One more recipe to share. Trying to update my page but nothing seems to be changing with the color, layout etc, so I'll just post this for now. :)

Brown Sugar/chipotle meatloaf:

2 lbs lean ground beef
1/2 jar beef gravy
3 T liquid from a can of chipotle chili peppers
1/4 cup each chopped onion and celery
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp liquid smoke

Mix all the ingredients together and put in a loaf pan. Bake at 400 for one hour. About 10 minutes prior to the hour, combine 1 tsp liquid smoke, 1/3 cup spicy bbq sauce and the remaining 1/2 jar beef gravy. Heat on medium heat. Spread warmed mixture over top of meatloaf and bake an additional 5-10 minutes.

And now an easy way to make mashed potatoes: scrub potatoes and pat dry with paper towels. Make 1 to 2 tiny slits and place in microwave. The number of potatoes used determines the time. About 12 minutes for 4 med sized potatoes. Let them cool slightly and scoop the pulp or meat or whatever you call it in your home out. Proceed to mash however you do it. I use a food processer/processor? hmmmm. I put 2-4 T butter then put the warm scooped out potato on top. I warm whatever milk I'm using as well. Don't use cold. Sometimes I use 1% but if it's a holiday I use heavy cream. And don't forget the salt. That is to your liking but probably 1/2 to 1 tsp is plenty. No peeling and chopping and boiling and straining. Easiest way ever to make mashed potatoes!!

Two recipes to share, or at least put on here so I have a 2nd copy of them! Yes, I tend to lose things from time to time. :)

Gingerbread Cookies:

These Gingerbread Men Cookies are as cute as can be. If desired, decorate
with raisins, currants or cinnamon red hot candies for eyes and buttons. Or,
pipe untinted or Colorful
Royal Icing onto cookies.

Makes 2 dozen or 24 (1 cookie) servings.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 8 to 10 minutes per batch
Refrigerate Time: 4 hours
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons McCormick®
Ginger, Ground
1 teaspoon McCormick®
Cinnamon, Ground
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon McCormick®
Nutmeg, Ground
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1 teaspoon McCormick®
Pure Vanilla Extract
1. Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in large bowl.
Set aside. Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on
medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses, egg and vanilla; mix well.
Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Press dough into
a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness on
lightly floured work surface. Cut into gingerbread men shapes with 5-inch cookie
cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. 3. Bake 8 to 10
minutes or until edges of cookies are set and just begin to brown. Cool on
baking sheets 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks; cool completely. Decorate
cooled cookies as desired. Store cookies in airtight container up to 5
days.

AND Pecan Waffles:

Preheat oven to 350. Spread 3/4 cup chopped pecans on a baking sheet. Bake/toast 5-7 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Reduce oven temp to 200.

Whisk 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda together in a large bowl.

In a seperate bowl, whisk 1 large egg, 1 cup whole milk(needs to be whole for this), 1/2 cup buttermilk and 2 tsp vanilla(the real stuff really does make a difference over the imitation)until well combined.

Melt 2 T unsalted butter, and 1/4 cup Crisco and cool both slightly, then slowly mix with the egg mixture until well combined. Slowly mix this mixture with the dry ingredients. Mixture will appear a bit lumpy.

Preheat waffle iron and brush with additional butter or spray with cooking spray. Ladle about 1/2 cup mixture onto ironand sprinkle with 2 T of the toasted pecans. Cook until brown or your iron tells you it's done. As you cook, transfer cooked waffles onto baking sheet in the preheated 200 oven to keep warm. Top waffles with butter and syrup or make your own brown sugar/pecan mixture to pour over. Enjoy.

