Holiday This And That

Hoping everyone's holiday celebrations are going well! Here are a few highlights of our Christmas:

*Santa was really good to Mason, wondering how much longer Santa is coming to our house, if you catch my drift....
*Jason got an awesome pair of jammies with Mario on them to go with his new 50 inch flat screen TV!
*I discovered the best recipe EVER (will share later)
*Mason got a harmonica (wow, thanks, Santa!!)
*We had plenty (too much) of snow to make driving hazardous!
*We gave a Snuggie
*We had the ugliest tree ever.
*The cats never bothered the tree once!

Christmas morning I had to wake Mason up at 8ish and he was thrilled to see all the presents under the tree. He really made out with video games, movies, books and all sorts of goodies! I made french toast for breakfast and we all just sat around and enjoyed the day off. Then we went over to my Mom and Dad's for some good food and to spend some quality time. I got a lot of new pans to cook in (because I do love to cook!), the old ones were, well, just getting too old. I did buy myself a cast iron skillet and wonder how on Earth I ever cooked without it. I just love it!

The recipe that is so delicious is called "Mushroom and Wild Rice Hotdish", if you like mushrooms you will love this recipe and if you love mushrooms, you will wonder how you've lived without this recipe! I fall somewhere in between. I scanned the recipe, so if you want to try it, just click on the picture and it will make it bigger. I was just too lazy to actually type it, since I can type about 7 words a minute! Here are some changes that I made:

*I didn't use lemon zest, because I don't like lemon zest, I did use the lemon juice, though.
*I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil.
*I used 1/2lb. sliced white button mushrooms and 1/2lb. sliced baby bellas (they are soooo good!)
*I strongly suggest using an organic or vegetarian cream of mushroom soup because Campbell's is just really gross! I used Amy's semi-condensed mushroom soup and it was delicious.
*I used regular sour cream.
*Panko breadcrumbs are good!
*You could use regular chicken if you are not a veggie, but the Quorn naked chicken breasts are really good and meat-free!
*I added a sprinkle (before baking) of Parmesan cheese and it really added a lot of flavor.
*I increased the rice to 1 cup.

I just put it all into my cast iron pan and let it get all warm and bubbly, served with some really good crusty garlic toast and was a wonderful meal! Can't wait to make it again. Let me know if you try it, it is really worth the time it takes to make.




Here's the recipe:


This and that:

While I was Christmas shopping at Target I found a red ceramic loaf pan on clearance for $2! I had to have it and I made a terrific banana-pecan loaf that goes great with tea! Yum.


Here is our Christmas tree before we brought the monster home:

Looks good there, but let me tell you, it didn't look good in our living room!! When you wait until 4 days before Christmas, that is the selection you get to choose from!

Trails falling asleep sitting up:


The harmonica:




Have a happy and safe New Year's!

{Merry Christmas}

More to come later this weekend. Good food, presents and family time stories to come! Enjoy your Christmas and have safe travels!

Finally, Some Crafts!

It appears that my crafty blog has turned into a food blog (which is ok!), so I wanted to quickly get the Christmas cards posted, that sadly I am still creating. Without further ado....
















Some I like more than others, some I don't even want to give away because I like them so much! The colors in some of them are brighter and most of them look better in person.

For Mason's teacher I decided to recycle a box and I am going to fill it with her favorite chocolate from a local store here. I recycled my Tofurky box:



into this:





This is not new to me, but I find that creating/crafting is so therapeutic and it has helped me get my mind off some of the stress that we have been going through as well as how stressful this season is. I was out shopping today and it seems that everyone else was, too! Through the long lines at the stores and the very long traffic lights, I decided to just smile today and not get agitated. What's the point in that, right?

Have a nice {snowy} weekend!

PS. For some reason spell check isn't working and I am NOT a good speller, so just laugh to yourself if I spell a word wrong & I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's back to working by my next post!!

So Much Pain, So Little Time

Goodbye, Girl.




