It's Officially Christmas Season!

My sister Diane made this cute turkey cupcake cake...it was yummy!

Today is the day after Thanksgiving and now it is on to the Christmas season.  I love this time of year!  Our lights are up, I am making a list for things I need for cookie baking, every weekend until Christmas is filled with activities and I am just about done with my Christmas shopping.  My favorite youngest daughter and I were one of the idiots that went out shopping at midnight on Thanksgiving.  We started at Target in Lake Stevens where the line wrapped down the front, down the side and down the back of the building.  We were able to get everything we wanted even though we were far from being first into the store.  We waited in line for 58 minutes to check out...but we had a good time chatting with the folks around us.  After Target it was on to the Everett Mall to visit Macy's.  I only needed one thing...even though I ended up buying two things.  We got home just after 3:00 am and by that time my husband and son-in-law had already left to run to a farm and garden store in Burlington.  Both my hubby and I feel like we are recovering from a bad hangover...even though not one drop of liquor touched our lips.  I guess sleep deprivation at our age is not a good thing.  It was a fun time being with Cassidy but we both really missed having Kelsea and Jenna girl with us!  That's what happens when those darn kids get a life of their own.  Here is a recap of my week...

Albertson's was having a great deal on gift cards.  Buy $100.00 worth of gift cards and get a $20.00 coupon to use towards your next Albertson's grocery trip.  There was limited information on which cards this applied to so I talked to the manager.  The manager was also unsure if there were any limitations so she told me if any of my cards did not create a coupon...she would issue me an Albertson's gift card.  I bought $500.00 worth of cards and walked out with (2) $20.00 coupons and (1) $60.00 Albertson's gift card.  I do not believe that all the cards I purchases were part of the promotion but Albertsons did honor their word. 

Albertson's...last day of using my double coupons.  Retail would have been
$59.60 ~ I paid $11.09.  An 81% savings!

We took advantage of a beautiful Sunday last weekend and got the lights up.  They officially were turned on tonight for the first time ~ the day after Thanksgiving!  This was the first time in years that I had to help with the lights...usually the girls' helped their dad...but this year one daughter is married and the other was at a slumber party. 

My hubby smoked two big pork butts for about 10 hours this last weekend.  We shredded it up and put in the freezer for a party that we are having in a couple of weeks.  Part of our menu includes bbq pork sandwiches...yum!


Now for some pictures of my family enjoying Thanksgiving together.  I have recently been accused, by my favorite oldest daughter, of taking more pictures of food than family...so I am trying to make up for that right now:

A Coupon High!

Today was a GREAT couponing day.  Albertson's had double coupons...for the third week in a row.  This week the doubles will last for 5 days instead of the normal 3 days.  Albertson's was out of the 20 boxes of potatoes I plan on buying...but I was told they will be back in stock tomorrow.  Here are the deals I got today:

Albertsons...free!  Only paid SST.

Albertsons ~ 2 boxes of juice, 2 packs of gum and 2 cans of cranberry sauce.
How much did I pay?  Only a $1.00! ~ a 90% savings!

Rite Aid.  4 dishwasher tabs and 3 boxes of Kleenex.  Full retail would have been $24.53 but I paid $1.08 and one dollar of that was SST.  Score!

Fred Meyers ~ Farmland Bacon was on sale for $3.99 each but using a Fred Meyers coupon and manufacturer coupons...each pack cost $2.25!  I got the tater tots for a buck and then got quite a bit of veggies.  Number wise, this didn't seem like my best deal.  However, basically it was like paying full price for the bacon and getting everything else for free so that is not too bad!

Wahlgreens...full price would have been about $19.00...I paid $2.98!

Albertsons ~ 6 bags of chocolate chips...$4.45 total!  These normally cost $3.79 a bag and I paid just 74 cents each!  Yahoo.  BTW ~ one bag was donated to the Lake Stevens Food Bank (along with a few other things) so that is why only 5 bags are in the picture.

Shopping Deals!

Couponing has taken over my entire game table.  This weekend I vow to contain the clutter.  Couponing does take time...no doubt about that but so far the payoffs have been worth it.  I am still stocking a lot to get a head start for next year...when I plan to only spend $250.00 a month for all groceries...including all food, toiletries and paper goods.  It is a challenge that I am going to work hard to achieve.  Here are some good buys from today:

I LOVE Swagbucks!  By earning Swagbucks, I am able to trade them in for gift cards.  I recently earned $25.00 worth of gift cards from Amazon.com.  By using $10.00 of those gift cards towards these six containers of peanut butter...I only paid $2.21 out of pocket for all this peanut butter...yahoo!  I LOVE free or nearly free food!

