Early Turkey - and Pie

We’re celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow at a local restaurant with Gary and Cheyenne (Gary is very excited about the buffet-style spread and all the fancy desserts)

so you’d think I wouldn’t be doing much cooking,

First try at a lactose-free pie. Not bad!

but Himself said he’d like leftovers… and I like leftovers… so I’ve spent the last two days leisurely cooking the parts of the feast we like best and experimenting with new recipes. 

Pumpkin ‘soufflé’

Tonight we had turkey, stuffing, deviled eggs, gravy (it was a fail - but the second batch was good), zucchini bread, pumpkin pie - and cute little pumpkin soufflés with the extra pie filling. Now we have leftovers for the rest of the weekend - and lots of sewing time for me. Win win! Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate, from our house to yours. 

Rainy Day Cookfest

I meant to quilt today, but thought I’d first make the angel food cake I’d promised Pop…

and since I was there, I should cook some chicken to make bbq sandwiches for this week’s lunches,

We’ll eat half, then freeze the rest to enjoy later

and hey, wouldn’t that chicken taste good in the Medieval Times tomato bisque soup (here) that I have almost all the ingredients for (hubby trudges off to Von’s…)

anddddd as long as the oven is hot, I should make that quiche recipe my sister sent me. (Here)

Sweetie Pie deep dish pie plate

Without the girls here everyday to keep me busy entertained, I’ve really gotten back into cooking (not just baking.) Hubby’s loving it, so much so that he agreed to buy me a fancy schmancy deep pie dish (here) so I can try my hand at pies (and more quiches…) Win, win! The fact it was 50% off didn’t hurt either…. 😂

Speaking of rainy days - our super scientific giant orange bucket rain gauge shows we’ve had 8”!!! of rain in the last 4 days. Since our yearly average is about 15”, that’s a lot! Forecast says no rain tomorrow but there are two more storms headed our way before the weekend. 

Chef JayJay

Jac made most of our dinner tonight. She didn’t eat it, except for the jasmine rice which is one of her favorite food groups. 

I thought she’d give up after her first touch of shrimp but Jac removed the tails - and a couple pieces of “intestine” - from about half a pound. And enjoyed it. She usually doesn’t like touching cold or slimy things, or getting her hands dirty, but none of it bothered her tonight.

I also showed her how to “snap” asparagus and she did the whole pound before putting them in the skillet and stir, stir, stirring. 

She told Pop and Donovan that she plans to have 3 jobs when she grows up - geologist, teacher and chef. And her reaction when D told her she couldn’t have that many was basically Watch Me -“I can be whatever I want.” That’s my girl!

Tater Chips

Leo asked if she could make potato chips today, then found a recipe that worked with what we had on hand. 

Nervous Pop supervised the slicing skills (Leo did well!),

then it was season, bake, flip, bake and eat. Yummmm. 

I have a mandoline on its way to make the slicing easier and more uniform. They need a bit more crisping next time but this is definitely something we’ll do again. 

Knife Practice

Jac is an old hand at trimming strawberries 

but this was Donovan’s first try.

I was surprised at how quickly he caught on

and how well he did at slicing them into pieces. And hooray for no sliced fingers! (which would be pretty hard - but not impossible - to do with plastic knives . . .) 

These were so yummy with the angel food cake Jac and I made the night before.  Pretty sure we need another trip to the local farm stand sooooooon.

Strawberries

Not sure if this is “teaching life skills”

or “violating child labor laws”

but it sure was fun. 

Jac trimmed and cut almost 3 baskets of berries, 

feeding the “mushy” ones to her big sister 

(who took to standing in the kitchen, in hopes another berry would be “bad”. 😂)

It’s Jackie Day

It’s Jackie Day (her turn to spend the night*) so we made fabric,

 Jac picked the colors and order for our secret project 

chopped mushrooms, 

 
painted, read books, watched movies,

and played her favorite game of “take my picture, grandma!!”

* Tuesday is Jac’s night, Wednesday is Leanne’s and Thursday is Leia’s (the weeks she is at her dad’s.) We’re working on getting Donovan a spot in the rotation . . .

Porcupines

I FaceTime walked Leia through making my porcupine recipe, where I never measure anything and just go until it “looks right”. “Now pour in a big glug of worchestershire sauce . . . no, bigger . . . yeah, that’s about right.”

To make it even more challenging fun, she didn’t have two of the main ingredients - ground beef (subbed ground turkey) or Minute rice (subbed frozen, pre-made brown rice) (her reaction to brown rice? “Ewwwwww” 😂)

But it must have worked since this is the picture she sent me afterward. Success!

Babies, Bugs and Beans

Donovan was too sick to go to daycare today - in the age of COVID, a runny nose gets you booted to grandma’s house - 

and he was fine playing with the horses and zoo animals and talking nonstop (and expecting logical replies from me to ev.er.y.thing!)

but then Jackie came home from kindergarten and the excitement was almost unbearable.

Between kindergarten, daycare and Donovan being sick, they haven’t seen each other in over a week. Much too long apart, for both of them. 

Spotted this ⬇️ on the front walk Wednesday - the biggest grasshopper I’ve seen in a long time. 

 The locusts are coming . . .

Jac’s reaction? “That’s so cool! Let’s go find it so I can pet it!”

 All photos taken by Jaclyn 

Then she dug out her grasshopper to compare. Jac doesn’t like spiders, but she thinks bugs are awesome.

I taught Donovan how to snap green beans after Jac went home.

Turns out he’s really good at it!

Little boy is cute and good in the kitchen. The ladies are going to love him. 😂

Lunch Pizza

We’ve fallen in a lunchtime rut so it was time to shake things up. 

Monday night Jac and I made pizza dough (thanks, Teena!) and put it in the fridge to rise. 

Then today, as soon as Leanne was released for lunch, 

we were rolling

and cheesing

and baking away.

This was Donovan’s first time making pizza. He liked rolling the dough

but he *loved* adding the cheese and rolling it all into a burrito/calzone/squishy thing. 

 Donovan’s creation

I’d try to flatten it out but he’d grab it, give me the stink eye, and roll it up again. Kid has opinions!

 Jac’s pizza

And the verdict? Leanne and I loved our pizzas; Jac ate most of hers after I bribed her into trying a bite;

 Leanne’s pie

and Donovan took one look, turned up his nose and demanded a peanut butter sandwich. Hey, pleasing 2 out of 3 kids ain’t bad! 

Snap

Tuesday was Jac’s turn to cook. 

She had trouble at first 

getting the beans to "snap" 

but she was determined to succeed. 

And no, she wouldn’t eat them.