We were heartily sick of turkey, and I was tired of cooking so we ordered pizza. Of course we've done this in the past. You know, call Papa John's, get put on hold, finally get to order and feel like you have been totally abused financially because you have to make a decision on the spot for the recited specials. This time was different! For the first time I ordered online. I had this fear that my order would be lost in their system and we would get the pizzas three days later. I am happy to report that it seemed even faster for delivery than by calling. I was even able to pay the price plus tip online. I will never call again. What is even better is that there are online coupon codes that you can use when you order (look for the tab at the top after you initiate checkout to find the page to enter the code). Now that is new! Not only is it easier to order online, it is cheaper. You can also save what you ordered to quickly reorder the next time.
I hosted Thanksgiving this year for my family. Everyone who comes usually brings a dish which makes it easier on the hostess. When I host, I like to provide many of our traditional family dishes and one new dish to mix it up a bit. It is usually something that if it fails miserably it is no big deal - an extra. A few weeks ago I read an article about Tumeric and what a powerful antioxidant it is. It has been said that it may help prevent and cure cancer as well as a multitude of other diseases. So I found a recipe, Pineapple Chutney, that had Tumeric in it and it sounded good. One of the ingredients is banana peppers. My husband was stopping at the store so I asked him to get me some. I have eaten banana peppers before and always thought that they were pretty tame for peppers. These were not. Unfortunately, I didn't find this out until I had already diced them by hand and put them in the pot. The first indication was that the tips of my fingers were tingling. Then they were burning. Really burning. This went on all day. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner with burning hands is miserable! I tried milk, sour cream, lotion, aloe vera, lidocaine, hand sanitizer, ice and Advil. The only thing that put a dent in the pain was Advil, which I took like clockwork because I knew the instant it was leaving my system! On a good note, the recipe was a total success. It wasn't even that spicy. I think the vinegar and the several hours of cooking really tamed it. The men particularly liked this. I will definitely make it again, only I will wear gloves the next time when dicing the pepper!
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This is one of our favorites and will be cooked sometime during the holiday. It can either be a side or a great breakfast. When I was younger, I worked in DC for a Congressman. This was his wife's recipe, though I have found it in many places. It is very simple, using crushed cornflakes as topping, but really good! To make it fast, I buy a frozen packet of onions with green/red peppers from the store's freezer section (usually less than $1). I also put just the hash browns in the oven to cook for about 10 minutes while I mix up the rest. My husband says it tastes better.
Sorry, no pictures today. I am 
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This is an easy and yummy recipe that can be served as a dessert or breakfast. It will be one of the desserts at our house for Thanksgiving. It is even better with ice cream!
I was at Aldi this afternoon getting ready for Thanksgiving. Just so you know, they have beautiful smoked, fully cooked, Butterball turkeys for $1.69 per pound. They also have spiral sliced ham for $1.49 per pound. While I was there I found some really fresh looking cucumbers at .79 each. It reminded me of a great dish we frequently make for family meals and holidays. I grew up with this tempting foreign dish as I am half Danish (not the pastry, but that's good too!). It has a light sweet tart flavor that is a nice compliment to all the heavy dishes that you make for Thanksgiving. You can slice the cucumber in a variety of ways. I have even used my julienne peeler and it comes out great. It is very easy to make! Increase the ingredients for larger crowds. This is generally the right amount for 2-3.
Broccoli Salad
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Looking for something easy to make at Thanksgiving? This is one of our favorite holiday dishes. It's tasty, easy and does not require any cooking. It goes great with turkey.
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Yesterday I had to get supplies for baking a cake for a competition in Cub Scouts. I stopped at Publix with my coupons not knowing what I would find. Currently, they have Betty Crocker Cake and Frostings on sale BOGO. Frosting costs 1.47. From a recent insert, I had .50/1 MF Q. If you use two coupons on two frostings you will make .53 in overage. I did this on six cans of frosting and it worked great. I did not have any coupons on the cake mixes but even so, the price was right and since the overage from the frostings paid for several of them, I bought some. I recommend stocking up if you have any Betty Crocker coupons.
Don't you just love the pink tablecloth! It was leftover from my daughter's birthday party. I finally found the CVS $5/2 Duracell coupons in the toy section if any one is looking for them when they go shopping.
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I love baking bread. My husband and I moved around a lot when we were starting out. This meant that we were frequently having to sell our house. I would always get one of those loafs in a tube and put it in the oven before we showed the house because the smell was incredible. There is nothing more homey than the smell of bread baking. Needless to say, we never had a problem selling our house.
I got this in a recipe exchange, and it sounded so good I wanted to share!
