Ode to Thanksgiving - Part 3

Just a quick post because I promised to share one last recipe I made over the Thanksgiving weekend: Fried Confetti Corn. It was delicious, of course, because it had bacon. Need I say more? The confetti part is red and green peppers for beautiful color, plus onions for flavor and a little cream cheese for creaminess. I brought it to my family's Thanksgiving dinner, so I put it in a Crock Pot to keep it warm. Delish!

What's for dinner tonight, you (don't) ask? Chicken Taco Chili in the Crock Pot...thanks Pinterest! It's actually a Weight Watchers recipe. I'll let you know how it tastes, but it looks amazing!!

Ode to Thanksgiving - Part 2

Well dear readers (Mom & Dad), I just finished making the ugliest batch of cakeballs ever. Red velvet cake with white chocolate is not a very forgiving combination, so once the cakeballs start to crumble a bit in the chocolate, it all becomes a pink mess. I started out dipping them in almond bark, which was a new ingredient to me. Did you know that if you add a little milk to almond bark to try and thin the product it completely ruins the whole batch? Yeah, it says so right there on the packaging if you actually read it. I didn't. Dumped that part down the sink. Next, I was able to gather up some pieces of leftover white chocolate that I had in my baking cabinet. Still thick, but wiser this time, I added shortening as directed. That worked alright, but it wasn't enough, so I finished off with some semi-sweet chocolate. They'll probably be gross. So much for my husband's birthday request. I'm a cakeball virgin, so tell me, are they normally this ugly and difficult?

Next, I did a little night-before pre-prep for the Confetti Omelette Casserole I'm making in the morning. Just cooking the sausage and chopping some onion. If I was smart, I would always have some chopped onion in my fridge. It would save me a lot of prep time for all those times when my sous chef has the night off. If I was lazy, I'd buy frozen chopped onion. Probably not gonna happen.

So, Confetti Omelette Casserole is a favorite in the Rose household. You use Egg Beaters and add bacon or sausage, cheese, pimentos, onion and parsley (for color). It's very pretty and festive for the holidays, but as egg casseroles go, it takes awhile to cook, so it's good to do some stuff ahead of time when you can. As an extra bonus, it keeps well, so you can have it for breakfast for a couple days. Oh, and a word of warning, do not add any salt as directed in the recipe. Bacon and sausage are both such salty meats that any added salt is just over the top. And to give credit where credit is due, this is yet another Southern Living recipe...shocker.

I've got plenty more cooking ahead of me tomorrow, so I need to get some rest, but this leads me to the one thing I don't like about this time of year...my husband's job. As a .com buyer for a big retailer, Thanksgiving Day is the equivalent of Black Friday and because in the online world there aren't store associates to handle any glitches that come up, he has to handle it. His conference calls start at midnight tonight and pick up again around 6 am. He'll have another at 6 pm tomorrow (yes, right in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner) and more of the same on Friday. Oh, and to add to that Friday is his birthday. Happy freakin' birthday--now get back to work. Poor guy.

To the rest of you who don't have to work tomorrow, Happy freakin' Thanksgiving. I mean, Happy Thanksgiving!

Ode to Thanksgiving - Part 1

This is my absolute favorite week of the year. Food, visiting with family, food, shopping, food, you get the idea. I love Christmas too with all the spirit and festivities, but Thanksgiving is just so much more simple. It's so easy to lose sight of the spirit of Christmas during a crazy search for those last two gifts and trying not to stress about going over budget, but at Thanksgiving we simply get to enjoy food, family, friends and reflect on the blessings in our lives.

I love the feel of this week. Back when I was a Trophy Wife/working woman (because I've ALWAYS been a Trophy Wife), I loved that it was a short, typically slow work week. Now I like just being out and about and enjoying the vacation feel that is everywhere. The mood is light. For me, the most complicated part is figuring out when I'll have time to cook everything I want to cook for our different gatherings.

