Common Ground Coffee House #103

[I Am Blessed 24]

The cookie recipe you posted, Sue, what can be substituted for pumpkin, if anything?

I would use sweet potatoes or mashed bananas, Gwyneth. The Banana Oatmeal cookies I made turned out grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat, as well as the Molasses Sugar cookies.

Most of the recipes I am making are posted in the Holiday Recipe thread in the Women's Open Forum. The new ones I am making this year will be posted as I get them baked and taste them. :laugh:

Coffee is brewing and tea is steeping. Fresh cookies are on the counter. Clean up after yourselves.

36 days to Christmas!
§ue

 

[annsni]

Good morning Sue! Those cookies look fantastic! I can't wait for one with my morning tea.

So, this morning I wake up to Joanna (almost 4 years old) crying and crouping. Bleck!! Her nose is so stuffed up that she can't suck her thumb so now she's cranky. I took her into bed with me, gave her some medicine to un-stuff her and we snuggled for a bit. She's much happier now and is laying down watching Little Einsteins. I'm thinking we may not go to church today but I'm not ruling it out just yet. If she clears up enough, I may take her and keep her with me in the sound booth so she doesn't infect anyone. I'm just not sure. I really wanted to go because DH is leading worship and I LOVE when he does (he does great songs and I can really worship easily) and my two teen daughters and their friend are doing dance/tambourine/streamers to one song he's doing - Unchanging. I really would love to video it because it's so beautiful and really makes me think of what the young women did in Old Testament times (the worship team they're on is called Daughters of Zion too!). So, we'll see what we do as the morning progresses. I also have to see if my car will start since we had a major issue yesterday and it took us 4 hours out on a main road to get it figured out (the wires and terminal connection to the battery was corroded so the car did absolutely nothing. DH, being the electrical engineer that he is, cut the terminal wires, stripped them and connected them to the battery with a vice grip. LOL!! ). It's now got a "universal terminal connector" on it but it's not super secure - thus we parked out in the driveway rather than the garage.

Have a great day everyone!! It is a beautiful Lord's Day today!!

Ann

 

[Jim1999]

Hello...................Goodbye.............

Cheers,

Jim

 

[Gayla]

Good Morning!!!:sleeping_2:

Ann, hope the car is fixed (properly:thumbs: ) soon!

 

[Friend of God]

Good Morning Everybody,

Brrrrrr it's 23 degrees here. Would someone from the South turn on the heat and aim it up here?

After I get my chores done, I've got to start baking, and making salads & desserts. That should occupy me for a few days LOL.

I'll check-in later.

 

[I Am Blessed 24]

Good morning all,

It's 27º here this morning. 21º with the wind chill factored in. Brrrrr! is right!!! It's supposed to be sunny though, with a high of 46º. Not bad for the week of Thanksgiving.

I am doing some more baking today and also rearranging a bedroom. That should keep me busy for most of the day.

HAGD!
§ue

 

[Karen]

FOG,
Your menus sound great!]
Just out of curiosity, how many refrigerators do you have?
Seems like doing as much ahead of time as possible would be key.

 

[Friend of God]

FOG,
Your menus sound great!]
Just out of curiosity, how many refrigerators do you have?
Seems like doing as much ahead of time as possible would be key.

Thanks Karen. I have 3 refrigerators[2 regular, and 1 COLD].

Do it before you need it is the key. I'll bake today, and tomorrow is salads & desserts. Wednesday is pulling everything together. I'll
start roasting turkeys at 7am Thursday.

Want to know the hardest part? Keeping my involvement on the QT. I take pains to make sure that nobody knows where the meals come from. It's NOT important where the meals come from, just that those who need them, and would enjoy them, get them. I try to make a variety of foods so everybody can find something they like.

I do this at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. What do I get out of it? A Warm Feeling. :thumbs:

 

[menageriekeeper]

Good morning everyone!

FoG, I love to send you some heat but we don't have any down here either. As a matter of fact the low tomorrow morning is supposed to be 25 with the high today only being 46. I have to decide if I'm going to spend the day closing the pool or run the pump all night. I hate to see the pool covered, so I don't. That means before I drop the water levels the leaves have to be off the trees. We still have leaves! So my choice is to drop the levels and then refill when the rest drop or simply run the pump (NOISY) all night. I may go for the third option of measuring the water temp and doing nothing if it is still fairly warm and take the risk that nothing essential will freeze and break. Sigh, choices, choices.

See ya'll later!

 

[annsni]

Afternoon everyone!! Well, we finished up the preschool Thanksgiving party today (very cute) and now Jo is off of school until next Monday. My car is running fine right now, although I do want to get the right part for this - I'll probably work on that next week.

So the remainder of today is riding (should be interesting - he was a goon last night for the other girl who rode him and then the HORSE fell down - fortunately no one got hurt), then making dinner and relaxing. I'm really tired for some reason so I want to take it easy tonight.

I'll 'see' you all later!!

Ann

 

[I Am Blessed 24]

Good morning all,

Hmmmm, refrigerators, pools, and horses. Well, I have no pool. I have no horse. But I DO have two refrigerators!

Everything I am having for Thanksgiving will be made and put in the fridge by tomorrow evening. It will then be baked Thursday morning and we will eat around noon. There will only be four of us this year, so I cut down on the variety quite a bit.

