We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house because Amy and her kids couldn’t be here on Christmas Day. Eric’s girlfriend, Kelsey, was here, too, which was nice.
Then on Christmas day, Hubby’s Mom and my parents joined Hubby, Shannon, Eric, and me for dinner. Which was also nice.
I took quite a few pics on Christmas Eve. But I didn’t even think about picking my camera up on Christmas day.
Can you believe that?
I can’t. I missed getting a picture of Hubby’s Mom in her pretty Christmas outfit. I didn’t get a picture of my parents either. And I REALLY wanted to have someone take a picture of Hubby and I together in front of our Christmas tree. Really. But I even forgot about that.
Jeez.
It was a lovely day anyway.
At least I have a few shots to share from Christmas Eve.
The calm before the "storm."
All of the gifts were wrapped and placed around the tree.
The "doll' atop our tree.
Last weekend, when Joey was here, he saw the angel that sits atop our tree. He either said our tree was stupid or funny because we had a doll on top of the tree instead of a star. I like our angel okay. But what I really miss is this awful cardboard star that Shannon, Amy, Eric and I made during one of our very first Christmases together. I wish I knew where that thing went.
Ho Ho Ho
I thought for sure someone would comment about the face on this Santa Claus. I’m not sure which of my girlfriends gave this one to me, but I think it was Carol. He’s got a very unique mug, wouldn’t you say?
I took a few pics of the ornaments on our tree.
I love snowmen.
I really like snowmen. And birds. From a decor perspective AND a real-life perspective.
Dark-eyed Junco
My Aunt Kathy gave me this bird ornament several years back. She knows I like birds, but she didn’t know what this particular bird was called (Dark-eyed Junco) or that it is one of my favorite birds. They’re winter birds in this area. They’re pretty social and think nothing of hanging out on our back steps for the dogs to watch and/or salivate over.
All decorated for the holiday.
I also love the way our house looks during the holidays.
Brianna couldn't resist helping Aunt Shannon apply the egg wash to her rolls.
I especially love the house when it’s full of our kids. And our grand kids.
Lego building.
The grand kids always enjoy playing with the gazillion Legos I have here. Some were mine when I was a kid and some were Uncle Eric’s. They asked Uncle Eric to build Legos with them. Shannon and I were busy in the kitchen. I did pop in long enough to get a picture of Eric surrounded by his niece and nephews. What I missed, however, was one of them asking Kelsey (Eric’s girlfriend) if she is their Aunt now. And whether she and Eric would be getting married.
The egg wash helps the rolls to brown AND helps the garnish adhere. In this case, there was poppy seeds, sesame seeds and kosher salt. Shannon makes excellent dinner rolls.
Kids in the kitchen.
It was nice having all the kids together. Left to right are Amy, Eric, Shannon, and Kelsey.
Grand kids opening gifts.
I’ll be kicking myself for a while for not capturing shots of the parents. It really was a lovely Christmas celebration.
Tonight, we’re supposed to be getting together with some of our friends. Unless this “blizzard” actually materializes. We’re only expecting about six inches of snow, but you never know what we’ll actually get.
Rest assured, though, I won’t forget to take pictures of THAT.
Some of them look a bit less appetizing than others.
Chocolate-dipped Pretzel Rods
She was in the kitchen practically all day on Sunday.
Cheesecake-topped Brownies
She actually did some stuff on Thursday, too. I didn’t get a picture of the chocolate curry truffles, so you’ll just have to trust me on those.
Peppermint "Oreos"
The homemade peppermint oreos are my favorite. Now, if only I could convince her to dip THOSE babies in chocolate. YUM.
I’ll have to take her with me to my doctor’s appointment in January. I’ll let her explain why I gained 20 pounds in the last month or two.
To be fair, though, it’s not entirely Shannon’s fault. I still know how to make yummy stuff, too. But all of my yummy concoctions of late have been in the alcoholic beverage category.
Baileys and Hazlenut Coffee
Nice warm coffee on a cold, wintry day.
Sangria
Who says cold beverages can’t be enjoyed during the winter?
Is it weird that I take pictures of food and drink in my house?
YOU try coming up with new and exciting stuff to blog about.
Most of my housemates are pretty understanding and patient when I say, “Wait. Don’t eat/drink that yet. I need a picture!”
