day 8 – a photo that makes you angry/sad

Day 8 – a photo that makes you angry/sad is hard to find as I don't really have many photos that make me sad or angry. But THIS PHOTO is a reminder of my first attempt at Thanksgiving dinner and how it was the only thing that kept it from going smoothly  Read more about it here.

thankful

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Great time spent with loved ones and good food all weekend long. I hope you had a lovely holiday too! Below was the lineup for this year. Click on each item for the link to its recipe.

Roasted Turkey (sans glaze; nobody ate it last year)
Slow Cooker Maple Brown Sugar Ham
Celery Herb Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes (see recipe below)
Cheesy Mac
Green Bean Casserole
Dinner Rolls
Corn Soufflé
Sweet Potatoes
Cinnamon Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie (I added 1/2 tsp nutmeg & 1/2 a lemon to filling)
Cinnamon Spice Ice Cream
Zucchini Bread (see recipe below)
Ginger Cookies

Mashed Potatoes
red potatoes, quartered (do not peel; I used a 5 lb bag)
minced garlic
milk (I use what I have on hand, buttermilk is my fave)
salt
pepper
butter

Boil water. Add salt. Cook potatoes. Drain water. Add milk, butter, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. Mash/mix it all together. Say goodbye to your skinny jeans until Spring.

Zucchini Bread (recipe from a friend; it is SO moist!)

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

3 tsp vanilla

1 cup olive oil

4 cups grated "medium to small" zucchini

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1-1/2 to 2 cups fresh cracked walnuts

Beat eggs until light and foamy, then add sugar, vanilla and oil, beat until mixture will leave a trail when poured from a spoon. Stir in grated zucchini. Sift together flour, baking powder,salt, soda, nutmeg, cinnamon. Fold this into zucchini mixture with walnuts. Pour into 2 greased 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 inch loaf pans. Bake @ 350 for 1 to 1-1/2 hours or until a knife inserted in the center come out clean. Top with butter or just ENJOY plain!

Dinner Rolls

Can you believe it's already November?? Stores are starting to stock up with holiday items and I just couldn't be happier! We'll be hosting Thanksgiving again this year and I'm starting to put together a list of items to make. These dinner rolls will definitely be on that list! They are melt-in-your-mouth yummy!


Thanksgiving last year was a great one. It was the first time we hosted, we celebrated my birthday, we bought my wedding dress, and got our first Christmas tree! The day of Thanksgiving, everything was going smoothly; all the food came together, was ready and looked delicious. I popped the sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows in the oven on broil for a quick minute and went to start serving plates. When I looked at the oven, I saw it lit up... with flames! I quickly opened the oven door to put out the fire that was my beautiful sweet potatoes and marshmallows.

Good thing my sister was there to document it, or else we may have forgotten all about this little incident.
We all got a good laugh out of it (especially my dad and husband as I was frantically trying to put out the flames!) and I'm sure this story will come up every year from here on out.

Dinner Rolls
recipe from For the Love of Cooking

• 1 cup of water
• 2 tbsp of butter, softened
• 1 egg (hold under warm water before breaking it)
• 3 1/4 cup of bread flour
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp regular active dry yeast

Place all dough ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. Select the dough cycle and press start. Once the bread machine stops (it was one and a half hours on my machine). Grease a cookie sheet. Divide dough into 15 pieces and shape each piece into a ball. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Brush with butter then cover; let rise in a warm place 30 to 4o minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.