Happy Holidays!

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Leaving after school today to head to MN to see all the rellies & won't be back until after Christmas, but I wanted to wish you all a happy holiday season, whichever holiday(s) you celebrate, and a wonderful 2013!

  

Turkey Bento Box Lunches

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

I HAD to share this cute lunch I made for my girls today 'cuz it's rather more fancy that I usually do.  But since we're pretty much at the end of fall, and I still had a turkey cookie cutter in my bento stuff drawer, well, here's what they got...

 

(Click on the picture to make it larger.)

That'd be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut into a turkey shape, with carrot ribbon feathers/wing (Just take your peeler to the carrot & voila! Ribbons!) and feet colored in with a food-safe marker.  I used the cookie cutter on the edge of a fruit strip to cut out the red head part, and a small straw to make the eye on each.  It's surrounded by some Pirate's Booty puffed snacky things and 3 candy corn.  Underneath all that hides a sausage stick.  In the other, sealable container there is homemade unsweetened applesauce with cinnamon and some fall leaf sprinkles. 

Now isn't that just the most fall-ish lunch you've ever seen?! (Other than a leftover turkey sandwich, of course! *grin*)

(In case you're wondering, this is the kind of bento box I'm using today.  Love it!) 

Recipe Request aka Thanks for the Topic!

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

In the comments for the previous post, recipes were requested for Vanilla-Brown Sugar Squash and Thymely Roasted Sweet Potatoes.  Well, I must warn you, dear requestor, that the lovely names might have deceived you a tish... these are both totally made-up by me/aka mental recipes.

But, not one to disappoint my readers/commentors (maybe particially because they are are rare & also precious!), here you go:

Vanilla-Brown Sugar Squash

Cook a butternut squash.  For me, that means halve a butternut squash and scoop out the seeds. Put both halves cut-side down in a 9x13" pan with about 1/2 inch of water and cook for an hour, or until soft.  Scoop the flesh out of the skin and discard the skin.  (You can totally do this ahead of time or, as in the case of this Turkey Day feast, use leftover squash.)  Mash/mix the squash with butter.  LOTS of butter, and a fair amount of brown sugar and a decent splash of vanilla.  Mash until you deem the texture suitable, adding more butter as needed. (Julia Child note: more butter is good!). I made ours early with leftover squash & kept it warm in a minicrockpot, which worked very well.

Thymely Roasted Sweet Potato Cubes

Peel two giant-sized, 3 regular, or 4 smallish sweet potatoes. Cut into 1/4" to 1/2" dice.  This should  be about enough to cover a 9x13"pan at pretty much a single layer.  Pour on some olive oil and sprinkle on some (fresh, preferably, but dried is fine) thyme & some (preferably coarse-grained/kosher) salt.  Bake at 350F (very adaptable to more/less heat), stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are soft & have acquired at least one roasted/caramelized/not-quite-burnt-but-really-brown side.

There you go! I thought it was a nice way to take two rather similar (orange/yellow vegetables) dishes and give them quite different flavors/spins.  Enjoy!

     

THANKSgiving

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

There are SO many things in my life for which I'm thankful - family, friends, health, plenty.  But today, I'm especially thankful that our noon-meal Thanksgiving feast was wonderful & went off without a hitch.  Here's the menu....

Mahogany Turkey with Vegetable Gravy  (basically this)

Garlic Mashed Potatoes*

Thymely Roasted Sweet Potato Cubes

Vanilla-Brown Sugar Butternut Squash

Roasted Radishes

Daddy's Broccoli*

Raw Cranberry-Orange Relish

Crescent Rolls

Crudites

Grandma Yori's Homemade Pickles

Pumpkin Pie from a Garden Pumpkin*

 It was all delicious (even if the sweet potatoes were a bit salty) & we even ate at 12:10, which is amazing considering how many dishes there were to prepare & coordinate.  Granted, I might have had a bit more food than we needed, since there were only 4 adults & 2 kids, but hey, Thanksgiving feast leftovers are the bomb.

I hope that all of you American readers had equally delicious Turkey Day feasts!  Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 *made by Mr. Kluges

**Edited to add links to requested recipes.  

Shiny Wings Are Shiny!

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Photo #24

Not exactly a gingerbead house...

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Sorry.  I guess the missing of a day really took the pressure off posting daily! Well, I still managed to post more than I had for ages, so we'll call it good anyway.

Back in October, Mr. Kluges had been back home to Minnesota and saw his folks. Grandma Yori sent back a cute kit to make a haunted house cake for Halloween. Fun, cute, and tasty, right?!

Well, we didn't quite get to it by Halloween.  So, last Saturday, while my parents were visiting, we decided to make it anyway, and just change the theme a bit.  I think it turned out pretty well!

Presenting, our Fall House Cake!

      

Ooops.

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Oh, shoot!  I missed yesterday. I'll blame it on Mr. Kluges having to work late (again) solving everybody else's problems (as usual) and the poor guy didn't get home until bedtime stories.  THEN I was all hustling to get in a run, which was a good one, and left me so proud of myself for picking up my speed a bit that posting completely fell out of my mind.    

So, apologies to those of you (if any! *grin*) who came here looking for a post when there wasn't one.  I'll try to do better & finish out the rest of the month anyway.

That Closet

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

You know that one closet you've got?  The one that somehow has turned into a dumping ground? Where all the "I'll quick stick this in here 'cuz it's outta the way for now" stuff goes... and never comes out again?

Yeah, for me that's our office closet.  It's got construction paper and crafty stuff and some kid toys and old boxes and the library book bag and, And, AND!  

(Did I mention the AND?!)

I tackled it today.  

I pulled stuff out and rearranged.  I decluttered and tossed.  I kept what was working and tried to steamline areas that weren't. I detangled kite strings, picked up jewels, and put away temporary tattoos.

It's better.  It's not perfect, and there are still some odds and ends sitting out on the office floor (that are totally not getting picked up until tomorrow), but it's a heck of a lot better.

Now if I can just get all the glitter vacuumed up that has migrated all over the downstairs, I'll be happier yet. :) 

   

#6 Plastic Shrinky Dinks

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

I came across a craft idea on Pinterest a while back.  It sounded interesting, especially since my girls had done a fairy-themed shrinky-dink kit this summer.  Basically you take #6 recyclable plastic, cut out the shape you want, punch any desired holes, color it with permanent markers, then shrink it in your oven.

Cheap, easy, potentially pretty result... is this too good to be true!?

 I'm here to say that, no, it's not!  I got a hold of some #6 plastic (a berry container or two, some take-away clear plastic, a Taco Bell nacho top), cut them into flat pieces maybe a couple inches per side (circles, rectangles, paisleys!), and let the girls color them.  With a paper punch, we punched holes in the ones we wanted for necklaces/bracelets.  Then we popped them, well spaced, on a parchment-paper-covered cookie sheet and threw 'em in a 350F oven.

They curled up, I worried they'd get stuck to themselves, then they curled back down and laid flat, we pulled them out and let them cool, and voila! Shrinky-dinks!!! Hooray!

Family Photos

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

A little more than a year ago, I got to watch my good friend's three children for a bit while she was in the hospital having the fourth.  Now, I considered this fair play, and was MORE than glad to do so, especially considering that she was the one I called while lying in my driveway, with a broken wrist, ambulance on way, husband in Ireland, saying, "Um, can you watch my kids... possibly overnight?"  :) 

Completely unnecessarily, in her graciousness, and as a photographer, she offered to take some family photos for us as a thank you.   We finally coordinated a few week ago, and here are a couple of the results.  (Also, Gretchen is brilliant!)