Everyone Survive?

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know we did. It was very laid back, plenty of food. Perfect.

I actually planned my menu out pretty good this year. Not too much food. We just got a small turkey breast, pork loin, I cooked sweet potato casserole, squash casserole, cranberry sauce and rolls. I'm kinda proud of myself for not over doing it. I had one or two more items I wanted to do but I knew it would have been overkill. We had just enough to put us in a small food coma but not so much I'm sick of looking at leftovers.

Christmas may be a different story. I'm now on the look out for a bunch of Christmas-time desserts. :P

{Fail}

Yesterday, I attempted to make homemade fudge. Not the kind that you melt the chocolate chips. Real live homemade fudge like your grandmother use to make.

I don't own a candy thermometer since I rarely make candy. But.....giggle...I do own the thermometer from our turkey fryer. I tried using it. I'm not sure if it's the same but, hey, it reads the temp right?!?

I decided not to 100% trust the turkey fryer thermometer. I got a plate with a little ice water in it and tried the ball test. You know, if you drop a little in the plate, if it forms a ball, it's basically done. That's how I tested mine. The thermometer just wasnt getting to 238 degrees and I'm very impatient. Which could be why it failed.

Now, I didn't fail miserably by no means. It just didnt turn out like I think it should. It's a little 'dry'. I'm thinking that when you are suppose to stir the 'luster' out, I might have over done it. IDK. Will I try again? Maybe. It's a lot of work for a very thin sheet of fudge. I might double the recipe next time. That way it looks like I put a lot more work into it then I really did. :P

If you're interested in the recipe, here it is.

Old Fashioned Fudge

If you make it or have done it before, let me know how it turns out or if you have any tips for me.

Shutterfly's 50 Free Holiday Cards Offer

I have never personally ordered holiday cards before. I've always wanted to, but chickened out at the thought of my face on someones mantle. This year I think we are giving it a shot. I also have a strong feeling that telling my husband about this will get more than a groan. But then again, he is the camera whore of the family. lol

Shutterfly is offering bloggers a chance to win 50 free cards. I am absolutely thrilled to be a part of this. What a better way to get over my fear, then with free cards. If I win, I'll be forced to do it. :P

The only problem with this offer, I have to be forced to pick just one design. It's going to be a hard decision. I absolutely LOVE their designs. They have everything from modern, to as Christmas-y as you can get.

I do tend to go towards the folded cards. Right now, this is my top contender. LOVE!

Check them out. I know they have something you'll love.
Shutterfly Holiday Cards

Broccoli, Rice & Cheese Casserole

One thing you will learn about recipes, there are so many different ways to cook one dish. This is mine.



1 Frozen package of chopped broccoli
1 Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 Stick of butter
Jar or Cheez-Whiz
1 C. uncooked rice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cook the broccoli as per the package.
As for the rice, for this recipe, I'm a huge fan of getting the 5 minute boil in the bag rice. It saves so much time.
I usually go ahead and throw my cheez whiz, mushroom soup, and butter in my 9x13 casserole dish and stick them in the oven. This way they are already melting and combining together.
Drain the broccoli and add the rice to the dish.
Cook for around 35-40 minutes.

This is a great make ahead dish. If you are traveling, you can always ask the host to reheat before serving.

Attn Bloggers

Shutterfly is giving away 50 free Holiday Cards. You can sign up at THIS link.

You can thank me later. :)

Sweet Potato Casserole with Praline Topping

This stuff is like sex in a casserole dish. Seriously. 

2 lrg eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
11/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk
3/8 cup margarine, melted
3 cups cooked mashed sweet potatoes (21/2 to 3 lbs raw) 

In a mixing bowl combine first 6 ingredients, mix well.  Pour into mashed potatoes and blend thoroughly.  Spoon into a greased 1 1/2 quart baking dish.
Top with Praline Topping.  Bake at 350 degree F for 25-30 minutes.  If doubled, potatoes can be baked in a 2 quart baking dish for 2 hours.  Potato mixture will be thicker.
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Praline Topping:
1 cup light brown sugar firmly packed
1/3 cup flour
1 cup broken pecan pieces
1/4 cup melted margarine

Combine brown sugar, flour, and pecans.  Add margarine and mix well.

thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I've been trying to get my menu planned. I usually do the same thing every year. Fried turkey, fried pork tenderloin, rolls, cranberry sauce, a casserole and maybe a veggie. This year I think I'm going to do my sister's Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Stuff and maybe something else to level out the sweetness. I usually don't do a dessert since we're too full afterward to eat it. Although I did stumble across a  german chocolate cake recipe that I"m dying to make. :)
What is one thing you can't go with out on Thanksgiving?

P.S.- I think I'm going to post a few of my recipes after this blog.

*Yawn*

I absolutely hate this time change bull shit. My days feel like they are just creeping along. I hate that by the time K gets home from work it's already getting dark. By 8 pm both of us are so bored and tired we're ready to call it a night.

