!

Mommy with her kiddos....have I mentioned before that Chandler HATES to have his picture taken? -ha!

Do You Make A Dinner Plan?

I'll be posting cute Halloween pictures later, but for now I wanted to share something different. I've discovered lately that I'm becoming a little bit better at juggling this whole "family of 6" thing. I certainly don't do anything perfect (as evidenced by my messy closets, crumb cluttered floors, and smudged mirrors and and windows everywhere you walk in my house!), but....I'm getting better! I don't feel like I'm drowning without a plan all the time! My kids are starting to get used to an easy morning routine & we haven't missed the bus in a very long time-whew!

I'm also starting to realize that the key to keeping things running smooth is to always, always, always have a plan. I'm pretty good at "winging it" when I need to, but my life really works well when I put together a plan. So, I thought I'd share with you (my handful of mommy readers) one of my ideas that has been working really well. I started writing out "Dinner Plans" about a year ago, but I'd just scribble them out on a sheet of paper and stick it on the fridge for a frame of reference. It worked well, but I'd struggle every other week when it came time to figure out a new plan. I'd spend a lot of time thumbing through my recipe box for ideas & then I'd write it all out by hand again and stick it up on the fridge. Then one day I had a great idea! I started to write out my dinner plans on my computer, and then I'd save the document and give it a number. I did this for several weeks until I started to have a collection of dinner plans I could sort through. Sometimes I would look at a dinner plan and just make a few substitutions & then I'd be on my way! Right now I have about a dozen different dinner plans each with 8-10 meal ideas each. Sometimes I just copy and paste meals ideas from several different plans to make a brand new one :-).

It's still a work in progress & I'm still adding new recipes and ideas to my new dinner plans, but at least I have a group of "base plans" now. If I'm ever short on time I don't even have do the "planning" part if I don't want to because I can just choose an old meal plan that I have saved! It's been a great help & a huge time saver. I know there are lots of different ways to organize dinner plans, and I've tried a lot of them, but for some reason this little system seems to work for me. Eventually I'm going to work on compiling a list of "main dishes", "side dishes" , and "desserts". That way it will be a little easier to throw together a new plan (without having to even do the whole copy and paste thing!) when I'm short on time, but still want something new to choose from.

So, how do you plan your meals?? Or....what other time saving tips do you have to share?

Oh, and here is the last meal plan I put together....

Meal Plan

-Lemon Rosemary Chicken with new potatoes and Green beans

-Grilled Cheese with turkey & red pepper on Sourdough with Tomato Soup

-Chicken Fajitas

-Meat Goulash with Macaroni, dinner rolls & salad

-Meatloaf with garlic Mashed Potatoes, corn, and green beans

-Balsamic Chicken with French Bread & dinner salad

-Tex-Mex Chicken Casserole / mixed southwest veggies

-Ham and Bean Soup / Cheddar biscuits