Sleeping arrangements in Crockett

The kids want everyone to know how much space there is in Crockett!

Thanksgiving Feast

We stayed at 309 East Main for Thanksgiving.  It was so relaxing!  

I made my menu and headed to WalMart on Tuesday night to do my shopping.   I went ahead and made the Mashed Potatoes on Tuesday night.  Wednesday night I made the brine, the dessert, and mixed the cornbread casserole.  That way all I had to cook on Thursday was the stuffing (which wasn't good so I didn't even include the recipe), the turkey, and the cornbread casserole.  

Here are my recipes:


Pioneer Woman's Turkey

Ingredients

• 2 gallons water
• 2 cups apple juice
• 1 1/2 cups kosher salt
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 5 cloves garlic, crushed
• 5 bay leaves
• 4 tablespoons black peppercorns
• 2 tablespoons dried rosemary
• 3 oranges, peeled, white pith removed, skin roughly chopped
• 1 (20-pound) fresh turkey
• 1 1/2 sticks softened butter
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
• 3 tablespoons chopped orange zest
• Directions
• Combine the water, apple juice, salt, sugar, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, dried rosemary, and orange peel in a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat immediately, cover, and allow mixture to come to room temperature. Cool mixture in the fridge until you're ready.
• To brine the turkey, remove the turkey from wrapper, remove interior bags (set aside; refrigerate), and rinse turkey thoroughly under cool water.
• Place the turkey into a plastic brining bag or a very large pot.
• Pour the cooled brine mixture over the top, adding extra cold water if you need more to completely cover the turkey. Seal the bag or cover the pot and allow the turkey to brine in the refrigerator for 16 to 24 hours before roasting.
• Before roasting, remove the turkey from brine and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Then soak in a sink full of fresh water for 15 to 20 minutes. Pat dry. Discard brine. (This soaking process will decrease the likelihood of too-salty gravy).
• Preheat the oven 275 degrees F.
• Truss the bird and place it breast side up on a rack in a large roasting pan. Cover the turkey tightly with heavy-duty foil. Make sure it's entirely covered (cover over the bottom edges of the pan). Place in the oven and roast for about 10 minutes per pound (a 20 pound turkey will roast for about 3 1/2 hours).
• Remove the turkey from the oven and increase the temperature to 375 degrees F. Remove the aluminum foil and set aside. Mix the softened butter with the rosemary and orange peel and rub all over the skin of the turkey, covering every single inch of the skin. Insert a meat thermometer into the thigh, near the hip joint. Place the turkey, uncovered, back into the oven. Continue roasting the turkey, basting with butter every 30 minutes, until the thermometer registers 170 degrees F and until the juices are no longer pink.
• Remove from the oven and cover with foil until you are ready to carve and serve. Reserve pan juices to make gravy.
• 
  
• Cornbread Casserole

1/4 pound butter, melted

1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn

1 (15 ounce) can creamed corn

1 ounce sour cream

1 (8.5 ounce) package corn bread mix

Preparation Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

• In a mixing bowl, combine butter, whole corn, cream corn, corn muffin mix and sour cream. Fold all
• ingredients together, pour into 2 quart casserole dish. Bake for 1 hour.

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C)

Ingredients 

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 eggs 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust

1/2 cup pumpkin puree 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 pinch ground cloves 1 pinch ground nutmeg 1/2 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.
Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.
Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Cover with whipped topping before serving.




Pumpkin Pie Drink

Fulton's Harvest Pumpkin Pie Cream Liqueur
Absolut Vanilla Vodka
Kahula
Mix equal parts of three liquors, serve over ice.  ENJOY!

Green Beans

BAKED MASHED POTATOES

5 lbs. potatoes, boiled & mashed
1 stick butter
4 tsp. onion powder
1 c. sour cream
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 sm. jar chives
Salt and pepper

Mix together. May be kept in refrigerator up to 3 weeks. Dish out as needed, dot with butter and bake at 350 degrees about 25 minutes or until hot.

Yum!!!!!!!

Thirteen point none

Today has been a relaxing day. Everyone slept in until 8. I was able to organize Drew's room. Then I was able to run 13 miles!!!! I just might get in 35 this week...just twelve more to go. Trey and I headed to CLT to watch Les Miserable. Great film. We love Cinnebarre!!!
Now if I could just have a day of shopping. I desperately need black shoes and I have quite a few wants.

McLeod Farms, Halloween 2012, and Taco Soup

We headed to McLeod Farms in McBee to pick our pumpkins for Halloween.  They have it set up really nice.  When you get to the Farm they have these hay bales set up while you wait for the tractor to come take you to the corn maze and pumpkin patch.  We brought Cooper with us.  All the boys had a great time.

