Dinner Tonight

This afternoon we met some friends at a park. It was cool and pleasant and great for the kids to run around and the moms to just sit (at least that's what this mom did). But then it was suddenly dinner time and I kept hearing "hungry, mom!" all the way home. Sometimes, no matter how hard I think about it, I just can't figure out what to have for dinner, especially when it's last minute.

When we got home the kids figured out dinner on their own - pumpkin cinnamon rolls! I made them earlier today and the kids pretty much ran to them as soon as I opened the door. We had milk and cheese on the side. Not the most balanced of meals, but at least there was some pumpkin in the rolls!

I found the recipe on Pinterest and it turned out pretty good, I would make it again! For some reason my dough turned out more orange than the picture, but I liked it.

Source: chef-in-training.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Yucky Dinners Really Get Me Down

Doesn't that just look gross?! Awhile ago I made a roast chicken and gave my 4 year old a chicken leg and he loved it! He actually said "This is the best dinner ever!". Usually he tells me dinner is gross and he doesn't like it, even though he hasn't tried it yet. So in an effort to make him happy about dinner again I bought a whole pack of legs and stuck them in the oven. My mistake was to put some Italian dressing over them, instead of just salt and peppering them. Oh the smell! Thankfully the meat tasted normal but anything in the "juice" was just awful!

Eating it off the bone was making me sick too. Some of my repulsion is due to being pregnant, but I think the bulk of it stems from college. When it comes to handling chicken on the bone my cadaver course ruined me. Sure, it was a great experience. And lets face it, not many people get to say they dissected a human body before. But the memories of that experience flood me whenever I prepare roast chicken, or something like the grossness above.

So, did my 4 year old appreciate the drumsticks? First he made his usual "dinner is gross" comment, but he did pick it up once or twice for a bite. I couldn't make him eat more than that since I was pretty much disgusted by it myself.

Butternut Squash Pasta

I really like this pasta. It's relatively simple, and it gets a vegetable inside my kids without much fuss! The original source is here at Food.com. I have made it with chicken just as the recipe calls for but more often I leave it out so we can have a good meatless meal every now and then. Both ways are good!

Because the trickiest part of this dinner prep is the squash I made a little picture tutorial. (The orange is in there to help you see the actual size of the squash). It's really not hard, but being such a slippery and awkwardly shaped vegetable you want to be very careful.

Now here's what you can do with that squash!

Ingredients:

1/4 C. extra virgin olive oil (I bet butter would be great here, I think I'll try that next time)
1 large onions, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced
2 lbs chicken breasts, cut into 1 in. pieces.
1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and chopped into 1/2 in. pieces
1 tsp. fresh rosemary (I have only ever used a sprinkle of dried rosemary and it works great)
3 1/4 C. chicken broth (seems like allot but trust me, it's okay!)
12 ounces pasta (I usually just use the whole 16 oz. package of whatever I have - I don't like almost empty pasta boxes in my cupboard)

What to do:

In a large fry pan heat oil oven med/high heat. Add onions and saute for a few minutes to soften them up. Add the garlic and chicken and cook until done. Add squash and rosemary and saute for about 10 minutes (I'm not sure what the significance of this step is...maybe you could go ahead with adding the liquid and save yourself 10 minutes).

Add broth and bring to a simmer. Lower heat and allow to simmer until squash is tender and liquid is reduced by about half. Stir occasionally. This will take 10 to 15 minutes Following is a picture of my squash when it was done, I guess I wanted to show the 'line of reduction'. You can see that some of the broth has evaporated, but it certainly doesn't look like half - it never does.

While doing all the above, you'll want to also cook your pasta "according to package directions". I like penne pasta with this, but you'll see that I used bow tie! The kids have been interested in different shaped "noodles" and it helps them eat more. (Side note - I can't find alphabet pasta anywhere!! It's getting very frustrating).

Anyway, you actually want your pasta to still be a little firm to the bite. Drain it, and then mix it with the squash mixture in a large bowl. I would suggest smashing some of the squash pieces first, or I smashed it all this last time - the kids eat more of the veggie that way. Toss the pasta, let it sit for a little bit and toss again. The past will finish cooking in the sauce, soaking up the excess broth, and there you go! Dinner!

