Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving.

Is everyone ready?  It is 8:40 a.m. and my turkey is in the oven and smelling wonderful.  I have made lists upon lists upon lists this week trying to get my time table perfect to pull of this day.  

I've added, changed and created all kinds of things to do.

Yesterday I spent the morning chopping celery, onion and cleaning brussel sprouts.  I went out to the small herb bed and cut tons of fresh sage.  I made an apple pie and a blackberry (for the bro-in-law's birthday.)  

I'm going to roast half of the sprouts and the other half will make a casserole, much like the green bean casserole. 

Lovely sage and rosemary.

Monday was yet another day of watching little Min but before she got there I decided to sketch a bit, trying to work on next years Christmas card.  The tree I did last year I had made into lovely cards for this year.  Think a snowman will be next years, a Mr. & Mrs.

Painting, The Vote is In and Fire

I have been missing in action as of late mostly because of watching kiddos and a bit of painting.  Also prepping for Thanksgiving that has just snuck up on me.  

Last week I finished this landscape and I love it and The Hubby loves it.  In fact he said not to sell it and lets hang it at the cabin!!!!  He NEVER says that.

"Fall Skies"  

16x20 oil

I also finished this commission for a friend and she will pick it up the week after Thanksgiving.

I actually started it several times and they just didn't make me happy.  In fact, this one below here is not great but Snicklefritz LOVES it so I finished it and will give it to her for Christmas.  Like all little girls she loves horses.

I did get a vote in, not that it did any good but I did it.

We've also a lot of time at the cabin and this past weekend was our first fire of the season.  I love that concrete skull in the fireplace.  LOL!

Dinner Party, Halloween, Baby Shower...We've Been Busy

All week long I've been prepping for company.  The Hubby has a group of guys he hangs with a couple times during the year for a weekend or few days.  They shoot, drink, tell jokes, guy things.  They were brought together several years ago by a mutual friend, one The Hubby went to high school with and the others worked with.  He has since passed a couple of years ago.  We wives have become good friends now too.  

Back to the gathering...I spent the week in preparation, menu planning, grocery lists, timeline of prep...

The table I thought of a lot of decor ideas and drifting off to sleep one night I thought of the tiny antique salt cellars I have from my great grandmother and great-great granny.  They are just gathering dust in my china cabinet so the idea was simple, snip off flower and place.  GOODNESS, they were so cute and will be part of the Thanksgiving table in a few weeks.  

The apple pie...oh the apple pie...I have not made an apple pie in probably over 20 years and I used to be pretty good at them.  Unfortunately I only had enough flour for 2 crusts and I totally MESSED up and ended up with only one pie.  I think I know my mistake, the crust was way too short and I needed more liquid, but, the biggest mistake was the oven too hot.  So I burned the top of it.  I was so mad, and here's another but, it was so flakey that it was delicious, despite the burned top.  Honestly it was really good.  Also, since I had extra apples I had already sugar and cinnamoned I decided, just in case the pie was not edible, to cook them.  I tossed them in a saucepan, added a glob of butter and real maple syrup and cooked till bubbly.  I served over vanilla bean ice cream.  YUMMY!  

I also served tossed salad, the pesto roasted potatoes and green beans, like my momma used to make with bacon and onion!

The main course was a jalapeno-cream cheese stuffed pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon.  Oh Yes I did!  I get them at our local grocer, Reasors in the frozen meat section.  The one in the photo is cajun, stuffed with shrimp and andoule sausage, haven't tried it yet.

The entire evening was a huge success.  

The next day was a baby shower for our baby Maximilian, coming in January.  Trying to keep everything as normal as possible because we DO have a grandson arriving.  It was so wonderful to see old friends and family, new friends and family for the occasion.  I was THRILLED beyond thrilled to finally get to meet my new great niece.  She is I think 14 months old and a cutie pie.  

Good grief I almost forgot Halloween...

Life With Grandkiddos

These two, oh how my heart bursts with love for these two.  This photo is one of my absolute favorites.   Snicklefritz is so grown up now and I remember her at 3, Min's age now.

