Old Man Winter, You're Bumming Me Out

Today I was shoveling the driveway, in a dress, because if I thought it was man's work I would have worn pants. Anyway, G was of course, hanging out in the snow with me. His hands got cold, so we put on his mittens, but he still got cold.

Johnny's car wouldn't start this morning because it was so blasted cold outside, so it was sitting in the driveway. G kept going up to it and touching it and saying "Dad". He knows it's Daddy's car, but he didn't see Daddy. He got a little mad at me, like I was hiding Daddy from him. I tried getting him to remember driving Daddy to work, but I ended up putting him in the house with the idea that he could play with the vinyl Christmas cutouts on the front door, and I could shovel the front walk, that way he would know where I was. Shortly after I went outside, I heard G start crying, monumental crying. I called to him from the front porch so he would come to the front door and see me. He did, but he didn't stop crying. I thought, how sweet, he's sad he can't reach me and give me hugs or have me hold him.

That helped with the cold for about 2 secs, until I saw that in his hand was a candy bar from my stocking. Here's what I think happened. The candy bar was on the kitchen table. As soon as I left, he climbed up on the chair and got it down, but when he couldn't open it, he got really sad. And since I was outside, I couldn't open it for him either.

The proof of this story happened when I went inside and G came over to the back door, face wet and snotty. First thing he does, hug me? No. Hold out the candy bar. Which just led to a little candy-eating fest for the two of us. So we were all happy in the end, though the front porch is still icy.

Naughty List

I guess I was on the Naughty List this year because the only things I asked Santa for was elves to clean up my house, and being caught up on my blog, and I didn't get either. Luckily I have friends who like me and family members who were obligated to get me presents so I had something to open Christmas morning.

So, because I have to catch up on my blog myself, I decided to only post the food related ones on my other blog.

But G had a good Christmas.

books

stockings

cars

slippers

wagon of legos

drum

lots of unwrapping

Christmas Cheer

Our local paper, (which I become more and more convinced as I read is edited by a high school honors English class) published the local elementary schools' 1st and 2nd grade letters to Santa. Some of them were so cute, I just had to share to give you a holiday chuckle. Because kids say the darnest things.

The spelling is original, though some of it may have been the kids and some may have been the paper, hard to know which.

Funny Questions

"Do you ever get tired of giving out all the toys?" - Bailee

"By the way Santa, how many cookies do you eat?" - Carson

"Mrs. Claus, I want to know if you and Santa make toys together?" - Sydnee

"Do you remember me from the pictures at the mall?" - Brittany

"Is the rain deer doing good?" - Evan

"What kind of cookies do you want this year?" -Makayla

"Do you get tired?" - Dawn

"How do you make magic" - Jacob

"Are the reindeer your pets?" - Caiden

"What is your number?" - Ty

"Don't you remember when Rudolph said 'hi'?"- Trinity

Kissing up to the Big Man

"Can I have a hug?" - Hannah

"Thank you for reindeer." - A.J.

"I love you Santa so much and you are the best Santa in the whole world I know that you are the only Santa." - Brooke

"When you come to my house, you will get some money from me." - Zac

"You are my favorite person!" - Jacob

"I will leave you milk and cookies and Draw you a picture because I love you very much." - Braylyn

"Dear Santa,

Hello Santa, I have been good. I want a guitar for Christmas. I love music, how about you? What do you want for Christmas? I guess a great Christmas. I do not know Mrs. Claus, I want to meat her badly. I thank you for your love. I like your reindeer, you are so nice. You have lots of toy sat the North pole. I bet it is cold. Thank you for toys and other things too.

Kelissa"

"Santa, I love you and you are good and great or aweson." - Marleigh

"How is Mrs. Claus doing today? I hope she is doing fine. I might come there. If I come there I might play with you." - Gabrielle

Strange Requests

"Can you please send me a letter of how big your elves are?" - Ruth

" . . . I would also like 20 packs of fireworks, a bag of onion rings and gingerbread cookies. I will give some of the gingerbread cookies to you." - Marissa

"Do you have Geronimo Stilton and Thea Stilton books? Could you please bring my brother and me so me if you do?" - Hunter

"Would you get Ian a Halo?" - Spencer

" . . . and my cat 'Star' needs a stocking and don't forget my doggie; I think you still remember him." - Madeline

" . . . most of all I want people to know its Jesus' birthday." - Destiny

"Please give me an iPod with 9,000,000 songs on it" - James

"My dog Cooper chews on me, so can you give him a bone for Christmas?"- Ramsey

"Can I have 11 dog bones for my dogs?" - Henzlee

"Please make the snow big!" - Joey

Kids say . . .

