FEAST-ivities

The month of November, and October for that matter, passed by so quickly!  Autumn is definitely filled with a lot of family activities and traditions.  

Once again, I am Back-blogged and so I share a few highlights of the Autumn months...

And let the Feast, er, Festivities begin...

Our dear friends invited the girls over for a pumpkin carving night, what fun!
Prize ribbons and all....

And with pumpkins, come pie!

My Butterfly made this baked deliciousness from scratch.  

All Souls Day, a holy day, commemorates all of the faithful departed.  We celebrate with a beautiful Solemn Mass.  Our Cathedral Choir sung Gabriel Faure's Requiem.  Heavenly.

This November, my husband lost another of his aunts.  We held the memorial (or remembrance) reception at our home for dear uncle's wife.  Their friends and family were invited and it was a blessed day.

Autumn is my favorite season...the colors, the coolness in the air, and all the foods associated with Fall...

And then there is THANKSgiving...a time to reflect and express our gratitude for all that has been given to us in the preceding year.  Yes, here in Northern America we clebrate the autumn harvest festival from 1621, but it is much more than the traditional turkey and trimmings feast that most Americans replicate.  It is stopping and giving thanks to God for everything. Watching football, feasting and enjoying the company of family & friend reunions are just wonderful benefits and blessings. ;o)

Thanksgiving Menu and Recipes Here

Hopefully, I will resume with the final Autumn back-blogged feast-ivities soon...

xo,

~ Thanksgiving Feast & Recipe Links ~

This is a re-post of my new favorite Thanksgiving Recipes:

~ The Thankful Feast ~

LAST YEAR...
We had my husband's extended family, my family and some of our friends from our church for dinner.  Our home was full!  :o)  Nice!!
 
THIS YEAR...
I cooked for my little family of five.  So I had the luxury of snapping photos; no worries about time constraints and walking around in my pj's all day.  :o)  Nice!!
 
EVERY YEAR...
My husband and I try different recipes for our Thanksgiving Turkey.
 
Traditionally, we always cook a turkey, but we don't use the same recipe every year.
We may tweak some, but I can't remember ever cooking a turkey using the same recipe twice...not in the 22 years that we have been married.
 
ONE YEAR...
We came up with the idea of using bacon as a self-baster.  We covered the skin of the turkey with bacon; skewering the bacon to the entire outside of the turkey.  Don't laugh.  It was delicious (but fattening).
 
RECENTLY...
I took on A Challenge of making one thing useful/beautiful in the Master Bedroom, and just last week I decided to take a NEW CHALLENGE...to try this new recipe and change my turkey-baking-ways.  I took Stephanie (over at Sweet Boutique), up on her challenge...and then some...I tried (basically) her entire Fabulous Menu.

Words cannot describe and my pictures do not do it justice...
But, Hands down, this was the all time favorite and BEST tasting bird (and Thanksgiving Dinner) in our family history.

 

I think we have found our tradition.  :o)

I have posted (3 sub-posts) on each of the dishes that I tried, so as not to have such a terribly long post...Here is the Menu:  (click on dish to find pictured posts)

~ Blue Cheese Mashed Potatoes ~

 

~ Harvest Stuffing ~

 

~ Sweet Potato Crisp ~

 

~ Roasted Asparagus ~

~ Cranberry Sauce ~

 

~ Roasted Turkey ~

~ Apple Pie ~

~ Egg Nog & Hot Apple Cider ~

The calm, after the storm

 

My table decorations were very simple this year.  I used fresh Cuties California Mandarins surrounding a 3-wick candle (which I actually removed to make way for all the food) and placed it on the Lazy Susan.  My topaz harvest linen with burgundy napkins.  Super simple.

~ Hearts ~

A very blessed Sacred Heart of Jesus...

I hadn't planned to cook or bake anything special today, although,

I may be able to pull off Tiffany's Sacred & Immaculate Hearts Fruit Dessert, which look awesome & delicious and (can it be?) EASY!

My son just reminded me that today was also "National Donut Day"!

I'm going to have Butterfly make some donuts, too! In the shape of HEARTS.

Have a Blessed First Friday!

 

And a Blessed Sacred Heart of Jesus!

~ Favorite Foods: California Ranch Rice ~

This is one of the top ten dished requested in our home...

~ California Ranch Rice ~

Dear husband grew up with this dish and now, so are my children...

INGREDIENTS

Butter, 3 Tbsp.
Onion, small, chopped
Rice, 3 - 4 cups, cooked
Sour Cream, 2 cups
Cottage Cheese, 1 cup
Green Chilies, 10 oz.
Cheddar Cheese, shredded

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350.

Steam/cook rice according to package (basically 2c water for every 1c rice). 

While the rice is steaming/cooking,

Butter 13 x9 casserole dish.  Set aside.

Saute onions in butter until translucent.

Combine cooked rice, into sauteed onions, add sour cream, cottage cheese and salt & pepper to taste.  Mix together.

 

Place layer of rice mixture on bottom of buttered casserole dish, then top with a layer of green chilies. 







Sprinkle a little cheese on top, like this: 

Repeat layers, (ideally) ending with rice. 





Sometimes if I have extra chilies, I just throw them on top. 

Bake, uncovered in 350 oven for 25 minutes.






Sprinkle cheese on top during the last remaining 10 minutes.

Cheese will be melted to deliciousness...

 This definitely qualifies as a comfort food...

~ All American Breakfast ~

...takes on a new look!

