Tasty Tuesday-Thanksgiving Style

Pumpkin Dump Cake

I found this recipe when I was blogstalking one day, and man oh man is it divine!  I am a big fan of Dump Cake, and this one tops them all.  I’ve made this before, and it’s going to be my contribution to our Thanksgiving feast at my in-laws.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 (29 oz) can pumpkin
• 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. ginger
• 1/2 t. allspice
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3/4 cup melted butter

Directions

• Grease 9 x 13” baking dish or 2 9” pie plates.
• Mix first 8 ingredients together in mixer, pour into pan.
• Sprinkle cake mix over top, butter on top of that.  What I found works well instead of melting the butter, is grating the butter on top with a cheese grater, then spreading evenly. 
• Bake at 350 degrees 50 to 55 minutes, watch toward the end because it will get too brown really quickly. 
• (optional) Top with whipped cream.

Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!

“To God be the glory, great things He hath done!

So loved He the world that He gave us His Son."

Monday Funnies

Aubrey has turned into a growler.  She loves to grunt and growl, and she thinks it’s so funny!  It’s nice to have a baby who entertains herself.  She especially likes to growl when she wakes up.  I was attempting to get this on video the other day and I got the tail end of the grunting when she discovered me.

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You may or may not know this about me, but every Monday you can find me singing, “It’s just another manicure Monday” to the tune of “Manic Monday” by The Bangles.  It drives me crazy that it’s in my head all day, but it’s how I remember to cut the kids’ nails on a regular basis.  Mondays are manicure days.  Catchy eh?

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Now please, promise me you’ll never reveal to Warren when he’s older what I’m about to show you, it would embarrass him beyond compare!  The boys got these plastic teeth from the grocery store and Warren thought it would be a good idea to wear them on the potty.  No, we’re not quite potty training yet, but every once in a while he will agree to sit on the toilet and squirt out a drop or two in exchange for some chocolate chips.

 

Notice the drool dripping down his chest…apparently it’s somewhat difficult to keep your green plastic teeth AND drool in your mouth at the same time.

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And finally, Ryan discovered how to keep crazy rollie baby from rolling off the bed:

A cage!

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Check back tomorrow for another scrumptious Thanksgiving-themed Tasty Tuesday (do you like the alliteration?)!!

oops

Sorry for how the format got all messed up in the "Pictures" post, I'm not sure how it happened, and I don't want to take the time to fix it either. Some of the words got covered up, but you can get the general idea.

We are leaving to drop Ryan's thesis (rough draft) off! Wahooo!

Then, and perhaps even more Wahoo worthy, is that we're dropping off the boys with Grammy so they can spend the night and we can go to the mall to spend our gift card money and get dinner. Aubrey will be with us (Grammy informed me she doesn't have the right "equipment" to take care of the girl overnight) which will be fine because she's pretty quiet and easy.

Until next time...happy blogging!

Bedtime Routine

The boys’ bedtime routine consists of

1. clean up
2. get jammies on
3. brush teeth
4. Bible story
5. prayer
6. and this:

Lots of Pictures

I am so behind on picture posting, so I’m just going to do lots right here and now. And you’ll love it. Here we go.

Aubrey is so into her toes right now. She loves to grab onto them and shove them in her mouth, so we often find her like this:

Kidspace! We went last weekend to Kidspace, a children’s science/discovery museum in Pasadena with Grammy & Papa, Christi and her girls, and the 3 littles and me. It was lots of fun, lots of discovering, and lots of getting wet.

Jakers climbing on the wall.

Warren riding a tricycle.

Driving a Jeep

More climbing!

For Master’s Kids I made the kid’s snack (rice krispie turkey balls) and let the boys at home do a test run to “make sure they tasted ok.” They did.

We then had our Thanksgiving Dessert Social (for Master’s Kids). The kids put on a little Indian & Pilgrim play for the moms…too cute! Jake was an adorable little Indian.

(No comments from the peanut gallery about my eyes being closed…it’s a little problem I have for those who may not know) :)

And last but not least…you may remember that Warren used to get stuck under the red chair when he started scooting around before he could crawl forward. His little sister is now following suit. It is simply hilarious.

