Thanksgiving....a little late.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok, I know that I am a little late....but I have been busy.  Very, very busy.  Stuffing my face and the faces of my little monkeys with turkey, ham and all the fixin's for the past four days.  And when I say "all" the fixin's, I mean all of them!

Wednesday morning we loaded up the crew, along with an entire grocery store of groceries and headed north to the blessed land of Gatlinburg, TN.  In Gatlinburg, we met up with 19 more members of my awesome family.  The plan for the long holiday weekend was very detailed.  Eat.  Sleep.  Football.  Repeat. Again and again.

Our cabin

The details include 26 family members, spanning 4 generations, traveling from 5 different states across the south from Oklahoma to Florida, spending 4 days together in a 9 bedroom cabin nestled in the Smoky Mountains.  There was turkey (roasted and fried), ham, two different types of dressing, homemade rolls, cranberry sauce, corn casserole, carrot souffle, green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mac n cheese and roasted veggies (forgive me if I left anything out).  And then there was dessert, and more dessert.  We had at least 10 different people contributing to the cooking duties of the day.

The back porch

I learned several things on this trip:

• My family is AWESOME (Ok, I already knew this, but it's still worth mentioning.)
• 2 1/2 miles up a mountain is a wee bit too far for a 3 year old to hike.  He slept on daddy's shoulders the whole way down.
• 20lb of mashed potatoes goes a long way, even when you are feeding 25 people.
• Mary, Queen of Scots had 6 fingers (Random, I know.)
• I am the only member of my family who does not own some sort of wireless laptop, blackberry, droid, or other electronic means of staying "connected" with the world while away from home.  (And I'm ok with that.)
• My younger, "teenage" cousins are now 18-25 years old.  Still trying to figure out how that happened.
• My Aunt Gwenn and Uncle Charles deliver pizza.....10 hours away.
• 4 years is way too long to go without seeing extended family....This must change pronto!
• Always take extra camera batteries on a trip.  Always.

A few pictures I managed to capture before the camera battery died...

The men, staying out of the women's way in the kitchen.

Turkey and dressing....lots of it

Fixin's

Fixin's

Some more fixin's

And even more fixin's....Needless to say, we ate well.

Hmmm....Turkey or pie?  I think I'll take pie.

Relaxin' in the hot tub

I thank God for my wonderful family, being able to spend the holiday with them and safe travels for everyone to and from home this weekend!  We had a blessed Thanksgiving and I hope everyone else did too!

Big Green Tractor

On the farm, tractors are a necessary part of life.  They allow us to efficiently complete tasks such as plowing the garden, planting seed for hay, mowing, raking, baling hay, and feeding hay out to the cows.  The tractors are also very useful at other times, like when you are cleaning up leftover construction waste that needs to be dumped in a far-away, eroding creek-bed. 

We start 'em young.

"Ok, Dad, just hand me the keys.  I got this."

5 of the 6 of us that rode through the pasture to dump the rock & gravel.....

notice the vacant "jump seat" next to Ezra, reserved for yours truly and the handsome little guy in green.

Haven't you heard the saying, "The family that farms together, stays together".....or something like that.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Week!!  We are looking forward to a wonderful, large family get together, with many whom we haven't seen in over 4 years (that was two babies ago!). 

"best dinner ever"

A few nights ago, when discussing the menu plan for the week with my husband, I suggested shrimp.  We've been grilling shrimp recently on our new stove-top grill and they are yummy!  He suggested that I make a shrimp pasta, kind of like scampi.  I agreed, with one condition...."It'll have a LOT of garlic in it!"  Fine by him.  So, here is the dish that I threw together (literally, I did not measure anything) and got rave reviews from my family....even my 3 year old who usually just picks at his dinner most nights asked for seconds! 

Cajun Shrimp Pasta
16-20oz bag frozen, raw shrimp, peeled; thawed and tails removed
1Tbs (give or take) cajun seasoning blend (Chachere's, Emeril's, etc)
1 stick butter, divided
1 can chicken broth
1 Tbs flour
6 cloves (or more) fresh garlic, minced
1/4 medium onion, diced
1 cup (give or take) heavy cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan (I use fresh, but I am a parmesan "snob.")
12 oz (give or take) pasta (penne, linguine, etc)

Cook and drain pasta according to package directions.

