Pioneer Woman U-mazing mashed potatoes

As I write today the doors and windows are flung open and the sun is shining.

It's November. The day before Thanksgiving.

We live in Idaho...where it's cold.

Do you see the significance of this for my Texas lovin' heart? Yes, it's a big deal.

My fridge is stuffed to the brim with all my Southern Thanksgiving favorites just waiting to be popped into the oven tomorrow. It's all I can do to keep my fingers out of the cornbread dressing and chocolate chess pie. Oh my!

I've been at it all morning, but just had to stop and tell y'all about the Pioneer Woman's mashed potatoes. I seriously think they have changed my life. They are U-MAZING!! Of course they are made with copious amounts of butter, a whole brick of cream cheese AND half & half. Yep, they're that good. The best part is you make them ahead, add more butter to the top and bake them on Thanksgiving. No more last minute stress trying to get the potatoes finished, make the gravy and carve the turkey all at once. Yah for me!

Since the Pioneer Woman takes such great pics of every step of the cooking process, here's a link to her's. I promise you will thank me. You may even stop in the middle of your Thanksgiving dinner to drop me a note of gratitude for such an amazing recipe.

You're welcome and happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. May your turkey be moist, your gravy without lumps and the desserts plentiful.

Mamma's Southern Cornbread Dressing

Right now it looks like a Thanksgiving bomb exploded in my kitchen, but I'm OK with that. It means there's yummy goodness being concocted and soon to be consumed.  While there are many traditional dishes on the menu this year, my all-time favorite is Southern cornbread dressing.  Please don't try and feed me any of the mushy bread stuff...nope. Not for this Southern girl.  Cornbread and bacon in one amazing dish.  Douse it in gravy and well, it's just a little piece of Thanksgiving heaven on a plate.

Mamma's Southern Cornbread Dressing

4 boxes of cornbread (I use Jiffy or make it from scratch)

1 cup onion

1/2 cup celery

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

8 slices of bacon

1-2 T poultry seasoning

2 eggs

2 cans chicken broth

salt and pepper to taste

• Make and bake the cornbread.  Crumble into large bowl.
• Cook and crumble bacon.  Set aside.
• Saute onion, celery and peppers in the bacon grease. (I told you it was Southern!)
• Mix cornbread, bacon and veggies.
• Add eggs, broth and seasoning.
• The mixture should be very wet so make sure you add enough chicken broth.  If it's too dry your end product will be dry requiring you to douse it with more gravy...which is not necessarily a bad thing.
• Pour into baking dishes about half full.
• Add little pats of butter on top...because...butter makes everything better!
• Bake at 350 for about an hour.

NOTE: I've also made a gluten free version of this using a GF cornbread mix.  Turned out great!

Happy Thanksgiving!  May your table be filled with good food, family, friends and a giant helping of thankfulness.

Sweet & sour sauce - it's the bomb!

For some crazy reason I decided today to forgo my longstanding sweet and sour sauce recipe in favor of one I found on Pinterest.  I think I was in some sort of pinning induced coma or something.

Can I just say this sauce is the best stuff EVER?  What is it they say in the South..."So good it'll make you wanna slap your mamma!"  Now, I have no intention of slappin' my mamma, but it is that good.  Tonight we're having it over our favorite meatballs, but I plan on using it on burgers, chicken, chocolate cake.  OK, maybe not the latter...maybe.  I just might forgo the food altogether and drink it with a straw.  Are you understanding the urgency of how good this stuff is?

Sweet & Sour Sauce (courtesy of Mel's Kitchen Cafe)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon mustard
1/4 cup barbeque sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Combine ingredients and blend thoroughly. Heat in a small saucepan until combined and sugar is dissolved and pour over meatballs. (This dish is not overly abundant on sauce so if you enjoy things a bit saucier, double the sauce ingredients.) 

UPDATE: Depending on what BBQ sauce you use, you'll want to adjust the amount of brown sugar.  I use Sweet Baby Ray's because, well, it is the only kind to use.  It is fairly sweet though, so next time I'll cut the brown sugar down to about 3/4 a cup.  I also doubled the recipe for our family of six.  Now I have leftovers...leftovers make me happy.

Gluten free - here we go!

So I finally sat down today and began to tackle the whole gluten free thing.  Connor is out of town for the week so I've had some time to try and wrap my brain around it all. 

Small brain + ginormous changes = slightly in denial

I think one of the things I've been struggling with the most is that after years of enjoying cooking, suddently food is not fun anymore.  I love cooking for my family and friends.  It's relaxing and nothing says closeness like sitting down around the table together.  Problem was I had visions of us sitting down over a plate of raw veggies...not very appetizing OR fun.

So I started out my research today with a list of websites various friends had recommended, but as of two hours later I haven't made it past the first one.  Turns out a new friend has her own gluten free website.  My fear began to melt away as I read her blog.  I can do this!  I can feed my family healthy, gluten free meals without breaking the bank and still enjoy cooking!  My printer is busy dishing out pages and pages of what just might be some new family favorites.

I'm still on the verge of tears, but now it's out of gratitude for answered prayers rather than from feeling totally overwhelmed. 

Thank you LORD for the strength and wisdom to make the changes our family needs.

Gluten free - it's a game changer

You just never know what life will throw at you next. 

We discovered this week that son #2 has some food sensitivities, mostly to gluten/wheat and also to dairy.  The dairy should calm down once we give his system time to heal and then we can reintroduce it a bit at a time.  The gluten/wheat however is a game changer.

I've vacillated the past 24 hours between "OK, we can do this!" and crying puddles of tears.  Tears because I'm feeling overwhelmed, but mostly tears for what it means for his life.  Yes, we'll get it figured out, but right now it seems there is just a whole lot of stuff he can't eat.  The can'ts are outweighing the cans.  Right now food is NOT fun! 

During one of my "We can do this!" moments yesterday there was also thankfulness. 

Thankful it's not something worse. 

Thankful we're not facing a life threatening illness. 

Thankful for family and friends who have been so supportive. 

Thankful that no matter what we face, our God is already there. 

He has a perfect plan for this young man and I trust Him to use these twists and turns to shape his character; to make him more like Jesus, the author and perfecter of his faith.  We can only be strengthened when we're tested.  Isn't that what we want for our kids?  To have their character strengthened so they can stand strong when it counts?

So here we are...we're facing a trial and we have a choice - joy or sorrow.  Our flesh certainly tends toward sorrow (hence the puddles of tears), but by the power of the Holy Spirit we can choose joy. 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4

LORD, produce in him perseverance, using this game changer to bring him toward maturity in You.  Strengthen him as you prepare him for the perfect work you prepared in advance for him to do.  

This may be a game changer, but thankfully Coach still has a plan.