Saturday, November 27, 2010

Thanksgiving

It was just our little family of three this year but I wanted it to be just as special as always. I'm not going to lie.....I was a nervous wreck! I have never made a turkey and I was terrified to do gravy. I also wanted to make Rick his favorite....Banana Cream Pie....but I had never done that before either. I made my pies the night before....Banana turned out good, my pumpkin is a different story.....read on to see what happened :) I woke up Thanksgiving morning and tried to decorate the table. Unfortunately the only tablecloth and dishes I had were all white. I LOVE white but I was wishing it was looking a little bit more "Thanksgivingy". Then I remembered I had bought a box full of fake leaves the day after Halloween for $.99! So I scattered them around the table, brought in our Halloween pumpkins, and tied brown ribbon around the glasses and pumpkin stems.


Working away at my turkey....I used Kelsey Nixon's (from The Next Food Network Star) Turkey Breast recipe (Thanks Carly for recommending it!) It turned out really good. I didn't have a meat thermometer, I think I probably should have taken it out about 10 mins earlier because it was a tiny bit dry but it was still good.

Recipe:
ROSEMARY ROASTED TURKEY BREAST

Ingredients
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup garlic, minced
½ bunch rosemary, chopped
½ bunch thyme, chopped
1 T. Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
1 (6-8) lb turkey breast bone in

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a small bowl, mix the butter, garlic, rosemary and thyme; set aside
3. Wash the turkey inside and out; pat dry. Remove any large fat deposits. Loosen the skin from the breast. This is done by slowly working your fingers between the breast and the skin. Work it loose, being careful not to tear the skin.
4. Using your hands or spatula, spread a generous amount of the rosemary mixture under the breast skin. Rub the remainder of the butter mixture over the outside of the breast. Use toothpicks to seal skin over any exposed breast meat. Season the outside of the Turkey breast with Italian seasoning, paprika, black pepper and kosher salt.
5. Arrange the carrot, celery and onion inside the bag to create a base for the turkey to sit on. Place the turkey on top of the vegetables breast side up. Roast in the preheated over 1 ¼ to 2 hours, or until the internal temp of the bird reaches 170 degrees.
6. Allow turkey to rest in bag for 10-15 minutes before removing from bag and carving.

The finished turkey!

Daci playing around at the table while she was waiting for dinner to be ready

daci loved playing with the leaves. In nursery they get to hold stars up above their head and sing twinkle twinkle little star. She kept holding the leaf up and singing, "twinkle, twinkle!"

Sorry...not a great picture but I had to stick it on.

Rick carving the turkey

Daci impatiently waiting for the food. Once she was in her chair she wanted "nummy nums!" We told her we had to have a prayer first and she was not happy about it. She grumpily folded her arms and scowled at us during the prayer :)

The complete meal: Rosemary Roasted Turkey, peas, Cornbread, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy!



Daci loved the cornbread and peas the most. She kept saying "I like it!" and then by the end she was exclaiming "I LOVE IT!"

A little family picture after dinner. Don't mind Daci's absolutely crazy hair. As it gets longer, it gets crazier. She has SOOOO many calics in the back and they are uncontrollable. I have tried combing it every way possible and nothing works. I even hair sprayed it down this day, and within minutes it was poking straight up again!

Ok...the sad pumpkin pie story. So I have made quite a few pumpkin pies. They aren't hard. I whipped up the pie, stuck it in the oven and then remembered I needed a few more things for dinner the next day so I ran to the store. The pie was supposed to cook for 40 minutes. I got home right when it was done but for some reason I completely forgot it was still in the oven. I was positive I had taken it out. I kept saying to Rick "Wow that pumpkin pie smells so good! I can't believe we can still smell it so strong when it is in the fridge!" About an hour and a half after it was done I walked by the oven and realized it was still on. I reached over to turn it off and all of a sudden remembered my pie was still in there! Grrrrr! So mad. I was literally on the verge of tears. PUmpkin pie is my favorite thing about Thanksgiving and I was so looking forward to it. Rick, being the sweet husband that he is said he would go out in the freezing cold weather and the crazy crowds to get me one. I took him up on the offer but decided to test the ruined pie first. The crust was rock hard but I can't eat the crust anyway so that didn't really matter to me. The top was burnt, but the middle still tasted great! So I decided to keep my black pumpkin pie and I very much enjoyed it the next day :)

Monday, November 22, 2010

Random Goings Ons

Daci is sick.....again! If this winter is anything like last winter she will be sick all the time. The other day she came up to me with two hats and her gloves on. I laughed and said, "Daci, are you cold?!" and she said, "Yeah, freezing" very matter of factly :)

Daci looked so cute for church on Sunday I had to snap a pic


My mom sent Daci a little package in the mail and we got it today. She loves it when she gets mail! There was a sucker, a Mickey Mouse Christmas Coloring book, and her Christmas Ornament. Its a tradition in my family that the grandkids get an ornament each year.

Enjoying her sucker

Trying to open her present, didn't work out very well because she wouldn't let go of the sucker! I untied the ribbon for her.

Pulling the ornament out


Its a Santa on top of a light up snowball. She loves it! Oh how I love the holidays :) Happy Thanksgiving this week everyone!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

A week of celebrations!

Carly, Micah and their baby Eleni came out to visit us this week because......wait for it.....they are moving here in the Spring! Micah got a job with the company Rick works for so they came out looking for a place to live. I had lots of fun watching Eleni while they house hunted each day. Daci loves her little cousin and was very helpful with her. She did show a few signs of jealousy though during this trip :) There were moments that she didn't like sharing her mommy and her toys. I think it comes with the age though :)

Daci always wanted to hold Leni and she loved putting her binkie in her mouth for her :)

My adorable neice. She is about 6 1/2 months old now.

While Rick was in Dallas this week he had his 26th birthday. I was sad that he didn't get a celebration on his actual birthday so I planned a little "party" for him. When he and Carly and Micah came in from Texas they walked into a decorated house (don't mind that it looks like a little boy's birthday party:) ), Giordano's Pizza, Oberweis Ice Cream, a birthday cake, and Rick's very favorite homemade oreos. I spent the whole morning preparing!

I got these balloons the night before and by morning they weren't floating anymore :( I guess there wasn't high float in them :) Daci had fun playing with them though!

Daci was excited to see her daddy after a whole week of him being gone

Rick blowing out his 26 candles.

Daci helped him open his presents. I think this Christmas will be a lot of fun because she actually showed interest in opening presents!

We had fun with Carly and Micah and are glad they were here to celebrate Rick's birthday with us!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

This is the Life


Daci has been sick the last few days. Although many would argue that being sick is absolutely miserable, I would argue that being a baby and sick is not too shabby. She has spent the last three days watching Sesame Street, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and The Tigger Movie (notice she can't even peel her eyes from the tv to look at me when I am standing right in front of her). She sits on her throne and demands many, many things of me. "Cracker!", "Ja-Juice!" (orange juice), "bear!", "tigger!", "baby!", "bunny!". Eventually, the whole house is piled up next to her. And then, when she has snot all over her face she yells, "booger!" and I come by and wipe it from her face. Wow, wouldn't it be nice to be waited on hand and foot, have everything you want brought to you, and have someone wipe your own boogers? Ah....this is the life.

In all seriousness though, I hate it when my doodle bug is sick. It breaks my heart. I hate that she coughs her head off, I hate that she has a fever, I hate that there are boogers all over me, my house, and my baby. Thank heavens there was some improvement in her "condition" today. Hopefully tomorrow I can go back to making her get her own things....we don't want her to think she is a princess, do we? Love you, Daci-bug!