Spinach!

The last day of my challenge. I've learned some things. I like to cook! Most of the time anyway. And I like to blog. I don't know why...it's just satisfying in some way. This week has shown me that I can! I always whined about how I never had any time to blog (or do anything else I wanted to do), but hey, I really can!

Anyway, spinach. I buy a bag of it every now and then, mostly out of guilt because I know we need to eat more leafy greens. But then I'm usually the only one who will eat it and we end up with half a slimy bagful. Eew. So the other day I happened upon a families favorite recipe here. I made it last night, with a little alteration, and I didn't mind eating it all by myself - not one bit.

You will need:

4 T. butter (or more)
2 cloves garlic, minced
lemon juice ("a slosh", I juiced a whole lemon and it was fine)
handful of pine nuts (this would be yummy, but they were too expensive for me. I chopped up some walnuts and it was still fantastic)
handful of raisins (I'm loving this combo!)
1 lb spinach (baby or otherwise, just remove any tough stems)

In a large fry pan melt butter over medium heat, add garlic and saute for a little bit. Throw in the nuts, raisins and lemon juice. When the raisins begin to plump add the spinach and make sure it gets coated really well. Cook until slightly wilted. (I actually liked it better when it was cooked more).

That's it! A very yummy way to eat your greens. Honestly, I really did eat the whole thing by myself!

Easy Beef Stroganoff

This is SoooOOO good! And great for company because it's super easy and satisfying.

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs. lean stew meat (cut into bite size pieces)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 can water
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
8 oz. sour cream

Prepare the meat and spread on the bottom of a 13x9 pan. I love my kitchen scissors! They make things so much easier.

Mix the soups, water and dry onion soup. Pour evenly over meat. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 2 and 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and stir in the sour cream. Recover and bake 30 minutes longer.

Serve over rice or egg noodles. (We like noodles best). Don't forget your veggies!

It's Still Wednesday!

I know I'm late. Today was grocery day, and that always seems to put the whole place in disorder. Probably because disorder runs deep in my bones. I'm working on it though. I've decided to have the "I CAN!" attitude instead my normal "How can I ever?". I'm feeling pretty good about it so far.

Anyway, let me tell you about these babies -

Southwestern Egg Rolls with Avocado Ranch

Find the recipe (and a much better picture) here. My mom tried these and liked them, I tried these and sometimes liked them. They were simple and kind of fun to make, and I really like that it's meatless. But the spinach was just too overpowering for us. When I first made them I didn't have an avocado so we just ate them with sour cream. On the next day I was able to make the Avocado Ranch dip to eat the leftovers with and what a difference it made! It really helped to calm down the spinach.

My husband suggested using rice instead of spinach and I'm intrigued enough to try it...someday.

Blonde Brownies

Day 5 of my self-proclaimed challenge. I'm kind of enjoying it! Last night I had to make these, there was nothing else to be done. The new recipe I had tried for dinner was really gross. It involved mac'n cheese, chicken, frozen vegetables and cream of chicken soup. It sounds harmless but for some reason it was just - yuck! And so, enter Blonde Brownies:

1 C flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 C brown sugar
1/3 C melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
Chocolate chips (1/2 to 1 cup, or however much you want)

Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla and egg. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips.

Spread in a greased cake pan (square or round). Bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes, or until done.

Fast, easy and yummy! All good things!

p.s. I just found a recipe at Mel's Cafe for Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Bars . Maybe you would rather make those. I see myself eating them sometime in my near future.

Pizza Bread and Wisdom from the Scarecrow

"It must be inconvenient to be made of flesh," said the Scarecrow, thoughtfully, "for you must sleep, and eat and drink. However, you have brains, and it is worth a lot of bother to be able to think properly." ~Scarecrow from "The Wizard of Oz"

So true! Unfortunately I concentrate too much on the "sleep, and eat and drink" part of life. When I remember that I feed my family so we can live happy, and learn and grow - it helps take the inconvenience out of it. In other words, when I think about the "why" of the daily things I do it all just makes more sense. Which puts me in mind of a great talk by President Uchtdorf.

"My dear sisters, seek out the majesty, the beauty, and the exhilarating joy of the “why” of the the gospel of Jesus Christ." 