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Target had this dog food on sale for $6.17 and $6.49 each...and I had a $4.00 coupon so I only paid $2.17 each for three of these bags and $2.49 each for the other two.  This will feed my two yorkies for 4 to 5 months...and cost just over $11.00 which is about a 60% savings...not too bad!

Here is a perfect recipe for the holidays...this past week I baked 100 cupcakes and today I frosted them for the gals I work with.  They are delicious.  When I made them for the first time, my favorite youngest daughter made a face of disgust when I told her what they were...but one bite was all she needed.  My entire family loved them.  So...here is the recipe.  These would be great to make for a holiday gathering.

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes (courtesy of www.bettycrocker.com)

1/2  cup finely chopped pecans

3 tablespoons sugar

                                           

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® yellow cake mix

1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

4  eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

                                                                                         

 Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.  In heavy 8-inch nonstick skillet, cook pecans and 2 tablespoons of the sugar over low heat about 8 minutes, stirring constantly, until sugar is melted. Spoon and spread pecans onto sheet of waxed paper. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar; toss.

In large bowl, beat cake mix, pumpkin, water, oil, eggs and pumpkin pie spice with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about two-thirds full). 

Bake 19 to 24 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack.  Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

4 tblsp. butter, at room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tblsp. meringue (optional)

Whip all ingredients until light and fluffy.  Note:  I would use Philadelphia Cream Cheese.  I tried this recipe with a store brand cream cheese and it was not as firm.

Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with the candied nuts.  Note:  I used sugared walnuts...and yum!



A Recap Of October 2011

Jeez...again, no blog activity in October.  I should start blogging more very soon because life is slowing down.  However, the Holidays are coming here ~ so maybe life will NOT slow down for a while longer.

1. A quick recap ~ I canned quite a bit which made me happy because I didn't expect to.  My mom and dad went over East of the Mountains and brought us home some pears and apples towards the end of September...so I canned. 
2. Also this month my hubby went both deer and elk hunting...and no luck.  I was hoping to fill the freezer but that didn't happen this year. 
3. My sisters, mom, daughters, nieces and one nephew walked the American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Walk in Snohomish county.  This is the second year in the row we have walked this event in support of my sister who is a breast cancer survivor.  It was a wonderful day! 
4. Also this month my favorite youngest daughter had a halloween party and I made the most perfect cake pops ever...and I didn't even take a dang picture.  
5. After being on the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover for two months...we paid off our first bill...one of my school loans.  Yahoo!
6. I am working towards another big goal to begin January, 2012 which is to only spend $250.00 a month on groceries...including food, toiletries, paper goods, etc.  WHY?  Our insurance premiums are going up and I don't want to take away from my Dave Ramsey "snowball" amount so I am cutting back on grocery money. 

Here are some pictues from October to share:

My mom, myself and two my sisters at the breast cancer walk.

Cinnamon Pears...first time canning these myself but my mom
used to can these when I was younger.  My mom was a great
canner and I can remember our hall closet being full of her homemade canned goods.

This is the display I created by my front door for this fall season. 
The larger pumpkins are not from my gardent but the corn stalks, the
marigolds and some of the small pumpkins are from my garden!

I planted garlic bulbs this fall for the first time.  They are
already sprouting out in the garden.  It is fun to see things
still growing in this cold dark weather.

I have been much better about couping and I did pretty good
during the month of October...all the pop was FREE!

Apple Pie Filling!  I must admit that I overfilled the jars but
most of them seemed to seal just fine.  I will be wrapping a
pretty ribbon around these along with a recipe for apple pie!
What a fun Christmas present!

A Month in Review

My gosh...where did September go???  For sure work picked up...which is expected when you work for a school district.  My harvesting of the garden and my hubby's salmon fishing has made time go even faster.  Couponing has been put aside for the past couple of months but I am slowly getting back in the groove.  I found I was able to stick pretty close to my grocery budget though...since I have been stockpiling since February. 

Since so much time has gone by since my last blog entry...I thought I would do a review with some pictures.

My favorite youngest daugthers First Day of School ~ she is an 8th grader!

My hubby got very into fishing for salmon in the Snohomish river.
He caugh lots of Humpies...which he then smoked.

