Crock pot!

A warm family favorite! Roast dinner in the crock pot!

1 Chuck Roast

8-10 Yukon gold baby potatoes, skins on (or whatever you like)

2-lb. bag carrots, peeled (you can use baby ones if you like)

1 large onion, cut in 1/2 rings

GRAVY:

1-15oz can tomato sauce

1 ts. Worcestershire sauce

1 t. salt 1/4 ts. pepper

1 Tb. brown sugar

Lightly spray your crock pot with Pam, salt and pepper your roast and place it in the crock pot. Place peeled carrots over the top, onions, and washed whole potatoes. Pour about 2" of the tomato sauce down into the crock pot, trying not to cover the potatoes if possible. This allows you to mix the other ingredients in the can of sauce, saving clean up! In the remaining tomato sauce put Wors. sauce, salt, pepper and brown sugar and stir. Pour down into the crock pot. Cook on High for 5 hrs. -8hrs. Remove vegetables and meat, if you wish the "gravy/sauce" to be thicker add 1 T. flour or Corn Starch to 1/4 C. warm water or warm sauce in a small bowl. (I use a small jar that I kept the lid for to shake it in). Pour into sauce and stir in, and put the lid on the crock pot and leave on High for about 15 mins. to thicken it! Add some warm Italian or Wheat bread and you have a good dinner waiting for you!

For good Stew later in the week cut up all the remaining leftovers (if there are any, you only need a small amount of meat left for this), add remaining gravy, add 1 can sweet peas, 1 can corn, add 1 can of diced potatoes in the can if you are short on potatoes, 1 can tomato soup, 1/2 soup can water, 1/2 t. Rosemary, 1 clove of garlic or 1/4 ts. dry garlic, 1/2 ts. salt, 1/4 ts. pepper, and simmer in the crock pot for 3-4 hrs. or on the stove top for an hr. Bake some canned biscuits and you have Stew and Biscuits!

Specials

Tuesday night It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown (Oct. 28th) airs at 8:00 on ABC, WXYZ (here). Didn't want any of you that wanted to know when it was on to miss it! Looks like a 2nd. special is on after it too! For those of you that don't care for this holiday special I apologize! haha

Warm favorites!

A favorite warm dish, for most of us! NOT our middle daughter, she has cheese on a bun when we have this! ha She does scarf down the fries though! Sloppy Joes and homemade baked fries, quick and easy!

Sloppy Joe: 2 lbs. ground chuck

1 med. onion, diced

Fry ground chuck and onion together, drain off excess drippings

Add 1-15 oz can Tomato sauce

1/4 cup Ketchup

2 Tb. brown sugar

1 ts. Worcestershire sauce

1 ts. salt

1/4 ts. pepper

1 Tb. mustard

Stir into meat and let simmer an hr. A great idea is to make it ahead, and then put into the crock pot on another day, or you can freeze it, thaw it and then put it in the crock pot for a few hrs. I do this for Thanksgiving company. I make a double batch and then pop it out and reheat! Easy!

Baked fries: You'll need one washed Idaho potato per person that you are serving(unless you want leftovers, add more!)

Cut potatoes into long thin strips, leaving skins on

Spray 2 cookie sheets generously with Pam

Place sliced potatoes on sheets, laying them in even layers not stacked

Spray tops of potato slices on tray Bake on 400* for 45 mins. If desired salt them when they are hot and just out of the oven, it will hold the salt better! I tell you, I can eat 1/2 of a tray myself, I would take these over McDonald's fries and that is saying ALOT for me! I'm a die hard fry lover!! We serve raw veggies and French onion dip with this meal, just seems to go with it for us!

Time to start planning!

Well it might sound strange to be talking about Thanksgiving but I was looking through the grocery store ad today to make my grocery list and saw several "holiday" food items. For instance, canned pumpkin, spices, canned fruit, baking supplies etc. We host Thanksgiving at our house, including overnight company and we like to do it up GOOD! We love and adore Thanksgiving together! My brother got married this summer so we have several more cousins to add at the table this year!

So......I'm starting to think "holidays" when I shop now! Which makes it fun to buy things slowly rather than one huge shopping trip the week of Thanksgiving. Too many people, out of stuff you need, overflowing grocery carts, and no place to store it all because it's too much to store! haha Some of you might not to do alot of planning other than make and take a dish, but it's still a good idea to be prepared and hey everyone wants to save some money!!

There's a website called Flylady that I like during the holidays, it can be overwhelming so with anything I pick and choose what I want to take from it! You can go on her site and go to her Site map to find Holiday ideas, including Christmas!

We've already eaten a few pumpkin dishes, bread, dip and pie so I need to take a break so we can really enjoy it when it rolls around! haha

Be thinking holidays somewhere in the back of your mind. You can even be thinking Christmas shopping....some stores have a 90 day return policy (a good thing to check when shopping early!) and we have LESS than 90 days to go! 39 to Thanksgiving when I counted!

So keep this all in mind when you are out and about and perusing the ads! I get some neat after Halloween sales that double for Thanksgiving, orange and brown M & M's, pumpkin plates etc. which is fun too!