Earlier this evening when I assembled these yummies, the patience was rather nonexistent.
Doggie Yummies
Any idea what those things are? Why they’re peanut-butter-stuffed-Kongs of course. Actually, there’s pretzels, a few bits of dog food, and peanut butter crammed in each one. It keeps the bitches busy for a while.
Remember what I said about the lack of patience?
"Oh come on already! Hand over the Kongs!"
It’s bad enough that they have to wait the five minutes it takes to cram three of those things full of goodies and peanut butter. Making them wait while I photographed their goodies was apparently more than they could take.
I wish I had the video camera handy to record the very strange howling complaints emanating from my crazy. old Meg. She was not at all happy.
What goodies have been coming out of your kitchen?
I guess that’s sort of lazy of me. Sorry. But it’s late as I am writing this (Tuesday night). And I need to get up early to go to the store for dinner fixings, a cake, and a new hand mixer.
I made a yellow cake from scratch tonight. But I forgot to flour the pan. I greased it, but it wasn’t until after I’d poured the batter into the cake pan that I realized my error.
Now, were it not for the fact that our 17-plus-year-old hand mixer (it was a wedding gift) was SMOKING as I finished mixing the batter, I would’ve started over. But hand mixers aren’t supposed to smoke. And it’s not supposed to smell like an electrical fire when you’re mixing cake batter either. So I just went ahead and stuck the thing in the oven.
It smelled really, really good as it finished baking. But there’s no hope of the thing coming out of the pan in one piece. I could just put icing on top of the cake, but that is SUCH a waste of valuable frosting space. The sides need frosting, too.
Anyway…
Today is Shannon’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Shannon.
Here’s another picture from last year that’s awesome.
Ruby saying Happy Birthday last year.
Shannon’s friend, Laura, took this picture of her little girl, Ruby, to e-mail or message to Shannon as a birthday gift. As exciting as the trip was, it must have sucked being away on her birthday.
And wait, here’s one more pic…
Shannon at Age Two
This MIGHT be the one I didn’t post last year that is Shannon’s favorite.
As for where I was when Shannon was born, I have no clue. I didn’t birth the girl. I was only 11 when she was born. I was closer to 12 than 11, but still. I was in elementary school!
But that’s okay. Yes, it would’ve been nice to experience those early years with Shannon (and Amy, too). I didn’t even meet them until much later. You know what, though? That doesn’t matter a bit. We’ve all managed to make up for those missing years quite nicely.
Happy birthday, Shannon! I am so glad you are home. And not just because you feed us well either. Because it’s just plain nice having you around.
At least twice recently (HERE and HERE) I’ve mentioned that Shannon is living at home. It’s only supposed to be temporary, while she tries to find a permanent job. But if she keeps doing the things she’s been doing, we might never let her leave.
Why?
Because she feeds us really well.
Before I go further, I have to explain the dinner rotation. For some time now, Hubby and I have had this rotation thing going on where he cooks one week then I cook the following week. Then it starts over. In other words, we take turns. Whoever isn’t cooking is responsible for cleanup.
When Shannon got home back in August (you do know she just went ’round the world, right?), she was really good about helping to clean up and stuff. And she’s always willing to help chop, slice, dice, etc. So we figured, it’s only fair that she get added to the rotation, too.
Of course she was willing. She loves to cook and bake. She’s good at it, too.
Even better? She takes orders.
One night last week, I requested pretzel dogs.
That’s basically a soft pretzel wrapped around a hot dog. Not just any soft pretzels. Made-from-scratch, DELICIOUS soft pretzels.
Pretzel Dogs
Typically I like ketchup, mustard and raw onions on my hot dogs. But pretzel dogs are best served with mustard only.
Here’s what the pretzel dog looks like on the inside.
Pretzel Dog Innards (note the mustard topping)
See what I mean about not letting her leave?
Besides, Hubby and I are kind of enjoying having her around. She was gone for ten whole months after all.
AND she’s promised to make buttermilk biscuits the next time she’s up, too.
The pretzel recipe actually is from Household Diva 6. She got it from someone else, but since Ann Marie is the one who told me about it, I had to give her a mention.
