The Kandells: November 2008

Friday, November 28, 2008

Giving Thanks and Eating.

{Max saying "Bless the turkey"}

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends and food yesterday. We thoroughly enjoyed hosting Eric's family at our house. We had his mom and dad in from Ohio, His sister Lisa and our bro-in-law Steve with Easton and Zach from Sandy.

Erics Aunt Cindy and Uncle Gordy from Ohio, His cousins Weston, Cat and their kids from L.A., as well as Amanda, Bjork and Nate (more cousins) and our friend Bandele for dinner.

It was a big crazy cousin party with tons of good fun and even better food.

While we prepared all the food, the kids loved running around outside together.

{Max, Easton, Avery and Isaiah}

{Ady-bug}

{Isaiah and Weston}

{Isaiah, Easton and Avery}

{Maxwell}

{All the cousins, from oldest to youngest, Isaiah, Avery, Easton, Ady, Zach, Max and Bjork}

Max was thrilled to be getting his picture taken, just thrilled.

Ady kept giggling whens she saw all the food, she said "the food is so good in my nose" {translation - the food smells good}

The past couple years we have done 2 turkeys, one deep fried and one roasted, the deep fried one is the best, and even though it looks burned, it wasnt, it gets really dark and crisp on the outside. It is so good. They both are.

{Eric dad wore his Obama '08 tee shirt to dinner to ruffle feathers in a family of mostly republicans. :), but what could we say? OBama DID win.}

{Ady and I wore our matching aprons to cook in, but we didnt get a pic together, oh well, maybe next year.}

{the kids table}

So Grateful.

This entire week I have kept telling myself to make time to write a nice Thanksgiving post for the millions of things that I so very grateful. But alas, I have not and now I have no time.

So, this will be brief, even though I could write a novel about the things I am so thankful for.

1. My Eric, if you know him you love him. He is everything to me. I could not be more grateful for the best daddy/hubby around. Plus, he is such a babe!

2. My Adyson Rose, she is like my little best friend who always can make me laugh. She made me realize that I was born to mother, I love her.

3. Maxwell or "My Macky" He is my little boyfriend, I always say. His big eyes and sweet little personality and voice are like the best thing on earth.

Hope everyone get to have a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family!

Creamed Corn

This past weekend, on Friday night, Eric and I had over 2 couples that we love to hang out with, and usually when we get together we all go out for dinner, well instead we had the babysitter take the kids out, and we stayed in.

Anyway blah blah, I made creamed corn as one of the sides and they both asked for the recipe so I said I would post it.

There is seriously nothing to this recipe, but it is one of my favorites at Thanksgiving.

(oh and by the way, I made the creamed corn as a side to a crown roast that was so good, I will post that recipe later, it even impressed Eric.)

Creamed Corn

Ingredients

I package frozen petite white corn

8 oz. of half and half

salt

white pepper

sugar

Pour the frozen corn straight from the bag into a pan on the stove (set to medium heat)

and add the half and half, until it starts to simmer, stirring consistantly.

Add 8 tps. sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

and pepper to taste, keep letting it simmer until it starts the thicken a little.

Add 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

Serve warm. Some people like to add some finely chopped scallions to this recipe, I never do, but it is good.

So easy and So good. This is a good one to volunteer to bring for Thanksgiving if you are not as confident in the kitchen, there is really no way to mess this up.

5 Things That I Love.

I usually ignore tags but I thought this was a fun and easy one. Thanks Jen!

5 THINGS THAT I LOVE

1. My family (sorry Jen, we are the same on that one)

2. All things Girly but mostly DRESSES, I love love love dresses, I would wear a dress and heels everyday, I would take a dress over jeans any day. I wish people dressed up a little more in their daily lives, like back in the day when women always wore skirts and dresses. That may be part of the reason I always have a dress code for Eric's work parties, like the white party, or the formal dinner at Sundance. They may hate it but I LOVE it. Everyone always looks better dressed up.

3. Cake Stands, I have started collecting them, first just to match dinnerwear for parties then slowly became something I am always on the hunt for. They are so pretty.

4. Invitations, and cards. I love cute invitations, or announcements. So if there is ever a shower I am not throwing I always volunteer to do the invites. And I always plan my Christmas cards months in advance. It's funny, sometimes when we are planning a dinner or a BBQ, Eric will ask me "is this going to be like an invitation thing?" which is his way of asking if I am planning to go all crazy, and start trying to make a theme out of every get together. One time he had a little BBQ/swim night with all of the guys at his work at our house, and when I got home and asked him how his party was he said " It was really fun, and we didnt even have invites, or cupcakes, or matching plates....isn't that amazing that we still enjoyed ourselves" He thinks I am a little nuts. I probably am.

5. Having lots of family time. This might go along with loving my family, but I love having my kids get to see both of their grandparents a lot. Having one on one time. Being close to their aunts and uncles. Taking time away from regular life to be with the people who matter the most to us. Spending holidays, not with friends (who we also love) but with our family. Those traditions I had as a kid I want my kids to have. Family first.

