Thanksgiving recap

We had such a fun Thanksgiving holiday, started off by a trip to Memphis. Having 6 children under the age of 7 in one house was so crazy, so fun, so wild! Here's our attempts at getting pics with the cousins:




Ya Ya with all her grandchildren


Ya Ya with the 2 youngest grandchildren (Jackson, 10 months; Lane, 7 months)




Jackson loves his Aunt Ashley

We raced home Thanksgiving afternoon to see my brother, since we knew we'd have such limited time with him, and he rarely makes it back to Birmingham because of his busy life in Austin, Texas. Jackson was enthralled by Uncle Jason's beard:




A house divided! Sad Iron Bowl loss for Auburn, we but love Auburn nevertheless! War Eagle!!!

I'll post some great breakfast casserole recipes I've been making recently. I'm headed into work, but I'll get another post out soon. Off to finish up addressing Christmas cards and trimming the tree!

Part 2

All I want for Christmas is my TWO front teeth! Correction from the previous post. Jackson is now getting both front teeth in. His ear infection has cleared up, thank goodness, but now we're dealing with repercussions (aka side effects) from the Amoxicillin!

Jackson has been clicking his tongue and imitating everything we do. I was blowing my nose the other day, and I hear him trying to imitate the sound with his mouth. Too funny. He's able to put the Puffs I give him in his mouth (gotta love the pincer grasp!), and he's sort of waving bye-bye to people now, along with shaking his head "no" all the time (not sure if he means "no," but it's funny nevertheless. He keeps doing it because we keep laughing at him).

We're headed to Memphis to celebrate with Andy's family, and then back home to celebrate with my family and to see my brother who flew in from Austin, TX. Happy Thanksgiving!

Recent Recipes

Ear infection. Poor J-man has his first ear infection. At least we have a diagnosis, and now that he's on the Amoxicillin, he isn't quite as fussy as he was. Sweet buddy, he's such a trooper.

With this cool weather, I've been cooking up a storm, everything from pumpkin bread to hot soup!

Emily Gross inspired me to make these Kale Chips. I bought some kale at Home Depot and planted it in a pot outside, so it was fun actually using my "makeshift" garden. (Note, don't over-salt these like I initially did)


Very tasty, and a great way to eat a "super food"

I made this Pumpkin Bars recipe into cupcakes for a Halloween party. Reduce the baking time by 10-15 minutes.





I had some farro I needed to use, so I found this recipe on one of my favorite recipe sites, Smitten Kitchen. This is a good and hearty Mushroom and Farro Soup. Serve with a crusty Italian bread for a delicious meal. (Note, I did not have the dried mushrooms the recipe calls for, and I thought my soup still turned out great. I just added one extra cup of water to the broth. You can also substitute barley for the farro. I used white mushrooms, and I did not add the sherry vinegar it calls for at the end. I didn't feel like buying sherry vinegar for this one recipe.)



I also made this White Bean Dip by Giada De Laurentiis. I did cook my dried Northern beans in the crockpot. Through trial and error, I'm learning with these beans you need to add more water than you do for the black-eyed peas, and I cook them on LOW for about 6 hours. These beans are a little more finniky in the crockpot than the black-eyed peas. But still so easy to do!



Happy Cooking!

All I Want For Christmas...

Is a new front tooth! Poor Jackson has been teething, and I'm feeling his upper left side tooth coming in. He's overall such a happy baby, but the teething, combined with some chest congestion, and the time change has made for some long days in our household recently. But here are some fun pictures to show what we've been up to.


Jackson met Santa at a local store here in town. He loved him! He also loved the life-sized elves in costume that were walking around.





We also attended my Meemaw's 80th Birthday party in Montgomery. Jackson did so well throughout the lunch, and we had fun celebrating the wonderful life of my grandmother!



One of the sweetest things said about her was a story from 30 years ago when she was battling breast cancer. She kept telling her husband and her four boys, "If only I could make it to see my first grandchild." (at this point in the story, I'm tearing up, and then I realize, it's ME she was referring to!) But the neat part of the story is how Meemaw beat breast cancer by the grace of God, and now she's lived to see her many grandchildren, as well as her first great-grandchild (Jackson). We hope she lives to see many many more great-grandchildren! (That means the other married cousins need to get to work! Ha)

On November 10th, Jackson started picking up foods (aka Puffs) and putting them in his mouth. He's getting fairly proficient at it. He's crawling everywhere, into everything, and you can't leave his side for a minute because you never know what he's getting into.


