A Very PW Thanksgiving

I had no idea that cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner all by yourself would be so much work.

A few years ago, we hosted Thanksgiving at our house, but we had other people helping with food.  This year, however, our company was a bunch of college guys and it just didn't feel right to make them bring food.  Since there were only going to be a few of us, I decided to have a simple Thanksgiving--PW brined turkey, PW mash potatoes (but no sweet potatoes--sad), PW stuffing, Gramma Nadine's cranberry jello salad, some veggies (brussel sprout & asparagus), PW rolls and one pie.  Pumpkin.  Just your basic Thanksgiving foods.  Plus the special breakfast we needed to have (Gramma Nadine's egg sausage casserole, Bob's cinnamon rolls and pineapple & blackberries I found on super-sale).  I was actually disappointed that there weren't more people for me to cook for and that I was forced to do such a simple meal.  But on Thursday afternoon, after two days of cooking, I was very glad there was no one else coming.  Oh, did I mention that I decided I needed to make everything from scratch this year?  I've been reading too much Pioneer Woman, who is my new hero.  I'm just a little obsessed with her right now.  Ok, I admit it. I have a total crush on her.  Her food is easy to make, uses normal ingredients you have actually heard of before and will probably have in your kitchen, and it tastes delicious.  Plus, she has step-by-step picture instructions on how to make all her dishes.  You can never go wrong making one of her recipes (thus, the majority of my dishes were hers, some of them with my own little twist).

All my work was worth the effort though, because dinner turned out splendidly.  I was actually quite surprised and pleased that I didn't mess anything up.  Especially the turkey (last time I made turkey it was not so great) and my never-made-before, completely-from-scratch dishes--stuffing, gravy, cranberry jello, and pie crust.   Actually, I did totally mess up the jello salad and had to call my Gramma at 11pm her time for help. Fortunately, she was still awake making the very same jello for our east-coast family's dinner.  But that's the benefit of cooking things ahead of time--you can try again the next day and still have a wonderful dish to serve for Thanksgiving dinner.

Lessons I learned this year:

• It's ok to not make everything from scratch (stuffing from a box next year!)
• Start early (like days early) in case you mess up and need to do an entire dish over again
• Butter makes the best turkey baste
• Mashed potatoes can never have too much better
• Butter makes everything better
• Dried rosemary on Buttered Rosemary Rolls is not an acceptable substitute for fresh rosemary
• Pie Crust really isn't that hard to make
• Cooking turkey doesn't have to be a terrifying adventure
• Always have a Gramma available to call for help (or take the time to thoroughly read the recipe)
• It's not the best idea to plan a huge breakfast in addition to your Thanksgiving dinner if you're the only one cooking
• Never attempted gluten-free cinnamon rolls; nothing good can from it
• You can always trust the Pioneer Woman's cooking advice

Someone wanted turkey really bad


The cinnamon rolls...I started to frost them, then decided I should probably take a picture of the pretty swirls.  My MIL in gluten intolerant and I want to make these when she visits at Christmas this year, so I did a trial run and made some of these with gluten-free flour.  Gag. Me.  They were simply awful.  We threw them all out.  Poor, sad, gluten-intollerants.  I don't know how you do it.


Pioneer Woman Turkey Brine


My turkey was gorgeous, thanks to the Pioneer Woman. And much easier to cook than I remember it being.


Our spread (to me it looks very small for all the work I feel like I did)


Gramma Nadine's cranberry jello salad (2nd batch) not so prettily displayed


Amazing brussel sprouts


The stuffing had cornbread, sourdough bread and french bread.  Yum!

My Very Own Cooking Show

I just love the Food Network.  When we had cable, it was my absolute favorite to watch. And it's pretty much the only reason I'm sad that we no longer have cable.

