Sweet Success!

Thank you all so much for offering your ideas and help concerning my lack of turkey making skills! I got a lot of great suggestions in the comments, emails, and in real life that were super helpful!

Since I was too afraid to risk it on the actual holiday, I decided to try my first turkey today as a test.

It went beautifully and my family was totally thrilled with the results!  I ended up doing a brine and then roasting the turkey according to Alton Brown's famous recipe.  The whole thing was much easier than I expected, though much messier than I expected (nothing a good kitchen scrub-down couldn't handle). 
The skin was perfectly browned and crispy, the meat was juicy and delicious. 

The whole endeavour was quite stressful up until this point, so when everything turned out perfectly it made all the craziness worth it.  One of my biggest problems in preparing this turkey was that I did not have the proper supplies.  I did not have a roasting rack, a pan large enough for roasting, or an electric thermometer.
If you saw my rant on Facebook the other day about not being able to find the things I need, this is what that was all about!  We don't have any normal stores in this town and so I found myself completely dismayed at the possibilities - which were none.  Typically I order whatever I need on Amazon, since I have Prime and can get 2 day shipping, but everything that would have worked for me took extra shipping time.
Thankfully, at the last moment I found the last roasting rack at a random little shop on our main street in town, what a relief!

This week is going to be so very busy for me, as I'm sure it will be for all of you.  I have a post planned for tomorrow, hopefully I can post it, but if not, I wish you all a happy, blessed Thanksgiving!

Time to Be an Adult

Well, the time has come.  I knew it was going to happen eventually, but this year it sort of blind-sided me and took me by surprise.

I am hosting Thanksgiving.

Not a big deal, right?  I've done it before!  BUT, last time my mama was there to make the turkey.  This time, I must be the matriarch, because it will be just me, my wonderful husband, my sweet children, and 4 of the delightful students from the college my husband works for.  I must do all the planning, all the shopping, and all the execution.  I can make some killer sides.  I've perfected my Grandma's sweet potatoes, I could make them in my sleep.  Mashed potatoes eluded me when we were first married (as did many other basic things such as pancakes and other easy fare), but I have managed to handle those.  My homemaking mentor, Cindy, has graciously provided me with her to-die-for dressing recipe, which is now a staple at Thanksgiving AND Christmas for our family.  Veggies?  No problem.  Bread?  I can totally do bread.  I've even managed to find a delicious homemade cranberry recipe that doesn't come from a can!  Don't even get me started on the desserts. 

But...oh the Turkey.

The centerpiece.

The star of the show.

I'm so scared!

So, I can cook a chicken.  I've now had a lot of practice with that, I'm over the gross factor of dealing with a whole animal, and I think that my roasted chickens, crockpot chickens, and chicken noodle soup are favorites in my family.  A turkey can't be much harder right?  Just bigger?  Right?

Does anyone out there have any tips for me?  I have a pretty severe aversion to raw poultry, so if it's not cooked to perfection, I'll be eating sides for Thanksgiving dinner and I'm sure my guests would not like to end their Fall semester battling samonilla.

On a more positive note, Calah over at Barefoot and Pregnant is asking for some very specific recipe ideas.  If you're a Thanksgiving goddess, I'm sure she would love to hear from you!  (You should pop over there any way, she always makes me laugh!)

Here are the recipes I want to share with her, and with you!

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

½ orange
2 cups water
1 tart apple
3 cups fresh cranberries (one bag)
1½ cups sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon (Calah - based on making this several times, I think it would still be delicious even if you skip the cinnamon here)
¼ teaspoon ground cloves

View full recipeSqueeze the juice from the orange and discard the membrane. Cut the rind into a small dice.
Over high heat, combine the rind and water, bringing it to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes then set aside.
Peel the apple and cut into ½ inch dice, place in a sauce pan.
Sort the cranberries, discard soft ones, and add the remaining berries to the apples along with orange juice, rind, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce to low and partially cover. Simmer and stir gently for 10 to 15 minutes.
Cover and chill before serving

These get rave reviews every year.  And I love them.  And you can make them wayyy ahead.