"Dear Santa,

. . . My cousin doesn't believe in you but I do. Christmas is my favorite holiday. It is not because you get toys; it is because you get to see your family. At my maw maw's house we have a wrapping paper fight and sometimes my cousin gets to stay a night. . . .

Love, Samantha"

". . . last year you got me a DS game and I hope you do again. . . ." -Blake

"On Christmas Eve I'll leave two cookies on a plate. You ride in the sleigh to my house." - Megan

"I wish I could fly in a plane. I wish I could have a Mustang car." - Ben

"Also can you bring me something for my sisters, because they're not all bad." - Haleigh

" . . . Where I live is great if you were wondering . . . I have been fairly good this year I hope to get at least one of the tings on my list. I will be happy with whatever you bring me. I will make sure I throw reindeer food in my front yard . . . Be careful Santa and dress warm" - Angelina

"Dear Santa,

I want a puppy and a phon! I want a new bike I want a new pear of church shows. And I want one of the best elf's that is good at making girl stuff. And I want you Santa Claus and I want a real magic wand. And some brand new lipgls. And some new makeup. And all the food I want! And a brand new house! And everything in the world!

Love, Terra"

"I am going to leave you lots of cookies and 1 milk." - Jackson

"Don't worry my dog doesn't bite." - Kendra

"Tell Jesus happy birthday." - Brooklyn

"What I want for Christmas is a Nintendo DS because my brother broke mine." - Emily

"I not bin a good girl." - Anna

"I promise to try and be good. Sometimes it is really hard!" - Klayton

"I've been trying to work on my handwriting." - Joshua

"My Mom really loves wolves. I love you." - MaKenzie

"You're suppose to leave Santa milk and cookies, so look for them on the table." - Ryan

"I will leave your reindeer a treat on the roof." - Abby

"I have my first loose tooth that's wiggle. I can run a lot faster than I used to run. I got new glasses this year." - Miles

"I already gave the list to Nana." - Isaiah

"Dear Santa,

How are you doing? If you could please tell the reindeer that I would like to come and visit sometime. I lost two teeth and I am getting older now. I would like to have the best Christmas ever. I would like an AC/DC guitar and the Star Wars AT with a couple of troopers and jedis. I love you and hope I get to see you sometime.

Love,

Nathan"

I Know what I want

"Dear Santa,

. . . I'm writing you this letter to let you know a few things I want for Christmas this year. The first thing is Zoobles. Then for my second present I would like a 19 inch flat screen HD TV. For my third one I would like to have Zhu Zhu pets 2 for my DS, Then for my last present I would like a Blizzard maker. . . . Thank you very much.

Savanna"

"Dear Santa,

I'd like to have a magic book, a magic wand, and a magic set of really really high price.

Kaleb"

"Dear Santa,

I would like a littlest pet shop and a flute. But I would love a Rapunzel braiding hari set.

Dakota"

"Dear Santa,

Teddy Bear, Monster truck, X/Box 360.

Signed,

Nick"

A Taste of This Area

"I will leave out milk, cheese, pickles, and pepperoni for you to eat." - Tre'

"Thank you for Jesus every Christmas." - Marie

"Dear Santa,

I was really good this year. I kept the A-B honor roll. I went undefeated in flag football and scored many touchdowns. I believe an Xbox 360 and some games would be nice, and a flat screen tv too. Along with the xbox 360 a few DS games, a Star Wars life saver, some weights to prepare for the NFL, and a Ray Lewis fathead. It would be nice to come to a greement and I promise to leave a lot of cookies and milk.

Jayden"

"Dear Santa,

More vest's, a tape megur more skiny jeans, more little house in the prery books, more marbles, a little laptop, a pink fone cover, another rat, more note books, SD's, more chapter books.