Saute onion and garlic in 1/2 stick butter, over med-low heat until tender.  Do not let garlic turn brown.

Your kitchen will smell divine at this point.

Whisk the flour into chicken broth until dissolved.  Add to garlic and onions.  Increase temp to create simmer and stir occasionally. 

After mixture has thickened, turn heat down to low, add cream and parmesan cheese.  Continue to stir occasionally.

In another skillet, melt remaining 1/2 stick butter.  Add raw shrimp and sprinkle generously with cajun seasoning.  Don't forget to remove the tails!

I prefer the "medium" shrimp (41-50 per pound) better than jumbo, but this was all Target had left.  For you couponers out there, Target shrimp is on sale this week and there is a printable Target coupon here. 

Tony is my friend.

Raw shrimp with spices.  Stir and flip shrimp over once they start to turn pink.

Shrimp will turn pink and curl up when done, about 3-5 minutes.

Add cream mixture to cooked shrimp.  If needed, continue to let simmer, until thickened.  Taste for seasoning and add more if needed.

Mine needed to simmer a little longer.  It did thicken after a few more minutes.

Toss cooked pasta with shrimp to coat and Enjoy!

*Chicken could easily be substituted for shrimp for those of you with shrimp allergies in the family.

During dinner the night I served this, my little girl declared it the "best dinner ever!"  Of course, that now ranks with her "best breakfast ever," pop tarts.  But hey, I'll take what I can get!

This and That

Ok, this is not a "real" blog post.  Things have been relatively quiet around here lately, so there just doesn't seem to be much to write about.  I am working on a post, but it involves cooking, which requires that I actually "cook" and measure ingredients and take pictures, and I just haven't been able to synchronize all those things quite yet.  So, in the mean time, I am just posting some recent pictures....

My two helpers during our days of toting laundry up the

road to my in-laws, before Whirl and Pool were put to good use.

A girl and her bike

No worries....Matthew to the rescue!

So, that's about it for now, but I will soon have a new recipe up and there will be some Thanksgiving awesomeness next week that I will be sharing soon as well.  Thanks for stopping by!

It's time to play "catch up"

As previously mentioned, Whirl and Pool recently moved in with us.

But, to be perfectly honest, Whirl has been slackin'.  She's been shacking with us for over a month now and done zip, zero, nada as far as her fair share of the work around here.  Some excuse about "the drain lines aren't hooked up outside and I'll flood the yard.....yada yada yada"  Well, today that all changed, and it's about time she starts earning her keep!

With the hassle of carrying laundry somewhere else, I limited myself to only washing what was absolutely necessary for the past month and creating quite a pile of "not so urgent" laundry to get done once Whirl decided to cooperate.  And let the record state, that the 4 little monkeys around these parts have a tendency to jump and play in this laundry, therefore it is spread all over the room.  Well, the pile grew and grew with winter clothes that were stored all summer without air conditioning and just smelled stale, extra bedsheets and towels that got dusty from all the sheetrock work in the house, and bed comforters that the kids are starting to need now with the cooler nights. 

So, Whirl's days of life and leisure came to an abrupt halt today, and she is now working around the clock.  And now, she has the audacity to ask when her counterparts "energy" and "efficient" are moving in...

Not for awhile, my dear....not for awhile.  Just keep on spinning...

By the way, Whirl boasts an annual energy cost of only $19 per year.....That's just fine and dandy, except that it was based on energy costs in 2007 and average usage of 8 loads per week.  Ummm, try 28 loads on a good week....

While they were sleeping....

With the time recent time change, bedtime has suddenly shifted about an hour earlier.  It's dark outside, the kids are tired (because they insist on waking up with the sun before 6am) and we are ready for some quiet alone time, just the two of us.  So, after putting the littles to bed last night, I settled in at the computer to do some stalking catching up on facebook.  I thought I heard the pitter patter of little feet once, but then it was quiet and I assumed there had been a necessary trip to the bathroom.  Then, a few hours later, when I myself was headed to bed, I found a piece of paper lying on the bed with the following message...

"Ples give ics cream to ELi."

Personally, I was impressed with his politeness as well as the capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and period at the end.  Trust me, it's something we've been working on for loooooong time.  Of course this note drives home the point I made yesterday about his struggle with spelling.  And yes, he does spell his name with a capital E and L and then lowercase i.  I've tried to break him of it, but to no avail.

