Monday, November 21, 2005

Some Thanksgiving Recipes:

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes. For me, Thanksgiving dinner wouldn't be complete without them.
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Boston Chicken Cranberry Sauce
Serves/Makes: 6

1 pound Can jellied cranberry sauce
1 Jar Smucker's Simply Fruit (10 ounces) Orange Marmalade
1/4 teaspoon Ground ginger
2 cups Fresh cranberries -- sliced
1/3 cup Walnuts -- chop fine

In 2-quart saucepan, over medium-to-low heat, use rubber bowl scraper to stir together jellied sauce, marmalade and ginger until melted, about 6-8 minutes. Add the sliced cranberries, keeping sauce on low. Stir often. Continue cooking and stirring often until cranberries are no longer white and taste tender to the bite (not soft, but not too crisp). Stir in walnuts. When cooled to lukewarm, refrigerate, covered and use with a week to 10 days. Should freeze well to be used within 4 months.

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Grandma's Stuffing

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions chopped
½ cup chopped parsley
1 pound mild Italian sausage, casings removed
1 pound ground beef
1 6-ounce box Kellogg’s Croutettes Stuffing Mix
¼ pound margarine, melted
1 cup milk
6 eggs
3 tablespoons grated pecorino Romano cheese
¼ pound salami, sliced thickly and diced
½ pound mozzarella, diced
Salt to taste
¼ teaspoon pepper

Sauté onion in olive oil until soft. Add parsley and stir until soft. Add sausage and ground beef and blend well. Continue to stir and cook until no pink shows. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
In a separate bowl, mix croutettes with margarine and toss lightly. Stir in milk. In another large bowl, beat eggs and add grated pecorino, diced salami, mozzarella, salt and pepper. Fold in cooked meat mixture and croutettes.

Stuff mixture into turkey cavity and roast according to directions. Or, place stuffing in a large casserole and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees, until lightly browned on top.
Makes 8 to 12 servings.
Will's 16 month picture!

Sunday, November 20, 2005

I'm not ignoring you....

Life just seems to get in the way every time I want to sit down and journal....so here are the highlights of the last two weeks...

Monday, November 7: Surprise baby shower for a fellow homeschooling mom who is expecting baby #5...as a matter of fact, today (11-20) little miss Lilly should be making her appearance, that is if baby's had any idea of what duedates were! It was great fun, we had a "recycled" theme, as Melodie (the pregnant one) loves thrifting and rarely buys anything new. She ended up with quite a haul...clothes, nursing gown, baby sling, diapers, wipes, blankets, baby einstein dvd. She was so surprised when she walked in. I was just glad we had a chance to celebrate with her!

Tuesday, November 8: Brett's 15th birthday! The day started out with a park program (orienteering with compasses) and then some of the teens met up with us to celebrate Brett's birthday. At one point I looked up and saw Brett surrounded by 6 teenage girls, not another boy in sight, and thought to myself, "what more could a teenage boy want?". We had a huge turkey dinner (rivaling Thanksgiving) at Brett's request. Hard to believe that it has been 15 years since he entered my life!

Wednesday, November 9: We made a trip to Dayton to visit Boonshoft Museum. It was certainly worth the hour drive. 4 other homeschooling families joined us. The kids LOVED the animal grossology exhibit and we came home with a recipe to make animal "scat"...can't wait to do that some cold winter afternoon.

Thursday, November 10: 4-H meeting!

Sunday, November 13: My 36th birthday! Jay spoiled me with a serger and a gorgeous Vera Bradley backpack....God that man is so good to me! I could add that this is my first even numbered birthday since I was 20 that I haven't been pregnant (I was pregnant at 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32 and 34)...but I have a theory it would somehow JINX me....although the likelihood of me being pregnant is almost nil! The last time I "complained" about this (birthday #34) I had a + pregnancy test less than a week later!

Monday, November 14: Spanish class, open gym, dance class

Tuesday, November 15: Worked on projects for the biography fair. Picked up dad from dialysis, he was sick (nauseated) so I had to spend most of the afternoon with him. Grant had basketball practice that afternoon.

Thursday, November 17: BIOGRAPHY FAIR! I was in charge..here is what I posted to our homeschooling group!

Biography Fair!!
Location: Loveland Community Hall
ALL Ages invited to participate
COST: None
Organizer: Laura Riesenberg
Each child picks anyone, living or dead, and does a presentation about their life. The child choses how to present the information. They can write a report, make a display board, a photo montage, a video. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.. The great thing about this opportunity is that any age child can particpate and present their research to the best of their abilities. No competing!

There is a great article online that explains the biography fair in detail.
http://www.home-ed-magazine.com/HEM/HEM155.98/155.98_art_bio.html

Contact Laura is you are interested at
theriesenbergs@cinci.rr.com

We will begin setting up at 6:30 PM, presentations to begin at 7 PM.

RSVP: Riesenberg, Hensley, Leland, Green, Ridiman

Please bring a nut-free snack to share. No popcorn please! I will provide drinks, cups and napkins.

Directions to the Loveland Community Center:
Take I-275 to the Loveland-Indian Hill exit (#52). Turn left at the bottom of the exit ramp onto Loveland- Maderia Rd. Follow Loveland-Maderia road until you pass Kroger on your left and Castle Skateland on your left. You now go to the 3rd traffic light (W. Loveland) and turn RIGHT onto W. Loveland. Follow to the second traffic light and turn RIGHT onto Karl Brown Way, the Community Center is on the left, parking in the lot right past the Community Center.


Friday, November 18: Bowling with our homeschool group!

Saturday, November 19: Craft at local library and Liam's birthday party.

Sunday, November 20: Tour at Cincinnat Museum Center for the Architecture by Children Program. Talk about a BORING tour. I actually left about 1/2 way through it and took Sophie, Cade and Jacob down to play in the Children's museum. Em had pictures for the Nutcracker for the local papers before our tour and practice following our tour...luckily the ballet is only about 3 minutes from the museum!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Genealogy project

Emily decided that she wanted to tackle the 4-H genealogy project this year. It is a fantastic project that you can continue to build on for up to 6 years. We had no idea where to begin, so I called my uncle (my dad's older brother) who had researched my surname back to its origins in England.

Emily and I went over to his house on Tuesday October 18 and he spent 2 1/2 hours showing us records and recommending books and websites. He told Emily she was welcome to copy anything she wanted and that she could borrow any of the books he had.

He pointed out some of the "interesting" things on one branch of her family tree. We are related to Abraham Lincoln, we are related to Camila Hanks (who rode with Butch Cassidy) and we also have Choctaw blood. Emily and I can't wait to dig deeper into everything.

We hope to trace my husband's family. We know very little of his heritage. Emily is going to draft a letter to her aunts and uncles to get what information they know and also she plans to go and interview her grandmother. We have already come up with the information sheet thanks to some samples my uncle gave us.

My uncle said his favorite free genealogy resource is www.cyndislist.com .

We can't wait to see where this project leads us!