Gobble Gobble Gobble.

Happy Thanksgiving, albeit a day late! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and were able to enjoy a day of relaxation.

I spent the day with my friends Amanda and Stephen Young and their family. I met them at their house early Thursday morning and we headed over to Stephen's family's Thanksgiving. I have to give them major kudos, Their family welcomed me with open arms. I couldn't have felt like a tag a long if I had tried. It was great to finally get to meet the people who I had heard so many great things about and to see the ones I had previously met once again. It was quite the crowd, as you can see below!

After comming home I wound up stopping by my friend Laura's place. She and her husband have a Thanksgiving Wine Down tradition that they started last year. They invite folks over for a drink and dessert to wind down after the big day. It was great to spend an hour with them and meet some new folks. It is amazing how close knit our community is and how there are 2 degrees of seperation here!

I got to end my day with some more relaxation - this time on the couch with my furry children. They were very thankful to get lots of love an attention.

I'm very thankful for all of my family - biological and adoped! Thank you all for being an important part of my life. If you have something you are thankful this year, feel fee to share in the comments.

Birthdays, Birthdays and more Birthdays

I've been a bad blogger lately, so I'm trying to catch up. It is only because I've been so darn busy though :-)

Sunday was my Matthew Baby Bunny Rabit's birthday. Matthew baby buny rabit is my baby brother, who isn't so baby anymore. He has officially hit the quarter century mark. One of these days I'm going to have to stop calling him baby bunny rabit. Actually, the story behind that one is that when he was little Matthew had a stuffed rabbit. He named it Matthew Baby Bunny Rabbit. Thinking of Matthew always makes me think of this story, so that is his pet name. Matthew also cracks me up because he has told me that he doesn't look down on his furry nieces with quiet as much love as they look up to him with. I beleive his words were 'i prefer pets that live in tanks'. Well Matt, the ladies send you a big kiss anyways. Can your imaginary gecko do that? More importantly, would you want the gecko to do that?

Last monday we celebrated my new friend Amber's birthday. As a fellow late NOvember birthday girl, she understands my pain. This year she threw herself a pary since last year she was stuck driving home from Thanksgiving on her birthday. I recently met Amber through our supper club - she hosted the most awesome Oktoberfest! Amber is an amazing cook, not only was the Oktoberfest good, but she made one heck of a posole and salad for her birthday party. The cakes, well, I won't say anything other than Oh Mah Gawd, Amaaaazing. They really were fabulous. Plus, we had a pinata. It was so fun!! The pinata was slightly overdesigned and we cracked a broom handle in half breaking it, but it was darn fun! Kudo to Amber on a fabulous party. I hope she enjoyed her birthday!

Wednesday was my mom's birthday. Unfortuantely she spent way to much of her birthday working way to much. Such are the pitfalls of working in retail. I think mom just took advantage of getting the day after her birthday off courtesty of Turkey Time. Mom has been doing some great work domestically lately too. In the last year and a half she has come to understand my love of the domestic art of cooking as she has started getting into her own culinary exploits! I'm quite proud of some of her endeavors. For thanksgiving she tried Butternut squash souffle. Who would have though?

Happy birthday to one and all. It certainly is a crazy time of year!

Note: The picture of Matthew is at the Lego store with a Lego R2D2 in October. Mom and dad are pictured at the renewal of their vows after their 30th anniversary.

Home Renovations part 8 milliion

If you recall, I claimed to have finished painting my office/library/puppy room. Well, here are some pictures. We finally put the futon in there. Thank God Jody and Lucy were able to help me. We wound up having to take it partly apart to get in there. That is not such a fun thing to do, and we hadn't taken it apart since the big move from IL to TX. You can't see from this doorway picture, but I've got some book shelvves in there too. Hello, this IS my library too!

The reason for the big futon move? For the cost of a lunch (I'll make sure it is a nice one!) I got a new couch and chair. Lucy had gotten a family couch and chair recovered, so she was ready to get rid of her old one's - for some reason they didn't need garage furniture !?!?!?!? They brought them over today, and we are happy campers and the Jersey house! I knew I wanted a couch in my living room, but I had forgotten how much I wanted one. Here is the current look. I may rearrange, especially if I get some othter furniture I"m looking at.

Butter Bean Soup with Smoked Turkey

This evening I made a really easy and yummy soup. Yup, soup again. It has been cold out. I almost lit a fire. It was a good night for soup, tea, and a fire while sitting under a fleece blanket on the couch with my two exciteable footwarmers.

Ingredients

1 tbl olive oil

1 yellow onion coarsely chopped

3 cloves carlic, chopped

1 tsp fresh thyme, or 1/2 tsp dried thyme

3 cups chicken or vegetable broth (or more as needed)

1 carrot, peeled and diced

3 cups frozen lima beans, thawed

1/2 lb smoked turkey breast, cut into 1/4 in. dice

chopped green onion

1. Heat oil over medium-high. Add onion and sautee until soft. Add the garlic and thyme and cook for about 1 minute ensuring that the garlic doesn't brown.

2. Add broth and carrots and bring to a boil. Add beans and turkey and simmer uncovered until the beans and turkey are warm, about 5 minutes. Stir occaisionally.

