Chili and Corn Bread

One of our family traditions on Halloween has been to have Chili and cornbread for dinner. This year I found a really good corn bread recipe. I used a little smaller pan than 9X13 and it came out great! I think I'll put this one away to use every year.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a small bowl, combine cornmeal and milk; let stand for 5 minutes. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix in the cornmeal mixture, eggs and oil until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean.

Christmas Tree Time?

I'm also very willing to skip Halloween altogether this year. I'm not excited to outfit my children in the costumes they want. I dread the fight with the candy that it brings, and also. . . I'm sick of getting sick when I sneak into our stash. It's soooo not worth it.

This morning I told Dennis that I was fighting this huge urge to set up our Christmas tree. I've been cleaning out our storage room anyway and everything is out. My children have also been watching "The Grinch" all week so with that and our first snow fall of the season, well I think it's a loosing battle. Dennis graciously said that he would support my veto of the "no Christmas before Thanksgiving" rule. I think I can wait one more day and not put it up until November at least.

The Microwave is in the Garage

Last week Khora decided that she wanted to warm up her bread stick by putting it in the microwave. I don't know how many minutes she set it for but it was long enough that there was black smoke billowing from it just like in the movies. We had to open everything just to clear things out enough to breath. Well, ever since then, the microwave has had a very intense burned smell every time we open it and anything we put in it is tained with the sick smell. I finally had enough of the dry heaves that I put it in the garage. I just can't handle the smell anymore.

We've had this microwave since Dennis and I were first married, so it's over ten years old, which in my mind means "update" anyway right. It was the first appliance that we bought together. Maybe this will be it's last day, since the garbage truck comes tomorrow and it might just find it's way into it.

Pumpkin Walk

We sure had a busy weekend. Friday morning we drove to Ogden so Dennis could go to a work conference. The children and I had lunch and stopped by grandma and grandpa Markers house. Grandpa happened to be home and he suggested a walk down by the dinosaur park to see all the Halloween decorations, and a stop by the play ground. Friday night we went to our Marker Family Halloween party. My kids were kind of party poopers this year because they said they just wanted to dress up like a normal person. It was fun playing together though.




Saturday we made it to Logan for the pumpkin walk with some friends that live there, Ben and Sheri Brown. Dennis took Isaac and Afton to the USU football game and I took Jacob and Khora to Pepperage Farms and around shopping. We all had a great time. It sprinkled on us a little bit, but it was a great day!

Recipe Share: Butternut Squash Soup

I like squash, but struggle to find ways to cook it. I bought a butternut squash at the fruit stand last week and thought I would try this one out tonight. I love soups this time of year so this sounded sooo good. It has the consistency of tomato soup and is pretty light. We ate ours with home made bread sticks. I thought it was worth sharing!

Butternut Squash Soup
Recipe by Our Best Bites

1/2 T olive oil
1 T butter
1/2 C sliced carrots (abt 1 med carrot or 12 baby ones)
2 stalks celery, diced
1 C diced onion
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 medium butternut squash, (abt 4 cups diced)
1 medium potato, diced (about 2 C diced)
32 oz chicken broth (that's one box/carton)
1 T brown sugar
1 1/2 t kosher salt
3/4 t dried sage
1 pinch cayenne pepper or a douse of hot sauce

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil and butter. When butter is melted add onions, carrots, celery, and garlic

Saute for 2-3 minutes or until onion is tender. Add the squash.

Then add potato, sage, salt, red pepper, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Simmer with the lid on for 30-40 minutes or until everything is tender. Check a piece of squash and also a piece of celery and potato to make sure they area fork tender. Stir in 1 T brown sugar.

Use an immersion blender, or transfer soup to a regular blender and puree until smooth.

I topped mine with a little parsley so it didn't look so plain! A small drizzle of heavy cream or sour cream is also tasty.

Our Best Bites is one of my favorites sites! There are a lot of other goodies on there too.

Yellowstone Trip

Last week we took a family road trip to visit Yellowstone. We followed my in-laws with the Korean caravan up through Idaho into West Yellowstone. My father-in-law was the tour guide to a group of 6 Koreans who are studying in Ogden for a semester. We had a lovely time and saw lots and lots of beautiful scenery and wildlife including bears, wolves, elk, cranes, buffalo, a coyote, deer and lots of small rodent types and birds.

(Isaac trying to blow a bubble.)

Two thoughts though, Wild life is wild, it deserves a little respect. Thus, please, Dennis, do not roll the window down when a huge wild buffalo bull is walking down my side of the road. Those things are big and hairy and a van has very thin walls I'm sure of it!!! Also, it boggles the mind to think that large groups of people will congregate from all over the country just to googgle over sulfer pots that reak to high heaven!!! PEEEUUUUUWWWWW!!!(Smoke in the background is smoke from the wildfire.)

Because of a wild fire that decided to cross one of the main road roads, we were detoured a couple hundred miles up into Montana in order to get home. It made for a very loooong road trip and we were so grateful to finally be home. I actually lost my camera at one of the stops we made and was so devastated, however after we got home, we got a call from my mother-in-law saying that they stopped on their way down through the park and found it. I was soooo happy! What in the world would I do without a camera for three months . . . (it's on my wish list for Christmas.) So I don't have any pictures to post with this because my camera is in Ogden at the time, but sometime soon.

Fall vs Autumn

Afton and I were having a discussion on Fall vs Autumn. I was telling her that I prefer to call this season Autumn because I like to think of all the beautiful colors. Gold, yellow and rust colored leaves. I picture sunflowers and mums, dried corn stalks and straw bales tied with ribbon and big orange pumpkins on the porch.
. . . Fall just reminds me that the trees will be bare and ugly when their leaves fall off and that winter is on it's way. She said that she likes to call it Fall because she likes we get to rake up the leaves and jump in them. I am so grateful for her perspective!