Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

We have some exciting family events coming up in the next few weeks – including a very special 50th Anniversary Celebration for my parents in which my entire family will gather here at our home for a weekend full of surprises and fun.

To make the “Golden Weekend” go more smoothly, we decided to make as much of the food ahead as we could.

So two of my sisters and a couple of nieces came down for a few days this week and we had our very own “Cook-a-thon” (complete with lots of chocolate and laughter and even some vintage music!)

My kitchen was hopping as we had every available surface covered and in use.

We made 4 cavatini’s that were put in aluminum foil pans and frozen.

We peeled over 70 potatoes and made 3 large pans of make-ahead mashed potatoes. These were also put in aluminum foil pans and frozen.

We baked a large batch of crescent rolls…

…a very large batch of crescent rolls (because you can never have too many hot buttered rolls!)

We also brined, roasted and pulled apart a large turkey, made a batch of hamburger buns, made 8 pounds of taco meat, prepped 4 egg casseroles, made 4 pans of cinnamon rolls that we froze before baking, and covered 40 pieces of chicken in Mom’s original marinade before freezing them in plastic bags.

Whew!

Not only did we make a freezer full of food, we also made some great plans and fun memories.

We discovered once again the truth in the old saying “Helping hands will get things done, half the effort, twice the fun”!

This post is linked up at Design’s by Gollum.

This is so embarrassing.

The other night we were sitting as a family watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics when I felt my eyes getting heavier and heavier.

The next thing I knew – I woke up dazed.

I had fallen asleep in the chair.

For years as I was growing up,  my siblings and I would laugh at my parents who could both sit in the recliner and drift off to sleep with their mouths open – sometimes snoring.

We kids would often joke about trying to drop things inside their open mouths – but never quite got up the nerve.

Now it was happening to me.

I thought my little “nap” was an isolated incident and chalked it up to a late night after a really busy day.

But then it happened again on Sunday afternoon – and again Tuesday night – and almost on Thursday.

I’m becoming my parents.

I gathered up the courage to ask Dagmar and Angel Girl if I snored. They looked at each sheepishly before Angel Girl said, ” Kinda.”

Dagmar corrected her with, “You didn’t really snore – you just snorted every time your head fell over.”

Snorted?

Ouch.

I was going to ask if I drooled – but decided that maybe I really didn’t want to know.

So what’s next?

Are my kids going to start laughing at me? Will they try dropping things in my open mouth? Or <gasp> will I eventually start snoring as loudly as my parents?

Let me tell you people – growing old is not for the faint of heart.

By the way – kids if you are reading this and are planning to drop things in my mouth – I prefer M & M’s, but chocolate chips  will also do.

I may be getting old – but I’m still a chocoholic!

You must know by now that I love traditions – especially holiday traditions!

Valentine’s Day just happens to be one of my favorites!

Somewhere around baby number three we realized that finding a sitter and heading out to eat on Valentine’s Day was more expensive and stressful then it was worth.

So I made a special meal for the entire family – and served it by candlelight.

A tradition was born.

This year was no exception! But since we had a church activity on Valentine’s day – we celebrated early.  Dagmar was our chef for the evening and decorated the table with candles and napkins.

It is amazing how beautiful 25 cent silk flowers from the thrift store look in candlelight! It’s also amazing how candlelight covers up the baskets of unfolded laundry, the piles of toys, and the school books that never got put away!

Notice the napkins? Over twelve years ago I bought some nice red cotton material, cut it into napkins and hemmed them up. We’ve used them for Christmas and Valentine’s Day ever since!

The menu varies somewhat from year to year – but always includes red jello with Cool Whip. This year Dagmar got fancy with a heart mold and conversation hearts!

An Italian dish – like cavatini or lasagna is almost always our main dish. This year it was a yummy sausage lasagna! She added a lettuce salad and freshly baked baguettes. We filled our garage sale stemmed glasses with pink lemonade to drink.

Dessert is always cream puffs – always!

They are filled with French vanilla cream and topped with chocolate ganache.  Yummy! This year we fancied up the plates a little with Smucker’s raspberry plate-scapers.

There is usually a card or two to open, maybe a small gift or chocolate treat.

It’s a simple, but very special way to celebrate with my Valentine’s.

What better way to say “I Love You” then with food!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I am an Olympic junkie!

For two weeks every two years, I live, eat, sleep and breath the Olympic games – and I’ve taught my kids to do the same!

For us the fun begins on opening night when we have an Olympic party and watch the ceremony together.

We try to make a meal that reflects the host country – Chinese sweet and sour chicken for the Beijing games, fresh pasta and bread sticks for the Torino games, etc..

But we were a little stumped about Canada.

We ended up making Canadian bacon pizza (now stopped laughing Pat and my other Canadian friends – I know that it’s NOT authentic! Sure tasted good though!)

For dessert we made chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and decorated with Olympic rings made out of M & M’s.

Then we all snuggled in and watched the Opening Ceremony from the very beginning all the way to the torch ceremony!

I love the geography and history and even political lessons the kids get as the different countries march in. (Why won’t Iran march in beside Iraq?)

Now for the next several days, we’ll soak in the drama, the victories, the defeats,and all the  stories that will make Olympic history!

All the while we’re spending time together as a family – and creating more memories that will bind us together!

Epiphany – or the Twelfth Day of Christmas – fell on a Wednesday this year – and during yet another snow storm.

I decided that we needed a little fun -  so we made a King’s Cake.

It’s traditional in France to bake a cake and hide a trinket inside (usually a king figure). Whoever found the trinket in their cake would be the king of the party.

Well okay – so I’m not really French – but I took two years of it in high school – and it was cold and stormy and we needed a fun idea.

So – we found a basic chocolate cake recipe (you knew it was going to be chocolate – didn’t you!) and halved it. (We wanted to be sure to find the prizes that evening – not someday in the future when we finally finished off a big cake.)

Then we scrounged around for some prizes. We were kinda short on king trinkets – but I did come up with a key, a quarter, and a thimble.  Then, since we wanted everyone to find a prize, we added 4 whole almonds.

The finder of the key would be the “key” to our evenings activities – they got to choose what we would do.

The finder of the thimble was excused from doing dishes that night.

Whoever found the quarter got to keep it – and anyone with an almond got to choose a treat from the “candy jar”.

We pushed the prizes in the cake batter before we baked it.

When the cake was cooled – we made a half batch of frosting and covered it up!

It sat in the middle of the table during our evening meal and created quite a bit of excitement!

When the meal was over my husband carefully cut the cake and handed out the pieces randomly.

Some of the kids took bites of their cake while others immediately started cutting it up with their forks to find the prize!

When it was over – we had finished off the entire cake and everyone had found a prize – except yours truly – I’m still not sure how that happened!

But it did make one evening a little brighter in the middle of an increasingly long and snowy Iowa winter – and a new tradition was born.