Anono-Momma Thanksgiving

Let's just start this out by saying, I was young. I was sooooo young. I think I was only 21. My new husband and I were just starting out and we were enjoying playing house so much, I thought it would be fun to do Thanksgiving at our new place and invite my family to our house.

Doesn't that sound exciting?

We had just moved to another state, so the only people who could actually make the trip was my Mom and my Grandma. But still, so excited! My first Thanksgiving! I did so much research...looked in magazines...read Betty Crocker (this was before the internet folks). Made my list, and off to the store to get all my supplies.

Oh...and did I mention I was pregnant? With our first child...

My Mom and Grandma flew in on Thanksgiving Day. Dear Hubby tidied up the house while I tirelessly worked on dinner. Got the turkey in the oven, pies made the night before and we were off to pick up my Mom and Grandma from the airport.

Oh Joyous reunion! So happy! We must hurry home to our scrumptious feast! All I had left to do was make mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. The turkey should be just about finished by the time we get home. Perfect!

We got home, I rushed in the door, excitedly opened the oven to show my Mom and Grandma my newly discovered cooking skills and there it was!

Wait...what?

The turkey....it is still pink....and COLD.

Shoot! I need a diversion! Can't show THIS turkey...not now at least. "Wine anyone?" Oh, yes! Mom and Grandma happily accept. So, now as I begin peeling the potatoes I am updating everyone on everything hubby and I have done to the place, but in doing so, I am holding back hormonal tears as I am trying to not let on to what is going on with the turkey. At which point, my Mom offers her help. She opens the oven and seems perplexed.

She reaches in...feels the turkey. "Honey, this thing is COLD!" "I know" I reply, "It has been cooking since this morning, I think we are just a little behind schedule, maybe it will be done in an hour...just enough time for the potatoes and I will pop the casserole in afterwards."

"How long did you thaw it?"she asks. "Thaw it? I didn't thaw it, I put it in frozen this morning."

At this point, she tells me it will never be ready...well today at least. Who knew you were supposed to thaw a turkey? Why in the world would they sell it to you frozen? I never read about thawing it....Come on Betty Crocker...where was that in the book??? And now the tears are flowing. "Oh honey, it is okay....I will take care of this, sit down with Grandma." So, off I go, out of the kitchen.

As we are trying to figure out what we are going to do, Grandma starts telling stories. Apparently the glass of wine and lack of food are starting to get to her because her stories aren't exactly...how should I say it? "Grandma-ey stories" I am starting to get a little embarassed because my husband doesn't know her all that well yet....as she begins recalling one particular story about newly hatched chickens.

Meanwhile my Mom is frantically calling every grocery store, and restaurant in the area and nothing is open...nothing. Until she comes across a pizza place...pizza? L.A.M.E. I feel like such a total failure now.

Now, back to Grandma's story. It was winter and apparently it is too cold in the winter for the baby chicks outside. So they kept them inside, in the oven? This is going downhill and fast. They kept the oven on very low to keep them warm. When her Mom forgot. Yes, forgot. Turned the oven up to warm it up because she had some baking to do. When she felt it was sufficiently warm, she opened the oven to a tray full of fried chicks. And now Grandma laughs. Like big belly laughs. She spills her wine. Grandma is drunk. Dead chicks aren't funny. But Grandma is laughing.

What are we doing? Well, we are waiting for pizza and looking for some crackers for poor drunk story telling Grandma....

The pizza came....2 1/2 hours later....

Nobody has been to my house for Thanksgiving since.

(We also now wait for the food to serve the wine....)

- Betty Crocker Wannabe (reader submitted)

Anyone else have a horrible thanksgiving story they would like to share? Click comment below :)

OWC - Week 2 - Mexican Fiesta

Once a Week Cooking (a take off of OMC Once a Month Cooking).
The beauty of this cooking plan is your food doesn't necessarily need to be frozen.

This is my general plan...

