Hunting for Christmas Trees

We've made a tradition of going up to the Olympic Mountains the weekend after Thanksgiving to hunt for our Christmas tree. This year several friends joined us. We left home at 9:30, were on the mountain by 11:00 and the hunt was on! You either have to go uphill or downhill, no easy walking through groomed Christmas tree farms for us.

What a beautiful part of the world we live in! You can barely see the Hood Canal peeking through the mountains in the distance.

We're never sure how much snow to expect; last year there was quite a bit, but this year, NONE! It didn't phase the kids one bit, they played in the dirt and rocks instead.

We bought four permits so we could cut trees for others as well, but now we have to choose which one we like best, short and bushy or tall and lean?

Balderdash

Has anyone ever played the game "Balderdash"? We love it! Last night, Jillian, Kylie, Nate, Brad and I all played together and had so many good laughs. Basically the game goes like this:

1. One player reads a word from the card (these are words that no one has ever heard of, but are real words).
2. The other players write down what they think the word means, while the player who read the word writes down the real meaning.
3. The "definitions" are read out loud by the player who read the word from the card. The other players guess which is the real definition. You score points by guessing the real definition and by tricking other players into guessing your definition is correct.

Here are some of the words and "definitions" from our game. Can you guess the real definitions?

Uxorious
a. extremely smelly
b. a type of fruit drink
c. a bad recess
d. submissive to one's wife
e. a disease, I think

Snash
a. a type of ivy
b. to snatch then smash
c. to speak disrespectfully
d. to stash macaroni
e. I steal jewelry

Agroof
a. falling flat on one's face
b. unkind or insensitive
c. to grapple
d. to go poof and then scream
e. a camel's second eyelid

Thanksgiving Feast

I've finally decided on my Thanksgiving menu. It took a while to figure out how many people were going to be here (only eight this year, sad!) and then I wanted to find a few new ideas. We will be serving:

(for recipes, click on the highlighted items)

Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Wheat Berry Waldorf Salad
Pistachio Salad
Southern Green Beans
Carrot-Sweet Potato Mash
Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Chocolate Dream Pie

YUM!!! My new finds are the Wheatberry Waldorf Salad and the Carrot-Sweet Potato Mash. I figured we'd better keep some of the old favorites, too. I wish I could celebrate with all of you! I love big gatherings on Thanksgiving. This year my parents went down to Santa Barbara, CA to visit my brother Scott's family. Corey and Tifanie are spending the day with their husband's families. Brad's brother, Pat, is going to his wife's family. We attempted to invite some friends, but I guess it wasn't meant to be, so it's just the six of us and Brad's parents. We'll have a wonderful time reflecting on all we're thankful for and eating tons of yummy food! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

La Befana

Jillian and I spent this weekend at La Befana, a handmade craft bazaar that my friend Katie organized. Jill and I created and sold "book baubles" which are bookmarks with a charm on one end and a bead on the other, strung on a nice black cotton string. We had so much fun making them together and they turned out so cute that I almost didn't want to sell them! They were very popular; we sold all but six. There were so many wonderful crafts at La Befana. It was great to see what other women created and to be a part of such a crafy group!

I forgot to take a picture at the beginning of the bazaar, so this is only about 1/3 of what we made. It's hard to see from the picture how cute they really are, but trust me, you'd want one!

Two Winners!

I cooked two dinners this week that my family really enjoyed.

The first, Sweet and Sour Chicken, got 12 thumbs up (2 thumbs from each of us). It takes a while to fry up all the chicken, so give yourself at least an hour.

The second, Pork and Mushroom Marengo, got 10 thumbs up (only one dissenter isn't too bad). It's a crockpot recipe, with just a little bit of prep. before hand.

Here are the recipes for both:

SWEET & SOUR CHICKEN

3 to 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks

In a bowl, make the batter for the chicken:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 tsp salt

Whisk together to remove all lumps. Dump in your chicken chunks.

