Princess7915

We always have Krispy Kreme doughnuts!!!! Amoung various other home made goodies - but I love the Krispy Kreme!!

Tyler Florence’s Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Bananas with Honey 5 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed 4 bananas, unpeeled 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 1/4 cup honey Kosher salt 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 3/4 cup dark brown sugar 1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Prick the sweet potatoes all over with a fork, put them in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes. Toss the bananas into the pan and continue roasting for 10 to 15 minutes, until both the bananas and potatoes are very soft. Remove the pan from the oven but don't turn the oven off. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh out into a large mixing bowl. Peel the bananas and add them to the bowl along with 1 stick of the butter, and the honey. Season with salt and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until everything's well combined and the mixture is fluffy. Spoon into an oven-proof serving bowl and smooth the top. In a separate mixing bowl, use your fingers to rub together the remaining stick of butter, the brown sugar, flour, and pecans until the mixture is the consistency of coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the sweet potatoes and return to the oven. Cook for about 20 minutes, until the crumbs are golden. Serve hot.

Anybody will eat these!! Even if you hate Zuccini - but they don't really stay warm long after cooking. They are FANTASTIC!! Fried Zuccini: Olive oil, for frying 1 3/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan 1 1/2 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 large eggs 3 medium zucchini, cut into 3-inch long by 1/2-inch wide strips Pour enough oil into a large frying pan to reach a depth of 2 inches. Heat the oil over medium heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers 350 degrees F. Stir 1 1/2 cups Parmesan, the panko, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Whisk the eggs in another medium bowl to blend. Working in batches, dip the zucchini in the eggs to coat completely and allow the excess egg to drip back into the bowl. Coat the zucchini in the panko mixture, patting to adhere and coat completely. Place the zucchini strips on a baking sheet. When the oil is hot, working in batches, fry the zucchini sticks until they are golden brown, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the fried zucchini to paper towels and drain. Arrange the fried zucchini on a platter. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and serve

These are the BEST ever pork chops but you have to buy thick chops -like 1.25 inches from the butcher or a good grocery store - not pre-packaged. I use Craisins for the dried cranberries and it worked great! Bobby Flay’s Grilled Pork Chops Filled w/ Sundried Cranberries Cranberry Filled Pork Tenderloin: 4 pork chops, 1-inch thick Salt and freshly pepper Cranberry filling, recipe follows Cranberry sauce, recipe follows Olive oil Garnish: Dried cranberries Toasted pine nuts Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut a pocket into the side of each pork chop going 3/4 of the way through. Season chop with salt and pepper and stuff the pocket with the cranberry filling. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium oven-proof saute pan over high heat. Add the pork chops and sear on both sides. Add 1 cup chicken cranberry sauce. Place the pan in the oven and roast until the meat is firm to the touch, about 8 to 10 minutes. Spoon the chicken-cranberry sauce on a plate and top with pork chops. Garnish with dried cranberries and toasted pine nuts. Sundried Cranberry Filling: 1 cup sundried cranberries 2 tablespoons pinenuts, toasted 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon cascabel chile powder Salt Place the cranberries in a medium bowl and cover with boiling water, let sit 30 minutes to rehydrate. Drain and reserve soaking liquid. Place cranberries and remaining ingredients in a food processor with a 1/4 cup of the soaking liquid and process until smooth. Pass through a fina strainer. Season with salt. Chicken-Cranberry Sauce: 4 cups homemade chicken stock 1/4 cup white wine 1/4 cup red wine 1/4 cup cranberry juice 1 tablespoon brown sugar 1 teaspoon black peppercorns 1 tablespoon chipotle puree Salt Place chicken stock in a nonreactive medium saucepan over high heat and cook until reduced to 2 cups. Add, wines, cranberry juice, brown sugar, peppercorns and chipotle puree and continue cooking until thickened to a sauce consistency. Season with salt.

We take turns by person. After the kids have opened - because it's not fair to make them wait- the adults all rotate. Like grandma will open all of hers then my uncle will open all of his and so on until everyone is done. I see it both ways - I take a lot of time to wrap and so I like to enjoy seeing everyone open their gifts and I hate Christmas to be over in 20 minutes. But sometimes it feels like forever before we are done!!! I like a few rules just to teach younger kids to be polite when getting gifts but too many rules takes the fun out of it too.