Victoria"

"Dear Santa,

Just want to say hello. I have been good this year. I like school, my teacher and sports. I wish I had some WV clothes and stuff. I really could use a good pair of jean overalls. Say hello to Mrs. Claus.

Ryker"

"Dear Santa,

Thank you for the guitar you gave me last year. How are your reindeer? My dad would like a new rifle. My mom would like a new cross necklace. My sister Braelyn would like a knife. My little sister Kylie would like a baby doll and a new toy horse. I would like a x-box 360 and a gas four-wheeler. I will leave you milk and cookies. I will leave the reindeer some carrots.

Merry Christmas,

Logan?

Ahh

"The thing that I want most of all is for my dad to come home from Aphganistan." - Jordan

"Dear Santa,

Before I get started writing you a note well First, I want to thank you for everything you have done and gave me and I am glad that Christmas was even inventid because it is a good celebration for everybody and you. Santa you have spent a lot of money on everybody in the world. You are a good man. You do sure to take care of your elves and your rain deere and Mrs. Claus and sure your raindeere enjoy all of there food and you and your elves take a lot of time making toys and giving all you can for all the children that do not have one toys and no matter how much toys I get I still believe in you and I never complan.

Kendra"

" . . . and for the people that barely get anything give them more presents that you've ever gotten me!" - Brooklynn

"Dear Santa,

I hope the kids that have parents without a lot of money get resents. I also hope the kid that I have parents over seas in the war have a good Christmas too. And the kids that don't have parents too. And I really really want a bike for me.

Fayth"

". . . One last thing I would like for this Christmas to bring peace and happiness to all." - Justin

"I would like to be together with my family." - Kaylee

"May God bring peace in Haiti and plase give the animals in the world a warm place to sleep on Christmas Eve." - Zoey

"Please bring us a nice healthy baby." - Caden

"I want my Daddy to not let anything happen to him in surgery." - The Keilee

Christmas Hands

I guess I have to give up being a Scrooge officially now, at least for about 20 years while I have kids around.

I was somewhat guilted into getting a tree this year, but I have not been sorry. Look at this beauty!

I realized while decorating the house that I don't really have many decorations. While I don't think this is a bad thing, I will be hitting up the after-Christmas sales this year so that next year we can be a little more festive.

I feel bitten by the crafty bug this time of year, but I have a lot on my plate this month, so I decided to start a tradition I think I can handle. It's a pretty good idea, too, even if it's me saying so. It came from our lack of child-friendly tree ornaments. And while I could make like 50 with G, given time, I decided (thanks to my sister-in-law's brilliant handmade gifts from 2 years ago) instead to make ornaments every year by tracing my child(ren)'s hands and turning them into a soft, squishy, heart-melting reminder of how fast and how much they grow.

I put a star on this year, but in the future I'll do other Christmas-y pictures. I also put tags on them with G's name and age, so we can keep track.

I have tons of white felt thanks to Halloween, so maybe we'll keep doing G's in white and if we have more kids, they can get there own color. Or maybe we'll pick a new color every year, or maybe everyone will be white. Clearly I haven't ironed out all the details yet, but luckily I don't have to yet.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

New Look

Sorry, guys. I swore that I wouldn't change my blog template when I started this blog 4 years ago, but things have changed a lot since then. There weren't any cool gadgets back in the day, and I can't use them with the old set up. So I have endeavored to keep it simple and undistracting. Let me know if it is annoying or hard to navigate.

Back to the posts.

A Few Faces

Just some faces from the other day.

The dimple

Ooo

Really?

Oops

and . . .

The Cheese

Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast

Our 5th annual Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast was a huge success. Every year I get a little stressed out with planning and executing and feeling like I'm the only one who cares and I wonder why I do this every year. Then people come and we have a great time, and I think everything is worth it.

This year, due partially to my growing experience in planning weekly menus and partially due to luck, I managed not only to make 9 recipes for an early dinner (for us, it was 4 this year instead of 6), but to keep the kitchen in pristine condition. That has never happened before.

