Our Thanksgiving Menu

Do you have any foods that you traditionally eat each holiday? Obviously for Thanksgiving we have turkey with all the fixings, but I wanted to take a moment to share our exact menu with you - recipes and all. First, I have to tell you that I LOVE Allrecipes.com. I get all of my recipes there and don't know what I'd do with out it. So a lot of these will just be links - in which case you can click the title of the dish to be taken to the recipe.

Hart House Thanksgiving Menu:

Easy Herb Roasted Turkey

I make this almost exactly as written. I do put it in an oven bag vs a roaster with a lid though. I found this recipe a few years back and it is simply amazing. It comes out as a mouth watering dish that is to die for. If you're not happy with your current turkey cooking method, I highly recommend giving it a try. Plus, it's crazy simple.

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

I don't think a Thanksgiving meal can be complete without mashed potatoes and gravy - but they are also crazy simple. There are enough things to cook on the stove, that I use instant mashed potatoes and heat them in the microwave as a time/space saver. I do make my own gravy though. I boil the turkey neck and use that broth (and meat) for the gravy base - adding in any extra juice off the turkey if needed. Then I thicken in up with cornstarch. Pretty simple, but really good.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Again, I make this almost exactly as written. The only thing I change is that I use regular margarine (not the fat free stuff). I'll be honest, this is the only sweet potato casserole recipe that I've ever used, but everyone always loves it.

Campbell's Green Bean Casserole

Okay, This is just your basic Green Bean Casserole - but why mess with perfection (especially when I won't be eating it)?

Cranberry Sauce

In the past, I've always bought the canned, jellied cranberry sauce, but I made my own a few weeks ago with this recipe - and it was SOOO GOOD. So I'm making it on my own from now on... although, I may still buy one can of jellied for the kids. They aren't too fond of the whole cranberries in this recipe. I will say that I cooked mine on the stove vs. the microwave method recommended here, but that's the only change I made.

Stuffing

I dislike stuffing, but for the sake of my family I buy a box or two and mix it up. Nothing special, but they insist on appreciate it.

Deviled Eggs

I don't think I can really give you my deviled eggs recipe - as it's very much to taste. Obviously you hard boil the eggs and cut them in half. Mixing the yolks with other ingredients until you're satisfied. We use Miracle Whip, mustard, pickle juice, salt, pepper, and paprika if that helps at all.

Pumpkin Pie

I insist that everyone must eat pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (except for my old roommate, Nita B. - but she's special so that's okay). It's one of my favorite parts of the meal. I use canned pumpkin and follow the recipe on the can - the only thing I change is that I use half the recommended cloves.

Pecan Pie

I have the best mother-in-law in the world, and she makes these for us with fresh Texas pecans. Yeah... she's awesome. She'll also bring some sort of sweet veggie salad - which are surprisingly good and crazy healthy. I really need to learn how to make them...

And that's it. Pretty simple really, but oh so yummy.

What's on your menu this Thanksgiving? 

Winter, oh how I miss thee

Here in Colorado, August is the hottest month of the year. This is when we get all of our over 100 degree days. It's so hot that the kids don't want to play outside. I don't want to clean, we just sit around and sweat :( ugh! So I have been looking ahead toward winter. Here are a few of the things that I am looking forward to:

Sweaters!
I love sweaters! I would wear them year round if it wasn't so hot!

Blankets!
I love cuddling up in a blanket to stay warm and cozy. I try to do it in the summer, but then I just end up all sweaty :(

I miss how pretty it is when it snows, and how much fun the kids have in it (although, I don't miss driving in it...)

Baking!
I miss baking. It's been far too hot in my house to risk heating it up by baking. Even just regular cooking makes it hot. So while I love baking and cooking, I haven't loved it lately. And I miss it.

Hot tea!
I miss drinking hot tea. It's just one of those things that you really can't drink during the summer as your body temperature is already too high. The kids have been missing hot chocolate too. They have asked for it twice already this month! Craziness, I tell you!

Snuggling!
I miss snuggling with Mr. Amazing and the kids. During the summer if we try to snuggle we end up sticking together, and that just takes the fun out of it!

It's hard to believe that I'm saying this, but I actually miss wearing my boots... I am a year round flip-flop girl, but I do wear boots in the winter on occasion, and I really do miss them. I looked at them in my closet the other day and thought about wearing them to church, but it was far too hot to cover up my feet, so I stuck with with sandals.

What about you? Is there anything that you miss about winter?

Iced Coffee

First and foremost, I almost feel bad making this the day my mother-in-law left. She is known by the entire family for her iced-coffee. She was making iced-coffee before iced-coffee was cool (pun intended). My husband always says that if she would have patented it back when she first made it that their whole family would be rich. I on the other hand, have never made iced-coffee before. I will get an occasional frappe when we are out, but that is the extent of my iced-coffee history. However, Kim over at Homesteader's Heart made my mouth water when she shared about her iced-coffee (who in turn caught the iced-coffee desire from The Pioneer Woman). So I figure that it is my turn to pass it on.

I must admit that the way they did it looked like it would take forever, so I took several short cuts. First, I brewed my coffee in my trusty but not dusty coffee maker. :) I made it twice as strong as normal, so that if it got a bit watered down it would be a good thing.