I was going to do a quick post yesterday to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, but the morning flew by. And once we started cooking around 10:30 we didn’t stop doing, doing, doing until pretty late. And I was pooped.
So now it’s the day after…
I hope each and every one of you had a fabulous day. If it was even half as awesome as mine, I know it was good. Because our day was amazing.
It’s odd, though, because we only had a few people here. My Mom hasn’t been feeling well so she and my Dad did Thanksgiving alone at their house. My son-in-law, TJ, is still deployed. The grand kids were at their other grandparents’ house. Amy, who is still recuperating from foot surgery, stayed close to her own home and spent the holiday with friends. Eric’s girlfriend was with her family in Pennsylvania. My brother, sister-in-law and nephew are in Virginia (that’s where they live). So…
Our gathering consisted of Hubby, of course, my mother-in-law, Shannon, Eric and me. And the dogs. We can’t forget them. 🙂
We decided to be different this year and forgo some of the more-traditional fare (like a turkey). All of us prefer chicken. None of us are really crazy about pumpkin pie either. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Shannon, who also likes to cook, agreed that it would be fun to experiment. I’ve always wanted to try sausage stuffing. And I get REALLY tired of the same old side dishes all the time. We decided to start with the must-haves (chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy) and then add some new stuff. Shannon took the initiative to find some interesting recipes. She succeeded, too.
I really am not exaggerating when I said we started at 10:30 and didn’t stop.
Actually, Shannon started on Wednesday by baking totally-from-scratch cinnamon rolls just like Hubby makes. They were designated as our Thanksgiving breakfast. She loves to bake, and it shows. The cinnamon rolls were delicious.
Homemade Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing for Breakfast
One of the must-have-again-SOON recipes Shannon found was Bella’s Brussels Sprouts with Bacon. Hubby, MIL and I really like Brussels Sprouts anyway. Shannon likes them, too. Eric doesn’t particularly care for them. But we all agreed that Bella’s Brussels Sprouts with Bacon ROCKED.
Then there were the Roasted Beets and Sweets…
The Most-interesting Vegetable
As much as I like red beets, I’ve never actually prepared them. Shannon hadn’t either. So we were both quite intrigued by the way the beets looked when freshly-peeled. The recipe was simple to follow and absolutely divine. If you’re a fan of red beets and sweet potatoes/yams, you have to try this Roasted Beets and Sweets recipe. Sorry I don’t have a picture of the finished product to show you.
I did mention that Shannon loves to bake, right? She’s my Kitchen Aide Pretzel Maker, remember? For dinner, she elected to make some dinner rolls. The recipe (actually called a formula) came from her bread maker’s Bible. Check these out…
Shaping the Rolls (I missed capturing the mixing and kneading action)Oven-readyFresh-from-the-Oven Goodness
Those were THE BEST rolls I have ever eaten. For serious. I’m not a huge bread fan. I mean, I like good-quality bread, but I’ve never been one to say, “Ooh, I would love to have some homemade rolls.” Now? We may never let Shannon move out. Having your own personal baker is AWESOME. Especially when they’re really good at it like Shannon.
While she and I cooked and baked, the dogs anxiously watched for our guests to arrive.
"Are they here yet? When are they coming?"
I baked an Apple Crumb Pie, too. Like the ones Brianna and I made back in October.
Please pass the garlic!
We used myriad spices as we cooked and baked. At one point, I had a few extra minutes and decided to reorganize the spice cabinet a bit. If you don’t do that periodically, things get completely out of hand. Shannon didn’t believe me when I told her we had FIVE different containers of garlic powder. So I got them out to show her.
When Eric still lived with us, we went through garlic powder like crazy. I prefer fresh garlic personally, but that boy loves him some garlic powder. Since it’s completely his fault that we had so much garlic in the cupboard, I made him take three of the five containers home.
Staying out of our way.
The dogs were pretty good about staying out from under foot. Every now and then one of them would sneak back into the kitchen. But for the most part, they did pretty good.
Back to our experimentation…
The last experimental side-dish was Garlic Carrots. Oh. My. GAWD. They were very simple, and really, really, really good. They were quite possibly the best cooked carrots I have EVER eaten. Again, I am not exaggerating. They were THAT good.