Recipes Made for Today

Grilled Apple-Brined Turkey

Mango Cranberry Sauce

Bubbly Cranberry Punch

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Ginger-Streusel Pumpkin Pie

Lemonade Meringue Pie

Festive Cranberry Topped Cheesecake

Everything was done with plenty of time, except the turkey. It just always takes longer than I think it will, and there was a fireside that night, which was why we had dinner early, and we stuck it in right after church, which was done at noon, so it had as much time as we could give it. We carved the breast and stuck it back in the oven. After cleaning it all up, we realized that it actually probably didn't need the extra time. It had been marinating for a day and a half and was just super moist. So moist in fact, that we had no drippings for gravy. It just held on to every bit of moisture. Which is what made it so delicious. We didn't get to grill it, but we are planning on getting a grill, so maybe next year. This was worth not having any room in my fridge for two days.

The Pilgrim Hat Cookies were too cute and easy not to use for table decorations. We put them on the roll plate along with an autumn leaf we collected back in September. We pressed them in a book and wrote people's names on them for place cards. It was cute, but I need a thicker sharpie and note for next year, yellow leaves are easier than red. Though they made nice table decorations.

The cranberry punch was amazing. I think that got the most comments that were consistently good. And it was super easy. Those two things )the punch and the cookies) were just about the only things I had to make on Sunday. And I will probably be using these again and again as well.

As you can see the food spread was pretty amazing.

Everyone was so generous with their offerings, and between nice guests and my husband I think I only did 3 dishes.

Here's a close up:

This one has my pies in it.

I think the pumpkin pie I made might be the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. And the cheesecake was also amazing. I loved the cranberry topping and it was an extra creamy cheesecake because Johnny was doing the grocery run for me on Saturday when I was making all the pies, and I ran out of eggs before he got back, so I just let the Kitchenaid keep creaming until he got back. It was only 10 minutes or so, but it made a big difference. The lemonade meringue was a dismal failure, but the other two made up for it, I think. Plus, Johnny made his Banana Cream, so there was plenty of pie.

So in addition to the 7 recipes from the book, I also made my corn bread sausage stuffing, which I learned is a very Southern tradition. Everyone was impressed that I knew about corn bread stuffing, but thanks to the internet, I've been a fan for awhile. I'm glad I can pass off as Southern occasionally.

I also made my Grandma's fruit salad, which is the dish that holds the most Thanksgiving memories for me.

Well, we had the most people we've ever had. Next year we'll have to get more chairs. And everyone enjoyed themselves, including G who got to have 2 cups of punch.

In the Meantime . . .

Yes, I know I'm horribly behind on all sorts of blogging. And The Captain isn't getting any younger. So while you wait for all the goal update-posts, here's a look at what's been going on.

We spent Thanksgiving with relatives. It was a Thanksgiving miracle. We loved having family so close. And they were happy to have us too, we think.

I'll try to post a video of our dance party soon, assuming our uploading speeds agree with me.

This last week I have been sick in bed, pretty much literally (stupid head cold). I think I slept for about 6 hours on Monday, which was the worst day. Luckily for me, I have an awesome son who was pretty much content to play quietly in my room, or sit on the bed with me and watch "shows" all day.

Needless to say (or I guess not, since I'm taking the time to say it) there was much wearing of pajamas by all, and playing in said pajamas.

I do not feel bad about this since we keep our house pretty cool and the pjs are obviously warm.

The Captain has finally mastered the art of not drawing on things other than the paper, though we still have some relapses. So our most recent addition to the schedule is coloring time right after nap time and snack time, which gives me time to get dinner ready.

I enjoy it, and I'm pretty sure G does too.

Week 19: Ready for Thanksgiving

Recipes to Go: 507 324

Weeks to Go: 52 33

Recipes Made This Week

Cowboy Beef Dip

Bavarian Pork Loin

Fiesta Chicken Chowder

No-Bones Chicken Wing Dip

Savory Pumpkin Ravioli

Rustic Autumn Fruit Tart

Fruit-Nut Pumpkin Bread

Mexicorn Grits

The Cowboy Beef Dip was very good and very spicy. We had a bit of an adventure trying to find mexicorn, luckily I have the internet on my phone, so I could Google image search for it in the store and find the equivalent store brand. Handy, since I needed it not only for this recipe, but for the Mexicorn Grits on Saturday. While this was fine as a main dish, but I probably should have made something else, because I think it makes a much better side dish.

