It's Thursday! Week after Thanksgiving!!

Not many more days till Christmas everyone! Hope all of you had a good Thanksgiving. Well today was weight check for my baby boy. He is 13 lbs 5 ozs! Woo hoo! He is slowly getting up there. :) I haven't been posting much lately because my home has been chaos lately with 3 boys to take care of (not including the DH) and house hold stuff plus home schooling on top of all that. Yes I am exhausted! haha. But I am still going strong. Thank you lord for having man invent Foldgers coffee.lol. I really think that it was a mom with 3 boys who invented it.lol. Getting up at 6:15 in the morning is really starting to catch up with me. Not getting in bed till 10pm or later because of everything that I have to do in the evening or just trying to relax before I have to go to bed. Unreal. I am going to try and get a yummy fudge recipe posted today after I do some cleaning on my house. It is Christmas time after all and you need a good fudge recipe! I am also going to start posting some home made Christmas gift ideas on here so you guys can get some good ideas for some cheap easy make your home with a touch of love presents for your family and friends.

Good Tuesday Morning!

Well it's just 2 more days till the big Turkey Day! If you need to do some last minute shopping now is the time. Last minute house cleaning as well. Do a mad dash today to get things picked up working at one thing at a time for 15 mins. Do somoe cleaning for a total of 45 minutes (the Flylady way) and then take a 15 minute break of whatever you want to do that does not involve cleaning so you don't burn yourself out fast. If you haven't taken your turkey's out to thaw yet do that now! It takes a turkey a few days to thaw out. Get your kitchen cleaned and prepared a head of time for the big cooking task you will be doing in it come Thanksgiving. Clean and disinfect counters, make sure all dishes and pans are clean. Clean your stove and oven and don't forget to sweep and mop. But first and foremost before you do anything in there "SHINE YOUR SINK". When you are cooking for the big dinner keep a sink of warm soapy water on one side and the other warm rinse water so you can wash as soon as you are done with it real quick so nothing sticks in case you need that same thing again to cook something else later on. Rinse it, dry it and put it away. This will also help keep clean up after everyone has eaten down. Also, just remember to smile and enjoy your time with your family. If you smile everyone else will smile and if something bad arises from it all just step back take a deep breath and relax. Gather yourself smile and laugh it off. Make the biggest funny about it that you can. Like if you burn something. "Oops. Hope you all like cajun style potatoes. haha" See easy as pumpkin pie. :-) Just remember if you can relax and go with it then your day will turn out great and your dinner even better because you have one thing to be thankful for and that is your familys

Favorite Tip...

I love receiving my email tips from Flylady every day. My favorite tip today is Declutter for 15 minutes. Beleive it or not this actually helps out a lot! Especially if you are like me and already pretty much have your whole house clean just some clutter that needs to be picked up and sorted when you can sit down and do it. I can Declutter my kitchen, dining room and living room in 15 minutes time. Another tip I will share that I picked up from Flylady.net is this. Take your laundry basket with you while you pick up your living room. Everything that does not belong in your living room put it in the laundry basket. When you are done and have it all picked up and your living room looking good just take the basket and walk into each room placing the items that belong in their places. This should take 5 minutes or less. You get your living room picked up and declutterd in 15 minutes and an addition 5 minutes things that were in the living room find their way back to their own rooms into their own places where they belong.

More Holiday Recipes...

Ok I am making myself hungry looking at all these yummy looking recipes. lol. Well here are more Holiday Recipes straight from my Holiday Cookbook (My all time favorite cookbook!).

Vegetables and Sides:

Sausage - Cornbread Stuffing

8 ozs bulk sausage (regular or spicy)
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tspns dried sage
1 tspn poultry seasoning
1 pkg (16 ozs) prepared dry cornbread crumbs
3/4 to 1 1/4 cups chicken broth
Sage leaves for garnish

Brown sausage in large skillet over medium - high heat until no longer pink, stirring to separate meat. Drain sausage on paper towels; set aside. Wipe skillet with paper towels to remove grease. Melt butter in same skillet over medium heat until foamy. Cook and stir onions and garlic in butter 10 minutes or until onions are softened. Stir in dried sage and poultry seasoning; cook 1 minute more.

