Thanksgiving moments with my family

HOW I SPENT MY THANKSGIVING... sharing a seafood and garlic, parmesan mashed potato meal with my husband and 2 kids.

spent the morning baking..pumpkin pie from me and cranberry, white chocolate blondies from my daughter

watching my husband working outside and building an outdoor fire

looking at the last of the fall leaves blow from the trees


HOW DID YOU SPEND YOUR THANKSGIVING?

Limoncello, part 2

I started the Limoncello about a month ago and it is time for step two, so I got out the vodka, and the lemon zest starter. I added 750 ml vodka...

Then I boiled 4 cups of sugar with 5 cups of water for 7 minutes to make a thick, simple syrup.

I let the syrup cool, then added it to the vodka and lemon zest. I have to put it aside now until Christmas Eve, then strain it, sample it, and bottle what's left. It smells wonderful and hope it tastes great as well.

Birthday supper

My son's request: "gourmet hamburgers with homemade buns, sweet potato fries, and peach cobbler. To make the burgers gourmet, we used 2 kinds of cheese, some bacon and french fried onions and they were delicious!

He's building a whopper of a plate (notice his manly arm). We also had all the toppings; tomatoes, onions, lettuce, pickles, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard......

My daughter's finished burger. Notice the sesame seed buns. It was the first time to try the recipe and the buns were enormous. She has her ingredients artfully arranged so I took a picture.

My son fixed himself 2 burgers. Notice that he has his buns upside down but they taste the same either way-And... he was only able to eat one of those burgers. He chose 2 kinds of fries for his tasting pleasure. After supper, he opened his gifts-a snicker's bar from his sister and a western shirt with a gift certificate from me and Mike.

Big boy, little boy

He was born 6 lbs, 2 oz. and 18 inches long. I thought he was so tiny. He could turn over the day he was born and did it several times after he came home. Ate, slept 30 minutes, awake 30 minutes, got ready to eat again. Great boy, not a bit jealous or troublesome when his sister came along 12 months, 2 weeks later. His first words were puppy and daddy. Tried to run instead of walk. Had an imaginary friend named Judah who could ride a motorcycle and wore ugly boots. Had a hero in "Walker, Texas Ranger" and was nicknamed "Little Chuck" when he joined a Tae Kwon Do class at age 4. State ranked power lifter, known for his physical strenth and his winning personality as well as his manners and air of respect.
His birthday is tomorrow and he will be 20. He is a corrections officer who also goes to college full time. His dream is to be a state trooper like his dad. He lives on his own, even if it 1/2 mile away.
He is not a litte boy any more, not even a big boy but a young man and I love him. Happy Birthday!

Friends on a blanket

My New Stove

I've had an interesting couple of weeks. One day, I was sitting in the living room with my kids. I was visiting with them but I think it was just a nice way for them to hang around until supper was finished. I heated the oven and put in a pan of garlic bread. Five minutes later, the lights dimmed, then a strange "sparking" noise and strobes of light from the kitchen caught our attention. We all jumped up and discovered the element in the oven was burning up. I turned off the stove and rescued the bread. My cooking for the next two weeks consisted of stove top, one pot meals or the crockpot. Mike came back early from our camping trip to work and decided to put in the new element during the afternoon. While he was working on it, Amos and Ace somehow got a couple of tubes of paint from my daughter's art supplies and chewed them up. Amos had rolled in the green paint and Ace had spread the yellow onto the carpet and my newly recovered couch. And, when the element was installed, it still didn't work. Mike tried to clean up the paint but he didn't know it was oil paint. It was still wet when I got home and we cleaned up the couch and carpet with a little bit of paint thinner. Amos still has a little green hair on his back. Saturday, I picked out this new, pretty, very white model and Mike installed it. I'm very pleased with it and can now bake my son a cake (actually I think he asked for peach cobbler) for his birthday Friday.

Camping at the Big Tank

Cousins sat around the campfire on a very cool November day. The temperature that night was around 48 degrees. We cooked steak, sausage, chicken and, of course, s'mores.

My new tent was the perfect size but my air mattress deflated during the night.

In the morning we made coffee and hot chocolate. As soon as the sun came up, we were able to shed our long sleeves and enjoy the beautiful day.