Christmas greetings

Here we are having entered the official holiday season and every year it happens. The "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, whatever it is you say" debate. I don't pretend to be the world's "go to" girl for advice or information or for my opinion. I do however, have an opinion on the subject. =o)

I think we need to stop putting so much thought into it. At the end of the day, or the season, what does it matter what someone might have said to you for a greeting? Unless said person is yelling obsentities or beating the mess out of you, why can't we simply just accept their greeting? Yes, personally I do extend the "Merry Christmas" to everyone I come in contact with during the season. I say it to be a warm greeting and sincere one. The person I've said it to might in fact be Jewish, or some other religion or not have a religion at all, but I would hope the person would take it as it was given. If I was told "Happy Hanukkah", I certainly wouldn't go flipping out and make a big deal about it. I would hope and assume that this person said this to ME to extend a warm greeting. No, "Happy Holidays" is not my greeting of preference, but to a person with maybe no religion, it is still their way to extend a greeting during this time. I mean, is this truly the best time of year to try to be at our best politically corrent selves? Or is it rather a time to be kind and sincere to our fellow man? Just something to ponder.

So, if that cashier at Starbucks or Target or wherever, extends a greeting of ANY sort, just simply take it as a nice holiday gesture and extend your personal greeting back without fear of it offending anyone!

Long holiday weekend!

Our long holiday weekend is coming to a close. Jason and I took Wednesday off so we had a 5-day weekend and Kevin had off Thursday and Friday giving him a 4-day weekend. It was kind of weird having the a/c on while baking pies Wednesday, but we managed. Thanksgiving itselt was near 70 which is just wrong! Michael came over and spent the night Wednesday and was here almost all of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving we watched the parade and kept an eye on the gobbler in the oven. It was a quiet and relaxing day for us. Friday we went out and about around 9:30/10:00 to do some shopping and get Starbucks, of course. :) We had leftovers for lunch which are always good. We spent the afternoon putting the first round of lights on the house outside and ended with a last minute shopping spree and dinner at Culvers before watching the LSU game. Saturday morning we got up and had to make yet another trip to Home Depot and yes, another stop at Starbucks. :o) Kevin got the second round of lights on the house and brought up all the stuff from the crawl space for the inside. We spent the day, well, to be fair, "he" spent the the day putting up the tree and making yet another trip out for lights and we watched most of the Iron Bowl. It was pizza delivery last night. There were good parts and not good parts to our holiday weekend with the good being spending time together Thanksgiving and 2 Starbucks trips and tons of good food! And the bad being our loss of course, yesterday to Bama, but not one we didn't see coming. We're proud of our tigers this season going 7-5. Especially after everyone thought we'd have to fight for 5 wins. Our team has talent and the fact that we ARE a young team means that in the next two seasons, we're going to be a really good team again. And the other bad being I have managed in 2 days to slice my right thumb in 3 places and sprain my back. OUCH. In fact, if my back isn't better by tomorrow(Monday)morning, I'm going to have to cancel my heart testing that is scheduled for Tuesday morning because it's a 24 hour cancelation sorta deal, and right now anyway, there is no way I can do the treadmill(or is it treadmil or tredmill?) And I don't won't to have to cancel!

So, that is the short version of our long holiday weekend! Hope everyone in internetland had a great weekend as well. :) No recipe this week. (at least not today).

Thanksgiving and Iron Bowl Saturday

I am sitting here thinking about all the things I need to be doing, yet I am still sitting here. Funny how that happens. =o) I have laundry to do, 2 bathrooms to clean, dishes to wash and baking to do and well, you get the idea. I have a zillion things to do but yet I'm sitting here drinking coffee at my computer.

I also am thinking back to Thanksgiving 2010. In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago and yet in some ways like it was just last week. We had 6 people living here and 2 visiting. Thanksgiving dinner therefore, consisted of 8 people. It was really cold that week. Michelle was working at Starbucks at Peterson AFB and Michael at Walmart. Kevin was still working for Infocrossing and working from home. In a years time all three are doing something else. Michelle is in AF technical school at Keesler, Michael works at Penney's and Kevin for 1st Bank. During that time Chris took a math class at PPCC and I had surgery. Fastforward to the current Thanksgiving and there are 3 people living in the house and the temps the next 3 days are going to be in the low 60's! Crazy.

