Cyber Thank You

Dear Papa Mike and Ruby,

Thanks for the cool popcorn maker!

We are the envy of many!

Love, Sophie and Eli (and all the popcorn lovers in our family)

Such Blessings

I feel like I'm thankful for my blessings most of the time, but for some reason this year I'm just over-the-top feeling so blessed for my life. I know there are so many people in the world who are hungry or sad or lonely or sick, etc. and I honestly can't think about it too much or the guilt gets to me. I say often, "I like it in my little world." Meaning I'm sometimes guilty of being like the proverbial ostrich with his head in the sand. I don't like to think too much about the bad things. But I think it's so important to remember sometimes when you start to complain about the crowds at the mall, or you can't get your hair appt. at the time you wanted, or the store is out of Pumpkin Spice creamer... who cares, right? Stop and be quiet for a minute and just thank God. Hopefully it will motivate you to do your little part to make the suffering a little more comfortable. Donate your time, talents or funds! We've had to put our kids (the little ones) in their places a few times when they're counting gifts under the tree or asking for one more thing. I want to remember to teach them to count their blessings and better yet, SHOW them how to do their part to make the world a better place. I guess I'm writing about this as a challenge to myself to not take anything for granted, and if I'm so blessed, it's my responsibility to share those blessings.

When we had our kitchen full of 30 neighbors and friends on Sunday I was thinking, "this is so awesome!" I'm so glad I took the leap to plan that party. Everyone had so much fun and was so grateful that we had the idea to host it. It's like a renewed relationship with our neighbors. A little bit deeper connection, y'know? They may cut us some slack next time Sam poops in their yard!

I'm slacking on updating my party recipes. If you need one of them before I get to it, leave a comment and I'll get it right to you, I promise! I'm just unmotivated to sit and do it right now!

Merry Christmas to all!

Things to do in the next six hours

Open House Menu:

Pecan Muffins (done)
Praline Bars (done)
Peppermint Bark (done)
Russian Tea Cakes (done)
Cheese Ball (done)
Pioneer Woman's Mystery Rolls
Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos
Chex Party Mix (PW's) (done)
Shrimp Cocktail
Veggie Tray (to assuage the guilt of all of the above)

Open House Chores

Clean three toilets, three sinks, one tub and one shower
Wipe down massive expanse of maple cabinets (to give the impression there were never jelly fingerprints on them)
Vacuum all floors
Yell at my family to pick up their damn crap
Have a drink

Fool myself that our guests will think our house is always this clean and we're always this well dressed and polite!

My Daredevil

...listening to Transiberian Orchestra's Carol of the Bells. Eli calls it "The Pirate Song..."

Eli: Mom, guess what? I have to go to the bathroom and I can even dance on the toilet. I'm a daredevil!

Ouch!

When you're smashing up peppermints for a recipe make sure you move your finger out of the way of the mallet!

Pay Attention

Christmas Rum Cake (And Dirty Banana)

I have this cake in the oven right now and I don't have to taste it to tell you it's going to be yummalicious. I love rum cake and have wanted to make one for a looong time. A coworker used to bring one in to work at least once a month. We never have rum in the house and I was always too cheap to buy it just for a recipe. (We're hosting a dinner tonight for MIL's 70th birthday and I thought I'd wow everyone with this.)

But since yesterday I was craving a Dirty Banana (drink from Jamaica) I blew $70 at the liquor store and had plenty of rum left over for the cake!

Pioneer Woman’s Mother-in-Law’s Christmas Rum Cake
Cake:1 box yellow cake mix
1 small package INSTANT vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup rum (dark or light is fine)
1 cup chopped pecans
Brown sugar (optional)
Preheat oven to 325.Grease and flour Bundt cake pan. Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan. If desired, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar over the nuts.Mix all cake ingredients together.Pour batter over nuts. Smooth out ’til the top is even.Bake 1 hour, or a little less if the pan is black. Do not overbake!

