Holidays

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun.  We actually had two dinners.  On Thanksgiving we went to my mom's.  Her boyfriend BBQed a turkey and it was delicious.  I'm not usually a big fan of turkey, but I really liked his.  Then, because my brother-in-law had to work on Thanksgiving, we had a second dinner on Friday with DH's parents and brother.  It was also fun.  We played Monopoly (which I won) and Trivial Pursuit (which my father-in-law won). 

Unfortunately, the sugar free pumpkin pie that I posted about never actually got eaten.  On Wednesday night we left for my mom's house and after we'd been there for an hour or so I suddenly realized that I'd forgotten the pie.  I thought about it when we were getting ready, but I didn't want to leave it unrefrigerated for too long and I forgot to grab it before we left.  So she had to make another one on Thanksgiving morning.  It was a similar recipe and her boyfriend's dad sure seemed to like it so I guess it's a good recipe.  I planned to take it over to my in-laws for Thanksgiving because my father-in-law would eat it, but I forgot it on that trip too because I was so excited about Black Friday and going out to lunch with my husband that it slipped my mind.  So there's still a mini sugar free pumpkin pie in my fridge that I don't think will ever get eaten. 

Today, we got a new dishwasher (the last one stopped cleaning dishes) so while my husband worked on that with the maintenance guy I spent my morning ordering Christmas presents.  I got a pretty good amount for DH and I've got a pretty good shopping cart going for the rest of our families.  I even managed to find a real gift for my dad for the first time in 10 years.  Every other year I can't come up with anything for him that he will actually care about so he gets food.  This year I have something good. 

All I need now is for DH to double check it and let me know which gift he wants to get for his brother and I'm good to go.  There are a few things I will need to go into town to get so I don't know if those will be done by my goal, but I'll at least be done early this year and that makes me very happy.  I hate dealing with Christmas crowds and I plan to spend my Christmas season sitting inside my nice warm house enjoying my tree instead of stressed out and running around town. 

Sugar free pumpkin pie

I made a new recipe today.  We're celebrating Thanksgiving with my mom, her boyfriend, and his dad and brother.  His dad is diabetic so finding a pie that he can have is a little difficult.  My mom called me last week and asked me to make him a sugar-free pumpkin pie so that's what I made today.  I made a half recipe because it just needs to be a little one for him.  I guess other people might have some, but my mom doesn't eat fake sugars and I'm allergic to them.  Here's the full recipe.  It's pretty much the recipe on the back of the Libby's pumpkin puree can, but with a couple changes.

1 15-ounce can of Libby's pumpkin puree
1 12-ounce can of evaporated milk
2 eggs
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup splenda
1/2 tsp salt

Beat the eggs with your mixer, then add splenda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.  Once mixed, add your pumpkin puree.  Then slowly add the evaporated milk.  Bake at 425* for 15 minutes then lower the temperature to 350* and bake another 40-50 minutes (it actually took me a little more than 50).  It's done when a knife comes out cleanly.  Let it cool for 2 hours and then either eat or refrigerate.

Since this one will pretty much be like the Libby's recipe, I imagine it tastes pretty good. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Yes, I know it's early, but tomorrow I'll be stuffing myself on a barbecued turkey and I won't be thinking about updating my blog. 

This year, I'm thankful for my husband (this is the first year I can say that) and for the job he got a few months ago that got us out of the awful town we were living in and allowed us to move to a place we love.  What are you thankful for this year?

Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to have my Christmas shopping done by the 1st.  I could order a lot of it this weekend.  I could even go out on Black Friday and get a couple things (which I plan on doing anyway), but there are a couple people that I haven't finalized my gift list for yet so I don't want to just buy something neither of us will be happy with just to hit my goal.  It also doesn't help that this next week is very busy.  So I'll just stick with trying to be done early in December and aim for my goal next year.  I'm so close this year that I think I'll have it easily by next year.