My First Thanksgiving

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Last year for Thanksgiving we were in California visiting my sister. It was such a great time because I was able to get to experience cooking a Thanksgiving meal for the first time.  My sister and I cooked everything together, and it was so much fun! 

This year though, my husband and I have decided to stay at our home and have Thanksgiving together, with us and our host sons! I am so excited because we will get to experience cooking the entire meal by ourselves! 

And if you don't know.....that is a BIG DEAL! 

So here is the plan.  

First, I will make a bunch of appetizers and we will have a brunch with appetizers around 11am. 

Then we will have our Thanksgiving meal for dinner around 5pm.

After that we will decorate our house for Christmas, then probably go back and eat some more :-) 

Here is our Thanksgiving Day menu! 

Brunch snacks:

Stuffed Mushrooms

Chips & dip

White Queso

Pico de Gallo

Hold you Horses

Stuffed Jalapeno

Sausage Balls

Dinner:

Turkey

Stuffing

Gravy

Mac n Cheese

Rolls

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole

 Mashed Potatoes

Deviled Eggs

 Butternut Squash

Dessert

Pumpkin Roll

Mini Pecan Pies

Drinks

Water

Sweet Tea

Wine

Are you cooking any of these same things!?? 

What menu item is your favorite for Thanksgiving!?? 

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Homemade Pie Crust by Big Sis

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We weren't raised in a home with a mom that cooked a lot... it's okay mom! Funny though that we both enjoy experimenting with new recipes and trying things out. I have really enjoyed, since becoming a stay at home mom, making our foods from scratch. However, in all this time making pie crust from scratch is not something I dared to try. I have had more than one person tell me on more than one occasion that pie crust is very difficult.... I dare to say it is not! 

Google really is my best friend. I have a cabinet full of cookbooks, but I always go to google when wanting a recipe. This time it was not different. For some reason I went with the first recipe that popped up and man.. it was great. It was so easy and yummy. You can find the recipe that I used here. 

So, as the directions stated I had to cut my butter in small cubes and freeze them. I had never new that would make a difference. But it did. It was very interesting to me to find out that one of the secrets to getting flaky pie crust is to have really, really cold butter. So because of this they recommended freezing, which I did! 

Of course I had my very own helper in the kitchen. He loves to cook with his Mommy. I was busy with my food processor when I hear "Mommy, Look at Me"... he is just too precious. 

What you see below is me mixing the flour, butter, and water in my food processor. It was so neat to me how the small amount of water pulled the butter and flour together and created a crust. You have to really watch it because too little water won't give it the consistency it needs and too much water makes it much too tough... and you do not want that. I am so happy to have my food processor. It is so helpful when I need to bake! This was a wonderful gift from my in-laws a few Christmas' ago ... and it attaches to my Bosch... EVEN BETTER 

Then I had to make disks with the dough, after dividing them into two. You can still see the butter pieces and that is OKAY! Remember, the butter is what helps your pie crust to be flakey.. so if you like flakey... this is your pie crust recipe to use. 

A close up of the dough in the shape of a disk showing you that you can see the butter pieces! 

Now you want to wrap your disks and put them in the fridge for at least an hour... 

The picture below is so pretty to me. Once I pulled my disks out I was able to shape it how I needed it and put it in the pie dish. I was SHOCKED at how easy it was to manage the dough. I expected it to be hard and falling apart... not the case. It was the perfect consistency. 

Do you have a great pie crust recipe that is relatively easy that you love? We would love for you to share it with us... and we would love to try it. 

Please share. 

Check out our Linky Parties page to see where all we are linking this up! 

-Big Sis

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Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

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Who doesn't LOVE Chicken Pot Pie? I remember as a kid how we would always have frozen pot pies and how I loved them. I was always SO very sad at how long they took to cook, but man, I loved these things. I never thought to make my own until we lived in Japan. One of our friends there made a killer homemade chicken pot pie... and I loved it. I loved it so much that she brought us one when our son was born to the hospital with his initials. 

Isn't that so creative and precious. Needless to say, the whole thing was eaten. It is just so creamy and sooo yummy. I love to make chicken pot pies and freeze them. Also, when I am going to make a meal for a family at church or something I always go to the pot pie. It is semi-quick and I know how yummy it is. And the fact that it is so different from the normals of lasagna or spaghetti. I love making it. Just recently, when making the ones below, I actually made THREE of them at one time! They were all so yummy. 

Normally I use the deep dish, frozen pie crusts in the dessert section of your local grocery store. I used them for two of the ones that I last made and then I ventured out to make my own pie crust. This is the one that we kept. Making pie crust has always, ALWAYS intimidated me. But it was not bad at all. I was shocked at how well it turned out and how yummy it was. Now I wish that the two pot pies that I gave away had my homemade crust on it too. In a blog post to come, I will tell you all about making my homemade pie crust. 

It may not be the prettiest thing in the world.. but I still made it myself! SO EXCITING!!! I have a lot of practice to do with my pie crust, but man how it added to the flavor of the chicken pot pie. I wish I could take the credit for my chicken pot pie, but I can't. I honestly have not gotten away from this recipe... and I am glad. Because it is just too great for me to mess up. I will share where I get it from at the end. 

But look at that pure delicious-ness. The thing that takes the longest in this whole process is cutting my carrots, celery, and onions. The awesome thing is if you don't like those veggies, you will probably not even know they are there because they are cut so small and cooked with everything else. If you don't like them, I would dare you to go ahead and add them... and see if you taste them!! 

