Thanksgiving is all about family

Well, family and food.  We had the feast on Thursday, then on Saturday I took Ayla and Drake to visit my parents, about 3 hours away.  We had a really nice visit.  I was pleased to see how well my mother is recovering from her knee replacement surgery. 

Drake discovered some fun and exciting ways to have fun in the country!  No cash needs to be spent to have a good time, just hitch a ride on somebody’s lap.

Sorry this one turned out so badly, somehow my camera had gotten the settings changed.  But it’s still cute, Drake riding on the back of Mom’s chair.

 

And finally, the tractor.  This provided hours of "driving" fun.  He pretended to run over me, he pretended to run over the dog, etc.  

 

Now, on to Christmas!  I made a paper chain to count down the days.  Beginning December 1st, we'll tear off one ring and read the bible verse printed inside.  When they're gone, it's Christmas!!

 

 

 

 

You can serve a Thanksgiving meal for 8 people for under $100!

You can serve a Thanksgiving meal for 8 people for under $100!

That was an actual headline I saw online early last week.  My reaction:

Um, what?

I know this is the time of year people tend to bust out their family heirloom recipes, and go all out for the feasts and festivities.  And yes, you can certainly feed 8 people at Thanksgiving for under $100.  But my opinion is, you can feed them for a LOT less than $100.  I didn’t even read that article, I was laughing so hard.  I really don’t know what sort of recipes they were promoting.  I planned to feed 10 adults and 3 small children.  As it turned out, and I knew beforehand that this was a possibility, several people didn’t make it.  We ended up with 5 adults and 2 toddlers, and TONS of leftovers.  In preparation for this I spent $38, which included an extra turkey since they were on sale and is now safely abiding in my freezer, along with bits and pieces of his already-cooked brethren.  Oh, and let’s not forget, add the cost of a couple extra pie crusts because we ate the chocolate pies the night before and had to make more.  I had made 2 pie crusts, we bought 4 more and used 2 of them.  The others will be saved for later.  I could have made more but I wimped out. 

Ask anyone in my family if they feel the food would have been better if I spent more.  Go on, I dare you!  Because they seemed to be enjoying it, and enjoying it, and enjoying it….  I don’t feel that spending another $60-65 would have improved our meal even a tiny fraction.  Looks good, doesn't it?

I think Ayla is now our official pie lady.  She doesn’t yet know how to make crust, but she can turn out a pumpkin or chocolate fudge pie in no time, and it’s GOOD.  Here she is, helping Drake make his very first pie:

 

 

You’d think people who are 8 months pregnant would know better than to get in the floor but she said it was easier than holding Drake up to the counter while he helped.  At least there were people around to hoist her back up.        

Baking Bread

I keep saying I'm going to post my bread  recipe, but I never seem to have time.  So I'm giving a link to the website wher I got the recipe.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx?page=2

I usually make rolls or rectangular loaves with this, but it can be made into bread sticks, round loaves (plopped onto a baking sheet, no pan involved), cinnamon rolls, or pizza dough, if you like a fairly thick crust.  You can add herbs to the liquid, make it sweeter if you like it that way, use water for french bread, milk for a soft bread.  I replace 1/4 cup of flour with an equal amount of potato flour to keep it soft and fresh longer.  I love this stuff, it's so versatile.

Let me know if you try it.

Everyone have a fantastic Thanksgiving, and be safe!

I finished the baby quilt!

Finally.  Life kept conspiring against me and made this take longer than expected, but it’s all good.  It turned out adorable, although to me it sort of looks like a circus tent exploded.

Here's another view, with lousy lighting:

And here are my 2 year old grandchildren, the delights of my heart:

 

They had a blast taking turns pushing each other in the car, with a little help from Shane:

 

 

Thanksgiving Dinner

In this country, we’re celebrating Thanksgiving next week.  We do a traditional dinner that day, here’s my menu:

Turkey

Dressing

Mashed potatoes

Gravy

Corn

Green bean casserole

Rolls

Pumpkin pie

Fudge pie

I’ve been thinking about how to prep foods ahead of the big day so I don’t have to do everything at once.  Of course I’ll be enlisting help from my family, and if my friend comes and brings her mom and son, she’ll pitch in.  We like cornbread dressing, so I’ll make the cornbread a few days early and give it time to dry out.  I already have quite a bit of chicken stock in my freezer, I’ll thaw that and use it for both the dressing and the gravy.  I’ll make dough this weekend for the pie crusts, it holds in the fridge for several days.  I’ll make the pies Wednesday evening.  My usual bread dough is a refrigerator dough, so I can make that at any time and it’ll be there when I need it.  Drinks will be a choice of iced tea, hot tea, coffee, water.  Juice for the toddlers.

I’ve had a couple requests for my bread dough recipe, I’ll try to post that tomorrow.  It’s amazingly easy and handy, no kneading necessary and it sits in the fridge, just waiting to be used. 

What are your Thanksgiving plans?   

More Baby Stuff

Unless he comes early, he'll be here 5 weeks from today.  That's the day the C section is scheduled.  I'm THISCLOSE to being finished with his quilt, I actually ran out of fabric!  I'm going tomorrow to buy 1/4 yard of one of the prints so I can finish this thing.  That's more than I need but I think that's the smallest amount Joann's will let you buy.
 
I finished his sweater, what do you think?

So How Did I Do?

I didn’t quite do everything on this list, but I did OK.  Here’s the breakdown: 

♦Finish the baby quilt, which will require a stop at the fabric store on my way home tonight

I got quite a bit done on the baby quilt but it’s not finished.  I hope to work on it some more tonight and have it finished this week. 

♦Sew a button onto a sweater, which will then be finished

                    Done.  Pix tomorrow. 

♦Cook a couple of meals, hopefully doubling one for the freezer

I cooked one meal, ham and pineapple with potato salad on the side, made extra potato salad so people can eat on that a few days.

♦Make refrigerator bread dough

                    Done.  Tonight’s supper is jambalaya, featuring a side of homemade bread.

♦Make a double batch of cookie dough and freeze half

                    Not even close.  I bought fudge grahams from Dollar General yesterday.

♦Knit a hat for a friend

                    Not only did I knit the hat for a friend, but I also knitted one for a baby, the child of Ayla’s

  friend.   

♦Relax!

                    This one I accomplished heartily.