Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thankful

Thanksgiving.  One word says so much – Give thanks.  What a directive we have from this one word.  So, that’s what I’m going to do.  I am so grateful for all I have.  I am blessed.  Everything I have is a direct blessing from Christ.  Any good thing that has come to me starts as a praise and thanks to Jesus, first and foremost, every time.  This Thanksgiving I am reminiscent as to how blessed I am.

I have a wonderful family ~ a husband who loves me and works so hard to provide for his family and kids.  We both have jobs and enjoy what we do.  I have the wonderful privilege of working part time.  I have a home.  We are all healthy.  Really, what do I need? 


We eat early (I call it Linner…get it, lunch and dinner) so we can rest then walk around the block then start round two later in the evening.  I have to deliberately not eat too much so I can enjoy dessert and still have a second go-round.  This is one of our favorite meals of the entire year.  I have the same basic  items cooked the same way every year.  My husband would not be happy if I tried to switch up the meal.  This year I did add a couple new items (some Brussels sprouts (shredded and fried) and scalloped potatoes).  They weren’t well received.  I actually like the Brussels sprouts.  I think I’ll make them again with an Asian dish and use cabbage.  I also made a new dessert – a combo of pumpkin and pecan in a bar instead of a pie.  I’m still too full to try it.  The crust was good when I snuck a taste as I was making it.

Two football games down with one more pro game and one more college to go.  I am NOT going out at midnight to shop.  I will peruse Wal-Mart tomorrow for a few items-around 7:00 am.  I did hit JC Penney today, via website, and got some Black Friday deals already. 

I hope your day has been a blessed one and one you can be thankful for.

Gobble gobble.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Korean Beef

I promised to follow up on how the Korean Beef in the crockpot turned out.  To refresh...I had a busy day and evening so I tried this recipe in the crockpot.  My hubby loves a good Korean Beef and I was hoping this would come together for him.  The result.....YUM!  It turned out very good and the hubby liked it.  Thank goodness. 

Picture from Stephanie's blog

It was so easy.  Throw all ingredients into the pot and turn it on.  10 hours later you have amazingly tender beef with a great flavor.  The house smelled so good too. 
I copied this recipe from A Year of Slow Cooking.  Stephanie made this as tacos and has a slaw recipe that turned out great.

Here's her recipe:

3-4 pounds beef roast
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 head garlic (peeled, but leave cloves intact--approx 10 cloves)
 1/2 onion, diced
1 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 whole jalapeno, diced (be careful! use gloves!)


The Directions.

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Okay. This truly can't be any easier. I didn't brown my meat, but I did trim off the visible fat. I can make these directions complicated and tell you to add this or that first,
but it honestly doesn't matter. This is going to cook on low all day long, and the ingredients will distribute just fine all on their own. Throw everything in however you'd like.

Cover, and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until meat has fully shredded--- you can help it out by cutting the meat into pieces an hour or so before serving time. Serve in soft corn or flour tortillas (we are gluten free, and used tiny corn tortillas that are labeled gluten free) with shredded cabbage salad and white or brown rice.

this is how I made my shredded cabbage:

1 bag shredded coleslaw from the grocery store's produce section
1 tablespoon soy sauce (la choy or tamari wheat-free)
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
toss together and serve immediately
 
Enjoy this one.  We sure did.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Tryouts

Life just doesn’t seem to slow down.  One set of activities end and a whole new set begins.  One child ends sports and the other begins a new season, hopefully.  We begin the horrible process of club volleyball tryouts.  This is a terribly competitive and grueling week.  Girls go to a variety of teams for two hours to showcase themselves with at least 30 others trying to prove themselves as well.  The all-stars show off beautifully.  The others, the ones that love the sport, understand the sport and are competitive but not the #1 player don’t have much of a chance to demonstrate their abilities.  When your daughter falls in the latter group it is very frustrating to see dreams potentially crushed.  What’s a mom to do?  Pray, support and encourage. 


I wrote the above Sunday night while sitting through our second tryout of the day.  We felt good after this 2nd one.  Next comes the wait.  Some teams call the night of the tryout.  You get to find out right away if you are "chosen" or not.  Is that a good thing to know so quickly?  Sometimes I'm not so sure.  But on the other hand, the wait is excruciating.  Some teams will call ONLY if you made it.  So you wait and after a couple of days come to realize you weren't the one.  Now do you understand a bit more why this is such an agonizing week?  The next night, off to another team's tryout. 


