Sunday, November 28, 2010

what I learned while hosting thanksgiving:

{Me, posing with my wrecked table decor. ~Thanks Nancy~}
{My cute in-laws.}
1.  Cooking a turkey, while intimidating, is totally doable. (That is, IF your mother-in-law completely preps, packages, and seasons said turkey, and then drops it off at your house with instructions to cook it at 350 for four hours.)
2.Chocolate brown table cloths with sparkly gold runners and earthy zen stones and lots of little candles are really pretty for a thanksgiving table.
3. Little children coming to your Thanksgiving dinner will likely blow out the candles, throw the rocks, and smear mashed potatoes into your gold runners and chocolate brown table cloths.
4. Little kids don't care that your tables are (excuse me, I mean, WERE) pretty.
5. Adults don't really appreciate it either because it just gives them one more thing to try to keep their kids out of.
6. I'm still happy I did it, because, to me, a beautiful table and a lot of effort put into making an event beautiful says "I love you." And that is exactly what I wanted to say. So there. I said it.
7. Saying "No problem! It's just a table cloth." (and meaning it) is an even better way to say I love you. Love is so nice. 

In other news... this week the goal is:
*Keep up with all of the other goals.
*Try to cook dinner...MORE.

I was going to say "cook dinner every night," but since the name of this game is achievable, and I know that there is no way I will be organized enough to cook dinner every. single. night. right out the gate, we are going to go with "MORE." I am going to baby step my way to success!

So, PLEASE, I need two things from you:
1. More recipes. (Easy ones. Like, 3rd grader easy mmmmkay?) and 2. More great ideas for Family Home Evening! Don't hold out on me now...

8 comments:

Scott and Jillian said...

Probably the easiest and yummiest thing I make is Chicken Parmesean, but it's a total cheater/semi-homemade type recipe. Just take breaded chicken breasts, cook 'em, throw some Prego (or whatever you like) and grated cheese (parm or mozz) on top, broil till the cheese is melted and kinda brown and Wah-la! Serve with spaghetti (use the same sauce you put on the chix) & your fave steamed veggie. I know--so easy it's kinda lame. But, it tastes good and is better than McD's, am I right?!

Also, there are some good, easy recipes on that cooking blog I was doing last year (Apparently I'm obsessed with creating blogs, too). http://whatsinyouroven.blogspot.com

Lori said...

Here are a few of my favorite FHE idea sites:
http://keepinthecastle.blogspot.com/search/label/Devotionals (the devotionals make great FHE's)

http://ayearoffhe.blogspot.com/
http://nataliesfhespot.blogspot.com

http://fheplanner.blogspot.com/
And this is quite nice too for 2011...
http://www.sugardoodle.info/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6937

Lori said...

I don't know if the devotional link came through right, it's supposed to be http://keepinthecastle.blogspot.com/search/label/Devotionals

Jen Nelson said...

Yay for Thanksgiving Day! I made my first turkey too! Your decorations were lovely :)

I am the queen of quick and easy dinners! My guys are SO easy to feed! Yesterday I made Shepherds pie: 1 lb of ground beef, whatever veggies you like and mashed potatoes. Cook the ground beef & season however you like it (I do minced onion, seasoned salt, Worcestershire sauce and pepper) spread evenly in the bottom of a baking dish, then add the cooked veggies, top with mashed potatoes then bake @ 400 degrees for 30 min or so!

Tonight we are having biscuits and gravy with bacon.

Tomorrow I am making Taco soup! Email me if you want that recipe or have questions on the shepherds pie

Lisa Lou said...

You look good! I need to go on the sleep deprivation, junk food diet too! I'm currently on the high stress, excedrin diet and it's not giving me the results I want.
P.s made the pumpkin cake recipe you posted. Delish!

Aubry Macbean said...

I love making soup in the winter. Here is one the whole family eats and it is way easy.
Taco soup-
1 pound ground beef cooked and drained.
2 cans of beans (black, pinto, or kidney works best. You can even mix and match.) Drained
1 can corn Drained
1 can diced tomatoes (I don't drain these. I also like the kind with cilantro and lime already added but you can use plain too)
1 can tomato sauce
1 packet taco seasoning
Dump everything in a pot and heat. (at this point you can add some water, I usually fill up the tamato sauce can so I get all the sauce out, if you want it more soup like or leave as is if you want it more chillie like)
Top with cheese, sour cream, guacamolle, tortillia chips, and/or salsa Whatever toppings your familly might like.

Anonymous said...

#5 is totally me, #7 is sweet. Healthy mac & cheese, wheat pasta shells, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, plain yogurt or sour cream, couple eggs, package frozen chopped spinach, package frozen chopped broccoli, mushrooms, tomotoes (1st 2 veg I always do frozen unless I have fresh about 2 go bad, tom & mush I do fresh or skip them). Can also throw in canned artichoke hearts. Cook pasta al dente & mix all together. It's loose on quantities, a whole med size tub of cottage & cpl big spoons of yogurt or sour & half a bag shredded cheese, more yogurt if no cottage or vice versa. Bake 350 til cheese bubbles, maybe 30 mins. Garnish w sunflower seeds (roast em in a toaster oven or in a pan w Pam, if ur feeling fancy). We also eat w Cholula hotsauce. This recipe makes me look crazy - I'm a what's going bad just throw it in cook.

Anonymous said...

I really like this blog for recipes:
www.realmomkitchen.com