I got something to say
I am the Stuffing
Okay, I do not usually do so many quizzes, but this one was kind of fun. Do not ask me what the last question means..... I am very removed from popular culture, so that might explain it! LOL!What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?
| You Are The Stuffing |
 People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why. |
what spice am I?
I think this is interesting, and I can accept this assessment of my personality, but.... isn't basil an herb, not a spice?oh, and I think there is a mistype on it - I hope I am loved by MOST people, not POST people! LOL
What Spice Are You?
| You Are Basil |
 You have a mild temperament, but your style is definitely distinctive. You are sweet, attractive, and you often smell good. |
So much to be thankful for
Two years ago there went out a blog challenge to write down 1000 things you were thankful for. I took that challenge and seriously enjoyed it. Not only that but it helped teach me to be thankful for so many things I often overlook and to learn to be thankful for those difficult things in my life that don’t even seem the teensiest bit close to being considered . . . .
Last year I added a few more things to my list.
This year I will add a few more.
I also take the time to look back and re-read my list- reminders- stepping stones of what God has given.
What God has brought us through.
I noticed that the 1000 gifts list is now the Endless Gifts List. Obviously I am not the only one that felt the need to keep adding more.
To view my list up to now- just click on One Thousand Gifts List under categories on my side bar.
Do you have a thankful list?
1041. My crockpot (I might have mentioned this one before but it bears repeating).
1042. Sunday Dinners- real Sunday dinners
1043. Running my fingers thru my daughters’ hair
1044. Little boy hair cuts a la Daddy
1045. Family movie nite
1046. Staying up most of the night and laughing with my girlfriends
1047. Crying with my girlfriends
1048. God teaching me real hospitality
1049. Mr. Conductor’s possibles box (holds his teeny treasures)
1050. Old barns and pieces of old barn siding
1051. The playhouse my parents built for the grands
1052. Goin’ Gatoring with the family
1053. Our 3rd year of homeschooling
1054. Queen Homeschool’s Language Lesson book for Sassafras (Oh, Lord
thank you for saving my sanity and restoring her confidence)
1055. I can still do a cartwheel
1056. My massage therapist
1057. A friend who is an accountability partner
1058. Nature hikes
1059. Finding a pair of jeans that really fit- feel good & look good
1060. The glimpses of me God gives me thru Mr. Steady’s eyes
1061. And thru my children’s eyes
1062. The confidence to sing in the grocery store if I wanna
1063. Two bathrooms
1064. The delete and backspace keys
1065. A daughter who makes lunch at least 4 days a week
1066. The smell of a book store
1067. Being able to hear the difference in my children’s footsteps (helps to know who’s sneaking up on you!)
1068. Sharpie pens
1069. White boards
1070. snowball fights
Thank you Godfor giving us food
Notes: It’s Thanksgiving Week! Lots of yummy food. This is the week of the 3 Family Dinners so we’ll be cleaning out the fridge to make room.
Monday
B: French Toast, apple sauce
L: hot-diggity dogs, cheese crackers, pickle spears
D:
Dessert: ice cream sundaes
Daily Cost: $9.33
Tuesday
B: Mama’s cheesy scrambled eggs, toast
L: Homeschool group lunch: Bring: nada- provided for! Thank you Lord!
D: Harvest Soup, h’made bread
Dessert: none
Daily Cost: $7.21
Wednesday – Clean Out The Fridge Day
B: Choice: cereal or yogurt
L: Diner Dinner
D: Clean out the fridge nite- leftovers
Dessert: whatever you find!
Daily Cost: $1.00 (or so)
Thursday – Happy Thanksgiving
B: Pumpkin waffles, fresh fruit
L: @ my parents- bringing: Spoonbread, Mr. Steady’s mashed potatoes and Triple Fudge BrowniesSupper: leftovers from dinner
Daily Cost: $15.66
Friday – Day After Dinner
B: Pumpkin waffles (leftover) & sausage
L: Diner Dinner
D: Turkey Dinner w/Mr. Steady’s parents
We’re heating up leftovers and Mr. S is frying a turkey (given to us free).
Daily Cost: $2.00
Saturday –Day After After Dinner
B: Daddy cook (eggs, bacon, toast etc.)
