Thanksgiving Line-up

Just thought I would share with you a few dishes that are making my Thanksgiving dinner list. I always like to blend my menu with solid, traditional recipes that are a no-fail every time, along with some first timers that I've never tried before. Yep, I'm a thrill seeker. Daring and adventurous enough to experiment with Holiday dishes that I have not made before, usually, and I'm not 100% what the end result is going to be.

The average woman spends 2 days cooking, 11 hours cleaning up, listening to the men watch football (and sneaking glimpses here and there), while wrangling kids in the middle of it all just to prove that she really is Super-Woman. There has got to be some fun and adventure in there somewhere, right? That's where my new recipe experimentation

comes in. Just in case all the rest isn't enough pressure, I've got to make sure that my new recipes aren't a bust. I could make them in advance to give them a test run, but what fun would that be.

I do have a little confessing to do today, though. I'm going to have help this year. Rather...I'm the help! For Thanksgiving anyway, Christmas is still on me, like it usually is. But don't think I don't recruit help from the husband and rest of the family where and when I can get it. Turning mountains of dishes over to little hands isn't against child labor laws in the US, is it? Besides, I'd rather see half my china end up broken than face that mountain alone! So back to Thanksgiving, we've started the tradition of spending every Turkey Day down at The Ranch where Uncle is known for his ability to feed an entire stampede of hungry huntin' men for days at a time, while running around with the little ones and keeping them entertained, to boot! I'd try to entertain them myself, but I don't exist when we get down there. I'll be honest, I'm certainly not complaining.

I will be bringing a couple of desserts and a couple of sides to

the table this year. Here's the line up...

Pumpkin Bread Pudding with a Vanilla Bean Creme Anglaise

Tom Perini's Green Chile Hominy

-This recipe and I, we go back. Waaayy back.

Fresh Green Bean Casserole

Then I'll be taking along a traditional Pecan Pie, with a whisky cream sauce. Something I love doing with my pies is jazzing up the whipped cream. I always, always, can't stress this enough always, make freshly whipped sweat cream, rather than store bought. I'm telling you it makes a world of difference. The only time I've had the canned stuff was for bribing purposes with the big girl. That's another story for another day though, and yes, it was sugar-free. Before I get back to point, I'll say that a little squirt of redi-whip in the mouth gets you a long way. I'm now I'm done outing myself.

Okay, back to whipped cream. Simplest thing you can make, trust me. Pour some heavy whipped cream in the bowl of your mixer and whip on high speed for days, slowly adding tablespoons of very fine sugar as it thickens. Now, what I like to do afterward is divide that into a few dishes. Then I fold in some extra love to them each and watch as the feeding frenzies ensue. I like to fold in good quality melted milk chocolate, or dark chocolate in one bowl and then some spices in another. I really like having a spiced whipped cream on deck, and you just can't love life without chocolate. Pumpkin Pie spice works great and saves time. A couple of teaspoons should do it. Stir slowly, blend well and voila! You've got options for different fresh whipped sweet creams to go on all varieties of pies!

Good luck!

More or Less

LESS IS MORE

...more or less.

I'm cutting ties with my tenni's. I'm bidding farewell to my not-worn-within-the-last-year frocks. I'm saying adieu to storage tubs of home decor junk in my garage that I can't seem to find a home for, yet have refused to part with over the last 3 moves. I'm selling off our big, beautiful, fit for a king bedroom furniture. I'm digging deep for sappy break-up lines that I'm using on some of my favorite pumps. (don't get me wrong, I'm not going to Goodwill my FAVORITE favorite pumps, just about 40 or so pair of my sort of favorites.) I'm throwing away gobs and gobs of department store make-up that is untouched. Okay, maybe I'll call some friends for that, because waste and gluttony go hand in hand. Or something like that.

I'm sitting in my closet with a half empty bottle of Proseco, surrounded by tissues and Godiva wrappers, telling my 2nd favorite pair of silver crock-skin stilletos that it isn't them, it's me....more or less.

I'm sorting through hundreds of books, thousands of DVD's and CD's. I'm eyein' work out clothes up and down like they all up on my man or sum'n. I'm calling up my cousin's friend's step-aunt's uncle in law to see if he wants the rusty junk in the shed out back.

So here's the scoop. We're moving- as you may have gathered by now. Either that or I've just plain lost my mind. Or both. With moving comes the thinning out of all the crap that one inevitably accumulates over the years, at which point one might stop and say "Wow, how did I accumulate so much crap over the years?" So as I started on my path to self enlightenment, pun intended, I realized that purging my materialistic belongings actually feels good. It feels really good. Scary good. Like lying on a massage table on a sunset beach in Rio, under a silk sheet having my feet tended to by a pool-boyesque massuer named Guillermo kind of good. Humm... Oh, right...back to the crap in boxes.

I heard somewhere a while back that clutter in the home creates clutter in the mind. Keeping this in mind and repeating it as my own internal mantra has really helped this process along. It has kept me positive and motivated on this quest to declutter. Something I didn't see coming is that this process has been as addictive as having a non-fat soy latte in my hand before my feet hit the hardwood in the morning. More or less, what I'm trying to say is that while I knew I would be getting needless things out of my way, I didn't expect to have a spiritual revelation over this.

We find ourselves faced with a choice now, regarding which new place we're going to call home. Do we chose the larger home which we are accustomed to and can afford OR do we CHOOSE to live in a home much smaller? We talked it over and have both come to a mutually exciting decision. We CHOOSE a much smaller home. We choose to be squished together in the bed at night, rather than reaching across the sateen abyss for a warm touch. He chooses to always have us underfoot, because he likes it better that way. :) I choose to have less house to tidy-up at night and more reading time with my babies. We choose togetherness....more or less.

I mean, if Carrie can live in a 600 square foot flat and fit her shoe stock into a crawlspace, then why can't I squish my babies and husband into twice that space and my toes into half as many shoes?

Old Blog, New Blog

Because, at this particular point in time, I'm thinking I'd like to put on my lazy hat and NOT migrate over the very few posts I had from my last blog(that I all but abandoned), I've decided to link you to it instead.

Catch up here.

It's been a year since I've posted over there. I'm shocked!