  

And thereby the majesty, beauty and exhilaration of the "why" in our everyday life! I love it when things just click together! 

On that note, here's a recipe for Pizza Bread. It's one of those things that my mom would make for us kids, and we just knew she loved us! 

2 1/4 C warm water

2 packages active dry yeast (or 2 scant Tbls.)

1 T sugar

1 T salt

1 T softened butter

6 1/2 C all-purpose flour (approximate)

18 thin slices Provolone cheese (we always just use shredded mozzarella, or pizza cheese)

1 1/2 C chopped pepperoni (or plain old sliced pepperoni - whatever you prefer)

1 egg, beaten

Measure warm water into a large bowl. Sprinkle in yeast and stir or let sit until dissolved. Add sugar, salt, butter and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth.

Stir in enough additional flour to make a soft dough. On lightly floured surface knead until smooth and elastic - about 10 minutes. Put it back in the bowl, cover, and let rest in a warm place until doubled - about an hour. (don't you love that bread needs to be a warm place! It just screams "LIFE" to me, but that's another post another time)

Punch it down and divide into 3 equal pieces. Roll one piece into a large rectangle (12x8 or so). Top with pepperoni and cheese, and roll it all up. Pinch the dough at the ends and along the seam to seal it.

Repeat with the other dough pieces. Place each loaf on a cookie sheet, cover and let rise until doubled (another hour or so).

Slash tops diagonally and brush loaves with the beaten egg (this is purely for presentation, but the egg makes the tops golden brown and yummy looking). Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes, or until done. Serve warm - or cold - or room temperature - it's delicious! 

You can see that I got more egg on the 2 than on the one by itself, that's why it's lighter in color. I don't have a pastry brush, so I had to use my fingers, thus the inconsistent results. But it tasted great just the same! Happy normal day everyone!

Sweet Potato Yumminess!

I usually do simple things on Sundays, and since today was Fast Sunday I tried hard not to think about food. So this isn't really a recipe, just sharing our favorite way to eat sweet potatoes.

Peel and chop the potato into about half inch or one inch chunks. Put it in a small pot with a little bit of water (maybe an inch), and a sprinkle of salt. Simmer until tender. If there seems to be allot of water in the pot, you can drain some out but I like to just leave it in and stir a tablespoon (or so) of butter. When you stir you end up smashing some of the potato and it's creamy and sweet and delicious!

Pumpkin Soup

 
 I am so tempted to dub this "Easy"pumpkin soup, or "The BEST" pumpkin soup. I love it so much! My mom got this recipe while we lived in Australia, where pumpkin soup is pretty much a staple. I made it last night...for dinner tonight. Since I don't have a submersible blender I have to put the soup through the blender, which is kind of a pain, but it always goes by faster than I expect, and the results are beautiful!

1 1/2 lbs pumpkin (butternut squash) - this will usually be a small to medium sized squash, or 3 to 4 cups
8 oz. potato (I always use 2, however much that is!)
2 large leek, or 1 good sized onion
3 chicken stock bullion 
4 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

1 cup cream

Chop your veggies up however you like, put everything (except for the cream) in one big pot and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the squash and potatoes are tender (a.k.a. can be easily poked through with a fork).

Use your submersible blender to blend it all up into a beautiful creamy orange, or scoop it into a blender and do it that way. With a blender you'll want to do it in 3 or more batches, blend some up, pour it into a clean (heat proof) bowl, then do it again until all the vegetables are blended.

Now you can add more salt and pepper if you want, and mix in the cream. The cream really makes this soup fantastic! You can reserve some, or just have extra to pour a little swirl on top of individual servings if you want to be fancy.

It's great to eat right away,  or to make it ahead of time. I haven't tried freezing it, but I'm guessing it would be fine to do that too. I have made it using chicken stock, instead of the bullion (just use 4 cups stock instead of the water and bullion), but I almost think I like the bullion better...

Oatmeal Coconut Chewies

Here is the start of a new challenge I am giving myself -- To post a recipe every day for a week, starting today, ending next Friday. No, I don't consider myself as a "foodie" (although I do love food), it's just that I'm a mother, and right now feeding my family is a big part of what I do. When things turn out and everyone eats good, I'm happy. When they don't I learn from it. So here you go! 

