Christmas Menu Planning

I'm typing it up here so I don't have to print. Maybe it will be helpful to someone else. (recipes follow)

Brunch

Quiche Lorraine (prebake)
Bacon
Blueberry...? (Muffins maybe.)
Sparkling Juice
Coffee or Tea


Evening Feast
Peking Duck
Ham
Sweet Potato casserole
Collard greens
Fuzhou Noodles OR Mac-n-Cheese (made w/ Dreamfields Penne)

Cookies, ice cream/ root beer Floats

Quiche Lorraine
Refrigerated Pie Crust (or make your own...but why bother?)

4 large eggs
2 cups whipping cream or half-and-half
8 slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled (1/2 cup)
1/2-1 whole red bell pepper depending on taste (chopped, and excess moisture squeezed through paper towel)
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese (4 oz)
4 Tbsp chopped green onion or chives
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne)
grape tomatoes divided in half (for garnish)

Heat oven to 425. Line pie pan or quiche pan with pie crusts. Cover entire crust with double layer of foil. Bake 10 minutes. Remove foil and bake additional 2-4 minutes until pastry begins to brown and set.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs, cream, salt and pepper together.

When crust is ready add bacon, bell pepper, cheese, onions to the pastry. Pour egg mixture over. Garnish with tomatoes and red pepper.

Reduce heat to 325 and bake 45-50 minutes or until knife inserted into center come out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Coming Soon....

...Re-posts

I just went through some of my archives. I found a few posts that I simply luv. Since I have been in a bloggy drought for quite a while, I've decided to re-run some of the posts. Maybe I will recapture some of the bloggy mojo.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hair really is a great insultator!

Oh, I know you are wondering....What is she talking about?

Well isn't it obvious? Haircuts!

I have had long, long hair for the past 4 or so years. Hair long enough to sit on. Last year I cut it up to my hips to help it look healthier. Today I snapped. I whacked my hair off, y'all!

My had been bothering me for the past few weeks. I'm not sure if it was because I had switched shampoos or the age of the hair just starting to show but every time I tried to wash or brush or touch my hair I found it to be tangled and knotty. So today, I just decided it was time to let it go.

Whack! I new year, a new me.

One problem. My back is now incredibly cold! Brrr!!!!

And for the record, my hair would probably still be considered by most as long. It's just short to those of us that are used to having it down past our wastes.

Pictures to come???

7 days and counting

Do yall SEE the date on the calendar? I can hardly believe that we are so close to Christmas and another new year!!

I have gotten quite a bit accomplished this past week. We went and picked out our family's first live tree. Which was an adventure in itself! (maybe a future post??)
I finished up my Christmas shopping and completed a sewing project I wanted to do. I only have to wrap presents for The Girls. I feel so...accomplished!

With 7 days left until Christmas I find myself not having to hustle to the store and best of all worrying if what I want will be there when I finally arrive.

Now if only I had managed to have some Christmas money laid aside (like I usually do!) I would have more than a few nickles to rub together. Not to worry though. Everything is purchased, and I have no errands to run, so money (or a lack of it) should not be a problem! If worse comes to worse I can always take a bit out of savings to tide me over.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope to do some baking over the next week and enjoy reading some blogs. (maybe even do a baking post??)

Decking the halls with????

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

Sort of. I would say that I am in luv with the music that surrounds this season. I am also quite fond of cookies and eggnog (except this year) but other than that? Yeah. Not so much.

Okay, don't shoot me. I know I am probably considered weird because I don't go ga-ga over Christmas. There are no boughs of holly, no lights, tinsel or silver bells hangin' round my house.

I started the season well. Oh, yes I did. I felt very Christmasy about a week or 2 before Thanksgiving. I felt like singing Christmas songs and doing a little shopping.

So I started singing some songs, playing a few cd's...Then it happened. I went shopping.

That ruined it. Kinda sucked the Christmas joy right out of me. Why? Perhaps it is because things are over priced, or maybe junk or EVEN ...over priced junk. Or maybe it's because shopping reminds me that my once Little Girls are quickly growing up.

I'll never tell.

Here's hoping I'll soon be infected with a little holiday cheer. Otherwise, this may be a year without a Christmas.

Happy New Year?!

I sometimes pick the most unusual times to do things. For example, deciding to totally gut and clean my bedroom at midnight. So it probably wouldn't shock you that at the peak of Sweet Season, I have given up sugar.

