Is November really almost over?

Time sure is flying by. It seems like I turned around and it was November and now it's about to be December.

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving so much. We spend Thanksgiving with my parents and family every year. My oldest daughter, 9, loves to help Nana make fruit salad.

This year she showed her little sisters how to make it and they basically made it by themselves with just a little assistance from Nana. They were so proud!

I made Crystal's wonderful butterhorn rolls. They were a big hit with my family. Very delicious!

I think the next time I make them- probably at Christmas- I will make smaller rolls since these were so large. The picture shows them before they doubled in size. And yes, I forgot to take a picture after they were cooked :(

"Homemade" Doughnuts

When I was a child my mom used to make these for my brothers and I. I have great memories of trying to put as much powdered sugar on them as I could get :)

Now I will tell you upfront that these are not healthy, but I guess doughnuts couldn't possibly be healthy anyway.

***First, you take a can of whop 'em biscuit dough (any brand will do I suppose). I've used name brand and store brand.

***Next, you whop 'em on the counter to open, ha ha!!

***Then, you heat some oil in a skillet. I use canola oil in a small skillet- probably about 1 inch of oil. I don't measure this!

***Take the biscuits apart and flatten them.

***Then use a small biscuit cutter or you could use some kind of small bottle top to make a whole in the flattened biscuit. This will be your doughnut hole.

***When the oil is hot, you're ready to go. Place several biscuits in the hot oil.

***Do not walk away!!! These cook quickly! Turn when brown and wait a minute or so. Take those out and place on a plate with several layers of paper towels to soak up some of the grease.

***Add some more biscuits to the oil. Continue until all are cooked.

***Sprinkle some(or lots if you're like me) powdered sugar on them and put them on the table and watch them disappear!

Egyptian Meal

We are studying Creation to the Greeks with My Father's World. http://www.mfwbooks.com/

We are enjoying our study through Genesis. Today we finished up the story of Joseph and have been studying Egyptian culture and life. We had a meal of fish, cheese, pita bread, nuts, fruit and vegetables dipped in plain yogurt.

I borrowed these platters from my mom. I thought it looked nice served on them. :) I'm not usually too concerned about how things look when we're about to eat it, but I tried to make a nice presentation. Plus, lately I am all about some paper plates, which, by the way, we ate our Egyptian meal on, hee, hee. Kind of funny after being served on a silver platter. Oh well!

My eight year old daughter said this was the best meal she ever ate. Not sure if that's a compliment or not considering she eats almost anything.

By the way, the story of Joseph is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I get teary eyed every time I read Genesis 50:20.

Frozen pizza anyone???

I've been making homemade pizzas for my family for a few years now, but especially in these last 6 months. My family raves and raves over them and my husband says I could go into the pizza business( I think he's just trying to give me a super nice complement). I used to buy those little cheap dollar pizzas and feed them to my children for lunch. I can't buy them anymore after tasting the good stuff. Well, a few weeks ago my favorite grocery store was running a fancier frozen pizza for a great price, plus I had a coupon that doubled so I think I paid about a dollar for one. Anyway, we ate it today and let's just say "it was very disappointing". I probably will save my dollar for something of greater value next time and just make another yummy crust in my bread machine, spread some tomato sauce on it and add some toppings. So delicious and very simple!!! Those are two things that make me and my family very happy.

Christmas countdown

My almost 8 year old daughter tells me every day how many days left until Christmas. Well, here we are and we have 3 days left. I have several more things I would really like to get done, but I'm not going to stress out about them. I try not to do that- it's not good for my health :) Well, here goes. My last few things left: - make 12 dozen cookies ( 6 dozen chocolate chip and 6 dozen rolled sugar cookies) I will freeze some of these to pull out when we need a yummy snack. This keeps us from eating too much at one time. -work on pillowcases for each of my children. I make each of my children a special pillowcase for Christmas each year. I'm very late getting this done. I'm using what I have on hand since finances are tight this year. I'm excited to see how they turn out. I hope I have time to finish. - make more Chex mix. I made a big batch yesterday, but I need to make some more for little gifts. - microwave raw peanuts. My father-in-law used to always give us raw peanuts every Christmas. They are so good cooked in the microwave and then adding butter and salt. Yum, yum! -make domino ornaments with kids. I found the cutest idea on the net one day last week. I'll try to find the site and put up the link. Such a cute idea!

Yummy Dessert

I do not usually make a lot of desserts for our family. There are a couple of reasons for that: my husband is diabetic and I love to eat them :) I guess I figure we eat enough sweets elsewhere and at snacktime that we don't need anymore. Plus, it's hard enough some days to get a nice meal on the table much less a dessert.

The other day I had some strawberries that needed to be eaten and decided I had enough ingredients on hand that I could make a nice trifle dessert without much effort. This is what I came up with. I'd eaten this before so it's not my own recipe, but I don't know where it came from or I'd give credit where credit was due.

Trifle

yellow cake (I had some yellow cake in the freezer that I made last month.)

instant vanilla pudding

strawberries, cut up

blueberries

Cool Whip

All you do is layer these ingredients and you have a nice, yummy dessert!

To tell you how good it really is, my son (who loves everything chocolate and is not crazy about other sweets) said this while eating his, "Mom, I think this is better than... chocolate!" That pretty much sums it up!

Baking Day Fun/Fiasco!

Yesterday the kids and I baked 2 batches of cookies, Bakers Chocolate Chip with holiday chips and Bakers Chocolate Chip with M&M's. We made sugar cookie mix, but haven't gotten around to baking them yet. We had a good time, but before we even started half of the bag of baking M&M's was dropped all over the kitchen floor :( I wish I had more patience and had not lost my cool with my kids. But they are very forgiving and we had fun anyway. I am trying to figure out if they really like to bake or if they stay in with me so they can lick the beaters. Hummmm....

My next thing to make was Crock Pot Candy. I first encountered this yummy treat at our church's Christmas fellowship a few weeks ago. It's sooo good! I found the recipe and everyone said it's so easy and makes soooo much candy. Michael picked up all the ingredients for me at the store(thanks, honey) and I was ready to start. A little while after I put it in I noticed a burning smell, but decided it was nothing. The recipe said, "DO NOT OPEN LID". Cook for 3 hours in crock pot. I think this is a time I shouldn't have been such a rule follower and just opened it and checked. But, hindsight is 20/20. I kept smelling the burning smell- for 3 whole hours and what did I do???? Of course I didn't open it because it said DO NOT OPEN LID! I know what you're thinking, but I was busy, not just sitting here watching the crock pot for 3 hours. After 3 hours, I opened it and found my mess. The peanuts on the bottom had burned. Not just a little, but burned to a crisp! I tried to salvage what was on the top, but it's still not the same and has a kind of burnt taste. I was so upset, because I'd looked forward to eating and sharing my candy treats with everyone. I guess I'll have to find another crock pot because I'm never making crock pot candy in it again. That is if I ever attempt it again. Everyone keeps assuring me that it must have been my crock pot because you can't mess up this recipe.... well, I did.