I found this recipe here at Mel's Kitchen Cafe (my new favorite food site - EVERYTHING looks good). These cookies are fabulous! And they turned out perfectly for me, which was very encouraging. Aren't they pretty!?!

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1cup butter @ room temp.
2 tsp. vanilla

1tsp. baking soda
1tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
1 cup quick oats

- cream sugars, eggs, butter and vanilla
- add dry ingredients and mix until combined
- drop by tablespoonfuls and bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes "until set, but not overly browned".

Some Notes:

I had "grated coconut" which is smaller, or finer, than the shredded. So I just used a little less than a cup and it turned out fine. The shredded might make the texture of the cookie more interesting.

I went ahead and bought quick oats, but now I kind of wish I had just chopped up some of the "old fashioned" rolled oats that I already had. Same thing!

And whenever I see "drop by tablespoonfuls" I usually disregard and grab a couple of handy spoons (I do have one of those cookie baller things, but it's been broken for awhile...I should probably just pitch it). Anyway, I happen to have a tablespoon that was perfect for the job. It was so nice to have uniform cookies! Just say'n!

Lastly, from the original recipe I don't think it says how many cookies it "yields". So I counted mine, which was a little tricky because we kept eating them! But you'll get at least 60 cookies! I love it when there's enough to share!

Oh Banana Cake!

2/3 cup butter 
1 2/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 cup flour
1tsp. baking soda
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup mashed bananas (we used 2 bananas - I have no idea how much that measured out to be)
2 eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk (I added some lemon juice to regular milk and let it sit for a few minutes)
2/3 cup walnuts (that would have been great, but we didn't have any)

Mix it all together, beat on high for a couple of minutes, then pour into your prepared pan. We did two nine inch round pans. Bake for 35 minutes or so at 350 degrees. We topped it with cream cheese frosting, Awesome! But I think I'll try a simple glaze the next time around.

So, last week my little "big boy" insisted we make a cake. He had fun helping me with this Banana Cake - because mashing bananas can be very satisfying. It was a good little cake. We ate it for breakfast several times. I'm pretty sure the sugar content is comparable with (dare I say less than?) a bowl of cereal. Despite our tasting it every day it seemed to last forever (around here "forever" in reference to baked goods usually means anything over three days).

Anyway, now that my husband is on the second shift my evenings are pretty lonely. So far I have been catching up on chick flicks, but last night needed something extra. Enter the Banana Cake! Two pieces left, but it wasn't enough. I needed to fry them in butter and sandwich some vanilla ice cream between them. Yup, comforting. Oh Banana Cake! Thank you!

Homemade Apple Fritters

I'm just going to go right into it - these things are delicious and you should make them, eat them and love every bite! I got the recipe from Pinterest (of course), you will find it here. I even read some of the comments on the post and got a few good pointers. Here's how things turned out for me!

1 "heaping" cup all-purpose flour (I've made these 3 times and my "heaping" was different each time, so whatever!)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. Baking Soda or baking powder (I have only used soda - I love soda!)
dash of salt
1- 2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (Once I didn't have nutmeg and just used the cinnamon - things still tasted great)
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 T. melted butter (because everything is better with butter)
1 egg
1/3 cup milk (I have always had to add more liquid, almost 2/3 cups in order to get a "light cake mix" consistency)
1 - 1 1/2 cups chopped apples, peanut size or smaller

Oil for frying (I've just used vegetable oil)
Powdered sugar and milk for glaze or just powdered sugar for dusting

• Mix all dry ingredients together, slowly add the wet ingredients minus the apple. Carefully mix until well combined but don't overly beat, gently fold in apple pieces. The batter should be the consistency of a light cake mix. 

• Once the oil is ready (when a test drop of dough floats to the top of the oil, a drop of water sizzles, or a piece of white bread browns in 60 seconds, about 365degrees) then using a teaspoon, place 4-5 balls of dough into the oil. Be careful not to overcrowd and watch carefully for the underside to turn golden brown, then gently flip over and continue frying until done. Anything bigger than a teaspoon will take longer to cook, and may still be gooey on the inside - trust me! It is always a good idea to test one so you can get an idea of cooking time. 