L: Leftover Smorgasbord
D: @ my sister’s- bring: leftover potatoes, homemade bread
Daily Cost: $3.50
Sunday
B: Cocoa Wheats, toast
L: Open Face turkey sandwiches
D: Leftover Smorgasbord
Daily Cost: $2.75
Weekly Total: $41.45
~~ Don’t forget to check out the yummy menu ideas every Monday over at The Organizing Junkie’s blog. You just might find your next favorite family recipe!
pumpkin update
well, I got 70 bottles of pumpkin. 70. I was not expecting that. I was definitely not planning on having to use 70 of my quart jars for pumpkin. Remind me not to buy a huge monster of a pumpkin again. I roasted all the seeds so my son would not be tempted to grow one. LOL! We will see in a bit exactly how much that makes in relation to the cans I can buy at the store. We will see.We had some friends up this weekend. I showed them how to make soap, and we talked and my children just thought K (the husband) was the best thing that has ever happened to them! I think they are convinced that K&M came up solely to play with them. Silly children. hehehe. It was a long weekend (do not get me wrong - it was fun and I love having them, but it makes a long weekend....) and I am glad to get onto a regular schedule this week. what? it is Thanksgiving week? oh bah! No normal week for me!
ds7 is going to the Nutcracker tomorrow with the homeschool group, and I think the girls and I will do some Christmas shopping while he is there. I also have a ticket to the play, but the theater was a little alarmed at the number of adults we had per children - I guess they like the more unsupervised public school child to adult ratio better. So I am going to talk to Bug and ask if he will be polite and attentive if I am not there and he is sitting with another hs mom I know. I have hopes this will work out - he is generally very well behaved if I am not around, I do not get it.
Thursday morning we are headed to SL to my mom's for the ritualistic feasting and fete-ing. Friday morning, mom will watch the kids (let them coat gingerbread houses with candy - eye roll) while we go to see Twilight. I know, I am breaking one of my cardinal rules - never see a movie made from a book I like. But, I have hopes for this one. I had hopes for Harry Potter too, but quit after the second movie. I have not and will NOT watch the Narnia movies - I love the books tooooo much. I did not like TLotR books, so the movies were great for me. But off we go to see Twilight.
So, no normal week for me. sigh. well, I guess I had better get to going and starting my week. have a great one.
Changes in the plan- its okay.
Remember when I said my menu plan was more of a set of guidelines?
We didn’t have the monkey bread on Monday as some family members were having issues at the dinner table and we decided it would be best to all go to bed early.
Yesterday evening we had an impromptu trip to Menards for some replacement pipes and fittings for the kitchen sink.
I should probably add here that yesterday, on my list of Things I Hadn’t Planned On Doing (remember this?) was scrubbing ¾ of the kitchen floor.
On my hands and knees.
Why only ¾? Because Flylady says that housework- even when done incorrectly (or in my case not completely) still blesses your family.
Huh?
Well, we’ve got skiffs of snow, layers of mud and leaves and 3 kids who are constantly tramping in afore mentioned bits of nature. And with more snow on the way- I quickly decided that the high traffic door to door path in the kitchen could stay as is. My wrists and knees muttering protests helped to ease my conscience greatly.
Anyhoo, I quickly decided to make the most of trip by trying to do next week’s shopping since Aldi’s is just down the road. This is still a pantry week but being ever frugal-minded . . . . not to mention I’ve now checked off something from next week’s To Do List . . . .
This of course would all be taking place during evening dining time. No quick Mickey-D’s stop for us though- I’m sticking to my pantry budget week.
I quickly put together mini-sandwiches with leftover chicken salad and other lunch meats we always keep on hand, tossed some Clementine oranges in the bag, napkins, plates (just in case) and a still-warm-just-sliced loaf of chocolate cherry friendship bread. Voila.
Light dinner on the road.
I also grabbed the current family read-aloud: The Fighting Ground by Avi- very intense and riveting.
We whipped through Aldi’s in record time- the kids have the loading and unloading and packaging routine down pat. It was fun to watch Mr. Steady marvel at them. As for Menards, Mr. Steady looked for the things on his list- when a man goes to a store like that- he’s always got more things on his list than the thing that necessitated the going to the store in the first place—anyway- the kiddos and I enjoyed the Christmas displays- the trees plus the little ceramic villages.
This then lead to the kidlets asking for a Christmas movie for watching after we got home. Mickey’s Christmas Carol.
And so while it wasn’t the dinner or the evening I had envisioned for us- it was still quality family time.
And that’s what matters most.
Well, that and sticking to the pantry budget.
TACKY or frugal smarts?
Tackiness vs. simplicity
poor etiquette vs. saving $$ and a tree or two
We send out quite a few Christmas cards each year. Last year I was able to save some pennies by making Christmas postcards to send out- saved by making them myself and saved on postage.
This year the budget is even tighter.
So------ I’m thinking of sending Christmas greetings via e-cards through Dayspring.
I must ask- Is this a big no-no on the etiquette scale?
Will I be vilified?
Of course, I can’t do all my cards this way as there are still some people on my list that don’t have email but I could cut my list way down.
By my calculations, I could save myself $20 easily.
