Happy Thanksgiving - 1 Year Later

I'm so glad to be back in the blogging world.  I've been wanting to get back at it for some time now, but thought it would be fun to start back exactly one year since my last post.  So I had to wait for Thanksgiving to make that happen.  I'll be blogging about all the same things as in the past:  family, homeschooling, celebrating the liturgical year, food with a few new twists thrown in. 

Pinterest....I resisted it, knowing I'd be hooked, until one day about a month ago.  I wanted to look up the recipe for a powdered laundry detergent which I received a sample of from a friend.  She had commented in passing that she found it on Pinterest.  I reluctantly typed pinterest.com into my address bar and the rest is history.  I've been pinning like crazy.  In my defense, I've also been doing like crazy.  What I love about Pinterest is that a picture is tagged to all the links making it so easy to find the craft I pinned last week that I'm ready to make now.  In the past I would add links to my favorites bar and they would get lost in a sea of words.  I'd click on every link that had the word turkey in it before I'd find the right craft.  By the time I located the directions my crafter would be on to other things and we'd end up forgetting about it.  Not with Pinterest.  I just pop onto my boards and scroll through until I find the pic and then click over to the original post and voila!  we are ready to get busy.  That was a long way of saying that each week I'll be doing a post called "How Pinterest Got Me Through The Week".  I'll highlight the crafts, recipes and home decor ideas I try with a quick review.  I wish I had been taking pics of all the things we've done already.  Some hot and some NOT. 

And lastly Happy Thanksgiving!  I have so much to be thankful for this year.  Of course there's the new little guy who's not so new anymore.  He'll be 1 in just a few weeks.  I'll introduce him in his own post.  But so many other things as well:  family, health, home addition.  I'm leaving you with a lovely prayer from the Magnificat magazine.

 

Happy Thanksgiving from MAGNIFICAT Dear Friends, We wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving! In celebration of this beautiful holiday, we would like to share with you the following Thanksgiving Day blessing and litany that you might like to pray with your family and loved ones. Most merciful Father, your gifts of love are countless and your goodness infinite. On this Thanksgiving Day we come before you with gratitude for your kindness: open our hearts to concern for others so that we may share your gifts of loving service with all your people. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Litany of Thanksgiving Response: We thank you, O Lord. This is a day to thank God for all his many blessings in our lives. With gratitude we now say: For the love of God, for faith, family, and friends: R/ For joys, successes, achievements, and accomplishments: R/ For health, safety, work, and rest: R/ For struggles, sorrows, trials, and sufferings: R/ For our jobs, for those who support us, for our education, and for the chance to serve: R/ For our gifts, talents, and abilities, for honors, for strength and energy: R/ For our homes, for food, warmth, and shelter, for all the things that have made us happy: R/ For our hobbies and pets, for happy memories, for our favorite things, for leisure and relaxation: R/ For our nation, for freedom and peace, for teachers, leaders, and those who give us good example: R/ For the ability to say "I'm sorry," for the grace of repentance, for the forgiveness of others, for the generosity of others: R/ For good advice, for financial security, for the trust others put in us, for tenderness, understanding, and compassion: R/ For kindness, goodness, joy, and laughter, for the times we have helped others or made them happy: R/ For all the wonders of creation, for beauty, music, sports, and art, for new opportunities and second chances: R/ For failures and rejection, for all the ways we have grown up and become better people: R/ Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.* Thank you for being a faithful member of the MAGNIFICAT family. Sincerely yours in Christ, MAGNIFICAT *Adapted from "A Thanksgiving Day Grace" in Blessing Prayers: Devotions for Growing in Faith by Fr. Peter John Cameron, o.p.

As always don't forget the cranberries.



Thank You to All My Readers

Don't forget the cranberries.

 



"I Shot Every Deer I Saw", said Amber

Amber's first morning out hunting was a total success.  She sat with Warren and shot this spike buck all by herself at 8:30am.  They stopped up at the house just to hang the deer and then they were off again.  I loved hearing her tell the story; the huge smile, the excited voice and the way she looked at her dad when she explained how she didn't even hear the bang or feel the gun kick.  According to her story they weren't seeing anything so they prayed for St. Hubert (patron saint of hunters) to intercede on their behalf and send a deer and it wasn't five minutes and this buck showed up.