Ok, I think that about covers it for now. I hope you are well and have a wonderful Thanksgiving season!

Tasty Tuesday

So for this TT and the next we’re doing Thanksgiving themed foods.  Delicious!  I got this recipe from my husband’s aunt, and boy is divine.  It is so yummy that you’d think it was a dessert, but it’s mostly carrots so it qualifies as a side dish! 

Carrot Soufflé

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 2 cups cooked baby carrots
• 2 T. flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 t. cinnamon

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients in blender until fluffy.
• Bake at 400* for 15 minutes, then at 350* for another 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

BTW-this is my 200th post…go Trzeciak Chatter!

Brotherly Love

These moments don’t happen all the time so I like to capture them when they do!

 Pretty cute, eh?

Happy Lord’s Day!

Awww….

 

My bloggy buddy Lindsay at Our Lives in a Nutshell bestowed this award upon my blog, thanks!  I’ve been following her blog for several months now and love it for several reasons: she tells great and hilarious stories about her cute kids, she takes great pictures that she shares, and of course, Tasty Tuesday!  And I get to listen to David Archuleta every time I check out her blog.  Awesome.

Here are the rules for getting this blog love:

1. Name 5 things you love
2. Pass this award on to 5 blogs you love.
3. Link back to the giver’s blog, and tell how fabulous they are.

So, here are my 5 things:

1. I love reading.  I am currently reading John Adams by David McCullough (such a great read, plus I’m learning so much about the birth of our nation), and The Sovereignty of God by A.W. Pink.  This is a book that I would love to devour in an evening, but I’m reading it slowly, one chapter at a time, in order to glean as much good stuff as possible.  This has become, for me, a book that I think every single person who names the name of Christ should read.  It’s an oldie, first published in 1928, but goodie and reads as if it was written this morning and is extremely relevant for our lives today.
2. I love little girl clothes way more than I thought I would.
3. I love the hour between 1 and 2 p.m. when all the children are sleeping and the house is quiet. 
4. I love taking Jake to The Master’s Kids Tuesdays at church and watching him have a blast playing with the other kids and learning so much.
5. I love pasta of all kinds.

That’s all, it was actually pretty hard to narrow that down to just 5.  I love lots of things (and people).

Now, I award the bloggy love to:

The Stegman Family – My sister’s family blog.  I love seeing pictures of my nephew and niece since we don’t get to visit with them very often.

Whatsoever Things are True – Another new bloggy bud, actually Lauren is my sister’s friend.  I enjoy following the ins and outs of her family life as well.  I blog-stalked her for a while before I came out in the open about it.

The Hopeful Sandersons – A fellow seminary family.  We’ve been following their baby’s story since she was born a little over 3 months ago.

Tales of the Munch Bunch – Now I know Kurt and Julie don’t know I follow their blog!  They are a family at our church and Ryan knows Kurt through seminary and Children’s Ministries.  She has some very funny tales to tell about their family of 7.

Thompson Tales – My super good friend Shilo and fam.  They moved away (sniff sniff) to Washington so this is the best way to stay up on pictures of Aubrey’s betrothed, Micah.

The end.  Now go check out these blogs!

Howdy

Just a quick “hello” on a busy Wednesday!

Also-I made Lindsay’s chili tonight and all I have to say is “nummmooo” to the max! I put everything in the crockpot this morning, made some cornbread before dinner, and was that ever a tasty meal! Thanks my bloggy buddy for some great recipes!

Tasty Tuesday!

Oven-Easy Chicken

I got this recipe from my mom, and I have no idea where she got it, but it sure is good. And easy, a plus.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 t. paprika (I used smoked paprika, I love the flavor)
• 1 t. salt
• 1/4 t. pepper
• 1 stick of butter, or less depending on how much chicken you use, or how many calories you want to consume that night.
• chicken, up to a pound. I use chicken breast halves.

