d332: project365: the curiosity of a child

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures from my day down on Main Street….Freya peeking between the rails to the creek and waterwheel below.  I like the contrast of the greenery and her red dress.  Although overall it is not a great picture of her, I think it captured her curiousity about new things and the general photograph composition came out well…no editing at all.

d332: 365days

My nephew, daughter, and me waiting for the parade in downtown St. Charles the day after Thanksgiving.

thanksgiving day

Thanksgiving day is marked by cooking, visiting with family, cooking, and still more cooking.  

For the first time in the 13 years that I have hosted the big meal, I served it buffet style.  I really hated to do it but knew that it needed to be done, especially with multiple small children at the table.  I still required the coaxing of my sister in law to go through with the change though [thanks Kym]. 

Unfortunately, that means I did not have the table set with multiple plates, etc. before the meal, so there is no great before the meal place setting photo this year. 

Here is the damage to the breakfast casseroles and cinnamon rolls, which for some reason, I found a bit amusing:

Just to shake things up a bit, rather than making my one large egg casserole that I make every year, my tried and true one that everyone definitely likes, I decided to use that general recipe as a starting point and make two very different egg casseroles, one full of vegetables.  Regarding my cinnamon rolls this year, I used my usual recipe, which is a hybrid of two bread recipes from the old tried and true red/white cookbook (I think mine is dated 1984 or so) that I have modified over the years to be a cinnamon roll recipe.  However, I did use the icing recipe from the Pioneer Woman cookbook, which included several…interesting…ingredients, including maple flavoring and strong coffee.

The scary aftermath:

I also deviated from my usual homemade pumpkin pie and made the scrumptious cheesecake from my Dorie Greenspan book…which of course I then altered…without having tested it first.  I took a very small portion of the cheesecake mixture and added 1 can of pumpkin and a bit of pumpkin pie spice to it.  I think it turned out pretty well myself.  Apparently, I took my last picture of it when it was halfway cooked, note the pumpkin is that dark orange ring in the middle:

d331: project365

The family playing what else…Rock Band. (l to r) My husband, my cousin, and one of my brothers.

d331: 365 days: MJ-inspired cooking glove?

I feel like I spent most of Thanksgiving Day wearing my oven mitts.  And yes, I only have one of these gloves…

d330: 365 days: me and my cooking helper late Weds night

d330: project365: uninspired

d329: project 365: new stools for the kitchen island

d329: 365 days: playing with fire

d328: project365

 

Did you know that making cheesecake involved wearing a tutu, ballet slippers, fairy wings, and a tiara?

d328: 365days

d328: 365days, originally uploaded by KWAB.

d327: project365: purple tranzam

My brothers high school garage band played at his 16th birthday party on Sunday.