Pumpkin Cheeseball

This year, my husband and I are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time. It's making us feel like real, live grown-ups for once! 

There must be something about panicking about cooking a turkey that makes a couple grow up quickly. 

Last year, we spent Thanksgiving at my sister's. We over-ate. We got stomachaches. We ate again. We put extra butter on the mashed potatoes just because we could. We wolfed down pie. We loosened our belts and wondered why we didn't wear our fat pants. 

And we started it off with a pumpkin cheeseball, because it's always good to eat while you're waiting to eat. We like to start our gluttony early. 

So if you're hosting Thanksgiving this year like a real grown-up, and if you're looking for a little something to hold your guests over while you frantically text your mom to see if the pumpkin pie is done or if you burned the stuffing, shove this their direction. 

I'll be doing the exact same thing. 

Pumpkin Cheeseball

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 cups cheddar cheese

3 tablespoons diced onion

1/2 cup salsa

1 tsp. cumin

2 cups Doritos, crumbled

Top of a green bell pepper

Beat together cream cheese, cheese, onion, salsa and cumin until creamy. Scoop the mixture into plastic wrap and shape into a ball. Refrigerate 2+ hours. 

When ready to eat, roll ball in Doritos and place pepper stem on top. Serve with crackers or veggies. 

asparagus white sauce

Back in the day, and by "the day" I mean when I was a little girl, my mom and an older neighbor, affectionally called Flornie, would drive around the country looking for wild asparagus.

They'd cut it out of ditches and along fence rows. And I'd hang out in the car and wonder how on earth they could spot something green growing amid nine thousand other green grasses and weeds and plant life in general.

My mom finally started growing her own asparagus, and the recipe that follows became a lunchtime staple. 

Not for me, of course. I wouldn't have touched asparagus if they'd paid me in pizza and CrunchWrap Supremes. 

But now that my husband and I have our own asparagus patch, we're -- dare I admit it -- making this recipe our own lunchtime staple. 

This time of year, we eat Aldi asparagus, but we're looking forward to the day when we can cut our own and lap up this sauce that smothers it.

We still see wild asparagus in the ditches now and then, and I hope we always do. Because maybe, some day, when little Georgia is four or five, I'll drive HER around and listen to her talk about how gross asparagus is. And we'll have finally come full circle. 

Asparagus White Sauce

2 T butter

2 T flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1 cup milk

Melt butter. Add flour, salt and pepper. Slowly add milk until bubbling or steaming. Pour over toast and steamed asparagus.  

winter babies

Good things about being pregnant in the winter: 

(1) You have no desire to be outside in the cold, so hunkering down is not a problem.

 

(2) A few extra pounds help keep you warm. No need for sweaters!

(3) When your husband brings you donuts, I mean, you HAVE to eat one because he went out in the snow to get them for crying outloud! It's basically your wifely duty. 

On the flip side, it also means that: 

(1) You act on your ultimate language: eating carbs. Maybe a little too much. 

Ahem. 

(2) It gets dark out early . . . because it's winter. And when baby needs to get up to eat every couple of hours, the night seems awfully long.

(3) You have no desire to leave the house. Who needs milk or fruit anyway? 

On the other hand (does this mean we're back to the first side of the hand? I'm confused.): 

(1) Babies are little heaters. And it doesn't matter how awesome Walmart or Amazon are. They don't sell snuggly, sweet-smelling little heat generators. 

(2) Heating up the kitchen by baking bread is virtually a necessity. A happy mama -- because who doesn't perk up when there's warm, fresh bread on the counter? -- means a happy baby. Get that flour and yeast out!

(3) Spring is on its way. And just when baby is starting to notice what's going on in the world, you can head outside for long walks, fresh air and sunshine!

At least, that's what we're telling ourselves. 

Bake the bread. Get out the jam. Tickle the baby. Don't fret too much if you pack on an extra carb or two. 

Winter won't last forever . . . and neither will those baby snuggles!

Easy Artisan Bread 

3 cups warm water

1 T. instant yeast

2 1/2 tsp. salt

3 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

3 c. flour

Mix yeast and salt. Add water. 

Add flour and mix well. 

Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let sit someplace warm (or at least room temperature) for 1 1/2 hours. 

Store in the refrigerator for a week or bake immediately. 

If baking, head enamel dutch oven and lid in oven at 450 degrees. 

Lightly dust dough with flour. Cut off amount of dough you desire to bake and shape into a ball. Place on parchment paper-covered cookie sheet and let sit for 30 minutes. 

Cut the top of the dough with serrated knife and transfer dough to dutch oven, including parchment paper. 

Bake for 15-17 minutes covered. 

Remove lid and bake for another 15-17 minutes until loaf is golden brown. 

for baby's room

True story: Back in the (college) day, I entered a Hallmark Mother's Day writing contest and won my mom 12 months' worth of expensive and impressive flowers. 

The local news station even came out to interview us. 

That's a big deal in Iowa, ok?

