Hardy is getting older, but still that spunky, little fun dog he has always been. I like when he cuddles, though. He is such a great little doggy. And, Eleven is turning five in nine days, but she's still in kitten mode and sprints around the house and up and down the stairs at all hours of the day. Yet, she sleeps about 12 of those hours, so it all equals out.☺
2. This Game.
This game is a lot of fun and very similar to Dungeons & Dragons. We have now been playing it for about a week and it will continue for a few more weeks, at least. Definitely an adventurous game and we are enjoying it a lot, because it reminds us of so many places we have been here in Oregon. One being Haystack Rock below. It's cook to play a game and know exactly where they are referencing. You can get this game for yourself here.
3. These Grapes.
Not sure how the red grape got into the bunch, but it was sweetest of the whole group.
4. This Grinch.
Lots of Christmas decorations are going up and this one caught my eye this week. I added a dangling ornament to his hand when I posted it on my Instagram story. We have plans to create a fun Christmas display in our yard this year, I look forward to sharing that on here soon.
Here's another one that is clever. When you don't know what to do with your Halloween decorations, throw a Christmas hat on it. Ha!
5. This Sign.
Burger King has had this message on their sign for awhile now and it's always nice to see. Positive messages on fast food signs should be the norm, in my opinion.
One more thing:
Goodbyes are always hard. He has been around me all of his life, and we are very close, so saying goodbye is never easy for either one of us.
One last thing:
Recently found these cookie cutters and rolling pin at Target and I can't wait to use them soon.
Positive affirmations this week:
Since we are coming off the week of Thanksgiving, what is one thing that you are truly grateful for today that you didn't have a year ago, or even something you are grateful for that you didn't have even a month ago. Showing and having gratitude weekly, daily, or even yearly, shows us how much we really have that we don't see change on a daily basis. Being grateful makes you a better person in seeing the good over the bad. Practice it yourself, or make the change to find something to be grateful for each day in the coming year. You can do this!
The fog this week was amazing. I was able to get a few great shots for my Fog Pictures Instagram.
2. This View.
Vigo the Carpathian is now standing at the entrance to our house to judge you as you enter.
3. This Box.
Kiwi Eco Box this month had a sweet note from the creators in it. I really appreciate the personalize notes inside each box and the pumpkin spice soap smells amazing!
4. This Lamp.
Found this lamp at a small local store here in the city. The first one I brought home the base was broken, but I was able to grab a replacement with no questions asked. Which is a good thing, because they only had one left. It now has a home in my office and I just love it. I can't find this exact one, but here is one similar.
5. This Massager.
I picked this up recently to use on the back of my calves after running, and when our backs are tight, but honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about this thing. We've used all the attachments on the correct areas, but the vibrations are too aggressive. I will continue to use it to see if things improve with it, but as of right now, I'm just not sure. It's a great machine, so I don't want to knock it too much, and it definitely works in certain areas, but using caution is something that should be expressed for people similar to me that have sensitive skin and sensitive muscles. You can get one of these here, if you want to try it out for yourself.
One more thing.
Both of these iconic houses have gone in the market. The one on the left is from "The Goonies" and is located in Astoria, Oregon, and listed for $1,650,000. And, the one on the right is from "A Christmas Story," and it's located in Cleveland, Ohio.
Our Thanksgiving day was mostly enjoying family and eating, but here's a recap of the days leading up to Thursday, because the whole week was mostly food prep. And, a few extra things from time to time.
My Thanksgiving prep started a few weeks before the week of Thanksgiving by coming up with a plan. The plan was to softly prepare dishes on each day of the week to not have an overload of cooking the day of, so I could spend more family time than in the kitchen. It's a great process that I will definitely be incorporating each year from now on. The prep started with gathering recipes that I wanted to try this year and buying all of the necessary ingredients needed for each dish. Seems easy enough, right?
Most everything we bring into our home is organic, if not organic, definitely non-gmo. Everything pictured here is within a decent budget and most can be found at a local grocery store now. If your local store doesn't have these brands, brands that are equivalent will work just as well.
(Monday-November 21)
I started the week out with making homemade cranberry sauce, which I've never made before, and pumpkin pie-which again, I've never made before.
Cranberry Sauce:
2 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp. water
-Add everything to a pan and boil, then simmer until you hear the cranberries pop. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
Pumpkin Pie:
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ginger
1-15 ounce can pumpkin
1-12 ounce can evaporated milk
2 9-inch graham cracker crust
Crush two cups graham crackers in a food processor, add two tbs. sugar and pulse until sand consistency. Pour into a medium bowl and add two tbsp. melted butter and mix together. Press into a pie dish and set aside.