Glaze:While cake has ten minutes to go, make the glaze.
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup rum
Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn off flame and pour in rum. Stir to combine and reheat for 30 seconds.
Remove cake from oven. Immediately drizzle 1/3 of the glaze on the bottom (top) of the cake. Allow to sit for five minutes.

Invert the cake onto a serving plate. Prick surface a hundred times with a fork (gently, please.) Slowly drizzle remaining rum glaze all over the top of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Cool to room temperature before serving to ensure glaze has soaked in.
Eat. Enjoy. And don’t feel guilty. It’s Christmastime!

DIRTY BANANA
3 oz. Tia Maria
3oz. Rum Cream
3 oz. Dark Rum
6 oz. Milk
2 oz. simple syrup (1/2 sugar; 1/2 water simmered and cooled
1 and a half bananas

Fill blender 3/4 full with ice. Add rest of ingredients and blend until smooth. Close your eyes and imagine the Caribbean as you sip and forget your troubles. Play some Bob Marley music if available.
FYI - this makes a full pitcher.

Ugh

Turkey Swedish Meatballs

Life is funny. I'm always looking for ideas for things to make. Especially for something that the whole family will eat (not counting my veggie daughter). So this recipe came to me via an old high school friend whom I've recently caught up with via Facebook! His name is Craig and we were good friends in 10th and 11th grade in Homestead, FL. He's a Lt. Col. in the Air Force now. It's so surreal, life's twists and turns. I still think of him as the 16 y.o. I last saw in 1981. Not a 40-something grown-up! So anyhow, he saw my blog and my interest in cooking and asked if I had a turkey meatball recipe. I found this one. It sounded really good to me so I made it last week. Yum!

The only thing I'd do different is figure out how to make the sauce a little thicker. Otherwise the flavor was really really good and I'll make this again!


2 lbs ground turkey (7% lean)
1 egg
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons lemon pepper seasoning
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon onion flakes
2 cans chicken broth
2-3 cups home made white sauce
hot cooked egg noodles
Directions
1 Combine the first ten ingredients and shape into 1 1/2" meatballs.
2 In a large non-stick Dutch oven, brown meatballs in 1 tbsp of butter, turning carefully every few minutes to brown all sides, maintaining meatball shape.
3 Add chicken broth and simmer for 15 minutes.
4 Add white sauce.
5 Stir, heat and serve over hot cooked egg noodles.

I took a reviewer's suggestion and made this white sauce.

You could probably make half a recipe for a family of four. We had three adults and two kids eating and had plenty left over. Which I forgot about in the fridge and now have to throw out! Aaack!

21 out of 60

hours of shopping that is! That includes drive time of course since we live in BFE! Sat. I went w/ Terri and Jenny for a marathon girlfriend day. So fun! Mon. (yesterday) Doug took the day off and we went from 8AM - 6PM. Then I had a party to go to at 7 (which I found out actually started at 6:30) for the area Girl Scout leaders. We ate crap and exchanged ornaments and then I came home and watched Desperate HWs on DVR. They finally sort of let us know what's going on w/ neighbor "Dave."

So this morning I'm looking at everything I SHOULD be doing and have to get done by 11AM when Mr. E gets out of school and I'm NOT doing what I SHOULD be doing. Of course!

I actually have several things wrapped and some stuff ready to mail. D got lights up outside in 17° weather Fri. night. I have three trees this year! I used to make fun of people who had more than one tree! I finally got one on my porch like I've been wanting, but the way our house sits it keeps getting blown over! And I put one in the kitchen. Sophie had the cute idea to put kitchen-y things on the tree in the kitchen. Like little spatulas, etc. It turns out we haven't found any mini kitchen stuff (need to check Ebay) yet so we made those cinnamon-applesauce ornaments and cut them out w/ mini cookie cutters. They're cute and smell so good!

