Pumpkin Carving

My hubby has always been the creative one in the family.  Our first Halloween together dating we carved pumpkins and put them on the balcony of his apartment,  he did tragedy and comedy. 
It should not surprise you that after almost 23 years together he still loves to carve.  This year we grew our own pumpkins, simply by accident.  We threw our guts into the graden and plowed them under last year and that is where our pumpkins this year are from.  The boys also like to carve, I think Big T likes it a little better than Sprat, but they still join in.  Big T asked his dad if he would still be carving when he is 80?  I laughed because I know even when our kids are grown we will still decorate for Halloween just like we always have.
My hubby is a bit of a metal head,  he likes heavy metal music.  Our pumpkins have taken on a little metal theme as well.
If you follow any metal music you might recognize Slip Knot masks in our pumpkins.  I hope you like the pictures.
 

Drunken Turkey Among Other Things. .

I had a frozen turkey breast and decided today was a great day to fix it.   I have a special pan that goes on the grill that holds a can.  I found the recipe for cooking time and spices to add.  Here it is if you want to check it out. 
www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cat-cora/beer-can-turkey-recipe.html
This said to warm your grill up to 350 and set your turkey on the cool side.  We lit the two outter burners and set the turkey in the middle.
My hubby and I are not big drinkers,  I do cook with wine and beer but we don't just drink it that often.  I sent my hubby to pick up some beer for the turkey and he comes home with a 12 pk.  He said Walmart did not carry 6pks.   I am immediately going through my head of what else I can cook with beer soon.  He suggested some beer boiled shrimp, yummmmm we have not had that in a while.
Ok, back to dinner tonight.  I made some beer bread and some fresh garlic butter and some brown rice and crowder peas and snaps.  If you have fresh garlic you should try garlic butter.   I use almost 1/2 cup butter (Brummel and Brown) and three cloves of garlic pressed.  I have been making fresh garlic butter for a long time.   I love  it and my family loves it.    I recommend using a glass dish with a lid or everything in your fridge will smell like garlic.  Everything was a hit.  Turkey was very moist and the bread was wonderful with the garlic butter.  The rice and peas were perfect.  

Until we eat again. . .   

My Dad and My Heavenly Father

Those that know me, may know this story but it needs repeating.  This may help you understand who I am and why, I am the way I am.  In early 1996 my hubby and I had just celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary and I had gone home to celebrate my Dad's birthday.  It was early March and the weather was trying to warm up.  My dad is not someone that can stay couped up inside when the weather is nice.  Dad and mom went to the barn, dad was determined to work on the barn roof.  They had been gone maybe a couple of hours when I got the call from mom.  Dad had fallen through the roof of the barn, around 20 some feet to a hard dirt floor.   Mom could not get 911 on her cell.  I hung up and frantically called for her.  I grew up in a small town where everyone knows everyone else so when that call went out over the scanners everyone knew it was daddy.  I raced to the barn and when I got there, there were 4 fire trucks and at least 2  ambulances.   They had dad on a stretcher wheeling him to the ambulance.   He was alert and talking which is a miracle in its self.  In the ER dad was talking and trying to make jokes to sooth mom.  He had to have surgery on his arm, it was crushed and that is all they knew.  He was in surgery for 5 1/2 hours.  We were all terrified  about what else they might find.  He did well and would have to stay in ICU for at least 3 days.  These three days turned into 3 weeks due to complications.   I stayed with mom the whole time, otherwise she would have never left the  hospital.  This is where my relationship with God was made stronger than it has ever been.   I spent many hours a day in prayer for my daddy and my mom.  I felt like I was on a first name basis with Him when all was said and done.   Dad had fractured his pelvis in several places, lacerated his liver, and of course crushed his arm.  They gave him 18 units of blood during that 3 weeks in ICU.   He was on a respirator for over two weeks and in traction for his pelvis for 6 weeks.  He turned 64 in ICU.  There were many scares during those trying weeks of ICU and they were not sure if he would walk again and a couple of  times they didn't know if he would live.   This is why I believe in the power of prayer and why I pray all the time.   I don't always get the answer I want but I know He is giving me what he wants for me. 
Mom and I saw a lot of sadness while we sat in that ICU waiting room.   I learned a great deal about myself while waiting to see if my dad would live or not.   I am glad to say we all weathered that storm and since, my dad has weathered yet another storm with regard to skin cancer and losing his ear.  Years after this incident my dad pulled me aside, he talked to me about being in ICU.  He told me at one point he was at peace and ready to let go.  He said I could have just gone to sleep but, God had a plan for me.  God was not done with me, so I faught back.  My dad is 82 now and still works and he and my mom work out at the gym several mornings a week.   This is why I pray all the time, miracles do happen but you will never know the true love and power of the Lord if you do not talk to him.   I am not a "holy roller"  I just know how truly blessed I am and I want everyone to know they can have the same.   

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,  with thanksgiving , let your requests be nade known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,  will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 

Philippians 4:6-7.

