Pinterest Party Craft

A couple years ago I went to a Pinterest party for a friend's birthday. I have been meaning to share the craft I brought to the party, but have not gotten around to it until now! It was hard to decide what craft to make.
For my craft I chose a little painting project. Everyone got an 8x10 canvas. I printed out a picture of Sullivan's Island, a beach in South Carolina. This is the spot where Charles proposed to me, so it has a personal meaning and significance.

We modpodged the photo onto the canvas and then white-washed over it. On top of that we painted a sunshine and added the words You Are My Sunshine.

I have it hanging in my half bath downstairs. It makes me very happy.

Creamy Cheesy Polenta

I have a spouse social coming up and was trying to decide what to serve. Sometimes we do potluck style, but lately I have been enjoying menu planning and cooking. I know not everyone has the time or expendable income to bring something. I was thinking about making polenta, but I have never made it before. So I made it for dinner to try it out.

It turned out to be really easy and a yummy side. I found the recipe on Pinterest and it is from Shared Appetite.

Creamy Cheesy Polenta

Ingredients
1 cup milk
2 to 3 cups water
1 cup cornmeal
3 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 cup cheese, shredded
Salt
Black pepper

Directions
Bring the milk, 2 cups of water and a large pinch of salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat to a low simmer and add cornmeal in a slow and steady stream, constantly whisking to prevent lumps.

Polenta should be at a bare simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture gets too thick, add water 1/2 cup at a time.

Remove from heat, stir in butter and olive oil. Then stir in cheese. I used a mixture of cheddar and pepper jack. Season with salt and pepper.

For the cornmeal, the Shared Appetite author suggested medium grind. I have no earthly idea what grind I had. I store everything in containers and lose the bag. But I think pretty much any kind of grind will work.

Homemade pizza

One of my all-time favorites pizzas is the Hula Hula at Spinoza's near Dayton, OH. The thing I love the best about that pizza is the crunchy macadamia nuts on top. I decided to try my hand at re-creating it (kind of).

I used a bread machine pizza dough recipe from Mom on Timeout. Her recipe gives both a one pizza and two pizza option. Below I am just sharing the recipe for the one pizza option.

 

Bread Machine Pizza Dough

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 T butter, softened
1 T sugar
1 t yeast
1 t salt
1/2 cup plus 2 T water (105 to 110 degrees)

Directions
Add all ingredients into your bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Make sure the water is warm enough to proof the yeast.

Turn your bread machine to the dough setting and let it do its thing. After a couple of minutes check on your dough to make sure it is not too wet or too dry. You can add water or flour a teaspoon at a time if your dough is too dry or too wet.

After the bread machine is done, dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and work it until you have your desired shape. It was hard for me to make it perfectly circular and that's OK!

If using a pizza stone, dust with cornmeal. If using a another type of pan, you make want to grease it a little, too. Make up your pizza and bake at 425 degrees for 18 to 25 minutes. 

 

For my pizza, I started with Newman's Own marinara sauce. For the cheese, I used mozzarella and cheddar; I'm not exactly sure how much of each I ended up with. Just eyeball it to your desired cheese level. Then I spread freshly cut pineapple and freshly cut tomatoes (that we grew in our backyard!) and slightly chopped macadamia nuts. It was so delicious!

Bacon wrapped avocado

I will be the first to tell you that I do not love avocado. But I will eat it. Once we ate at a diner that had avocado fries as an appetizer. It was a breaded and fried piece of avocado with dipping sauces. It was surprisingly delicious. Then on Pinterest I came across bacon wrapped avocado. Hmm... that could be tasty! I tried out the recipe the other day and it was an enjoyable culinary experience. You can view the original recipe on Oh, Sweet Basil.

Bacon Wrapped Avocado

Ingredients
Bacon
1 Avocado
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 to 1 t chili powder

Directions
Heat the oven to 425 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and chili powder. Set aside.

Line a baking sheet with foil (or be prepared to do a bit of scrubbing afterward).

