Photo Dump

I have no idea why I'm behind on blogging. I'm not giving it up but sometimes cannot think of any good stories to tell although we have been busy doing stuff and I'm sure something good happens everyday. Anyway I did upload theses photos this morning and can share those. 

The first several are from Thanksgiving with the Fishers.  We had deep fried turkey which is the only way to eat Thanksgiving turkey these days.  It was a cold day but Bob braved the temps to get the bird done for us.  We soaked it in a brine for about 15 hours the night before and we think it really made a difference.  The meat was unbelievably juicy! 

I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner and this year made several things including learning to make oyster dressing with Phyllis.  It was delicious and I look forward to making it again next year.  Also pictured is my pumpkin pie and Phyllis' pecan pie.  Jennifer made a chocolate pie.

I think our food is so awesome on Thanksgiving because we make everything (but the gravy) from scratch....Jennifer's homemade dumplings, Bob's mashed potatoes, Phyllis' yeast rolls and my sweet potato casserole (no canned yams either!).  Kevin made green bean casserole and Phyllis also made cranberry salad.

And since I like to take pictures of my food here is my plate below with nearly all the above mentioned.  I ate what I wanted on Thanksgiving Day and was able to get back on my healthy eating plan the next day.

Me and Phyllis after packing up leftovers for everyone to take home.

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Okay, now we're moving onto Christmas.  I've cut back on what I bake for Christmas this year since none of us need to eat 4 dozen cookies in a month.  I did try out some new candy recipes as well as some old ones and served them up when had friends over this weekend during the snowstorm.  There's peanut butter fudge, lemon coconut bars, chocolate chip cookie dough brownie truffles, and Ritz cracker candy.  I asked our friend to each bring a little sweet something so in addition to what I made we had peanut butter pie and another assortment of homemade candy. 

I  made homemade turkey tortilla soup, O'Charley's potato cheese soup and set up a Panini bar.  For the paninis we had orange marinated chicken, turkey breast, bacon and honey ham.  I also set out several toppings like raspberry preserves, pesto and a few different kinds of cheeses.  The 6 of us had a nice time staying warm with spike Wassail, eating good, hot food and a lot of laughing. The nice thing is we've had plenty of leftovers to tide us over all weekend long so I haven't had to cook.

Last but not least...here is a photo of a really old Nativity set I have that belonged to my dad's side of the family.  It's from Germany and who knows how old it is.  The figures are made of this really thin clay-type material and are very fragile.  I don't think the "stable" is original to this collection but I guess it's the one my grandparents last used to display the scene in.  I think I'm going to get some moss to cover up some of the green and red spray paint one of these days.

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We've enjoyed the winter weather this weekend.  We stayed in on Friday and watched the ice and snow come down and finally ventured out yesterday morning to exercise at the mall then see The Nutcracker last night.  Today we'll venture to the mall again to walk a few miles then hang out and watch some football.  I may do a little online Christmas shopping from the comfort of this old house.  We already have Robbie's big Christmas gifts purchased including his very own laptop and printer (he doesn't read my blog) and will go shopping for gifts for a few of my clients later in the week. 

That's it folks!  Hope y'all are doing well.