Thanksgiving Blessings

All month I have been giving thanks for something different each day.  Such a simple, yet significant task, has reminded me to be grateful for the little and big things in life - and everything in between.  

Some days what you love is staring you in the face.  Other days it's not so easy to find something for which to be thankful.  Sometimes you have to step back and really assess a situation to find the silver lining.  I've learned that out of everything - no matter how seemingly bad - comes something good.  It could be the smile of a stranger after a long day at work, a wonderful home-cooked meal, a long conversation with someone special, photographs and memories, or finding a support system in an unexpected place.  

Though November and the traditional season of giving thanks is coming to a close, I think I will continue to try to be thankful for something new each day.  Today I challenge all of you to do the same thing.

Perfect Pot Roast

I created this recipe several years ago mostly by trial and error, just adding things as I went.  It is so easy - lots of ingredients, but you basically just throw everything in a dish, bake and serve.  It's the perfect dish for this cool, fall weather.

Here is what you will need:
1 beef chuck roast (at least 2 lbs.)
1 package of baby carrots (16 oz.)
1/3 cup chopped white onion
1 bag small red potatoes (size C works well - 2 lb. bag)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 t rosemary
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t Italian seasoning
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic salt
2 dashes Tony Chachere's seasoning
1 t freshly ground pepper
1/2 t - 1 t freshly ground sea salt
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 cup water
1 cup red wine (any variety)

Preheat oven to 350.  Place thawed roast in the center of a 13x5 glass baking dish.  Surround with carrots, potatoes, and onion.  Rub one clove of chopped garlic on roast, and mix the rest of the garlic in with carrots and potatoes.  Drizzle olive oil on carrots and potatoes.  Sprinkle dry ingredients over beef, carrots and potatoes.  Pour water in at the corners (about 1/4 cup water in each corner).  Drizzle about 2/3 cup of red wine over the roast, and the rest over the carrots and potatoes.  It should look something like this:

Cover with foil.  Bake approximately 2 hours or until roast is cooked throughout.  At least once during baking, take out of oven, remove foil, and spoon juices over entire dish to keep moist.

I served with freshly made rosemary batter bread (a recipe I have altered from a Betty Crocker one).  I will post the recipe for the bread later.

Puppy Tales

Hello.  My mom has been very, very busy lately, so she asked me to fill in for her here.  Well, actually, she didn't ask.  I saw the laptop open and seized the moment.  She says I can't type because I don't have opposable thumbs, so we'll see who's right about that one...

Let me introduce myself.  My name is Lola Madeleine Brucia.  I live with my mom and dad and our three dogs.  Don't even get me started on those dogs.  I have a really awesome big sister and big brother, but I am the tiniest Brucia of them all.  My brother and sister are so cool because they rub my belly, give me treats, and let me lick their faces in a way that some (not me) would describe as excessive.  They have really neat bedrooms, but I'm not allowed in them when my brother and sister aren't here.  My mom thinks I'm going to go pee on their floors, but that's only happened a few times and I only did it to keep those other animals out of our pack's territory, so I don't really know what her deal is.

Our pack is pretty cool.  Not like that pack in the backyard - they smell like dogs.  We get up and have breakfast together each morning.  Actually, I eat breakfast about ten times a day.  The alpha (mom) leaves my food out so I have an endless all-you-can-eat buffet of Iams.  Yuuuumm-eeee!  The other alpha (dad) takes me outside a lot, but never leaves me out like some sort of animal.  He also give me lots of treats.

I know what treats are and where they're kept, and love them so much.  The alpha's tried to get crafty and spell the word "treat" out in front of me so I wouldn't know what they were talking about, but I learned to spell.  That's right.  T-R-E-A-T.  Actually, all they have to say is "T" now, and it's on.  You might think that "treat" would be my favorite word, but it's actually "wanna".  You see, "wanna" can be used in so many ways, but it's usually followed by something wonderful, so when I hear it, I know it's going to be a good day.  "You wanna treat?"  "You wanna go outside?"  "You wanna go for a walk?"  "You wanna play fetch?"  See what I mean.  Good times, that "wanna".

My mom and dad give me baths a lot so I don't smell like a dog.  Not that something like that would ever happen anyway, but whatever...  I usually try to bust the doors open when members of my pack are taking their baths, you know, to see what's going on, and if they might need help.  They don't really like this, but I can't quite figure this one out.  They watch me get baths and "oh" and "ah" about how cute I am when I'm wet.  They watch me go potty outside and tell me I'm a good girl.  I figured I'd reciprocate, you know, tell them how good at going potty they are, but maybe that's not how it works.  Maybe I should Google "do tiny pack members need to help alphas take baths?" while I'm here.

*ears erect, eyes focused on ceiling, heading tilting to extreme right*

Uh oh, I hear my mom coming down the stairs, so I better go bark out the window at the neighbors in their front yard to pretend I've been standing guard this whole time.  To be continued...

L.M.B. 

Spook-tacular Halloween Goodness!

As I mentioned earlier, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so here I am waiting for my Halloween cupcakes to finish baking, and thought I'd share some goodies with you.

Last year, I made personalized mini-pumpkins for my step-kids.  They were really cheap, and turned out really cute.  All you need is a little creativity.  I picked up a few mini-pumpkins at the local pumpkin patch for about 50 cents each.  Then I drew the letters for their names on them using colored Sharpie markers.  I practiced this ahead of time on paper to make sure I got them just how I wanted them.  I tried to do each letter in a Halloween theme.  Then, using my hot glue gun, I added embellishments like colored glass drops, rhinestones, and feathers.  I finished both off with a ribbon around the stem.