I needed to use the rest of the sauerkraut in my fridge, so I made the Bavarian Pork Loin. The pork was nothing spectacular, in fact, it was a little dry, but the rest of the stuff in the slow cooker was amazing.

The apples, especially. I couldn't get G to eat them, though. He wouldn't believe that they were apples. I think it took all week to get him to try them, then he loved them as much as we did.

The Fiesta Chicken Chowder was good, a fairly typical southwest soup. But it gave me the opportunity to use the rest of my brown rice. I don't normally buy brown rice, being a jasmine rice eater myself, so it was nice to not have leftovers.

I don't normally think to add rice to my soups, maybe this will help me remember. This soup was very spicy, which means G really liked it. It stored really well in the fridge, except for the chicken, which got a little chewy, sadly.

The No-Bones Chicken Wing Dip was good, but again, I should have made something else, too. While G was happy to eat nothing but condiments and a little chicken, I missed something else to eat. And I found out that Johnny doesn't like blue cheese, which was a big flavor aspect of the dip.

So, I finally found a baking pumpkin, and again, I was supposed to peel and cube it. Well, after pretty much the same routine--cooking it, only to puree it, I will next time just cook it in the oven. So this was the first time I've ever made my own pasta. I was really worried since I don't have any pasta making equipment or attachments for my Kitchenaid. But the dough was really easy to work with and really easy to roll out. Overall, I was quite impressed with myself. Although, the stuffing needed a little more salt, and I overcooked the pasta a little. Also, because it looked different, I couldn't get G to try it.

The Rustic Fruit Tart was divine. It really did taste autumny with apples and pears and pumpkin pie spices.

The dough had cream cheese in it, so you know that was good. It turned out beautifully. And because no one came to Game Night again, we got to enjoy it all.

Saturday morning we made Fruit-Nut Pumpkin Bread . . . without the nuts. It was delicious, but one loaf fell, and the other loaf fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan.

We still enjoyed it for breakfast all week long. I will definitely try this one again. The crust was so nice.

For dinner that night, I made the Mexicorn Grits. I've never tried grits before.

They were a lot like cous-cous. G really liked them. Other then the excessive butter used (I will more than half that next time) it was delicious, and was possible better as leftovers.

The best thing was that I got to make all of this and still make the stuff for a hugely successful Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast.

Week 18: Squashed

Recipes to Go: 507 332

Weeks to Go: 52 34

Recipes Made This Week

Southwestern Turkey Soup

Butternut Turkey Bake

Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

The Squash Court

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

Spiced Pumpkin Mousse

Chocolate Pinwheels

Ham on Biscuits

This week, I decided it was time to try some squash since squash season is almost over and it would be hard to get a hold of them later on. This ended up being a good decision. Butternut squash was what we ended up needing and I had never worked with it before. I was familiar with it from watching Veggie Tales, but that didn't tell me how it would taste or how easy it would be to work with.

Before I got to find out, we made Southwestern Turkey Soup for Sunday dinner. I used chicken instead of turkey, which didn't effect things too much. It was still a southwestern soup.

I had to use chicken again instead of turkey for the Butternut Turkey Bake. However, this time no one knew because it was so delicious.

The butternut squash was just like a pumpkin--it was hard to cut open and took an hour of baking in the oven to soften up. But this tasted a lot like Thanksgiving and we argued over who got to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Okay, I feel a little silly that I've never thought of twice-baked sweet potatoes before. I love sweet potatoes and I love twice-baked potatoes, and it's not a far leap to make. It was remarkable. So delicious. Basically the same recipe--bacon, cheese, butter, spices--but the sweet potatoes were so good, and the skins caramalized and might have been the best part.

The Squash Court was butternut squash creamy soup. The recipe called for me to peel and cube the squash, then cook it and puree it. That was a little too much work. Next time, I'll just stick it in the oven for 40 minutes and soften it, then scoop it into the blender after softening the rest of the ingredients I don't often make creamy soups, but with some saltine crackers, everyone agreed it was delicious.