Walmart -after Christmas! I think Target's not too bad and Lowes may have them on sale if you watch the paper. I think we bought some at Garden Ridge at one of their big sales one year.

My aunt was think about doing some of the hand sanitizers from Bath and Body Works for her kids driver this year. No kids myself. I think she's also done tree ornaments from a craft fair we hit every year in the past. And GC w/ mug of some variety. She may have done a hand made kitchen towel one year - she sews and cross stitches.

I use half.com all the time for books!!

I love this topic - I was clueless that other things existed on Black Friday outside of shopping!

We've considered doing the big outlet thing here but it's a geography problem! The outlets are about an hour away from our regular shopping! There is no way we can do the midnight opening, shop, and drive an hour to be back for a 4 am opening to Kohls (where we always start). I would love to do the outlest one year though - but most of the outlet shopping would be for myself and not for gifts which is why I always pass it up. But the ones in Williamsburg are great!

I drive about 20 minutes to my mom's side of town and we shop together. Any major store you could possibly want to shop at is within 5 minutes of her house. Well- on a normal day anyway! There are lots of smaller stores that are great to shop at too in the cities if you feel like taking the time to drive. That's the good thing about living in Hampton Roads but the traffic is terrible!!!

Always love the Kohls ad. Then Penny's.

I don't have any green bags yet, just haven't bought them. But I always find ways to reuse my plastic and paper grocery bags. Plastic bags make great packing material if you're short on newspaper if you are shipping or storing something and there is no ink to rub off on to anything! I also use them for kitty box clean up (yuck!!) but they are handy.

I am a major night owl - not a morning person at all and everybody knows this about me. So when people ask if I'll get them something I just simply tell them that if I can get my butt out of bed to go shopping, then so can you! They usually laugh and see my point is pretty reasonable.

I shop for bargins whenever - mostly due to this site now. I just used some online codes in addition to some clearance pricing for Talbots and it was a great deal. I love Target end cap deals, got a great blender last month for $24. I just think it's a matter of keeping your eyes open and not getting into the habit of buying because it's on sale either. I also love Ollies for stuff, if you have one locally check it out. They rotate stock often so you have to go often to check up. Christmas wrap is a steal. I did really well on some expensive board games over the end of summer last year and put them away for Christmas. This year I think every little bit is going to help even more than in years past.

Awesome!! DH just placed a big order for mens items for him. Thanks!!

I think Virginia would Tax your Taxes if they could figure out a way to get away with it!!!

As many years as possible DH and I go out the weekend of Thanksgiving and get our tree. Sometimes the following week if Thanksgiving is really early. Then when we are ready to decorate I always put on the same Kenny G Chrismas C.D. and we decorate the tree. We've only been married for 3yrs, but lived together longer. He didn't have Christmas really at all much as a child so I've started traditions. My Second favorite is for many years I made him a stocking -literally. I choose fabric and a pattern and make him one. I've done it since high school. He never had a stocking as a kid (seriously) so I made him one the first Chrismas I knew him and it stuck. Then the collection grew kind of large so now I choose a different one that I made and fill it for him. He depends on it every year although he pretends it's not a big deal.

I have a tree with white lights, with gold and burgundy bead garland. Ornamants are dark green, dark red, and gold. I have some snowflakes that are glass, brass bells etc. I have a few snowmen and santa's but they aren't cartoonish and have to fit the theme. My new tradition is collecting the Swarovski Annual Crystal Snowflakes!! They are SOOOO beautiful when the twinkle lights shine through them!

Just have to say to Brad that is my fav. contest ever. So much fun to do and to read!!!

Hurry eat your meals Black Friday shopping I go I gotta get deals!!

Tickets are all gone Standing in line all night long Best Buy sucks so bad

I love my Webkinz! I'm 29. And just FYI to Wx4svr, my DH plays with his Webkins too! I have 6, he has 5! So I take a bit off offense at the "women these days comment" LOL Webkinz are fun! I get mine at a garden center near home. Not necessarily the least expensive but they have everyone you could want!! Everyone in my family has them - even my grandmother. She loves to Kinzpost items to everyone!!! Checkout the WebkinzInsider.com website for great info!

This will be my 6th BF!!

I will probably be spending less. I think the whole family will be - all the kids are older and are learning lessons of few but better quality gifts. I also think I will be cautious on BF about spending. I think that deals may get better closer to Christmas as retailers feel the crunch of the holiday spending slump.