I don’t know about you but $20 is a lot of cash here—in fact, that’s half the weekly grocery budget!
photo- last year's postcard Christmas cards.
Stuffing recipe
From my SIL... her ooooohhhh so yummy stuffing recipe. I have liked this stuffing for years, but this year, we kind of forgot about it, leaving it in the oven a bit too long. It did not burn, but the top got brown and slightly crispy. It was sooooo much better than other years. Now, we usually triple this for our family of 18 (and growing). It think I will double it for my family's Thanksgiving coming up next week.Stuffing
3/4 cup onion, chopped finely
1 1/2 cups celery stalks and leaves, chopped finely
1 cup butter
9 cups french bread cubes
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. crushed sage leaves (I use 1 tsp. rubbed sage)
1 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 cup chicken stock
about 1/3 can of evaporated milk
In pan melt butter and add onions and celery. Cook until tender. Add seasonings, mix well, then stir in 1/3 of the bread cubes. Stir mixture well then add the rest of the bread cubes. Add in the stock and milk to taste. Bake at 350 until crispy on top! MMMMM.....
Giving 3 days straight
We sure do know how to stretch out a good thing here. We’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving for 3 days! Can you imagine the leftovers?The good thing is that I will be contributing to the various meals not making everything for 3 days.
Whew!
Thanksgiving Day will be spent at my parents’ home. I’ll be bringing spoonbread and my famous Triple Fudge Brownies. Mr. Steady will be fixing up his scrumptious Dirty Mashed Potatoes. I think the girls and I may make a loaf of bread too.
The Day After Dinner, as it is now known, is spent with Mr. Steady’s parents. We cherish this quirky tradition as it means we get to spend some great quality time with his parents (it’s a gi-normous family). A few years ago we sucked Mr. Steady’s sister and kids into the tradition- since her hubby is always working that day. Foodwise: we try to keep to serving leftovers- another tradition. Mr. Steady does fry a turkey breast because we just love it. We have leftover mashed potatoes and spoonbread, his mama brings cranberries, a pie and a Jell-O salad. His sister brings her amazing potato rolls and at least one veggie side dish. I laughingly make a boxed stuffing mix to round it all out.
This year my sister and her hubby have invited the family to their home for the Day After After Dinner. [This is the “off year” that my siblings each spend with their in-laws on TG day.] Since this is a first I don’t know what the plan is. I am currently waiting for my sister to inform me of what I am bringing to the event besides myself and 4 other hungry souls.
I have to admit I’m getting a bit antsy as I’m working on my grocery list. I’m a bit of a nervous-ervous. I don’t normally grocery shop during Thanksgiving week. But Mr. Steady and I are hoping for some better sales in the local flyers and so we have put off some of the holiday shopping. Yikes!
We made this week a pantry week so that we could save this week’s grocery money, combine it with next week’s and hopefully stock up on some things.
Still, it makes me feel like I’m waiting until the last minute to get all my ducks in a row . . . .
The MIX
I’ve been getting lots of requests for me to share my Christmas trail mix recipe. I’ve been wanting to do it as a picture post for the fun of it but haven’t assembled all my ingredients and containers yet.And it’s not on the agenda until after next week- So I’ll share without pictures for now and then add the pictures later . . . . .
With that said- I must warn you that I change this recipe every single time I make it. I figure it just adds to the surprise.
First I’ll share the basic mix and then boggle your minds with my switcheroos.
Basic Christmas Snack Mix
1 large package Christmas M&Ms
1 pound chocolate covered raisins
1 pound white fudge covered pretzels
8 cups cinnamon graham cereal
Mix it altogether and package in air-tight containers.
Please note that I have never ever made it this way. Yes it is quite simple and I’m sure it would be truly delish. But I just can’t help myself. I must tweak recipes.
So what do I do?
Well, there was the year I couldn’t find white fudge covered pretzels- so I used yogurt pretzels instead. Yummo. Combine that with dried cranberries. Also- I’ve taken to purchasing the fancier bags of Chex mix that come out around Christmas time. Of course I purchase them when they are on sale- buy one get one free.
Last year I used Chex Chocolate Turtle mix- 2 bags. Added in 2-3 cups of cranberries, the M&Ms, 1 pound yogurt raisins and a 28 oz. package of white fudge pretzels. Excellent.
In the past I also found an apple-cinnamon Chex mix and added more dried apple slices, M&Ms and dried cherries.
I love the look of the red dried cherries and yogurt raisins/pretzels.
I often double the recipe due the high demand for this yummy mix. I keep costs as low as possible by looking for sales on the pricier items- like the Chex mix and M&Ms and buying the raisins and cranberries in bulk at an Amish store.
I will post again when I’ve got all of this year’s ingredients assembled to give you the 2008 version.
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