My next goal is to make personal chicken pot pies and to freeze them. Trying to figure out how to exactly do that though... without breaking them coming out of the individual baking dishes.. tips?

You can find the AWESOME Chicken Pot Pie Recipe that I use right HERE! I hope you will try it out and let me know what you think... 

Check out our Linky Parties page to see where all we are linking this up! 

-Big Sis

*Don't forget to go enter our GIVEAWAY for some AWESOME Coconut Oil*

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Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

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For those that don't know, we (Big Sis), just moved back the states after living three years in Japan. For the past five years I have taught school. For my son's first year I continued to teach school and took him to an amazing home provider. I was a full time teacher, a full time mommy, and a full time wife. I certainly did not have the time that I have now to experiment with recipes. It is actually rather funny that I enjoy cooking things from scratch and baking like I do now. I knew there was this girl way down there hidden. But for the past three years I just used my best friend in Japan to do that for me while I lived vicariously through her. But now, I get to be that woman I always wanted to be. Though I still work full time, and most days many more hours than I did actually teaching in a public school, I also have the freedom to be home! I can include the kids in many of my adventures! :)

With that said, back in November my little love bug got sick for the first real time since he was born. Then my handsome husband started feeling puny as well. So I thought I would make some homemade chicken noodle soup. When I put the recipe in google (my favorite) I found Pioneer Woman's Recipe. I was so excited. I have always heard such wonderful things about Pioneer Woman. I read through the recipe and I had everything I needed, so I got busy. First and foremost I had to make the noodles. These were so super easy. 

I was so proud of how my noodles turned out and especially how they tasted. I always worry when cooking something new. My husband always eats ANYTHING I cook even if it taste poorly.... but he is also honest with me. Where as some women don't like it when their spouse critiques their dishes, I welcome it. I use to not be that way. But now that I have began growing myself as a better cook, wife, and mom, I like to have his input. Most of the time! :) He comes from a mom who is an amazing cook- so my bar is set high. I don't ever expect to be as good of a cook as Dixie, but I do hope that my little boys standard of cooking is set high too, because of ME! :)

I loved watching this soup cook. Isn't it beautiful? This whole pot was gone that night. I am pretty sure little man didn't eat any, I had one bowl, and then Daddy tore into it! I actually made a lot more the other night. I had to make a meal for a family in my church and also for another friend whose husband just had surgery. When I cook for other people it is especially important to me that I put my all into it and I enjoy doing it from scratch. I was not as pleased with these noodles, but the next day they were great! :) 

To the moms that work and don't have time to cook from scratch or do things you would like to do for your family.... I get it. I do. And I am so sorry. I wish we could all do what our heart desires... now that I can be home and can do this stuff- it is A PRIORITY! :) I love cooking and I love doing it for my family. I love preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner for my boys. Love it!

I dare you to take on this adventure and make some homemade noodles.. they are so much better than store bought noodles! :)

Don't forget our Linky Party! Link up and you might be featured! 

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Yummy--Zucchini Bread Recipe

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So I started the contest blog out with a Wheat Bread Recipe , and I am going to end it with another bread recipe! 

Here is a great Zucchini Bread Recipe! I have made it twice so far and it turns out perfect and so yummy! 

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

1 C vegetable oil

1 ½ C sugar

3 medium zucchini – grated and well drained  (2 C)  (I put the grated zucchini in a strainer, press down with my hands to get out liquid and then put a plate on top to drain out as much liquid as possible.  I’ll leave it for about 10 minutes to let it drain.) 

2 t vanilla

2 C sifted flour (all purpose)

¼ t baking powder

2 t baking soda

3 t ground cinnamon

1 t salt

¼ t nutmeg

1 C raisins (optional)

1 C chopped walnuts

Beat eggs lightly in large bowl.  Stir in oil, sugar, zucchini and vanilla.

Sift flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Cinnamon, nutmeg and salt onto wax paper.  Stir into egg mixture until well blended.  Stir in raisins and nuts.  Spoon batter into two well greased 8 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pans.  Put 3 C batter in each pan.

Bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees) for 1 hour or until center springs back when lightly pressed with fingertip.  Cool in pans on a wire rack 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool completely. 

(350 degrees works best for my oven and I still cook it for 1 hour – see which works best for you.)

Thankful for my friend Dani Kizer who shared this wonderful recipe with me! 

In my bread I didn't use raisins, only walnuts, and it was fantastic.  Also, I only used 2 zucchinis instead of 3 and that turned out wonderful! 

Anyways, I would love to hear if any of you try this! Or if you have a different recipe, let  me know what you do different in a comment below so I can try your style! 

I hope you all enjoy this recipe, and can add it to your list of recipes to try! 

REMEMBER....today is your last chance to win the

Lequip Professional Stick Blender with all of the attachments.

This tool is so amazing. I have used it to mince veggies such as onions, cilantro, and even tomotoes. We really enjoy using it to help make our fresh salsa. I have also used it when making baby food. The uses for this tool are unlimited. 

The website describes this tool as:

“An ideal blender for daily use. Slim ergonomic design with soft-touch easy-grip handle. Stainless steel body. Removable, interchangeable blades for mincing, beating, chopping, aerating, and whisking. It also includes a multi- chopper/grinder attachment.”

If you want to enter click on GIVEAWAY and it will take you to the place to enter! Each person has 6 chances to ENTER, and the giveaway ends tonight at 10pm (Central). We will be announcing the winner this weekend, so keep an eye out to see if you are the lucky winner of this awesome kitchen tool! 

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