A Fall Feast

I made this for dinner last night and it was sooo easy!! And best of all it made my house smell like fall! I used Honey Crisp apples because my produce place had them and my dad said I had to try them, however the apples were very mushy when they were done, I would have liked them to hold their shape a bit more and have some crunch to them. I would think that maybe Granny Smith would be better. I served this with a salad with Balsamic Dressing and it paired nicely ( that's chef talk :o) Of course my husband had his salad piled high with bacon, cheese and so much ranch it could drown a horse... but hey he got that good lettuce in his system right?
The recipe is from PBS.org Everyday Food I printed a few of their recipes I thought they really did seem easy and "do-able" not like Rachel Ray, you have to buy crazy ingredients for her stuff. However I did make a Hawaiian Chicken Cordon Bleu of hers that Joe liked... of course he didn't eat the Hawaiian part just the chicken and ham.... OK I give up on him!!!


Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Onions

Serves 4 Prep time: 30 minutes Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup 3 medium red apples, halved and cored, each cut into 8 wedges
1 large red onion, halved and sliced into 1/2-inch-thick pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 pork tenderloins, (12 ounces each), trimmed of excess fat

Place one oven rack in top third of oven, and another rack in bottom third. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Make glaze: In a small saucepan, bring vinegar and maple syrup to a boil over high heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture has reduced to 1/4 cup, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat; transfer 1 tablespoon to a small bowl for drizzling, and set aside. Reserve the rest of the glaze in saucepan.
On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss apples and onion with oil. Season with salt and pepper; arrange in a single layer, and roast until golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and toss.
Meanwhile, line another rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil; place pork on foil. Season generously with salt and pepper; brush with glaze from saucepan. Return apples and onion to oven, on bottom rack. Place pork on top rack; roast 10 minutes. Remove pork from oven; brush with glaze (discard any remaining in pan). Roast until pork registers 150 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, and apples and onion are tender, about 10 minutes more.
Transfer pork to a cutting board, and let rest 10 minutes. Slice 1/4 inch thick; drizzle with reserved tablespoon glaze. Serve with apples, onion.

This is why Katie T and I should be better friends...

Favorite Christmas…

Non-Jesus-related song? Harry Connick It must be Santa Claus

Jesus-related song? Oh Holy Night (Martina McBride specifically)
Santa-related song? Up on the house top (I love hearing my dad sing it)

Fictional character? Hermie wants to be a dentist!!
Dinner’s main course? Ham (although we dont do that anymore)
Dinner’s dessert? Christmas Cookies!!
Scent (pine, gingerbread, candles…)? Pine
Animated movie? Rudolph
Non-animated movie? White Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This or That
Candy cane or peppermint patties? Candy Cane (peppermint patties arent christmas)
Sugar or gingerbread cookies? Well does moms chocolate dipped shortbread count? Because we make it and cut it out with the cookie cutters and decorate it with chocolate!!

Tinsel or beaded strands? I have the best big red wooden beads ever!!
Multi-colored or same-colored lights? Ohh I do a mix, however I love white only.
Flashing or still lights? You have to have a few blinkers in various spots my dad says so, even if they do make the TV have static when they blink :o)

Wreaths or mistletoe/holly? Wreath!
Rudolph or Frosty? Frosty.
Sledding or snowball fights? Sledding!!
Snow or ice/icicles? Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow!!!!!!!
Snow hat or earmuffs? Neither.... headband
Getting or giving? Giving. It depends, I love giving really good gifts, but I HATE obligatory gift buying and giving.

Stockings or presents? Stockings all the way
Cookies & milk or letter to Santa? We never did the Cookies and milk thing
Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Christmas Day, I love it!

Log Burning Channel or real thing? I would love the real thing

Cards or emails? Who E mails??

Shoveling or cleaning off the car? The Shoveling!
The Inn’s manger or the animals? hehe I thought that said Manager... who likes the manager, he put them in the barn for heavens sake!!
Mary & Joseph or The Wise Men? Gosh are you allowed to play favorites?
Hot cocoa or eggnog? Cocoa!! With Marshmallows and stired with a candy cane for that perfect pepermint flavor.

