Thankful

 Today is the day after Thanksgiving.  Some people refer to it as Black Friday.  I have never participated in Black Friday and have no desire to start.   I love sleeping in on the day after Thanksgiving and relaxing w/ my family.  This morning, Oliver & I were the first ones to wake up and we watched Forrest Gump together.  I can't think of any place I'd rather be.   

 I am not a shopper, never have been.  If I shop, it's online.  Well except for groceries....  I do that @ the times when everyone else is watching football, at church or in school.  I hate shopping & crowds of strangers.   I like crowds as long as it's controlled by me :)  I like "my people".  Some may think that is controlling, I think it's preferential. 

Our boys and Sophia's children

Yesterday we had a GREAT Thanksgiving!!  My boys had been asking if we could "Please!" have a BIG Thanksgiving @ our house this year...  I would do anything for my boys, especially if it involves lots of cooking.  Knowing that they were desiring a big family gathering, I set out to provide it.  We invited my mom & stepfather, my brother Shawn & his family, my friend Melinda & her children and David's sister, Sophia w/ her family (My brother, Shannon and his family live in China so he couldn't be here.) .  If everyone came, that would make the total 22.  My house is not large and is around 100 years old so it wasn't really designed w/  an open floor plan.   Where was I going to put everyone??? 

Mom said yes, Melinda & Sophia said yes; my brother said, no.  Now the total was around 16.
I checked the weather and were going to have sunshine and temps of around 68.  We're going OUTSIDE!  This would allow room to move around and we could have a fire on the patio when it started cooling off.  David moved the big farm table from the restaurant building and we pulled the church pews out for seating, strung some lights and started cooking!!  Everyone cooked and helped pull it all together.

My mom & Roy cancelled the day before, Roy was sick.  She was bringing desserts so I asked Sophia to bring something for dessert.  Steve (Sophia's husband made a HUGE chocolate cake, fudge and an apple pie!!! Delicious!  Melinda made her awesome potato salad, a ham and (Oliver's favorite thing) a  pickled tray w/ olives.  Oliver ate all of the pickles.  Note to self: find out what kind of pickles those were....
We had so much yummy food!! 
OUR AWESOME MENU:  Turkey & Ham
                                              Green Beans
                                              Dressing & Gravy
                                              Sweet Potato Casserole
                                              Potato Salad
                                              Carrot Souffle'
                                              Spinach Maria
                                              Macaroni & Cheese
                                              Corn, Rolls
                                              Chocolate Cake
                                              Pumpkin Pie
                                              Fudge
                                              Carrot Cake Pops
                                              Strawberry Pizza
                                              Apple Pie


I was so worried about not having enough room for years that I refused to host a holiday party @ our house.  We had such a good time.  There were 9 kids/teens from age 7-21.  They all played Frisbee, kickball, football and sat around the fire.  Even w/o my biological family in attendance it felt like family.  I thank God for the people that He has placed in my life!  Because of the friends & family who were in attendance, we were able to give our boys the big family holiday gathering that they desired.  This was our main goal and it was achieved.  My only regret: (as always) I wish I had taken more pictures.  My niece, Sarah did take a few and was kind enough to share w/ me.  I didn't get any pics of Melinda and her girls, I wish I had....

Stop and smell the pee pee, umm I mean roses.....

My boys are at 3 different schools this year.  I run from school to school picking up and dropping off in a rush most days.  I am not complaining, I normally don't mind it at all.  And up until football season ended I didn't have to pick Parker up until later in the day because of practice. Also, Parker will be driving in 3 weeks so it's not much of a big deal.

The school's dismissals are staggered so I have just enough time to drive to each school.  I pick Oliver (the youngest) up first, followed by Cooper (middle child) and then Parker (oldest).  Lately, Oliver has been jumping in the car doing the "pee-pee" dance.  I've asked him to PLEASE, use the restroom before the bell rings.  Still every afternoon, the pee-pee dance.....  

A few years ago a friend, who is a RN, gave us a hospital urinal before we left for a trip to Arizona w/ the boys  She laughed as she gave it to me and said, "believe me, you'll need it...".  Well, she was right and we've replaced that one several times now.   As gross as that may sound, it really is a reality when you have boys and travel by car.  We don't talk about it but we've all done it.  This topic recently came up @ a birthday party and it was a hilarious conversation.  Water bottles, coffee mugs, fast food cups....   I referred them to the the medical supply store for their own urinal bottle :) 

Back to my original story.  This past week Oliver, true to form, got into the car and proceeded w/ a screaming pee-pee dance.  I told him to retrieve the urinal that was hidden behind the 2nd row seat. I had decided to start leaving it in the car, just in case.   My instructions were use it and then hold it by the handle until we arrived @ the wooded area just before Cooper's school.  Simple enough.  But no, I turned the corner and the urinal went flying and pee-pee dumped into my floor.   Fortunately, my Rover has rubber floor mats and it wasn't a huge amount of urine (enough to be nasty- regardless).   We pulled over @ the wooded area, dump the Goodwill donation out of it's trash bag and put the floor mat into the bag. 

We continued our usual pick ups and went home to scrub the mats.