St. Hubert, pray for us!

Recipes To Use With Ground Venison

A reader writes:

What's your favorite recipe for ground venison? My kids don't care, they think it's beef - but my husband (yes, the hunter) can't find a way he likes it. But he continues to get one each year... suggestions??

My family prefers venison to beef, hands down.  So any recipe that calls for ground beef I substitute with ground venison.  I don't change anything about the recipe.  But if you or your family members find venison to be too strongly flavored or the texture too dry, here are my suggestions for using it and loving it.  First off start with recipes that contain a lot of flavor and spices.  Chili is an excellent dish for using ground venison.  Taco meat and nacho meat are good choices as well.  I've also found that crock-pot meals such as stroganoff and spaghetti sauce is a good choice as well.  Cooking the ground venison on low for a number of hours allows the flavor to mellow and the meat to tenderize nicely.  For those who like recipes here are a few of mine.

*We pack our venison in 1 1/2 pound portions.  All recipes use 1 portion.

Chili

ground venison

1 qt. tomato juice (I use home-canned)

1 can tomato soup

1 can kidney beans (with or without liquid, your preference)

water to rinse cans (about 1/2 full)

2 beef bouillon cubes

a few shakes worstershire sauce

2 T. chili powder

1 t. cumin

1/3 c. ketchup

1 c. macaroni, cooked

Brown meat.  Mix together all ingredients.  Bring to a quick boil, reduce heat and simmer until ready to eat.  It's always best the 2nd day so I tend to mix, bring to a boil, turn off heat and then place in fridge until the next day.  Reheat and eat.

Taco Meat

ground venison
1 medium onion, chopped or 1/4 t. onion powder
1/2 t. cumin
2 T. chili powder
1 t. salt
1 clove garlic, crushed
3/4 c. water

Cook and stir hamburger in skillet until light brown.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered,k stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 10 minutes.  Serve in taco shells with all the fixings. 

Nacho Meat
ground venison
1 small onion, chopped
1 16oz. can refried beans
1 16oz. jar salsa
1 6oz. can chopped black olives or chop a handful of black olives and throw those in
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
1 green onion, chopped (optional)
2 T. chili powder
1 t. salt

Brown meat and onion.  Stir in remaining ingredients and serve with tortilla chips and typical nacho fixings.  We eat this for a meal, not just a snack during football games.  I always make white rice with this.  Some of us mix the rice in with the meat and others don't.

Stroganoff click here

If anyone wants more recipes for things like Salisbury steak or meatloaf or my giant batch of spaghetti sauce recipe, please leave a comment and I will post more.  Now go cook something! 

Quilting Again

I finished up two quilts this week.  It's been a long time coming because neither one is very large.  This brick layer quilt was started last winter just because I'd seen these brick type quilts all over the internet and wanted to make one.  I made up my own pattern and I love how it turned out that the bricks are staggered in groups of two.  That happened by accident on the blue version I made first, but since I liked the look of it I made another in pinks.  All the brick pieces came from my stash.  Some of the fabrics dating back to the 70's, fabrics I received from Warren's aunt's stash after her death.

The backing and binding are new purchases.  It's hard to tell in the picture but the floral fabric has a light yellow background which I absolutely love.  The yellow and pink go so well together.

 

This quilt measures 35"x39".

The second quilt I finished this week is this tiny carriage quilt.  I found this pattern in McCall's Quick Quilts, May 2001.  I loved the quilt when I first got the magazine, but it took until this summer for me to actually make it happen.  Then I set the 16-patch blocks aside because I couldn't find the right setting square fabric until this fall when I was searching for fabric to make Amber's bean bag chair.  I just happened to run across this brown on cream print which I knew instantly was going to be perfect.  The pieced blocks and border fabric were all from my stash.  The setting squares and backing were new purchases.  I chose an ultra soft flannel for the backing so it would be super soft for a newborn.

 

This quilt measures 29"x33 1/2".

One girl quilt, one boy quilt!  Which one will it be?  We'll find out in December.

For more finished projects by people all over the world go here.