In a wok (or deep fryer), heat your oil to 375*. Make sure it's hot otherwise the batter will soak up too much oil. Place chunks into the hot oil, being careful not to splash yourself. Don't put too many in otherwise they'll all stick together, and it will also cool your oil down too much. Turn the pieces over to cook the other side. Fry until golden brown

Remove the cooked chicken from the oil and put on paper towels. Once all the chicken is fried up, put in a dish and hold in a 300* oven for 10-15 minutes.

SAUCE

1 T. butter or margarine
1 carrot, sliced
½ onion, sliced
1 green pepper, cut in chunks

Melt butter over medium heat. Saute veggies until crisp-tender. Remove from heat and put veggies in a bowl.

In the same saucepan, combine:

1 1/2 cups sugar
4 Tbsp rice vinegar
6 Tbsp ketchup
4 Tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 cup cold water

Put the saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Stir constantly so it doesn't lump up. Once it gets really thick, remove from the heat, and return veggies, plus 1 can pineapple chunks, drained. (This makes a ton of sauce. I’m planning to ½ it when I do it again.)



PORK & MUSHROOM MARENGO

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into-1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon cooking oil
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
1 14-1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon granules
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash black pepper
1/3 cup cold water
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Hot cooked brown rice (optional)

1. In a large skillet brown meat, half at a time, in hot oil. Drain off fat. In a 3-1/2-to 5-quart slow cooker place mushrooms and onion. Add meat. In a bowl combine undrained tomatoes, the 1 cup water, the Italian seasoning, bouillon granules, salt, and pepper. Pour over all.

2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or on high-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours.

3. If using low-heat setting, turn to high-heat setting. In a bowl stir together the 1/3 cup water and the flour. Stir flour mixture into pork mixture in cooker. Cover and cook on high-heat setting for 15 to 20 minutes or until thickened.

If desired, serve over hot cooked rice. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
(I skipped step 3 and it turned out great!)

Tag

I got this one from Erika:

If you are a blogger you now have a mission. As soon as you read this, drop everything, grab your camera and take pictures of where you blog from. NO CLEANING!!! THEN, tag some lucky ducks and spread the love.

I know I'm not the Jen she tagged, but I thought it was interesting. I tag Lorilee, Lorelle, Katie G. , Michelle R. , McKenna and Kandyce because I've never seen where they live!

Here's my blogging spot, where I spend way too much time!

Can you say "Oedipus Complex"?

A few weeks ago, Ben drew a picture on my bedsheet. I asked Ben what it was and he said "You, me, and Dad in bed." At the time, I didn't look at it very carefully, just thought it was funny. Today, while putting the sheets on the bed, I looked more closely at the picture.

Guess which one's Brad!

Mom: According to Ben

I got this idea from Brooke who thought Ben would have some good answers...

1. What is something mom always says to you? Maybe

2. What makes mom happy? Hugs

3. What makes mom sad? Punches

4. What is something mom does that makes you laugh? Tickles me

5. What was mom like as a child? Little

6. How old is mom? 16
(I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or not...)

7. How tall is mom? 20"
(20 is the highest Ben can count on his own, so it's a big number to him!)

8. What is mom's favorite thing to do? shop for food
(am I a little too excited about the grocery game?)

9. What does mom do when you're not around? wash dishes

10. What cool thing does mom do? play games with me

11. What's something mom is really good at? washing dishes
(must be because that's all I do when no kids are home!)

12. What is something mom isn't very good at? running
(out of the mouth of babes...)

13. What does mom do for her job? clean people's houses
(I do this very infrequently, but he's right, it's something I get paid to do!)

