Party Part 1: Nursery Rhyme Baby Shower

Turkey Upside Down Bake

We were bums this year for Thanksgiving. We are pretty much always bums, but this year, bums in the sense that we didn't do anything.  Literally.  Didn't even get dressed.  If that isn't something to be thankful for, I don't know what is.  We did eat a precooked turkey that made me feel like I was preparing somewhat of a traditional meal. Waiting for the pop-up timer to spring was a thrill.  We had Thanksmas with my family the night before via video chat so my internal calendar of holidays seems irreparably off for this year.  Christmas shopping is done (and half opened), the tree is up (and half decorated, which it will stay due to little ornament thieving fingers) and I'm thinking about baking Santa's cookies, just to go ahead and get everything out of the way.  I hope the holiday spirit holds on even with this kind of head start.

I think I cooked this upside down.  I also didn't know enough about turkey anatomy for the timer placement directions to be helpful, so I picked a spot and shoved it in.

Funnel Cake

Made this.  Turns out they are really easy and delicious.  Happy Birthday to Daron!

The Lumberjack Games

Welcome to our lovely party venue...

Due to the rain, our back-up plan was our not quite as equally lovely garage.  Please substitute the above photo in the background of pictures displaying dust mops, shop vacs, or any garden tools. 

 

 

The Caber Throw.  Won by the Red Team.

The Pine Cone Toss, won in a sudden death toss-off by the Blue Team.

The Pinata Chop, won by the Blue Team. 

And the Stump Roll Relay, won by the Green Team.

Our neighbor, Marcia, made this AMAZING cake!

Present time.

 

We had a great time celebrating a great year!  Now off to write some thank you cards.  Chop! Chop!

Freezer Meal Marathon Part Deux

Silas Edition! This post is labeled baby and food. Exactly.

I thought I'd try some puréeing. Surely I can do this. I figure no matter what it tastes like this will be both the best and worst food he has ever had.  I read an article that said "Don't serve babies bland food, get them ready for flavors from your everyday cooking." I wonder, "Which is it?" It is impossible to do both.  I don't think it is appropriate to start your baby off with blended freezer pizzas.

I did try to add in some spices as the article suggested. I never use spices so I went simple with cinnamon for fruits and garlic for veggies.  At the least it will make Silas smell like Christmas and be safe from vampires.

Here's what I made: apples, pears, bananas, green beans, sweet potatoes, avocados, squash, and carrots. So far we have just tried the yams.  I think they are going well.  If he doesn't like other foods, we may have vast amounts of inedible cuisine up for grabs around here.  Let the days of constantly sticky hands, finding crusty food on furniture, and spit baths commence!

Alright mom and chef friends,  suggestions?  What do your kids like the most?  What spices should I branch out to?  From my sampling, I think I liked the bananas the best. Et tu, Silas?

Our fruit bowl is not used to handling such large amounts of produce.

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Apples

Wash, peel, cut into chunks, add to boiling waster for 5-7 minutes, blend, cool, freeze.

8 Gala apples made 24 ounces.

Pears

Wash, peel, cut into chunks, add to boiling waster for 5-7 minutes, blend, cool, freeze.

8 Bartlett pears made 36 ounces.

Carrots

Add to boiling water for 10-12 minutes, blend, cool, freeze.

2 small bags of frozen baby carrots made 32 ounces.

Bananas

Peel, blend, freeze.

8 bananas made 32 ounces.

Sweet Potatoes

Wash, pierce, bake at 375 for 45 minutes-1 hour, scoop out filling, blend, cool, freeze.

4 large sweet potatoes made 36 ounces.

Green Beans

Steam, blend, cool, freeze.

Small steamer bag made 12 ounces.

Avocados

Wash, peel, cut into chunks, blend, freeze.

4 avocados made 16 ounces.

Squash

Add to boiling water for 5-7 minutes, blend, cool, freeze.

1 small bag of frozen slices made 8 ounces.

Without bargain shopping the whole thing cost about 25 bucks.  Next time...Peas!

Freezer Meal Marathon

Cooking, ah yes...a topic everyone should tune into me for guidance on.  I decided to make some meals ahead for when Silas comes.  Mostly for something to do to keep me busy this summer.  I don't normally have any kind of meal ready for dinner, so continuing with the trend after baby would be nothing out of the ordinary.  But alas, I put it on a to do list and so it must be done!  Will they get eaten?  Probably not!  If they are, will they be enjoyed?  Most definitely not!  So here we go!

• First I Googled.
• Then I made some lists.
• Then I shopped.
• Then I fired up the oven!
• Then I mostly regretted doing all of the above. :)

After five days of slaving away, here are the results...

Day 1: Ground beefy type things
Tater-tot Casserole
Chili
Meat Loaf
Lasagna
 

Day 1 & 2 Shopping/ Ingredient List- (Notice sweet color coding!)

Gotta love giant tubes of beef.

Lasagna.

Meatloaf Minis- Is this even what meatloaf is supposed to look like?  I probably should have waited on the ketchup.

Tater-tot Casserole.

Chili & Meatloaf ready for the freezer.

Day 2: Shredded chicken-y type things
(Many thanks to Amber for her help!)
Enchiladas
Stuffed Mexican Chicken Shells
Chimichangas
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Calzones

Enchiladas

Mexican Shells

Tortilla Soup and Chimichangas ready to freeze.

Calzones.

Day 3: Non-meaty type things...despite the lovely list today's fixings required three trips to the store.  
Twice Baked Potatoes
Mac and Cheese
Tuna Casserole (Yes, I know there is meat...this category is mostly a farce.) (Also, who works this hard on tuna casserole?  Only Martha...and apparently me, but just this one time...unless it's amazing...but that is doubtful.)

Day 3 & 4 Shopping/Ingredient List

Twice Baked Potatoes.  Turns out I am bad at scooping out the innards, so no skins survived.  

Mac and Cheese.

Tuna Casserole.

Day 4: Pasta-y type things..cue more unidentifiable pictures of things topped in cheese.
Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo
Twice Baked Spaghetti
Creamy Chicken Spaghetti (Finally feel confident spelling spaghetti!)

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo.

Twice Baked Spaghetti.

Chicken Spaghetti.

Day 5: Random-y type things-
(Team Effort Day! Many thanks to Jamie for making Chicken and Rice Soup and Chicken Enchiladas to share!)
Beef Stroganoff
Jambalaya
Chicken and Rice Soup
Chicken Enchiladas

Day 5 Shopping/ Ingredient List (I booted off a few of my original ideas if you are actually paying attention to these lists.  I suspect you are not.)

My need to be consistent and provide photos, leaves you with these beauties, since I left my camera behind for the actual cooking.

Chicken Soup and Jambalaya.

Enchiladas and Beef Stroganoff.

When the final total came out I made about 100 meals at about $3 per meal.  Is this good?  I don't know.  All I keep thinking is I could eat three things off the dollar menu every day and come out even...  Many less dishes as well. :)  Anyways, it made for a nice blog post. 

Anybody got any great freezer recipes to share?  I might be bored again next summer.  I will leave you with this final shot of the freezer.  Now, where will all the ice cream go?