Texas Roadhouse Clone Cinnamon Butter

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (chilled)
1/2 tsp. corn syrup
3/4 to 1 tsp. cinnamon (to taste)

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until mixture is smooth. Serve with hot rolls or muffins. This may be stored in the refrigerator

Ham Loaf

This is a good way to use leftover ham!

HOLIDAY HAM LOAVES ~ SERVES 4

1 lb. cooked ham, ground
3/4 c. saltine cracker crumbs
1/3 c. minced celery
1 egg (beaten)
3 tbsp. chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
1/4 tsp. seasoned pepper
2 T. ketchup
2 T. minced onion
1/4 C. syrup from pineapple chunks
Pineapple chunks
Maraschino cherries

In medium bowl, combine ham with cracker crumbs, celery,
egg, parsley, seasoned salt, seasoned pepper, ketchup, onion
and pineapple syrup.
Form ham into 4 loaves, press 1 pineapple chunk halved and 1/2
maraschino cherry into each loaf.

GLAZE:

1/4 c. brown sugar
4 tsp. vinegar
4 tsp. pineapple juice
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
2 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 4 tsp. cherry juice

Cook to thicken. Pour over ham loaves.
Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Apple Pie-An Adult Beverage

This is from Laura and sounds super yummy!

1 gal of apple juice
1 gal of apple cider
4 cups of sugar
7 cinnamon sticks
1 qt everclear

Add the apple juice,cider,cinnamon sticks,sugar and boil until cinnamon sticks lose there flavor(or open up all the way)let cool slightly then add the everclear chill pour and enjoy your apple pie

A Different Way To Spend Thanksgiving

This year we spent a rather non-traditional Thanksgiving! Lucas is stationed at Ft. Meade, MD.. so Bill, Jason and I packed up and went there. Wish Laura could have been with us!! Decided to spend Thursday being tourists.. and umm, what tourists we were! Couldnt find a Metro Station that was open near where Lucas lived so we drove to DC and parked the car near the Vietnam Memorial Wall. What a great place to start our tour and a reminder of some of things we have to be thankful for!







From there, we went to the Lincoln Memorial...







Then we walked.. and we walked.. across the Potomac to Arlington~













Fortunately, when we left Arlington we found a Metro Station that took us back across to the National Mall/Smithsonian area.















Here we also had our Thanksgiving Dinner.. a 7.95 hot dog and bag of chips. At that point, we all thought it was the best tasting dinner EVER!



National Air & Space Museum was next-





Next stop, the Smithsonian Castle-





By then, it was starting to get dark and time to head back to the car.





Getting back to car was the LONGEST walk I have ever taken. My feet have blisters, haha!

Friday was a quick trip to base before heading back home.



It was truly a great way to spend Thanksgiving. DC was busy, busier than I thought it would be.. everything was open. Wish there had been more time to see more things.

We also found a great way that Lucas and Jason can get jobs, stay close to us... and even closer to each other. Jason has another year of grad school and Lucas will be out of the Air Force next spring. Since they will both be job searching-they have good leads and could very well both end up living together.. at least in the same town and near enough that we can see them regularly!! Now, just to find a way to get Laura and Geoff here!

Wouldn't This Be A Great Way To Start The Christmas Season??

Unsuspecting diners at a food court in Canada... Just a reminder that it is not the holiday season, it the CHRISTmas season~it would not have existed with out Christ. Wish I could have been there for this!

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

3 cups all purpose flour
5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups granulated sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

Combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and orange juice in a large mixer
bowl; beat until just blended. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture;
stir just until moistened. Fold in the cranberries. Spoon the batter into the
prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes
out clean.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

1 package yellow cake mix
1 can (1 pound) pumpkin
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Topping:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl combine dry cake mix,
pumpkin, brown sugar, oil, eggs,
nuts, and pumpkin pie spice.

Blend at low speed until completely
moistened, about 1 minute. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed.

Spread batter in a greased and
floured 13" x 9" x 2" pan.

In a medium bowl combine the
sugar, flour, softened butter,
and cinnamon with a fork or
pastry blender. Sprinkle evenly over batter.

Bake at 350° F for 40-45
minutes, until center springs
back when touched lightly.

Paula's Apple Pie... Or Crisp

Okay, I burned the durn pie.. what can I say? Apparently my vintage turquoise oven is having a temperature problem even though we sent the thermostat off and had it rebuilt by antiquestoves.com. Now it looks totally garbage but my great husband said~aww, we can eat it anyway. We did and it wasn't half bad (minus the really burnt crusty edges). I would make this again but would use a lower temp than the called for 450 degrees.

3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling
Freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
7 medium apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
Directions
Paula's Perfect Pie Crust, recipe follows

3 tablespoons butter, diced
Egg wash, for brushing
Sugar, for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Mix together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl.
In another bowl, sprinkle apples with the juice of 1 lemon and toss. Stir in
the sugar mixture to evenly coat the apples.

Set aside. Roll out chilled dough into 2 circles and use 1 round to line a
9-inch pie pan. Chill the other round.

Mound the apple and sugar mixture into the pie pan lined with dough. Dot
with the cubed butter.

Using a pastry cutter, cut an even number of strips from the remaining
rolled out dough. Transfer every other strip to the pie top and weave in the
lattice by folding every other strip back onto itself and laying another
strip perpendicularly. Fold the strips back across and repeat until
completed.

Brush the top of the pie with egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
Trim the overhanging dough and crimp edges.

Bake pie for 45 minutes. Let rest 20 minutes before slicing.

Paula's Perfect Pie Crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable shortening, cold
12 tablespoons butter, cold and cubed
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup ice water

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt and sugar. Add the
shortening and break it up with your hands as you start to coat it all up
with the flour. Add the cold butter cubes and work it into the flour with
your hands or a pastry cutter. Work it quickly, so the butter doesn't get
too soft, until the mixture is crumbly, like very coarse cornmeal. Add the
ice water, a little at a time, until the mixture comes together forming a
dough. Bring the dough together into a ball.

When it comes together stop working it otherwise the dough will get
over-worked and tough. Divide the dough in half and flatten it slightly to
form a disk shape. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill in the refrigerator
for about 30 minutes. On a floured surface roll each disk out into a 10 to
11-inch circle to make a 9-inch pie.