This is about as easy as pie crust can get.  It's not always beautiful, but it always tastes amazing and goes beautifully with the texture of pumpkin pie.  Plus, there's no shortening.
Sugar Cookie Pie Crust

1 egg
¼ cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
2 pinches salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup butter, cut into pieces

View full recipePreheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch pie pan.
In a small bowl, mix egg and sugar together. In a separate bowl, combine salt and flour. Cut in butter. Stir in egg mixture, then knead dough into a smooth ball. Keep refrigerated for 15 minutes.
Roll dough to ⅛ of an inch thickness and place it in pie pan; prick edges with a fork.
Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Use with favorite pie recipe.

What are you doing for Thanksgiving?  What are your favorite dishes?  And of course, if you have some turkey-making suggestions for me, I could really use them!

Volume 5: The Birthday Edition

Seven Quick Takes

v. 5

The Birthday Edition

 

1. The Birthday Girl

Yesterday we had an important birthday to celebrate!  Gab turned 5!

2. The Morning 
Now that we have had a few birthdays under our belts as a family (15 total for the children!), we have finally begun to see some traditions emerge.  One tradition that the children look forward to is waking up to special decorations (they change for each girl and each birthday) and donuts for breakfast!  Yesterday was no exception, so after going to bed around 1:30, I was up by 6 (this is VERY EARLY for me!) and out the door to buy balloons and donuts.  Everyone was quite excited!

3.  The Lunch
Another tradition is that Charlie takes time out of his work day to take the birthday girl to lunch, and out for a treat (this varies from a small gift, an ice cream cone, or for this particular birthday, a box of local fudge).  This just really touches my heart.  Charlie is an exceptional father, and it brings me so much joy to see how seriously he takes his relationships with each girl.  They all know that they are special to him, that he delights in them, and that he sincerely cares about each of them as an individual person.  As their mother, it brings me comfort to know that each of my little girls will grow into women who know how to expect a man to love them.  Things like this are sustaining for life.

4.  The Blessing
Yesterday, he also took her to daily Mass and she received a special blessing from Father afterwords.  I wasn't there, so I don't know all the details, but it sounds as if he made sure to tell my sweet girl how much the Lord loves her.  This seems to be one of the largest looming questions for women I know...does He really love me?  He has answered this question for me before, and I am glad that my little one knows how very precious she is to her Creator.

5.  The Party
To continue our celebration, we had a little dinner party.  Well, as little as you can get with Catholic families!  I asked Gab who she would like to invite for her dinner party and she ticked off two families who have daughters around her age, as well as her ballet teacher and her husband.  (This equaled 11 children and 8 adults.) She asked for spaghetti, so we made that happen!  It was a blast, we felt so blessed to share the joy of life with our friends.
(I would add pictures, but I don't like to post pictures of other people's children without their permission!  If you're my friend on Facebook, I posted some there!)

6. The Cake
Well, once I realized how many people would be joining us for the dinner party, it became clear that one cake would not be enough.  So, I whipped up an extra cake and put on full display my poor cake baking skills...

I think F was quite right when she stated that this cake looked like a hill of strawberries.  No cake should look like a hill.  At least it tasted good.
But, really, the star of the birthday cake show was the Pioneer Woman chocolate sheet cake.  My sweet mother-in-law purchased me the PW cookbook for Christmas last year and I stumbled upon the recipe there.  Oh. My. Goodness.  Delectable.  It lives up to everything you ever hoped a chocolate cake would be and was really not too hard to make (although, I did make some high altitude adjustments to the recipe, which really helped I think).  In combination with the Fleur de Sal ice cream (French salted caramel), it was so amazing that I sort of wanted to cry.  I think we have found a new birthday tradition....how could we possibly ever abandon this cake?!

It doesn't look fancy...but wow, it's so tasty!

7. The Gift
I am a gift giver, and it brings me so much joy to pick out a gift for the people I love.  I try really hard to think about what people would like, so in the case of birthdays for my children, I usually get very excited!
To celebrate 5 years old, we got a Plasmacar.  Now, this little beauty is crazy fun, so fun that after the children went to bed, Charlie and I had a blast with it!  This is the gift that almost wasn't though, I had so many problems with shipping from Amazon, which doesn't usually happen.  Thankfully, we got it right on time and it was a hit!  The kids have been just loving it and I enjoy that it is an active toy (especially as we are staring Winter right in the eyes by now!).  I was also so proud of my girl, she did such a good job sharing with all of her friends and didn't even insist on riding it first.  I have such vivid memories of being a child at parties and my friends not wanting to share their new loot, that her generous spirit really impressed me.  She's such a good girl.