If you are rolling your eyes, then just enjoy the music and think about Fall instead! haha I like to be ready and organized so to me this is FUN! ha We will have 22 possible this Thanksgiving so my ideas need to grow with that many people in seating alone! ha We all cherish this time together, I have to say it's one of my top favorite times of the year! My sister in law and I were just discussing the other day how much her family enjoys traveling here for Thanksgiving and I said the same, our kids and all of us love to celebrate all God's Blessings to us together!!

Ok......go out and plan!!

Pumpkin bread

Pumpkin bread is a family favorite! I make two loaves and cut those in half and freeze them in halves for breakfast, snacks or to have a quick give away for someone in need. Enjoy! I doubled the recipe!

Pumpkin bread:

1 C. flour,

1 C packed brown sugar

1 T. baking powder

1 ts. ground cinnamon

1/4 ts. salt

1/4 ts. baking soda

1/4 ts. ground nutmeg

1/8 ts. ground ginger OR ground cloves(I use cloves)

1 C. canned pumpkin

1/2 C. milk

2 eggs

1/3 C. shortening (I substituted Veg. oil)

1 C. flour

1/2 C. chopped walnuts

1/2 C. raisins

1. Grease pan

2. In large mixing bowl (or kitchen aide mixer) combine 1 Cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, and ginger or cloves. Add pumpkin, milk, eggs, and shortening (or Oil). Beat on low until blended. Then beat on med. to high speed for

2 mins. Add the next 1 C. flour, beat until blended. Fold in walnuts (or pecans) and raisins.

3. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake in 350* oven 45-50 mins. (check with finger for firmness in center) . Cool on wire rack 10 mins. and then remove from loaf pan to let cool.

I double this recipe, and then I use one full can of pumpkin, the small size. It's a bit over 2 cups but that's ok! Freeze in 1/2's! enjoy! The pans I have are these cool pans that hold a one loaf recipe, but they are long and narrow. Makes a nice sliced size. I got them at IKEA pretty inexpensively! but they might have them other places too!

God speaking!

After listening to this song, "God Speaking" I started to try to see where I hear "Him" speaking to me! You can find it all over the place if you take the time.....I can hear him often in my children, in the seasons, at my bible study that I love, through my husband, through even the bad days.....how often I get too busy or clog my mind up with clutter and then I can't hear Him so well! There's a line in the song that says "Who knows how he'll get a hold of us, get our attention to prove he is ENOUGH, He'll do and He'll use whatever he wants to, to tell us I LOVE YOU ..... he is enough! I hope he doesn't have to work hard to get my attention! Look for him speaking to you today!!!

It's raining acorns!

It's raining acorns here these last few weeks.....we can hear them hitting the roof in the night and we are now used to it. If someone is over, they can't believe the sound! If you take an acorn to the top of your head it's NOT fun! ha Here's Mike and Jordan cleaning up 4 days worth, the barrel on it's side is FULL of them! we try to clean them up every few days! You can click on the photo to see it larger! Luckily they are almost done falling because it's like walking on marbles sometimes!! I know my friends and family who don't live in Michigan will laugh at this! Jordan gets paid to shovel snow so I guess now we'll consider it for shoveling acorns! They have never been as plentiful as this year! We stay out from under the trees in October! haha Next it will be the leaves we will be cleaning up! Enjoy this beautiful Fall day all!

A Fall wedding!

My cousin is having an outdoor wedding tomorrow, luckily our weather is going to be lovely! I was lucky enough to be asked to make the cake so I thought I'd share! Of course I never like how any cake I make turns out, we are hardest on ourselves I suppose! The fun part was she asked for "Fallish" decorations and colors on the cake. I found these miniature pumpkins, nuts and acorns that were fun to work with! The topper will be put on at the wedding! I'm glad I don't get asked to do this very often! It was fun, and my first wedding cake and I think my last! It's too much pressure! haha Hope you are all enjoying this gorgeous Fall weather!! The wedding is at a campground and the cider mill is on the way so we plan to make a stop for some cider, apples and DONUTS of course!! Can't enjoy Fall without a crunchy, warm, cinnamon donut from the Cider mill!! ENJOY!!

Cookie Monday!

On Monday's we usually bake cookies to enjoy through the week.....but we haven't made them all summer so today's the day! Grace and I have a date to make them this afternoon after school! Of course I'll have to email my friend Leanne and tell her I ate too much dough and have a belly ache....(she is a fellow cookie lover!) It's a perfect weather day for baking cookies! I hope you all have a tradition like this to pass on to your kids! I think we'll add Fall sprinkles this time too! yumm This song is one of Grace's fav's!!

Family shows!

We love this show.....and we always love the music. We have been playing and putting some of the background songs from some episodes on the blog for fun! We've enjoyed walking around the house singing "CANDY" and what a voice that gal has(2nd. song)!! See if you recognize which show the first song is from! Hard to find good quality shows to watch as a family....glad they play these! My father in law used to say "every channel you turn on the Cosby show is on!"