Experimental Chicken
We had two chickens because we made two kinds of stuffing. And the stuffing that’s cooked inside of the bird is ALWAYS better that the other stuff, so we had to have two chickens for the apples-to-apples comparison. The recipe Shannon chose was Awesome Sausage, Apple and Cranberry Stuffing. It was very good, but the traditional stuffing is still my favorite. That’s like one of my favorite things in the whole world to eat, so I’m not surprised that I liked it better. But the experimental stuffing was good, too.
Traditional Chicken
I’m sort of bummed that I didn’t take pictures of all the side dishes, but we were busy! I did try and get a shot of the meal on the table. None of these pictures are particularly good (there’s at least one person I captured with a weird look on their face or something out of focus in each), but I am posting them anyway because they were all the pictures I got.
Getting ready to eat.
That picture is actually not bad, but Eric is missing.
Hurry up, we're hungry!
This would’ve been a good one if Hubby hadn’t been goofing off and sporting a Gaige-face (Gaige loves to make goofy faces in pictures).
The meal.
And in that last one, I caught my MIL with her eyes closed. Sorry, Mom!
We were all half-starved by this point. Shannon and I somehow messed up our timing. The chickens weren’t finished until at least two hours after they were supposed to have been done. So I couldn’t make everyone wait too long to eat.
And eat we did. It doesn’t look like there’s that much food on the table, but there was. And it was all fabulous. I made succotash, too. That’s a staple. And I didn’t mention the gravy. I make yummy gravy, if I do say so myself.
Is it FINALLY our turn?
Once we were finished, the dogs got to eat their Thanksgiving meal. I use the chicken innards and necks to flavor the gravy base. Once that’s cooked for several hours, I always remove the innards, chop them all up and save it for the dogs. So they got that, some chicken, and a big dollop of gravy added to their bowls. They were all thrilled.
Even though we all wished the rest of the family could’ve come, we all agreed this was quite possibly our best Thanksgiving meal ever. Shannon and I really had a good time cooking together. And everyone enjoyed our experiments immensely. All-in-all, it was a very satisfying and very happy day.
Now, I think I’d better go and eat one of those leftover rolls of Shannon’s. And maybe some mashed potatoes and gravy, too. Plus some leftover stuffing…
Last night, Shannon and I made the trek north to Amy’s house to assist with sports practice.What do I mean by “assist”?
Remember, Amy’s husband is currently deployed. She and her hubby are both of the mindset that the kids shouldn’t miss out on anything just because TJ is away. So they’re still playing sports.
Gaige (age 6) plays football. His team has two-hour practice sessions FOUR nights a week at a field about 30 minutes from where they live. Brianna (age 9) plays soccer. She only practices two nights a week for an hour each night. Her field is only about 5 minutes away, but in the opposite direction. Joey (age 3) is too young for organized sports. So he just makes Amy crazy as she drives back and forth between fields and stands on the sidelines while the kids practice.
On Thursdays, both kids have practice at the same time. I told Amy I’d try to help once in awhile by taking one or the other kid to their respective field. Last night, Shannon came along. We had just the right number of adults. Amy took Gaige to football. I took Brianna to soccer. Shannon stayed at the house with Joey.
I did take my camera along, but it was raining off and on, quite heavy at times, so I left it at the house with Shannon. Which is cool because she caught a couple cute images of Joey.
Joey showing off his work boots that are just like Daddy's.Joe Cool (Note the work boots, work gloves AND the fact that his foot is propped on his motorcycle.)
Of course, I didn’t get any pics of the other kids. Maybe we’ll have better weather next week.
Speaking of next week, Shannon, Amy, and I spent a bit of time trying to determine if last night was our August Thirsty Third Thursday. We were all together, after all, and it was Thursday. But it was only the second Thursday of the month. Yes, we could celebrate early, but we eventually decided that next Thursday should be our August Thirsty Third Thursday.
Why does all of this matter? Because, since Shannon was off traveling the world, our last Thirsty Third Thursday was in September 2009. ELEVEN months ago!
Yes, Amy and I did do some TTTs without Shannon, but it just wasn’t the same. When I told Amy we need to make up for lost time, she said, “Does this mean I can expect you both here every Thursday for the next two months?”
I guess we’ll have to wait and see…
But look, we DID manage to capture a nice pic of the three of us, together for the first time since September 2009.