**Disclaimer** - certainly there are things I love more than cake stands and dresses, a lot more things but this is supposed to be fun... so if you are thinking how "typical Utah 20-something girl" well, don't .... this is just for fun.

Now I tag... Callie, Chelly, Lisa, Melinda, Danielle, Erin, Ali and Tiffany

Sausage, Chestnut and Cornbread Stuffing

When it comes to stuffing at a Kandell Thanksgiving, no one can touch Eric's dad Jim's recipe. It is so good, Eric can duplicate it pretty close but Jim does it best.

Now, I am not giving away that recipe in this post. But, I did do a practice mini Thanksgiving meal last week for my Eric the kids and the Lovell's.

And I made a new stuffing recipe I have never tried before, Sausage, Chestnut and Cornbread stuffing. It turned out really well even though NO where was carrying chestnuts until next week, so I had to substitute hazelnuts. My research also told me you can substitute chestnuts with pecans as well. But I used hazelnuts.

SO here is the recipe...

Ingredients

8 cups cubed day-old cornbread (I just whipped some up the day before to sit for a day)

2 cups day old country style white bread ( I bought this on Monday from the bakery at Harmons to use Wednesday night)

1 1/2 mild Italian pork sausage, casings removed

1 to 2 TBS olive oil if needed

1 yellow onion

1 celery stalk finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup roasted and peeled chestnuts ( or like I said hazelnuts, or pecans) chopped

1/4 cup chopped mixed fresh and dry herbsm such as sage, rosemary, and thyme

3 cups chicken stock

Directions

preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a shallow baking dish or gratin pan

Spread the corn bread and white bread in baking sheet or 2 and toast in oven until light brown and a little crunchy, about 20 mins.

In saute pan over medium heat, brown the sausage, stirring and crumbling with a fork, until cooked through about 10 mins. Move to large bowl.

Return the pan to meium heat. Add the olive oil to the accumulated fat in the pan, if needed. Add the onion and celery and saute, until soft and translucent, 5-7 mins.

Seaons with salt and pepper

Transfer to a bowl with the sausage. Add the toasted bread and cornbread and nuts, and herbs and stock.Season with salt and pepper and stir to combine.

Transfer the stuffing to the prepared baking dish, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35 to 40 mins. Remove foil and cook an additional 35-40 mins more.

Serves 10-12

Or 4 for 3 days. :)

Our Unexpected Night In Vegas.

(Erin, Chels and me)

On Friday we came down to the St. george house for the weekend with our friends the Wathens and their son Beckham. We planned on a nice family weekend, with a little golf, some fun kid parks, maybe the sand dunes and just relaxing.

Well, on the way down Nate and Erin came up with the idea of driving over to Vegas on Saturday while the kids were down for their afternoon naps and having Erin's sister (a student at Dxie College in St. george) come babysit, since she has nannied for years.So we decide that would be fun to spend the morning with the kids and head off around 1 pm.We went into Vegas to do a little shopping and get some good suhi (we are all sushi junkies).

So for lunch on Saturday we met up with our other friends Scott and Chelsey Bell and their sweet new baby Blakely (shown below) at 25 main in St George, then took the kids home, put them to bed for naps and took off to Vegas.

We chose to eat at new sushi called Sushi Roku in the Forum shops at Caesars.

Dinner was really good, and fun to be out with just adults.

So, after dinner we are planning to head home when Nate finds out from a good friend that he and Eric can get 4th row tickets to the UFC fight (Lessner vs. Couture) at the MGM Grand at like 8 pm. So we called the babysitter who was fine putting the kids down for the night and staying late.

So the guys decide to go to this huge "fight of the year" since they got such great seats. So, Erin and I decide we want to go do something fun so we went to the Cirque Du Solei show "Mystere", We really wanted to go to "Love" with all the Beatles music but it was sold out.
We had such a great night, the boys got VIP floor passes and a saw a great fight plus a bunch of celebrities, there was even a picture with 50 cent, of course we have not seen the picture yet, but supposedly it happened. And Erin and I had a great girls night out. Just shopping nad a great show. Then after we met back up and drove back home to St. George and got home around 1 am. The kids probably hardley even noticed we were gone.

It was really such a fun, unexpected night. Erin and I were saying last night when we got out of Mystere, "uh is this what you thought you would be doing this weekend?"

Um ...no but so glad we did.

{Us & the Wathens at sushi at Sushi Roku in Caesars)

(The boys with their VIP friend and their passes)

(Nate and Erin asleep in the backseat on the way home....)

Thanks Nate and Erin for the idea and the unexpected night in Vegas, we loved it!

100 years of Disney Show

Last night we went to the 100 years of Disney on Ice Show. The kids loved it.

We didnt even know we had front row tickets until we got there, so we got to see the characters WAY up close.

They even would wave to our kids and shake their hands at the end.

