Thanksgiving Blessings!

    We are truly grateful for a God who loves us enough to forgive us for our sins and sent His Son to take our punishment of death upon Himself so that we could Live. Father, Thank You!
      Thanksgiving weekend 2009 brought with it a broad range of temperatures. 30s-upper 60s! We actually had on shorts and had our windows open today! After lunch on Thursday (See Thanksgiving Feast post here), we got into Christmas mode. During my afternoon relief therapy, I searched through every single black Friday sale paper ad, trying to get gift ideas for the boys and family. At 10 that night, Jim decided I should go to Toys R Us to get a few things HE picked out for Taylor and Drew! They opened at midnight, I got there at 11:50, parked at TJ Maxx, got in line between there and Hobby Lobby, but was in the door by 12:20....not bad, I thought. I had told Jim that I wanted to wear a hat so no one would recognize me because I felt like a freak. He comforted me with this thought: If they see you there Candise, they are there themselves! Ah...Thank goodness I only very briefly saw one soul I knew! Can I say rednecks? And lots of them! I got in the wrong line and ended up waiting for 2 hours to checkout. I was home a few minutes after 3! Whew...will never, ever, ever do that again...probably.

     We always wait til the day after Thanksgiving to do our Christmas decorations. This year, because I move a lot slower these days, it took me 2 days to completely finish, but Jim and the boys were huge helps! Taylor picked out our tree, his criteria: green, big, triangle!

     Andrew has learned the word BALL and was very intrigued by all the balls on the tree!

Then, while I stepped away from cleaning up the mess, the vaccuum entertained Andrew! Giddy Up!

Before you think I am some kind of supermom...here is what I let my boys do to entertain themselves while I worked on my wreaths and garland. They made mudpies!

GROSS.....Taylor kept coming to me saying, mommy, I smell like a horse! And they don't smell good. LOL They went straight to the bathtub!!

Here are a few more pics from our weekend. Enjoy!

Me: Finishing off Thanksgiving leftovers!

I SAID TIME OUT! Taylor's explanation: I wanted to make it snow in the living room!

My two little Indians! Andrew was trying to pose!

Andrew is just wishing I'd put this camera down and change that droopy diaper!

Tackling, of course.

Andrew is stuck between a rock and a hard place!

We still have one day left of this great holiday weekend and no idea what fun that it will bring!

Curious George Live!

     We have had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving weekend that has flown by. Fine by me, sooner February gets here the better! Our celebrations started Thursday evening when we surprised Taylor and Andrew with tickets to Curious George Live.

     We were very unsure how Taylor would react because when i took him to see Curious George at Barnes & Noble last year, he pooped in his pants he was so scared. However, I had read in the FAQ that the characters usually did not come into the crowd--whew! We didn't tell Taylor about the surprise until we were in the car on our way to avoid the million questions we knew would ensue. Check out the video to see his response.

 He wouldn't let go of his Georges

     The boys did great. Taylor absolutely loved it and had so much fun. Definitely a memory we will always treasure!

Thanksgiving Feast!