Last night I played my sister on Mario Kart online for about 2 hours since neither one of us had anything better to do.

Oh the exciting life I lead.

:D

House Projects

Well, we have sorta kinda but not really started back on house projects.

So far, we have started refinishing a dresser of mine. I honestly dont even know where it came from or how long it's been around but it has seen better days. We stripped it and have started re-staining it a red mahogany color. It's not as red as a cherry stain but in the same family.
The stripper we bought is wonderful. I was a little pissed that when we bought it, it was on a shelf marked for $8 or so and when we checked out it was $17. But, it's totally worth it. Works miracles.

K also built me some floating shelves in my front bathroom .. nook. Whatever that waste of space is. The bullshit cabinet my dad rigged up in there was not working. It was that cheap particle board covered in plastic made to look like wood. It was non paintable. So we ripped it out, fixed the wall and my non wood working husband built me 3 floating shelves. Yay!
I did a little research and found this tutorial. Very helpful!

I'll try to get some pictures later and update. The shelves still need painting. So far they only have a coat of primer. I might get on that today. Maybe. ;)

Frugal Recipes

Since everything else is so expensive right now I'm doing all I can to cut back where I can. It's not easy but you gotta do what you gotta do right? ;)

I've been going through AllRecipes.com and other recipe sites trying to find good things to cook that either don't take a  lot of ingredients or at least take the ones I have on hand for every day use.
I came across this recipe on SouthernPlate.com

Crunchy Beef Casserole 

• 2 Cups Corkscrew Macaroni (Rotini)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 3/4 C Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 3/4 tsp Seasoned Salt
• 1 lb Ground Beef
• 1 can (14 oz) whole or diced tomatoes
• 3/4 C Green Pepper (optional – I leave it out for the kids)
• 1 can french fried onions

Cook pasta as directed, rince and drain. Brown beef, drain fat. Combine all ingredients except french fried onions. Pour into greased 2 quart casserole. Cover and bake at 350 for thirty minutes. Uncover, top with french fried onions, and bake five minutes longer.

I'm cooking it tonight so I'll let you know tomorrow what the consensus is. :)

And you can also look forward to more frugal recipes or recipes period from me. Hope you don't mind. ;)


**edit**

Well, the hubby did not like it. It was eh to me. The tomatoes absolutely overwhelmed it. We are both not real big tomato fans but I put them in recipes all of the time. I also wonder if I could use seasoned tomatoes if that would have made a difference.
The French's fried onions made it. Without them, I dont think I could have eaten it. It was very bland without them.
So overall, unless I can promise to make it taste better next time, I just don't think K will let me make this again. Coming from a human garbage disposal, that is rare. He usually eats anything.

I'm such a child

So I was scrolling through Amazon looking for items to add to my wish list when I came up on this.

It's a nunchuck that goes to the new Epic Mickey Wii game. I need it! Obviously it's not out yet but I'll see if when it does I can find it and convince my husband it will make my gaming experience that much better. You know, because it will! ;)

Wish List

I can't believe that Christmas (and my birthday) are just right around the corner. I swear this year has just absolutely flown by.

I'm starting to discover I'm also getting out of the practical gift receiving again too. When we first bought the house everything I wanted was for the house. Really up until last year. That was the first year that we bought stuff that we wanted. Not needed.

This year is the same. Everything on my wish list is things I want, not need. Example:

* EA Active for Wii (which I'm discovering that vs 2 is coming out if not already out)
*PSP with Kingdom Hearts newest game
*Couture by Juicy Couture
*Epic Mickey for Wii
*Pink PS3 controller
*Steam Mop

Ok so that last one is practical and for my house but I figured with the rest of the wish list being all wants it evens out. LOL

*Trans Am*

Every since I was about 19 or 20 I've been in love with trans ams. The first one I fell in love with was the '91/'92 year model. They had the pointy nose on them. My future brother in law just happened to own one at one point in time. It was the second manual transmission cars I drove. It turned me on like no boy ever could. :P

Fast forward a couple of hundred years. (yes I feel that old some days lol) We finally bought one. It's a '96 with a LT1 motor. Which I know most of you are like huh?!? when it comes to that. lol I understand. It's not the body style that I wanted but it has the motor that K wanted. So what we are going to do is get the front cap off of a newer model and replace it. That way I get my body style and K gets his motor. It's a win/win situation.
Well, that is until we priced replacing the front cap. It's not cheap.

Then K comes home the other day from work and tells me a friend of his will trade him the front cap off the body style we want for K helping him do a motor swap. Hells yeah! Done deal.

This car is your typical used car. She has her issues. We've been slowly working on them and figuring them out one by one. We've about come to the conclusion that some idiot owned her before and did a hack job under the hood. A lot of wires were broke, spark plug wire replaced with one that didn't fit. It's seriously a miracle that she ran to begin with.

Want to see her?!?!?

Isn't she a beauty!?!? I've named her the mistress since my husband loves her more than he loves me some days. :P