I watched Snicklefritz from birth several times a week at the office  We had a great set up there to watch her and allow me to work too.  Then we moved offices to one with windows and lots of space for her to run and play.  She would sit on the windowsill and watch me paint and sometimes go to her own easel and paint with watercolors.  We have a very special bond.

Snicklefritz age 3

And now little Min is such a part of the mix.  I haven't watched her quite as much as I did Snicklefritz, so far.  Now with all the marathon doctor appointments her parents have had to make in OKC, I've been given the opportunity to spend lots of time with her.  We are forming a real bond now to the point that she was upset about something the other night and instead of seeking comfort with her parents she came to ME!  

She fights the nap with me but with a little scratch/rub of the back and she melts like a puddle.  

It was a truly wonderful feeling that we've clicked in that special area of Granny and granddaughter.  

Min age 3

Oh, I am tired, oh so tired, but it is a good tired, satisfying.  These two bring such joy into my life.  I find myself smiling a lot around them.  The relationships with each of them is very different and that is exciting.  My world is such a better place with them in it.  

I hope that I get to build a relationship with little Max too.  Still lots of prayers that the doctors are wrong a whole bunch, that it's not as bad as they predict, that they will err on the darker side but reality will be rosier.  

Sunflowers and Deer

Another quiet weekend at the cabin.  When we got there we had to turn the heat on because the cabin really stays cool, very cool.  It took about 3 hours to get it in the low 60's.  Saturday morning I put a fire in our porch fireplace but really it was warm enough not too but I just HAD TO HAVE IT!  We actually kept it going all day.

Friday evening we took a nice golf cart ride and I got some awesome snapshots, hopefully to paint.  

This one and the deer were the best!

Saturday morning I was again doing another painting class/workshop in the wigwam but sadly NO ONE showed up so I just painted all by my lonesome.

I had the sunflowers and I was not about to let them go to waste.  

Took these photos this morning.

Saturday evening we had a couple over for an easy meal of grilled pork chops, pesto potatoes and oven roasted asparagus!  It was quite yummy and we ate on the porch with a fire in the fireplace and football on the television (not my favorite thing!)  It was a wonderful evening.

Nothing But Food/Cooking

No one’s perfect...Tuesday's dinner was a bit of a fail on my part because of seasoning, undercooked noodles and (blaming) frozen green peas that were harvested late in the season and tough as a boot. I saw somewhere a recipe for hamburger gravy and this was my attempt.

1 lb. lean hamburger meat

1-2 tsp olive oil salt/pepper

1-2 tsp thyme (or fav seasonings)

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 green pepper, chopped

Garlic

1-3 Tbls. flour (more or less)

1 cup (more or less) milk (it’s for like a gravy so depends on how much to get right thickness)

Mushrooms (I had a small can)

1 Tbls. tomato paste

1 Tbls Worcestershire sauce

Milk (amounts vary depending on thickness wanted)

Brown hamburger. When almost brown add onion and peppers and cook till tender. Add tomato paste in a little cleaned out space in the skillet and let it kind of cook to get rawness out. Add flour and cook on medium heat till the raw flour taste is gone. Add milk and thicken to your liking. Some of the recipes called for cream, I didn’t have any. You could also use beef broth or stock. Cook a few minutes then I added the peas and small can of drained mushrooms. While simmering I cooked the noodles (obviously not long enough!)

UPDATE: Okay, the hamburger gravy on Thursday turned into hamburger soup. All I did was add a can of petite diced tomatoes and lots more salt and let it cook for about an hour and it turned out delicious. I also added in about 1/2 cup of leftover pesto potatoes (see below) leftovers and I think that added bit of pesto made the soup even better.

SUCCESS-Squash Soup:

Tuesday's lunch I made squash soup. Every Tuesday Af & Nick have a baby doctor appointment and I get to fetch Minerva to hang with me a bit. I wanted to feed them when they came to pick up Min as they usually are famished when they come in the door, so I fed them, it’s what I love to do.

