Late Christmas Post

As Joe prepares Valentine's Day dinner, I thought I should FINALLY post about Christmas. As usual we were very busy with all of our families. The season got kicked off by a trip to Nebraska with my extended family. We see them sporadically throughout the year but Christmas is the only time we are ALL together. We don't all fit in one house anymore so we rented this hunting lodge that turned out perfectly. We all had our own rooms plus there was a large dining room and gathering rooms for us to use. It really was the perfect setup.
(Thanks to my sister, I have any pictures at all... some day I will be better about this)

Cute picture of "B" and I:

Santa delivered handmade treasures from my Grandpa's old overalls (he wore Key overalls everywhere but church).

Great Grandma with all of her Great Grand Kids. 8 now but there will be 10 by next Christmas!

The "Original 8" cousins in the family.

One of the most memorable parts of this Christmas was the VERY intense spoons tournament. I beat the "Original 8" along with a few others who dared to join in. The prize? This traveling trophy:

Since I am horrible at taking pictures, I don't have any from the remaining Christmas celebrations. We spent the 23rd at Joe's Mom's house for breakfast and lunch. We did fondue (family tradition) at Joe's Dad's house on the 24th and followed that up with a candlelight service at our church. Christmas Day we were at my parent's house for the traditional crab feast.

Pre-Holiday Vacation

With multiple Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations J and I get pretty exhausted. This year we decided to visit our neighbor to the South. Joe and I have been to some pretty exotic locations but neither of us have ever visited Mexico. We decided it was time! We stayed at the beautiful Marriott (of course) and were not disappointed.

We basically lounged by the pool for 5 days. We only left twice... to deep sea fish and to visit the town of Puerto Vallarta. Fishing was fun and we saw a lot of whales as well. It was a private charter, so I was able to stretch out a take a nap or 2 on the boat. I tell ya, waking up at 6 am is ridiculously early when on vacation (or really anytime for me nowadays).

"exploring" the town of Puerto Vallarta...

Adios Mexico! It was a lot of fun while it lasted...

Thanksgiving Recipe

I was in charge of making a Thanksgiving dessert for the celebration at my parent's house. It was our THIRD T-day meal and I thought I could use a reprieve from pumpkin pie (especially considering I don't even like pie... unamerican... I know... I know!). I made a Pumpkin Creme Brulee instead. I had purchased some Ikea ramekins more than a year ago and I have been itching to use them. It also gave me a good excuse to buy a fun kitchen torch! The recipe was much easier than it sounds and the best part is that it can be made in advance.

Pumpkin Creme Brulee (www.foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar, plus 4 teaspoons
• 8 large egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Arrange 8 (1/2-cup) ramekins or custard cups in a large metal baking pan.

In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Bring to a bare simmer over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until frothy and lemon-colored. Slowly add 3/4 cup of the hot cream mixture, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture to the remaining hot cream, and whisk. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin, and whisk until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl. Divide among the prepared custard cups.

Add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake until the custards are just set in the center but not stiff, 45 minutes to 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.

Sprinkle each custard with 1/2 teaspoon of the remaining sugar. Using a kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar. (Alternately, preheat the broiler, and broil until the sugar melts and caramelizes, watching closely to avoid burning and rotating the cups, about 1 to 2 minutes.) Place on small dessert plates and serve.

Pumpkin Carving!

Joe claims he has NEVER carved a pumpkin. I find this ridiculous so we had to change that!

MU Homecoming

Yes, I am aware that neither Joe or I are "technically" alumni of MU. Joe would have loved to finished is undergrad degree there but he still claims that UMKC is part of the U of Missouri system. I attended KSU but was never what you would call a true Wildcat. I am officially converted now :)

The homecoming game was covered by ESPN College Gameday. This is what you might call "kind of a big deal" because two 6-0 teams were playing each other. OU was ranked #1 and MU ranked #11. Obviously, Mizzou was the underdog which made the weekend that much more exciting!

This is a pic of the ESPN crowd. (I didn't take this pic)

The parade is also a very big deal in Columbia.

The ESPN trucks were a big hit!

This is the end of the game after MU knocked off OU (36-27).
Those crazy kids... rushing the field :)

The Reaction...

This is Mom's reaction when she drove up to the party. A little background: Mom thought that my sister was having some of her friends over to the house for their annual "farm party."

Shhhh... It's a Secret!

October has been a very busy month! It started with a bang by throwing my Mom a surprise 60th Birthday Party. It was a VERY big surprise because her actual 60th birthday is still months away. It is in the dead of winter and too close to the holidays to really have anything exciting so we tricked her by throwing it really early.

Everyone waited on the front porch for her to arrive. We had somewhere between 40 and 50 guests so, a great turnout.


Mom arrived with her sister who helped us to distract her with shopping and errands. My Dad happens to represent a product line that includes large sign boards. She didn't even notice the giant "Happy 60th Geri" sign in the background.


Her Mom, sisters, and childhood friend surprised her by driving down from Nebraska for the party!

The kiddos were very patient waiting all night for the cake :)