Jack Frost or Little Drummer Boy? Hmmm I dont really care

Yay or.. Ugh
Holiday shopping? Yay
Icy roads? Yay

Limited driving visibility? yay I love all things snow and ice and I really love going out in the bad weather. Joe and I went to Krissys house last year after the blizzard when Kenton and Boone Co. roads were closed. (what we have a Forerunner)
Christmas carolers? Never experianced this
Mall Santas? Yay
Salvation Army Santas? yay.
Blizzards? YIPPEEE

24/7 Holiday radio? If I dont listen to it how would I hear I want a hippopotamus for Christmas?

Freezing cold? If there is snow involved Yay
Setting up the tree? Sexiest picture of my husband is him trimming the tree :o)
Wrapping presents? yay.
Visiting/seeing family? yay.
Ad-Lib on “Rudolph…” (like Monopoly!) UGH!
Advent calendar? Oh yeah we always had the chocolate ones
Peeking at your gifts (or by accident)? ugh.
Decorated houses? yay.
Extreme decorated houses? yay.
White Christmas morning? yay, yay, yay.
Searching for ornaments in the attic? Ugh, I always want the boxes to magically appear on the first floor :o)
Santa knowing when you’re sleeping and awake? What is the question here?

Have You Ever?
Built a snowman? yes
Heard Santa’s sleigh? Yes when I was little, Kris did too :o)
Seen Santa & Rudolph in the sky? no
Sat on Santa’s lap? yes
Shoveled the driveway/sidewalk? yes
Made snow angels? yes Last year with Buster

Built a fort/igloo? yes
Wrote a Christmas list? yes
Wrote a letter to Santa? Yes
Left cookies/milk for Santa & reindeer? no
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? yes
Went caroling? no
Got hurt during the winter season? I fell backwards and cut my head open when we were Ice Scating on the Tennis Court. Mom took me to the Hospital and I puked in the waiting room because some guy cut his hand off, I got to be seen before handless guy because mine was a head injury.. go figure
Gone ice skating/sledding? yes see above
Kissed under a mistletoe? As a prop for wedding pictures...
Experienced/saw a miracle happen? What kind of miracle? No water into wine, I think Birth is a miracle
Get everything you wanted for Christmas? yes!
Cooked/baked? Really Jesus can not be celebrated with out cookies and a gingerbread house

Anella Kay Livingston

She is here!!! I dont have a picture yet I will post one ASAP. 7lb 7oz 20 inches. She looks like JP only has a ton of Black hair!! Her labor went great!!

P.S

I forgot to mention that my little pea weighs 8lbs 5oz and is 21 inches long!! Thats 2lb and 2in in 4 weeks!!
She loves the sound of the shower running so I put her in her seat while I shower and she is so happy (generally :o).

Pediatrician

Ok I just need some good old mother to mother conversation here. This is what I would need a play date for, my kid is not much of a friend to play with, but I would like to get together with some of you all just so I could talk about things like this.
-Dr Ja**ings office visit #1:Annie is 4 days old, enter pedi office at 8:30 only people in the waiting room, one other family at the office already in an exam room. I know this because I can hear EVERYTHING Dr J is telling this mom about her 8 year olds ear infection (hello HIPAA) we wait in the exam room for 30 min for Dr J. My baby is weighed with a wet, dirty diaper on (I am new at this I didnt think to check) at an appointment when ounces count. Dr J comes in and introduces himself as an afterthought and didnt seem to care who we were (didnt wait for us to introduce ourselves before launching into Annies exam). He decides that she needs a bili blood level drawn and then proceeds to second, third and fourth guess himself. He kept changing his mind, "does she look yellow" "I dont know maybe its the lighting" "maybe its not as bad as I thought" "oh well I am probably just used to it by now you should have her checked just in case"! I thought Joe was going to go insane.
I left feeling no warm fuzzys toward the office or the Dr and I wished that I had just one good feeling to go off of. Not that I make my parenting decisions on feelings but I just wasn't comfortable. I decided that I just needed to get to know the office and the Dr's.

-Encounter #2 Annie is 2 Weeks old and has a "gunky eye" I called to see if she needed to come in. I really wasnt worried about it but I wanted to know if I should be. The RN called me back and said that Dr J called in a prescription for me for E-mycin and use that for a week. Its probably nothing but just in case...
I am ok with just in case however I thought that he may want to see the eye before prescribing medication.