I was planning on making pumpkin ravioli this week, but I couldn't find baking pumpkins anywhere, not even for ready money. So I made chicken fettuccine alfredo instead. Only, I didn't have fettuccini, so I just used penne instead.

This was delicious and really easy, especially if you have chicken ready. I think I might have to start doing that, baking chicken, cubing and freezing it. This was a great recipe because it was a little spicy since there was chili flakes in the sauce. It definitely made it stand out among the pasta recipes.

Somewhere in the week, I made Pumpkin Mousse. It was tasty, but made way too much when I was already too full from tasty dinners. It seems like a light dessert, but it is really rich, and this is why it took over a week to eat just half of it. I did love the pumpkin flavor, though.

For Friday Game night, I made Chocolate Pinwheel cookies. Johnny thought they were delicious, and I have to agree. I was expecting them to be much more complicated and difficult then they were. Yes, they were a bit of work, but worth it.

We didn't have anyone for game night, which wasn't a surprise since we had to get up at 4 in the morning to take a youth temple trip to DC on Saturday. Since this was going to interfere with making breakfast, I made it Friday night and packed it up to eat on the road. I made Ham on Biscuits. My biscuits didn't rise as much as I hoped, but that was because I have to leave the dough at a crucial stage to go pick Johnny up from work. We've had a bit of car trouble lately that has complicated things. Be that as it may, they were still delicious.

I also made the pumpkin scones again because everyone loved them so much. And they were very good, only a little doughy this time.

Cat Friend

In the current struggle to catch up on my goal-related postings, I thought I'd take a mental break to bring you late news. Those who caught it on Facebook will know that we had a cat adopt us for a few days. I have rarely seen G as happy.

He wanted to spend every moment outside with the kitty and to bring it in the house, which I staunchly refused.

On approach

Sniff

Everything seems okay

Let the torture begin

Kittys are definitely favorites of G at the moment. He will hunt down and pick up any cat he can get a hold of.

And any cat willing to let him do this is clearly attention-starved. But thanks to this adopted cat, G learned to say "meow" or some one-syllable version.

Sadly though for G, we have no plans to get another pet any time soon. Because we will likely be traveling and moving frequently in the next 10 years or so, it just doesn't seem practical. Plus, this is what happened last time . . .

Week 17: We vote yes!

Recipes to Go: 507 340

Weeks to Go: 52 35

Recipes Made this Week
Tomato Bacon Pie

Broccoli with Mustard Sauce

Candidate's Choice Short Ribs

Roasted Onion Salad

Voter's Favorite Float

Election Day Cookies

Bean and Pork Chop Bake

Old-Fashioned Dressing

Pot Roast with Gravy

Classic Carrot Cake

Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter

You'll have to forgive me for the lack of pictures this week. Apparently I gave up half-way through. Which, quite frankly, surprises me since every time I sit down to eat now I think, "I need to take a picture of this".

Anyway, I made the bacon pie on Sunday. It was good, but I've been having trouble recently getting my bacon to cook evenly.

When I put bacon in things, I don't want the fatty bits to be too chewy, but the meaty bits get perfect before the fatty bits do, so I had a bit of a rubbery problem in a few of my bites of this pie. That, and the greasiness of the leftovers aside, it was delicious. Johnny would, of course, argue with everything I'm saying, I'm sure, and claim it was heavenly. But that's just because the main ingredient is bacon. And he loves everything to do with bacon on principle.

To go with the bacon I made broccoli with mustard sauce. Johnny said when he tasted it, "this is exactly how I hoped it would taste." Apparently he had broccoli just like it at a fancy restaurant once and loved it. The rest of the family agreed. G loved the sauce as all toddlers do with condiments. I'm pretty sure condiments are his favorite food.

Tuesday was Election Day. I hope everyone remembered to vote. I didn't get registered in VA in time, so I could not.

And just to rub it in, we did an election themed dinner featuring short ribs, floats and cookies.

The ribs were excellent. They took very little effort and were divine.

The salad to go with everything was good because it was based in roasted onions. I love roasted onions.

And the dressing to go with it had chili flakes in it so it had a nice kick.