Directions:

• Place butter in whatever dish you will bake chicken in the oven to preheat to 400* while you prepare chicken to allow butter to melt.
• Rinse and dry chicken.
• Mix all dry ingredients in a paper bag.
• Add chicken, small amounts at a time, to bag, shake to coat each piece with dry mixture.
• When butter is melted, place chicken in baking dish. Bake 15 minutes, turn chicken, bake another 15 minutes or until done.

Simple, delicious, easy, quick, what could be better? And, you don't need your stove, so the kitchen should be safe.

Fire!

This is definitely a first for me, almost burning down the kitchen!  Well, perhaps it’s a little too dramatic to say I almost burned down the kitchen, but it was a start.

Here’s what happened: I have a nifty cookbook holder that my mom gave me for Christmas last year.  Usually I put whatever recipe or cookbook I’m using in it, but today I had two out, so I put the other one on the back of the stove up against the wall.  Well, in turning on the burner to get the rice going, I didn’t notice just how close the cookbook was to the open flame, until the book was on fire!  As embarrassing as this is to say, I actually starting blowing on it really hard in attempts to get the huge flame to go out!  But then my brain clicked and I grabbed it and threw it in the sink that was thankfully full of dishwater.  Yikes.  I was the only one upstairs so no one heard my scream.  In the end, the only casualty is my cookbook.  Well, and the rice water which was full of ash, but that was easy enough to start over. 

Here’s the damage:

Check out which page got the worst of the fire damage:

 

SMOKY Almond Chicken, get it?!

The really big bummer is that now I have to re-copy all my recipes in a new book!  Do you have any idea how long it took my to do it the first time?  Let’s just say I’m not done yet, and my mom gave this to me a couple Christmases ago. 

So I’m ok now.  My heart finally calmed down, it was racing like crazy for a while.  That’s quite enough excitement in the Trzeciak house for a while.

Skin Grabbing

So my little boys have this weird thing where they like to grab each other’s skin and make funny noises.  Usually it’s arm skin, but any other convenient body place works too.  Observe:

As you can tell, they think it’s hilarious!  And can someone tell me why the laundry basket is such a fun place to play?  I can’t keep these guys out of it!

5 Months!

Here we are again, another month mark, more quilt pictures.  This past month was great with Aubrey.  She’s become quite the chatter box, more so than the boys were.  I’ve heard it’s because she’s a girl, well yeah, we have lots to say people!  She’s become very interested in her toys, still is in love with her brothers, began eating “solids”, and loves to wake up at 5:30 a.m.!  Good thing her daddy is up at that hour usually and takes her out of the room so I can get a little extra snoozin’ in, otherwise I’d be a bear.  And according to Titus, we’re to affectionately and tenderly love our kids, not be bear-like.  So, thanks hubby for entertaining Aubrey while you read and write in the mornings!

Here are some pictures of Aubrey at 5 months, and one at one week, to compare.

Can  you believe that? She’s like 7 squares big now! It wasn’t easy getting these pics, she kept wanting to curl up her legs and hold her toes.  (You were right, Lauren, much more difficult now to get good pictures now that she moves so much!) Ryan was laying at the edge of the quilt and holding her legs down until right before I snapped the picture.  Look how pink and plump she is! 

Here is a little mosaic of us goofing around with her after her “photo shoot.”

That’s all for now, the fellas are awake and the babe will be going down for her nap soon.  Have a sweet weekend!

Tie Boys

They don’t come any cuter than this, people!

Warren was so thrilled to wear this tie to church, just like daddy.  If you remember, Jake threw a fit about wearing to to church last year on Easter Sunday.  Actually, it was just this past Easter, how time escapes me.

Adorable!

We got him to at least put it on for the pictures.

It’s a weird feeling having Warren fit into and wear Jake’s old clothes! I just can’t believe that they are getting so big.

Boy, oh, Boy

Well, I was going to start out with a sarcastic comment about how we have a new National Community Organizer (my mom’s witty comment!), but I’ll refrain.  Instead, I’ll write about what the Lord has laid on my heart about the election.

It’s really quite simple: “Every person is to be in subject to the governing authorities.  For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God,” Romans 13:1-2.