Cut open the avocado and remove the pit. Slice about 3/4 inch slices lengthwise through the avocado and then cut in half width-wise. I made 4 cuts lengthwise giving me 8 chunks of avocado per side...16 chunks total. Cut each slice of bacon to wrap around each chunk of avocado. I just cut each slice in half, but you could cut in thirds to make your bacon go farther. Wrap the bacon piece around the avocado chunk. Roll in the brown sugar mixture and place on baking sheet. I had a bunch of the brown sugar mixture leftover after rolling all my pieces so I spooned the rest on top of each chunk before baking.

Bake for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven. I put mine on some paper towels to soak up some of the bacon grease before transferring to a pretty plate.

Easy Scrapbooking: Color Run Page

The next scrapbook page I would like to share with you is from a Color Run. (I don't run that much, I swear!) Color Runs are, well, colorful. So this page had to be that, as well.

I love the color splotches I found (on Google) and imported into my Silhouette software. I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted them on the page, so I cut out several in a few sizes. I really like how it turned out.

Easy Scrapbooking: Race Day Page

I love scrapbooking! I enjoy looking back through all my scrapbooks and remembering all the fun times and people I have chosen to include. But I think scrapbooking is intimidating to a lot of people. First you have to sort through all your photos, figure out which ones to have printed and then have all the right supplies. Once you get all those things sorted out, scrapbooking can be very easy and relaxing. I have a simple approach when it comes to immortalizing my memories. I do not include a lot of embellishments; I like my pages to focus on the photos.

The first page I would like to share with you is a race day page. It's probably one of my more modest layouts. I love the patterned paper on this page. It's a colorful chevron print. I used the same paper for the running man and title. I do not even remember where I bought it. I love Hobby Lobby and Michael's, but I like local scrapbook stores even better. There was an amazing one in Dayton, but I only discovered it right before we moved. I haven't found one near me in California.

To make both the running man and title, I used my Silhouette. I love, love, love it! Even though I've had it for many years now, I am still figuring it out. I finally learned how to take any image found on Google and make it into a Silhouette shape. This is saving me a lot of money because I am not limited to the shapes in the Silhouette Design Store that cost about $1 each. Thank goodness for Pinterest!

Design: Travel Printable

I have been scrapbooking up a storm the past week. I am so far behind! There were several pages that I had almost completed, but I was missing the title or some finishing touches. I finally knocked out a bunch today and I am feeling somewhat accomplished.

One page that I needed to finish up was from our Alaskan cruise. Yes, that was almost two years ago. I know to some it might seem normal to be that far behind. But for me and my passion for scrapbooking, this is a huge deal! I was looking for something to summarize the page and trip. Originally I was thinking about doing something like the Alaska state outline and a title mentioning Charles' 30th birthday. Then I had an idea to incorporate a quote related to traveling. There are so many amazing quotes out there. I am truly inspired when I read them. It was hard to choose the best one for this trip, but I ended up using a Jack Kerouac quote that I found on Pinterest.

This printable could be customized with any state or country. Interested in your own custom version? Let me know and I'll be happy to assist!

Fonts used:
KG Hard Candy Solid
Keep Calm Med

Homemade Chocolate Pudding

When I was growing up we made chocolate pudding a lot. We always made the cook & serve kind. Not instant. Chocolate pudding is one of the many pleasures in life. Recently I wanted to make a chocolate pudding pie, but was curious about making pudding from scratch. I found a recipe on (you guessed it) Pinterest. It turned out to be so easy and very tasty! I'll never go back to the box mix again.

The recipe is from Moms Need to Know.

Homemade Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 t salt
4 cups milk
2 T butter
2 t vanilla

Directions
In a pan, whisk together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt.