Sam's pumpkin had a bat for the "S", a witch's hat for the "A", and a googly eyed monster for the "M".
Mike's had a spider and web for "M", candy corn for "I", a dragon-type monster tale for the "K", and a pumpkin for "E".

As I said, I made some Halloween cupcakes.  I just finished them up, so here is the recipe:

Creepy Crawly Cupcakes

1 box chocolate cake mix (any variety), + all ingredients listed on box
12 Oreo's, crushed
12 Reynolds brand aluminum baking cups (they look like big cupcake liners)
1 16 oz. container of chocolate frosting, softened enough to drizzle
gummy worms
sprinkles

Prepare chocolate cake mix as directed on box, preheat oven, mix ingredients, and set aside.  Place baking cups on a cookie sheet.  Following baking cup instructions, spoon approximately 1/3 cup of batter into each baking cup.  Top each with a spoonful of crushed Oreo's cookies.  Bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean - they will take longer than the time listed on your cake mix, because the cupcakes are so big - I started with the time listed on my recipe (15-20 min) and went from there.  Mine took 27 minutes.  Allow cupcakes to cool completely.  Poke small holes into the cupcakes and insert one end of a gummy worm (so it looks like they are crawling out), drizzle with chocolate frosting, and top with sprinkles.  Enjoy!

Creepy crawly cupcakes

Fall Fun!

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year; particularly Halloween.  We spent the past weekend celebrating the season with festivals, food, and most importantly, fun.

I like to cook and make snacks, and enjoy creating new recipes.  I had seen some pigs-in-a-blanket made to look like mummies in the H.E.B. magazine, but they didn't have a recipe, so I had to make one up.  I have to say, they turned out to be some yummy mummies!  You can get the recipe here.

Mummies in a Blanket

To me, caramel apples are the quintessential fall food.  Whether I am drinking a caramel apple spice from Starbucks, or eating caramel apple candy suckers, they all scream autumn to me.  Homemade caramel apples were the perfect easy snack after a night of carving pumpkins.  Pretty quick to make, but letting them sit in the fridge to cool and harden took a little longer.  If you haven't noticed by now, I am all about quick and easy food!  I dipped mine in Heath toffee bits, chocolate chips, and sprinkles.  I also left some plain.  The caramel cooled faster than I anticipated, so I was only able to get toppings on the bottom halves.  You can follow the recipe on the bag of caramel, or if you want a tutorial for how to make your own, you can find one here on my amazing friend's blog.

Caramel apples

You can't celebrate the season without pumpkins, so we went to the pumpkin patch at the Methodist church down the street, picked out some pumpkins and Sam and Mike carved 'em up into some real nice jack-o-lanterns!

My family at the pumpkin patch

Carving pumpkins

Michael's jack-o-lantern

Samantha's jack-o-lantern

I love fall!

Yummy Mummies-in-a-Blanket

I saw a photo idea for these little fall snacks in the H.E.B. grocery store's monthly magazine, but they didn't have a recipe listed, so I got a little creative and made one up.  So easy and so yummy...mummy!

1 package of smoked beef sausage (mine had 7 sausages about 5 inches long)
1 can of refrigerated butter flavored crescent rolls
Wooden popsicle sticks

Preheat oven to 350.  Coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray, set aside.  Cook or grill sausages.  I grilled mine on a George Foreman grill so the fat would drain off nicely.  While sausages are grilling, unroll the crescents onto a cutting board.  Slice them into long, thin strips, a little wider than the width of your pinky fingernail.  Remove sausages from heat source when cooked thoroughly.  Carefully (sausages will be hot) make a slit through the sausage casing at one end of each sausage roughly the width of a popsicle stick.  Insert a popsicle stick about halfway into each sausage.  Wrap crescent slices around your "mummy" starting at the base of the sausage by the popsicle stick.  The more you overlap the crescent rolls and criss-cross them, the more of a mummy look you'll get.  Stop when you are about 2/3 of the way up.  Wrap more crescent strips around the "head" to get a hat look.  Take two small pieces of dough and place them on the "face" for eyes.  Place "face-up" on the cookie sheet.  Repeat until all mummies are ready.  Bake for 7 minutes or until crescents are golden brown.  Serve to your little ghosts and goblins and enjoy!

you + me

I change lyrics to songs so I can include my dogs' names in them.
I get cranky when I'm hungry.
When I'm sick I like new pajamas and socks.
Movies are better when they're cartoons.  And the animals sing.
I hate when people misuse "they're, there, and their".  Hate it.

Band-aids really do make things better.
Given a thousand choices, I will still pick the vanilla ice cream.  With sprinkles, thank you very much.
I could spend all day in a book store.  All. Day.
I am happy in the corner of a party, people-watching.
I like to go to bed early and sleep.  A lot.
Hugs get me through the day.

You sing along to my crazy songs, and help make up new verses.
You have a borderline addiction to energy drinks.
You enjoy eating almonds and then (jokingly, I think) threatening to kiss me.
You claim to hate musicals (especially cartoon ones) but will rent them and watch them with me every time a new one comes out.
You spell words like "zit" and "butt" in Scrabble and giggle about it.
You could spend all day in an electronics store.  All. Day.
You can cut yourself accidentally while working and be bleeding profusely and not even notice. (How do you do that?)
You can talk to anyone and make friends with them.  A neighbor.  The guy working at the gas station.  The person next to you on a plane.  Seriously.  Anyone.
You get random bursts of energy after 10 p.m.
Your hugs get me through the day.

Some people say opposites attract.  I think we're really more complimentary of each other than we are opposites.  As gushy, gross, and hopelessly romantic as it may be, you're my better half.

The best part is that you know the aforementioned kooky things and you still like me.

And there's no one else I'd like to be on this crazy adventure with than you.