He found a great dry brine that used dark brown sugar, kosher salt and
LOT's of fresh garlic.  Then he smokes it. 
ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!  We have a stash in the freezer for the holidays.

Each year I get a bit more out of my garden.  I am actually surprised
that I got anything after the very wet spring and summer we had.
I lost many onions and what onions I did get...are small ~ but still edible.

With wedding preparations and a 10 day vacation...there was very little
couponing.  Then in September...life took off and I am just now
starting to get back into the coupon groove.  I got the above items
at Albertson's using their double coupons.  Full retail would have been
$86.43...but I only paid $16.11!  Gotta like it!

Zucchini never let's me down!  I only planted a hill of them and had
enough zukes to donate to others and make 12 loaves of zucchini pineapple
bread.  This bread is so good...it has nutmeg and cinnamon as well in the recipe.
Smells like fall in this house.

My grocery budget got tight...and we ran out of bread.  However...I did have
flour and yeast so I have been making bread.  Very fun and easy recipe.

My tomatoes did not like our western Washington weather this year and
they have really suffered.  However, I have been able to make two batches
of roasted tomatoes.  All I have to say about this recipe...OMG!

My pumpkins got a late start...but I still got some. 

Fresh tomatoes from my garden roasted with olive oil, kosher salt,
walla walla onions and garlic then mixed with frest basil EQUALS
Roasted Tomatoe Sauce...going into the freezer for a dinner later in the year.

Not only are we harvesting and preserving much more this year ~ we have also decided to get our financial house in order.  We had some very large expenses this year...tires for the truck, braces for my favorite youngest daughter, an over-the-budget wedding for my favorite oldest daughter and my favorite son-in-law plus a 10 day road trip on top of too much spending the past couple of years has equaled too much debt.  We signed up for Dave Ramsey's online debt reducer plan and are now living very aware of where our money is going.  More to come on our journey.

My Favorite Time of the Year

After a VERY wet and cold Spring and Summer...Summer weather has finally hit our area the past couple of weeks.  We are currently experiencing hot days that are reaching 80+ degrees.  The best part is that it is cooling off wonderfully at night. 

I have been busy cutting back my tomatoes so that I hopefully will end up with some red tomatoes.  My plants are loaded but they are all green...EXCEPT one...that just turned orange today.  I have been told to cut back the non-producing stems in order for more energy to go to the tomatoes...I hope it works. I just found a fabulous recipe for roasted tomato sauce ~ and I really want to load my freezer up.

Speaking of recipes ~ Kelsea made dinner tonight.  She found the recipe on www.skinnytaste.com and it used some of the zucchini that I have growing.  It was delicious.  The recipe can be found here:  http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/08/chicken-rollatini-stuffed-with-zucchini.html

The items needed...please note that we did use bottled lemon juice and not fresh
since this is what we had on hand.  Still tasted yummy!

Kelsea, with her pretty finger nails, cleaning up the chicken.

Cassidy girl pounding out the chicken breast.

A pan full of zucchini, garlic and cheese being cooked together.

A work of art!

Road Trip ~ Day 1 thru Day 3

Three days have past and I am now just finding the time to blog about our road trip.  We left Everett on August 12th and got on I-5 at exactly 12:18 pm.  Exactly 12 hours later we were reserving a room in Redding, California.  I cannot believe we made it to California!  Unfortunately, our first night's lodging was not so good.  I decided we should stop at the Motel 6 in Redding, CA that advertised a rate of $59.95 per night lodging...it was a DIVE.  I tried to make light of it by saying to Mike that it had be a long time since we had stayed in a place this bad to which he replied..."we have NEVER stayed in a place this bad".  We were only there for 8 hours before we were hitting the road again.  Upon talking about our stay at the "dive" we found out that all three of us thought that there were bugs crawling all over us...but I am sure there was not because before I got in that bed ~ I checked them both for bugs.  But your mind sure can play tricks on you!

Second day began at 8:00 am with the first stop being Starbucks.  After driving for a bit we saw that the "Olive Pit" was coming up.  The "Olive Pit" was a "must stop" for my grandparents when they made their yearly trek to southern California.  It then has become my parents "must stop".  My grandparents would always bring us back green olives and almonds.  My parents bring us back almonds and grapeseed oil.  It was fun going in there and trying the many samples of olives and oils that they had...and thinking of my grandparents.  We bought a bag of "Smokehouse" Almonds (which I am munching on right this minute)...then back on the road we went.

