My Daughter's Stocking

Back in October, I made my baby a stocking for St. Nick but I, without thinking to blog about it first, put it with Christmas storage. Well, it's finally back out again and I have pictures!

It was so much fun to make. I pulled out all my red, green, winter, and Christmas themed fabrics. Then, I found a pattern for a stocking I liked (but in reality, it's a really odd shape and I wouldn't use it again). I made all my strips of fabric, sewed them together, and then cut out the stocking pattern. The inside matches the top fold over fabric and the back is just a solid piece. My strips are all about 2 inches (with seam allowances) but some got a little skinnier, depending on the size of the fabric I started out with. This was a great scrap buster!

My mother in law has an embroidery machine so she embroidered my daughter's name on it but for her privacy, I have covered it up with some tracing paper (so it may look a little strange in the picture). The white looking fabric (for the fold over and inside) is actually a creamish-white with gold dots on it. This whole thing turned out wonderful. It wasn't too much work but the end result is huge. I will definitely find a different pattern for my future kids.

Here are the pictures!

This is the front, with the piecing. Sorry it's sideways.

This is the plain back. The white specks are actually stars.

Mush Soup

Last night, I made a really simple, cheap dinner. It ended up being delicious, despite its appearance. It was all cooked in one pot, which is extra convenient.

Ingredients:

• about a pound of green or yellow beans
• half pound of cubed, cooked ham
• 4 cups of water
• half a packet of onion soup mix
• garlic
• 1-2 pounds of potatoes (any kind but we used russet), skin on, cubed
• half an onion

Then you mix it all in a skillet over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, put a lid on for about 20 minutes and turn down the heat to a simmer. After that, take the lid off and continue to cook until it thickens (about 10-15 more minutes). The potatoes and beans get really soft. You can play with the seasonings and vegetables. This is quite a versatile dish and also really cheap. We got the beans for free from David's grandma's garden but even with that, it came out to about $1 for the entire dish. That's only $0.25 a serving!

Hosting Thanksgiving

This year, I hosted my very first Thanksgiving. On actual Thanksgiving, we went to David's family's house and my family drove up. On Friday, we had our meal with my side of the family. I have never hosted before or cooked so many things at once. I also have never made a turkey before.

I bought everything about a week and a half in advance because that was when I found the prices to be the cheapest. I will admit, I bought a few convenience items (like boxed stuffing) to speed up the cooking process.

Our meal consisted of:

• sparkling grape juice (a must have for holidays in this family)
• a 15 pound turkey
• stuffing
• green bean casserole
• mashed potatoes
• cranberries
• rolls
• gravy
• apple pie
• pumpkin pie
• a strawberry jello dessert (family recipe)

That may not sound like that much work and I did manage to find some time (between starting the turkey and having to start everything else) that I could mingle and hang out but it was more exhausting than I anticipated.

I received many compliments on how moist my turkey was--dark and light meat. I also cut the cooking time in almost half according to how long it should've taken on the package.

First, I thawed the turkey 5 days in advance. You have to remember that turkeys take A LONG TIME to thaw in the fridge. Then I put the turkey on the counter for about 45 minutes, letting it come up to room temperature. Then I unwrapped it, checked its insides for the gravy packet and such, and put it in my roasting pan. Then I put it in the (preheated) oven at 475 degrees for a half hour. After that, I turned the oven down to 325 and checked on it about another half hour to hour later. Any spots that were getting too dark, I covered in foil. (Eventually, I covered the whole turkey but I started with things like the wings first). At this time, I also put in my meat thermometer to keep an eye on the temp. About two and a half hours in, I turned the temp up to 350. Then I waited until the thermometer read 165 in more than one place, but especially in the thigh because that's the thickest part. I took out the turkey and let it rest for about 20 minutes before carving it.That's it! I know it sounds complicated but it's not as bad as it seems. It took 3 hours total, instead of 5. The only reason I put the oven back up to 350 was because that was the temp the oven needed to be for the green bean casserole so I'm not sure if that's a necessary part of this or not.

The one complaint I received about the turkey was that the white meat was so moist that it was hard to cut into pieces because it just kept falling apart. The turkey was that good!