I think next time I won't use a bagged

salad, though, because the radishes were just a bit much.

Why has it taken me so long to hear about this float? Seriously the easiest thing I've made, and you know I've made some easy stuff. Three ingredients: vanilla ice cream (had that leftover in the freezer), apple juice--just plan old simple breakfast drink apple juice, and a sprinkling of nutmeg on top. No carbonation, (which made me love it more) and yet so good. And apple juice is dirt cheap most of the time. I'm pretty sure I know what our leftover ice cream making experiments will be going to in the future . . .

Now, to be honest, we still hadn't finished all the gingerbread cookies from Halloween, but I really wanted to make the election day cookies. So I only made half the recipe. And it was the best-tasting sugar cookie dough I've had in awhile. I didn't frost them, and they were still delicious, and we cut them out in elephant, donkey (well, horse, but who can tell?), and the continental U.S. shapes. And it only took 2 days for them to disappear. What can I say, I am a cookie monster at heart.

Remember how I said that I wasn't sure if I like pork chops? Well I adored everything about this recipe. The chops were amazing, and the beans were even better. That was because they had maple flavoring and apples in them, which though not traditional in baked beans were a wonderful flavor additive. It didn't even take too much effort to make. I guess this means I will have to start buying cans of baked beans since that's what made it so easy. If all pork chops tasted like this I wouldn't have trouble figuring out if I liked them.

The Old Fashioned Dressing . . . okay I'm normally not a fan of dressing. I think Stove Top is my least favorite part about Thanksgiving, which is my favorite holiday. And there's little I don't love about it, so that says a lot. I looked long and hard for a stuffing recipe I could stand behind for my Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast. And I found one that I want all the leftovers of. But this dressing was also delicious. And because it's made in the slow cooker, it was even better. I did use the leftover corn bread I had lying around, so that added to its yumminess. But I will make this again this winter. And it gave me the idea to use my slow cooker for my Feast to make life a little less stressful.

The pot roast was good. But then, when is a pot roast not? The only thing I will do differently next time is add carrots and potatoes to the pot. I had every intension of doing this, but just forgot when it came time to put things together. There was a lot of vinegar in the sauce for this, so it had a unique flavor that everyone seemed to enjoy. And there was plenty of gravy.

The classic carrot cake was great! I only used 3/4 the cream cheese to make the frosting and it was still the most delicious cream cheese frosting I've ever tasted. And the cake stayed moist for a week. Well, okay, it probably would have stayed moist for a week, but it didn't make it that long, of course. We only had a few to game night and I sent them home with cake. I wanted to give them half, but Johnny convinced me not to, and I must say when I ate it for breakfast all week, I was grateful.

Last recipe of the week was the Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter. First of all, the butter. Cranberries, which I love, butter, and powdered sugar. Good idea. The scones themselves were perfect. Big, moist but not too much, wonderful flavor. I've already made them again, and because they take only 1/2 cup pumpkin, I can make batches all winter. And I plan to because G, Johnny, and me couldn't get enough.

So, this week the votes were in and pretty much everything got at least two thumbs up. We were all spoiled with delicious food, and with Thanksgiving coming up soon, let's hope it continues.

Week 16: False! Black Beans

Recipes to Go: 507 351

Weeks to Go: 52 36

Recipes Made This Week

Balsamic-Glazed Tuna Steaks

Flavorful Rice Salad

Bacon 'n' Cheese Stuffed Potatoes

Chili for a Crowd

Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle

Mother Lode Pretzels

Yeast Corn Bread Loaf

Fruit Smoothies

Caribbean Quesadillas

Spooky Spider Cake

Pumpkin and Spice and Everything Nice Muffins

Monster Cutout Cookies

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

Since Johnny was out of town for most of this week, it was a bit challenging to get caught up on recipes. I spent Sunday and Monday trying to eat through leftovers. But the missionaries were coming to eat on Tuesday, so it gave me a perfect opportunity to make some food that I wouldn't have large quantities of. So I made 3 tuna steaks and four baked potatoes. After I put the potatoes in the oven, I thought things through and since I had to cut them in half to stuff them, I probably only should have made 2, but it was okay since we only ended up with one when dinner was over. And the missionaries took the leftover rice salad, which was so good I made it again on Thursday. They also helped me finish up the berry cheesecake pie.