14. What is mom's favorite food? hamburgers
(ummm...NO!)

15. What does mom do that makes you proud of her? plays with me

16. What do you and mom do together? learn to read

17. How are you and mom alike? We're both humans

18. How do you know mom loves you? she kisses me

A Full-filling Day

We had a busy Saturday and accomplished a lot! Started off with Santa's Workshop at church this morning...they didn't lay out all the projects this year like they've done in the past, so I didn't get to take a picture of all that was made. I know we finished two large mosaic pots, seven or eight baby blankets (five of which Jillian sewed! Thanks mom for teaching her to sew, she loves it!), several windchimes, birdfeeders, knitted hats, Christmas wreaths & ornaments, two large wooden benches, cards and letters to servicemen & women and 75 hygiene kits. These wonderful Christmas gifts go to various organizations like Helpline House, House of Hope, and LDS Humanitarian Services. I love this activity that our ward does every year. It's such a great way to start the holiday season. The kids were very involved. Nate said he did a little of everything and he was very helpful with Ben. Jillian and I sewed most of the time, Kylie and Brad worked mostly on the bird feeders and benches. I was too busy to take many pictures, but here are a few.

After we got home, Jillian, Ben and I (and one of their friends) raked leaves in the front yard. It was a beautiful, afternoon, warm for mid-November!

The kids have a "dig site" on the edge of the yard, basically a really big hole that they've dug, and they decided to fill it with the leaves so they could jump in to it and pretend they were swimming. I guess they didn't get to the swimming part, since Jillian said there were slugs on the leaves...

While we were raking, Brad and Nate went to Brad's parents and loaded up logs from a tree Brad cut up last week. More wood to split...yipee! When they returned and the kids were tired of raking, Brad and I were able to do some yard work together without interruption, which is a very rare occurance! It was nice to talk and spend time outside together cleaning off the sports court.

Then tonight was Nathan's first indoor soccer game. He's on a co-ed team, five girls, twelve boys, all freshmen, all rec-league players. They played another Bainbridge team which was a mix of grades, with most of the players from select teams. (Bainbridge has a rec-league and a select league, select being the more "serious" players.) They lost, 5 to 11, but I thought they did pretty well considering their competition. He hasn't played soccer for the past two years, so it was fun to watch him again. Sorry, no pictures, the action is way too fast paced for my camera!

Family Talent Show

For family night a few nights ago, Nathan planned a family talent show. Let me tell you, we are one talented family!

Ben made pig noises and did sommersaults.



Jillian and Kylie played the piano.





Nathan played guitar and sang (but not at the same time).





I made an apple pie (with help from Jill, Kylie & Ben),

and Brad ate the apple pie!

Next stop, America's Got Talent!

Cooking Slump

Help! I've fallen into a cooking slump and I can't get up! Every Sunday, I make my grocery list for the week and put together a menu based on what I'm buying (and what I have on hand). I have all my tried and true recipes in a three ring binder and I'm getting tired of them all! I've just spent the last hour looking online for new recipes, and haven't come up with much. So, I need your help! Please, kind friends, if you love me, send me a recipe! Something not too complicated that uses normal ingredients that kids will eat that doesn't contain dairy is all I ask. Thank you!

Is it Thanksgiving yet?

I've been totally excited for Thanksgiving ever since I saw this yummy looking recipe:

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/pecan-topped-baked-sweet-potatoes.html

I can't wait to try it out this year. It seems the past few years we haven't been very creative with our Thanksgiving fare. We tend to stick to the traditional favorites, which isn't a bad thing because they're dishes we know we like, but this year I'm determined to try some new recipes. So...if you run across something that sounds especially delicious or you have one of your traditional favorites you want to share, comment with the recipe! I'll let you know when I've decided on my menu.

They Say Obama Attracted the Younger Voters

That was certainly true in our house. For some reason, Ben is infatuated with Obama. I know, we live on an extremely liberal Island in a liberal state, so I guess I can't be too surprised. On Halloween, one lady whose house we trick-or-treated at asked the kids, "If you could vote, who would you vote for?" Kylie and Jillian, noticing the Obama sign in the yard, mumbled something incomprensible, but Ben shouted out "OBAMA!" The lady gave him a high-five and an extra handful of candy. I asked him later why he would vote for Obama and he said, "Because John McCain wants to close down kids' schools." That was actually from an ad by Christine Gregoire against Dino Rossi in the Washington state governor's race, but same difference, right? I asked where he heard that and he said, "On TV." Hmmm...maybe we need to pull the plug!