Easter & E’s Birthday

Easter was a low key affair this year. Joe and I declined my mom’s offer to come over for Easter dinner and we didn’t have the kids so we didn’t plan ahead. In fact we ended up running to Dominick’s (since Target was closed) to buy a steak which Joe cooked on the grill. I made mashed potatoes and green beans to go along with it. I made the green beans “Chinese buffet style” which came out pretty good. It was a bit depressing, to be truthful, but I didn’t want to drive an hour to my parents and waste all that gas just for two hours of visiting time. It doesn’t seem worth it when we can’t stay over late which we definitely aren’t able to do on a Sunday when we have work the next day.

The following weekend we celebrated E’s birthday and Joe’s sister came over. K had a band event so it was just E but we had fun playing Dance Party 2 on the Wii with him. I made him brownies and chocolate cupcakes to satisfy his chocolate craving.

Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom

I feel like all we did this 3-day weekend was gorge ourselves on (mostly) good food.

Friday evening we stopped at Meijer and picked up two whole roasted chickens for dinner. The chickens seemed to have more meat on them than Target’s version, so even with the kids in attendance we only ate one. We ended up taking the other one and shredding it to make chicken salad the next day; it was soooo good! I also made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner on Saturday and my meatballs came out extra yummy for some reason.

Sunday we met up with an old friend for breakfast and I tried Eggs Benedict for the first time. OMG, they were delicious! Later that day we brought pizza and fried chicken over to my parents’ house to celebrate Brother #2’s birthday.

Today we went to the outlet mall where I scored a nice sweater from The Gap for only $12 and then afterward we had lunch at a Thai place I had bookmarked. The soup, egg rolls, and crab rangoon were so good that by the time our main dish was served we were both nearly full.

I’m surprised that I’ve only gained a single pound this weekend with all the food I’ve eaten. The sad part? I’m feeling hungry right now, so if you’ll excuse me…

Christmas

Thursday was our last day of work until this coming Wednesday. My employer gave us Friday and Monday off for the holiday, so Joe took off Friday and then we both added Tuesday to extend our time off.

Friday I started cooking while Joe went to pick up the kids. Shortly after arriving they opened their presents and we had our Christmas dinner a few hours later. Standard fare applied, including the Archer Farms spiral honey ham which I’ve grown to love.

Saturday evening we took the kids to my parents’ to celebrate which was really fun and then dropped them off at home on our way home since we don’t have them on Christmas Day this year.

Today we didn’t do much. We couldn’t wait (seems to be a yearly theme), so we already exchanged our presents yesterday morning. I bought Joe a Mr. Coffee Single Serve (Powered by Keurig brewing technology) that he had been eying for months. The cheapest we had seen it for was $80 at JCPenney which would have been $70 with the coupon I had, but then I found it on Amazon for $64 so I got it for him even though we originally agreed to only exchange stocking stuffers. He got me a few different things including the soft kitty t-shirt from The Big Bang Theory but it was too small so we gave it to K. The rest of my items are in the pic below. The gift card is my big gift as it will cover a one-hour massage and then some. And with the way work has been going lately there’s no doubt I’ll be needing that soon!

Gifts from my husband

This evening we went looking at Christmas lights and got home just in time for the Bears game which Joe is watching now.

Now that we’re all caught up I’m going to log off and play Words with Friends with my brother and the kids. :)

Thanksgiving # 2

Yesterday was our Thanksgiving with the kids.

Our menu:

Market Pantry turkey breast
Pioneer Woman’s sweet potatos
Jiffy corn muffins
Bush’s collard greens
Del Monte whole-kernal corn
Green bean casserole
Ore Ida steam n’ mash potatos
Stove Top stuffing w/ Campbell’s cream of chicken soup as gravy
Heinz HomeStyle turkey gravy (for the turkey and mashed potatoes)
Velveeta shells & cheese
Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce

Aside: This is the method we used to cook the turkey this year although we used 350 degrees instead of 325. It took almost four hours to cook but the turkey was juicier than any turkey I’ve had before. While I do not care for hot turkey, I was impressed with the moisture.

Foil Tent Method

The traditional method of roasting turkey uses a foil tent of heavy duty aluminum foil to keep the turkey moist. Slow oven roasting ensures a roasted flavor.

Appearance—even golden brown and crisp exterior.

Advantage—often preferred for carving at the table.

How To:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a roasting pan, at least 2 inches deep, with heavy duty aluminum foil.

Remove neck and giblets from both cavities of defrosted turkey. Rinse turkey, pat dry and brush with vegetable oil. Insert meat thermometer into inner thigh for whole turkey or into thickest part of breast for turkey breast. Place turkey, breast side up, in foil-lined roasting pan.

Make foil tent by tearing off a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil. Crease foil crosswise through center. Place over turkey, leaving 1 inch between top of turkey and foil tent for heat circulation. Crimp foil onto long sides of pan to hold in place.

Roast until meat thermometer reads 180 degrees to 185 degrees F for whole turkey, or 170 degrees to 175 degrees F for turkey breast. For stuffed turkey, add 30 minutes to roasting time. To brown turkey, remove foil tent after the first 1 hour of roasting time. The approximate roasting times are: 2-1/2 to 3 hours for 8 to 12 lb. turkey; 3 to 3-1/2 hours for 12 to 16 lb. turkey; 3-1/2 to 4 hours for 16 to 20 lb. turkey; 4 to 5 hours for 20 to 24 lb. turkey.