I also had to laugh at the thought process of my 6 year old.  He obviously knew better than to get out of bed and come ask for ice cream after being told it was bedtime, but what did he expect?  Was I going to wake him up at 10pm (ok, more like 11:30) and give him the requested ice cream?  Or did he think I would have it sitting out, waiting on him for breakfast in the morning? 

And, we apparently still have some training to do regarding serving others first....what about his brother and sister?  No ice cream for them?

Nice try, son.

puzzle mania!

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G.....not my son's favorite (or best, for that matter) school subject.  I think he takes after his dad.  Spelling always came easy to me.  I don't know how or why....it just did.  My husband....not so much.  My two favorites, from a grocery list that he wrote for me,  that I still give him a hard time about:  brokklie and collyflower.  And don't worry...he knows that he can't spell.  Apparently that's not required to be an engineer, or pilot for that matter!

Well, apparently our 6 year old son takes after his dad in the spelling arena.  For over a year now we have struggled with spelling.  A year ago it was like pulling teeth just to get him to sit down and write out ten words.  At seven in the morning I would tell him to start writing his spelling words...."But that will take until 5 o'clock tonight!!!"  Exaggeration...I don't know where he gets it. (ha!)  And then when we added 5 words a few weeks later to make it 15....he considered it cruel and unusual punishment.  Over time he has matured and realized that copying 20 spelling words every day is not the end of the world and his tests are improving.  However, retaining the ability to spell the same words in a free-hand writing assignment or dictation is a completely different story.  We're still working on that.

So, with spelling being the one subject that we have struggled with the most in school, I was so excited to find this website.  The puzzlemaker allows you to create your own word searches, cross word puzzles and lots of other puzzles in just seconds!  All you have to do is choose the type of puzzle, size of puzzle, words (and clues for crosswords) and then click "Create My Puzzle!"  And woila!  You have a puzzle!  For the past two weeks, I have created puzzles using his spelling words to give him additional practice with the words and having to spell them correctly to make the puzzle work.  I don't know yet if these will improve his spelling, but the puzzles do hold his attention and make him think about the words as well as their meanings or how to use them correctly in sentences.  So far, he is enjoying them (except that the first word search grid was a little too large for him to handle...I made it smaller this week) and I hope that not only will it improve his spelling, but also his vocabulary and using words appropriately when writing.

I couldn't figure out how to paste the crossword puzzle, but here is this week's word search...

T	Q	T	L	Y	P	E	E	S	N	T	W
V	O	A	G	R	D	L	L	R	M	I	A
Y	D	G	E	V	Z	D	T	A	U	N	S
Y	S	T	E	Z	S	D	A	A	U	Y	T
E	T	U	U	T	J	U	B	D	Y	G	M
Y	L	P	B	V	H	P	L	F	P	F	H
S	N	D	E	P	P	E	E	R	P	T	B
J	K	J	D	O	H	I	R	E	U	M	G
Y	Z	O	C	I	P	M	S	C	P	Y	N
Y	P	P	A	H	M	L	D	K	P	W	A
E	L	B	B	U	B	T	E	L	K	U	T
G	I	G	G	L	E	P	P	E	N	N	Y

BUBBLE
DADDY
HAPPY
MIDDLE
PRETTY
PUZZLE (how appropriate!)
TOGETHER
BUSY
FRECKLE
LADY
PENNY
PUDDLE
TABLE
COZY
GIGGLE
LAUGH
PEOPLE
PUPPY
TINY

Of course, my 5 year old, who likes school much more than her big brother, also wanted to do a puzzle, so I made this puzzle for her, using words from a book that she is working on reading....

R	H	D	B	Z	N	M	K
U	F	O	N	I	U	I	F
N	A	P	P	A	S	L	M
N	P	C	N	W	S	K	S
K	A	L	S	G	Y	W	C
L	B	P	E	U	D	P	A
J	U	M	P	H	I	J	T
C	K	U	A	O	G	U	N

CAT
HOP
PAN
SUN
DIG
JUMP
RUN
HELP
MILK
SAND

My only complaint with the puzzle maker is that it automatically puts some words diagonally and backwards, and you can't change that.  This can be challenging for younger kids, but so far, my kids have enjoyed them.  I can see lots of other possibilities with this tool, creating puzzles related to science, history, vocabulary, etc...

If anyone else has any suggestions, I would love to hear them!