3. Add hot water or broth if the soup is too thick. Garnish with green onions.

I made some changes and substitutions. Most importantly, there wasn't any smoked turkey at the store. I was going to get some rom the deli but decided to just use turkey smoked sausage. Obviously I used 5 garlic cloves because you must automatically increase garlic consumption. I just used 4 cups of broth off of the bat.

Overall, VERY easy and quick, and yummy! I have a couple of servings for leftovers later in the week and I actually plan to eat them. I will definitely eat this one again. I'm sure using sausage instead of actual turkey breast is part of why it is so wickedly delish! Maybe I'll try it with the regular turkey next time. Plus, the ingredients cost less than $10 for 4 servings of soup. :-) Add in some bread and you are all good!

I've got another turkey and bean soup to try out sometime soon. Mmmm.

Everlasting love

I have found that missing part in my life. It is a grocery store! Our new Kroger opened up this week. It is absolutely amazing. It is almost twice the size of our old Kroger. I used to have to hit Kroger, Super Walmart, and the Corner Market in order to catch all of the things on my list. A bad side effect of liking fresh food, natural foods, and cooking for yourself. Today I found heaven. I'm in love. The produce department has expanded significantly - probably twice the size of the old one. Plus, the meat department has some better looking options, and there is seafood other than just catfish!!! I look forwad to making salmon later this week, or maybe some Amanda Young Tuna special! There is a whole natural/healthy foods section, including feezer cases. I almsot wanted to cry. There were more Kashi and Amy's meals than I had ever seen in one place. They even had the Kashi version ofHot Pockets. They EVEN have Barry's Irish Tea, which Abby says she has only seen in Ireland!! In honor of the extended produce department, I made some boring produce!

Kate's DC Broccoli
Take your broccoli and chop the florets off of the head. toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder (or garlic chips) to taste. Roast in the oven for 7 minutes at 375. Stir and roast for 7 more minutes.

The end result is crunchy and tasty broccoli. Just don't let it burn, apparently that is gross!! It is crunchy as though it was steamed, but full of flavor without covering it in cheese. Mmmm. I could have eaten the entire pan!

Saturday is as Saturday does

We had an all around Saturday sort of day. This morning the ladies of the house all gathered on the couch to watch the U of I -OSU football game. Unfortunately it didn't turn out as I would have liked. Fortunatley, we held our own except for all of those turnovers. If only they could learn to play well I would see lots of wins in our future - because they have the raw talent, that is for sure.

After the disappointment of the loss the other ladies were devastated. I tucked them in to sleep away their misery. Meanwhile I headed back to the dreaded office for another coat of paint. I think it is the last. Later on I hung new blinds in there. It is actually looking halfway decent. I'll post pictures once I get the furnitue in there. For now I leave you with my sleepy furry children. After they have been tucked into bed they are likely to stay asleep like that for a surprising amount of time.

Family time is fun time

Last Friday I headed up north to South Bend, IN to visit with my cousin Abby, my cousin-in-law John, and their adoreable daughter, Nora. It turned out that it was family weekend! Every year my Aunt Barbara and Uncle John come out to visit the family in November. Turns out - that was this weekend! They came in Thursday, and left Sunday - meaning we had a super family filled weekend.

On Saturday afternoon Aunt Jean, my Grandpa's cousin, and her daughter Aunt Ann came over to visit. I hadn't seen Aunt Jean since Grandpa's wedding in 1989, and I had never actually met Aunt Ann. It was really good to get to see/meet them. They are just as sweet and fun as I could imagine anyone in my family being. Plus, my parents came over for the afternoon. Their arriva was a little late - they forgot about the time change going from IL to IN again :-) However, we did get some time in as a total family. We realized we had 4 generations of Shoeflin women in one room - so we took a picture on this momentous occaision.

I have to add in a food note at this point. We had soup and bread for lunch Saturday. Abby made two absolutely delcious soups that I've always wanted to make - Butternut Squash Soup and Sausage Lentil Soup out of the Barefoot in Paris cookbook. It was fabulous. I'll definitely be making them in the future - although the sausage lentil soup could feed an army!

The rest of the weekend was great. We didn't do anything specific, but focused on enjoying our time together as it is always limited. On Monday I went to campus with Abby. She taught and went to class while I did some work in her office. More importantly I played on campus. I did a short walk around campus and took in some of the sites. It was a little cold, so I didn't go out on a walk around the lake or do too much exploring. This was my fourth trip to South Bend, however I had never actually made it into the Basillica, so I finally got that checked off my list. It was nice to go in there, sit with my thoughts while someone practiced on the organ. It really is a gorgeous campus! Here are some pictures from campus.

On Tuesday I stayed at home with Nora for a couple of hours while Abby and John were both at work. We had lots of fun playing with nesting dolls and reading. Plus, she went down for her nap very easily! We headed over to the Mishewaka brewing company to grab a late lunch after Abby got done with her seminar. I had to bring my southern charm into play, so we brought a baby.. into a bar.Mmmmm. Fried Pickles - how can you go wrong?!?!

Unfortunately, the fun had to end, as I headed home on Tuesday night :-( Family - I miss you already.