Holly’s Happenings

Yes, I do realize that it’s basically two months away, but I’m a planner, I don’t like doing things last minute! Ask anyone that knows me well, if you call me last minute to do something, I’ll usually say no…LOL!

I know that this year’s Thanksgiving dinner will just be me, the hubby and the kids. It’s been that way for most of the last 15 or so years, and we actually enjoy it that way. Some years we do make the traditional dinner with turkey and all the trimmings. But considering that I really don’t care for turkey, nor does my son, unless I can find a really small turkey, it’s usually a waste of a good bird. So many years we actually opt for a non traditional dinner. We’ve made things like tacos and subs for Thanksgiving dinner…LOL!

This year, however, I’m going to make a traditional dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and all of the rest of the trimmings. Normally I make a small dish of sweet potatoes for my hubby (he’s the only one that eats them). But when I was talking to him about Thanksgiving dinner the other day he asked me if I could try to find a good recipe for sweet potato casserole this year instead. It was one of his favorite dishes as a kid, and he hasn’t had it in many, many years. Lucky for him, I don’t mind baking new dishes, so I won’t mind making it at all! But he’d better darned sure eat them and like them…LOL!

I think the thing that I look forward to the most on Thanksgiving is what comes after we eat. NO, I’m not talking about nap time…LOL! I’m not even talking about football. After the nap and the game, we load up the kids and go to the movies! We try to find a movie we’ve all been wanting to see. When the kids were small it was pretty easy, we’d just see the latest cartoon type movie. Now that the kids are teens, finding a movie we all agree on might just be a little more difficult!

Yup, it’s just a few minutes past noon and my first batch of cookies is all mixed and waiting on me. I wanted to take a break and get a few things done online before I started baking them, since I mixed a double batch and it will take the better part of an hour to get them all baked. This batch is Oatmeal Scotchies, which is my personal favorite type of cookie! I remember making these as a kid with my mom…..MMMMMMM!!! Only difference is that she would put coconut in them and since no one else here likes coconut, I left it out!

I’m telling you, I LOVE my new mixer, it makes doing stuff like this so much easier! But the more I do stuff like this, the more I really wish we could do a MAJOR overhaul on this kitchen. I love my little house in the woods, but the kitchen is your typical 70’s style kitchen, with little to no counter space. With the way we rearranged the appliances a few weeks ago, it’s even more obvious how nicely an island would be in the kitchen! I honestly think we should consider a directbuy membership! I would need two walls of upper and lower cabinets as well as the island and counter tops for all of it. And if I were to replace the cabinets and counters I’d definitely want to replace the appliances as well and with the cost, it might just be worth it to look into something like that!

But, the reality is that even if we were to do something like that, it won’t be happening right away. So for now I just have to work with what I have, which honestly isn’t that bad. And speaking of reality, I’d better get to that cookie dough! Back after this batch is done!

And imagine that you pull up next to me at a stop light. You look over, admiring my car and notice that I’m motioning for you to roll down your window. You roll your window down trying to imagine what I might need when I lean out the window and ask you, “Pardon me, but would you have any Grey Poupon“?

I was recently asked if I would try two of Grey Poupon’s newest mustards and give my honest review.  Since I’ve always been a mustard gal, I was very glad to be able to take part in this product review!  I waited anxiously all week for my delivery to arrive and it finally came yesterday!  When I opened the box I was thrilled to find out that I had been given a jar of Grey Poupon hearty spicy brown as well as Grey Poupon harvest coarse ground mustards.  The hearty spicy brown is an AWESOME mustard made with yellow onions and the harvest coarse ground is made with whole mustard seeds.

For my first try of the mustards I took the recipe that is at the Grey Poupon website for Saucy Summertime Hot Dogs and made some alterations to it with ingredients I actually had on hand.  The recipe calls for chopped tomatoes, dill pickles, onions and pepperoncini, you  then mix in 2 TBSP of Grey Poupon hearty spicy brown mustard.  I took some red, green and yellow bell peppers that I had and sliced them, then sliced some sweet onion and banana peppers and sauteed all ingredients in a little bit of butter before I mixed in the Grey Poupon hearty spicy brown mustard, then topped the hot dogs with this.  I also added a little bit of shredded cheese to mine.  Let me tell you, it was AWESOME!  Even my hubby and son said that they loved it!  Here is a picture of how the hot dogs turned out.

For dinner tonight, I wanted to make something that would allow me to use the Grey Poupon hearty coarse ground mustard.  Although they have many recipes on the Grey Poupon website, I couldn’t find one that I thought my whole family would eat, so I decided to try out something that would be my own creation.  I decided that I’d take the hearty coarse ground mustard and add some honey and melted butter to it and use it as a “glaze” for part of a ham that I had in the freezer.  After mixing the three ingredients together I drizzled them over the ham and baked it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes or so.  (Yes, it was a precooked ham)  The result was a kind of sweet kind of spicy flavor that my family was a bit leery to try.  But after I convinced them that I had no doubt they would like it, we all sat down to dinner.  I’m THRILLED to say that dinner ended with four completely clean plates!  Here is a picture of my ham before we sat down to devour it!

Since I’m a mustard gal, I had no doubt that I would enjoy trying out these two varieties of Grey Poupon mustard.  What I didn’t know was hot only how much I would enjoy them, but how much my family would enjoy them as well!  I like adding new options to the foods we eat, and it’s always a good thing when you have two kids who are VERY picky eaters, who enjoy the new options as well!  So if you’ve been looking for something new to give your favorite recipes a kick, I highly recommend  both of these varieties of Grey Poupon mustard!

We decided that tonight was time for dinner out!  We haven’t eaten out in forever, so it was much over due!  And with the discovery that I made a little while ago (which I’ll post about after this), we’ve decided that it’s going to be something other than the restaurants we typically go to!

With that decision being made then comes the chore of figuring out something that the four of us can agree on.  I tell you, between myself and the kids, we’re the hardest bunch to please when it comes to going out for dinner, especially when we decide against our typical spots!  Applebee’s was the first option that my daughter brought up, but unfortunately with the fact that I don’t eat red meat or chicken, the options for me from their menu are few and far between, and frankly their veggie pizza sounded revolting!  Then my son brought up Smokey Bones.  Now, although I don’t eat BBQ, they have a couple of salads that I absolutely love.  But my daughter voted that one down because there wasn’t anything she’d eat.  My husband brought up Olive Garden, and as good as that sounded, I have a problem buying dinner entree’s that I can cook myself…LOL!  Finally, I brought up the place that I’ve been wanting to eat for a VERY long time!  I am a self proclaimed crab leg addict, I could eat the things for every meal, every day.  At first everyone was saying EWWWWWWWW, but then I pulled up their website and everyone got to looking at their options.  After some minor arm twisting on my part, we finally all agreed, Red Lobster was the winner.

So tonight I will finally get my crab leg craving satisfied!  Hubby and I used to go out to dinner for my birthday at a restaurant called Joe’s Crab Shack.  It was my all time FAVORITE restaurant!  So once a year, I was “allowed” to be a crab leg fiend.  But they closed up a few years ago and I haven’t had my crab legs since.  I guess I’d better get ready, cuz they’re threatening to go without me if I don’t hurry up….LOL!