Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving !!!








May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!


Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Beef Stroganoff=Yum!

So I made my first ever Beef Stroganoff last night and boy was it yummy! No...I don't have pictures :( but I'll share the recipe!


I got the recipe from the Cooking with Philly website which my coworker stumbled upon yesterday and where I plan to draw more inspiration from in the future becuase it was Delicious!

I added about twice the amount of beef broth and cream cheese so that there would be more gravy/sauce and a little bit of salt and pepper. Yum Yum Yum! You have to try this!! I didn't use a flank steak either....actually, I'm not sure what it was that I used...definitely beef, and labeled 'steak for stroganoff'...but that doesn't say exactly what it was, lol! It was good either way! So go try it because you're going to love it and it was really easy!

Pictures

Finally! Here are some pictures from the Fall dinner/Pumpkin carving!!




Please ignore my hair, this was the only break I took from cooking and I had no idea it was looking crazy!


The finished pumpkins!

I think I'm still full....

Saturday was a hit! "As usual" said everyone in attendance :)

It was a fun evening filled with kid laughter, carving fun and of course a ton of food!

I added another roast to the menu as I couldn't find a single pork loin roast big enough to feed 11. Instead of doing the Rosemary-Garlic recipe on it as well, I decided to make a Pork Roast with Cardamom Mushroom Sauce (which I found on Simply Recipes). DELICIOUS!!!! It was sooo good! I highly recommend this recipe! Cardamom is expensive, but we have a place kind of like a farmers market whole foods combo that I was able to get about 2 tablespoons of it for $.95 vs. $10 for a little bottle.


With the other roast, I highly recommend adding some chicken broth to the bottom of the roasting pan as it ended up being a little dry.

Overall the meal was very delicious! For dessert we had a 3 layer apple cake with buttercream frosting, chocolate chess pie and a lemon meringue pie. Yum, yum, yum!

Sneak Peak

I have figured out what I'm making for the annual Fall Dinner and Pumpkin Carving Dinner!

Want to know what we're having?

Too bad, you'll have to wait :) just kidding...

We will be feasting upon:
Rosemary-Garlic Pork loin roast
Roasted Carrots and sweet potatos
Caramelized apples
Green beans (this may end up being a green bean casserole...)
Mashed regular potatos
Rolls
Deviled eggs
Salad


And for Dessert:
Three-Layer apple cake
A mixed berry, pound cake, pudding thing that is really good. I don't know if it has a name, but my friend V and her mom make it for their catering business and for family functions, so I'm stealing another recipe from them :)

Should be another yummy meal!

Giddy Up!

Another fun weekend!

Where to begin...I guess Friday after work is a good start!

Friday when I got home I decided that I needed to chill for a little bit. I had plans of going riding as soon as I got home, but I was a bit tired, so I sat around for about 45 minutes watching an old western on tv. Headed on down to the barn about 6 and rode my buddy Blaze for an hour and a half. We had a good time! It was really wet still, so we were trying to stay in the dry bits, but we did a little slipping and slidding when we tried some fast turns, yee-haw!

Saturday morning I had to work until 12:30 after which I quickly rode to the house to pick up a saddle before meeting one of the nurse practitioners from my office at her house to go on a ride with her horses. I believe his name was Trapper, and he was a lot of fun! I rode with them for about an hour and a half then took off to go watch the NC State game....it was depressing. They had a good first half though! I left around half time to pick up mom and go to a charity roping and dinner. We arrived much later than we inteded so we had to pick at scraps. W and the stable girl, T, were already there and enjoying themselves (W more than T). So we joined in and watched til the end of the auction before heading home and to the heat of our cars.

Sunday was another fun filled day! T picked Blaze and I up at 9 and we headed off to a (different) charity trail ride and luncheon/dinner). The ride was beautiful and fun with an excellent hot dog dinner waiting behind one of the trail bends for us. It was so neat! We rode for about 5 hours and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! A little cool in the shade and surprisingly hot in the sun when we would stop for breaks. I even got sun on my chest and face! The whole weekend was topped off by a big slice of German Chocolate cake (one of the many items purchased at the auction Saturday night).

Can we rinse and repeat?? I had so much fun!

Here's the only picture I got of the whole weekend. The is of T and her horse Deak (sp?) with some of the many riders beyond her on one of our breaks.


Side note* I am definitely my mothers daughter! When we stopped for hot dogs, I somehow managed to drop my dog, (ketchup, mustard and all) right onto my lap....good times :)

Busy Busy!

I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off lately! This week has gone by in a busy blur. I'll start with last night though and walk you through my equally busy weekend :) You should be excited!

Last night I went over to PB's house to have a big spaghetti dinner. She was hosting this dinner because some of her family from Norway came in town and has been visiting. I went over directly from work and immediately started trying to understand what the heck these people were saying! I'm kidding, they actually speak fairly good English. So we had a fun filled evening talking about EVERYTHING while grubbing down on yummy spaghetti and some of the best garlic bread I've had in a long time. I also got to see my friends C&C baby for the first time in 2 months (she's only 2 and some change months old, lol). My how she's grown! and what a cutie-pie! Daddy is going to have his hands full when she gets older! It was so great to see them and hang out with L, M & S too. S is stuck on me like glue, which is so cute and fun. Love that girl!



Tonight when I get off work I'll be headed to L,M & S house for a pig pickin also in honor of the Norweigans. I plan to get there about 5:30 and stay until about 8:30 as I have yet ANOTHER stop to make before headed home! I'm going over to my friend V's house for a get together with friends and fun times.

Tomorrow morning I plan to get up at the usually time (between 5-5:30) so I can keep the dogs on their routine and have plenty of time to play with them before going riding (horses) for a while. Not too long though because at 12 I'm going to watch N.C. State play!!!! GO STATE!!!! The Wolfpack Rocks!!

From after the game until Sunday afternoon I have no real plans other than to hang out with my mom, W, and my aunt and uncle who are also coming in town today before we all go out to dinner Sunday night to Tony's Oyster Bar. YUM! Love you Gino and Kevin!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!