What to do?

I've been racking my brain for awhile trying to figure out what to get Karson for Valentine's Day.  He's been needing a new wallet for awhile, but I realized a couple days ago, that his current wallet has a seperate ID holder thing that he keeps his military ID so that he can flash it. I'm sure that wouldn't be too hard to find, but I didn't like any of the wallets I was finding.

So then what?  For Christmas this year, my sister made me a no sew fleece blanket.  Karson really liked it when first saw it.  He'd never seen one before.  They weren't really all that popular when we were growing up, then he moved south for college, since then he's been living in warmer climates when not overseas. I started to wonder if it would disappear from my house. 
I decided a fleece blanket of his own would be a great gift.  So I set off in search off fabric.  Hoping that by some miracle I could find either of his two college teams of choice - Missouri or Arkansas.  Fat chance, here in the land of the Huskers. I managed to come across the Cyclones (yay) and the Hawkeyes (boo), even Texas A&M, Florida and Auburn, but that was about the extent of non-Husker related options. :(  Thankfully, he also has pro-teams.  I opted for the Chiefs over the Royals.  Edited to include the finished project.

Thanksgiving

So I just looked at the calendar and realized that Thanksgiving is happening in a week! When did that happen? Did I mention the family is coming here? Here's a tale of Thanksgiving 2007, when I last hosted the event.

I need to preface this whole story by saying that my mom doesn't think that I can cook, which was half the reason that I wanted to host Thanksgiving - to prove that we wouldn't be dining on cereal and Lean Cuisines. We'd be eating real food, made by me.  Back in 2007, I was still living in an apartment.

As I was getting ready for the event, my friend, Amanda, told me that the one time she made a turkey, she'd bought one with a pop up timer, so if I'd just get one of those, I'd be golden. Sweet. Butterball Pop Up Timer Turkey on the list. I had a recipe for Yukon Gold mashed potatoes that I wanted to make from Real Simple, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, Stove Top stuffing (whatever, I'd never made stuffing), cranberry sauce, caramel rice krispie treats, and corn, probably other stuff too. My sister and mom were both bringing pies, and bread.  Lunch was slated to begin at noon, so I thought people would show up at 11ish or something. 

Sometime in the early morning, I pulled that gross stuff out of the inside of a turkey (YUCK!!) season it and put into the roaster into the oven. Around 9 a.m., I was doing a load of laundry when my parents arrived.  9 a.m. is nowhere close to noon in case you can't tell time.  It's completely different.  I needed trash bags and saran wrap or something like that, so I sent my dad to the grocery store.  My dad has never met a stranger - I figured he'd be gone for 45 minutes.  I needed to run downstairs and throw clothes into the dryer, my mom asked what she could do?  I suggested she start peeling potatoes.  My mom failed to mention that she is a champion potato peeler.  I was gone for about 2.2 minutes.  She had peeled half of a five pound bag if not more in my absence.  No joke.  I picked up a potato and started peeling and glanced over at my mom who was whirling away.  I said something about how she must have "the good potato peeler."  We switched.  The lightning fast peeling continued.

Elizabeth and her family arrived sometime close to 11, because that's normal and expected.  When Elizabeth arrived we kicked food prep into high gear. One problem - my apartment kitchen was small and not open at all.  Insanely small.  And then things start to get amusing, sort of...

My mom: "Rebekah, what do you want for Christmas?"
Before I can even say a word....
My sister, Elizabeth: "A bigger kitchen." 
The three of us in there was a tight squeeze. At some point my mom decided we should check on that turkey - not her first rodeo. 
She opens the oven door: "Rebekah, where's the pop up timer?"
Me: "On the turkey." And I was only trying to be halfway sarcastic.
My mom looked at me, and said: "Well, I don't see one here.  Where's your meat thermometer?"
Me: "Did you ever give me a meat therometer? I don't own one."

So yes, a 15 pound turkey in the oven for 8 - 9 people and no way to tell if it's done. Until my mom says that if we can twist the leg and it nearly comes off it's done. (My timer was almost up too FYI).  The leg thing worked and the turkey was great. I have since acquired a meat thermometer.  Thanksgiving got substantially less exciting from there - my sister brought this awesome French Silk Pie from a bakery that is now closed - it was so piled high that my knife disappeared.

