Thankful Thanksgiving

Well, my 5 pies are made, the turkey is ready to go in the oven, the rolls are rising and DH &DD are napping which gives me some quiet time to think about this day.

I have so much to be grateful for. I have the best husband in the world and the sweetest, most gorgeous girl that loves me and brings so much joy to my life. (There is no sweeter sound than DD saying "mommy")

As we are on call for the mortuary and stuck at home having our own little Thanksgiving, I realize that I have all I need right here. I fear I take them for granted because I have them here all the time. But really, as long have I have my husband and kids with me, I can't ask for more.

Of course I have so many other things to be grateful for as well. I'm grateful for my husband's job and that he loves it. I'm grateful for the mortuary and the home it provides us. I'm grateful for our families. I'm grateful that DH's siblings are our best friends. I'm grateful for my church calling and the opportunity it gives me to serve. I'm grateful for our temples, and that we live so close to so many of them. I'm grateful for all the material things we have and that we can live so comfortably.

Above all, I'm grateful for my Heavenly Father and my savior, Jesus Christ. I know without a doubt that EVERYTHING I have comes from them. I'm grateful to know that Father hears & answers prayers.

And on a really worldly note, I'm grateful that our co-workers are covering for us tonight so we can go see Harry Potter!!!!:)

Potato Basil Puree

I was at Costco the other day and saw Ina Garten on the cover of Costco's magazine. I picked it up and flipped through it when I got home. The one recipe that screamed "Make me!" was the Potato Basil Puree. Being an Italian girl, I am a sucker for anything basil.

(photo from yumsugar.com )

I had some fresh basil leaves so I made it for dinner tonight. It is absolutely delicious!


Potato Basil Puree

Ingredients

2 cups fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
2 pounds large Yukon Gold or white boiling potatoes
1 cup half-and-half
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and fill a bowl with ice water. Add the basil leaves to the boiling water and cook for exactly 15 seconds. Remove the basil with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge the leaves into the ice water to set the bright green color. Drain and set aside.
2. Peel the potatoes and cut them in quarters. Add the potatoes to the same pot of boiling water and return to a boil. Cook the potatoes for 20 to 25 minutes, until very tender. Drain well, return to the saucepan, and steam over low heat until any remaining water evaporates.
3. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the half-and-half and parmesan cheese until the cream simmers. Place the basil in a food processor fitted with the steel blade and puree. Add the hot cream mixture and process until smooth.
4. With a handheld mixer with the beater attachment, beat the hot potatoes in the pot until they are broken up. Slowly add the hot basil cream, the salt, and pepper and beat until smooth. If the potatoes need to be reheated, cover and cook gently over low heat for a few minutes. Pour into a serving bowl, sprinkle with extra parmesan cheese, season to taste, and serve hot.

Serves 4 to 5.

Flannel Board

After seeing a felt turkey at Naptime Crafts, I couldn't get the idea of having a flannel board out of my head. And the only cure for that is to make it, buy it, whatever it takes. I have a bunch of felt for the quiet book I will one day make (maybe) so while DD was napping I cut out a turkey. Couldn't have been easier. Then I set out to find something I could use to make a flannel board. I went to DI hoping to find a cheap, lightweight frame that I could take the glass out, but the only thing that came close was $8, and I didn't want to spend that much on something I knew I could make for pennies.

While laying in bed that night I remembered that DD's ond hair bow holder was covered in flannel, and that it was sitting in her closet as it doesn't match her room anymore. I swear my light bulbs only go off while I'm laying in bed.

So it's currently pink but I'm waiting to go to JoAnn's next week when their flannel is on sale to get white, but it works for now.

So we've been learning about Turkeys and Thanksgiving and practicing colors.

Last night I was cutting some Christmas shapes on the Cricut and decided to cut templates and make a felt tree and snowman.

Just Another Hang Up

I love link parties. I always come away with new projects to do and sometimes I stumble upon a wonderful blog.

I was on somewhat simple and an amazing flower caught my eye. Probably because I've been making the same type of flower for DD but these look so much better. Suzanne at Just Another Hang Up is a very talented lady who is incredibly generous too. She has many patterns and files that she's willing to email. I emailed her and within the hour, she sent me 4 files that I'm super excited to start working on.

Link over and check her out!

Mickey Counters

I'm so proud of myself when I come up with something on my own, rather than copying ideas I see on blogs. These original ideas are few and far between, but I'm happy that they come at all.

This idea came from the frustration that all DD ever wants to do is watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We've started having "art time," "dance time," "reading time," "cooking time," "clean-up time," and anything else I can come up with just to get her excited about something other than Mickey Mouse.

I wanted to limit how much she watches so I came up with this:


We keep this at her level on the side of the fridge and now every time she wants to watch Mickey, she has to take a "Mickey" off the board. Don't think I let my child watch 8 episodes a day! She gets 4 on the weekdays and 8 for the entire weekend. 4 a day even sounds like a lot!
It probably makes more sense to just have 4 Mickey's on the board, but DH and I liked the look of this.

Making it was simple. I just cut out 8 black Mickey ears and 4 red & 4 yellow Mickey ears that were 1/4" smaller, all on the Cricut. I have some Mickey paper that I used as a background then glued the black Mickey ears to it. I left the red & yellow Mickey's loose and took it all to Utah Idaho Supply to have it laminated. It was less than a dollar for all of this. When I got home I cut up adhesive magnets (97 cents a pack at Wal-Mart) and stuck them to the back of the colored Mickeys and to the front of the black Mickey's so they'd stick together and it was all done.

Super easy, and so far it's been really effective.
And again, sorry for the camera phone pictures.

Cricut Love

MIL let me bring home the Cricut while I'm working on DD's new Mickey room. It was a real pain to drive 30 miles to cut all the things I needed to.

I decided to stray from the Mickey cartridge tonight and make some Christmas cards for an upcoming achievement days activity.

I've been so focused on the Mickey cartridge that I never really took the time to browse through the others. I found some awesome cards for Thanksgiving which is was perfect to send the great-grandparents these turkey hands that DD recently made for art-time. I love this this autumn script and this cute little turkey.
While I was at it I made a "give thanks" banner for the mantle. I wasn't in the mood to string it so I just taped it right to the mantle.
As always, I realize I should have done things slightly different when it's too late. When I was attaching the leaves to the mantle, I wished I had them going in random directions, not so uniform. But by then the letters were glued on and it was too late. Oh well, I'll know for next time.

I still haven't found my camera. I hope that someday soon I'll stumble upon DD's hiding place. So these pics are all from my phone. They're awful, I know. Sorry.