Cold Weather & Warm Coffee

We awoke this morning to a site we don't see in Oklahoma very often! Sleet mixed with a little bit of snow, It's so odd too considering that it was 70 degrees when we got up to get Ashley ready for school yesterday morning. Crazy Oklahoma weather!! It is a beautiful site & I'd love to see a little more snow covering the ground.. I get tickled at people around here, You'd think it was a blizzard or something.. We never get serious snow or ice around here.. Most people just don't know any better I Guess... So here is a pic from the front door this morning, They are saying we may get more.. So we'll see.

I get a e-newsletter from Kraft foods.com and recently when I visited the website there was an offer for free samples of Seattles Best coffee's. I've never tried it before since we can't really buy it around here So I thought I'd sign up for the free sample. I was very happy when i recieved them in the mail today!! It's four almost 2oz samples of each flavors or Cinnabon, Seattles Best Blends,Henry's Blend and Hazelnut Cream! YUMMY!!! Cinnabon will be my brew for the morning... Here's a pic of the samples I got...

So Ashley is out of School today and I'd guess for tomorrow as well. She is driving me crazy to go outside so when Jake get's back from picking up his check and getting a few groceries for us, We'll be outside.. LOL!! Jake is done with nights for now... I missed him so much those few days and now he's so worn down :o( I hate seeing him like that, But it makes me feel good that he loves us all enough to work that hard for us. At least he is off work Hopefully until Monday. I did have a Dr's appointment in the morning, But they called to make sure I wasn't coming because of the roads and asked how I was feeling and it I could still feel the baby moving and everything.

Okay, I'm bored and Jabbering I guess, I'm maybe gonna make some oatmeal cookies later, It's a good day for baking I guess... Okay back to that baby blanket that I'm determined to finish today!!! Argh!

Happy Winter, Mandi

Jake & Baby Stuff...

I'm missing my sweet husband a lot. The holiday season is in full force so his distribution center is crazy... He's worked from 6am to almost midnight everyday since Thanksgiving :o( I know the money will be great, But I miss him so much!! Tonight Mom, Kristi, Ashley and I went to Pizza Hut for some Pizza and went out to see the Christmas lights set up at the park. it was nice.. better than being home alone for sure...

Mom and I went to the Mall today so that I could go in Hobby Lobby to get one more skein of the yarn I'm knitting the baby blanket with, So far so good on my mission, I'm almost done with the blanket, have worked a little on my scarf and managed to not buy any other yarns or start any other projects! I'm going to finish the ones I have going first! ha! So anyway while we were at the mall we went in Goodies, They were having a big sale and Mom bought these adorable suits for the baby... check them out She got a great deal on them...

Okay I guess that's it for today, I'm worn out, Not sleeping well at night and having to get up way earlier than I'm wanting to these days... I'm off to knit on the blanket and watch some TV :o)

Hugs, Mandi

Banana Nut Cake

I made this for Thanksgiving Day also, It was very tasty, I did have to bake it quiet a bit longer than the recipe calls for, But I got this recipe from a church cookbook I bought at the arts & crafts fair :o) I cooked in a Bundt pan which I prepared with crisco and flour :o)

Banana Nut Cake

1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup Shortening
2 Eggs (beaten)
3 Mashed Banana's
1 tbsp. Vanilla
1 Cup Chopped Nuts (your choice)
2 Cups Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
4 tbsp. buttermilk

Cream shortening and sugar: add well beaten eggs.
stir in banana's. Sift flour, soda and salt: add milk and flour alternately. add nuts & vanilla. Cook at 325 for 30 minutes (or more)

Leftover Turkey Casserole.

I made this tonight, invited Mom and Kristi over for dinner, It was yummy, If you are someone who is not so crazy about sour cream, I would only use half the sour cream and use another can of soup or something because the sour cream flavor was pretty strong...

Leftover Turkey Casserole

3 cups prepared bread prepared stuffing (leftover is fine)
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans condensed cream of celery soup
1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans French style green beans, drained
2 (4 ounce) cans sliced mushrooms, drained
3 cups cooked chopped turkey meat

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Stir together sour cream, condensed soups, and dry onion soup mix in a mixing bowl.