He loves his new activity walker, an early Christmas present from GiGi and Pops

And random thought: If you're looking for a good mini-series to watch, we've been watching The Pacific after Jackson goes to bed, and it's really incredible. It's incredibly intense, very graphic, but amazing to see the true stories of our soldiers during WWII. Andy and I are really enjoying it, and it makes us appreciate our veterans even more. Thanks for all you do to serve our country!

9 Months Old

I can't believe my little boy is growing so fast, and we are enjoying watching him grow! He turned 9 months yesterday, and we got back from his 9 month doctor's visit just now.

He weighs 18 lbs, 14 oz, and is 28 inches tall. Our pediatrician said he's right on track for growing, and that he is slimming up because he's moving all the time. Jackson is an avid crawler now, pulling up on everything, and thinking he's pretty hot stuff when we notice him standing up while holding onto the chair.

He does this hysterical face of grinning really big, squinting his eyes, and throwing back his head. We all get a kick out of it, and so he keeps doing it. It really resembles a face that my dad made when he was little. Below is a picture of him starting to make that face. I'll have to post when I get an excellent picture of his hysterical face.



Jackson is saying "guh guh," "ma ma" and "ba ba." He still nurses every 3 hours, and he's still eating pureed baby food I make him. His recent new love is green beans, but he's still eating pears, apples, sweet potatoes, zucchini, squash, and Puffs (a great life-saving snack when he's getting fussy!).

Jackson goes to bed around 7 or 7:30 at night, and he's up at 6:30 on the dot every morning. He'll usually play in bed until around 7 a.m. or so. He's so so happy in the morning. AND, he only naps in his crib now. Thanks to Andy being home one weekend, he got him solely napping in his crib a few weeks ago (plus, Jackson wasn't really fitting in his swing anymore).

Overall, we're so grateful for an easy, laid-back, funny baby!

Halloween 2011

Here are pictures from Halloween 2011 and our little monkey!

Game-Day Menu

We opted out of going to the Auburn vs. Ole Miss game today and decided to stay home, hang out as a family, and get things done around the house. As of 2 hours ago, here's our game-day menu we whipped up in no time:

1) Appetizer: (wondering what to do with the leftover black-eyed peas that you froze from the black-eyed pea hummus from 2 posts ago?)

Black-Eyed Pea Dip

1 (15 oz) can black-eyed peas (or your extra ones you cooked in the crockpot for hummus)
1 tsp seasoned salt (we just use regular salt)
2 Tbsp minced onion
1 Tbsp dice jalapeno pepper
1 1/2 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup butter
1 (3 oz) can deviled ham
3 oz grated mozzarella cheese

(If using peas from can)...cook peas 2 minutes, and drain. Lightly mash peas, and mix with salt and next 6 ingredients. Pour into a 9-inch round baking dish, and top with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Serve warm.

**This is from "Food for Thought" Junior League cookbook, and it's always a crowd pleaser

2) Dinner: Pork Tenderloin---Andy put a great meat rub on it and grilled the tenderloin
(Vegetables?? I heated some up that I had in the freezer, but I may or may not have opted out of them for the next food item...)

3) Dessert: Easy Skillet Apple Pie

I've been wanting to make this from the September 2011 Southern Living magazine. So while baby boy was sleeping, I start peeling and coring apples! And it truly is easy and oh-so-delicious. We topped ours with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. Delish! (Do I sound like Rachael Ray or what?)


Easy Skillet Apple Pie
Recipe here

2 lb Granny Smith apples
2 lb Braeburn apples (I used Gala because it's what I had)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter (but next time I may use a little less)
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 (14.1-oz) package refrigerated piecrusts
1 egg white
2 Tbsp granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Peel apples, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges. Toss apples with cinnamon and 3/4 cup granulated sugar.

Melt butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat; add brown sugar, and cook, stirring constantly, 1-2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and place 1 piecrust in skillet over brown sugar mixture. Spoon apple mixture over piecrust, and top with remaining piecrust. Whisk egg white until foamy. Brush top of piecrust with egg white; sprinkle with 2 Tbsp granulated sugar. Cut 4 or 5 slits in top for steam to escape.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly, shielding with aluminum foil during last 10 minutes to prevent excessive browning if necessary. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before serving.

(Note, I did not do the egg white and sugar. I cheated, took the short cut, and instead sprayed with Pam. Ha! But it turned out fine.)

I have made my own piecrusts before, and while they taste great, you can't beat the time you save on refrigerated piecrusts.

Enjoy!


C'est l'Halloween!