     We decided to take it easy this Thanksgiving by staying home and relaxing. Yeah right! As the matriarch of my little family, I felt it my purpose on Thanksgiving morning to get up out of my warm, cozy bed and get into my kitchen and prepare a yummo feast!
     Jim so graciously took the boys out with him for a 6-miler and I got to work! On the menu for today is Cornish Hens with Brown Rice Stuffing, Sweet Potato Casserole, Brown Gravy, Corn Light Bread, Kasey's Green Bean Bundles, Sweet Tea and Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie. I started at 9 and was sitting to eat at 12...This was such an easy Thanksgiving meal! And....oh yah....I was running out of sugar and used Splenda for my Corn Light bread, Pie and half the sugar for my sweet tea--made me feel a little healthier!!
Cornish Hens with Brown Rice Stuffing
Serves 4
1 Cup            uncooked brown rice
2 1/2 cups     chicken stock
1 small           onion, chopped
1/2                yellow bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup          dried apricots, chopped
8 Tbs             unsalted butter
1/2 cup          toasted almonds, slivered or chopped
1 tsp              dried thyme
1/4 tsp           dried marjoram
4                    Cornish hens
4 slices           bacon
     Bring chicken stock I use chicken broth to a boil, add rice, and cover. Reduce heat and cook for 40 minutes or until stock is absorbed. Set aside. Preheat oven to 325. Saute onion, bell peppers, and apricots in butter. I don't like bell peppers or apricots so I eliminated them and used a few pinches of brown sugar to replace the sweetness from the apricots Mix with cooked rice, almonds, salt, thyme, and marjoram. I thought marjoram was way too expensive, so I used the poultry seasoning I had in cupboard, it has marjoram in it Salt and pepper hens, inside and out. <-I actually forgot to do this step, LOL Stuff with rice mixture and place one bacon slice on top of each hen. Bake, uncovered, at 325 for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, basting often with pan drippings. I also used melted butter because there wasn't enough drippings in the beginning  If not tender after 1 1/2 hours, cover and steam for final 30 minutes.

     I started with my Hens. Defrosted and salted them.

(Jim laughs everytime he sees this pic, for some reason he gets a kick out of it! LOL!)

     I stuffed them with a Brown Rice Stuffing that was absolutely delicious that I will make it again on its own to have as a side dish.

    

     I saved the drippings and used them as the liquid for my McCormick Brown Gravy mix. For the Sweet potatoes, all I did was used a can of yams, about a half cup of brown sugar, baked on 375 for 30 minutes, topped it with marshmallows and baked until brown. You can find the recipe for the Corn Light Bread here.

     The Green Bean Bundles are sooooo easy. Kasey has made them for my family twice when I had both boys and I called her specifically for this meal so I could replicate them! A can of CUT green beans, wrap about 6 beans in a half piece of bacon, I use turkey bacon, secure with a tooth pick. You get about 8 bundles from one can. Then I placed in a baking dish and poured about half a bottle of Russian salad dressing on top. Baked in oven for 30 minutes at 350. So easy, so yummy!!!

     The Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie came from my Cooking Club, Wendy made it in October and it was soooo yummo, or so I wrote in the margin of my cookbook! I decided to try it out for myself and I have to say, it was a little bland, and needed some tweaking.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie

Serves 8

-basic pastry for 9" pie shell, unbaked

Cream Cheese Layer

1 pkg     cream cheese (8 oz.), room temperature

1/4 cup  sugar

1/2 tsp   vanilla extract

1 large   egg

Pumpkin Layer

1 can     pumpkin puree (16 oz.)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp     cinnamon

1/4 tsp  ginger

1/4 tsp  nutmeg

1/8 tsp  salt

2 large  eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup   evaporated milk

     Preheat oven to 350. For the cream cheese layer, combine cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla and blend in egg. Spread cream cheese mixture over unbaked pie shell. For the pumpkin layer, combine pumkin, sugar, sinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Blend in beaten eggs and evaporatedmilk and pour over cream cheese layer. Bake until firm. 60 minutes or longer.

    

     I make my own pie crust, mainly because I'm cheap, and partly because it's fun! I recently saw a tutorial by Curtis Stone on how to make a better pie crust and I think it is soooo helpful. See it here.

I use a recipe from my Better Homes and Garden cookbook.

Pastry for Single-Crust Pie

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup shortening

4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

     Heres what I do!....And Curtis too! Mix my flour and salt. Cut in the shortening using pastry cutter or knives. Curtis uses a blender, which I think makes a huge difference. I used my hand mixer on 2 pies this week and they had incredible crusts!  I also use butter instead of shortening. I am however about to switch to coconut oil, it is supposed to be healthier...we'll see! When mixture resembles coarse crumbs, I add water a tablespoon at a time. I form into ball, place in plastic, put in fridge for about 20 minutes, remove, roll out and whala!