Hope everyone is enjoying the season. Our priest has reminded us to slow down. Sometimes that's hard when you're feeling the pressure to get everything done and just "so." But it's a good reminder to think about why we do all this in the first place.

I can't marry Zac Efron

I made a comment that I didn't have anything good to look at when I'm on the elliptical. Doug offered to put up a big picture of himself. I said, "how about a picture of Zac Efron? He's cute and I can say that b/c he's 21 now." Amy said, "Ewww, I don't think he's cute at all!" So she looked up a picture of him to show Doug. They say he has girl lips! So then Eli said, "you're marrying a guy that has girl lips??? FERRR-git it! I'm moving out with Amy!"

Sorry Zac. I'd miss Eli too much!

Praline Bars

How do I even describe the yumminess of this treat? They are so good that I've been resisting making them because when I do make them I cannot stop eating them! Literally. I can't do enough Zumba or minutes on the elliptical to counteract these. So proceed cautiously and enjoy in moderation. So consider yourself warned and do not blame me when you can't fit in your special Christmas sweater.

I haven't made them yet this year and I'm kind of saved for today since I ruined my jelly roll pan when I made the acorn squash!

Praline Bars

15 graham cracker sheets
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine (please, use real butter)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (heck, use ghirardelli)

Separate each graham cracker sheet into four crackers. Place in a lightly greased 15X10 inch jelly roll pan. Sprinkle chopped pecans over graham crackers. Bring brown sugar and butter to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Boil two min. Pour brown sugar mixture evenly over graham crackers in pan. Bake at 350° for 10 min. Quickly remove graham crackers to wax paper, using a spatula, and let cool completely. Microwave chocolate chips until melted; stir until smooth. Drizzle cooled bars evenly with chocolate.

Ackkk - much catching up to do.

HAPPY BELATED THANKSGIVING to everyone! There's just really too much to try to catch up on since I last updated a week ago! All is well. I worked at the Free Community Dinner on T-giving Day. It was my fourth year and I love it more every year! Such nice people to work with. One of my favorite people is the lady who makes the instant mashed potatoes taste like real potatoes. Rosie is her name. Well, this year Rosie had a "spell," like maybe a heart attack right there in the kitchen! It was terrifying. It was touch and go for a while but by the time the EMTs took her to the hospital they did have her stabilized. The frustrating thing is I haven't been able to find out how she's doing since. I have been checking the newspaper and didn't see her name there so that's good! The surreal part was having to continue making food during and after this event! Yikes. For a couple days I didn't sleep well because I kept replaying it in my mind. I was the first one to her.

Our family Thanksgiving was Sat. night. It was fun as usual. Doug's family knows how to have a party that's for sure! We always laugh our heads off. We are very blessed.

Sophie got her midterm yesterday. Brilliant as always! She's such a good student but very distractable. My college girls got their first quarter grades as well. They're brilliant as well but let's just say it didn't show in their grades! LOL Some As and a couple Cs in there, but that's okay. M surprised herself getting an A in English, her least favorite subject.

Speaking of distracted, I'm very distracted trying to do this update so I'm giving up for now!

Truck Stop Buttermilk Pancakes

This was supper tonight. Mucho Yummo. I followed the recipe exactly. I should've cut the ingredients in half since we don't actually live at a truck stop. It's a WHOLELOTTA Pancakes! We served 'em up with bacon and orange juice. You know, ever since OJ Simpson became a murderer I cannot refer to Orange Juice as "OJ." I'm serious. I have to write it out on my list. Gives me the heeby-jeebies.

INGREDIENTS:
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
6 tablespoons butter, melted
5 cups buttermilk
5 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons baking powder
5 teaspoons baking soda
1 pinch salt (optional)
5 tablespoons sugar
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, butter and buttermilk. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar; stir into the wet ingredients just until blended. Adjust the thickness of the batter to your liking by adding more flour or buttermilk if necessary.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side. Continue with remaining batter.