Time for holiday cups of hot chocolate or coffee with whipped cream.
Posted on 11/01/2025 5:46:00 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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So glad you had safe travels & a wonderful meal - sounds delicious! No matter where we have our holiday meals (brothers, nieces) the kitchen is always the ‘gathering’ place it seems.
My cousin, the elderly frail one, texted me this morning & said if we had any leftovers, she was “begging” if we could send her some, she didn’t care what. She didn’t remember her daughter asking yesterday if she wanted any or that she said ‘no’ - she was very tired by the time they left. I had bought some 3-section containers & also had mini cups like for condiments. I LOADED her up with 2 containers - she’ll be surprised: turkey light & dark meat, stuffing, mashed potatoes, casseroles (green bean, sweet potato, spicy corn pudding), cinnamon apples, scratch cranberry sauce, 4 mini cups of gravy & 2 maple pecan bars. She’ll have food for a week LOL! Last year this time, she was active, driving, & independent. She started fainting & falling after the first of the year & in September got pneumonia which put her mild heart failure into overdrive. Now, she can slowly walk with a walker & assistance, gets out of breath & tires easily. I have the bad feeling this may be her last Thanksgiving & Christmas so I am trying to make good memories & take the load off her daughter somewhat who has to deal daily with her failing mom while holding down a full time job & raising a teen age daughter (good kid) as a single mom.
Keep us informed as to when your granddaughter arrives! 🙏
Sounds like a delicious meal and a nice holiday. Prayers for the impending birth. Very special. We dry brined for more than 20 years and only spatchcocked a few times although it is my favorite way.
As far as cuts of meat left from the last steer, all I have to work with now IS Brisket. I’ve been using this recipe. They turn out like BUTTAH! :) I’m going to try it next on a bear roast. There’s no fat cap on bear, so probably even lower and slower for tenderness.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/8346498/slow-cooker-beef-brisket/
“Say prayers that when the time comes, things go smoothly, and not take too long.”
Since Baby Girl survived a car crash in utero, she many not WANT to come out, LOL!
LOL, I can understand her reticence.
You guys should look into the manufacturer hosting a car commercial for the SAFE vehicle she was driving and TWO lives saved. ;)
Hey, now that’s an idea. Maybe they could get royalties from the ads. It is a true story!
Looks like you are about ready to get hit with a lot of snow. And we will get it after you as usual. All depends, as we know, is how fast is it moving? Friends hubby came over and put the snow blade on the atv.
Time for holiday cups of hot chocolate or coffee with whipped cream.
Good Morning!
(((Stay Warm, My FRiend!)))
Sweet, Salty, Spicy Party Nuts
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/230159/sweet-salty-spicy-party-nuts/
How CUTE are these little Gingerbread House Cup Sitter Cookies?
A really cute idea.
The family Thanksgiving is today at 1:00 (brothers, 2 nieces & their families). It’s about an hour drive over the mountain on a very steep & curvy gap. Once over, it’s a scenic drive on mostly good roads.
I have Christmas presents wrapped for the 2 grand nieces & 4 grand nephews. I won’t see them over Christmas so their presents need delivering today. I also have a little something for both nieces so that will be today, too.
The sweet potato casserole is about to go in the oven & the cinnamon apples are hot in the little crockpot. I’m also taking homemade cranberry sauce, maple pecan bars & ‘stabilized’ whipped cream (like Cool Whip, but better).
I’m still not quite over Thursday’s feast so I won’t be going back for seconds today! I am looking forward to seeing the new addition on my niece’s house, meeting the lab puppy & seeing the Dwarf Nigerian goats :-)
Just walked theu my hibernating garden.
The paths are all overgrown with field grass and everything is dead except for my Brussel sprout plants which i have ignored for 2
5 months.
They are rallying and growing good....hahaha.
I ordered seeds today from someplace I just heard about from a Facebook group that is for Central Texas.
The company is Wilhite.
I still have seeds from the last e years but I want to try out some stuff that is better suited for our hot summers.
So good to hear from you! :)
Puff Pastry Apple Galette
The most gorgeous apple dessert ever.
Ing 1 sheet frozen puff pastry thawed 1 ½ c almonds lightly toasted ⅔ c sugar ¼ tsp k/salt 2 eggs lightly beaten 1 tsp ea vanilla, almond extracts 2 tbl unsalted butter melted 4 lge Granny Smith, peeled/cored/thin-sliced ½ lemon Egg wash: 1 egg beaten w/ 2 tsp water Vanilla ice cream/Salted caramel sauce for serving
Instructions On a lightly floured surface, roll pastry into 16X14" rectangle. Carefully transfer to 9-10" cast iron pan, pressing gently into the bottom/up sides. Refrigerate while you prepare the filling.
Filling---processor/combine finely almonds, sugar and salt. Add eggs, extracts, melted butter; process til mixture comes together. Set aside. Toss apple slices with lemon juice to coat. To assemble: pour almond mixture into pastry-lined pan and spread evenly. Arrange apple slices evenly on top overlapping slightly. Fold excess puff pastry back over pan edges to form a rim or crimp decoratively. Brush pastry w/ egg wash. Bake pastry golden brown/apples are tender, 425 deg 40-45 min. Serve warm w/ ice cream, salted caramel sauce on top. Serves 8.
Notes Galette is a rustic dessert. No worries about perfect pie crust edges.
Use firm baking apples. Granny Smith won't break down and look amazing.
Thanksgiving was low-key and peaceful. Pops, Nephew, #1 Marine Daughter, Mrs. Augie and myself. I smoked the turkey, made a big pot of fresh turnips, the stuffing and the gravy. Mrs. Augie took care of the desserts. No one left hungry.
And of course I forgot to put the row cover back on after picking them so they got frozen pretty hard Thursday night. They looked great before the freeze, but the forecast is not nice so I think I'm going to yank all of them later today. I'd rather have them cooked and bagged in the freezer than turned to moosh and wasted.
I had to chuckle at Howard this morning. Today might be his first time experiencing snow. He hadn't been out of his box when I went out to feed him. The look on his face trying to process why everything is now covered with ich was priceless. I'm pretty sure he thought that he was going to be destroyed if he stepped on it.
It's becoming apparent that whoever wasn't taking care of him before he came to us had spent some time on crate training. He spent a good two hours there while we were eating our Thanksgiving dinner and didn't complain once. When we bring him inside the first thing he wants to do is check his crate to be sure Booger didn't steal his jumbo chewy bone while he was away. So far he hasn't been interested in destroying the new crate pad. Tonight might be the night that we see if he wants to stay indoors to sleep.
Today's tasks include, but are not limited to: Making another batch of spiced coffee, setting up the table-top Christmas Tree (I set up the Creche & hung outdoor wreaths yesterday), water and clean up/trim all house plants, trim Bay Laurel and preserve the bay leaves for future stews and soups, make soup for supper, make some Boursin-like cheese spread, take stock of Christmas Gifts on hand and see what still needs to be purchased/made, and start addressing the Christmas Cards.
We scurried around yesterday and got all the outside stuff done. Tomato cages are in the milk house for storage. Beau chain-sawed down the asparagus patch for me, so that got mulched and now will have a nice layer of insulating snow on top. Since he had the chainsaw out, be sawed off all the grapes (they're weeds and will come back) and took out three small trees I wanted gone from the garden, pruned my shrub roses down to 18" and took out all the overhanging Lilac branches that were hitting me in the FACE when mowing. What a guy!
2" of snow so far but light and fluffy. Anywhere from 6-10" when it's done by sometime tomorrow. Snow shovel at the ready; I will do my share of the shoveling in a few rounds today and tomorrow.
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