I don't really know exactly what possessed me to start when I did, but I just woke up one day and decided that day would be the day I would start toward getting my health back. Other areas in my life have been going so well, and one of the few remaining obstacles to my complete "happiness heaven" was my health.

For 6 years I had ignored myself, hated myself, and even punished myself for other areas in my life being out of alignment. House messy? no problem-eat a few chips, that'll do it! Hubs acting crazy? No worries- a bowl of ice cream will "show" him!

I wasn't really fooling myself. Instead, I chose to turn a blind eye. However, on October 24th I woke up and said, "Today is the day."

I began my long journey back to health.

Since then I've shaved off 10 pounds. I still have multiples of 10 yet to lose, but I've made a start at least. I've started exercising (at least when my poor knees can stand it!) and I've changed the way my family eats. (again! LOL!)

The road back to health is long, with many twists and turns and potholes hidden therein, but I've determined to walk it! Let's just call it my New Year's Resolution-two months early!

Great Hymn Resource

If you haven't hear about it before now...
Center for Church Music - Songs and Hymns is a 5 minute radio broadcast that has a "hymn of the week," devotional and hymn story. This is a great resource to go along with your weekly/monthly/daily hymn.

Feeling Good

I have been feeling so good lately. I woke up one morning at the end of October and decided that it was time to do something about my health. 32 is looming ahead of me in July. I just am tired of feeling blah. Since I can't blame my physical health on anythbody but me, I am grabbing health by the horns and not letting go!

Yoga has been the new discovery for my family. I always hesitated to try it because of the spiritual roots from which it sprung. One day last week though, I decide that day would be the day to give it a whirl. I turned it on (Thank-you instant netflix!) and fell in love! The first time I was only able to do a portion of the workout. The next time, was the same, except I made it a little further. The next time I tried a different video by the same people and to my great surprise made it through the whole session!

It feels so good to stretch long and lean and feel my muscles burning to hold a pose. I guess it reminds me of my tumbling/cheerleading days. I used to love the stretch that went along with that, too!

What I really enjoyed about these particular videos is that while they use yoga terminology, and do focus on "healing yourself" they also focus on how to correctly do the poses, how to modify, and what they are helpful in strengthening. When they say something like, "Feel a light searching out all the achy places, healing it."
I just say to myself, "Thank you Lord, that you are my healer, and the Light."

I may be hooked?! and the bonus? My girls like it too!

been cheatin'

...On my own blog.
I have another blog that is completely private (I THINK?! I HOPE!!) that I can use as more of a journal. I had been thinking I was having writers block here, but then I clicked over the other one and the keys clicked beneath my fingers quite easily. I guess it's not really a case of writers block, but more of a case of what I feel like I want to share. Not that anybody reads, but the idea that they could read is why I think I hold back.

Maybe I'll get a little bolder and share what I've been writing about, but ....I doubt it.

I have been trying to think of something to blog about, really , but...the well seems dry for now.

I guess I'll be back, ...sometime. In the meantime, check out the archives.

Spring forward, Fall behind

Changing leaves often serve as a visual reminder for me that cool temperatures are coming, days are growing shorter, and soon the dark and sometimes seemingly never-to-end days of winter are ahead. Often, the very idea of fall makes me feel a funk already starting to form about winter. This year, however, as well as last year, have been different for me. It never occurred to me before to pray and ask for help in the area of my loath of fall and winter.

Hallelujah, people, God answers prayer!

Last fall and winter were so much easier: No winter blues, No deep funk, and we have been weathering this fall as brightly as the changing leaves. Emotions are good. Relationships are good. God is good.

Now, why do people have to go and mess with that?!

:D

Okay, really, it's not quite so bad as it could be.
Really.
I can't say that we're having any of the usual fall/winter related issues rather it seems that we've replaced one set of problems with another equally tricky one--We can't seem to roll our rear-ends outta the bed at a time I (or many others for that matter) would still consider morning. Okay, technically the clock hasn't got that "pm" button highlighted but really, it might as well be.

It seems my children have taken the "FALL BEHIND" message completely to heart. Later sleep times, later rising times, and the worst thing of all, later brain functioning times. I realize most people need some time in the morning to get there brain to motivate and function at the full alert level, but 'round here we're talking noon to afternoon until The Girls are ready for anything other than staring off into space.

Someone should really notify those Time People that they are totally messing up my schedule, because this is in no way, shape or form related to my parenting skills.

Happy Monday!