Our dog, Jayde has crossed the Rainbow Bridge and I sure hope she is chasing all the cats that she wants! This past year has been tough on her, with her showing signs of aging we knew it wasn't going to be very much longer that we had her. But this past week she couldn't even stand up and her face said that she was in pain. I didn't want to do it, but I knew it had to be done. We decided to put her to sleep last night, all of us were there petting her and telling her that we loved her. She was about 13 years old. Her story, with us, started in 2004. Dogs Deserve Better had their annual Chain-Off in Happy Valley and we went to support the cause. Little did we know we would be coming home with one of the best dogs you could ever ask for. She was lying under a table (it was hot) and we went over to pet her. Jason fell in love almost instantly. She had such a sweet face, who on earth could treat her so bad? She was about 6 or 7 at the time and we knew adopting an older dog meant that we wouldn't have as many years with her, but I also knew that she belonged with us and ever since that HOT July day, she has lived a pretty good life. She was a formally chained dog, apparently her former owners just didn't want her anymore (their loss). She lived in a dog house that had no floor and was rotting away to provide little to no shelter. It didn't take her long to love living inside! In her earlier years with us she would sleep on the couch all day long! She loved to lay outside in the grass in the summer and she loved chewies when she came in from outside. We already miss her and I swear I heard her when I came home from work today. But I didn't. I picked up her ashes today and they are in a beautiful urn. She will always be loved and always be missed.

Next up, even more good news {not really}! I was diagnosed with shingles-OUCH. I wouldn't wish this on anyone! The pain, at times was unbearable. It is slowly going away, but wow, I have never experienced anything like that before. With all of these things going on, we still haven't gotten our Christmas tree! Every year Christmas sneaks up on me and before I even get to breathe, it's the week before the big day. Oh well, what can I do? Christmas will get here whether or not I am prepared so I might as well just slow down and enjoy the season.

Right now it is time to relax with a hot cup of tea.....

}It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like......

Christmas, of course! Mason and I went for a very chilly stroll last night onto the main street to see all the beautiful lights, decorations and ice sculptures. Once we got walking, it was fine, but boy was that wind chilly! I love downtown at Christmas. Even before we lived here and we would visit my mom and dad during Christmas, I always made a comment about how pretty it was at night with all the lights on.

Ice sculptures:





The gazebo:



The store fronts:



>



The old jail (I got a better picture of it, but accidentally erased it!):



I also accidentally erased the pictures of the 12 Days of Christmas. I imagine the snow will be sticking around for awhile, so I'll just get them again some other time.

Well, if you read one of my last posts were I was griping about my ice maker not working, I am wishing that was my only problem right now! The starter on one of our cars went while Jason was at the drug store! So, I had to bundle up and go get him and, of course, it was the 4 wheel drive. So, now my gripe is having 4-5 inches of snow and no 4-wheel drive! And on a side note, after poking and prodding and shaking and hitting the ice maker, it now works!! There's the silver lining in today's blog!

Some LoL's:





In honor of all the yeast recipes I've been trying lately:



And this is, hands down, the funniest picture I've ever seen. I honestly could not stop laughing when I saw this:


Wait for it. Wait for it.....


...




Ha. Someone (I guess who has a lot of time on their hands) photoshopped human teeth onto sharks. Funny, huh??

Brrrrr....

This morning we woke up to very cold temps and even colder snow. I went outside to check the mail, awaiting two netflix, In Living Color season 1! Wow. I remember this show as a kid and wanted to see some of the all-time favorite characters such as Fire Marshall Bill, Homey the Clown and HandiMan. I forgot how funny the show really was, however, I don't think we will be getting all 8 seasons via netflix, unlike 24, I can stop watching this!! So anyway, on my short trip to the mailbox I saw these:

Little birdy tracks:



They were right next to the chippy tracks, but they didn't photograph too well. I would certainly welcome these tracks over bear tracks! My parents have spotted evidence of a bear, mainly the view they got of him the other night, he welcomes himself to the bird feeders and bends the post as if it were a bendy straw! Scary.

My crockpot surprise was WONDERFUL. I am convinced that anything thrown into a slow cooker will, with time, turn out great! I have yet to try a crock pot recipe that I didn't like and this latest "throw together" meal proves that all the flavors just blend together to make a great meal. I made some brown rice and topped it with this recipe that has no name. It was great and it made a ton of leftovers!



