Makings of a Saturday Night

It was a cold,freezing rain sort of day here, I wish is were atypical for central Illinois winters, but unfortunately not. Ben got called out of work, due to weather and reservation cancellations, so we had a night at home. And we both wanted pizza, it was the type of night and day for that matter, when ordering out would have been fabulous, but we didn't want some poor delivery dude having to drive in such weather, so we decided to make dough and pizza for the first time since Asher's birth!!! Could not believe it had been so long! Pizza's always been my go to meal, I feel that I make a damn good one, so for it to have been sooo long seems ridiculous, but there you have it. Pizza dough, rolled out, brushed with an olive oil, sage, chiles concoction, topped with brocoli from our garden, feta from WI, red peppers from Jon, red onion from our garden, don't forget the salt and pepper before the final layer of cheese, also from WI.
We used the Moores whole wheat pastry flour, which is fabulous and unfortunately only had enough yeast to single the recipe, so no frozen dough for in pinch pizza making. But it was yummy gulped down with a nice bottle of beer- good eats for a night in.
And then a night of crafting: This old sheet found at an estate sale
Turned into this lovely spring feeling skirt. It is fun and a bit twirly, I love it.

Oh Holidays

Have I mentioned how excited I am about the holiday season? So with Thanksgiving done and being awesome the lighting up the world decorations are comeing out. Our houseplants are decorated with my childhood ornaments and some more recents, the lights are waiting to be strung, the menorah is out, the christmas turkey is in the freezer, cookie and gift lists are made and our annual solstice party needs to be planned. My crafting at the moment is finishing up these placemats thate were started before Asher, and now just need bias tape around the edges.

Thanksgiving: People

While, the food and setting is an important component of t-day, the people are by far the most important. Rachel and Adam hosted us in St. Louis this year and it was absolutely perfect. We had a most wonderful time and couldn't be happier with Asher's first Thanksgiving. He had such a wonderful time getting to know all of his Lubchansky uncles better. Hammed it up at the dinner table and stayed up late both nights. We played games, I caved to the pressure and finally played scrabble, not at bad as I remember it being as a kid- maybe I do actually know more words or maybe I have developed patience? That is highly unlikely, I helped the sloooow game along by busying myself with some knitting.

Thanksgiving: The Table

Thanksgiving: The Food

Oh the holiday centered solely around food. So yummy. Asher quite enjoyed himself, the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the roasted carrots. Everything was absolutely beautiful. Here is a sampling for your enjoyment.
I'm sorry that we ate once it was dark because natural lighting makes all the difference in food photography!

Some Turkeys to Decorate

My fun project of the day. I wasn't sure if Asher's handprint turkeys would yield anything- didn't want to place undue pressure on the growing artist, so I stole this idea from paper source and had a little sweatshop pretend fun this afternoon and mass produced them.

Luckily I stumbled upon a christmas light punch that really made doing the feathers a breeze.

We head to St. Louis tomorrow for our official thanksgiving, which I am really looking forward to. I have lots of car projects and hope to have a relaxing few days.

Happy turkey day y'all.

The Holiday Spirit

So as I said, my holiday season was officially kicked off on Sunday, and I am thrilled for chanukah, solstice, christmas and new years, all guarenteed to be huge fun celebrations with family and friends.

But in attempts to not be rushed, or have any last minute gifting to do, I started knitting weeks ago and doing mock ups of gifts then too. I have all the kiddos taken care of as well as most of the men in my life.

I am really enjoying knitting in fall colors this fall and am using up tons of yarn that I have had in my craft room for way to long- which feels great! I have a fair bit of sewing ahead of me but am feeling pretty good about all things. I need to stop coming up with new ideas and run with the ones that I have.

This week should be great, 1.5 days of work and then off for two! I love short work weeks.

Pre Thanksgiving Rocks Once More!

Oh, the holiday season has been officially kicked off. I have already been knitting presents stocking up on fabric for gifts, combing through ideas but our Pre-thanksgiving celebration with the friends we love so dearly truly is the first official celebration with many more to come. This is the forth Sunday prior to thanksgiving that we have had "our" holiday. This year to add to it, I got to spend some extra time with my most fabulous niece, Kaylin before she had to return to WI, so this is a rundown of the whole perfect day.

First for those who don't know I am on a huge baking kick, I am on a quest to become better, love making cookies (not that I need them) have been loving making baked breakfast items (my scones are starting to kick ass) and also I absolutely love pecan pie, it is a must have this week, and not something that I have really any other time of year. In the past I have been delighted to make my pecan treats with friends families farmed pecans, this year I had to rely on Schnucks, which didn't disappoint. I tried to involve the kids, they are great at watching the mixing process, and like mushing the dough, but than I had to take over and let them play on their own.
This is how the cookies looked prior to baking them. Oh how they smelt of pecan pie. The recipe was simple and straight forward and sure to be a hit for anyone. I didn't know how many cookies I could expect, so I ended up with 40 for a double recipe, but the recipe states that you can get 3 dozen out of one confirming that yes, I could make this cookies more bite size. I would also like to put a plug in here about how much I love my sil pat, such a wonderful thing.

And the cookies looked great with the indian corn, all done, pecan pie looking and oh so delicious.

After the cookies, we had to bid farewell to our guests and move onto more serious business. A nap for Asher, cleaning for the parents and the spice rub for the turkey, bacon fat, garlic and herbs from outside. And the decorating of the table, a very important step.

Upon Asher awake, we made stuffing in a massive bowl.

And had enough down time to enjoy an afternoon beer....

Before heading to the park and enjoying the slide.

And then our guests arrived. Although some hadn't had such an enjoyable weekend as us and they weren't able to join, we missed them a lot and hope that all of the kiddos are doing okay today!!

The dessert table looked great.

Ben made a chocolate hickory nut (his b-day present from the Madison farmers market) tort and Eric's mom brought a pecan apple pie. And the cookies, oh so good!

The Glessners were able to join us a bit later and add to the fun for Asher, he was lonely as the only kid under 11. Luca double fisted his dessert:

And the table this morning full of empty bottles, lots of glasses, scraps of dessert, a great reminder of all we have to be thankful for.

The Serger Lives!!!!!!!!

What a day and evening. Sarah has deflowered my serger with it's wonderful new power cord and petal. It has been now used in this house! Hooray for White having replacement cords, pretty much costing almost half the price of the machine, but hey, I get a serger for half the price, and as a present to me for by b-day. So Sarah got to make some cloth wipes and find out just how wonderful the serger edging is. If anyone needs any wipes made, you can now just come to my house. Even Matt can make one, so you can too!

Some food pictures, Ben had a food drop off today, I got to make the pizza, it was so hard to not lick it for a quick taste. Ben made a pine nut chocolate tort, so yummy looking, I didn't lick it though, just the bowl with the filling and am riding on the promise that Ben will be making another tomorrow for our prethanksgiving celebration! Oh how I am dreaming of the wonderful Moore free range turkey! Slathered in some organic bacon fat (healthy, it's organic) rubbed with lots of garlic and herbs! Oh and the stuffing, don't even get me started on that, good sausage in it and nice and moist. I am quite particular about my stuffing, it has to be just like grandma Mary's and ben has fancified it a bit, celery root, additional herbs and of course the good sausage makes all the difference, definately not a kosher thanksgiving at this Lubchansky household, but oh so yummy! I am drooling now.

Off to eat ice cream with some Milo sprinkled on top.