Picture Perfect Cooking

Happy Thanksgiving week to all of my readers!  It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is actually here and Christmas is only about a month away.  I need to get in gear with my Christmas shopping so I can get done and enjoy December and all of the holiday happenings around here. C & I do most of our shopping online since, to me, it is a whole lot more fun to shop from my home in my comfy clothes instead of fighting the crowds.  That’s just me though.  If you enjoy getting out there, have a great time!

Besides Thanksgiving cooking, I am keeping this week’s menu pretty simple.  For the holiday, I am cooking the meat and a dessert for C’s family lunch.  For my side’s supper, I am experimenting a little bit.  Happy Turkey Day!!!

Deep Dish Pizza Casserole

Tacos

Pizza Night

Beef Vegetable Soup

Pumpkin Cookies w/Brown Sugar Glaze (new recipe for the International Food Blogger Cookie Exchange)

Thanksgiving Cooking:

Italian Cream Cake

Sweet Potato Casserole

Butter Roasted Potatoes

Crock Pot Maple Ham (new)

Cranberry Mandarin Sauce (new)

Corn Bread Dressing (new)

Thanksgiving Leftovers Yay!

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Monday has rolled around again so it is time for another menu plan.  This week’s list may be a little short because I need to go to the grocery one night to purchase my Thanksgiving ingredients for next week.  Wow, did I just say that Thanksgiving is next week?  Yes. Yes, I did.  That means Christmas is right around the corner.  Yikes!  I need to get busy!

There was a little change to last week’s menu.  I had planned on making the A1 Swiss Steak, but when I stopped at my local grocery store, they had a small pork loin at a very reasonable price so that became Sunday dinner instead.  The A1 Swiss Steak is back on the list for this week.

Bubble Up Pizza

Cheesy Steak Sandwiches with Oven Fries

Pizza Night

Seafood Night

Grocery Night

A1 Swiss Steak with Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes (both new)

Fauxreos (new)

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Good Monday morning, folks!  Has the time change affected you as much as me? I loved getting that extra hour of sleep, but it takes me a while to get used to it, especially the early sunset.  It’s dark by the time I get off from work which is no fun at all. 

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and the parties and dinners are already starting to happen.  We have one get-together (not a Thanksgiving dinner) to attend this weekend with some friends of ours and it should be a lot of fun.  It’s potluck so I am taking a slow-cooker full of sausage cheese dip which is one of C’s favorites.  I am also starting to plan my holiday cooking by making a few mental lists and checking them twice! It will be here before we know it.

Grilled burgers with oven fries

Grilled pork chops with oven fries (These didn’t get made last week.)

Pizza night

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes w/ Peanut Butter Syrup (new)

Sausage Cheese Dip with Fritos Scoops

Slow Cooker A1 Swiss Steak (new) with Crispy Potato Bake (new)

Homemade Baby Ruth Bars (new)

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Happy Halloween!  I hope everyone has a safe and fun trick or treating night.  C & I will be at home with the porch lights on just waiting for the little ghosts and goblins to stop by.  We celebrated a little earlier this weekend by going to a soup/chili supper/hayride given by our neighbor/cousin and had a great time.  I also had to work this Saturday and made it to the grocery as well.  Whew, it was a busy but good weekend!

I do have to admit that the new recipes on last week’s list did not get made.  Oops.  I just didn’t have enough time to get it all done, but hopefully this week will be better. 

Sausage Bake (2 nights)

Chunky Vegetable Soup (new)

Chili

Grilled Pork Chops & Oven Baked Fries

Classic Ziti

Easy Shredded BBQ

Snickerdoodle Cake (Let’s try this one more time-new.)

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Good morning, everyone!  This has been a wonderful weekend for us and I hope for you all as well.  C & I travelled to Nashville on Saturday to attend a showing of “Wicked-The Musical” at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.  I had wanted to see it for a while and missed it when it was in Louisville, KY so I jumped at the chance to see it at TPAC.  If you ever get the chance to go to TPAC, I highly recommend it.  It is a wonderful facility.

We had a great weekend trip and I will have lots of photos and details in an upcoming Thoughtful Thursday post.  Check back!

I have a couple of new recipes on the menu list this week and I hope they are a success.  The recipes look so good!