We got the call Monday that my daughter is an alternate.  This means she was good, but not good enough to be their top 10.  Odds are, a girl or two will end up deciding to go with another club so that opens a spot for the alternates.  We don't know where on the alternate list we are.  So we plan to attend more tryouts this week. 


Then at 9:45 pm another call came in from the Sunday morning tryout.  I see my daughter talking with the coach and then she hangs up.  I'm gearing up for my "so sorry honey" speech, but that never happened.  She made the first team she tried out for!  We are so excited!  Neither of us thought this was the team she would make.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I think I am more relieved to know she was "wanted" more than she.  I'm also thrilled I don't have to take her to more tryouts the rest of the week.


So we will be moving on to a new season after all.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Tid-Bits of Nothingness

I woke up to a skiff of snow this morning. 


Don't you just love that word - skiff.  I don't get a chance to use it often, but today was the day.  Skiff.  It's just a fun word to say.  Come on, say it with me, Skiff.  Ok, I'm moving on.

I've been fighting a head cold all week.  I hate it because my nose is red from blowing it so much and I'm in a bit of a fog.  Yeah, I know, what's the difference, right?  Ha ha.  The other day I took a Day-Quil (sp??) because I forgot to take a sinus med before work.  Oh my gosh!  I felt like I was on drugs and felt sick to my stomach.  Remind me to NEVER take that again.  I even turned down a free lunch because I felt so bad.  If I turn down food, you know I'm not feeling good.

Not only have I been fighting a cold, I've been fighting my computer at work.  Darn thing caught a virus too.  Hm, maybe that's were I got my cold from?  It's been quite frustrating because I'm no where near as productive as I'd like to be.  Love and hate this technology sometimes.  Speaking of work, I'm finishing my fourth year.  I am so blessed I work at a place where I enjoy the people, the work and my boss.  Just to have my job is a huge blessing in these economic times.  I don't take that lightly. 

Future post warnings:
1.  I have a busy day on Sunday, so I'm trying a new crockpot recipe, Shredded Korean Beef.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  If it's a winner, I'll post the recipe.  If not, I'll let you know it's not worth trying.  For family harmony it better turn out yummy. 

2.  I ordered a $20 DVD workout set that I'll get today.  It comes with 10 DVDs.  I figure for 20 bucks it's worth trying.  I'll try it out and see how it works.  Just like any workout video, I'm sure as long as you actually DO it, it has to help.  I'll let you know what I think of it and pass it along.

Well, there's my this and that's for the day.  Just a bunch of ramblings about nothingness.  This is what you'd get if you were sitting at my table today.  I've finished my coffee and paper, and now this post.  Off to turn on the college football games - one of my favorite Saturday activities. 

I hope your weekend is productive and family filled and relaxing all in one.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Fall - What Fall?

What happened to Fall?  I love the change in seasons, but it seems like we barely had a summer then Fall came and went in just a couple of weeks.  No slow progression with the leaves slowly changing colors and meandering to the ground with multiple raking events to clear the yard.  In about two weeks everything changed and dropped and scraping windshields all came in one big whirlwind.  Alas, the trees are now bare and on to the next season - winter.

Winter.  It brings cozy nights in my flannels and slippers.  Thinking ahead to writing my Christmas cards and figuring out the annual picture.  Reminding my kids over and over to compile a gift list.  You'd think that would be an easy task, but after one or two items they seem to draw a blank.  Christmas decorations all over the house and lights outside.  I am also diligently working on winter NOT bringing extra body insulation - i.e. fat.  I'm trying to combat that now so when all the holiday eating begins, I will already have the mindset to just taste and not over indulge.  Because I love food.  I'll eat to the point where I'm uncomfortable.  Because I love food.

I have tried making a few new desserts with pumpkin puree.  I thought they turned out yummy.  I made pumpkin cookies and used the icing (I dipped them in to get a nice topping).  I thought they tasted better the next day after the pumpkin flavoring set in.  You can find the cookie recipe here, thanks Eat Yourself Skinny.  
DSC_0541
This is her picture from the blog- much better than I could take

Next I made pumpkin and chocolate chip bars.  Pumpkin and chocolate, what's not to love?  To make this recipe even better, it's cooked all in a cast iron skillet.  Love that!  Here's the one pan pumpkin cookie, thanks to Created by Carol. 

Pumpkin one pan skillet cookie how-to pizookie-skookie
Carol's picture off her site.  Don't you just want to make them now?





So now that you have had a chance to see these yummy desserts I know you are going to go out and treat your family to pumpkin goodness.  Happy baking.