Saturday Morning

Whew! What a week I've had. It's Saturday morning now and I'm having a little quiet time with my breakfast before I get to work cleaning and cooking. Here are some of the things I'll be making over the next few days:

Peanut Butter Fudge
Peanut Butter Popcorn
Magic Cookie Bars
Fruit Salad
Smoked Salmon Dip
Baked Beans
Mashed Potatoes Au Gratin
Fudge - if time
Tiramasu Trifle

The kids are in the other room playing some annoying-sounding game they got from the Grandma yesterday. Of course, buying loud noise-making toys is a grandparent's prerogative. But they are disturbing my quiet, peaceful breakfast. That's okay, in a few minutes I'm going to put them to work.

Hope everyone has a delightful Christmas Holiday!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a great holiday. The primary focus is to be thankful and to eat. What a great combinations that is. My parents are coming for a few days and we are having Thanksgiving Dinner at our house. Sometimes we drive an hour or so away and spend the day with other relatives. This year I have to work all weekend and so we've decided to stay in Huntsville. We will be having the traditional Thanksgiving meal that I have grown up with:

Chicken and Dressing
Turkey
Cranberry Sauce
Green Beans
Fruit Salad
Sweet Potato Casserole
Rolls
Pecan Pie

If you are unfamiliar with the dish, chicken and dressing, allow me to educate you. In most southern families the Turkey if prepared at all is roasted without any sort of "stuffing". Instead we serve dressing. Dressing is a mixture of breads (both white and corn) cream of chicken soup, spices, onions, and chicken baked until golden brown. The recipes and preparation vary from family to family. We tend to eat ours a little soupier than some. We usually serve it with a gravy made from cream of chicken soup. We also traditionally eat dressing at Christmas time and on occasion at Easter. When my Mama was alive and we had Thanksgiving dinner at her house she would make several large pans. There was usually enough for everyone to take home as leftovers. She made the most wonderful dressing and my mother after many years of practice is able to duplicate the recipe. We're not having a whole turkey this year for such a small gathering. Mother bought a Turkey breast from the Honeybaked Ham store. I am not that big a fan of the traditional roasted and usually dried-out bird.

Years ago while I was in college my parents moved to Pennsylvania for a few years. I flew up to join them for Thanksgiving that first year. We drove the four hours to my brother's in laws house in Olney, Maryland. Their Thanksgiving meal was quite different from ours. But the overall tradition of sitting down together for a family meal and being thankful for God's blessings on our lives remains the same regardless of the food served.

Thanksgiving at our house is a wonderful time of fellowship and family time with lots of eating. Regardless of your families traditions I wish all of you a wonderful holiday.

Rain and Frito Pie

Yesterday morning I decided to head to a nearby park to walk their loop. The kids went along to play on the playground. It had rained a little bit during the night and looked like it might rain again. I figured risking the rain was doing my part for the drought. Afterall, my getting wet is a small price to pay. Sure enough into my 4th trip around the park it started to rain. I finished the loop and we headed to the car. It rained several times throughout the day. It rained while my lawn man was mowing the yard (this was no deterrent to him, however.) I am very thankful to the rain. Today it is blue skies again but the temperature is not quite as harsh as the previous days.

Last night I fixed 'Frito Pie' for supper. I only recently discovered that my children enjoyed this dish which I had previously called Taco Salad and had not fixed for many months. After finishing his first helping my son went back for seconds. I know, I was pretty shocked myself. It is so nice to stumble on something the boy will eat and not complain about.

No-Bake Banana Pudding

This is the recipe as it appears at allrecipes.com.

INGREDIENTS
8 ounces sour cream
1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups whole milk
1 (16 ounce) package vanilla wafer cookies
4 bananas, peeled and sliced
DIRECTIONS
In large bowl combine sour cream, whipped topping, pudding mix and milk. Stir well. In the bottom of a trifle bowl or other glass serving dish, put a layer of cookies, then a layer of pudding mixture, then a layer of bananas. Repeat until all ingredients are used. Refrigerate until serving.

I actually make this using the Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies as a user suggested. I will also tell you that you should mix the milk and pudding first and then add cool whip and sour cream. I always use Skim Milk, light sour cream and lite cool whip because this is what I have and it works fine.

If you like bananas and creamy goodness, you will love this dessert. It is so easy! I usually make it the night before so the cookies will soften some. I bet it is good with pineapple but I haven't yet tried it.

Thursday

Yesterday I had a very productive day and I am going to share all the mundane details with those unfortunate enough to find themselves here.

The kids only had a 1/2 day of school and I had planned to attend J's party (he's 8 remember) but he asked me not to. So B and I decided to run errands (and I let her skip kindergarten today) First though, I did my bit of NordicTrac (yeah!) while she made her bed and unloaded the DW.

I started draining the hot tub and after exercising B and I got in and cleaned the nasty ring around the inside (reminds me of Cat & The Hat, too bad I don't have some vroom). We then showered and dressed and left the house.

Our first stop was the pool store in Madison to pick-up a new filter for the spa and chemicals. It took us 30 minutes to navigate down the busy road to the store (including waiting on the train) and found them out of our filter. Gosh Darn! We then went to Publix to get the needed Wine for the upcoming festivities and other last minute things. We ran into Kohl's for a few minutes to get something else for________ and I found some luggage on sale for our upcoming vacation. Back at the school at 11am for the end of J's party. He made a gingerbread house out of graham crackers. Quite impressive.

Took the kids home where they feasted on Lunch Paks. They helped me finish draining the hot tub and cleaning it. Started refilling and oh! Look at the time! I've got to get to my doctor's appt downtown.

So I arrived at the doctor appt on time and was told "gasp!" they were running on schedule. This is the annual visit. Glad it is over for another year. I saw they were having a blood drive at the hospital (desperately in need of O this time of year) and I made a bargain that if I finished with the doctor in a reasonable time I would donate. Off I went to find the blood drive, gave my precious blood, ate some cookies (because calories don't count after donating blood) and juice. I got my free T-Shirt and movie tickets. (Yes, my blood can be bought for a T-shirt.)

I stopped on the way out of town at the pool store in Huntsville and picked up my filter and chemicals, swung by the dry cleaners and arrived home at 4pm, too late for a nap. The spa was full but not turned on yet (because of absence of filter) so when I turned it on it was a chilly 57 degrees. No hot tubbing for me that night.

So the kids and I started messing up the kitchen. First we made peppermint bark then we made Peanut Brittle. Both recipes from allrecipes.com. Then we tried out my new Wilton cookie press (a gift) using the basic Spritz cookie recipe. We had a really hard time with it. So we decided to try the Pampered Chef one I've had for years but never used. It was a little easier but still a big disappointment. The cookies were also quite bland. They would probably be okay if dipped in chocolate (like most things, come to think of it.) I don't think we'll use the cookie press again.

I cooked a pasta dish for supper and after some complaining I actually to J to eat some. Wow! I'm tired now. I think I'll go sit down. Actually, I am typing this from work and I am sitting down. If I can get through today I have 3 days off. Yeah!