Our Thanksgiving In [many] Pictures

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Today was an incredibly long day. It just seemed to go on and on forever and it still isn't over! Frazier slept for all of 45 minutes the entire day, and that was while he was nursing! Anyway, I didn't get much done until Josh got home. Thank goodness he was here at 4!

I was clearing off my camera so that I could pack it for our Thanksgiving trip to Ruston and decided to post the pictures from today in a quick pre-Thanksgiving post, since I'm sure I'll have lots for the post-Thanksgiving post and these might get lost in the shuffle.

First, I think this is going to be our Thanksgiving outfit. We put it together today. It doesn't exactly match, but I feel it's weather-appropriate so we're going with it.

This is what Frazier did while I was trying to get my holiday baking done:

...he rolled around on the floor and moaned at me. And made me feel really guilty about not paying attention to him. He did stop briefly when Gatsby came in and there were a few precious minutes he played with some toys.

He's just about to be able to get those toes in his mouth...which I think is just adorable. :)

Josh was looking up (of all things) the trash pick-up schedule to see if they'd be coming on Friday (they aren't) but the calendars were all color coded with bright colors and he was showing them to Frazier...who looked very intrigued! He looks at the laptop like this sometimes when we're ichatting with Oma and Opa- it's so cute!

Well anyway, I did get my baking done...two rhubarb raspberry pies

...and a LOT of homemade bread.

I might've gotten a little bread happy. I was just going to make rolls for tomorrow (or Friday, rather, now) but I thought while I was messing up my kitchen and getting all the stuff out I might as well make a couple of batches. Well, I think we could literally live on bread alone for a month now! I had to get creative with baking containers, too...I even baked some bread in my mini bundt pan Aunt Melody gave me for Christmas (which, by the way, has been incredibly handy...you'd be surprised how many situations arise in which a mini bundt cake is relevant!)

There are few things (and by few I mean one and that's cheesecake) that I like as much as I like plain old homemade white bread right out of the oven. Actually, having so much fresh bread at my disposal was sort of a high...I mean, I was practically giddy. Somehow, though, having eaten quite a bit now, plus the hours it took to make, the time it took to cool, the wrapping it all up for freezing, toting to Ruston and giving away, then cleaning up the kitchen from all that...I'm all breaded out!

So it's off to bed so I'll be ready to head out in the morning!

Goodnight and Happy Thanksgiving! As always, I have so much to be thankful for this year...hope this year finds you blessed and grateful, too! :)

A Post For Tuesday

I couldn't think of anything clever to call this post. Sorry. I just wanted to post about the last couple of days. (I don't like to let too much time pass between posts or I forget what happened!)

Yesterday we had a playdate with our flag football friends Lydia and Lynzie and their kiddos Audrie and Adalynn, respectively. We had a really great time and planned another one for next Monday so we're already looking forward to that! :) This time I actually remembered to take pictures-they were so cute!!

I feel like I've been in the kitchen for days, but I'm not complaining, I've really enjoyed it. I made artichoke dip, my butternut squash ravioli, cheesecake, a spicy 15 bean soup and another batch of my friendship bread this weekend, then some hot ham and cheese poppyseed sandwiches yesterday, ambrosia for MOPS this morning, and now today I am baking pomegranate-chocolate chip-oatmeal-walnut cookies! Basically it's just Mae Mae's Cowboy Cookies recipe with pomegranate in them. I'm still baking (this recipe makes a ton), but they're turning out great! The arils stay in tact, but get soft and lend a fresh tangy pop to the cookies!

Tomorrow I'm baking bread and a pie to take to Ruston for Thanksgiving, and getting our stuff packed up and ready to go!

Since it's a holiday week and he's off on Thursday and Friday Josh has been just working regular 8 hour days (usually he works 4 9s and a 4) so he gets home at 4 yesterday through tomorrow. Somehow that makes it seem like a special week, so I think we're going to go out to dinner tonight...which means I should finish up my cookies and get ready to go!

Happy Tuesday-Before-Thanksgiving!

In Praise Of Pomegranates

It's National Pomegranate Month, so in recognition I made butternut squash ravioli with peppered pomegranate sauce and a pomegranate cheesecake! I actually oven roasted the squash, made my own pasta dough and rolled ( and rolled and rolled and rolled) it out thin and created my very own raviolis. It wasn't quite as difficult as I'd anticipated and I was extremely happy with the result. They were delicious if I may say so myself. I love pomegranate and was perfectly happy to celebrate the fruit. I mean, they're beautiful aren't they? And good for you, and yummy. A fruit trifecta if ever there was one.

Oh- and I learned a valuable tip thanks to this handy pamphlet I picked up at the Pom Wonderful display where I picked out the perfect pomegranate:

So here's the tip: when removing arils (you know, the ruby-like seeds) break the pomegranate apart in a big bowl of water. The arils sink, and the pith floats. It works really well...I can attest.

See? Lovely, no?

And now for some more pictures from this weekend of the kiddo ...since I'm pretty sure that's what most of you come here for anyway. :)