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Happy Valentines Day!
February 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Seven Quick Takes: Christmas Edition
December 23, 2011 By
I’ve got very mixed emotions about Christmas. I didn’t grow up celebrating it, and there is a part of me that still wishes I didn’t. It certainly made December much easier, and there wasn’t the same sort of let-down effect in January when I didn’t.
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We do celebrate it now however, to a limited extent. We have a tree, and some stockings, although that’s the extent of our decorations. Someday we may do some outside decorating, but that’ll have to wait for another year.
Our finances are tight this year due to the house situation, so we didn’t do much for gifts. A handful
I had some ideas for inexpensive stocking stuffers for us (I always end up getting items for both stockings) but never made it to the store. Eh, it’s not the end of the world. I do wish I could have gotten some spice drops however because I know how much Mr. SJ loves them.
Full disclosure: his stocking was going to be one pack of baseball cards and then spice drops and cookies.
Mine was going to be chocolate and a new calendar fill-in for 2012. Because I need to get one anyway.
We don’t yet have stockings for the kids so I wasn’t worrying about them. Next year kids!
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Thanksgiving Recap
November 30, 2011 By
For the first time ever I cooked the entire Thanksgiving dinner, and it really wasn’t too bad! I planned it all out in advance and scheduled what I would do when, both in the days leading up to Thanksgiving and the day of.
In hopes that it might be a help in the future, here’s a recap of what I did and how well it all worked, and what I’ll do differently next time (because I’m sure there will be a next time.)
Menu:
Cheddar cheese ball & crackers (from The Best of America’s Test Kitchen 2008
Fresh veggies & dip
Relish tray with olives & pickles
Turkey breast (Butterball, preseasoned)
Mashed potatoes (recipe from my mom)
Dressing (Stove Top)
Glazed carrots (blended about three recipes together)
Green bean casserole
Rolls (from a now-defunct website)
Cranberry sauce (from a can)
Gravy (from the packet that came with the turkey + a packet of mushroom gravy.)
Pumpkin pie (from A Passion for Baking
Apple pie
Peanut butter fudge pie (from The Baker’s Dozen Cookbook
Biggest success was the turkey breast (juicy & flavorful), mashed potatoes (so good), and the peanut butter fudge pie (amazingly tasty & pictured above).
Biggest disappointments were the rolls (for homemade, they really weren’t any better than frozen), the carrots (too much cinnamon), and the green beans (they weren’t bad, I just still haven’t found my perfect recipe and will keep looking.)
Working ahead was very helpful to keep the day of from being too stressful. I made the dough for the rolls on Monday. Tuesday I made the cheese ball. Wednesday I made the pies and prepped all the veggies except for the potatoes. Thursday morning I drew up a schedule of events so I wouldn’t forget about things like shaping the rolls or reheating dressing.
Next time I’d like to try a different green bean casserole recipe, skip the carrots all together (we had more than enough veggies thanks to the appetizer of raw veggies & dip), try pumpkin rolls, and make my own dressing. I’ll probably try different pie recipes just because I love to do that, but all three pies were a success.
And if I get really ambitious, maybe try a roasted turkey roulade, because that looks amazing.
Did anyone else fix their first Thanksgiving dinner? Have success with any new recipes?