Spread the turkey in the bottom of a buttered 9x13-inch casserole dish.

Top with green beans and mushrooms.

Spread the soup over the meat and vegetable mixture.

Crumble the stuffing and spread evenly over the top.

Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until heated through and bubbly.

Luby's-Style Cafeteria Cranberry Fruit Salad.

Made this for Thanksgiving Dinner, It was delicious!!! This was a favorite so I'll be making it every year from now on.

Luby's-Style Cafeteria Cranberry Fruit Salad

8-10 servings
5½ hours 1½ hours prep
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries, washed and picked over
1 apple, unpeeled (I like jonagolds)
1 orange, peeled and white pith removed
1 banana, peeled
1 cup broken walnuts or pecans

In a saucepan, mix sugar and water, stirring to dissolve sugar. Bring to a boil.
Add cranberries. Return to a boil, reduce heat and boil gently 4 to 5 minutes or until most cranberries have popped, stirring occasionally.

Remove cranberries from heat and cool completely at room temperature.

Quarter the apple; core and chop. Add to cool cranberries. Chop the orange and banana and add to cranberries with the nuts.

Mix well and refrigerate until serving time, at least 4 hours or overnight.

Happy Knitty Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving Day, Ours was very small and quiet, We enjoyed it very much, Just Me, Jake, Ashley and My Mom & Sister. Mom and I did the cooking.

Here we are, Mom, Sister Kristi, Daughter Ashley, Husband Jake & Me & Baby :o)

Wanted to share my current knitting projects with everyone... My Mission is to complete these before starting a new project, I have a lot of pretty yarns and new needles waiting to be used, A lot of baby projects as you could imagine since I'm only 2 months from my due date :o)

This is one I've been working on for a long time.. Since I found out I was pregnant... It's a blanket for the baby, I loved the pattern and started thinking after I started knitting that I'm having a winter baby this time, So this blanket will definately need a recieving blanket under it until it warms up a bit :o)

The next project is a baby Cardigan Sweater that I also started when I first found out I was pregnant... The knitting has been done for awhile but I was lazy about getting it laid out between two wet towls to dry flat so I can add on the button holes and seam altogether. This was so easy to knit and a freebee pattern from Bernat I found at Hobby Lobby, I think I'll be knitting another one similiar to this, with different yarn and a different color... I'll of course Share a picture after I get it seamed together & finished.

This is finished project & Don't laugh... but this is the first thing I've ever made without a pattern, I just made it from my head... LOL!!! Ashley was very happy...

This is another finished project, I just finished up last night. My very first pair of socks. They were fun to knit and they knitted up so quick! I love instant knitting gratification! LOL!!! I've gotta find some better yarn to knit socks with though... Hobby Lobby & Wal-Mart are my only two local choices and they don't offer a lot, Gotta find a good yarn site online to order from.

Okay, Last knitting project to Share :o) I'm working on a scarf to match my cabled fingerless gloves, The cabling is so addicting!! I Love it!!!

Now last but not least of course... My darling husband stood in like for 6 short hours for the new household toy and his Christmas Present... The new Nintendo Wii video gameplayer, We've been playing it like crazy!! Can't wait to get some different games for it like we have for our Gamecube :o) The WII plays our Gamecube games.. but we're ready for new games to play!

& in the second picture you will see my early Christmas gift and my new best friend that has helped me to join the land of the modern Domesticated woman... a dishwasher!!!!! It's portable/Convertable & for now I have to use it like a portable because the cabinets in this very old house were built by my Grandfather and he built them way to low for any modern gadgets... But it's super easy to hook up and it's my very first dishwasher ever!!! Now I can enjoy cooking even more without the deaded clean-up of it all! LOL!! As silly has it sounds.. this dishwasher is a dream come true for me... I've waited years for this... LOL!!

Okie dokie, That does it for this time, I want to share two new recipes I tried for our Thanksgiving dinner, I'll be posting those later :o)

Hugs, Mandi