Whisk the milk into the mixture and heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Once it has started to boil, continue to cook and stir for 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Transfer to serving dishes and chill in the fridge.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I love chocolate. I love oatmeal cookies. Combine the two and it is pretty awesome. I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and finally decided to make them. It makes a whole bunch, so I sent a tray to work with Charles. He came home with an empty tray and tons of compliments. I altered the recipe just slightly, but you can see the original recipe by visiting Something Swanky.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 eggs
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat together the butter, brown sugar and applesauce until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix in-between each addition. Add the salt and vanilla. Mix well. Mix in cocoa powder, flour, oats and baking soda until dough forms, but don't over mix. Add the chocolate chips and mix.

Scoop onto cookie sheets by rounded tablespoons. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, until edges are set.

You HAVE to make these

I found my new favorite food item the other day! I was trying to decide what to make for dinner. All our meat was in the freezer, so that was not an option. I thought it was going to be an oatmeal kind of night, but I thought scrambled eggs and grits would be good. Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? And then I had the genius idea to make sweet potato biscuits. I have never in my life made biscuits, but I had just seen it done on Cutthroat Kitchen and it actually looked pretty easy. I am sooooo glad that I did because they turned out so amazing! The recipe was found on Pinterest, of course. See the original recipe here: Call Me PMC.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 t salt
1 T baking powder
2 T sugar
3/4 cup cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1/4 cup very cold butter, cut into cubes
5 to 7 T milk

Directions
Cook your sweet potato(es). I cooked mine in the microwave for about 8 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a skillet (or in my case, a cake pan) with butter to prevent sticking.

In a small bowl, whisk together sweet potatoes and 5 tablespoons of milk.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add sweet potato mixture and stir gently to combine. Add more milk, if needed. Your dough needs to be moist enough to stay together and firm.

Sprinkle flour on your work surface (I have this awesome silicone mat that I used for the first time and I loved it). Turn the dough onto the surface. Knead two to three times until the mixture comes together. Pat dough so it is one inch thick. Cut into round biscuits and place in prepared skillet/pan. Bake until lightly browned, about 14 minutes.

Spouses Night Out 2016: Home is Where the Air Force Sends You

My favorite base spouse event is here--Spouses Night Out! This has been MY event the past few years and this is my last one; we will be PCSing (moving to all you non-military folks) later this year. My first year the theme was TV shows and we had Mad Men. Last year the theme was board games and we chose The Game of Life.

For 2016, the event theme is Home is Where the Air Force Sends You. Each group was tasked with picking a base to use as the inspiration for their table decorations. As usual, our spouses voted on the bases they wanted on our "Dream Sheet" and Goodfellow AFB was at the top. I thought our chances were pretty high for getting our top choice because Goodfellow is not a very well-liked base. And lo and behold, we got our first choice!

Because Goodfellow AFB is in Texas, I knew I had to go with a Texas theme for at least one of our tables. I have never thought so long and hard about the Lone Star state. I got to work planning out our tables with some sketches.

At the end of SNO 2015, they announced the 2016 theme and a bunch of people immediately thought Texas would be a perfect option for us. Even though we didn't pick our theme until early 2016, I had spent pretty much the whole year with Texas in the back of my mind and I knew I wanted a big Texas state outline on my table. This table was inspired by the little graphic at the top--Things Texans Love. My sister is an adopted Texan (she moved there and doesn't plan on ever leaving). She shared that graphic once and I knew it would be the perfect inspiration for my table.

 

 

This table looks pretty boring from my sketch and I ended up having to re-do the layout anyway. The past two years we have had enough people for 3 tables, but this year we were down to two.

I love sheep. I have several sheep stuffed animals and figurines. San Angelo has fiberglass sheep around town that businesses sponsor and decorate. I knew I had to use sheep in my design. Because we were down to two tables, I could not dedicate a whole table to the sheep. I compromised and combined the Goodfellow and Sheep tables. 

I had a lot of fun designing the place cards for our tables. I made three different designs. Originally I was going to have one design per table, but then decided to just alternate.

These are based on the Whataburger table numbers. This idea was given to me by one of our spouses and I love how they turned out!