Holiday baking

Don't you just love holiday baking? Amanda came over on Sunday and we make pretzels dipped in almond bark and covered in red and green sprinkles. And then we made candy cane cookies. Photo to come later. We found the recipe on allrecipes.com and decided to go with it because it got such good reviews. It was okay, but a bit awkward and if you were going to go with the five star review recipe, I'd recommend doing the following. Instead of waiting until after pulling the cookies out of the oven to put the sugar and crushed peppermints on top, pull them out halfway through and add it - we figured this out on the third sheet of cookies. Other suggestions involved glazing with Karo syrup but that still had a mixed result.
Today I made some caramel puff corn, it's in the oven RIGHT now. This stuff is awesome! It's so much better than caramel corn because the hulls don't get stuck in your teeth.
I've also got dinner in the crock pot - Baked potato soup, courtesy of IowaGirlEats.com. It smells great and I'm getting so hungry.
I have a lot of baking yet to do before I hit the road on Thursday to start my trek across Iowa - peanut butter balls, fudge, hot chocolate on a stick, gingerbread cookies on a I still have to work this week. Details, details. :)

Holy Housewarming!

I traveled back to Iowa for the Thanksgiving weekend and was incredibly grateful by how generous my family was with housewarming gifts. My mom had sent me a few emails weeks ago asking a few questions  about my current kitchen items. After hearing about my cheapo pots and pans and how the handles smoked in the broiler decided I needed something of a bit "better quality."  So, she and my dad were kind enough to buy me a set of 10 pots and pans with lids. With the impending mortgage, I am going to be cooking at home a LOT more and it's going to be nice to have a good set of cookware to use.

Here's the skillet, as you can see the sticker is still attached. And in the back, you can see the new paint for the 2nd floor.

As if that wasn't enough, Friday my aunt asked me if I wanted my Grandma Pugh's stoneware. My maternal grandmother died when I was five, so my memories of her are somewhat limited and unfortunately I missed out on a few traditions. I felt bad that I didn't even offer up the stoneware to my sister before saying yes. However, when I talked to Elizabeth today, she said, "Well, you never got a quilt, and everyone else in the family has one of those." The family tradition you're supposed to have a quilt made for you. I've pretty much given up hope that I will ever see this quilt. So basically, the stoneware is now my quilt. Here is what my new stoneware looks like - considering that it's at least as old as I am, it's held up well. Twelve place setting, and only two cups have chips.

Salad plates

Dinner plates, normally not a big flower fan on things, but I think Grandma did a good job on the pattern.

So after that, I'm already thinking I've made out like a bandit. Saturday morning, my aunt announced that she was going to buy me a housewarming gift - and that she would buy me a mixer - she gave me a price range. I was floored and after trying to tell her it wasn't necessary and getting nowhere... I hopped online and did some bargain shopping. Younkers BF prices were still in effect, plus they had a $30 mail in rebate. I got an awesome mixer for an insane price. It's new and shiny and black, technically "caviar." It has the dough hook, wire whip, flat beater and a pouring shield. Just in time for holiday baking. Normally Amanda and I do holiday baking and make fudge. Our arms get so tired from mixing that we go back and forth. This year, we'll just set a timer. :)

New mixer, better view of the new paint color, raffia ribbon.. It looks lonely. I need to add my toaster.

Halloween

Seeing all of my friends' kids dressed up for Halloween has made me think back to when I was a kid. Getting dressed up and heading out door to door. There are many things that I didn't like about living in a small town, but Halloween was awesome! There was only between 90 - 100 houses and by the time I was eight, I was out going to every participating house in town. Loved it.

I wish I had a scanner because I'm pretty sure I have a picture of my favorite costume of all time. Smurfette. I loved the Smurfs as a kid and I was Smurfette for two years. And I'm not talking store bought costume either. And yet my mom went all out on our costumes, just like with baking, there is no halfway. My mom painted my face blue and bought a yellow string mop for my hair,  I wore white top like dress and blue pants. And blue gloves. Hilarious. I had to have been about four. What I want to know is how on earth I went for two hours without getting that make up everywhere.

This year, I'm going a bit more lowkey, I'm wearing some purple scrubs with a stethoscope, and I might pick up a surgical mask. I hope the scrubs fit, I bought them when I weighed a bit more. What was your favorite Halloween costume ever?