Thanksgiving Recipes

It's no secret that Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday. Now that we're in the month of November, I'm preparing myself for my fourth year of cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Although I love cooking for people, I must admit I won't be sad when Sean and I move back to the States and we don't have to cook the entire Thanksgiving meal by ourselves.

I've already bought two Thanksgiving magazines (Rachel Ray and Family Circle) but I wanted to ask my blog readers what some of their favorite Thanksgiving dishes are. Is there something special you make? Something new recipe you tried that you can't live without?  Let me know what it is! I'd like to add a new dish (or two) to my table this year.

My Weekend in Pictures

There was lots of baking...



And turkey...



Time with my two favorite boys...



The first snow of the year...



Ornaments...



Admiring the final product!

Hope you had a fab holiday weekend!

What's Cooking: Thanksgiving

With next week bringing Thanksgiving, I was wondering what all of you out there will be preparing for Thanksgiving.



Here is my list, a mix of some family recipes and Pioneer Woman recipes.

Turkey (marinated and injected with Tony Chachere's butter and jalapeno mix)
Mashed Potatoes
Hot Corn Casserole
Potato Casserole
Stuffing
Cranberry Sauce
Spinach Dip
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie

Any favorites or new recipes you're making this year?

Thankful....

As Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I'm sure I won't be around the laptop to blog..I've decided to do my "I'm Thankful" blog today.

I'm Thankful For:

-My husband. Although at times I want to smother him, he also keeps me laughing on a daily basis and I know that he loves me very much.
-Soldiers in general. I've gotten teary a few times thinking about my husband and this upcoming deployment, but also I get sad at the possiblity of anything happening to our soldiers in general. I'm thankful they do the job that I'm too scared to do.
-My family. I'm the woman I am today because of them and I love them to pieces.
-My friends. So many good moments in my life have come from times with friends. Blogging friends are included in that statement!
-My dog Boomer. I've never had such a funny dog in my life. He's really the most awesome dog in the world.
-Pioneer Woman's recipes. Without them I'd have missed out on the infamous Marlboro Man sandwich and her freakin' delicious no-knead rolls.
-The Internet. Without it I would not have this blog or be able to keep in touch with so many people in the world or even have met them. So thank you inventors of the Internet.




Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! Stuff yourselves silly!

Holiday.....Celebrate!

I'm currently typing this from the comfort of my own home. Am I sick? No. I just have today off as a paid holiday. Shocked? So was I! I'm not one to argue about paid holidays though. I'm just enjoying the free day.

Not too much on the agenda today.

- take Sean to go vote after lunch
- drop extremely overdue library books off, pay for library book that Boomer tore up
- stop by the commissary to get a few things to make for soups
- stop by the PX for random items like cards and that Yankee Christmas Wreath candle I really want.
- take long overdue pictures of my new do

Sean's briefing at Transportation went well yesterday. We, of course have more paperwork to look over and we actually have set days when they will be coming to pick up our stuff. December 8,9, and 10th for all the separate shipments. Thankfully, Sean will be taking care of that as I will still be working. I was pleased to find out though that since our washer and dryer have to be put in storage here that I can also put some other stuff with it. I don't think I'm going to take all my books with me to Europe. My Danielle Steel collection can definitely stay here as well as some text books I kept from my college days. The more important books, like my Nancy Drew collection, will of course be packed and sent.

I've been tagged by two ladies for a random list of things about myself and I PROMISE I'll get to that sometime today. I think I'll post the pics of my hair with that post, so look for it at a later time today.

So....I have a confession to make. I've already been making Christmas ringtones for my phone. Yes, I know it's not even Thanksgiving, but I thought I'd get a head start on it. I've already made about 8 and I'm sure I'll add a few more before I'm satisfied. I told Sean his ringtone was going to be the theme from The Grinch. Muah ha ha.

Anybody here drink Kefir? I've been wanting to start drinking it, as it helps improve your digestive tract, kind of similar to yogurt. I've been looking for it at the commissary and local stores, but haven't found it anywhere! Finally on our last trip to the commissary I noticed they were now stocking it. It's so good! I got the pomegranate flavor and I'm really enjoying it. It tastes like fruit smoothie with a yogurt twist. I highly recommend it!

I'm currently coming up with a meal plan for Thanksgiving. It looks like we are indeed still going to be hosting Thanksgiving dinner for around 15 people if not more and so I'm trying to decide what I'm going to be making and what others have said they'll make. I'm also trying to gauge how much food will feed that many people! I'm pretty sure we'll have turkey, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, potato casserole (yes I love potatoes)hot corn casserole,green bean casserole, corn, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and banana split cake. I'm thinking about a couple of appetizers too like spinach dip and something else. Anything else basic I'm forgetting that should be on there? I don't think I'm doing the turkey or the stuffing and the casseroles won't be hard at all since they can be pre-made the night before and then just baked that day. I've never hosted my own Thanksgiving, so it's going to be an experience for sure! I will miss having Thanksgiving with my family though, but at least I get to see them for Christmas.

Time for me to fold some laundry. Have a wonderful Election Day!

Smells Good!

Has anyone heard of the new Gwen Stefanie line of perfumes? They are called Harajuku Lovers.



Are the bottles not the cutest things? They caught my eye the other day when I was in the PX and I had to stop and smell them. Harajuku Baby is my favorite, I think I'm going to buy it next payday. I've never had a perfume that I can honestly not sniffing my wrist because I love the scent so much. It's such a fresh, clean smell and Sean loves it as much as I do.

I got my sweater dress in yesterday that I ordered from Forever21. Of course, I immediately had to model it for Sean. I LOVE it, but I do have to say I feel like a 50's pin-up in it. You know the sweater dresses that just kind of hang? This is not that dress. It really hugs my curves, but I think it looks good and I guess that's all that matters.

I dropped Sean off today for rotation and probably won't see him until around Sunday. This rotation is supposed to be short and then the next one is going to last pretty much the entire month of November. I told him last night I was going to miss him and his reply was it was only for a few days that'd he would be gone. I said it didn't matter, I'd still miss him, but I would welcome stretching out on the bed!

Oh and an update on Sean's back, he seems to be doing better with the help of pain pills. He went to sick call yesterday and they gave him a shot and some meds. He also has a week long profile, yet he's still going to go out on this rotation. The doctor who examined him told him that he's amazed at the fact that with the condition his back is in that he's still able to function like he is. He also told Sean that at any point he wants to get med-boarded that he could certaintly get it. I guess his back is that bad.

We watched Baby Mama and 88 Minutes last night. I really liked both of them. If you haven't seen either of them yet you should. We rented Don't Mess with the Zohan and Forgetting Sarah Marshall last week. We ended up turning off Don't Mess with the Zohan within ten minutes! It was just stupid. Adam Sandler needs to start making movies like he used to. I love most of his movies, but the last few he's done I really haven't enjoyed, minus 50 First Dates. Now that was a good movie!

One of the ladies that I know around here who's husband is actually deployed out of Ft. Hood, informed me her husband was on the NBC Nightly News last night. They did a piece on his unit that is in Afghanistan. It was interesting and yet odd seeing him on camera. If you want to watch it, here's the link.

I cannot believe that it's almost the end of October! Time to start thinking about Thanksgiving! I'm still a little sad we won't be able to go home for Thanksgiving, but at least I'll miss out on all the crappy traffic. I still think we are going to have a big Thanksgiving dinner at our house, which I think will be great! Anybody else started making plans yet?