Next I put it into the freezer to cool it off. I impatiently waited for half an hour before I could take it no longer. So, while it was still in the freezer, I put some ice into my blender to crush. I then added 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, some sweetened condensed milk, and the almost cool coffee and mixed all it together.

Check out that froth! All that was left was to pour it into my Colorado Rockies baseball cup, add a HUGE blue straw, and enjoy. Mr. Amazing even gave it his approval when he tasted it :) Next time I will let the coffee cool completely so that there are still ice pieces in it, but it is so yummy!!!

Quick question, if all I drink all day is homemade iced-coffee, what kind of side effects should I expect to encounter?

Snickerdoodles!!!

Last night I made snickerdoodles for the first time EVER. My wonderful husband informed me that they were the best snickerdoodles he had ever eaten by far. So after being prompted by MamaKat, I thought I would share my recipe with you (prompt #5).

Ingredients:
1 cup of shortening
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 eggs
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 Tablespoon of cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the shortening and 1 1/2 cups of white sugar until well mixed.
3. Stir in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each.
4. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking soda, salt, and vanilla and stir them into the batter until blended well. (Okay, I don't really combine them first... but that's how everyone else in the world does it...)
5. Combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
6. Roll dough into small balls (seriously, if you make medium sized balls the cookies come out HUGE and are really hard to get to cook all the way through). You want the diameter of the ball smaller than a quarter.
7. Roll the balls in the cinnamon and sugar mixture.
8. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
9. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
10. Cool slightly on baking sheet, and then you can eat them or pile them on a plate while still warm. :)

(This recipe was modified from a recipe that I found at All recipes. You can view the original recipe by following this link.I should also note that the photo above is not the cookies that I made, but that is what they look like. The above photo was taken by BMore and was also found at Allrecipes.com)

To find more yummy recipes or read through some other great posts prompted by one of MamaKat's writing prompts this week, visit her blog by clicking below:


*On a side note, I'm hosting my first giveaway tomorrow! I will be giving away a children's DVD, check back for your chance to win!

Christmas Cookies

Today I'm baking cookies (and I made fudge too) for Christmas. Part of them are being packaged for Mr. Amazing to take to work and give to his crew during their Christmas party, part of them are being packaged for me to carry in the car and give to the homeless people that I pass on the street corners, and part of them are being put in the pantry to be eaten on Christmas eve. :) Such a fun day of baking!

The kids even helped with the dishes! (They also helped cutting out the shapes above...)


While I'm baking I'm enjoying listening to my Casting Crowns Christmas CD :) I would love for you to join me by posting your favorite Christ centered Christmas song. My personal goal is to post a different Christ-centered Christmas song each day between now and Christmas. (The only rule is that it has to be Christ-centered. No songs about Santa, Christmas trees or whatever...)

Pumpkin oatmeal

It's snowing!!! Which of course makes me think of Christmas. For breakfast this morning I gave my children pumpkin oatmeal. This was my first time making this and it turned out GREAT! I found a recipe... but I didn't follow it. So I thought I would give you my recipe :)

Pumpkin Oatmeal
1 Cup oatmeal
1 3/4 cup water
Dash of salt
1/2 cup fresh pumpkin (although I think canned would work just fine too)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup of sugar
*I was out of ginger but I think that would have been a nice addition...

Mix first 4 ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl and cook for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and enjoy!
*I think it would be perfect to top it off with whipped topping, but we were out of that as well...

It was a huge hit in my house, the kids were asking for seconds! It was the perfect breakfast for a snowy day. Now to share a little Christmas giving music with you:

Giving Challenge: Day 12

It's the 12th day of the giving challenge, and we are baking pumpkin cookies! I am giving the boys the pleasure of helping me (I normally prefer to cook by myself) and then we are going to give some to daddy, and probably someone else too... I just don't know who. But, I'll figure it out! In fact, I will give you the recipe as well! (Click the names of the cookies below).

Kainen is going to help me bake Great Pumpkin Cookies (pumpkin cookies with raisens and chocolate) and Ty is going to help me bake Iced Pumpkin Cookies. (We are going to have TONS of cookies!)



Happy Giving!

Bananas!

My family LOVES bananas! I just can't keep them in the house! We can buy two big bundles at the store and they will be gone in just a few days. Well, that is normally the case. My two beautiful boys are visiting their grandparents in Iowa, to compensate for this I only bought one bundle of banana's. However, they still didn't get eaten. So I have this bundle of overly ripe banana's that no one will eat!

So today I decided to find a recipe for banana bread, and use them up!! The recipe I found was for Banana Peanut Butter Bread. It sounded delicious, and more importantly I had all of the necessary ingredients on hand!So I made some Banana Peanut Butter Bread, mind you I have never made home made bread before... the batter tasted great! It looked great in the oven, and even after coming out of the oven, but the center did fall eventually... :(

Anyway, my adventure with the banana's really made me think about a few things, far to many for this one post.I love it when God does that, when He can take something as simple as an overly ripe bunch of banana's and turn it into so much more. Imagine how wonderful life would be if we would let more things be learning opportunities instead of mood changers... Just a thought to ponder, I might write about some of my own thoughts later, but for now, I will just leave you with that.

And now, I'm going to go enjoy my Banana Peanut Butter Bread!