So, for my Ode to Thanksgiving, I will be sharing with you all the yummies I'll be making this week. Beginning with the Thanksgiving week kick off meal I made last night...Thanksgiving Casserole. I got the recipe from friend (she is married to one of my very good friends from high school) and fellow blogger, Camila Knowles. You can find the recipe on her blog, Mattornety Life. You can probably guess, but Thanksgiving Casserole involves chicken or turkey and stuffing. There are plenty of other ingedients, but those are the main flavors and really, need I say more? I made it last night and it looked like this:

Delicious! I've made it twice and I add about a cup of Craisins to the mix, just to make it extra Thanksgiving-y, but we decided last night we might have to try and add something with a bit of crunch next time. Perhaps sliced almonds or even just some lightly sauteed celery. I usually try to make it a little lighter on calories by decreasing the amount of butter I use and using low fat cream of mushroom and mayo, but even with those modifications, this is not a Weight Watchers-approved meal.

I WILL be posting more this week. Here are a few more recipes you can look forward to hearing about this week:

• Classic Scalloped Potatoes (from Southern Living magazine)
• Confetti Corn (also from Southern Living)
• Red Velvet Cake Balls
• Confetti Egg Casserole (yes, I'm making two things with "Confetti" in the name)

Is your mouth watering yet? What are you cooking this week? Or, what are you looking forward to eating this week?

Catalog Flog

'Tis the season, I know, but to borrow a phrase from Jerry Seinfeld, "What's the deal with all these catalogs?" The Friday before Halloween I went out to my mailbox to find it stuffed with catalogs. I seriously had about five pounds of mail that day. And so it began...

Now, each day I break out my forklift and head on down to the mailbox for my daily catalog flog. L.L.Bean, Hickory Farms, Athleta, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Dogs...okay I made that last one up, but you get it. By the way, am I the only person in the world who is not on the Pottery Barn bandwagon? I feel like it. I have to wonder how I got on the mailing lists for some of these. Boston Proper? Mrs. Fields? I mean, I used to know that ordering from the Victoria's Secret catalog was a sure-fire way of ensuring I'd get at least three catalogs a week from them, and who knows how many people they sold my information to? But now, I do so much online shopping, there's no telling.

I think it's hilarious that most catalogs still include a mail order form. It brings back memories of when I used to do that in high school. Of course, back then I also got to ask my mom for a check to pay for it too. Does that still work? Mom, can I have a check for $242.78? I just bought some stuff at Ann Taylor. No? Kiss your what?

Not all of the hundreds of catalogs I've gotten have gone straight into the trash. Here are a few of the ones that are in my pile to look at sometime before Christmas...or right away.

• St. Jude Children's Hospital Gift Book: Give a gift AND give to charity. It has lots of great ideas for those people you just want to get "a little something" for.
• Nordstrom: Need I say more?
• Sundance: I had never heard of this one, but I was intrigued because the brand is owned by Robert Redford. Really beautiful clothing and jewelry...a bit out of my price range though.
• Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean: These clothes aren't really my style, but I love looking through the catalogs and wishing I lived in a place where I actually needed those warm, cozy clothes...at least for a month or so. Know what I mean? My dad is a big fan of the Eddie Bauer button downs though, whenever I'm at a loss for what to buy him (which is always) I know I can fall back on that.
• Initials, Inc.: Full disclosure here, I didn't get one of these catalogs in the mail. I ran across these products at a craft sale and loved them enough to host a party (it's a Scentsy-like business, but with bags and stuff that are all personalizable). The stuff is really cute, so if you're interested in ordering, use the link I provided and get your order in by Friday, November 11. So okay, this mention is a little self serving, but I really do like the products and would have totally saved the catalog had it come in the mail.

Are you feeling the catalog flog too? Any really great catalogs out there I should (or shouldn't) be getting? Oh, and on a marginally related note, the people one street over from me have their Christmas lights up and ON. They've had them up since November 2. Too. Soon.

And with that, I say, "Good day dear readers!"

Faaahhhhhlllll!

Today's cooler weather has prompted me to break out the Trophy Wife uniform...my Juicy Couture track suit. That's right, nothing says I'm comfortable AND stylish like head-to-toe, hot pink velour with JUICY written across the rump. Okay, mine doesn't have anything written across the butt, I made sure of that, but it does have a larger-than-I'd-like Juicy logo on the back of the jacket, which is probably why I was able to find it on sale at Rue la la (LOVE that site if you've not visited).

I'm trying to get back on track and find a routine that keeps me connected to the world available through my computer without leaving me chained to it. I've had a lot going on and lots of changes over the past six months, so here's a little summary...

