Wednesday, November 28, 2007

His Way Inn

Over Thanksgiving we were able to go to my parents new place "His Way Inn". They named it that because they wanted the house name to Glorify the Lord for all he has blessed them with. What an amazing house! Beautiful views from every window. The kids and I went early because two of my Uncles from Nebraska had come to give my mom some of the furniture that wouldn't fit in my grandma's new place. We don't get to see them much so it was nice to see them. There was a full house Thanksgiving week with us, all the Scott girls, Aunt Jeannie, Uncle Kirk, cousins Julie and John and Amy's boyfriend David. My dad's sister, Susan, her daughter Liz and David's mom Susan came for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving Day was busy but with mom's new spacious kitchen we were all able to fit and work on our assignments (we divided up the food preparations so mom wouldn't have to do it all). As you can imagine we had a lot of yummy food and even more desserts. It wouldn't be a Scott gathering without a lot of dessert. Spending time with everyone reminds me of how blessed I am to have such a wonderful loving family. The pictures are of us in my parents backyard. Like always it was hard to get a good picture (and this time we were racing against the sun setting). I also included one of Beckham from his Thanksgiving feast at school (it was too cute not to put on the blog). Each kid in his class was given a name and his name was Rising Sun. Fun Times. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Layered Enchilada Bake

It's been a long time since I have posted a recipe. I guess I can't call it recipe of the week when I don't post any for months. I have tried a bunch of new recipes but I never find time to blog about them. Anyway, the other week 8 of my friends decided to do a meal swap. Everyone made 8 of one dish and brought it to swap. At the swap everyone got one of each meal so you go home with 8 meals. The concept is it that if you are making lasagna it is easier to make multiple pans of it since everything is out and you can buy in bulk. You cook once and in return get 8 meals to freeze. It turned out to be a success and we plan on doing it again. It has been great for nights I teach swim lessons and don't get home until 7:00. I pull one of the meals out of the freezer put it in the oven program the delay start and when we get home dinner is ready.

I was planning on making chicken enchiladas but a lot of people signed up to make chicken dishes. I didn't want to make another chicken dish so I had to find something else to make. I saw this recipe in the Food and Family Kraft Magazine and thought I would give it a try. Pretty risky making it for 8 people not even knowing if it was good. Luckily it was really good. By the way, if you don't get the Food and Family Kraft Magazine I highly recommend it. it comes about 4 times a year and is FREE. Yep Free! you can't beat that. All you do is register for it on their website. It is full of great recipes.

Here's the recipe:
1 lb of lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 c Salsa
1 can (15 oz) black beans drained and rinsed
1/4 c Italian dressing
2 Tbsp Taco Seasoning
6 flour tortillas
1 c sour cream
1 package of Kraft Mexican Cheddar cheese (I used regular cheddar)

Brown meat and onions, Drain. Add salsa, beans, dressing, seasoning, and mix well Arrange 3 tortillas in a single layer in bottom of baking dish, cover with layers of half each of the eat mixture, sour cream and cheese. Repeat all layers. cover with foil.
Cook now - preheat oven 400 bake covered 30 min remove foil bake additional 10 min. let stand 5 min
Cook later - freeze up to 3 months, preheat oven 400 bake covered 1 hour. remove foil bake additional 15 min let stand 5 min

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Movie by God

This weekend the kids and I went to help my parents move into their new house (they are finally in and the house is amazing - Yea!!!). The kids had a great time exploring while I helped move and unpack boxes.

Part of our night time ritual is that the kids get to watch 10-20 minutes of a movie before going to bed. On Saturday night both kids were exhausted and went straight to bed after dinner forgetting to watch a movie. The next morning Beckham woke up and told me, "Mom, we forgot to watch a movie last night but that's OK. I watched the stars twinkle. The sky was full of them and they were so pretty. God made a great movie (referring to the twinkling stars)." Beckham has the sweetest heart and he melted my heart as he told it to me. I have to admit he was right the stars are amazing there. In one room the bed is right under the window so when you look up all you see is stars. They are so bright, beautiful and you can see 1000s of them. The first night I was thinking the same thing Beckham was - What an amazing God we have.

Halloween

As you can imagine Halloween was a hit at our house. Both kids got into it this year. Ainsley was a riot. She would push her way to the front of the group making sure she got first dibs on the candy as it was passed out. At one house she held both hands out reaching for the bowl of candy. The man asked - Do you want the whole bowl? Her response - YES!! It was fun to see the kids enjoying themselves as they walked house to house gathering candy. Ainsley was determined to do it all on her own and refused help fro anyone. By the end of the street she was dragging her bag but didn't want to stop. Beckham was so sweet at one house the lady opened the door with a sleeping baby in her hands he whispered "trick or treat" followed by a soft "thank you". Making sure not to wake the baby. Beckham was a cowboy and Ainsley was a ladybug. I think Beckham's costume was inspired by school because they had been studying the Wild West. When he said he wanted to be a cowboy I was delighted knowing it wouldn't be hard to put that costume together. We trick or treated in shifts. I took both kids to the houses on our street with our neighbor's kids while Monte passed out candy. then we came home ate dinner and Monte took Beckham out while Ainsley and I passed out candy. It seemed to work out well and it gave both of us an opportunity to see the kids trick or treat.

The next morning Ainsley was ready to go back out for more. She asked "we go trick or treating again tonight mommy OK?" Once a year is enough for this house. If we did it every night we would all weigh 300 lbs.