Gravy.

It didn't quite turn out as I hoped.

We went to Sam and Tim's for Sam's birthday dinner. I brought along some "Amish Cookies". I'm never sure why they are called Amish Cookies. Bill calls them "Amish Wedding Cookies". I tell people they are Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies with Coconut. Yum. They are the best chocolate chip cookies ever.

Amish Cookies

Mix together:
1 cup Crisco (I use the blue sticks)
2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. salt (a few shakes)

Add:
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
4 cups flour (I do one cup at a time or it is too difficult)

Stir in:
4 ½ cups oats
1 cup coconut flakes
½ bag semi sweet chocolate chips

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they look done at 350 degrees. I use an ice cream scoop to make them nice and big. You can bake a few batches and freeze the dough in balls so when you want fresh cookies all you do is thaw them a little and pop them in the oven.

The fall harvest center piece. I walked down to the lake
to snag the birch bark and am now using it to cover
up the ugly plastic of a potted plant.

We carved pumpkins about a month ago with Eric and Rebecca. Mine is on the left, Bill's is in the middle and Eric's is on the right with the tough "X" nose. Eric had lots of special knives that he used for carving. Bill used his outdoors knife. And I used kitchen knives. Rebecca decided not to carve because she doesn't like the slimy stuff on her hands. It is pretty slimy.

Surfing in Lake Superior...fine, but in November when it is 16 degrees?!

Yesterday when we were driving home from work there were two people out in the lake catching some waves. It was 16 degrees outside and the wind probably made it below zero. Brrrrr. It made me shivver even with the seat heater on. We should, i mean could have had a snow day yesterday. At 7:45 on our way to work it what a white out. We drove onto campus and couldn't see any of the buildings!
I think winter is here to stay, we have snow in the forcast for the rest of the week. I hope we will be skiing by the weekend!

Romertopf Turkey

Soak the clay roaster in room temperature water for 15 minutes.

While the roaster is soaking, remove the thawed turkey from the packaging.


Remove the neck and other stuff.
From both ends.Wash the bird in water.
Salt and pepper the bird...inside and out.

Rub the bird with Miracle Whip coat the skin.

Sprinkle with herbs: thyme if you have it. Or basil, oregano, and marjoram if you don't.

Remove the clay pot from the water. Place the bird in the bottom of the roaster.

DO NOT PREHEAT THE OVEN!

The recipe.

The ingredients.

Place the lid on the pot, and place the roaster in the COLD oven.
Turn oven on to 475 degrees and cook for 2-2 1/2 hours

Check the bird half way through to see if there is too much water.
Too much water is when it is up to the top of the bottom of the pot.

Remove the bird from the oven. Carve and serve!

Enjoy!

Turkey Leftovers
I baked a turkey a week ago...or so. I tried to space it out enough so that we wouldn't be turkey'd out before Thanksgiving.

We haven't had totally elaborate leftovers, but here are a couple:

Turkey Broccoli Casserole
Broccoli - enough to cover the bottom of a 9x9 pan
Leftover Turkey - chunked into bite-size pieces
1 can cream of _______ soup. Fill in the blank with whatever you have around (celery, asparagus, broccoli, chicken, mushroom). I used reduced sodium cream of chicken.
8 oz. sour cream. I used reduced fat and it worked fine.
Cheddar
Salt and pepper

In a greased 9x9 pan or whatever size you want, layer broccoli (cooked) and turkey. Stir together the cream of ____ soup and sour cream. Spoon moxture over the turkey. Shred cheddar on the top. **You may also want to put some breadcrubs on it. I didn't have any around so I didn't.
Bake at 350 degrees uncovered for 30 minutes. Season to taste.


Delicious Turkey Sandwich
2 slices bread, buttered on one side (like grilled cheese)
Turkey slices
Sharp cheddar slices
Mayo and Dijon mustard
Dried cranberries

Mix the mustard, mayo and cranberries in a bowl and spread on a slice of the bread.
Heat a non-stick pan, place one slice of bread butter side down in the pan, layer in order cheese, turkey, other sliced bread with the sauce. Place a plate on the sandwich to weigh it down. Cook like grilled cheese until the cheddar is melty.

Last year my New Year's Resolution was to enter sweepstakes daily. I continually work on it and this week/month I'm entering the DIY $100,000 kitchen and bath update. Jeesh, I could turn my entire house into my kitchen and bath and have an entire update.

I'm getting ready for new glasses and tried some out on this cool website:

MY FRAMES

*** When you go to the page, click on view favorites, so you acutally use ones that I think are OKAY.

The really cool part about the site is you can actually move the glasses around on my face to make them sit right. Try it out. Rather fun. Follow the link and let me know which pair you like.

Katie Holmes ran the NYC marathon...well sort of...

She finished the 26.2 miles 5 hours 29 minutes and 58 seconds or something like that. That means she averaged 12 minutes, well almost 13 minutes a mile. Do the math 5 hours = 300 minutes + 30 minutes divided by 26.2 = 12.59. According to "The Walking Site" 15 minutes a mile is a good walking pace. Check out her picture finishing it...there's no way in ... I'd run 26.2 miles in a tank top! Yikes!