Until April of this year I thought I'd found the perfect balance in life. I was working part time at imc2, the place I had worked since 2006, and was off two days a week, getting to enjoy a bit of stay-at-home-mom life. The end of April brought a major upheaval in that lovely balance. My department went through major, unexpected budget cuts. My position was essentially eliminated, though I was offered a different, lesser position that would have required me to be in the office five days a week, but for five hours only. Considering I was driving two hours a day to get to work, that arrangement just didn't make sense for me. It hurt at the time, but I'm loving life now and there are no hard feelings.

So, this summer I found myself in a situation I hadn't been in since...high school. No work. It. Was. Awesome. I always had some kind of job in college, even if I only worked a few hours a week, and I was one of the lucky ones who graduated during the .com bust of 2001 with a job in the .com industry. Now I could thoroughly enjoy sleeping in (though my daughter rarely lets me sleep in past 8 am, it's still nice to not have to set an alarm clock), catching up on daytime TV like The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Live with Regis & Kelly and endless reruns of Grey's Anatomy, and shopping and running errands whenever I felt like it. Considering my daughter was still in school three days a week, it was great having so much "me" time. Of course, I soon realized that all these things were much more fun when I also had that steady second paycheck coming in, so I was rarely seen at Trophy Wife Mecca, AKA North Park Mall. Yes, it was this experience that inspired the whole Trophy Wife Life stuff.

After awhile, I realized I needed to do something more productive with my time. For years I drove past a boot camp class by my office, trying to figure out how I could make that kind of workout fit into my schedule (taking my long commute and irregular schedule into consideration). Now I had no more excuses. I attend a boot camp(ish) class every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:30 am and I love it. Adios flab! Now if I could just get more committed to better nutrition I'd probably see even bigger changes.

Somewhere in July I also started suffering from a lot of eye strain. At first I thought it was just getting used to a new computer, then I thought I needed glasses. I made the appointment and got outfitted with a stylish pair of eyeglasses for my slight farsightedness only to realize that wasn't the issue either. I still suffered from a great deal of fatigue, vertigo and a kind of detached feeling in my head and the biggest trigger was working on the computer. A visit to the doc yielded a different diagnosis...labyrinthitis. Basically, it's just an inflammation of the inner ear likely caused by a cold that got out of hand. He told me to start taking Dramamine to help with the symptoms and it would likely work itself out. Well, more than three months later, I'm still waiting for that to happen. Things are better, but still not great. Thankfully I'm not working, so avoiding the computer is at least an option, even if I don't particularly like it. That would be why I was so excited about starting this blog and then totally and completely flaking out on it.

Starting this Fall I put Lanna in a new preschool and have been looking for some part-time freelance work so I can keep up my professional skills without going back to the grind full time. I'm not having a lot of luck, but I know things will fall into place eventually. I've enrolled my daughter in a tumbling class which I absolutely hate. There's nothing like trying to get your almost three year old to cooperate with a group for an hour-long class. I'm trying to make myself stick it out until she's three and can be in a teacher-led class, but I'm dying to put her back in swim lessons.

Finally, a few weeks ago we lost my cousin Allen Feld. Allen was one of my Iowa cousins and was just a week older than me. I have a TON of cousins and many of them live out of state, so it's hard to say we all have really close bonds, but I get along well with them all and always enjoy seeing them every chance I get. As a child we'd always spend about two weeks in Iowa each summer and since Allen lived in the same town as my grandma, we saw him a lot more than many of the other cousins. My brothers were also close to him, so this is has been hard on all of us. We'll miss him a lot. We all attended the funeral in Rockwell City and I'm wondering if I'm the only one who was really bothered by what I thought was a really crappy eulogy. The priest based it all on what he referred to the "rule of threes," the idea that things often happen in threes. He mentioned three different people, including Allen, who died at age 33. Except, oh wait, Allen was 32. It's forgiveable considering Allen would turn 33 this month, but still, he could have done the math. What I really didn't like was his comment, "So I guess if you make it past 33, you're alright." Inappropriate. Maybe I was just oversensitive about it considering my emotions were pretty high at the time. I know it can be hard to write a meaningful eulogy about someone you didn't personally know.

Okay, please considering this rambling recap my attempt at getting back in the blogging saddle. I'll be back soon with something more topical and concise. :) I'll leave you with this...what do you think of the new look? I just LOVE the awesome caricature of me from the talented Lorraine Garrison! She is amazing and if you're looking for a graphic designer, I certainly hope you'll look her up at her website.