1 Crock-pot Meal
3 Casserole Meals
1 Oven Bake Meal
1 Stove-top Meal or Toaster Oven/Rotisserie Meal

I get my recipes ready, (trying to do some dishes that are a little bit the same to make it easier), check to make sure that I have my ingredients (if not I send Mister off to the store), and get started right after church.

OWC - DETAILS
Here is how this weeks cooking batch went. First I place my beef roast in the crock pot and poured barbecue sauce over the top (about 1 cup) and started it on high.  I placed the ham in the oven. I took a full 3 pounds of ground beef and browned it and drained it.  Then I cooked 2 pounds of bacon (crumbled the bacon and split into two servings), saving the grease.  Then I sauteed 1 diced onion in the bacon grease and drained, split it into two servings. Then I boiled the frozen chicken breasts in a large pot on the stove top (until white and no longer pink inside).  Then I assembled all the dishes, removed my ham (and upped the temperature) and then placed all my casserole dishes in the oven and cooked them.  Removed them and placed refrigerator for the week! So easy... seriously.

Weekday Breakfast - Cheesy Breakfast Casserole
I decided to take charge of breakfast this week and make something that would give our entire family a jump start with lots of energy.  I will be honest... it was so good I had it for lunch during the week two times!  Another great addition would be eggs (we were out).

Ingredients

1 & 1/2 can of condensed cream of chicken soup.

1 & 1/2 (16 oz) container of sour cream

2 pounds hash browns (frozen type but let it thaw)

2 chicken breasts cubed (precooked)

1 & 1/2 cup diced ham (precooked)

1 pound of crumbled bacon (precooked)

1 package sausage (precooked)

1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese

1 & 1/2 cup crushed potato chips

1/4 cup melted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Combine hash browns, sour cream, soup, and meat. Mix thoroughly.

3. In 9x13 oven safe casserole dish spread mixture evenly.

4. Layer over top of mixture, cheese and then chips.

5. Drizzle butter over top

6. Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly.

Sunday - Spiral Ham

Nothing more pleasing to the nose than a honey ham in the oven warming.  So easy.  And makes fantastic cold cuts for lunches during the week.

Ingredients

1 spiral ham

1 can pineapple slices

1/2 cup brown sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 F.

2. Place ham in a deep baking pan (to collect the juices), cover with tin foil and place in oven. (Heat for 10 minutes per pound. Example -10 pounds = 1 hour 40 minutes.

3. 20 minutes before ham is done combine juice from canned pineapple and brown sugar and heat over medium low on stove top stirring constantly until bubbly, when thickened remove foil from ham and pour glaze carefully over the top.  Finish baking.

4. Remove ham and let sit for 10 minutes.

Monday - Easy Mexican Casserole

I love that this recipe has the word easy in it! It has to be easy right? YES! It was in fact super easy and very good. Ground beef, chips, salsa, cheese and beans... how could you go wrong?

Ingredients

1 & 1/2 pound ground beef

2 & 2/3 cups chunky salsa

16 oz canned chili beans (drained)

4 cups tortilla chips (crushed)

2 & 2/3 cups sour cream

1 & 1/4 (2 ounces) cans sliced black olives (drained)

1/2 chopped onion

2 & 2/3 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Brown ground beef in large skillet on medium heat (until beef is no longer pink). Drain out grease into small sauce pan and saute onions. Then add salsa and onions to beef and simmer for 20 minutes add beans.

3. Spray 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. 

4. Take chips and place them in a large ziplock back and crush into 1/4-1/2 inch sized chips, measure out 4 cups and place in bottom of pan.

5. Layer beef, sour cream, cheese and olives over chips.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minute or until cheese is hot and bubbly.

Tuesday - Chicken Pot Pie Soup

We just LOVE Chicken Pot Pie's and this soup was not a disappointment.  So creamy and perfect for a cold day.  It had all the goodness of a Chicken Pot Pie and was a hit with each one of my kiddos.

Ingredients

4 chicken breast cubed (precooked)

2 (16 oz) packages frozen veggies (we chose corn and peas)

2 (10.75 oz) cans condensed cream of potato soup

2 (10.75 oz) cans condensed cream of chicken soup

4 cups skim milk

Directions

In a large pot combine chicken, mixed veggies, all soups, and milk. Heat thoroughly.  Crumble your favorite crackers over the top and pepper to taste.