Which brings us to football and this year's Iron Bowl. Again, what a difference a year makes!! This time last year we were sitting at 11-0 going into the Iron Bowl. Cam Newton and the tigers seemed unbeatable and we...were....loving it!! After 2009's heartbreaking loss at Jordan-Hare to Bama in.the.LAST.2 minutes, here we were sitting at an unbelievable 11-0 going into Bama territory for the Iron Bowl. The game started and we were, well, there really is only one word to describe it, "stunned"in the first half. Stunned. Bama showed up ready to play and it was obvious to everyone. But, things started to change in the 3rd quarter. Actually, it started really with one play in the 2nd quarter followed by an Auburn touchdown, but anyhoo, things changed. Boy did they change. Except this time, it was the Bama Nation that was stunned. The Cam Newton that we had known all season, that seemed to not be in attendance the 1st half, showed up big time in the 2nd half. And we DID IT! Auburn pulled it off and we won. Oh my gosh it was magical and one of the best Iron Bowls EVER! There we were 12-0 with the SEC Championship coming up. And so on and so on and we all know that Auburn won and thus went on to the National Title game and came out National Champs 2010. What a magical and wonderful season it was for us Auburn faithful.

Fast forward to the 2011 season and things are, well, a little different. People said Auburn would be lucky to win a game. The people that be put us ending the season at 5-7. Here we are the week of the Iron Bowl and we're sitting at 7-4. Considering what we lost with all the players leaving, I think that's a pretty darn good record. I am proud of my tigers! We have a really young team though, and some really great players on said young team. Auburn is poised to become a monster team again, and soon. No, this isn't our year, but we knew it when the season started. And man is the BCS in a weird way this year, but how cool is it that the top 3 teams in the nation are all SEC and not only SEC, but SEC West! With the way things are looking now, something beyond stupid weird would have to happen for the 2011 National Champs to NOT be an SEC team. Pretty cool if you ask me. :)

But back to this year and the 2011 Iron Bowl. I don't know what team will walk away with the W. The entire world seems to think it will be Bama, but looking back to last year, they did then, too. :) The Iron Bowl is the one game that no one seems to ever be able to correctly predict. We've seen so many upsets in that game. I do know that we are so fortunate to be Alabamians with two wonderful schools like Auburn and Alabama and two pretty awesome football teams. Both schools showed great humanity for lack of a better word with each other over the past several months. With the poisoning of Toomers Oaks to the devastating tornados in T-town. I think both the Auburn AND the Bama faithful showed the world that while on the field.....it's war baby, but off the field, we're all family. Family of the great state of Alabama! And with THAT said...........WAR EAGLE BABY! I hope we beat the poo outta Bama Saturday. =o)

Pancakes, beverages, and allergies......

Let me start with pancakes. While I DID have the pumpkin-pecan pancakes at Villiage Inn Saturday morning which were pretty tasty, I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to make the ones I found the recipe for a couple weeks ago. With a tiny exception.....I used a different recipe. ;) I know, I know, I'm wacky like that sometimes. :) Therefore, and in honor of the delish ones I made this morning, I will post the recipe for the "new" pumpkin pancakes.

Pumpkin-cinnamon pancakes

Combine 5 T brown sugar(light or dark), 2 T melted butter, 3 T veggie oil, 1to1 1/2 cups solid pack pumpkin(it truly depends on your liking of pumpkin)until well mixed. Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp ginger(I, personally, used ground roasted ginger), 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda. Add 2 cups all purpose flour alternately with 1 1/2 cup whole milk. Make them however you normally do. I use a griddle usually, but this morning decided on my cast iron skillet. I made them a 1/4 cup big per pancake. I was in a bit of a hurry this time, so I only fried a few pieces of bacon to go with them and we just used regular Log Cabin syrup. As a side note on the recipe it states you can chop up about a 1/3 cup pecans and add to the batter before cooking. I didn't today, but plan to next time. Also it suggests using pure maple syrup, warmed, with chopped pecans which I also plan to use next time. But as they were this time, they were awesome! Really good recipe.