Bonus #8
My Philosophy on Children's Birthdays
I don't get too excited about my birthday any more.  As I recall, the last time I was excited on my birthday was when I turned 16, because it was the first time my beloved Charlie sent me flowers (awwwwwww).
ANYWAY, the years of being thrilled and excited about your birthday are really pretty limited.  Making a big deal out of everyone's birthday is something that the children love and look forward to.  They are each individuals in a large-ishsomeone's birthday we just love to really celebrate.  We are truly blessed.  Each of these little children are a wonderful gift from God, and we sincerely thank Him for placing them in our family!

Well this wasn't very quick.  But, for more quick takes, check out Conversion Diary!

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord...

November is hands down my most favorite month of the year.  Whether the weather is beautiful (like today) with the remnants of fallen leaves underfoot and pumpkins still adorning the front porch, or whether the snow has made it's entrance, November is lovely and promising.
I truly enjoy Thanksgiving and the beginning of Advent, all the special holy days, and the family time.  I especially love and appreciate the ending of the liturgical year with the celebrations of All Saints and All Souls.  The wisdom of the Church never ceases to strike me, that we would ponder our deaths before the arrival of the Christ-child.  We need Him.

Death is something we all face.  One of the blessings of being Catholic, is that we think constantly of our own death, especially as we pray daily to our Mother "...now and at the hour of our death." 
My observation is that our culture has a bizarre relationship with death.  Take one look at games/toys and clothing/decor for the "tween" and teen crowd.  It is full of morbid depictions of skeletons, "zombies" and the like.  I wonder if it's fear.  I wonder if it's denial.  I don't know.

But, I appreciate the beauty of our traditions and our prayers.  I am thankful that we are called to think about death, because really, we are thinking about life.  This life, to be sure, but more importantly, our life in Heaven with the Lord.  In my simplicity and my humanity and my sinfulness, I need the reminder.  I need to remember that what is important is to try to be a saint, to be humble, to be obedient, to love the Lord.  Death is the reminder that there is an end, that this time is precious, that we must fight hard against lukewarmness. 

Our family is remembering those who have gone before us in a special way this month.  We remember friends, grandparents, acquaintances, teachers, friends of friends, parents of friends, donors, and all those who suffer the loss of these people that they love.  Teaching the children about purgatory has been tricky, but we found a beautiful book that has inspired them to really pray for the holy souls in purgatory, "Father Phillip Tells a Ghost Story."  After reading it, we thanked the Lord for His Mercy.  We are loved indeed!

We also took a little bit of time to quietly (or not so quietly in the case of my notoriously loud 3-year-old) visit the local cemetery to pray for those who rest there, especially those who have no one to pray for them.  We chose one particular person to pray for this month, did a grave rubbing, and little C drew a picture of him to add to our laminated cards.

 What a perfect month to remember, to pray, to be thankful, and to prepare!

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.  ~Leonardo Da Vinci

Dear Aunt Cindy...

Dear Aunt Cindy,

We would like to thank you for all of the cute and fun sweaters, socks, and Halloween outfits you sent for us.

Mom had elaborate plans of sending you a thank you note with pictures of us at the pumpkin patch, which is why it has taken us so very long to say thanks!

However, between our excitement and the sun-shiny day we went to the pumpkin patch, we didn't end up with very good pictures. (Maybe she needs Photo Shop??? haha)

Here, the baby refused to turn around because she was too busy chewing on the baby pumpkin someone gave her.  We are wondering how much dirt she ate that day...??? 

Mom tried to take pictures of each of us looking festive, but that didn't go much better than the group shots.

As your goddaughter, the pressure was on.  But, things went downhill from here.

Here, an ant on the pumpkin was much more interesting than Mama's camera.  We had a nice little chat, the ant and I.

For some reason, C only shows up in the attempted group shots.  We're not really sure what she was doing the whole time.

More eating dirt.  Well, and several failed attempts at picking up a large pumpkin.

Regardless of the pictures, we loved the gear you sent and got lots of compliments on it all month long!  We love you very much and can't wait to see you soon!

Love,
The Girls