Rested Up & Turkey'd Out

That title just about sums it up.
I've had a week off from school and hubby had several days off from work so we're all rested up after a few days of sleeping in. As for the turkey part... I love Thanksgiving food but at the moment I'm all turkey'd out. We made plenty of food and had tons of leftovers which is a good thing because it meant that we had several days of not having to cook. Just reheat and eat but at this point I've had my fill of the bird and all it's trimmings so tonight I'm cooking and we're having hubby's favorite ~ breakfast food.

While resting up and enjoying the holiday I spent time working on things that were NOT on my to-do list.
Do you all have a never-ending to-do list that you work off of everyday?
I do and sometimes it just gets old.
So even though I should have been working on a few Christmas gifts I said what they hay....and crocheted away.

I made more of the easy & simple dish cloths that I mentioned way back HERE. They are so easy to make that I can watch tv and crochet at the same time without screwing up the instructions. Yeah!
Oh, and I also found a few new crochet sites that I'm liking real well so I may have to share those a little later.

The rest of my week was spent shopping in-store and on-line as well as finishing the holiday decorating. I did venture out Thanksgiving night with a friend to shop and it was OK but not so sure I'll do it next year.
People are just CRAZY!
Why go out in that crowd when you can stay at home and shop right from your computer chair and for the most part get just as good of a deal on the same items.

Well I better get back to supper so it will be finished when hubby gets home. Catch you all later.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Let Us Be As Thankful As...

Let us be as thankful as
The pilgrims at their feast.

Embrace our families and our friends,
Be kind to man and beast.

Let us share the harvest and as we go our way,
Be thankfully rejoicing on this Thanksgiving Day.

                                                                    ~Author Unknown

Christmas Parade and Warm Weather

I'm still here but I'm really behind in blogging and blog reading. Hoping to get more time later this week to catch up.

This past Saturday was our towns annual Christmas parade and I think it was the warmest parade that I've ever attended. No need for heavy coats, hats and mittens.
It's nice to not have to stand there freezing cold for the hour but it just doesn't feel like the holidays with all this warm weather.
Here the kids are waiting for the parade to begin.

                                       It's starting!

My favorites of course are the horses and tractors.

And Santa brought up the rear by riding the fire truck through town.

The local parades always kick off the holiday season around here.
Now it's on to Thanksgiving Day.
I plan to get a few things done tomorrow (chopping veggies, baking pies, etc.) to help make Thanksgiving Day go a little smoother in the kitchen.
Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Beginning to Deck the Halls

The Christmas spirit has arrived at our house.
I put the tree up this afternoon and strung lights on it. Then after dinner the kids got busy decorating it.

Gage & his dancing tree hat

The tree is the only thing up for now but we'll continue to work on the rest of the house over the weekend.

Sorry it's a bit blurry!

Has the Christmas spirit arrived at your house yet?

Cajun Beef & Carrots

                         Beef & Carrots Ready for the Oven

Now this is my kind of cooking.
I love "casserole" style meals that can be thrown together and left to bake in the oven. (Leaves more time for *ME* to do what I want without being stuck in the kitchen.)
Easy and simple!
The only problem is my husband is more of a meat and potato kind of guy so he's not fond of "stuff" thrown together and cooked all in one.

So this was a little of both of our favorites and kind of casserole style....or at least it was cooked in a casserole dish. Does that count? :o)
Beef (his) and carrots (mine) flavored up a bit and left big enough that he could easily pick out the carrots.
Then of course at the last minute I boiled and mashed some potatoes and wahla...a easy to prepare yet a hearty meal.

Cajun Beef & Carrots

1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/2 - 3/4 tsp. cajun seasoning
1/4 tsp. seasoned salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 pounds beef stew meat 
6 oz. carrots, sliced and quartered
hot pepper sauce

In a plastic bag or bowl, combine flour, onion powder, cajun seasoning, salt & pepper.
Toss beef into flour mixture and coat well.
Place beef chunks in a greased casserole dish.
Layer carrots around the outer edge of the beef.
Sprinkle hot pepper sauce on top (as much as you like)
Cover and bake at 350 until well done.
I didn't add any liquid to mine but if the dish becomes too dry then add a little water or beef broth.
Enjoy!

Hoagie Buns from Scratch

Don't these look yummy?
My absolute favorite sub is a meatball hoagie but you could use these buns for a all kinds of subs.

5 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp. yeast
1 tbsp. softened butter
1 3/4 cups warm water
olive oil

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, the sugar, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl.
Add butter and mix well.
Gradually add the remaining flour, alternating with the warm water.
Knead until smooth, 10-15 minutes.
(I used the dough hook on my KitchenAid mixer and let it run 5-6 minutes.)
Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
Cut dough into 6 equal sections and shape each into a hoagie bun. As you will see in the photo below mine were not in perfect even shapes but it doesn't matter. Once they rise they will be fine.
Place buns on two greased cookie sheet and spray the tops with cooking spray.
Cover pans loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Remove pans from refrigerator.

Bake 15 minutes in a 425 degree oven.

This really was easy to make and they tasted so much better than store bought. I sliced each bun down the center, placed several homemade meatballs cooked in spaghetti sauce on them and topped it with mozzarella cheese. Place the subs back in the oven for 5 more minutes just to melt the cheese.  

Enjoy!

A Day in the Country is Worth a Month in Town

That saying is so true.

I've spent the last two days helping my best friend and her husband split and haul firewood in for the winter.

