2010 has been a year that has brought so many different changes, challenges, and celebrations. Since last Thanksgiving, we have watched Chris’s father, Bill, recover and be rehabilitated from a stroke, Chris and I got engaged, bought a home, made numerous changes and improvements to that home, planned our wedding, celebrated the birth of baby Kale, cheered on our friend Nicki as she followed her dream of opening her own cheerleading gym, got married, became GodTeen parents to an amazing group of high school freshman, witnessed the strength in Brent, Abbie & Kale as they have together endured two open-heart surgeries and numerous ups and downs in the past four months, witnessed many of our dear friends marry the person of their dreams and welcome beautiful children into the world, set out on a cooking adventure, watched our nephew Carson play soccer and raise funds to one day “kick” diabetes, and just this past weekend we welcomed our newest nephew Jackson to the world.
While the year has not been light on struggles, I was struck this year with just how much I have to be grateful for. I am a firm believer that God only gives a person what they can handle, and feel endless gratitude that God has surrounded me with a multitude of amazing individuals that help to cushion the impact of difficult times. It is these same people that are also responsible for filling my life with abundant joy.
This year, unfortunately, our family was scattered in many different places and because of Chris’s job, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving at our home. My parents, sister, brother-in-law, and two nephews were all planning to come before the kiddos were hit with a nasty case of the stomach flu. This resulted in a party of four for our inaugural Thanksgiving celebration at our home.
Now, because all of these plans were very last minute, I enlisted some help from the good people at HyVee to take care of the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. For dessert, I enlisted the pie masters at Village Inn to supply a pumpkin, pecan, and strawberry rhubarb pie for the celebration. I personally contributed my mother’s famous broccoli rice casserole, cranberry sauce, and a veggie tray. All of my contributions were very easy and tasty, if I must say so myself.
The evening before Thanksgiving, I took some food to the hospital for Brent and Abbie (Runza Casserole of course) and made my friend Katie’s yummy pumpkin bread for a little dessert. This is a gluten free recipe, and I followed Katie’s instructions to use GF flour and I was very pleased with the end product!
I would recommend trying any of these as we move into the holiday season, as they are very low-stress recipes that result in very nice end products. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and were filled with gratitude for the countless blessings we have been given.
Slainte!
Broccoli Rice Casserole:
Recipe:
-1/2 c. butter
-1 pkg. broccoli (10 oz.)
-1 can cream of mushroom soup
-1/2 c. Cheez Whiz
-1/2 c. milk
-1 1/2 c. instant rice
Preparation:
Melt butter, then add broccoli. Cook until done. Add soup,
Cheez Whiz and milk. Blend, remove from heat. Cook rice
and add. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
Pumpkin Bread:
Recipe:
1 ¾ cups Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
Preparation:
Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. Beat shortening until creamy in mixing bowl. Add sugar gradually and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. Add flour mixture alternately with pumpkin, a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Turn into well greased bread pa (8 ½ x 4 ½ x 3 inches) and bake in a moderate oven (350° F) about one hour or until bread is done. Makes one loaf.
Cranberry Sauce:
Enjoy!
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| I was SO excited to use our fine china for the first time! |