Interesting Conversations with Big T

Big T gets in the car after school on Friday and starts telling me about these monsters that came and did a presentation at school.  He was so excited  and said they were doing the full show at a local church Friday and Saturday night and he wanted to go.  I said sure we can do that, he never elaborated about the "monsters" again.  I thought it was some sort of puppet show. 
Nothing was said again about the "monsters" until Saturday.   Big T pulled out the brochure that was sent home with him from school about the program.  They were monstrous alright, monstrous body builders and extreme athletes with a message.  They are called Faith Force, they go around to the local schools and perform, now they can't talk about God at school but they talk about choices you make.  We went to the Saturday evening program and it was great.  They gave their testimony and talked about how God had changed their lives.  They use their abilities to reach out to young people and witness to them.  This is an awesome ministry if you ever have a chance to see them I would. 
It was a moving service and at the end they gave an invocation.   They prayed and asked if anyone did not have God in their heart and wanted him there to repeat the prayer.  Then they asked whoever had prayed the prayer with them to come forward, many went down front.  As Big T and I were leaving he asked what that was at the end with the prayer.  I told him that was for people who did not know God or have a relationship with him.  Big T said, " mom I prayed that prayer I just didn't go down front."  I told him that was ok because I prayed the prayer too.   I told him I had been baptized and so had he and that he had asked God to come into his heart before and it was ok if he did not go down front.  I also reminded him that we pray together every night and that is having a relationship with God.  Big T then said, " mom I pray every night  too after I have gone to bed."  I did not know that.   Trying not to just blubber all over everything,  I told him that prayer is a conversation with God.  I told him that it is great to be able to talk with God and that is a relationship with him.
I hope that my kids will always go to God in prayer especially when they feel like there's nobody else they can talk to.  If my hubby and I have done nothing else we have been diligent in praying for and with our kids.  I hope that sticks with them throughout their lives. 

My Infamous Chilli. . .

Chilli was one of the first things I learned to cook when my dear hubby and I were dating.   After 21 years I do believe I have perfected it.   Starting out I did not have a crock pot so I cooked mine in a big stock pot on the stove.  I joke about my dear hubby marrying me because I could cook. He was always hungry.
I use a crock pot now and it makes things so much easier.  I don't have to babysit my recipes so they don't burn or bubble over.  Today I am making a big pot of chilli.  My chilli changes based on what I have on hand to throw in.   Here is my recipe for today:  ground beef (browned), 2 cans dark red kidney beans, 2 cans great northern beans, 1 can diced green chilies,  2-3 tsp ground mustard, 2-3 tsp cilantro,  1tbsp cumin, 3 branches of my fresh thyme(leaves), 2qts fresh tomato juice (from our garden), a splash of vinegar, I also added 2 jalapeno peppers from our garden (whole),  3tsp garlic powder, and 2 tsp onion powder.
I brown my beef in white wine and Worcestershire sauce then add to the crock pot along with everything else.   I am cooking mine on high for at least 5 hours maybe longer.  I serve mine with cheese,  sour cream,  and crackers or tortilla chips.  Yummmmm

Drying Herbs. .

I love my flowers, I love my garden, but I really love my herbs.   I have basil, oregano, rosemary, sage, mountain mint, lime mint, thyme, and chives.  Most of these stay around all year.  I dug my rosemary bush up this year, so I have recently picked up another to plant.   Basil I have to buy every year, but everything else is pretty hardy. 
I love using  my fresh herbs in my recipes.   I also like drying them, you just never know when a hard winter will kill your plants.  I have a basic dehydrator (Ronco).  It has 5 trays and a heating element.   I generally leave my herbs on for at least 12 hours, sometimes it takes longer.  
Today while I was out I noticed how good my sage looked.  I started picking leaves and decided I would dry them since I was not fixing anything tonight that required sage.  I noticed my oregano was looking pretty good too, so I cut some of it.   I ended up with two trays of sage  and two trays of oregano.  I left the tray on the very bottom, closest to the heating element, empty. 
Everyone probably has several recipes that they could use oregano in but I bet you only have a few that call for sage.   This summer, when we had lots of onions in the garden, I would take a couple and cut them a little and add some butter, garlic powder, and some sage leaves.  I wrapped it in foil and put it on the grill.  They were so very good.  I have found a brown butter chicken with sage I will try sometime in the next few weeks and of course everyone knows sage is a prime herb in dressing at Thanksgiving.  
My house should be smelling really good by tonight. 

BBQ Beer Chicken

Ok, so I have been using my crock pot more and we are trying to stay away from red meat so here comes the chicken.  I found this recipe on pinterest and of course I tweaked it just a bit.  I used 4 frozen chicken breast, a bottle of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce (because that is what I had on hand) and two bottles of dark beer.  Now, the recipe on pinterest called for two bottles of BBQ sauce and one bottle of beer.  I covered my chicken with the BBQ sauce and sprinkled some paprika and garlic powder over my concoction, then I poured the two bottles of beer.  It needed more liquid that is why I did the two bottles of beer.  I don't drink beer so I took a recommendation from my local grocery store beer guy on the bottles I used.
This cooked 8 hours on low, then you shred the chicken and add it back to your pot for another 30 minutes or so on low.  I fixed some whole wheat Orzo and we put our shredded chicken over top of the Orzo.  I must say this was so very good.  Everybody liked it except Big T, he is my picky eater and he hates anything drenched in sauce.   He is a lot like I was at his age so I try not to fuss at him to much about it.  I do feel a constant need to apologize to my mother though, for what I put her through when I was growing up.  When we had spaghetti I only ate noodles and no sauce.
Of course I grew out of that picky stage and I eat a broader selection of food now.   I still don't like a lot of red meat but we do have it occasionally.   I prefer chicken or pork personally.
This was a great meal and we had no leftovers.  I always have leftovers.
I really like using my crock pot so stay tuned I have a few more recipes I am going to try.