I am also rushing the Christmas season because I love to see all the colored lights! I have my tree up already! I also have one red candle in each window. The icicle lights are up on the eaves of the house and I have lighted candy canes running along the sidewalk leading to the front door. I have an old-fashioned lantern (comes on at dusk and goes off at dawn) at the end of each fence post (no gate) and the outdoor nativity set, Christmas tree, and Santa will get put up today or tomorrow. I am being good though - I'm not lighting anything up until the day after Thanksgiving. :applause:

With all that done I can concentrate on my baking, sending Christmas cards, and wrapping presents!

HAGD!
§ue

 

[Friend of God]

Good Morning Everybody,


Now I know why I'm not a Professional at cooking.

I got to bed about Midnight, but I got all the deserts(pies & cakes, etc) done. Today I'll do the salads, and potatoes because they can be kept refrigerated. Tomorrow I'll pull together some last-minute details about delivery, and Thursday I have 11 (25#+) turkeys to stuff, and roast, and 11 meals to have delivered. It's work...but I wouldn't have it any other way.


Then...I can crash Thursday night, and while everybody is enjoying "Black Friday" I can start planning the 11 dinners for Christmas. Believe me, I'd rather be planning another 11 dinners then go shopping on Friday.


Breakfast today is Strawberry Stuffed French Toast, Waffles, and Bacon & Sausage. Enjoy.

Well, my break is over, time to get back to work.

 

[I Am Blessed 24]

Thursday I have 11 (25#+) turkeys to stuff, and roast

My goodness! How many OVENS do you have??? My oven is going from early morning until noon on Thanksgiving for just ONE meal!!!

 

[Friend of God]

LOL!!! I have 2 ovens...1 in the kitchen, the other in the basement, but I also have a couple of friends who each run a banquet hall that are helping to cook the turkeys too. All in all it's a team effort.

My friends also use their vehicles to deliver the meals, and set up. So my part in this isn't more than 1/3 of the effort that goes into the whole project.

I purchase the turkeys, and prepare the appetizers, salads, desserts, and 2 of the turkeys, and co-ordinate the delivery of the components of the meals to my friends. My friends prepare the other 9 turkeys, then deliver the meals and provide whatever help is needed to set up.

The most important thing is that the people who need the meals get them. :thumbs:

 

[Jim1999]

Multiple ovens, multiples refrigerators..........I am having weird visions. These are not homes, but factories!

I immediately thought of that hymn:

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o'er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus, the Mighty to save...

Cheers,

Jim

 

[annsni]

Well, the big prep for me today is to get the house cleaned and get the gravy made. I don't have too much that would need to be made ahead of time - it will be a simple Thanksgiving for us. We're eating later in the day too so I have tons of time to cook - I may even be able to make it to the church's annual Turkey Bowl (over 30s vs. under 30s). I have the turkey wings in the oven now and they smell SO good!! Ever since I found the recipe to make the gravy ahead of time (it makes 8 cups and it's absolutely delicious), I enjoy the taste of Thanksgiving a little early. Yum!!

Oh - I rode yesterday and obviously lived to tell about it - much to the chagrin of Whirl. Honestly, he was an idiot and I have no clue what's gotten into him. He spooked at everything and nothing. Atleast I didn't fall. I'll try again tomorrow and pray that he's better.

Ann

 

[menageriekeeper]

Good Morning Everyone!

Sue, I wish I had two refridgerators! I don't know where I'd put another one though, maybe the garage? Ha, T says not another thing goes into the garage. It's so bad already that the cars have to be parked in the drive! Oh, well.

I am not having company tomorrow so I only have to cook for the 5 of us. My 21 point something pound turkey is thawing out at the moment. Tomorrow I'll bake the cornbread for the dressing and go ahead and cook the chicken. T'll bake up whatever dessert we decide on, but really we are headed to my parents for dessert so we won't need much.

Today, we are working on painting Cassie's room. This redo is her birthday/Christmas present. She's getting paint, new floors and new furniture. Eventually she'll get new bedding and window treatments, but those are last on the list. If we are lucky, or I should say, if SHE is lucky, we'll actually get this all done by Christmas. It's her own fault if she doesn't because we've been telling her for a month to get her stuff out!

I ended up leaving the pool running last night and it did fine. I need to scoop out the half a million leaves that fell yesterday, but that job is getting smaller and smaller every day. There are still two huge trees dropping leaves and then I'll be done.

Gotta go get myself ready for the day. We have karate class at noon and I've been doing everything but getting dressed.

Ya'll have a good day!

 

[I Am Blessed 24]

All right, ANN! I want to make my gravy ahead of time too. What is the recipe???

Today, I will be baking the turkey and the pies. I will also be throwing everything else together to bake tomorrow morning and boiling the chicken for the homemade chicken and noodles.

We're having a short school day because Brent chops up the onions and celery for the dressing and helps me in a lot of other ways too. I figure him learning to cook is school just as much as doing Math!?!

Getting an early start, will drop in later.

HAGD!
§ue

 

[preacher]

Mornin!
Me & BH had to get up early to see Agee & Jerry off. They've gone to the moutains till Saturday so me & the critters are on our own!!! Me & BH may just have Pecan Pie fo Tday! I'm tryin to get ready for work with a squirrel on my back!! Seems like she knows somthings up.
Her leg seems to be alot better, & she definatly has MORE energy!!!
Well gotta go get my papers so I'll see yuns sometime!
Preacher & BH..the Home Alone Hooligans!!!

 

[Dan Todd]

A week off

I am spending a week at home with daughter Kari, her husband Ryan, and their two children - Libby and Guy Guy.

Thought I stop in a minute of two and say hi to you all!

HI!!!