There is nothing like being outdoors in the country, especially on such a nice fall day.
Most of the leaves are off the trees now but the views are still pretty. Blue skies and green rolling hills dotted with a little orange and yellow in the treetops.

Katie went along with me and she had my camera to take pictures throughout the day. So after we got home last night I put them on the computer ~ curious to see what she took.

I found many pictures of us working

and a bunch of repeats of the dumptruck & tractor.

Maybe she's gonna be like her momma and like tractor stuff.
Who knows??

She also took a few pics of the surrounding hills as we were heading back home.

Oh how I wish I lived in the country. I'd never tire of the sights, sounds and smells of the countryside.

Game Playing Kitty & Holiday Shopping

Monopoly anyone??

This is Snickers and she loves to lay anywhere that she shouldn't.
Her chosen spot would be upon my bed (which doesn't make me very happy) and her second favorite spot would be any old box. The kids were playing Monopoly one evening and she of course climbed right in the empty box and made herself at home. I said that she just wanted to play Monopoly too!

She also likes to play hide and seek.
Here she is hiding behind the shower curtain.

               
And here she is coming out to get me. Blurry I know but you get the idea of her coming to get me.
 She is such a funny cat. She only wants "messed" with when she is in the mood but look out when she is because then she won't leave you alone.


We (Mom & I) ventured out yesterday to get a start on holiday shopping and I couldn't believe how busy the stores were. I'm not sure if it was the nice weather that brought everyone out or if they all had the same idea as me....start early before the crowds hit.
If that was their thought too, then we were all wrong because Toys R Us was jam packed. We skipped several aisles because of all the people in them and returned to them once they cleared.
All in all though, it was a pretty productive day. We did get a good start on the season.
Speaking of starting the season, I've seen several people here in blogland have already put up their trees. I haven't done that yet but we will soon. Our town's Christmas parade is on the 18th I believe and I usually put ours up around that weekend. I figure if you are going to go to all the trouble of putting it all out and up then you might as well be able to enjoy it for a while plus it always adds to the excitement of the coming holidays. After Christmas is a whole different story though because I'm ready to take it all down and clean up the holiday mess within a day or two of Christmas.

When do you all put up your decorations and do you leave them up for a while after Christmas?
Just curious!

I was hoping to have my latest stitchery done this weekend but that didn't happen. I stayed up last night watching a new Hallmark movie that was 4 hours long and I didn't stitch a bit. The movie was good but long. I wouldn't have even known it was on if I hadn't read about it on this blog.
                                              It's a Wonderful Movie
Great place to check out upcoming "family" movies that will be airing on TV.
Well that's it for my weekend. I think I'll see what's on TV and sew a bit before bedtime.

Live Simply

Here's my latest stitchery project.

As I said earlier in the week, Olde-Time-Stitchin had a wonderful sale for their email list customers recently and I took advantage of it. This was created using one of those patterns.
I've already begun on another of their patterns that I hope to finish this weekend.

Our schooling is done for the day, I've got homemade meatballs cooking in the oven and homemade hoagie rolls rising so supper is taken care of. Since the weather is so nice today I think we may head out for a nice walk this afternoon and then home to sneak a few minutes of stitching in before dinnertime.
Hope you all are having a great day.

Troubles with a 3 Layer Cake

This is why I rarely ever make a three layer cake.
Mine NEVER turn out good!  They always look like the Tower of Pisa.

This past weekend though, I did play around with a few recipes and one happened to be for a 3 layer cake and look

It worked...no Leaning Tower of Pisa!

The trick?
I stuck a skewer stick down the center of the three layers just before I iced it.
Tah dah, now why didn't I do that before?
It's not like I haven't watched them 50,000 times on TV use the same trick. For some reason though, I never thought of trying it here at home...DUH!

Anyways the cake itself was good. The homemade mocha frosting that I made was OK but not fabulous so I'm gonna share the cake recipe (which is not mine) along with my pink White Chocolate Raspberry icing that is shown in the first photo. I think the two together would be delicious!

3 Layer Butter Cake

4 eggs, separated
3 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar, divided
4 tsp. vanilla
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Separate the eggs, placing yolks in one bowl and the whites in another.
In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder & salt.
In large mixing bowl, beat butter until soft.
Add 1 1/2 cups of the sugar and beat until fluffy.
Add egg yolks and vanilla.
Scrape sides of bowl down and then alternately add the flour mixture and milk, mix well and set aside.
In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy.
Add the cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form.
Next add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.
Spray three (8 inch) round cake pans with cooking spray.
Next take parchment paper and trace the bottom of one of the pans. Cut the circle out (times 3) and place one in the bottom of each pan. Spray pan again and then flour.
Divide batter between the three pans.
Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 25 minutes.
When done, remove cakes and let cool in pans for 10 minutes.

Turns pans upside down to remove cakes. Let cool completely.
Once cooled begin assembling.
Place one cake layer on cake stand.
Thinly ice top of cake (recipe follows or use your own favorite frosting) and then add second cake layer.
Repeat again for the last layer.
*Remember to prevent the cake from leaning you can place a skewer stick down the center before icing the outside of the cake.)

White Chocolate Raspberry Icing

1 stick butter
4 (1oz.) squares of white baking chocolate
4 tbsp. water
2 tsp. vanilla
5 cups powdered sugar
Several tbsp. raspberry jelly

Place butter, chocolate and water in a small saucepan; heat and stir until well blended.
Place chocolate mixture into a bowl, add vanilla and powdered sugar and mix till blended.
Next add the raspberry jelly a tbsp. at a time until you get the right consistency and flavor that you like.

Enjoy!