Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Thanksgiving - Blessings Counted








This Thanksgiving my family was able to get together at my house. We were missing my brother Chad as his family welcomed a new little girl - Caitlyn to their (our) family. My grandma and mom came, as did Connie and Joe, my sis and brother. We had many things to be thankful for as we got ready for dinner, enjoying the fun of getting ready, snacking as we cooked, and eating the wonderful meal that we had worked so hard for. We were also able to spend some fun times together the rest of the weekend and we enjoyed letting the cousins renew friendships and play together. I was reminded of all the things that I am thankful for - the main blessing in my life is my family. Love you guys. Here are some pics of the great meal, and fun times we had this weekend. The eggs are our first eggs from our chickens - we are starting to see results from the months of feeding and caring for "our girls." We are now getting 7-8 eggs a day. The white egg is from the store. We took an evening to make gingerbread (cracker) houses and had a great time. We also gave my mom a makeover (Carene and Connie style) and colored/highlighted her hair and we also waxed her eyebrows for the first time. In your own words Mom, "That's the price of beauty kid." Below is a new recipe I found and fixed to use up some of the leftover turkey. They were to die for, and kind of fancy looking for entertaining. Hope you enjoy. My kids even ate this, just not in a lettuce leaf.

P.S. I have to cram all this in, as I seem to have a hard time lately finding time to blog. Hope all had a great holiday.

New Recipe: I adjusted the amounts as I had a big group to feed.

Lettuce Wraps

1 tsp oil
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (I used cut up turkey from dinner)
1/4 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup slivered onion
1 Tbsp. slivered green pepper
1 Tbsp. slivered orange pepper
1/4 cup water
1 pkg Ramen Chicken flavor
1/4 cup unsalted peanuts
1/2 reserved seasoning packet
1 Tbsp. hoisin sauce
1 tsp. honey
1/8 tsp pepper
1/16 tsp chili pepper
1/16 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce
8 leaf lettuce leaves

Heat cooking oil and saute chicken and onion together until chicken is no longer pink inside. Add carrot and peppers. Stir fry until veggies tender-crisp. Add water and noodles. Simmer for about 2 minutes until noodles are softened. Add seasonings, and stir until heated through. Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve on platter surrounded by lettuce leaves. Serve 1/8 of chicken mixture in lettuce leaf. Roll up and eat. So yummy!

7 comments:

Connie said...

yea! thanks so much for getting me out there we had such a good time!! and i can attest, yes the lettuce wraps were dreamy! i stole your recipe while i was there already! love you.

Unknown said...

Sounds like a fun Thanksgiving. My kids all love lettuce wraps, we will for sure try out your recipe! Thanks.

The Emmett's said...

The kids had such a fun time with Abby collecting eggs. Thanks for being so great and having us all at your house. The lettuce wraps were yummy. Loved the house you and Connie made. Thanks again for being so wonderful..

Cordell and Karen said...

Hey
I'm at the library. Havent' heard from you for a while. Thought about you on Saturday, hope you made it through the day ok. I'm getting a new computer, soon. Cordell seems to think it's me that can't live without it, but he is the one that ordered it and then came home to tell me what he had done. Silly man....
Love Karen

Isaac and Tallie said...

Carene....I just got your Christmas card and jumped right on to check out your blog. I can't believe how grown up your kids are...the pictures are adorable. I hope you are doing well! Tallie

Unknown said...

Sorry about missing your name on my blog list - I do have it on my google reader - and that is all that I check anymore! Thanks for the reminder. Your Christmas card was adorable. You all look so happy.

JK said...

So great to see the pictures of you and your family, Looks like things are well for you! Have a merry christmas! We got your card thanks for the pictures!