Wednesday - Beef Nacho Casserole

This dish was such a surprise!!! It seriously was so good, that Miss Queenie said it was the best dish so far! AND she actually had two huge helpings. It was gone in nothing flat and sadly not a drop of leftovers.  I will be making a double dish of this next time.  It had a surprisingly sweet taste to it and wasn't too spicy at all.

Ingredients

1 & 1/2 pound of ground beef 

2 cups of chunky salsa

1 large (10 oz) can of corn (drained)

1 cup of (miracle whip or mayonnaise which ever one you prefer... we did mayo)

1 & 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder

2 & 2/3 cup crushed tortilla chips

2 & 2/3cup of Colby Cheese (shredded)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Place ground beef in skillet and cook over medium-high heat. Cook until beef is crumbled and browned throughout. Drain. 

3. Mix into skillet meat, salsa, corn, mayo and chili powder.

4. In 2 quart casserole dish layer beef mixture, chips and cheese (2x) ending with cheese on top.

5. Bake for 20 minutes uncovered until cheese is bubbly.

Thursday - Barbecued Beef

This is such a great dish because you can eat it plane or you can spoon it over sourdough bread open face or have it in a roll as a sandwich.  

Ingredients

1 beef roast

1 cup of barbecue sauce

Directions

1. Place beef roast in crock pot and set to high heat for 6 hours

2. Pour 1 - 2 cups of barbecue sauce over top of roast.

3. 4 hours into baking shred beef with 2 forks, continue cooking or 2 more hours.

Friday - Teriyaki Chicken Parmesan Bake  

This was tasted like an elaborate dish but was super easy and so good!  Mister and I devoured our portions quickly and moved on to the kiddos leftovers. No really it was that good.

Ingredients

1 pound of bacon (precooked)

6 chicken breasts (precooked)

1/2 chopped onion (sauteed)

2/3 cup teriyaki sauce

1 & 1/3 cup Ranch style salad dressing

1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. Place chicken breasts in oven safe cooking dish.  

3. Crumble bacon over the top of each chicken breast

4. Over the top of each chicken breast pour ranch dressing, sprinkle cheese, pour teriyaki sauce.

5. Bake for 20 minutes.

6. When serving make sure to ladle out drippings and pour over the top of chicken breast.

If you have any questions on any of these dishes or how I do a big cooking job, please ASK!  :-)
AND.... I would LOVE to hear about how your cooking adventure goes, how you liked the dishes or if you made any changes.

Happy cooking!
-Sister Pester

P.S. Once a month cooking is a big cooking project where you freeze meals.  Once a week is a smaller version where you can actually keep the dishes in your refrigerator.

Countdown until .....2011 Blogfestapalooza

You asked for it (well not really but we are giving it to you anyways)...

Thanksgiving week FULL of great ideas for last minute meal ideas for your great feast to decorating ideas for your Christmas festivities, gift ideas, COOKIES and much much more!

That is right friends...

Oh and as a side note...

Pester and Scrappy will reunite after one entirely too long year! YIPEE!

Pictures, recipes, blog post to follow oh MY!

This is us last year! It had been 4 years before that!

And here is our entire brood.... and it IS the best picture we could capture!

Queenie, Super, and Miss Sassofrass

Scooter, Mega, and Scrap Happy

Scrappy is holding Scrappy Do and Bubba. Pester is holding Screacher and Pinty.

ahhh aren't they cute!

Yes, this is them in true form! BESTIES Sassofrass and Super!

And lastly the adorable couple! In fact they are engaged .

Due just one day apart but Miss Screacher couldn't wait and came 8... YES 8 weeks early!

Bubba and his girl Screacher.

We cannot WAIT!-Pester and Scrappy


*Tags Thanksgiving, recipes, 2011 and 2012 HOT Christmas lists, best toys, best friends, vacations, reunion, great decorating ideas, my online best friend.