Need a Laugh?

Why wouldn't the lobster share his cake?
He was shellfish!

Photos!!

A few family photos taken while the relatives were here...

My older brother, my younger brother, me (the pretty one!), and my dad.

All 6 of my dad's grandkids at the zoo.

Thanks to the sitters who stayed with the kids so all 7 of the adults could go out for dinner. :)

My neices and I went to the store by ourselves. I got to go down the PINK aisle!!

More pictures to come...

So, What Will Go with the Turkey?

My family (3 children and 7 adults) is coming for Thanksgiving dinner! And while I am excited (very excited), I really haven't started planning the menu. I know we will have turkey, but what else? Laura's ( Looking Towards Heaven ) request for Thanksgiving Day menus has been just the inspiration I needed to decide what we will be eating along with that tasty bird. So, here goes...

Pumpkin Dip (ginger snaps, apple slices, and cinnamon graham sticks for dipping) and cheese and crackers for starters.

"Casa Salad" (If you live in Fort Wayne, Indiana this is as close to the house salad at the Casa restaurants as I've tasted since eating there.)

Mushroom and Sausage Stuffing (Jim is going to make this. He makes it just like Mom did, only better. :) Don't feel obligated to tell her I said that.)

Mashed Potatoes (My plan is to sweet talk Jim into making these, too. I just like his mashed potatoes. You would, too.)

Corn or a Baked Corn Casserole (Sometimes I think we try to make so many fancy dishes at a special dinner that we overlook the simplicity of uncomplicated open-the-bag-and-heat veggies.)

Some Other Vegetable (I might make creamed peas)

Raw Carrots and Dip

Praline Sweet Potatoes

Buns (store bought)

Jellied Cranberry Sauce (Straight from the can, without any bits of real fruit in there)

Turkey and Gravy

Dessert is always the hardest for me to plan because I find it very hard to make a choice! So many good things that I can bake. How to choose; how to choose?! I think I am going to make an apple pie and a gingerbread trifle. I'll also have an assortment of Christmas cookies available. (Mom's thumbprint cookies, Mom's Buttercake, chocolate Rolo cookies, peanut butter kiss cookies, and I'm going to try making the Almond Joy Balls from the Paula Deen show.)

Wine, Kiddie Cocktails (see previous post), and soft drinks

Casa Salad
Assemble a salad using the following ingredients. Use amounts that please you.
lettuce (1/2 iceberg and 1/2 romaine),

chopped red, sweet peppers

chopped green onions

Italian shredded cheese mix

croutons

Dressing:
Place the following ingredients in a blender:

1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 t oregano

3/4 t pepper

1/2 t salt

1/8 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar (This really depends on your taste... start with less and add to your liking.)

3/4 t garlic salt

Blend the ingredients while pouring in 1 cup of oil (I use canola). Drizzle over your salad, toss and enjoy with a piece of crusty bread!

WFMW: Thanksgiving "Kiddie Cocktail"

Last Thanksgiving we were blessed that my brother's family came to visit. His three daughters joined my three sons around the Kids' Table. We tried to make it an afternoon of fun. Kid-friendly crafts, homemade decorations, party plates, and fun food filled the Kids' Table with smiles. One of the exciting things at the Kids' Table was the "Kiddie Cocktails."

To make a "Kiddie Cocktail" I used clear glasses, colored ice cubes and Sprite. (I pre-made the colored ice cubes using water and red, yellow and blue food coloring.) To assemble the cocktail, each child placed two different colored ice cubes in the clear glass. I then muttered a string of magic words while slowly pouring Sprite over the ice. You should've heard the oohs and aahs as the colors mixed! Who would've guessed that a yellow ice cube and a red ice cube would make an orange "Kiddie Cocktail"?!

A preschool science/art lesson and a cool party beverage... that Works for Me! Head on over to Shannon's for more WFMW.

A Boxer, A Villan, and A Dalmation...

These pics were taken at our town's Boo Bash. Just a nice festival that involves trick-or-treating along the downtown shops and then playing carnival games. A fun time, especially when your van hauls a boxing champion, a famous villan,
and a cute pooch.

Pumpkin Palooza

You know you are just dying to say, "Pumpkin Palooza..."

No, we didn't take a trip to the pumpkin patch, I'm just totally infatuated with all things pumpkin. Pumpkin-flavored, that is.
I do love that pumpkin ice cream from Edy's. I stirred in a handful of chopped pecans and it was absolutely wonderful.
Little Debbie is charming me with those little pumpkin snack cakes. They even have that cute little Jack-o-lantern face.
Ottis The Muffin-maker-man is my muffin hero with huge, extremely high calorie pumpkin walnut muffins.
Seeing as I'm so wild for pumpkin you might be surprised that I can't bring myself to try the pumpkin milkshakes at McDonald's. I'm not sure why. Just can't.

Here's a recipe for pumpkin cobbler that I found on a blog. I made it this morning for a church potluck and I had people begging for the recipe. I'd love to give credit for this pumpkin goodness, but I can't figure out from which cool blog I lifted this recipe. If this is your recipe please let me know, if you can tear yourself away from the cobbler pan, that is.


Pumpkin Cobbler

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13 pan.

3 eggs, beaten
15 oz can pumpkin
12 oz can evaporated milk
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1 T vanilla
1 boxed yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup pecans, chopped

Mix the eggs, pumpkin, evaporated milk, salt, sugar, spices and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan. Pour the dry cake mix over the pumpkin mixture. Drizzle the melted butter over the cake mix. Bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the cobbler and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

(I adjusted the recipe just a bit... I added a bit of ground cloves to the pumpkin mixture and I found that it had to bake about another 10 minutes, so watch this while it bakes!)

And if you've managed to keep the drool off of your computer, here is another of my favorite pumpkin recipes.

Pumpkin Fluff

1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding (powder)
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 container whipped topping ("lite" works)

Mix all this stuff in a bowl and use graham cracker sticks, ginger snaps and green apple slices for "dippers."

WFMW: Hot Soup?

Now that the weather is getting cooler (in some parts of the country, anyway) I've started to serve bowls of soup for lunch and light dinners. My boys love a quick bowl of soup. In fact, they think it is a great treat to be able to pick the flavor of soup we select from the Campbell's soup rack at the grocery store. Shrek... Cars... Goldfish... Dora...

Of course, the hard part of serving soup to the under-7 crowd is the whole its-too-hot thing. Blowing on the soup really doesn't alter the temperature much and for some reason my four year old hates an ice cube floating in his soup almost as much as he dislikes a blistered lip.

One day, as I was reaching into the freezer for an ice cube to melt in his soup before he noticed, I had a moment of sheer mommy brilliance. Frozen veggies! Instead of grabbing an ice cube I grabbed a small handful of peas and carrots. I didn't add enough peas an carrots to turn the soup into vegetable soup, of course, but just enough to cool it down a bit. And what mommy doesn't like the I'm-sneaking-in-a-few-more-veggies moment?

For more great (and maybe even tasty) Works for Me Wednesday tips visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.