Happy Friday & Some Holiday Recipe Ideas

 

Hello Beautiful Friends and Happy TGIF to you! 

Do you have some fun plans for the weekend? We will probably be pretty mellow around here, other than church Saturday and maybe grab dinner out. And watch the Pack on Sunday of course. 💚💛

I got my stitches out yesterday so that's another step towards full healing. The line where the stitches were looks great and the doc did an amazing job. It's still a little red and has some minimal tenderness around the site so he wanted to be extra cautious and put me on an antibiotic for a bit. I will have it bandaged up when I'm out in the world to keep it free from contamination (& look less jarring for others) - but around home I'm keeping the site clean and just a little vaseline to try to prevent any scabbing. It will be a process to fully heal yet but so glad to be done with all the worst parts. Thank you again so much for all the prayers, love and support! Now Matt is up next and has his excision on his leg right before Thanksgiving. So if you could throw some more prayers his way...that would be wonderful and so appreciated. His issue is actual melanoma (the bad skin cancer) so praying they get it all and that will be that! 🙏🏻

Ok, enough health updates hopefully for a while. Lol I thought I would share that we were able to see the northern lights over our home the other night. They weren't as bright as when we saw them last Fall - but beautiful none the less. And a couple pretty sunset/twilight time photos too. It gets dark so early now and it sure looks like late Autumn around here. 

And since I missed posting for Cooking Thursday I thought I would still share a few recipe ideas today. 

First, I wanted to share that you can click on this link here and it will take you to a post where I shared some of the Thanksgiving recipes I like to use each year for Pioneer Woman's make ahead mashed potatoes and homemade pie crust. 

Also, this is a pic of the "liquid gold" I make each year to use for other Thanksgiving recipes. I like to do this as it gives me many cups of homemade turkey stock to use for them.

Here is what I like to do. 3 - 4 days before Thanksgiving I like to roast some turkey parts in the oven with some butter and herbs, and seasoning. (I will pick up some wings, thighs or a leg) I then use the parts to make a homemade stock in my big slow cooker. Sometimes I'll even get it all going in the evening and let it cook all night while I sleep. I will take the roasted parts and put them in the slow cooker with some onion, garlic, veggies, herbs, seasoning and about 10-12 cups of water (whatever fills it to the top) and cook on slow for 8- 10 hours. When it's done, or when I wake up the next morning, I will strain out the parts and veggies and I then have my liquid gold bone broth I keep in the fridge. I use it to do my make ahead homemade dressing, homemade gravy, and what's left I use for turkey noodle soup after Thanksgiving is done. The way this has so much flavor and allows me to make dishes ahead of time...makes it well worth the extra step of work. 

Since I have the Thanksgiving menu on the brain, I also thought I would share some recipes I may try new this year. One is for this homemade cranberry sauce from Sally's Baking Addiction. It's similar to one I've done before but different enough I'd like to try it. You can find it by clicking here.

I had pinned some appetizers that look and sound wonderful for the season and thought I would share a few. Like this one for roasted pear, cranberry & brie flatbread. You can see the recipe if you click here.

Or I like this idea for a roasting sweet potato rounds in the oven and topping with seasonal toppings. This one uses goat cheese (& I'm the only one that likes goat cheese) - so I would probably change it to a ricotta cheese that I would add a little honey and lemon zest to. And then top with craisins, candied walnuts and a drizzle of hot honey. Or maybe a sweet balsamic drizzle.  You can find the original recipe I plan to adapt if you click here.

How about you? Do you host Thanksgiving? Or do you go somewhere and bring a dish? Do you have tried and true favorites...or like to try something new? 

Northern Lights and more Northwoods Autumn

 

Happy Friday to you Friends! 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend planned ahead. :) 

I thought I would share some shots I caught the past 24 hours. Last night the northern lights were spectacular from our back deck. So Annie, Matt & I went out to admire them and catch some pictures. It was so fun to watch them dance and the colors were so amazing this time! And I definitely saw Angels in them. Can you spot them? 

I think the first 2 are obvious to see. And then the 3rd one I pointed at what I see as her head/face, and then she has a flowing red dress and her green wings spread behind her. Can you see them too?

And then I got to get out and enjoy more beautiful colors in our Fall leaves today. A gf picked me up for an early birthday treat. She took me out to brunch and then we came back and went on a long beautiful walk. It was wonderful and so nice to catch up! I'm so blessed to have such amazing family and friends (and I count you amongst them my Blogland Besties!)

I'm wishing you a weekend filled with clear blue skies, sunshine that feels just right, leaves crunching beneath your feet and a gorgeous palette of leaves and trees all around. 

Blessings to you always. 

xoxo