These place cards feature a vintage Goodfellow image and patches from some of the squadrons at Goodfellow.

And these show some of the Sheep of San Angelo. I love these the best, but I am biased towards sheep.

I also wanted something to hand out to people at the event...bribes are OK, right? I created a recipe card for kolaches--a Texas favorite. I found the recipe on Pinterest.

Stay tuned for pictures of the final design!

Creamsicle Cake for the troops

Now that I am not working, I am able to do some volunteer things that I did not have time or make time for previously. One such occasion was simply to bake a cake and hang out with some Airmen. My husband's squadron will have "crew feeds" from time to time. These are often organized by the spouses. The most recent one included a contest for best dish and was called Crocks for Crews. Everyone could sign up to bring a crockpot meal or a dessert. I chose dessert since I am not confident enough in my cooking ability to force other people to eat my savory dishes. I thought and thought about what dessert to make. There are soooo many great options! I had recently ordered some essential oils including a tangerine essential oil. I thought it would be fun to make something with it. So I decided on a creamsicle cake. It turned out to be delicious! I'm going to have to make it again sometime soon.

The cake is just a basic vanilla cake, made from scratch using a recipe from the blog I Am Baker. Of course I found it on Pinterest. This recipe is neat because you can mix the dry ingredients together ahead of time and store in a mason jar or another container. Then when you are ready for some cake, you just add a few extra ingredients and bake.

The frosting is my favorite Betty Crocker vanilla buttercream with a few drops of tangerine essential oil.

Creamsicle Cake

Ingredients for cake
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 1/4 cups milk
2 T vegetable oil
1 stick butter, softened
1 T vanilla
3 large eggs

Ingredients for frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 drops of tangerine essential oil (orange essential oil would also work)
1 1/2 t vanilla
1  to 2 T milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place softened butter in bowl and mix on medium for 1 to 2 minutes.

Place dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in bowl with butter and combine for 30 seconds.

Add milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs and mix on medium-high for one minute.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake. For 9 inch pans, bake for 20-25 minutes. For cupcakes, start checking around 15 minutes. (I used a 13x9 inch pan and had to bake for longer than 25 minutes... I can't remember the exact time, but I did it in small increments and checked using my cake tester). Cool before frosting.

To make frosting, mix powdered sugar and butter in bowl with mixer on low speed. Stir in essential oil, vanilla and milk (starting with 1 tablespoon and adding more, as needed). I usually have to add more than 2 tablespoons of milk for the right consistency.

Aloha! Fill up

I am a picky eater; so I may not love to eat everything, but I love to eat! Whenever I have travel research to do a large part of that is spent on researching where to eat. My philosophy is that I may never visit this place again. I want to make the most out of my eating experiences. I do not want to waste my time and money on a sub-par meal.

We visited Oahu, the most populated of Hawaii's islands. It is home to Pearl Harbor, Honolulu and the North Shore. Needless to say, there are a ton of restaurants. I utilized both the list of places visited on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and Tripadvisor to guide me. We ate at some delicious spots while in Hawaii. I did not take pictures of everything, but below are some of the things we enjoyed on our trip.

Charles' plate at the Poke (pronounced like pokey) Stop. He really enjoyed the variety. Before ordering, he was able to sample several of their pokes. They make a ton of different flavor combinations.

My breakfast at the Poke Stop was not as satisfying as I was expecting. I ordered banana pancakes with the haupia sauce on top. I thought the pancakes came with candied macadamia nuts inside, but none were to be found. The haupia sauce did not have much flavor and there was soooo much of it. I would order something different if we ever go again.

While on the island, we visited the Dole Plantation and enjoyed the iconic Dole Whip (with pineapples). It was refreshing and delicious.

Everyone probably imagines a luau when you think about visiting Hawaii. That is a pretty standard touristy thing to do and, of course, I wanted to experience it. Our hotel, the Hale Koa, had their own luau. It was so convenient to our stay. The food was delicious! It included chicken, pork, fish (which Charles ate for me), fried banana, sweet potato, rice, pineapple and a couple appetizers.