Using this tip from America's Test Kitchen, I followed the temperature settings here and it worked for pumpkin pie with a graham cracker crust, too. Preheat oven to 400. Pour previous mixed ingredients into prepared graham cracker crust and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 and bake for an additional 45 minutes, or until center is set and toothpick comes out clean. Set aside and allow to cool. I placed our pies in a covered pie dish and left out on the counter until Thursday.
And, that wrapped up the prep for Monday.
(Tuesday-November 22)
For Tuesday I prepped mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. I kind of improvised with the sweet potatoes, because we don't like them with maple syrup, or marshmallows. An unpopular opinion is that sweet potatoes don't go with marshmallows and marshmallows don't go with sweet potatoes. ☺
Mashed Potatoes:
6 pounds russet potatoes (peeled and quartered)
8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 stick butter
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. paprika (or more to taste)
Boil potatoes about 15-20 minutes until fork tender. Drain and mash in a mixing bowl, or use an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Add cream cheese, sour cream, milk, half the stick of butter, salt, and pepper and beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Spoon mixture into a baking dish and brush top with remaining butter (melted), and sprinkle with paprika. Cover and place into refrigerator.
Sweet Potatoes:
4 pounds sweet potatoes
1/2 cup milk
1 stick butter (softened)
1/2 tsp. salt
Wash and cut up sweet potatoes into large quarters. Boil until fork tender, drain and place in an electric mixing bowl with paddle attachment. Mix until sweet potatoes are broken up. Add milk, butter, and salt and mix until smooth, or desired consistency is reached. Spoon into baking dish, cover, and place into refrigerator.
And, that wrapped up the prep for Tuesday.
(Wednesday-November 23)
On Wednesday I prepped apple pie and the stuffing we decided on for the meal. We went with a basic apple pie recipe with a graham cracker crust. If you haven't caught on yet, we all prefer graham cracker crusts to traditional pie crusts, because of the flavor. For the stuffing we went with a cornbread and plain bread stuffing.
Apple Pie:
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
5 cups granny smith apples, peeled and sliced into half moon shapes
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
6 tbsp. sugar
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 tbsp. flour
1/4 cup flour for topping
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup oats
2 tbsp. brown sugar
Crush two cups graham crackers in a food processor, add two tbs. sugar and pulse until sand consistency. Pour into a medium bowl and add two tbsp. melted butter and mix together. Press into a pie dish and set aside.
Slice apples and place in large bowl. Squeeze lemon juice over apple slices and mix. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, and 1 1/2 tbsp. flour. Add to apples and coat thoroughly. Dump apple mixture into prepared graham cracker crust and spread out evenly, but mounding a bit in the middle. In a medium bowl, mix together 2 tbsp. butter, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup oats, and 2 tbsp. brown sugar. Sprinkle over top of apples and press down just a bit to get it to stick to apple tops. Melt remaining 2 tbsp. butter and drizzle over top of crumb topping. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake an additional 30 minutes, or until apple filling is bubbly. Temperature times may vary with these recipes, so please take note of that and adjust accordingly.
Stuffing:
1 stick butter
3/4 cup onion (chopped)
1 cup celery (diced)
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 eggs (beaten)
5-6 cups dried bread crumbs
3-4 cups dried cornbread chunks
1-2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
Melt better in a skillet and add celery and onion until onion is translucent.
Add seasonings and eggs, stirring constantly until cooked. Transfer everything to a larger bowl and add bread crumbs. Mix to combine and add broth slowly to mixture until desired stuffing texture is reached. Add any extra ingredients that you would like, at this time, raisins, nuts, cooked bacon, or sausage. Transfer to a baking dish, cover and chill in the refrigerator until ready to cook.
I ended up placing all items in covered baking pans to make it easier on Thursday to remove from the refrigerator into the oven with ease, and also use them to serve the dish, as well. You can pick up the ones I used here.
(Thursday-November 24)
On Thursday, all we had to do was cook the ham, and heat up the the rest. Once the ham was cooked, we heated up the sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans with bacon bits, and the stuffing at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes we removed everything, but the stuffing. The stuffing cooked for an additional 20 minutes. We made the gravy with 5 cups chicken broth, 1/2 cup flour, and a few tablespoons of ham drippings (to taste). Added salt and a bit of pepper, and everything was ready to go. For the rolls, we got prepackaged from a company here called Big River Breads, popped those in the toaster oven for about 10 minutes, and everything was ready in under an hour. We have leftovers for a few days, too.
I definitely recommend this preplanning approach and using my schedule here you can adjust to fit your Thanksgiving, or family needs and on what days you prepare what. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were surrounded by the ones you love, and who love you.
Life at a "Swell's" pace is a lifestyle and travel blog chronicling the life and travels while living in Oregon's beautiful Willamette Valley. It is mostly written by Shelly HW. Click the image to learn more»
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