Mama Nancy's Sweet Potato Casserole

We all know what sweet potato casserole is: sweet potatoes with a puffy marshmallow topping, right? Well, as much as I love big white puffy puffs of sugar, I really have never been a fan of the sweet potato casserole made this way. I grew up with my mother's sweet potato casserole. It's SO sweet but SO delicious!

Apple and Bacon Stuffed Pork Chops with Caramelized Onions and AppleCider Sauce

We don't eat turkey in my house.  We do a ham each year at Thanksgiving so Karly and myself decided rather than take part of the stuff off we'd do our own pork off.  BUT I didn't want to make up a ham so close to Thanksgiving as my husband and I would just be finishing the first ham when Thanksgiving finally rolled around.  So I went scrounging through my porky recipes to try and figure something else out that could be served at Thanksgiving or at least feels like a "fall" dish.  I think I succeeded.  Inspired by my husband's like of the stuffed pork chops from Trader Joe's and my own like of caramelized onions and sauces, I created this dish.  You know it's a winner when my neighbor who is a vegetarian stops by and says dinner smells good and reminds her of fall.  Then I informed her it's a pork dish and she responds, "Might be worth trying it still."  Yup, winner winner!

Meat Buns Anyone?

So I don't know about you all, but one of my favourite things to do with leftover turkey, or even chopped up chicky boob is to make stew and after a meal or two of stew I find everyone is getting a bit bored of that...  So then I take that stew and turn it into meat buns!!! I LOVE meat buns! Who doesn't? They are fast, easy, a full meal in the palm of your hand.  (hehe).

So here is a quickie "how to" on making meat buns.

First thing I do in the morning is set a batch of dough off in the bread maker, I use my usual bread recipe by the way. Just be sure you set it on the dough cycle!

Tiny Turkey Hands

My little boy is currently in a crafting/coloring frenzy phase.  Any time his sister isn’t around he breaks out his marker and asks for paper.  He loves creating little “projects” or “systems” as he sometimes calls them.  Many times during one of the two naps V still has during the day he and I will create something.  Whether it’s just plain coloring in a coloring book, creating a story, or making something for dessert he’s always a happy boy with the one on one attention and some sort of product to show his daddy when he gets home.

This week I decided to base our project off of something I did as a first grader.  So a LONG time ago I remember getting to make up my own stationary using our thumbprints to create little animals, I specifically remember making a pig.  I believe this stationary was then given to my mother as a mother’s day gift.  Anyway with all the turkey crafts out there that involve cutting which S really isn’t all that good at yet I thought this could be a cute way to make up some pictures and maybe make a card to send to the grandparents.

Well S had other ideas.

He decided he did NOT want to just use a thumbprint or a fingerprint.  What he really wanted was to do a handprint (probably because the last time we had the ink pads out we did handprints to mark 6 months for V and 3 years for S).  So I obliged and we have our craft to share:  Tiny Turkey Handprints.  Fingerprint turkeys will wait for another day.

Chicky Stew!

Friday is our normal day to spotlight another blog or person.  However, we also know  things happen.  What happened this Friday?  Well our featured blogger has been ill for the last week and was unable to be spotlighted today.  So instead we offer this recipe for some nutritious soup that's bound to make anyone feel at least a little better.



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Recipe: Campfire Cone Crunchy Munchies

I don't go on many road trips.  In fact, I hate road trips.  I get car sick, my kids scream the whole time, my butt hurts and all I end up doing is stuffing my face with food I don't really like just to pass the time.  With that said, we're headed on a nice 12 hour road trip soon.  Yay!  Woo Hoo! and FART!  I am not looking forward to it.  I will get sick, my butt will hurt and there's NOTHING I can do about the kids.  They just hate the car THAT much.  It seems the only thing I am able to change is what I stuff into my face as we drive with the music of the tantrums filling our ears.  I was looking through my cupboard at all of the junk food we don't have in there and started dreaming.  This is what I came up with:

Fall is here: Perfect reason for new clothing

Fall is finally here!  Which means it's time to break out our hoodies, long sleeved shirts, and pants.  Though being in S. California some would say we are still having lovely "summer" weather; however, there is just enough nip in the air in the mornings that I feel the need to bundle my kiddos up a little more and sip hot tea or hot coco.

In any case, S needed some new shirts to brighten his wardrobe in some of his favorite colors, blue and green.  I chose to do a short sleeved option since we layer with baby legs for arm warmers or just throw on a light jacket.  Long sleeves seem to be an issue for him with hand washing for as soon as the sleeves get wet he wants the shirt OFF!

For his shirt, I used Figgy's Tee for Two, a pattern I have returned to time and time again.  S loves the softness of knit and I love how quickly these sew up.  I think I've now made 4 or 5 of them and eventually will do the dress option for V (not that she's hurting in the dress department, I've yet again run out of hangers for her!).  Next for these shirts will be a bit of stenciling, I think, but that will have to be a mommy/son project for another day, after he decides exactly what it is he wants on his shirt!

Pattern Anthology

I was somehow able to test not 1, not 2, but 5 of the patterns from Pattern Anthology's new Winter Wonderland release.  I think it was a stroke of luck, because I really love these patterns!