Thoughts of Thankfulness

A few things/people I am thankful for:

My Salvation.

My hardworking and loving husband.

Our strong marriage.

Children who are learning to be what God wants them to be.

That my mom is cancer free!

Hunkering Down

Husband just went to the store to restock our pantry in preparation for the next storm. We are supposed to get snow again this afternoon/evening thru tomorrow morning. Sometime tomorrow it is supposed to warm up and turn to rain - but in the meantime we need to be prepared. I know it seems funny to people who get snow all the time, but the Puget Sound area is pretty much paralized when we get snow. We get so little snow that people don't know how to drive in it and it always seems to surprise the DOT, so that the roads are not ready and it always seems to hit during rush hour. My mother, who is in her 60s and a diabetic spent 4 hours on a bus in 20 degree weather on Monday evening. Her normal commute would be about 1 hour and 20 minutes. To further complicate things around here, there was also a Seahawks football game in Seattle on Monday and it let out at about 9pm. The freeways were gridlocked and it took some people 7 + hours to get home, there are stranded cars littering roads and now, as the roads are finally getting cleared off, we are supposed to get another snow. Our dear daughter had to commute to work today, about 40 minutes away from home - thankfully she has a place to stay down there should the snow hit before she comes home tonight. I am thankful that I don't have to go anywhere and can just stay home and enjoy the beautiful snow. I guess snow can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.

Tis the Season

Yesterday, after worship service, we went to get our Christmas tree. Our family has the tradition of going to a you cut tree farm to cut a tree and we usually wait until a couple of weeks before Christmas to do this, but our schedules this year dictated us doing it this weekend or not everyone would get to go. It had been snowing a little in the morning on our way to church, but then it turned to rain and by the time we were heading out to get our tree, it was fairly pouring. While we were walking around the tree farm the rain started turning white and by the time we were leaving with our tree, it was snowing very hard. We were all very excited, you see we don't get much snow around these parts and so it is almost like a holiday when we do! After we got home, the boys played out all evening even though we only had about an inch. This morning when we woke up, there was about 8 inches and the boys have been out all morning. It is beautiful! Our backyard is still untouched, except for a few footprints along the side fence where boy #2 went to knock the heavy snow off of our little tree for me, we already had a branch break off of our rhododendron in the font yard from the weight of the snow and we didn't want the new little trees to get damaged. We are in a winter wonderland!

Black Friday -

It has become an annual event for my daughter, my sister and myself to go shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving evening we plot out our route for the next day and then we get up early in the morning and work our route. Fred Meyer is usually our first stop - they always have socks half price, plus many other items that we might want to purchase on sale. This year we were at Freds before 6 am - and there were quite a few people - but it wasn't too bad. They were prepared with all checkstands open and the lines moved very quickly, plus they serve free donought holes and apple juice and there is also a Starbucks in it, so we were set. We moved on to the new Target store and it was fairly empty, I guess everyone went on to the mall store. After that we went to the outlet mall not far from us and got a couple of good deals before bringing daughter home so she could scoot off to work. Sis and I headed to the new Kohls store and that was chaos, it was my first time in it and I couldn't believe how long the lines were - we just toured the store and then left and headed back to the outlet mall. The mall was now VERY crowded, but sis was able to make a couple of purchases and then we headed back home for lunch. We don't take the shopping too serious and have fun with it. When all was said and done, I had made some needed clothing purchases for my boys and sis had done a bit of her Christmas shopping - it was a pretty good day.

The Dinner that almost wasn't . . . .

This year we decided to use the roaster oven to cook our turkey, thus freeing up the oven to cook other items. This roaster oven is a family heirloom, it was my grandmothers and it has been around as long as I can remember - 40+ years. Well . . .this was the year it decided to bite the dust. Our turkey was only partially done at 5pm, the appointed dinner time, so we had to quickly shift other things out of the oven and put the turkey in and so we had dinner at 7pm instead of 5 pm. It did turn out well in the end and all 14 of us had a wonderful dinner and it was one that we won't soon forget.

YUM

Today was try a new recipe day on my menu rotation. We had Salsbury Steak and it was delicious! This recipe was one that my husband emailed to me several years ago and I had never tried it. He found it on the internet in 2001, but I do not know where he got it.

Salsbury Steak

1 egg
1 can french onion soup
1/2 C. dry bread crumb
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of pepper
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 T. flour
1/4 C. water
1/4 C. catsup
1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. prepared mustard
chopped parsley

Mix 1/2 c. of the soup, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Add beef and mix well. Shape into 8 patties. Brown in skillet for 3-4 minutes. Remove patties to plate. In the skillet, stire together flour and water until smooth. Add catsup, worcestershire sauce, mustard and remaining soup and bring to boil. Stir 2 minutes. Return patties to the skillet with the sauce. Simmer 15 minutes. Serve salsbury steak with the sauce and enjoy!

Our whole family enjoyed this one!

Whats for Dinner?

I am not someone who enjoys planning menus and cooking and therefore continually struggle with getting it done. Unfortunately for me, it is a necessary chore. Having a menu planned helps us to save money and also much frustration during the week. Years ago I came up with an outline that helped make the chore of menu planning easier and also provide a variety of foods during the week. For some reason I got away from using the outline and decided to try to go back to it. Here is the new outline that I just finished working on:

MONDAY: Fish: Salmon (2), Salmon Patties, Pizza Fish, Tuna Wedge, Tuna Melts, Tuna Noodle Casserole

TUESDAY: Beef: Meatloaf, Steak, Hamburger Patties, Spanish Rice

WEDNESDAY: Soup: canned or White Bean, Lentil, Minestrone, Vegetable, Chili

THURSDAY: New Recipe

FRIDAY: Chicken: Italian Parmesan Chicken, Chicken & Veggies (Prism pg 199), Chicken & Rice,

SATURDAY: Kids Favorites: Taco Bake, Sloppy Joes, Pasta & Meatballs, Frito Pie, Garlic Chicken, Ala mom

SUNDAY: (crockpot): Roast, Pork Chops, Creamy Chicken, Stew

Using the above outline for ideas and considering our activities for the week, here is this weeks Menu.

Menu Plan

Monday: Tuna Melts with Peas

Tuesday: Spanish Rice with Green Beans

Wednesday: Chicken Soup, Canned and Rolls

Thursday: Salisbury Steak, Boiled Potatoes, Broccoli

Friday: Chicken & Rice, Carrots

Saturday: Youth Rally

Sunday: McDonalds?

Stop by Organizing Junkie's Blog for more Menu ideas.