Living By Daily Grace

Nov. 28, 2008 - Thanksgiving with Rachel Ray, Mom's Way!!!

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. We originally planned to spend that day with my mom and dad. But plans were made to go to my aunt and uncle's house which is over an hour away. Considering that I have a newborn, I just didn't want her to be around other people that might be sick. My mother was very gracious to allowed us room to bow out of the event to keep her home. I will get to see my extended family for Christmas. That should be fun. (The best part is that Ashley is, I believe, number 20 great grandchild for my grandparents. They are both still living. I can't wait for them to see her. I think my larger than average family is very intriguing to them.) So we stayed home.

I had a really bad attitude about my previous bedrest in October. But I finally figured out that God had a purpose for it. I discovered "30-minute Meals" with Rachel Ray on the Food Channel. Now that we have a DISH I can use the DVR nd record as many as I want. She had a "60-Minute Thanksgiving" special several weeks ago that I recorded. It looked so simple and easy. At least simple enough for someone that is VERY intimidated by cooking a whole Thanksgiving Meal. Usually Underdog cooks our big holiday dinners. But what Rachel did looked doable. So I went to look up the recipes online and watched the special at least 5 times so I knew exactly what to do.

Our Thanksgiving Menu included:

* Apple Cranberries cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting (I made these homemade using part of Kamut bread. I also made the apple filling from scratch and added dried cranberries. It was AWESOME!!!!! We had these for breakfast!)

* Sage Parsley Turkey breast
* Rustic Potatoes Au Gartin
* Green Bean Casserole (not Rachel's but a family fav)
* Apple Onion Stuffin' Muffins (de with homemade garlic toasted Kamut Bread - YUMMY!!!!)
* Homemade Cranberry Sauce
* Homemade Pumpkin Pie with homemade whipped cream

I made all of this from scratch yesterday in a little under 2 hours (except the pie and cranberry sauce. I made those the day before.) It wasn't the 60 minute Thanksgiving the Rachel did BUT I was limited because I didn't have as many pots NOR the experience that she has. hehehe!!!!

This was very exciting for me because up until recently I have really despised being in the kitchen. I don't have many kitchen skills except maybe browning ground beef (which I got really at when making those Hamburger Helper meals for my mom (bleech!!! My mom doesn't even eat them anymore. LOL!!!!) But watching Rachel Ray has given me the confidence to simply experiment and see what works and doesn't work. She cooks alot like I do. She rarely measures things out. For the few dinners I do make for my children (that isn't convenience foods) I cook alot like Ratatouille (from the Pixar movie.) LOL!!! A little of this and a pinch of that. I suppose that Rachel Ray makes it look easy. I am really enjoying watching her cook and learning some of her secrets.

Underdog told me yesterday that he's never really looked forward to eating a Thanksgiving meal in the past. But yesterday he was really excited. Schmoo and LBSK, who are both on a hunger strike right now, finished nearly everything on their plate yesterday. LBSK even finished off Schmoo's stuffin' muffin. He's making up for lost time. I didn't make enough for us to have many leftovers. I did that on purpose. I wanted to make sure it worked. Now that I know what I make is good I will make more at Christmas so we can have some yummy turkey leftovers and play around with something other the after turkey day sandwich, now known as the Dickens in our family. (Oh, I improvised alot with this meal. I didn't follow it all the way through)

Today will be fun. My mom invited us over for some soup. She asked if our family would eat soup and I had to be honest and tell her all but 2 of us will. LOL!!! The usual - Schmoo and LBSK!! (I am not a short order cook at home. But I refuse to torture other people with their quirkiness right now. . .at least my mom who feels bad when they go hungry.) The only soup they will eat is Mom's Creamy Tomato Soup. So I am going to cook dinner for my family and my parents tonight. I LOVE making tomatoe soup. My kids love it. I am also going to make grilled cheese sandwiches the old fashioned way (with butter and REAL cheese, of course) and try a few of my newly found secrets to cooking. There is still a part of me that really desires to please my parents so I hope they like it.

Oh, I forgot to add above. I made everything above using only the sweetner Agave Nectar. It was all so good. I have an Agave Nectar cook book. It's a good sweetner that my whole family can have and it won't feed Candida like everything else does. It's the only sweetner I cook with except for honey in my Kamut bread.

Dec. 4, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by MarlaMom

congratulations on your newest baby! What a blessing!

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I love having a place on the web to simply write out my thoughts. I am a wife and mother to 5 very special blessings ages 19 months to 9 yod and our "Finale" due in November '08. As I am growing through this season of my life, I hope to share how the Lord is teaching me to live by His daily grace and not by my own strength.

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