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I took a staycation after Thanksgiving, which meant that during Thanksgiving week, I had to do two week's worth of work. That was stressful, and sleep depriving, BUT - that week, before staycation started, I was thinking how amazing a three day work week is. That four day weekend was so productive, even with the holiday cooking and all that.
I would definitely vote for someone who made that a permanent thing.
Speaking of holiday cooking, I unlocked the magic of this when I banned turkey from my house in 2019. As I've told you, wrestling with a raw bird the size of a human toddler that is NEVER done on time, is too much food, and doesn't taste all that great is a dumb tradition I did for far too long. And let me just put my hand over your mouth before you say to fry it, or dip it in pond water at midnight on a full moon for the "perfect" turkey. There is no perfect turkey. It's just not that good. I have "perfectly" cooked many a stupid turkey. It's just not a food or a process I like. A perfect roast chicken is so much better and it's always done in the precise amount of time. Sometimes we do that instead of turkey.
However, this year, we did a two-bone prime rib and discovered the secret to a perfectly timed holiday meal. Because there's a weight based formula, just like the perfect roast chicken, we knew exactly how much time we had to do the sides - stuffing (classic bread stuffing), mashed potatoes and my vegan version of corn especialo - which is absolute magic with stuffing. So everything was ready when we pulled the prime rib out.
What I did NOT learn is how not to cook for an army. So next year, I will be revising the stuffing and potatoes severely. All those pre-pandemic habits die hard! My pumpkin pie was stellar too - a.k.a. - Thanksgiving week breakfast :).
It's time for a crafty rewind today - using older products. I get so many requests to revisit older product, so I have a fun one with a video on a light up card today if you happened to buy these beautiful dies in the spring!
I used these dies, this galaxy paper, this glitter paper, this clear dimensional tape, the alignment tool and these markers, along with the light.
The alignment guides I show you in the video are the key to this scene though!
Here's a sneak peek of the light up feature.
And here is the full process video.
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Now speaking of food, as my vacation comes to an end I had to go back to food prep - my work weeks are too busy to allow for daily cooking, so I prep two or three entrees for the upcoming week, and usually freeze half of whatever I make for weeks where I don't feel like doing prep, or the grocery stores aren't cooperating, which happens more and more these days.
We grind all our own beef, just because commercial ground beef is more prone to contamination than normal cuts of beef, and it's always grossed me out. During the pandemic we switched from the Kitchen Aid meat grinder attachment to a standalone and it was great.
But then my mom was going to replace hers (she had never used it - it was too big) and she asked if we or my brother in law wanted it, so we thought we would compare it to ours and we loved it. It had a few more options for plate sizes than ours did, so we swapped it for ours and gave ours to my brother in law, who had also just been using the Kitchen Aid.
So yesterday I prepped for next week. I made a pound of dried pintos into two pounds of the world's best refried beans - our favorite food, 1 pound of sloppy joes, and five pounds of what I call "hot dog chili" - because I used ground meat - normal Texas chili is cubed chuck. Most of that will head to the freezer today. I also saw on Twitter that my fave cold brew has an exciting new dairy free option - a toasted coconut latte - so my refrigerator is very happy this week. Next week is another story! :)
But the sloppy joe recipe is my fave because in my opinion, most recipes are way too sweet, so this one has just the right amount of sweet - not too much. And no satanic green bell peppers LOL.
2 pounds ground chuck (We recommend grinding your own - we double ground it - coarse, then fine)
1/2 large sweet onion, diced
1 1/2 cups Whataburger ketchup (this is important - it has a unique flavor)
1 C. water
2 TBS light brown sugar
2 tsp Ft. Worth Light or your favorite chili powder
1 teaspoon dry Colman’s mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper flakes
Crystal Hot Sauce - 10 shakes (This is a church recipe - it called for Tabasco - I use this)
Lord Sandy’s Vegan Worcestershire - ~1 tsp.
~ 1tsp Real Salt - but taste before adding at the very end and adjust
Challah buns, split, and griddled with mayo
Saute the onions until soft and brown. Add beef and cook until brown - drain this mixture and return to pan.
Add all the other ingredients. Stir to combine, and then cover and simmer over medium-low heat, about 20 minutes.
Serve with Mt. Olive dill pickle relish or dill chips on toasted challah.
Anyway, enjoy the rest of your weekend. I have a very exciting workshop I'll be announcing Monday, so stay tuned!
Loveyameanitbye.
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15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off at Sweet Sentiment with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE
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