In my fridge and pantry I had:

vegetable stock

1/2 onion

2 cups cubed butternut squash

a can of pumpkin purée (NOT pumpkin pie filling)

ginger

fresh sage from my garden

salt/pepper

red pepper flakes

real maple syrup

I sautéed the chopped onion in olive oil and vegan butter. When translucent I added the cubed squash , salt and pepper and a splash of the syrup. Stirred it around for about 5 minutes then added the can of pumpkin purée and entire box of vegetable stock (I think 2-3 cups.) I covered an simmered for about 20 minutes till the cubed squash was tender. Then I added three fresh leaves of sage, red pepper flakes and about 2 tsp of ground ginger. Again let simmer about 20 minutes to release the flavors. When done I took out the sage leaves and used my immersion blender to smooth the soup. OMG, there was a smidge of heat from the red pepper and ginger and it is YUMMY! So satisfying and great for lunch the next day.

Thursday's dinner was nothing exceptional, EXCEPT for these potatoes!!!!

Pesto Potatoes

I was reading on the back patio Thursday afternoon and of course I think many things at once including cooking, as I’m digesting a good book. We were going to have tilapia and I needed to make it interesting, via the sides. I had a new container of pesto, a couple potatoes and a lemon. I searched pesto and potatoes to find I could put the two together, and use the pesto on the fish too. I sliced the potatoes thinly and tossed in some of the pesto, a splash of olive oil, squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper. Roasted on cookie sheet in 350 oven till tender, about 20-30 minutes. I cranked the oven up to 400 stirring the potatoes around and cooked for about 10 minutes to crisp a bit. Then I made a space for the seasoned fish, another splash of oil, lemon squeeze and cooked 6-10 minutes till fish done. YUM YUM YUM! Those crispy potatoes with a bite of fish were devine.  These potatoes were the ones I added to the remake of the soup above.  I cut them up a bit too before adding to the soup.

Painting, Prayers and Play

The past week was kind of a blow. Seems the OKC doctors and Tulsa doctors are on a different page concerning baby Max. It is going to be a weekly thing now as we get closer and closer to his due date (Jan 7.) We are now in the phase of really stepping up to watch little Min while they go to the plethora of doctor/specialist appointments. Lots of prayers please that the doctors are all wrong, that the tumor shrinks and goes away and he is just perfect, honestly he is perfect. Pray, pray, pray.

We had a nice weekend away to the cabin. It was even cool enough to have a fire in our outdoor fireplace. Can't have a pit fire because of the burn ban but our fireplace is perfect! Had a group again at the wigwam for a painting session. I brought pumpkins and mini corn to paint. Really enjoyed it.

Also captured a few snaps for future paintings. I've got a commission I need to get to this week, a horse named Big Red for a high school classmate that I haven't talked to in nearly 50 years. She found me and we've been emailing like crazy.

This weeks fun dinner was a play on a cross between lasagna and chicken tetrazzini. It came to me in a dream, yes I dream cooking. In my pantry I had a half a box of lasagna noodles, a ja of Alfredo sauce, 4 chicken thighs in the freezer, 1/2 white onion, lemon, 2 stalks celery, garlic cloves, salt, pepper, oregano, Italian seasoning, cottage cheese, egg, frozen broccoli, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese and 1/2 box of chicken broth.

First I poached the chicken thighs in the chicken broth, water, onion, celery, lemon, garlic and seasonings. When it was done I took the thighs out then strained it and was left with some broth I froze for later use. I shredded the chicken and added the jar of Alfredo sauce. The cottage cheese (didn’t have ricotta, CC is good replacement) was mixed with the beaten egg and a bit of Parmesan cheese.

Now it was time to layer:

A bit of sauce in casserole dish. Then lasagna noodles, chicken mixture, cottage cheese mixture, mozzarella, broccoli, repeat with last layer of noodle and top with mozzarella. Kind of use your imagination. Cover with foil and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about an hour till hot and bubbly. Take foil off and top with Parmesan and return back to oven about 10-15 minutes. Let stand for about 10 minutes to set.

It was yummy and would have been nice to serve with small salad if I had the fixings for it. He thought it was great.