Fun Times with Mimi

Micaela woke up the other morning talking about how Mimi (MIL) was going to take her to the carousel at the mall when she came to visit over Thanksgiving. I don't know where she got that idea, maybe one of the other kids at school. Well of course Mimi had to make that dream a reality when she arrived. Here they are! Micaela is blessed!

Turkey Taragon Spread

I've been doing demonstrations with attachments at Williams Sonoma this month. We're promoting using the Stand Mixer and Food Grinder attachment to make a Turkey Taragon spread.

This would be a great recipe to make with left over turkey.

Turkey Taragon Spread

2 cups cooked turkey or chicken cut into strips
1/4 small onion1 rib celery, cut into pieces
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons milk
1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Use fine grind plate on Food Grinder attachment, turn Mixer to speed 4. Grind turkey, onion and celery into mixer bowl placed beneath the FGA remove grinder. Add all remaining ingredients to bowl. Mix everything for one minute. Serve spread with Triscuits.

Pumpkin Harvest Loaf Pan

Enabler Alert.

If you are a baker, you need this!
Williams Sonoma has the cutest loaf pan for Pumpkin Bread, check this out! It even fits in the toaster oven! It was $29.99 but now it's $14.99.

Dickens of a Christmas...

If you are local and want something to do Thanksgiving weekend, Dickens of a Christmas will be going on at the McKinney Square. For more information, check out DowntownMcKinney.com

Reusable Bags...

In the Dallas metroplex there is a Wal-Mart at every corner it seems. We actually do a fair amount of our grocery shopping there, since there is one fairly close to our neighborhood. I noticed the other day that Wal-Mart is now selling reusable bags. These bags are only $1 and a great size for groceries. I did a little bit of research and read they are committed to reducing their plastic bag waste by a third by 2013, Yippee! Read more about it here.

Thanksgiving Card

Fall is definitely here. I finally planted my pansies last week. Here's my first Thanksgiving card of the year. Yes, I am behind this year. The card base is Always Artichoke stamped with the Stiched background in Artichoke. The fancy rectangle is the Stampin' Up Top Note die; the first layer is Pumpkin Pie and the second is Juntos DSP from the Celebrando Creatividad Spanish Catalog. The Pumpkins are from the Autumn Harvest stamp set; I stamped them in Chocolate Chip craft and embossed with clear powder. The Happy Thanksgiving sentiment is one I had cut out of a $ stamp bin at either Michael's or JoAnn.

Thanks for stopping by....

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving...

We're getting ready for Thanksgiving at our house! We're having the entire Fipps gang over for dinner here... 10 people total. DH will handle the bird and I will help with side dishes, make desserts and get the house ready. I am excited!

I've been trying to decide on some new side dishes and dessert. Tonight I decided to try out the Truffles recipe featured in the lastest issue of Kraft Foods magazine. The truffles turned out okay, but they are pretty labor intensive. I want to try a second batch with a white chocolate outer layer because I didn't like dark chocolate inside very much.

Here's the recipe I tried.... It's super easy to put together, the hard part is making the balls.

Simply Sensational Truffles
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Ingredients:

2-1/2 pkg. (20 squares) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
decorations: chopped PLANTERS COCKTAIL Peanuts, multi-colored sprinkles

Instructions:

• MELT 8 chocolate squares. Beat cream cheese with mixer until creamy. Blend in melted chocolate. Refrigerate until firm.


• SHAPE into 36 balls. Place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet.


• MELT remaining chocolate. Use fork to dip truffles; return to baking sheet. Decorate, then refrigerate 1 hour.

Recycling PSA

Back in September during our Environmental Kick Off with the school district, we met some kids from the C.U.T.E. Club at McKinney High School. CUTE stands for Clean UpThe Environment.

During a recent meeting that I attended, they brainstormed about getting the message of recycling out to fellow students. I suggested PSA since many of the students are involved in journalism. Well, they took the idea and just produced their first video.

I am so proud of these kids. Here is a link to the video which is featured on MHS1

http://www.schooltube.com/video/14198/CUTE-Club-PSA

Our Family is Growing

Meet "Maxi" the newest member of our family. Maxi is a Jack Russell Terrier and oh so cute! She is Micaela's new best friend. Now DH is outnumbered 3 to 1, poor guy!

Turning a New Leaf

Last month one of my girl friends turned a new leaf.... she turned 40! Her husband hosted a little party for her and I volunteered to make the invitations. She hinted about wanting something simple with fall colors and leaves so this is what I came up with. In the end I used the second design.
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Both were made using Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla card stocks. I used the two different Paper Shaper punches for the leaves on the first one and a Cuttlebug die for the More Mustard leaf on the second one.

Voting Green

Voting Green….Car pool to the polls tomorrow.

If 10,000 people share a 5-mile ride with three friends to the polls (round-trip), we'll avert the same amount of CO2 produced by almost four Americans in a year.

Organize a carpool with coworkers or friends, so nobody, forgets to vote, and to reduce traffic.

Pasta Demo @ Dillards

Today I had a KitchenAid demonstration at Dillard's in Firewheel Mall in Garland. Here's my tiny little display in the middle of their Housewares Department.




I demoed the KitchenAid pasta roller attachment. If you have never made pasta, it is truly very easy especially when you use the KitchenAid. Normally I make the pasta from scratch but KA recently partnered up with Ecco La Pasta. Now it's even easier because as long as you follow the instructions precisely, (only add water) you really can't mess up. I highly recommend thier mixes. You can find Ecco La Pasta products at Williams Sonoma, Whole Foods and many grocery stores.