Gals Day Out

We try to get together with Erika when Alyssa is home and yesterday was that day :) We went to this place for lunch. It was good, although a bit pricey. We all ordered from their brunch selections.

Erika's scrambled eggs:

Alyssa's Crab and Eggs Benedict:

My omelet with smoked salmon, capers, dill, horseradish, red onions:

Erika and Alyssa :)

Real or Memorex!?!

These adorned the carrot cake that Fiona made for Thanksgiving dessert. Don't they look real!?!? They're actually Marzipan!!

Horton Hears a Who

Alyssa Byssa reading to Colm Wolum and Kievah Wievah:):)

Alyssa was hanging out with Kieran, Kievah and Colm today while their mom and dad were away. I was sitting at the kitchen table and heard Colm calling his sister....."Kievah Wievah!" Next thing I hear Kievah responding, "What Colm Wolum?!?!" Colm then proceeded to tell Alyssa that is his real Chinese name...LOL!! (It's not!!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Penguins and kangaroos, oh my!

Our lovely place settings! Bet you can't tell it's plastic, as are the wine glasses!! Cleaning up just got a whole lot easier Fifi!! (And yes, all but the wine glasses, got thrown away!) Someone, I won't mention any names, almost dug into the trash though to take the plates home and wash them!!

Isn't it purty?!?!

Chairman and President of the Board of the Secret Seagull Society:

Playing rock, paper, scissors! And no, I have no clue why!!

Just about ready to eat!! Ham, turkey, delicious homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, carrots, ratatouille, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry salad, cranberry cups....yum!!

They made me take the picture with the wine!

Table one:

Table two:

Kieran commandeered my camera:

Again, as you can tell, they MADE me do it!

Alyssa having a conversation with Colm:

Cute salt and salt shakers. Yes, you heard me, all the shakers in that household have salt in them...LOL!

No, Adam, the corkscrew is for opening wine, not Kieran's brain!

High level puzzling:

Buds?

Tribute to Joe Paterno

This video was shown yesterday in the stadium after Joe Paterno won his 400th game :)

Inside-Out Stuffed Cabbage

I found this recipe in my last Taste Of Home issue. We both love stuffed cabbage, but it takes so long to make, thought maybe this would taste similar and looked like it was fairly quick to make. I made a double batch so there'd be leftovers....I've been trying to make at least one meal a week that gives me leftovers, so on Monday or Tuesday all we need to do is re-heat something. It's been working out fairly well. Typically Kurt gets home before me, so if it's something that needs to go in the oven, I just give him a call and tell him to throw it in the oven and at what temperature :)

Ingredients: brown rice, spicy V8 juice, beefy onion soup mix:

More ingredients: Cabbage, green pepper, squash:

(ingredients not pictured include water, brown sugar and ground beef)

How convenient is this?!!? Thanks, Wegmans :)

Chopped cabbage and green pepper

I cut the squash up a bit more:

Cook the ground beef, squash and green peppers til done:

Add cabbage, water, V8 juice, soup mix and brown sugar and cook til cabbage is tender:

Add rice and cook for 5 minutes, then let sit for 5 minutes til rice is done:

Enjoy!

I've been buying these instead of bread or rolls to accompany our meals. They are yummy! Fiona turned us on to them :)

I have enough left over for a meal for three (maybe Adam'll join us for once) and I have a container to freeze that'll feed the two of us sometime. I really enjoyed it and yes, it went a whole lot faster than making stuffed cabbage. Kurt said it was "OK"...that he'd like it to be a bit more spicy (don't worry...the spicy V8 juice did not make it one bit spicy...LOL!). I questioned him on that cuz stuffed cabbage isn't ever spicy! Then he changed his tune to "I guess I expected it to be a bit more tomato-y!" Fortunately, he's not picky and will eat whatever I put in front of him, so he won't have any issues if I were to make this again!

Recipe (this is a single recipe)

1 lb. ground beef

2 cups cubed peeled butternut squash

1 medium green pepper, chopped

6 cups chopped cabbage

1 can (11 1/2 oz) spicy hot V8 juice

1 cup water

1 envelope beefy onion soup mix

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/2 cup uncooked instant brown rice

In a dutch oven, cook the beef, squash and green pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the cabbage, juice, water, soup mix and brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until cabbage is tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in rice. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; cover and let stand for 5 minutes until rice is tender.

Last PSU Game :(

Today is Alyssa's last home game as a student. There is actually one more home game, which is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but she'll be home and doesn't really want to drive back to school for the game. It's currently half time and Penn State is losing miserably...boo. One can only hope that they are able to come back and JoePa can celebrate his 400th win at home. Alyssa's current roommate, Kristen, camped out at Paternoville this week hoping to be able to get a front row seat for today's game. It worked! As the ABC cameras were panning past the students, I saw Kristen!!! How cool is that!?!?! Here Alyssa is with some DiscipleMaker friends :)

From left to right: Andy, Katrina, Paige, Nina & Alyssa

UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE!!

Final score: Penn State 35- Northwestern 21!!!!

The second half of that game looked like a different football game! Penn State rocked!! Those boys won that game for Joe Paterno! 400 wins...most winningest football coach in history!! And Alyssa got to be part of that history :)

Here's a pic Alyssa just sent me after the game. This is her roommate Kristen, who i saw on ABC!!