National Community Organizer President-Elect Obama was put in place by God, whether we like it or not, according to Scripture.  The thing is, we should be praising God because His will was accomplished last night, again, whether we approve or disapprove of the results.  There are so many verses, especially in the Psalms that speak of the Lord ruling the nations from His throne above (Psalm 47:2, 47:7-8, 93:1, 96:10, 97:1, 97:9, Daniel 2:21, just to name a few), that we can and should be confident that it was God who not only knew what the election results would be, but caused it to happen.

As believers, we are citizens of heaven and earth, and while we are to be concerned about earthly matters, the more important and better concern for us is on things above.  We are to seek first God’s kingdom and set our minds on things above.

So rest assured you politically weary friends, that our God is in control of the earth.  We may not approve of our new President’s policies or views, but God is quite clear that we are to be in subject to him.  We should be praying for him and imploring the Lord to put godly men and women around him and for the Spirit to draw him to Himself so that he may come to know the Lord one day and be saved from God’s wrath.  As I constantly remind my boys, wouldn’t that be an action that pleases God? 

I’ll leave you with this verse that is quite a comfort for such a time as this: “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all” Psalm 103:19.

Tasty Tuesday!

It’s that time again!

Southwestern Chicken

Ingredients:

• 2 cans (15 1/4 oz) corn, drained
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
• 16 oz jar chunky salsa, divided
• 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 cup low fat shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

• Combine corn, beans, and 1/2 cup salsa in slow cooker.
• Top with chicken, top with remaining salsa.
• Cook on low 6-7 hours, or until done (mine only took about 4 1/2 or 5)
• Sprinkle with cheese, cover for 5 minutes for cheese to melt.

This goes really well with rice.

Enjoy!

Baby Stunts

By the third baby, you finally begin to realize how much fun they are to play with!  Babies are a lot more resilient than we realize when we first start having them.  After seeing so many pictures of my cousin and his wife’s kids and what their Papa does with them, Ryan and I thought: hey, we can do that too, let’s try it!  So behold the standing-baby-up-high-in-the-air trick!

Pretty nifty, eh?

Home Making Rule #174:

When attempting multi-tasking (not always a good idea with multiple children) always set a timer. 

These are the apples I was cooking up for Aubrey to make into applesauce.  After about 40 minutes, I remembered they were on the stove.  I decided she wasn’t at the “crispy” apple stage yet, so I started over.

 

The finished product looks (and tastes) much better.

Live Writer

Hello all-

I’m trying a new “system”, uhh, “way to blog”…I have no idea what to call it.  Anyway,  my online friend Lindsay told me about Live Writer after I mentioned I was having spacing issues with Blogger so I’m giving it a try. 

Here’s a picture we just took with out web cam.  Does anyone else out there have a webcam that we could talk to?

Yes, that is a light on Jake’s head, he’s been wearing it all day.  Warren broke his earlier on.  Aunt Pam gave the boys these last Christmas and they still love them.

Well, this Live Writer thing is pretty cool, lots more features than blogger.  Thanks Lindsay!  Sorry I missed Tasty Tuesday last week, I was out of town, but looking forward to this week!

By the way, it’s my favorite day of the year today/tomorrow with the end of daylight savings…one extra hour to sleep…yes!!

Reformation Day

A day late, here are some pictures from our Reformation Day party. Not that we have anything against Halloween (really, can anyone say there is anything inherently evil in going door-to-door asking for candy or dressing up as a cute something or other?), we just decided to celebrate a day that is infinitely more important to us as believers.

In the afternoon the boys and I made stained glass pictures, we told them the story of Martin Luther and a little about the Reformation, and after dinner put on the movie Luther and ate a Diet of Worms! (gummy worms that is.) Even though they're still so little, Jake was able to understand the difference between what the Catholic church teaches about salvation by works and what we know to be true from the Word: salvation is a gift from the Lord, nothing we do can merit that gift (Ephesians 2:8-9). He kept saying over and over that we have to trust Jesus to go to Heaven! How wonderful for him to understand that at such a young age! So here are a couple pictures.

Coloring the pictures with crayons

Then you take a cotton ball soaked in oil and rub all over the page.

Viola! The finished product looks so pretty in the kitchen window.