For easy slicing, cover turkey with foil and let stand 15 minutes after removing from oven.

Read more: Stuffing a Turkey and Foil Tent Method http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/foodday/fd1197/fd111997.html#tent#ixzz1eq52pqS7

Every day I’m shufflin’

I wish Facebook had a feature where you could unsubscribe from follow-up comments other people make on a status update that you commented on unless it’s the person who made the original update. I hate getting updates on crap that doesn’t matter to me. It’s the reason why I don’t comment as much on people’s updates as I otherwise would, especially if they are one of my more “popular” friends who tend to get 20 comments on one update.

Anyway, here’s what’s been going on around these parts since I’m a sucky blogger.

Home

Our garage door started acting funny a week or so ago where it would start to close and then halfway down it would go back up. It was doing it here and there before then but it got to the point where nothing would make it go down all the way. Joe had to open and close it manually to get our cars in at night and out in the morning which sucked since it’s been getting colder around here. Also yours truly didn’t have a nice warm car to get into when I left for work. But hey, at least I didn’t have to mess with the garage door! Joe figured out what was wrong – the plastic (yes, plastic) gear was shredded, so Sunday we went to the Sears parts store. $40 and an hour of Joe’s time later and it’s all fixed. That was our excitement for the week.

Movies

Hmm… what else? We saw Puss in Boots with Joe’s daughter last time she visited (his son couldn’t make it) and I thought it was a pretty good movie which was lucky since I had no idea what it was even about going in. I want to see The Muppets even though I’m not a muppet fan, because I like Jason Segal. Remember the Muppet Babies? I did watch that as a kid but I never liked the regular muppets. Rowlf was my favorite, but I hated Miss Piggy and always will. Someone needs to turn her into a BLT already. Oh, and we saw a 3D movie for the first time in years – A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. It was legend-… wait for it… -dary. So much better than their second movie. Possibly even better than the original.

Kids

I don’t think I wrote about the fact that we got K’s iPod Touch replaced by Apple for $150. They let us purchase a refurbished one. We took the money from K’s account since she broke it, though. Sucked to have to do that, but better than buying her a brand new one. She also broke her Kindle. Well, we aren’t sure if she broke it or if it had something wrong with it, but either way Amazon replaced it at no charge which was good. So when she was over last time it was like Christmas for her getting a new iPod Touch and Kindle.

Speaking of Christmas, I’m glad that the kids are older because instead of buying a ton of little things I only have to buy one or two things which means less time dealing with the crazy shoppers. This year we’re getting E a Kindle Fire (he already knows since he asked for it) and I don’t want to mention what we’re getting for K in case she knows about this site but I think she will find it very useful.

Holidays

We’re both off work Thursday-Monday so it will be a nice extended holiday weekend. I love Thanksgiving! What’s not to love about being encouraged to stuff one’s face? Hopefully all the exercising I’ve been doing lately will lessen the weight gain.

I have no plans on shopping on Black Friday, and didn’t want to go outside at all that day but I have to get a cat scan in the morning and then pick up the kids in the afternoon. I’m staying away from all the stores though!

I don’t even know what I want for Christmas. Nothing, really. I would like an iPad, but not the one that’s out now. I can’t justify spending $500 (and let’s face it, even if it’s a “gift” from Joe it’s all the same moolah) on a device that has a lower quality screen than my phone. Plus if I had it my way I’d prefer a 7″ tablet. Maybe next year they will introduce an iPad 3 mini. I’d be all over that.

I do like opening presents, but I’m so not into buying stuff just for the sake of it. I keep trying to get rid of stuff either by donating to Goodwill or selling on Craigslist and Facebook. I recently sold Dance Dance Revolution 2 to someone I used to work with. Joe got it for me because I asked for it but I ended up hating the game because I have no rhythm; plus the stupid dance pad took up too much space. I’m glad to see it gone. Another thing I need to get rid of already are the Disney souvenirs I bought for my coworkers on my honeymoon six years ago. I’m sure I wrote about this before but I was so pissed when I came back from my honeymoon to learn that essentially nothing was done the entire two weeks I was gone that I never handed them out. They’ve spent the last six years in a hall closet and I get angry all over again whenever I see them so it’s time to let it, and them, go already. I’m going to ask my mom if she wants to wrap them up for our annual game of Crazy Bingo this year. I really don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. I often have a hard time parting with things I’ve spent money on but I’ve come to realize it’s silly to hang onto things you’re never going to use just because you feel like you wasted your money. It’s wasted either way, so you might as well get rid of it and clear some space in your house. It’s been getting easier letting go of stuff once I see how less cluttered the closet looks without it around.

Anyway, I don’t know whether Joe and I will be exchanging gifts this year. He’s a pain to buy for and I can’t think of anything I really want, so we might go small this year. Maybe I’ll have him get me a few CDs or something.

Music

Speaking of music, in case anyone cares, these are the top five songs I’ve been playing lately. Feel free to share yours in the comments. I love discovering new music.

You Make Me Feel – Cobra Starship
Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5
Hello – Martin Solveig feat. Dragonette
Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO
Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People