I've been on this budget/wholesome/natural food kick lately, mostly from reading this blog and this blog. They both inspire me to eat healthy and cheap and creative. They are great blogs to follow. I found a recipe to make your own granola. I always knew you could make your own granola, but had I known it was so easy, cheap and delicious, I would have never, ever bought a box of the expensive, sugar laden, preservative filled stuff (not all shelf granola is that bad). I bought some of the ingredients, but most I had on hand, here is the recipe:

(6 cups) rolled oats (not quick cooking or instant)
(2 cups) mixed nuts and seeds (sunflower, sesame seeds, walnuts, pecans, almonds, cashews, etc., chopped)
(1 cup) dried unsweetened coconut, shredded
(1 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
dash salt
(1/2 to 1 cup) honey or maple syrup, or to taste
(1 cup) raisins or chopped dried fruit

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl combine oats, nuts and seeds, coconut, cinnamon, salt and sweetener. Place on a sheet pan and put in oven. Bake for 30 minutes or a little longer, until browned evenly. Remove pan from oven and add raisins or dried fruit. Cool on rack, stirring a few times until granola reaches room temp. Store in sealed container in the fridge and granola will keep indefinitely.

This make a TON (and I mean TON) of granola, so cutting the recipe in half would still give you a lot. I loved that I could control all the ingredients that I liked most, some things I didn't have, so I just added a little more of the other things. It is truly fool proof and delicious. Try it today!





This cost about .27 a serving vs. some granola that cost as much as .90 a serving. Great on yogurt, oatmeal, etc. Yummy!

Have a great weekend!

Can you believe it's December already!!

Some things that have been going on:

*(Un)Turkey Day, of course! On the menu was a Tofurky, regular turkey, mashed potatoes, baked corn, stuffing, buns, cranberry sauce (jellied, not whole) and pumpkin pie! I also made a to-die-for chocolate truffle brownie cheesecake. It was soooooo good!

Tofurkey: (it was delish!!)


Ready to dig in:



Thanksgiving morning I wanted to make a special breakfast, but for lack of planning, it wasn't looking good. Perhaps a bowl of 'Smores' cereal was as good as it was going to get for Mason! But no fear, I had bought a baguette at Panera for dinner one night and never used it. Fearing it had gone bad, I quickly decided to try to make french toast with it, after all, everyone was still asleep so if it didn't turn out, no one would ever know! But it did turn out, in fact it was the best french toast I had ever made. It was so good that Mason had three helpings, Jason had two and I snuck a few extra on my plate while dishing out the extra helpings! I can't eat maple syrup ( because I can't stomach it), but it didn't even need it!






*I've had little to no motivation to go grocery shopping because of the crowds/laziness and it's been too cold to get out of the car (well, not really but I needed another excuse to not have any food in the house for my family!) so I just decided to throw a bunch of odds and ends from my cabinets and fridge into the crock pot and am anxiously awaiting to see what comes out. I added a can of Amy's lentil soup, 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, half a bag of potatoes, chopped, 1 can of veggie broth, 1 can refried beans, some spices and carrots that I had chopped in the fridge, on the edge of going bad (note to self: 2 big bags of carrots = more carrots than one family can eat in a short amount of time). So, we'll see what kind of 'stew' it turns out to be, I might add some couscous towards the end of cooking.

*Mason's 9th birthday arrived! We went to the Waffle shop for a wonderful breakfast and then he went shopping with Grandma and Grandpa for the entire afternoon. He had a blast and it was a real joy to just have some family time!


*After a very cold rain the other day I was outside and spotted this leaf:



GigantoLeaf. It must have been 12 inches long! I have no idea where this leaf came from, all the other leaves look like this:



I only saw the leaf once and it's gone now, it was the biggest leaf I have ever seen in our yard!

*Christmas cards are in the making, keeping fingers crossed that they make it to the post office by December 24th.

*Christmas cookies were baking on Saturday. Mason was very excited to help, then he didn't wake up until 12 noon, so I got most of them done, and wouldn't you know that all the snicker doodles are now gone! They were really good (so I was told).

*Our ice maker isn't working, we take for granted all the conveniences of our everyday life that this becomes such a burden. I NEED ICE IN MY DRINKS!!


Have a great day!