Hawaiian Orange Cake
1 Yellow Box Cake (Duncan Hines is best, but any will do)
3 Eggs
3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 15-Ounce Can Mandarin
With electric beaters, mix together the above. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish.
1 3.5 Ounce Box of Vanilla Instant Pudding
1 20-Ounce Can of Crushed Pineapple (do not drain)
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I got this a couple of weeks ago at Office Max ($24.95). It has cut my coupon clipping time down dramatically. You can see it here online. The blade is not exposed making it safer to have around children. I staple my coupons on like pages together, slide under the cutter and tada, easily and instantly done. No more scissor hands!
Drugstore.com has either a Spongebob or Thomas Crane Humidifier for $9.99 (regularly $44.99). You will need to add it to your basket to see the price. These make great Christmas presents for new parents and if you have FSA (Flex Spending Account) money to burn, humidifiers generally count as an FSA purchase.
You have five weeks to mail your Christmas cards and have them arrive by Christmas. Crazy. This year has gone by so fast! Every year I like to send a nice letter with my cards. Since I work, and because we have a lot of family in far flung states, we often will not see or talk to family for years. This letter, particularly for those who do not use the Internet, will be most of our communication with them. It works for neighbors that you never talk to as well. Two years ago, my next door neighbor stopped me and thanked me for my letter as she learned more about us from that one piece of paper than by living next to us for three years (it was the first year I tucked it into their card).
Happy holidays, everyone!
What a year it’s been at our house. Here is a little letter to let you know how we are doing! J is now six years old, G is three, C is two, and they love to play with each other! Just the other day, I came into the living room and heard my husband say, “J, please don’t sit on your brother’s head.”
G’s become such a good big brother this year. He even tells “Cowee” to take small bites of food, “because if you choke,” he says, “we’ll have to go get a new baby.” Can’t you just feel the love?
It’s amazing how much the kids have grown this year. C finally has a handful of hair and can already say about 500 words, six of which are in English. The other words are part Mandarin Chinese, part Arabic and part of a lost civilization that communicated in shrieks, grunts and drools. C also wants to learn everything, which is why she loves all her educational toys, especially the ones she can fit in her mouth. And you know what else she puts in her mouth? Dog toys. And Legos. And hair brushes. She even chewed up blue chalk. She looked like the newest member of the Blue Man Group!!!
G is very much a big boy now, albeit a big boy who remains deathly afraid of dark bathrooms. He has learned to dress himself, and he defies the law of averages by putting on his shirt backwards 75 percent of the time. Sometimes his shirt AND pants are on backward, making him look like a devoted follower of some 90’s rap band. G’s best look: Shirt backward, pants backward, zipper down. It’s good for emergencies, I guess.
J started Kindergarten this year and he is learning to read. He talks or whistles constantly much to the annoyance of his teacher, and he’s even learning how to rhyme. He’ll just start with a word and go from there, like when he begins with “duck,” and then “luck,” and then …well you can guess the rest. J also learned Tae Kwon Do this year and immediately showed a talent for running off from the front of the martial arts academy. He did achieve his yellow belt for which we are very proud of him, though we are encouraging him to stop practicing on his brother. I also tried to teach him how to use a pogo stick this summer but ended up only breaking my arm. At which point he said “Mom, you’re not very good at that!” and then decided that pogo sticks were not for him which was fortunate as I threw out the pogo stick. He did, however, enjoy signing my purple cast.
Some of the year’s other developments. … Oh yes, we took a family trip to the ocean this summer. It was really fun except for C’s Poltergeist back seat puking incident on the way down. She has proven once again that milk products can not be tolerated by our children. … Our dog, Elvis, passed away this year from cancer at the age of twelve. He is still missed. Our other dog, Purdue, continues to try to steal food off of kids’ dinner plates. She also swears she knows nothing about the trash decorated house displayed so beautifully upon our arrival from work or the disappearance of all the chicken bones. … In other grand achievements this year, I drove several miles with a sippee cup on the roof of the car (thinking how nice our neighbors were for honking hello) and G discovered that if you throw a stuffed animal out the window daddy will turn the car around to retrieve it if you cry loud enough.
We also had some really exciting moments in the family, like when we drove twelve hours to
As for A and I, not too much has changed. A’s company was bought by another company. As the company took on a number of new employees from
That’s it for my letter. Now I’ll just wait for the holiday letters to start arriving in my mailbox so I can read about everyone’s exceptional year. If you’d like to send me yours, feel free. I love updates from family and friends. However, if your’s starts out with “My new BMW” or “He is a genius,” I may stop reading!
All kidding aside, we are truly grateful for our entertaining, lovable kids and for great friends and family such as you. We hope you have had a great year and that next year will be even better!
This is one of our favorite recipes. The kids love to make this together!
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