Now, on to beverages. Starbucks, I love you. I just, love you. I had never before yesterday tried their Caramel Brulee Latte. OHmygosh I fell in love with this drink! LOVED it. Next time I'll definitely get a double-tall instead of just one shot, but all in all it was awesome.

Now for you allergies........I.Do.Not.Like you. Why are you here? Perhaps you got confused and thought it was spring, but it isn't, it's November. You have half of Falcon, CO sneezing their heads off. Half of that half have itchy, watery eyes. I'm lucky enough to have both. Both. AND congestion. It's crazy weird, seriously. No one seems to know why we're suffering. The sneezing fits are bad enough but the whole "my nose feels like it weighs 500 pounds deal" needs to GO. K? K!!

Happy Turkey Day since I don't intend on blogging until after the holiday.

Don't say it....

It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that these pancakes might possibly never be made by me. I really want to try them, but time doesn't seem to be allowing me to make them. I promised myself I am going to, but it might not be until after Thanksgiving. So, my dear internet lovlies, I will share the recipe and perhaps you can try them. If nothing else, I have a second copy of it on here. =)

CINNAMON-PECAN-PUMPKIN PANCAKES:

Ingredients2 cups all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 1 cup pumpkin purée* 4 large eggs 1-1/2 cups low fat milk 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1 cup chopped pecans--------------------------------------------------------------------------------InstructionsPlace the flour in a large bowl. Crumble the brown sugar and distribute over flour. Add baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. Stir to blend with a whisk. Preheat the Cuisinart™ Griddler™ in the open griddle position to 350°F. Place the pumpkin, eggs, and milk in a medium bowl. Stir with a whisk to blend. Add to the dry mixture and stir. Stir in the melted butter and pecans. When the Griddler™ is hot (indicator light will go off) drop the batter onto the Griddler using a scant quarter cup measure. Bake the pancakes for 3 to 4 minutes, when pancakes are bubbling on the top, turn and bake for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes are best served hot. Pancakes can be kept warm by placing them on a rack on a baking sheet in a slow (175-200°F) oven while baking the remainder. Serve with warm syrup and butter as desired.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Servings Makes eighteen 4-inch pancakes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nutritional Information Per Serving calories 136 (38% from fat) · carb 17g · protein 4g · fat 6g · sat fat 1g · chol 49mg · sod 242mg · calc 47mg · fiber 1g Back to Top

Please, if anyone makes them, feel free to let me know if they're good. :) For now, maybe I'll just try talking Kevin into taking me to Village Inn tomorrow morning for some of theirs. :) For now, have a great weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving! And to all you Bama loving fans out there..........WAR EAGLE BABY! =)

Pancakes, football, life.

Well, I'm afraid I do not have a recipe this week. I'm not sure exactly WHY, I just don't. I do have a recipe for cinnamin-pecan pancakes that I definitely want to try and looking at that, it is one of those words that I never seem to spell right. Is it min or is it cinniman? How the heck is the word spelled people?!? Anyhoo, after trying the pumpkin-pecan pancakes at Village Inn yesterday for brunch, I am more than a bit curious to perhaps add a can of solid pack pumpkin to the cinn. pecan recipe I have. I'm thinking maybe I'll actually get around to making them this next Saturday morning. We'll see.....we'll see. ;) I'll definitely post on it if I do.