We go to every kids event at Energy Solutions we possibly can with the cute Waller family. Here is Ava and Aaron happy to be there.

Christmas Cards

Well, It's not quite time to send out Christmas cards, I am not one of those people who skips Thanksgiving. But, since this month we don't have much planned, I want to compile all my address lists so I can get our cards out early.

So, if you would like one please email me your address at haileykandell@mac.com or hailey@thekandells.com so I can get you on our list. Or for those of you who are already on our list, only email me if you have moved addresses.

Thanks!

And I hope you are all excited about this years edition of the Kandell book/card. :)

A Good One

{Me, Eric and a few of my cousins and spouses at the event}

At this time of year when a lot of us are counting our blessings and looking for ways to give back and places to donate to those in real need.

I would like to mention this charity that we attended a dinner for on Friday night the the Grand America.

Enterprise mentors, you can find them at www.enterprise-mentors.org, my grandmother is a chair of this wonderful organization that assists in impoverished countires by giving small business loans to help people become self sufficent and improve there quality of life by providing for themselves.

At the dinner we got to hear and read of some great success stories that have been helped by the mentor program.

So, if you are looking for a worthwhile cause to donate to this time of year or any time.

This is really a good one.

Turkey Day.

I am sending out these invitations to all of Eric's family this week. We are really excited to be hosting all of them for Thanksgiving at our home this year. I also decided to include (shown below) a menu card of what we will be serving to get everyone excited.

We actually have only "hosted" thanksgiving once, 3 months after we got married at our Provo home, but I was 6 weeks pregnant with Adyson and the only job I gave myself was to keep Thanksgiving dinner "down". Which I didn't.

So I am really looking forward to having everyone here this year, we will have Erics parents and Aunt and Uncle from Ohio. Eric's cousin Weston and his wife and kids from L.A., Eric's other cousin Amanda and her husband and daughter and of course Eric's sister and the Lovell boys.

Eric and his dad are making 2 turkeys, one traditional roasted and our new favorite the Fried Turkey. If you have not done this, you should. You get a turkey fryer and deep fry the turkey in peanut oil and its ready in as little as an hour. And soo good. But not so good for the dieters out here. But who diets on Thanksgiving... right?

So in anticipation for Thanksgiving and since I don't have much going on this month, I am going to be posting a few of our favorite family Thanksgiving recipes over the next few weeks. ALso if you have any WONDERFUL ones, send them to me. I want to try out some new ones over the next couple of weeks.

Oh, and I got these from MARTHA, isn't she awesome. I dont know if I will try any of them, we will see how ambitious I get.

Here is my first recipe that I will be making for our Thanksgiving for sure.

Ruth's Chris Sweet Potato Casserole

(really though, it could be a dessert)

For The Crust -

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1 cup chopped nuts (I use pecans)

1/3 butter, melted

For The Sweet Potato Mixture

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs, well beaten

1 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

combine brown sugar,flour,nuts,and butter in mixing bowl and set aside

combine sweet potatoes, sugar,salt, vanilla, eggs and butter in a mixing bowl in the order listed. mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into buttered baking dish. Sprinkle the sweet potato mixture evenly with the crust mixture on top.

Bake for 30 mins.

Allow to set for 30 mins before serving.

I don't normally much like sweet potatoes but these are so good and really is the Ruth's Chris recipe.

Try and you will not be disappointed!

I love the snow!

So my wife is normally one to dislike the cold and the snow, she has been quoted to say she would be fine with snow on Christmas and that is it! NOT ME. I just got home from work and though there is very little snow, I forced the kids into snow gear and threw them in a sled and off we went running through the yard. As a matter of fact we got our first little flurry last night and when we came home, Adyson had me make her a snow ball and then she was carrying it around the house like it was a little baby. It was awesome, she had it cuddled up in a blanket and was caressing it. I told her it would melt so we put it in the freezer.

Well other than that we are off to Chuck E Cheese for Bandele Adeniyi-bada's birthday. Bandele is a good friend of mine from Ohio that has lived and worked out here in UT for about 3 yrs now and he is awesome with our kids. For his 32nd birthday he actually planned the party and asked if our kids, along with my sister's kids would go with him to Chuck E Cheese! I am sure he will be out with some of his many girlfriends later, but Hailey and I were impressed with his care for our kids. Ban is great, if you don' t know him. Well gotta go

Eric

Last Halloween Post this year. Really.

These first few photos are of Ady at her Challenger preschool Halloween program. And this is the official favorite LADYBUG costume, all year Ady wanted to be a lady bug for Halloween and she was the cutest lady bug we have ever seen.

She did such a good job singing the Halloween songs. It was so fun to go and see her at her preschool.

And here are the trick or treating pics from Halloween night. Ady decided after wearing her poofy lady bug costume all day that she would rather wear something easier to run from house to house in so she switched to Tinkerbelle for the trick or treating.

We went up to Sandy to Eric's sisters house and ate dinner and had the kids trick or treat together.