Combine cornbread crumbs, sausage and onion mixture in large bowl. If stuffing is to be cooked in turkey, drizzle 3/4 cup broth over stuffing; toss lightly until evenly moistened. Stuff body and neck cavities loosely with stuffing. Stuffing may be prepared up to 1 day before using. Do not stuff turkey until just before ready to roast. Roast according to instructions with turkey. If stuffing is to be cooked seperately, drizzle 1 1/4 cups broth over stuffing; toss stuffing lightly until evenly moistened. Transfer to 3 - quart casserole.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake 45 minutes (55 to 60 minutes if refrigerated) or until heated through. For drier stuffing, uncover during last 15 minutes of baking. Garnish if desired.

Makes 12 cups stuffing


Classic Bran Dinner Rolls

1 cup Nabisco 100% Bran
1 cup milk
1/2 cup plus 1 tblspn water
1/2 cup magarine
4 to 4 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 pkgs Fleischmann's RapidRise Yeast
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 tspn salt
3 eggs
Poppy, caraway or sesame seed (optional)

Heat bran, milk, 1/2 cup water and margarine in medium saucepan until very warm (125 to 130 F); let stand 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, undissolved yeast, sugar and salt. Stir warm bran mixture into dry ingredients. Mix in 2 eggs and enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Grease top of dough. Cover tightly with plastic wrap; refrigerate 2 to 24 hours.

Punch dough down. On lightly floured surface, divide dough in half. Shape as desired.

Place rolls about 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Cover; let rise in warm place (70 to 80 F) until doubled in size, 20 to 30 minutes.

Beat remaining egg with remaining 1 tblspn water; brush on rolls. If desired, sprinkle with seed. Bake at 375 F for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from sheets; cool on wire racks.

Makes 1 to 2 dozen rolls


Well hope you guys enjoy these two recipes! I am going to post holiday sweets tomorrow! Pies and Cakes.

Holiday Recipes

With Thanksgiving just 5 days away I thought I would share some great Holiday recipes with everyone.

Appetizers:

Stuffed Mushrooms

1 pkg (6 ozs) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken
24 large mushrooms (about 1 1/2 lbs)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine
1/4 cup each finely chopped red and green pepper
3 tblspns margarine, melted

Prepare stuffing mix as directed on package, omitting margarine. Remove stems from mushrooms; chop stems. Melt 1/4 cup margarine in large skillet on medium heat. Add mushroom caps; cook and stir until lightly browned. Arrange in shallow baking pan. Cook and shirt chopped mushroom stems and peppers in skillet until tender; stir into prepared stuffing. Spoon into mushroom caps; drizzle with 3 tablespoons melted margarine. Place under preheated broiler, 3 to 4 inches from heat, 5 minutes or until heated through

Makes 12 appetizer servings


Baked Vegetables & Seafood Wontons

1 envelope Lipton Recipe Secrets Vegetable Soup Mix
1 container (15 ozs) ricotta cheese
1/2 lbs imitation crabmeat, chopped
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp pepper
40 refrigerated or thawed frozen wonton wrappers
1 tblspn olive or vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 F. In medium bowl, combine vegetable soup mix, ricotta cheese, crabmeat, garlic power and pepper. Place 1 tablespoon ricotta mixture on center of each wonton. Brush edges with water; fold corners into centers. Press to seal. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet; brush with oil. Bake 25 minutes or until crisp and golden brown, turning once.

Makes 40 wontons

Note:Cover filled wontons with damp cloth until ready to bake, then brush with oil.

Variation: Use 1 1/2 cups chopped cooked shrimp in place of crabmeat.

I will add more recipes at a later time and/or date. Hope you guys enjoy!