Cheesy Steak Sandwiches with Oven Fries

Cheesy Corn Chip Skillet

Sausage Bake (2 nights)

Hamburger Stew with Buttermilk Corn Cakes (new)

Pizza night

Basic Meatloaf with Butter Roasted Potatoes

Snickerdoodle Cake (new)

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Since I usually write the menu plan posts over the weekend, Mondays seem to roll around awfully fast and here we are again.  I hope all of you had a great week and weekend.  The weather here has been wonderful with that beautiful autumn sunshine that is so different from the hot, scorching summer sun.  Get out and enjoy it if you can!

This week’s list is still a meal or two short because we have some fun plans out next weekend.  I will give you all the low-down afterward, but it should be fun!

Hamburger Stew

Chili

Calzones with Italian Tomato Sauce (new) 2 nights

Tacos with fruit salad

Vegetable Beef Soup with cornbread muffins

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Good morning!  Hasn’t this just been a beautiful weekend?  I know it has here in Kentucky and I hope everyone was able to get out and enjoy.  I finally started refinishing a metal bed that belonged to my mother-in-law to use in the upstairs purple bedroom.  Yes, I know I started these projects over a year ago and they are not finished yet.  Life sometimes has a way of getting in the way of the fun projects, but at least I am able to work on them now.  I can’t wait to show you the result.  Can anyone else see a Thoughtless Thursday: How To post in there somewhere?

This week is a meal or two short.  We have court at work on Friday (of all days) this week, so that will probably be a take-out night.  Also, C & I have a wedding to attend next weekend in a near-by town so I think that will be an O’Charley’s night for us.  Woo hoo!  In case you can’t tell, O’Charley’s is my all-time favorite place to eat out.  Can’t wait!

Deep Dish Pizza Casserole

Basic Buttermilk Pancakes with Bacon (This didn’t get made last week because I had leftovers.)
Grilled Pork Chops with Oven Fries

Pizza Night

Hamburger Steaks (new) with Butter Roasted Potatoes

Cinnamon Roll Cake (new)

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Whew, what a weekend!  It has been a busy at-home weekend, but C & I can now say that the pressure washing is done for the year!  Can I hear an amen?!?  C got to try out a piece of equipment that he has never used-a powered lift.  Our house has one side that is really tall because of the walk-out basement so we can’t get to the very top with just a ladder.  Of course, this is also the north side so mildew and mold grow like crazy there.  The powered lift solved this problem perfectly.  Here are a few shots of the process:

This is as high as I would go.  I hate heights.

It worked like a charm and now we have a clean house all the way around.  While C & his dad were working with this, I spray-painted our metal outdoor furniture.  There were a few rust spots starting to show and I wanted to cover them before they got worse.  Wouldn’t you know, I was down to two chairs and I ran out of spray paint.  Ughh!  Oh, well, I will get some more this week and finish that little job.  We also managed to mow and trim our yard, C’s parent’s yard, finish the laundry, cook a little food and blog some, too.  All in all, it was a very productive weekend.

Here is this week’s menu:

Taco Biscuit Bake (new)

Country ham/Biscuits with oven baked fries

Cheesy Corn Chip Skillet

Buttermilk Pancakes with bacon

Pizza night

Pepsi Pork Chops (new) with butter roasted potatoes

Cookies & Cream Cake (new)

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Another week has gone by and it is time for another meal list.  This week’s menu is a little short because we have a couple of “errand” evenings this week so we will probably eat out then.  I have to go to the grocery one night and it is going to be a doozy of a trip.  We are out of just about everything household AND food-wise!

One other evening we have to go pick up a tow-behind lift that C is going to use to pressure wash the end of our house.  The north side of our house is also the side with a walk-out basement so we have two and a half stories of vinyl siding that faces north and gets covered in mildew since it doesn’t get enough sun to kill it.  I would not even want to see a ladder tall enough to reach the top so we are renting a powered lift to get up there.  C is excited since he loves to try new gadgets.  I will make sure and get pics for everyone to see.  Hee hee!

Please forgive me for a short list this week.  Next week should be back to normal.  Have a great end of September everyone!!!

Chili (making a double batch for leftovers and other recipes to come)

Grilled hamburgers and oven fries

Pizza night

Basic Meatloaf

Coca-Cola Cake

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