• When they get all bubbly around the edges you know it's about time to flip - almost like pancakes. My cast iron pans love this process by the way.

• I find it convenient to have one plate for the 'just done' fritters and one plate for the glazing (or dusting). I like to spoon a thin glaze (1 cup p.sugar with enough milk to make it thin, like syrup), and even stir them around a little to get everything covered - yum!

Oh my stars! These are so good! I have made them 3 times in the last month and decided to wait a long time before making them again because yes - that is a lot of oil. But now I don't know if I can hold out, ugh!

Let me know if you make these, and if you love them as much as I do!

EGGS!

I love eggs. Really, I think they are amazing. So yummy, and so beautiful! Just look at those babies! Egg coloring is my favorite activity of Easter. You get to sit there, dunk a wonderfully white egg in some fantastic color and "bam!"! A masterpiece! Every year I think, "why don't I do this more often?". Having festive, colorful eggs in the fridge should be a more-than-once-a-year occurrence. How can we make this happen? Oh I know! Buy some chickens!

That's what my mom did and it's working for her. She has beautiful blue and brown eggs in her fridge. I'm jealous. 

Another great thing about eggs at Easter? Egg salad sandwiches! At one time I thought it wasn't "cool" to like egg salad sandwiches, but now I just don't care. Bring on the creamy, eggy, wonderfulness!

I guess my 10 minutes are up, that went by fast! And I have shared nothing of great importance, but it was fun. And look at this!

That's a duck egg. Weird, right!?!

For more Wordfull Wednesday randomness check this out.

Baking Up Some Happiness

I have decided that it is very important to keep the cookie jar full. It makes me HAPPY!!!

A slightly better Pie experience

I tried another apple pie. I had to. Something inside me would not rest until I made a more edible apple pie. So I made the crust and put it in the freezer (a trick for a flakier crust). I had the apples ready for the filling. I just didn't have the time! I was so geared up to make this thing that I didn't take bed-time into consideration. Which is always a mistake with 2 kids under the age of 3, and a husband who works the annoying 4a.m. shift. So the pie was put on hold. Crust in the freezer, apples in the fridge, family in bed.

Eventually I was able to get back to my little project. I let the crust thaw out, it only took about 20 minutes before it was manageable enough. Since making the last pie, my mom told me to try rolling the crust out between 2 layers or cling wrap, so I did, and it was great! A little tricky at first, just because the whole dough would slide around sometimes, but it was amazing to not have sticky dough on my work surface, or my rolling pin, or my hands. And it was SO easy to move the crust into the pie plate. No torn up pie crusts here!

 It all came together very nicely. The recipe I used is from my Aunt Cherin and it calls for the more traditional top crust. I used Granny Smith apples again. I like the almost-sour taste that you get with them, but I want to use a different apple next time (yes, there will be a "next time"). If anyone has a good apple suggestion I would love to hear it!

I put the top on and practiced my fluting. It took some effort but I think it paid off. Then I was so excited that I was able to put "slits" in a pie that I just went ahead and slit it. Two slits, right in the middle. After doing that I decided I should try to make it look pretty. So I cut out some "leaves" with the extra crust dough. Now those slits look awful! Oh well, maybe it will teach me to be more patient...maybe.

I remembered the cookie sheet! Even with the top crust it juiced out a little. Maybe because I used more apples than called for, but I'm not sad about it. :) Before baking I rubbed it with some milk (I don't have a pastry brush so I just used my fingers), and then sprinkled some sugar over the whole thing. How can that ever be wrong!!

And here it is! Ain't it purty?!!

 

It tasted good too! The apples were still a little firm and there was no smokiness, perfect! I think I liked it better than my last apple pie. It was simple. There weren't so many flavors vying for attention. Kind of like when my kids are sleeping..., nice.

Anyway, here's the recipe if you're interested:

Pie Crust (Double Crust)

3 C. flour

1t. salt

2t. sugar

1 1/2 C. shortening 

Cut the shortening into dry igredients

1 egg

1T. vinigar

1/2C. water

Mix and add to dry mixture as needed. Combine it well, but handle as little as possible....I know, I know. Separate into two balls (or whatever shape  you care for), wrap'em up and freeze them for at least 15 minutes (or an hour, or over night). 