-Encounter #3 1 Month Check up: I made this appt with Dr W excited to see if I liked her any better. The appointment was for 1:15, I prefer showing up 10-15 min early for appts. I dont mind waiting if they are busy but my history with other offices is that I get seen early if not on time. There was again not a soul in the office and I was told that it would be 15 min...45min later still the only one in the waiting room they finally take us back!!! They were 30 min behind schedule with no one there???? One lady came in while I was sitting there and waited at the window for 5 min before she finally just went walking back into the back offices to find someone to hand her a script. Now I did like Dr W's personality better than Dr J, she was very open to listening to my questions, she was so-so on her answer to my alternative vaccination schedule question with the end result being that she supports me in that decision. Then said "most of what I tell you today is going to be what Dr J already went over at your first visit" and then proceeded to tell me a list of important things that Dr J never went over with me.

Bottom line, am I being over reactive? Do I have a wrong impression of their office or does everyone wait 30 min to be seen? How long would I have to wait if there were other patients to be seen? I am just not impressed with the staff or the Dr's. I want to switch now if I am going to switch but is it really worth it?

A picture is worth a thousand words

As Annie and I went to make cookies Thursday night this is what I found in my mixing bowl!!!!!

Have I ever mentioned to you all that I HATE SPIDERS!! I don't like to kill them either because of the gross sound it makes plus I am certain that they can jump on me the closer I get to them.

My choice spider killer...what? It was the only thing I could find :o). In case you were wondering, Glass Cleaner does NOT affect man sized spiders.... maybe I should have sprung for the brand name...

I found the longest thing I could so that I wouldn't have to get to close. These tongs are no less than 18 inches long! I had good distance but I didn't want to pinch it to death.... I would need something else, like a wad of paper towel!! I'm sorry do I hear you laughing at me? Well you should be, because even wadded up paper towel pressed over man sized spider does not kill him!! After cursing quite a few times I resorted to beating the spider to its demise with the wad of paper towel held firmly by the tongs :o).

VICTORY!!

Now to deal with the tainted mixing bowl....

Most importantly don't forget to equip yourselves in case there is a retaliation of all of his friends.

Petting Zoo

We went to a petting zoo and pumpkin patch last weekend with my mom. This is not your ordinary petting zoo... or maybe it is, I'm not sure, I have never been to a petting zoo before. My parents had been before with John Patrick and since they have a pumpkin patch in the fall we decided to take the babies! My Dad, who had no desire to go back, told me to set my expectations very low... this type of petting zoo would only be found in Kentucky!! :o) Words can not do justice to this place, don't get me wrong, the people are very nice and they have a wide variety of animals that you can pet & hold. I will just have to let the pictures tell the story...

This is what greets you at the entrance, this is the name of the establishment (I will not write it for fear that I will be sued for this post) Is this supposed to be the Ark? I love the windows, and painting it brown, that makes it much more ark like. What you can not tell is that this is in a children's play area. It is a nice fenced in area full of jungle jims and slides and animals, who also play on the jungle jims and slides, therefore you have to wait for the goat to get off the playschool climbing thing before you can slide down the slide. Oh, and watch for the duck, chicken, rooster, poop at the bottom of the slide!

This is a picture of a chicken flying the coop! These birds did not look friendly, there were no less than 250 of them PACKED in this coop and we even saw at least 1 dead one that the others were just walking over!! I think they were trying to put them into a trance with the terrible bluegrass music that was blaring from inside the little chicken house. I would not let Elly get close or try to pet them for fear of returning home with one less finger. I did not feel at all safe with this chicken getting out of the cage, however I was excited that the chicken was free!!!!

Crazy sheep with a bad under bite!!
Weird Mohawk rooster... other favorites that are not pictured: ferret with hair missing from rear end, 10,000 lb pig,

I forgot to mention that they had decorated for Halloween with random frightening decor like this head off of a bugs bunny doll. This was stuck in a brush pile that looked like they were ready to set aflame at any moment... YIKES!!

The best part of the trip was the wagon ride to the pumpkin patch. Aunt Woody and I picked out Annie's first pumpkin. The price for small pumpkins was 2 for $1.00! What a deal, we picked out the smallest pumpkin we could find... to which the farmer yelled at me across the field that I had better be picking out another one because he wasn't going to deal with having to break a dollar!!!!!

I don't even know how to summarize this post...... let me know if you would like directions to this family friendly affordable good time!