Butterfly put this dandy meal together:

CEREAL SANDWICH:
Whole wheat bread
Peanut Butter
Strawberry Jam
Apple Dapples Cereal

and a hard boiled egg on the side for that extra protein needed for teens...

I had the same (minus the sandwich).  :o)

~ Cookies with a Kick ~

phfr ~*~ Cookie Edition ~*~

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, at Like Mother, Like Daughter
&
Linking up to Cookie Recipe Swap at Sweet Boutique

This Friday is our Home School Group's 17th Annual Cookie Exchange...which is being hosted at my home this year.

Besides the Exchange and Refreshments shared, we recite the Rosary together.  Praying together and asking for prayers for the intentions in our hearts...a mother's heart. 

It's a good opportunity for the moms to get out and meet the knew moms in our group and to build friendships and provide support.

This year we will have two options, with regards to the Cookie Exchange:

The Traditional Exchange and the Revised Exchange.

Traditional exchange:
Bake 1 dozen of your favorite cookie/bar; so if a total of 10 moms participate, you bring 9 dozen of one kind of cookie to trade with the other moms. You take home 9 dozen different cookies to serve our family, or to give away as gifts.


Revised exchange:

Bring only your favorite cookie/bar recipe and samples to have at the party. You don’t exchange the actual cookies/bread, just the recipe.
You don’t have to bake the cookies for each participant, but you also don't get to take cookies home.

{pretty}

This year I'm opting for the Revised Exchange and I will be making:

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies.



pretty scrumptious

I went online and found several forms of this recipe, but in the end, I tried this one (Recipe originally from Martha Stewart) which I found through this helpful blog.

The Ingredients.

The Bakers.

Teamwork!

Making and Baking cookies has never been easier. :D

{happy}

I'm happy to have helpers!

Making/Baking cookies the Old Fashioned Way...using some *elbow grease*!

Keep up the good work, girls!  (coach and mom...and taste tester).  :o)

{funny}

The secret ingredients that gives these cookies their kick?...chile powder! 
Intrigued?  I was.

funny, you would never guess that chile powder is used.

Will the fun ever end?  (and time to start brewing some tea)

{real}

Yield:  3 1/2 dozen amazing cookies.

I didn't think that there would be enough cookie dough to make a dozen,
let alone 3 dozen...but there was plenty!  For real.

Delicioso!  Maravilloso!

Go to Like Mother, Like Daughter to find more contentment!

Linking up to Holiday Cookie Recipe Swap...Blog Hop at Sweet Boutique

~ Peppermint Hot Chocolate ~

 

On the vigil of St. Nicholas' feast day...

 

 

 

 

The girls didn't need to be reminded to put their slippers out by the fireplace.

Conductor...needed reminding. :o)

The slippers were placed by the fireplace...in anticipation of *three golden coins*.

On Dec. 6th - the actual feast day:
After morning Mass, we hurried home to continue our St. Nicholas tradition...

Ta-da...

~ Peppermint Hot Chocolate ~

Here is our version:
(I don't usually measure...so these are approximation measurements)
(Also, either Hot Chocolate or Hot Cocoa...you can use chocolate bars or cocoa powder - whatever you have on hand).

1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 bar (2 oz) Ghirardelli 100% unsweetened cocoa (or Lindt 70% cocoa - Intense Dark), MELTED
          (you can substitute with 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder - I use Hershey's Special Dark
          100% cocoa)
dash of salt
1/3 cup hot water
5 cups milk
3/4 tsp. vanilla
sprinkle of cinnamon
1 peppermint candy cane, crushed
mini marshmallows (optional)

1.  Mix sugar, cocoa and salt in a large saucepan; stir in Hot water.
2.  Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils; boil and stir 2 minutes.
3.  Stir in milk and peppermint and heat.  DO NOT BOIL.
4.  Remove from heat; add vanilla and sprinkle with cinnamon.
5.  I use this fun tool to whip it up a bit, creating a light foamy layer on top.
6.  Drop in a few marshmallows (kids love them...me, not so much)

Mexican Hot Chocolate Mixer

Little Lamb added a little something extra this time...adding to the chocolaty richness (I opted out on this version).

My kids each received a bar of this Polish chocolate from our pastor, the morning of, to commemorate St. Nicholas!  (St. Nicholas was not Polish, but our pastor is).  :o)  This is good stuff!

We shared our peppermint Hot Chocolate with some freshly baked bread and fresh oranges from my father's orange tree...

Yum.  (mouth-watering yum)

Simple gifts...*bag of coins* and a crozier candy cane (for the hot chocolate).  Simple.
This year, I used dark peppermint chocolates for the coins.  Just three coins in each bag.  Perfect.

We printed out some coloring sheets from the St. Nicholas Center

Little Lamb's work:

Butterfly's work:
(I like how she added the patches on the children's clothes)

And wise-guy's Conductor's work:
(he was teasing me). :o)

And, Speaking of HOT CHOCOLATE...
Through several trails of wonderful and helpful blogs...I stumbled upon this Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies Recipe.  I am going to try baking them TODAY and (hopefully) share them on this Sweet blog.

I have to say...I am so thankful for all the beautiful and helpful blogs out there...so many wonderful ideas and lovely ladies that are willing to share.  St. Nicholas would be pleased.  :o)

 

St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra

He's every body's patron saint.  :o)

 

 

Linked up to Sweet Boutiques:

Super Sweet Saturday