This was a really nice weekend for us. It was nice having everyone feeling better after the "sore throat/fever/cough deal" that came through the house and decided to stay for two weeks. We slept until we woke up both days which is so nice. Having an alarm go off at 4:00 every morning during the week is NOT fun folks. We lounged over coffee, watched some College Gameday on ESPN and went to Village Inn for brunch. We did some shopping at Lowes and made a quick stop for some Starbucks and spent the rest of the day watching football. Auburn decided to not show up for their game, but GA did and Oregon sure did in their game. Yeah, we watched the ducks play. :) We ended up having Wendy's last night. Long story, and it wasn't the plan, but sometimes life happens. Today we had coffee again and went to church. We usually go to the early service but we went to the late one this morning. After some quite tasty turkey and ham sammies, we went to the playground at the elementary school. It was very windy and chilly, but Jason had a great time and fresh air never hurt anyone. :) Tonight we're going to settle down and watch some more football and try to savor the last bit of weekend.

We have this week and then Monday and Tuesday next week of school before breaking for Thanksgiving. Kevin has a 4-day weekend, we get a 5-day one. I'll have to ask him if his boss is going to be rooting for us in the Iron Bowl. He's an LSU fan through and through. Went to college there and lived there for a while. He doesn't care much for Auburn or Bama but I think he dislikes Bama more. :)

That's it for this week. Here's hoping I get around to making those pancakes and posting that next week. ;)

Heart stuff, icky sore throats and football!

So, this past Thursday was my appointment with Dr. Lee, at Pikes Peak Cardiology. This place takes up the ENtire 7th floor of Memorial Hospital. The front desk lady helping me wasn't the "most" friendly, but everyone else including Dr. Lee, I really liked a lot. I mostly just talked with his nurse and then with him and they both listened and could "hear" what they thought they would. Dr. Lee says, "you have a very crisp sounding mitral valve", which is what he expected to hear. I left with an entire day of testing scheduled for November 29th. I will not go back to see him until December 13th. We picked up something from our eye doctor Kevin had ordered and then had a very late lunch at Cracker Barrel.

Friday evening I began to have a scratchy throat. BUMmer. I took some medicine and went to bed. Saturday was the day we had tickets to the AF/Army game at the Academy. I woke up with a sore throat and cough and low grade, 99.6, temp. Yay?!? I took some Motrin and we got ready and all headed out. Michael went with us and we had a good time. It was cold and cloudy and windy all day. Right after arriving(thank goodness we were under a tent at the time)it started to POUR rain and was 38. At this time of course, I am thinking, "yeah, I just don't think we're gonna stay". It stopped however, and we did stay for the 1st half. Air Force was losing when we decided to leave, but we actually left because I wasn't feeling well at all. Air Force came away with the win!! Go AF!! It is always fun to be there and Jason LOVES the flyby. This game all 4 planes went over at the same time. Last time one came by and then 3. They. Are. LOUD!! My ears were a wee bit clogged from whatever it is I have and driving up on the Academy with said clogg-i-ness, so it wasn't AS loud for me. :)

2nd one in a week? =)

Somehow I felt compelled to share this. Perhaps because we're having it tonight and it smells so good baking away!

Brown Sugar Meatloaf

Mix 2 lbs lean ground beef(I use 96% lean), with a small chopped onion, 1/2 TBS chopped garlic, 1/3-1/2 cup brown sugar(can use light or dark, I have both but my light was already open), 1/2-3/4 cup ketchup, 1 TBS Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 cup milk(I used 1%), 1/4 cup beef stock, 1 TBS red wine, 2 eggs, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp roasted ground ginger, and about a half cup dry bread crumbs, 1/4 tsp herbs de provence, 1/4 tsp ground mustard. Mix well and put into dish/pan that has been sprayed with Pam. Bake 1 hour at 350. Mix together 1/4 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 TBS liquid smoke, 1 tsp garlic, and a little beef stock. Brush evenly over meatloaf and continue baking for 5-10 minutes. That's it!

Smells AMAZING while it's cooking. We're having cheese grits and green beans with it. YUM! And here is a small clip from earlier today. :)

A little Halloween from our house

We did school in the morning yesterday which is not the norm for us as we usually do it after lunch. We spent the afternoon making cupcakes and punch and a couple other Halloween-y things for dinner. We had a good time. We also put out fake spider webs around our front door and put in a black light. Here then, is a bit of our evening.