Thirty Things to be Thankful For #20

I'm thankful for traditions. I realize now that I'm older and have a family of my own, how hard it can be to maintain family traditions. As a parent, I really want to have so many fun traditions, but so many have gotten lost in translation - or disorganization or something. I'm grateful that my parents and my in-laws have both maintained so many fun traditions for our families. If you ever wondered whether or not it was worth it, I'm here to say it was. My kids are still young so I guess there's still time for me to get better so they have good memories of family traditions too!

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #19

I'm thankful for the ability to cook. I love experimenting with new recipes. I love sharing my creations. Cooking is my downtime, my creative time, my fun time. There is a lot that I want to learn in the cooking arena, which must be why I enjoy TV Food Network so much! I also love browsing cookbooks. Cooking is one of those things that makes life more enjoyable for me, so I'm grateful that I can! And, yes, I even take pictures. (I'm a dork, I know!)








And because I'm always looking for an excuse to share my favorite recipes, here are some from the pictures - Dutch Baby is the baked pancake with blueberries and the Hawaiian Banana Bread was to die for (makings of a dessert, but don't worry, I still ate it for breakfast!). They are both extremely easy and so good. Plan on making these soon!

HAWAIIAN BANANA BREAD (from this cutest blog http://laraellingson.blogspot.com/)
ingredients:
*3 ripe bananas, smashed
*1/3 C melted butter
*2-3 Tbs milk
*1 C sugar
*1 egg, beaten
*1 tsp vanilla
*1 tsp baking soda
*pinch of salt
*1 & 1/2 C flour
*2 handfuls coconut flakes
*2 handfuls of macadamia nuts
*2 handfuls milk chocolate chips

instructions:
*no need for a mixer for this recipe
*preheat oven to 350 degrees
*mix butter into the mashed bananas in large mixing bowl
*mix in milk
*mix in sugar, egg, and vanilla
*sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. add the flour last, mix.
*pour mixture into 1 buttered 4/8 loaf pan or 4 mini loaf pans.
*add the coconut, macadamia nuts, & chocolate chips to the top and "fork-whirl" it around
*for large loaf, bake 1 hour & 15 min - 1 hour & 30 min
*for mini loafs, bake 30 min -50 min
*the bread should slightly crack at the top, and coconut will be dark brown...make sure you can stick a toothpick in and pull it out with nothing on it.
*cool for 15-20 min
*remove from pan and drizzle icing on top

icing:
*1/2 C - 3/4 C powdered sugar
*3-4 cap fulls of milk
*mix two together until the consistency is bright white and runs slowly off the spoon. add more powdered sugar or milk to reach desired consistency. Make sure it's not too runny b/c it won't stick to the bread.

BERRY GOOD DUTCH BABY
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (I omitted)
1/3 cups sugar
pinch of salt
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup milk (I used non-fat)
2 cups blueberries (or any berries you see fit + extra if you want)
4 tablespoons butter (I thought this was more than necessary, could get away with half that)
powdered sugar for topping

Preheat the oven to 425 and heat a 10 inch cast-iron skillet in the oven (I used a dutch oven pan). In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs with lemon zest, sugar, and salt until combined. Add the flour and milk and whisk until smooth (about 1 minute). Add 2 cups of berries.

Remove skillet from oven and put butter in it to melt. Add the batter spreading fruit evenly. Bake in the center of oven for about 22 minutes, until the edges are browned and puffed and the center is slightly browned in spots. Tranfer the skillet to a trivet and dust with powdered sugar. Cut into wedges and serve with additional berries if you wish.

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #18

I love parties. I don't think I've always been this way. But as an adult (and especially a stay-at-home mom), I look forward to big family parties. I love planning them (just ask Jared!). I love picking a food item to share with everybody. I think about what I can cook for a long time. I surf recipe websites. And then I love to taste all of the new recipes everybody else makes. I like hanging out and catching up with everybody. We have already begun the season of parties. Here's a non-comprehensive list:

-Phillips Halloween Party

-Phelps Halloween Party

-Phelps Thanksgiving

-Phillips Thanksgiving

-Phelps Caroling Party

-Phillips Christmas Party

-Ferrin Christmas Party

-Phillips Christmas Breakfast

-Phelps Christmas Chimichangas

-Phelps New Year's Party

-3 kids birthdays (November, December, January)

I'm thankful for everybody who puts the effort into making these parties happen. Thank you!

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #17

I'm the kind of person who tears up at the start of the national anthem.
I'm the kind of person who gets goosebumps during fireworks set to the sounds of "America, the Beautiful."
I'm the kind of person who believes that this country was started with good principles by righteous men.
I'm the kind of person who still believes that people want the best for our country.
I'm the kind of person who tries to become educated on the issues and vote accordingly.
I'm the kind of person who appreciates the freedoms and offerings available.
I'm the kind of person who stands in awe of the beauty and majesty of our landscape.
I'm the kind of person who recognizes the blessings of living in a country where other people want to live.
I'm the kind of person who has faith that this country will stand as a place of freedom, abundance, understanding, diversity, peace, and love as long as those of us in it practice those principles.
I'm the kind of person who is thankful for the great blessing of being born a citizen of the United States of America.

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #16

I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to learn. I'm so grateful I was able to go to school, go to college, and now learn anything I desire! I can take any class I want. I'm currently taking a tax class - I should be doing homework now! I would love to take classes for photography, Photoshop Elements, cake decorating, quilting, and many other things I haven't even thought of yet! Luckily, if I decide to, I can probably achieve all of those things and more. I'm grateful for those opportunities and for my brain's capacity to learn.

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #15

I'm thankful for the stars in the sky. The distant twinkling always invites wishing and dreaming and imagining. I love to recite the poem to my kids:

Star light,
Star bright,
First star I see tonight.
I wish I may
I wish I might
Have the wish
I wish tonight.

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #14

I'm thankful for days like today! Not 10-hour moving days...but cloudy, overcast, rainy, cool days! It makes the 10 hours of moving not seem so bad. I love when the weather cools down and we get rain! I guess I can be thankful for the blistering hot days - because they make me appreciate this nice weather all the more. It looks like we can look forward to more days like this one! Yay!