I also love food.  I love to read about it, buy it, cook it, bake it, and, of course, eat it.  I also like to pretend that I'm Rachel Ray or Alton Brown or [angles singing] the Pioneer Woman (oh my goodness, isn't she amazing!?) or any other number of celebrity chefs with their own cooking show.  And I've always thought it would be so fun to have my very own cooking show.  Prior to Henry, I would pretend in my head and no one would know.  But now that Henry is here, I have a captive audience on which to practice my cooking show.  I just plop him up on the counter in his Bumpo and start working, talking through the various ingredients I'm using and the multiple steps taken to create a delicious dish.  He's learning many interesting things and will hopefully one day enjoy cooking for his family as much as I enjoy cooking for mine.

Learning the proper technique for chopping onion


Juicing and zesting lemons for Lemon Bars


Making the yummiest chocolate chip cookies in the world


Cutting more onion; we use a lot of onion. And garlic. Yummmmmm!


Even Daddy got in on the fun and taught Henry how to make brownies

Canning Peaches

Now that I'm a stay-at-home-mom....

Hahaha, I just had to start a post out like.

But seriously, I've been working very hard to be a good housewife and do meal planing and budgeting (and then stick to the budget and meal plan).  And since it's summer (or the very end of summer), there have been amazing prices on fruit and veggies, and I feel like I need to take advantage of those prices. So I've started buying extra stuff and freezing it.  But my freezer is getting quite full and my new huge freezer isn't due to arrive for a couple more weeks.  Yes, I'm getting a full freezer. It's a hand-me-down from a family member, and I am extremely excited about it.  Notice all of the emphasis placed on "extremely."  I've spent lots of time thinking about all the stuff I'm going to put in it.  But that's a story for a different blog post.   Anyway, since my regular freezer is full, I decided that now would be a good time to begin canning.  What else is there to do with all of those $0.69 peaches?  So I convinced my friend, Sara, to join me, bought 30 peaches, which comes out to about 14 lbs, and a box of mason jars, and canned my peaches.  I would rate my first canning experience a "7" on a 1-10 scale. We had a few hiccups but we learned lots and I'm sure my next experience will be even better!  I haven't tasted any of the peaches yet, but Sara's husband said they were wonderful--he couldn't tell if they were store bought or the ones we canned (pat self on back).

Things I Learned During My First Canning Experience:

1) Canning is not a wait-til-you-put-your-children-down-for-the-night-at-7pm project.  It's a Saturday project.  Especially when you didn't do your homework about prepping the jars (see #3). And especially when your poor friend, Sara, gets violently ill in the middle of canning and you have to finish by yourself.

2) 14 lbs of peaches is a LOT of peaches (even when your husband's already dipped into the pile and snagged a few already); you can probably get away with a lot less next time.

3)  It's usually best to prepare enough mason jars for all of your peaches which are already cut and sitting in lemon water, waiting to be canned (and by prepare, I mean run the jars through the 45 minute dishwasher cycle so they're hot and sanitized because you're not going to do it again at 11:30 pm).

4) Really jam those peaches the jar because they shrink up during the boiling process.

5) The Pioneer Woman (my new hero) has an amazing peach crisp with maple cream sauce recipe for all those left over peaches that you couldn't fit the few sanitized jars you prepped.

Our Inexpensive Morning Date

"Do you want to go out for coffee with me in the morning?" AK asked me during our phone conversation last night. He didn't have to ask twice; of course I wanted to get coffee with him! A little date, just like old times.  Plus, he's been working a lot lately and we haven't seen him much.  I've missed him.

This morning Henry was pretty fussy and wasn't awake very long before needing to go back down for a nap (wouldn't it be great if we could all nap at 8am?).  So much for my fancy morning date with AK.  Or was it?  We had three options: 1) cancel the date altogether, 2) bring coffeehouse coffee and grocery store coffee cake to the house, or 3) improvise at home.  Considering that we were sorely in need of precious time together, as well our newly formed commitment to get on a budget, we decided to go with option 3.  So while AK brewed a pot of coffee, I looked up "quick coffee cake" on one of my favorite recipe websites.  Thirty minutes later, we were sitting on the couch, drinking coffee, eating warm,homemade coffee cake and talking.  Just like when we were back in college. Except we were in our living room with our baby was sleeping upstairs.  And we had an extra $10 in our pocket.

It was a good date.

