November Foodie Penpal Reveal Day!

As always, I had a lot of fun with my Foodie Penpals.  So much so that I decided to take the remainder of the year off and take a break, especially with the holidays coming up.  Need to cut corners somewhere!

This month, my package came from none other than, Albany, NY!  So random my penpal is from this area because I grew up in the Albany area.  Lorraine was real sweet and sent me an awesome package with lots of goodies, including some homemade chocolate peanut butter cookies.  I'm glad she caught on that I love chocolate and peanut butter, one of the best combinations in my opinion.  She also included the recipe :)  I love it so much that she sent me a jar of dark chocolate peanut butter as well....swoon.  I'm still trying to decide what I want to make with it.  I may just smear it on some toast one of these days.

Lorraine also included a bar of dark chocolate, dried cranberries, ground flax seed, brown rice, and some purple rice and black sesame crackers.  I loved everything and couldn't wait to dig in.  Don't worry, I have included the recipe for the cookies under my recipe tab.  It would make a great cookie for the holidays!

I sent a package too of course, and this time it headed to Guam!  All I can say is that I was happy it made it there in one piece.  A few days went by that made me think it got lost in the mail, but my pal finally received it and loved it all.  I sent her some fig bars, chocolate covered cranberries, raw granola, red curry paste, and homemade pumpkin/chocolate chip cookies.  My pals were not bloggers this month, so unfortunately I can't link you to them.  

If you are interested in participating in Foodie Penpals, head over to The Lean Green Bean to sign up.  December will be a little different and Lindsay, The Lean Green Bean, will be taking the $15 dollars you would normally spend on food items and donating it to victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Come January, the program will be back to normal.  In the meantime, here is some info about the program:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.

-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 

-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!

-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)

-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. 

-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. 

Rock and Roll Thanksgiving

Sorry for the delay in this post everyone, but Mr. G has been using our good camera for work and I forgot to upload Thanksgiving pictures before he left again.  Oops!  But here we go...

I had the pleasure of cooking for twenty three people this year.  There were about ten family members and Mr. G's work crew joined us as well.  All in all, I think everyone enjoyed themselves and I got to meet a few of Mr. G's work buddies that I haven't met yet.  Everyone is real nice on this tour and I was happy we could all share the day together.  The best part, everything went off without a hitch!

I baked two apple and two pumpkin pies the night before with the help of my mom, and also cooked the cranberry sauce to get a head start.  Thanksgiving Day started bright and early and I was up by 6am.  I picked Mr. G up first since he arrived in town early that morning and then it was off to the inlaws to finish cooking.  My MIL already made the stuffing and cooked the turkeys.  We had three turkeys so she baked, grilled and smoked one.  My mom and I were on side dish duty.  We made green beans amandine, roasted sweet potatoes, garlic/parmesan mashed potatoes, and honey/ginger glazed carrots.  I did not like how the carrots came out so I will not post that recipe, but I will post the others.  I apologize in advance, but I do not measure y'all.  Everyone started to arrive around 1pm so we got some appetizers ready to hold everyone over until dinner, which was at 4pm.  I threw together a spinach/artichoke dip and my mom made some cream cheese/jalapeño croissants to go along with the veggie tray.

It was a beautiful day so everything was set up outside, including the dinner tables.  That's one thing I really do love about living in Texas, the mild winters.  Mr. G got some great shots throughout the day and as you can see, we had some fun with the turkey leg!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I know I did...

A Little Holiday Challenge

So I know I have talked about this blog before but The Lean Green Bean is having a holiday challenge called Elf For Health.  Read about it here.

I did not actually sign up to get matched with someone but my friend A and I decided to do it together anyway.  The challenge runs starting today through January 5th.  Feel free to follow along with me if you'd like and leave feedback on how you are doing!  

Today's challenge:  Go meatless today-For breakfast I had Central Market Organic "Cheerios" with almond milk and a banana, lunch was leftover vegetable stir fry with coconut milk and red curry, my snack was a little cheese, and dinner will be a fruit smoothie and vegetable soup.

I have already started working on day 2-Send a card or handwritten note to a friend.  If you click on the link above, you can print out the list of daily challenges, like I did.  Having little goals or things to accomplish personally always gives me gratification.  As much as my family fulfills me, it is always nice to do a little something for yourself.  

Who's up for the challenges?  Good luck and have fun!

Children Of The Sea

I have been thinking about my relationship with my daughter lately.  Little Miss and I have bonded from the beginning, naturally, and she is very sweet with me.  I know by showing her all the love and affection I can possibly give in a day will hopefully teach her to love and feel secure.  I have also been thinking about what I can leave with her, years from now.  What special thing can we share together?  And I hope that is cooking.

Other than being a mom, being in the kitchen is the one thing I enjoy the most, the one thing I feel I am naturally good at.  All those years of watching cooking shows really taught me something and I'm not afraid to dive right in.  Who needs culinary school when you have Great Chefs and How To Boil Water.  Anyone remember those?  I always have my nose in a cookbook or reading a food blog online.  I read food memoirs for fun.  In college, I would make dinners all the time for our friends in our little apartment, who happily obliged and ate everything up...I am a whole hearted foodie.  This is what I want to leave behind, for my daughter, and for the rest of my family.

I am hoping this blog can stay with Little Miss, as a diary of what I love, and also a collection of recipes for her.  I can't wait until she is a little older and we can start making things together.  Until then, I'll cook and she will bang on pots and pans.  A sound like no other.

What do you wish to leave for your children?  Any traditions you would like to share?

Lions, Tigers, and Bears...Oh My!

The fam and I took a little trip to the Cameron Park Zoo last week and thought I would do a post in pictures.  The zoo is only 1.5 hours away in Waco and it was a gorgeous day to walk around with Mr. G, Little S, Miss Livy, and Poppy (who I managed to not get any pictures of).  The pictures are courtesy of Mr. G.  Enjoy!