Thanksgiving 2015

This Thanksgiving, in particular, was very special. For one reason or another, I have never been able to have my family over for my Full Thanksgiving Experience (yes, it's a thing that needs capitalization). Now that we have our own house, complete with back yard, I insisted everyone come over and let me do EVERYTHING (with the exception of one salad and a salmon cheese ball).

I mention the back yard because I am all about deep frying turkeys. I have been denied one of my favorite past times due to living in an apartment for the past five years. I never asked, but I assumed the management of said apartments would probably frown upon vats of boiling oil over an open flame being used near buildings with people in them. They have no sense of adventure.

Our menu consisted of mashed potatoes, gravy (made from stock that took me nearly four hours... TOTALLY WORTH IT!), stuffing, roasted mashed red yams with toasted pecans and dried cranberries, fresh cranberry sauce, roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, corn, spinach/bacon/pear/candied pecan salad, shaved Brussels sprout Caesar salad (probably my favorite out of everything!), dinner rolls, and various snacks...

Now you may be thinking, "But what about the turkey?" 

That, my friends, deserved more than photographs...

Stir Crazy Popper Curried Kettle Corn

Do you own a West Bend Stir Crazy popcorn popper? Do you love kettle corn? Did you know you can have it any time you want with this popper?

I DIDN'T!!! Until now, obviously.

Now you, too, may enjoy the never ending delight of making yourself some kettle corn whenever you want! Try it with the curry powder... omnomnomnom...

Stir Crazy Kettle Corn

1/2 C popping corn
1/3 C vegetable oil
1/2 t. curry powder
1/2 t. garam masala
1/3 C sugar (I used Sugar in the Raw, but the original recipe just said sugar)

Put ingredients in listed order into Stir Crazy popper. Cover with lid. Turn switch on. Turn off when kernels slow to about one pop per three seconds. Unplug, flip, then pour into serving bowl. Toss with salt before serving.

Halloween 2015

I love Halloween. A lot. Back in the day I used to throw some pretty elaborate parties, but due to circumstances of life, I haven't been able to do that in years. 2015 was going to be the year I pulled out all the stops and showed everyone I still had it in me. Apparently I do (even though this morning my house looks like a bomb went off and Brian and I feel like we've been hit by a truck... lol)! All the weeks of planning and work totally paid off, and everyone had a fantastic time!

A couple weeks before, I started making decorations for the front porch...

A few days before, I started carving the pumpkins...

We had wanted to get everything set up before the day of the party, but we had a series of rather blustery storms roll through. My incredible husband took over and got everything done in the nick of time!

Lucky for me, Brian is a part-time DJ, so we have all these great lighting effects and a fog machine! I had wanted to have it out on the porch, but it was way too windy. We ended up using it in the living room and it was a great effect!

As usual, there was WAY too much food, but that's just how we roll. The complete menu was pulled pork sliders with coleslaw, brain dip, bacon-wrapped Lil Smokies, fresh guacamole with tortilla chips, crock pot spinach dip, eyeball deviled eggs, steamed dumplings with chili sauce, enchiladas and rice, various chips, crackers, and store-bought dips, crock pot apple crisp, and a graveyard cake. Thanks to my good friends Chrissy and Jill for bringing the desserts!

The original recipe called this a dip, but it was more like a shrimp mousse. Absolutely delicious!!

The classic puking pumpkin guacamole.

Jill's graveyard cake. So moist and delicious!

Almost all of the recipes, tutorials, and reference photos are on my Pinterest Halloween board if you're interested in doing some of them yourself. Feel free to check it out HERE.

And in case you're wondering, yes I AM already planning for next year!