Date Night

Also consumed but not pictured: Claim Jumpers' Coconut Cream Pie :-)

Orange Cranberry Scones

Friday morning, AK woke up to the smell of wonderfully delicious scones (adapted from this recipe) baking in the oven. I was making them for a baby shower I was throwing for one of my good friends.  He came sniffing into the kitchen and asked for a scone. Then another. And another. I ended up having to make a second batch because he couldn't keep his hands off them (but let's be honest, neither could I). I love me some scones!

By the way, I was a very good wifey and left AK a little plate of scones to enjoy while H and I were at the shower. However, when I got home, the ants that have decided to invade my house en masse during our 100+ degree weather and make my life a living nightmare, had managed to find their way under the saran wrap and ruin any chance of us ever eating those scones. Gross. I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.

Gramma Nadine's Egg Sausage Casserole

You may think that your Gramma makes the best egg sausage casserole in the whole wide world, but you're wrong. Because mine does.  And if you're one of the lucky few who have had the distinct privilege of partaking of this wonderfulness, I'm sure you will agree with me.

I believe the reason for the superior taste of this dish is due to her use of a secret ingredient (and no, the secret ingredient is not love, though I'm sure there's a tablespoon or so of love in every dish). Sorry, I won't be posting the secret ingredient on the internet for you all to steal and thus begin making the best egg sausage casserole in the world.

Gramma Nadine has made her delectable egg sausage casserole for nearly every holiday I've spent with her for a long as I can remember.  It's a staple of our family holiday fare, and has countless happy memories attached to it.  Now that I'm all grown up and hosting my own holiday events, I have started making her casserole.  And since it is so wonderfully delicious (and really easy to make), I look for any opportunity to make it.

Well, I yesterday I threw a baby shower for my friend and needed an egg dish--what more special event to have Gramma Nadine's famous egg sausage casserole than the welcoming of a sweet little baby into the world? So I excitedly made it and doubled the batch for us to enjoy here at home too.  For our batch, I decided to add my own twist, throwing in some sauteed green peppers and mushrooms (Gramma, I know GP doesn't like mushrooms, but you really should try the peppers sometime--yummy!).  I think we ate half the pan yesterday (after I'd already eaten some at the shower), with AK exclaiming more than a couple times, "Babe, this is SO good!"

This morning, I'll be enjoying mine with some fresh blueberries and a delicious homemade orange cranberry scone.

Second Attempt

Last year, I began chronicling our attempt to be healthier eater via a vegetable garden (see here for original post).  I wrote of my excitement over the growth of our first vegetable (see here for details), as well as the pathetic demise of our garden--if you could ever really call it a garden (see here).  Overall, it was a very disappointing year for us as our garden slowly succumbed to our black thumb of death.  This however, has not prevented us from again attempting to grow a vegetable garden.

After much pondering, we believe the reasons for the demise the garden to be three-fold:
1) We planted much too late in the year
2) We did not water enough
3) The deceivingly adorable, secretly evil bunnies ate it

This year, we have attempted to remedy last year's issues by doing the following:
1) We planted much earlier (June instead of August--there is still much improvement to be made in this area next year, but we were otherwise occupied having a baby this year)
2) I am making a concerted effort to water the garden on a daily basis (the nightly lawn watering just doesn't cut it)
3) Getting rid of the rabbits has proven to be quite a challenge. They not only robbed me of any home-grown salads last year, but they have also sought to destroy our newly laid sod.  But we have addressed this issue, though I'm not at liberty to discuss the details of this further.  Let's just say that Aaron has, um, "taken care of" the rabbit issue with one of the skills acquired at his job.

Thus far, I am happy to report that our garden is doing quite well ( Maybe a little too well in areas.  Our tomato plant is a little out of control, but fortunately the enormity of it does not yet seem to be hindering the growth of nearby vegetables).  And we've already had our first yield (I ate home-grown tomatoes on my hamburger this afternoon)!  I'm looking forward to lots more tomatoes, along with peppers, zucchini, cucumber and strawberries!

The tomato plant before it got out of control