Cooper and Drew

Drew

Cooper Jac and Drew

Since I held Jac 99% of the time, obviously he was dying of thirst when we got to the Corn Maze.

Riding the tractor to the pumpkin patch.

See I was there.  Jac is so cooperative with photos!

Drew is proud of his pumpkin picks!

I hate that I didn't get any pictures of the house or office with my Halloween decorations.  At the house I let Drew "decorate" his pumpkin with these plastic faces.  He put all the pieces on the pumpkin--it was funny!

On the front porch I had two bales of hay that I put purple mums, my metal pumpkins, and a few real pumpkins.  I places three white pumpkins between the bales of hay that I painted "Trick or Treat".  I have these great pottery pumpkins that I put on each side of the steps.  I was very proud of my front porch.  It was very festive.  We bought two blow up decorations for the front yard.  Drew was so excited about these.  Next year I'll have to take pictures of the Town of Chesterfield's decorations.

Halloween in Chesterfield is kind of a nightmare for me.  Let's say minimum there are 300 trick or treater's who come to my house.  That's a lot of candy!  I've been very lucky and a dear friend whose child is grown has handed out candy for the past three years for me.  This way I can trick or treat with my boys.  This year we convinced the Smallwoods to pull a trailer with their four wheeler and had a grand time!

Jac was EXHAUSTED.  He only got on the trailer for a quick phoot with Alyvia Todd--he stayed at the house with my mom.

Chloe, Drew and AT a/k/aKitty 1, Spiderman, Kitty 2 posing at the post office

Posing at the bank with the Kings.

Posing at the Brown's.

I made Taco Soup on Halloween.  I got the recipe from kellyskornerblog.com   It is so good.  You have to make it!  In fact I'm going to make it this weekend.

Taco Soup

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 14.5 oz can whole kernel corn
2 16 oz cans of ranch style beans (I only used one can because I'm not a bean lover & it was fine)
* Maybe not everywhere but I know here - you find cans at the grocery store of ranch style beans. If you don't have those - substitute pinto or black or whatever you like. 
3 cans of diced tomatos (maybe substitute 1 can rotel if you like spicy) (I got the garlic/onion kind and I think it gave it great flavor)
1 pkg taco seasoning
1 pkg Hidden Valley dressing mix

Brown and drain meat. Saute onions for a few minutes.  Combine all ingredients the crockpot.  Add chili powder, salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.  Serve with shredded cheese and fritos. And sour cream. 

My next post is going to be on our Thanksgiving.  I'm getting hungry for some reason.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Drew and I headed to Florence on Sunday to pick out tiles for the bathroom.  Here's his outfit of choice.  Why yes, he does have his full set of pajamas on underneath his hunting overalls.

But that just made it easy to get ready for bed when we got home.  Opening Christmas presents from Kiki and Papa!!

Displaying new ornaments.

Notice the gash on his cheek.  That would be from running into the side-view mirror of the car.  Yes, this is my child!

This is Jac's excitement this morning because Drew's at school and he has total access to Drew's toys for the next 5 hours!!!!!!

I went to the YMCA this morning and was able to run 5 miles....Running on the treadmill gets easier with each run-but right now it's killing me after being able to run outside in Texas.  Let's just go over those Texas runs.  10 on Monday, 6 on Wednesday, 7 on Friday and 12 on Sunday.  Makes for a 35 mile week--hurray!  The following week was not so good-4 on Monday, 5 on Friday and 5 on Saturday for a 14 mile week.  This week is looking up--I've got 9 miles logged in and it's only Wednesday.  I'm hoping to hit up Zumba or Pilates or a 3 mile run with weights tonight--happy birthday to me--the gym twice in one day!  Makes up for the two meetings I had to attend last night=no workout:(

Confessions

So, I didn't even make it a day......I LOVE my coffee.  I NEED my coffee.  I can fast sun up to sun down, but I NEED coffee aka caffeine.  I'll need to come up with a plan that fits my lifestyle.

21 Days

Our church is doing a twenty one day fast.  They started yesterday and I'm suppose to start today.  This isn't suppose to be a diet--your hunger should trigger prayer.  I'm still on the fence with my commitment.  You are only suppose to have fruits, vegetables, and water.

Today I woke up at 5 and headed to the YMCA.  I ran 3 miles on the treadmill, used the Stairclimber for 10 minutes, ran 1 mile on the treadmill.

My goal for 2012 is to run 35 miles a week. Last week I fell short-I was only able to run 4 miles on Monday, 5 on Friday, and 5 on Saturday.  I'm trying to tweak this commitment--do I make up the miles, do I aim for 35 miles a week 35 weeks out of the year.....

Proof that I was on the stair climber.

My BFF at the gym!