my blessed life

The holidays are in full swing around here!  I love this time of the year!  Not only is it full of fun and joy, the food is delicious, right? We truly enjoyed a wonderful--and delicious--Thanksgiving weekend.  Now the kiddos and I are working on a list of Christmas goodies that we want to try to make this month. Here's what's cooking this week: Monday:   Longhorn Soup with bread Tuesday:   {out in Nashville} Wednesday:   Tostadas   Thursday:   Baked Ravioli with green beans and bruschetta Friday:   Homemade Pizza Saturday:   Stromboli Sunday:   It's our Holly Jolly Christmas Party at church and I'll be making/taking Coca Cola Ham, Turkey & Wild Rice Dressing , Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes , Gravy, Corn Casserole , and Baked Beans This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie. ***** Subscribe by email and never miss a thing here at My Blessed Life!

It has been a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend here!  Mine has been filled with family, food, laughter, games, shopping, and more food.  We enjoyed time with both of our families this holiday and that has been so nice. Today was also a great day with our spiritual family at our church.  It was wonderful to worship with fellow believers and to hear a message of hope . Tonight our family enjoyed sitting around our kitchen table and lighting the first candle on our Advent wreath~which represents hope, by the way.  I always love this special time of the year when we begin the special family devotions of Advent. I just wanted to share with your some of our favorite resources. For several years now we have enjoyed reading through The Advent Book each night in December as we count down to Christmas Day. We also love the Jesse Tree devotionals by Ann Voskamp.  You can click here to download them for free. This year we are also using some notes ...

These weren't on the official menu "plan", but I just couldn't resist making them.  They are SO good!!  And since we aren't having pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving I thought a little something pumpkin would be good to have:) Pumpkin Whoopie Pies   Cream together: 2 cups brown sugar 1 cup vegetable oil   Beat in: 1 cup pumpkin puree 1 tsp. vanilla 2 eggs   Stir the following together, then add to above mixture: 3 cups flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. ground ginger 1 tsp. ground cloves   Drop in heaping spoonfuls (you want them to be even in size) onto baking sheets.  Bake at 350F for 10-12 min or until firm when you touch the top of them.  Cool.   Spread filling on the bottom of one cookie then place another cookie on top of the filling to make a sandwich.   Filling: 2 egg whites 1/2 cup shortening (you could sub butter if you wa...

I'm sure you're busy preparing for the big day tomorrow~I know I'm busy in the kitchen today:) Just thought I'd share our family menu with you.

This is one of my all time favorite salad dressings!!  It's sweet, it's tangy ...it's full of yummy goodness!  I love it especially on holiday salads when they include dried cranberries:)  It keeps for a couple of weeks in the fridge, too! Sweet Onion Salad Dressing 1 cup sugar 1-1/2 tsp. dry mustard 1-1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 medium onion, chopped fine 1/2 cup white vinegar 3/4 cup vegetable oil 1 tsp. celery seeds ***** Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth; refrigerate. ***** Subscribe by email and never miss a thing here at My Blessed Life!

You may remember me mentioning that we had a total of three Thanksgiving dinners this year.  So I took the first one as an opportunity to make a cranberry relish that I've been wanting to try for a while now--usually I can't bring myself to break away from my so-far-all-time-fave on Thanksgiving Day:) I was SO pleased with how this relish turned out!  It was delicious!  And my husband LOVED it!!  I could totally see this on yummy leftover turkey sandwiches, too.   If you're looking for something different to do with cranberries this year, this just might be the thing! Cranberry-Orange Relish 1 bag fresh cranberries 1/4 cup red onion, finely chopped 1 lg. fresh jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped 2 naval oranges, peeled and segments cut into pieces 2 Tbsp. lime juice 2 tsp. fresh ginger, grated 1/2 cup sugar 2 celery stalks, chopped ***** Pulse cranberries in a food processor (or blender) until coarsely chopped. Transfer them ...

You may have noticed (or not) that I've been a little sporadic around here lately.  I know I haven't been posting like I usually do.  I guess I've been feeling a tad burned-out and also wanting to focus more on home life. So you may see less of me at least for a while, but I'm still here posting when inspiration hits (and I'm sure it will hit often this time of the year!).  I'll be focusing more on my home and family though.  This time of the year is often more busy than others and I want to be present .  Fully present. And right now I'm busy with Thanksgiving preparations~as I'm sure you are, too!  No travel for us this year, thank goodness, but we do have family coming in from out-of-town to visit and there is a fun weekend in the works. I'm already so looking forward to the yummy food, too!  My mom, sister, and I have been busy planning our menu together.  I can't wait!  Although I feel like I'm getting off easy on dinner preparat...