When I went out to my car the next morning, I was overwhelmed w/ the smell of urine! I guess it had spilled on the carpet before I pulled over to remove the mat.  At first, I thought "ugh, that Oliver!!" then it occurred to me:  If I had just taken the time to stop and let Oliver use a bathroom, we wouldn't have had this problem! It was due to my rushing and hurrying that made this mess!!! 

From now on I am going to do my best to slow down, give in to Oliver and his little boy bladder and preserve my floors of my vehicle :)    Life is too short to spend so much time rushing around.  An extra 5 minutes will save 30 minutes of scrubbing pee-pee later.

  

Easy Pasta Dinner

At our house, we LOVE pasta!!  The problem is we "love" creamy (fatty) pasta sauces.  Pour a garlic cream sauce on any pasta and we will put it away!!

When I was living in Memphis I worked @ a Cajun restaurant on Beale Street.  I waited tables but I loved to get to work early and hang out in the kitchen w/ the Cajun lady that cooked the meals.  She was awesome and was always willing to share her incredible kitchen knowledge.  I learned so many great recipes but my favorite was a garlic cream sauce. She made a shrimp & andouille pasta that was so good!!   I'll share that later, maybe....

I came across an awesome pasta recipe in this month's (actually December) issue of Real Simple.  It has a great combo - cream & garlic! But it also has English peas and spinach - what every mother wants to get into her children's diet :)  Also, it's not too heavy (like Alfredo).   It is so easy and great for a busy family dinner.

 So I am going to share it here for you to try.  I hope that doesn't  break any rules.... I did alter their original recipe b/c we like to EAT and their recipe wouldn't have fed 2 of us.

Creamy Chicken and Spinach Pasta

serves 4 (maybe)

1# of your favorite pasta (gemelli, penne or fusilli...)
1.5 cups frozen green peas
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1.5 cups heavy cream
3 cups of shredded rotisserie chicken
5 ounces baby spinach (about 6 cups)
kosher salt (or sea salt) and black pepper
Grated Parmesan, (for serving)

*Cook the pasta according to the package directions, adding the peas during the last minute of cooking.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water.  Drain the pasta and peas and reserve the pot.

*Melt the butter in the pasta pot over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 minutes.

*Add the cream, chicken, spinach and 1/2 teaspoon salt & pepper to the pot and cook until the chicken is warmed through and the spinach in wilted. 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the pasta and peas and toss to combine (add 1/4 cup of the reserved cooking water if the pasta seems dry).  Serve with the Parmesan. 

 I used a basil, garlic & oregano rotisserie chicken and it was great!! 
This was even better on the 2nd night.  Parker didn't eat, so we had leftovers.  Oliver & Cooper ate it too.  Cooper picked out the peas but that's ok.

Hope ya'll will try this one.  I loved it!

Chicken w/ Wild Rice Casserole

Whew!! It's been a busy 2 weeks!!! Soccer is over, trophies are handed out and all-stars have been chosen.  Which means that 3 out of 5 nights we can have family dinner again. We still have football and it looks like we are headed to the playoffs!!  Fort Payne Wildcats are 10 - 0 and have one game left in the regular season.  Good news for the team, bad news for family dinner..... We've been surviving on Grilled cheese and canned soup lately, which beats fast food or ball park hot dogs any day.

 My mom makes a chicken & rice casserole that's a lot like this one and we love it.  This casserole is great for cold winter nights.  Hope you like it!!!


Recipe for Chicken & Wild Rice Casserole
adapted from the blog: The Secret Life of a Chef's Wife.



4 table­spoons butter
1 medium-large onion; chopped
6 stalks cel­ery; chopped
6 car­rots; peeled and chopped
4 (14.5oz.) cans low-sodium chicken broth–or 7 1/2 cups home­made broth
1 (6oz.) box Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice (with sea­son­ing packet)
2 1/2 cups whole milk (or equiv­a­lent mix­ture of milk and cream depend­ing on your desired fat content)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups cooked, cubed chicken (roast­ing in the oven is perfect!)
salt to taste
pep­per to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup sliv­ered almonds
1/2 cup cooked, chopped bacon (optional)
In a large, heavy pot, melt but­ter and add the onions, cel­ery, and car­rots. Saute until slightly soft; 8 min­utes. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Turn heat to a sim­mer and add the con­tents of the box of Uncle Ben’s Wild Rice. Cover and cook 15 minutes.
Mean­while, heat the 1/4 cup but­ter in a small saucepan. When just bub­bling, add the 1/4 cup all pur­pose flour. Whisk together and cook over medium heat, con­tin­u­ing to whisk, for 3–5 min­utes. Don’t let this roux get overly brown, just slightly golden. Set aside.
When soup is done sim­mer­ing, add the milk or milk and cream mix­ture. Cook 10 more min­utes on low until rice has fin­ished cook­ing. Bring back to a low boil and add the roux (butter/flour mix­ture) and cook, stir­ring until soup thick­ens. Add cooked, cubed chicken. Add salt and pep­per to taste. Serve with fresh pars­ley and sliv­ered almonds sprin­kled on top. And another hold-over from my orig­i­nal recipe: toss a lit­tle cooked, chopped bacon on the top as well!
**Add other veg­eta­bles if desired: broc­coli, cau­li­flower, peas, corn.…