At about 1:30 pm on our second day...we drove up to the Radisson Hotel located near the airport in San Francisco.  They did not have any rooms available yet so we decided to go find somewhere to eat.  We ventured into Brisbane which is a cute little community.  We found a great place and had a wonderful greek salad and pizza slice.  We finally ended up gettiing into our room (it took two different tries plus they originally gave us the wrong room number/key and I walked in on another family...) and we then ventured to the heart of San Francisco!  We found a place to park for only $10.00 for the entire time we were there and started out at Pier 39 which was full of shops and crazy full of people.  We then walked down to find somewhere to eat...which we ended up at "Nicks Lighthouse" restaurant which was established on the Fisherman's Wharf in 1934.  We had an amazing dinner.  Cass and I had cod fish & chips and Mike had the most incredible seafood fettucini...the alfredo sauce was good enough to drink!  I am making it my misson to find that recipe!  After walking around for several hours, we decided to go back to our room to get some rest for another busy day in San Francisco.  BTW ~ our hotel room is fantastic and both our beds come with the sleep number beds.  I am unable to tell you how many times we have fillled and unfilled our beds...it is embarassing really!

Day 3 ~ San Francisco

We again found parking really close to the Fisherman's Wharf and only paid $36.00 for the entire 8+ hours we were there...much more reasonable than what we had thought it would cost.  We went to IHOP for breakfast.  In San Francisco all food menu's show the calories for each meal.  I actually think it is a good idea to do this because I totally got a healthier meal by seeing the calories that were in what I really wanted to eat.  Then we signed up to take a tour of San Francisco.  We took a double decker bus around many major sites around S.F. and were able to "hop off and hop on" and various stops.  We drove through the Barbary Coast, Union Square, the City Hall civic center and then we hopped off at Chinatown.  Mike and I really wanted to see this but ultimately it was a disappointment.  It was very geared towards the tourist trade and it was the same shops selling the same items up and down all the blocks.  However, we did find a bakery and I had an authentic chinese dessert.  Cassidy and I were also able to buy her a charm bracelet that we bagained down to $50.00...which whas $95.00 less than what they wanted (original cost was $145.00)  The $50.00 included the tax as well so I think we did okay on that.  Mike thinks it is fake silver...we will see.  We then hopped back on the bus and headed back down to Fishermans Wharf to get on a different bus that was going to take us over the Golden Gate Bridge.  Before heading out, we visited a few more shops...including a bakery that makes the famous sourdough breads.  One thing about S.F is that there are many people and the lines are LONG.  So, I didn't get to buy any sourdough bread...but I will come back one day and visit that store some more.  Finally, it was time to head over the bridge.  The best part of this was watching Cassidy's huge smile.  She just loved going under that bridge.  It was amazing being on such an iconic part of S.F.  Our bus then drove us to Sausalito which is the most quaint, darling little village.  I so badly wanted to get off and look around but there just wasn't the time.  I think that Mike and I will need to visit that place for several days in the future...just not on this trip.  When we got back to the waterfront there was one more stop to make...Ghiradelli Square.  As we walked into the main Ghiradelli store ~ they gave us a free square of chocolate, how nice is that!?  We strolled around the square for awhile and then decided it was time to head back to the hotel...we had been site seeing for 8+ hours!  Tomorrow we are heading out at 5:00 am to Aneheim.  On to a new adventure.

Funny Cassidy story, as we were heading out of S.F. a couple of girls were walking down the sidewalk with short shorts and furry boots on (I guess these are the same type of boots that "Snookie" wears).  Anyway, Mike said...what kinds of statement are those outfits making.  To which Cassidy replied...they look like a word that begins with "S" and ends with "lutty".  We laughed until we cried. 

San Francisco weather report ~ very blustery and not much higher then 70 degrees.  We had to make sure to bring a light jacket and were comfortable in jeans and tennis shoes.  Hair do's do not matter because everyone's hair is wind blown within minutes.  I only asked once how my hair looked!  Even with the blustery weather...we got sunburned!  Need to remember to wear the sunscreen.

On the double decker bus cruising around San Francisco

At the entrance to Chinatown

Alcatraz in the background

Underneath the Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge in the background

Fisherman's Wharf

  

On Pier 39 at the Fisherman's Wharf

At the Palace of Fine Arts