Washington State Apple Pie

6C. sliced, peeled, tart apples

2T. water

1T lemon juice

Heat in saucepan on medium heat until apple are tender. Cool (do not drain)

In a large bowl toss apples with;

1/2C. packed brown sugar

3T. flour

1t. cinnimon

1/4t. nutmeg

1/8t. ginger

1/8t. salt

Bake @ 450 degrees F, for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and continue baking 35-45 minutes, or until golden brown. Yummy!!

You'll love it, I promise!

 

Try this pasta recipe, it wont let you down. I was drawn in by the simplicity of it. Honestly, I had to go to the store specifically for cream, but it was worth it! Fettuccine wasn't on hand so I used plain old spaghetti and was still blown away by the results. It's so great to find a "staple recipe", something I can always fall back on and know it will be satisfying...as long as there's cream in the house.

note: since writing this, I have made this recipe again, using Half and Half instead of cream. It's what I had on hand, and it worked out alright just not quite as good.

A Beautiful Disaster

I made an apple pie! Not only did I make the pie, but I made the crust...from scratch! That was the most adventurous part for me. I think I've tried to make pie crust maybe 2 times my whole life. Those ready-made crusts in the fridge section make my "easy as pie" so much easier! But not this time.

Through friends and family I decided to use this recipe from The Pioneer Woman (whom I recently discover and instantly loved!). The pie crust recipe I had was pretty much the same as hers, except that the wet ingredients were to be added "as needed". I did put mine in the freezer for a bit before rolling it out and I really liked the results. However, it is so obvious that I need to work on my crust rolling, pie plate placing, and edge pinching (is that called "fluting"?).

I was laughing with every rip and tear, and I'm laughing now! What an awful looking pie crust! Thankfully it was very forgiving and I was able to patch it up respectably.

 

Getting those shiny, sugary apples in there helped a whole lot. I sprinkled the yummy mix of butter and sugar on top (sorry, no picture), and excitedly put my pie baby in the oven. After awhile I could smell the warm, tart apples...and something else. The stove was on, something must have spilled on the unit. A little later the strange burning smell was much stronger, my pie was smoking! Big smelly clouds escaped every time the oven door was opened. I had forgotten to put a cookie sheet under the pie, to catch any drippings, so the drippings weren't caught. Instead they made a mess in the oven, got the whole house stinkin, and I could only hope that the pie would still taste like pie. Despite the rocky baking process it came out looking beautiful! Of course I might say that about anything topped with pecans and caramel sauce!

It was still warm when we cut into it. And very gooey! I thought the granny smith apples would hold their shape better, instead it was like a thick apple sauce. I think I like to have a firmer apple in my pie. And there was no denying it, there was a distinct "smokey" flavor. Almost like it had been baked over an open flame, not totally unpleasant, but disappointing just the same. A few people decided they really liked it that way, I'm not one of them. I guess I'll have to try again...

Getting to Know Rhubarb

My mom loves rhubarb...the plant, and I think I do too. It has big, beautiful (and poisonous) leaves, and it grows back every year without much help. My favorite part about rhubarb is the jam! Strawberry Rhubarb Jam... yummy! This year I listened when my mom said that making it was easy, and decided to try it. So here is my first experience with Rhubarb, as well as my first experience with canning anything.
 

Chop it up nice and fine.

Five cups is what you need for one batch.

Mix with 3 cups of sugar and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Beautiful!

Sterilize your jars.

Put it in a pot and bring to a boil.

Let it simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and then. Right now it has a rich sour, sweet smell.

Remove from heat and stir in one box of strawberry gelatin, until it has dissolved.

Carefully poor into the jars. It filled 2 pint jars. I didn't seal them and so they will have to be kept in the fridge, or they can be frozen, or eaten...

Turkey anyone?

Yesterday I made a turkey dinner for the first time! "Firsts" are pretty important, don't you think? Well, it was super easy with stuffing from a box, and only using a turkey breast instead of the whole thing. But I had to start somewhere! I had planned to do this during the holiday season but that would have been too predictable. :)

Anyway, we all enjoyed it and now I can say "I've made that"!
By the way, the above picture was found on the internet. I had taken a picture of my own creation but the set up and, lets face it, my photography skills are pretty much awful.