One morning of our trip was spent on a Breakfast Whale Watch cruise. Our breakfast included scramble eggs, poi rolls, Kona coffee, pineapple, watermelon, muffins and probably some other items that I am forgetting. It was actually really delicious and a nice scenic place to enjoy a meal. Unfortunately, we did not spot any whales.

Even though I do not like beer, I love visiting breweries and pubs. Honolulu Beerworks had excellent reviews, so I wanted to check it out. Charles ordered a beer flight and I had a pint of hard cider. Our food was so yummy! We enjoyed a pretzel and beer cheese appetizer. I had the mac & cheese and Charles had their special of the night--some kind of crostini with local ingredients. The mac & cheese had a crunchy topping that was amazing! I would want to eat here all the time if I lived in Honolulu.

From my research, there are several places to get delicious pancakes in Honolulu. We chose Eggs 'n Things. It was right around the corner from our hotel. Charles ordered these blueberry pancakes and a plantation tea (tea mixed with pineapple juice). The pancakes were delicious. I had plate envy.

My Eggs 'n Things dish, while yummy looking, was a little lacking. I could not quite put my finger on what it was missing, but the flavors just were not exactly what I was hoping for. My Mocha Kona coffee drink was delicious, though.

A surprisingly delicious food find was at the Pacific Aviation Museum's cafe. On our first day in Hawaii, we visited Pearl Harbor and the other WWII sites. We got up really early to make sure to get tickets to the Arizona Memorial and thus didn't really eat breakfast. We had a snack from the food stand at Pearl Harbor, but by the time we got to the Pacific Aviation Museum, I was feeling a little off. Cafe to the rescue! Charles ordered the pineapple and Spam fried rice and I had Kalua pork. Yum, yum, yum!

On our last night in Hawaii, we enjoyed our dinner from one of the restaurants at the Hale Koa. I had to order a Mai Tai! It's just something you do in Hawaii. I can't remember what Charles' drink was called, but it came with a back scratcher. Isn't that funny?

Gilmore Girls Party: Burgers from Luke's

I love planning parties. One of my favorite things to pick out is the food that will be served. Pinterest has made this both easy and difficult. Easy in that a myriad of recipes are available at your fingertips. Difficult in that sometimes it is hard to choose because there are just sooooo many options out there!

In planning my Gilmore Girls 30th birthday party, food was a big consideration. The Gilmore Girls ate so much junk food throughout the series. They also had the weekly Friday Night Dinners. Sooke St. James is a chef and made a bunch of delicious dishes. What to choose???

I knew immediately that burgers of some kind would have to be made. They ate countless burgers at Luke's Diner. I saw a recipe for easy cheeseburger sliders and this was the perfect chance to try it out!

Luke's Cheeseburger Sliders

Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
1/4 cups oatmeal (or seasoned bread crumbs)
3/4 cup chopped onions (I just used dried onions from the spice aisle because I hate chopping onions)
1/2 t garlic or regular salt
1 package Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls
6 slices cheese of your choice

Directions
Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine beef, oatmeal, onions and salt. Gently press mixture in a 9x13 inch pan so that it makes one large patty of even thickness. Poke holes throughout the meat using a fork (I forgot to do this and it turned out fine). Bake for 30 minutes. As it bakes, the meat will shrink away from the sides and the liquid will accumulate around the edges of the pan.

When fully cooked, remove pan from the oven (keep oven turned on) and carefully drain off the liquid.

Top the meat with an even layer of sliced cheese; return pan to oven for about 2 minutes or until the cheese melts. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes. Cut into 2 inch squares (or the size of the buns used).

Gilmore Girls Party: Founder's Day Punch

Every Gilmore Girls fan knows that a beverage staple at any social gathering would be Miss Patty's Founder's Day Punch. The show never mentions what exactly is in this infamous punch, but it is filled with alcohol and is quite powerful.