It was really just affirmation of what I already knew: that my stay-at-home mama -- who fed me and schlepped me an hour to confirmation class and homeschooled me and then drove me a half hour to meet the school bus twice a day for a year and helped me through 4-H and listened to all my boy troubles, etc. -- is just the kind of mom I want to be to this little baby.

In other words, Mom set the bar HIGH. 

So when she came to spend a week with us, I really should have been taking care of HER in exchange for all she's done for ME, but somehow it worked out that I just kept asking her to help with more projects. And she did. And they turned out adorably. 

Like this woodland mobile for Baby's room. 

All it took was one hour in Michael's, and there was no turning back. We loaded up on:

• Sparkly adorns and branches. 
• Cute little birdies.
• Glittered pinecones. 
• A nest and some moss balls. 
• Feathers. Because the world can always use more feathers. 
• Peanut butter M & Ms. Those don't have anything to do with crafting, but they are a necessity. 

  

Then I plugged in the glue gun, poured Mom a root beer and got out of her way. 

Trust me. It's better than way.

She tied three strands of colored twine to the bird's nest -- evenly spaced around the edge -- so that it could hang from a hook in the ceiling.

That same twine was cut at varying lengths and tied to the nest so that she could hang adorableness on the underside.

Then -- in no particular order -- she hot glued feathers, sparkly leaves, acorns, moss balls and birds to the twine.

There was a lot of "Should the leaves go with the acorns or with the pinecones?" and "Does it need a red feather or a yellow feather?" and a lot of me saying, "Um...what you just said. Yeah. Definitely that."

The good news? It's hard to screw up. The combination was cute no matter how she grouped items together!

The last step was to -- legit -- feather that nest and add the mama bird to it.

The feathers came in a $1.99 package of a zillion different colors, but we opted for a little pop of red because red is the best color EVER. #commonknowledge

She added a glittery pinecone and an orange acorn for good measure, tucked in two moss balls and then glued the sweet little birdie on top. We decided not to use regular plastic eggs from the craft store because they were tiny and no one would have been able to see them anyway. Go big or . . . uh . . . don't go. That's what we say.

See how easy that little project is? It's not even DIY. It's DIM (Do it, Mom).

All the pieces needed to make this mobile are even pretty easy to gather up. You just need one wonderful mom, some crafting supplies, a baby on the way and a ceiling to hang the mobile from.

It can't get any more DIY than that!

living in the south and eating jambalaya

Every few months, my farmer and I like to have this discussion where I try to convince him that living in Missouri = living in the South and then he tries to tell me that living in Missouri = living in the Midwest. 

Then I point out that people here have accents and drink sweet tea and it's basically case closed. 

In my mind anyway. 

It seemed fitting then that the last time we visited a used second-hand bookstore, I came home with a Paula Deen cookbook and immediately started stocking up on butter. 

I mean, we're dairy farmers, after all.

My goal this summer has been to use up food in our pantry and our freezer, and with smoked sausage patiently waiting to be thawed, Paula's jambalaya just had to be. 

I will confess that I didn't add the shrimp the recipe called for, namely because (1) we didn't have it and (2) ewww. Chicken would be  a perfectly lovely substitute, but I didn't take the time to cook one and shred it because I'm a bum like that.

Speaking of shredding chicken: You know the trick about cooking chicken breasts in your crock pot and then putting them in the mixer and letting the mixer shred them, right? Works like a dream. Better, even. 

So between some spicy jambalaya and some non-existent chicken, while I'm out of town this week, my farmer will be eating his fair share of Paula's classic dish, some lemon-garlic tilapia with asparagus risotto and . . . 

salads. Because sometimes when you've worked outside all day in abnormally warm September weather, a big class of lemonade and a taco salad hit the spot. 

And you know why? 

Because WE LIVE IN THE SOUTH. 

Of course. 

I'm glad we can agree. 

What are you chowing down on this week?

Paula Deen's Jambalaya 

1 cup long-grain white rice

3 T dried minced onion

1 T dried parsley flakes

1 T beef bouillon granules

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp. salt

1 bay leaf

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 pound fully cookie smoked sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices

3/4 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1. In a medium bowl, combine the rice, onion, parsley flakes, bouillon, thyme, garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt and bay leaf. 

2. IN a Dutch oven, combine the rice mixture, 2 1/2 cups water, tomatoes, tomato sauce and sausage. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes. 

Add the shrimp (or chicken) and cook until just opaque, 5-7 minutes; discard the bay leaf. Dish it up while it's hot! 

easy holiday pear and pomegranate salsa

Let's face it: We like to eat our way through the holidays. Growing up, Christmas was just a chance to move from meal to meal to meal with church and presents and family members sandwiched in between.

On Christmas Eve, it was chili and cheese and crackers and veggie platters and cookies and fruitcake. 

On Christmas morning, it was a delicious pastry and hot chocolate. 

For Christmas brunch, it was bacon and biscuits and grits and eggs and cinnamon rolls. 

On Christmas Day evening, it was gut rot.