Everything was delicious except that the fish was frozen when I started broiling it, so it need a few more minutes. It was still fine, just more pink than most people would like. Luckily, one of the sisters loved sushi, so she didn't mind. The other was very polite, so she didn't say anything, and still managed to eat it all. What a trooper. As for the potatoes, well who doesn't love twice baked potatoes? Who doesn't love bacon? How could that be a bad combination? I was lucky to be very successful when scooping them out. And mashing them with butter first made things much more smooth. Seriously, why have I never done that before? And the Beans and Rice salad featured black beans, which ended up being the ingredient of the week.

Wednesday night was our Ward Halloween party. It was a soup and salad potluck, perfect opportunity to make a potluck recipe and the Chili for a Crowd sounded good. It also had black beans in it, though not as many. Confession, I didn't try this till after I got back home, but it was supposed to have 24 servings and there were maybe 3 left when I got back. I tried some when I was putting it away. It was definitely the best chili I've ever made. Nice and spicy, not too watery. I want to make it again.

There was a dessert competition at the party too. Apple or pumpkin desserts. Luckily for me, there are plenty of pumpkin desserts in the book. Luckily for me, I've made one of them before. So I made it again--Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle.

Kasey will vouch for me that it was delicious with lumpy sweet potato pudding, and it was even better with smooth pumpkin pudding. So good was it, that I actually one in the pumpkin category. Amazing since I haven't won anything in ages.

Thursday I was planning on making the Yeast Corn Bread Loaf to go with all the leftover chili I imagined we would have. We didn't have much chili. In fact, we had surprisingly little food at all, which is why I made the salad again. Johnny got home late. I had dinner waiting, but while I was waiting for him, I decided to get started on the Mother Load Pretzels. I almost had the caramels melted when he got home. I didn't finish the pretzels that night. I did make the Fruit Smoothies. They were delicious.

Friday didn't go so well for me. Car troubles, phone problems, then in the process of finishing the pretzels, I ruined one of my measuring cups and left a big mess in the microwave. But they turned out great.

Worth a few burned fingertips. They are highly addictive. Good thing I made so many. It's hard to pass by them without eating 1, or 3.

Better than that was the Caribbean Quesidillas.

Johnny thought there was meat in them, but they are vegetarian quesidillas. They tasted a little like fish, which we determined must have been due to the cloves. Anyway, they were delicious. They came together pretty easily as well. I also forget about quesidillas when I need to make a quick dinner, but I'll try to do better at remembering in the future because they are more fun than burritos. And did I mention, the main ingredient was black beans? These have sweet potatoes in them. I don't have enough recipes for sweet potatoes. And they are so tasty. Don't worry, there are plenty more in the book to come.

Game night treat this week was the Spooky Spider Cake. I just made the spider part.

It was just a cake mix, so I didn't enjoy the cake part very much. But the frosting was delicious. It got rave reviews from everyone else as well. It was fun to make legs out of licorice. Luckily for me, everyone ate most of the cake, so I didn't have to finish it myself.

Saturday morning I made the Pumpkin Muffins. I used wheat germ instead of wheat bran because I couldn't find it anywhere. I know, there are the opposite parts of the wheat, but it made the muffins hearty. And the chocolate chips made them sweet.

Then we went out all day and things got crazy. I made Johnny make the Monster Cutout Cookies with the intension of decorating them and distributing them to our neighbors. Well, they got made, but not decorated.

In fact, they didn't get out before Halloween. But at least they were delicious, so I'm sure that will be looked over. My decorating skills are sub-par at best, so let me just say that they are supposed to be moons, pumpkins, ghosts, and mummies.

For dinner on Saturday, I did the smart thing and put together a slow cooker recipe so we could trick or treat and have hot dinner waiting for us when we got back. I managed to put together the stuffed peppers before we left. The peppers I picked out were so big that I only have room for 5 in my slow cooker, but that was okay because they were big enough that all the stuffing fit in just 5 peppers. Oh, they were so tasty. Full of black beans and rice. So delicious I didn't get a picture.