There is a recipe on Pinterest, but I didn't end up using it. I had rum in the cabinet, so I thought I would make a rum punch instead. I found a great recipe from Hopelessly Ever After.

Caribbean Rum Punch

Ingredients
2 cups orange juice
2 cups pineapple juice
1/4 cup grenadine
1 1/2 to 2 cups rum
1 cup Sprite
1/4 cup triple sec (I omitted this)

Directions
Mix all ingredients, except Sprite, together in large pitcher. Top off pitcher with Sprite. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving dessert: Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

For my second homemade dessert for Thanksgiving I wanted something with chocolate. Traditional Thanksgiving desserts do not normally contain chocolate (at least not the ones I always had growing up), but I love chocolate. I came across a recipe for Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars (Pinterest, of course). Tada!

Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 8oz bag pecan halves
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (I think I just used more regular sized chocolate chips)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan or line with foil and then grease.
In a large bowl, use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the butter, sugar and flour together until crumbly. Press the crust into the pan and bake for 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine sweetened condensed milk and cocoa powder in a small bowl and set aside.
Once the crust has finished baking, remove from the oven and sprinkle with 2 cups chocolate chips and the pecans.
Pour the chocolate condensed milk mixture evenly over the top. Return the pan to the oven and bake for another 15 to 18 minutes.
Immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips (mini or regular).
Cool bars on a wire rack before cutting into bars. Store in an airtight container.  

Thanksgiving dessert: German Apple Cake

As I mentioned in my Thanksgiving entry, I made a couple desserts to accompany the sweet potato pie that came with our meal. Usually I make Caramel Apple Pecan Pie for this holiday, but I wanted to make something different. For our Oktoberfest party I made an apple cake that was AMAZING! I knew it would be a hit at Thanksgiving, too. Of course, I found the recipe on Pinterest. To see the original recipe, click here.

German Apple Cake

Ingredients
2 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cup white sugar
1 t vanilla
2 cups flour
2 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
4 cups thinly peeled and sliced apples (Granny Smith are my favorite)

Frosting
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
3 T melted butter
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

*Since my husband does not like cream cheese, I just made regular vanilla frosting from the Betty Crocker Big Red cookbook

Directions
Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
Add oil to eggs in mixer and beat until foamy. Add the sugar and vanilla; mix. Add the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Mix together. Add apples by folding in with a spoon. The batter will be very thick. It seems like there are more apples than batter. This is normal.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.

Make frosting. If following recipe for cream cheese frosting, she said add a little milk if it's too thick.

Going back to giving thanks

Since I haven't written in a while I am going to play some catch-up, so forgive me if the next few entries cover events and information from several months ago.

Holidays... as a military family living hundreds of miles from family can be challenging. First you have to decide if you can afford to travel to them. Or you have to see if family wants to come to you. And as a married couple, you have to juggle whose family will get what holiday. Charles' family had originally talked about coming out for Christmas, but then decided on Thanksgiving. His youngest brother, Greg, had to work or be on call for Christmas which is what prompted the decision.

I love having guests! It gives me 1.) a chance to clean the house and 2). to show off my house. So we got the guest rooms all spruced up and cozy.

I'm sure we have all seen the little graphics on Pinterest where you can share your WiFi password. I finally had a good reason to make some for our guest rooms. I used a Beauty and the Beast theme.

We had a great weekend with family! We saw some of the local sights, ate at my favorite local Italian restaurant and played games.

They did a Turkey Trot. I'm glad I didn't participate because I would have been the slowest of the group.

Because I have never cooked a whole turkey and didn't want to attempt it, we ordered our Thanksgiving meal from a local BBQ restaurant. It came with roast turkey and all the fixin's. It was so delicious! I do like to bake and even though the meal came with a sweet potato pie, I had to make a couple extra desserts. I'll share those recipes in upcoming posts.

Our Thanksgiving table

Check out all this deliciousness

The Thoennes clan

Epic game of Risk