It's about that time!

 

Fall is on the back burner, ya'll! We already hit up Curran's Apple Orchard to get our apple cider slushies with a dozen apple cider donuts. And now it's time for the best fall food of them all... Soup season! You make a crockpot of chili for football Sundays, I make soup.

We already made our loaded baked potato soup and even bought bread to make bread bowls. I can already feel the warmth of the crackling bonfire, smell the spiked hot chocolate, and envision the leaf piles waiting to be jumped in. Don't get me wrong. We LOVE summer! No work, no alarms, no worries and tons of camping and day trips, BUT fall... Sigh...

Football, soup, bonfires, movie marathons by a fire in the living room, pumpkin decorating, homemade costumes, fun townie events. I love it! Even as I write this, my heart is fluttering with all the happiness from those cutie fall crafting sessions. Before I get too far ahead of myself, though, our favorite weatherman is informing us it's going to be a HOT weekend. Oh, Illinois! Get it together! Lucky for me, I get one more crazy summer weekend with flip flops and swimsuit options before I pull out my oversized sweatshirts and fuzzy fleece socks :)

passing down the traditions

Tis the season for traditions. The day after Thanksgiving is the day for turkey pot pie. We kept the tradition alive this year and I remembered to take a picture before we tore into it! We even used our special cookie cutters to decorate it. It was so nice to pass the tradition down to someone who loves to cook, loves to be in the kitchen, and loves to spend mommy time. 

It's not my recipe. It's good ol' Betty Crocker that I wrote down on a notecard in college. I used to spend hours in the library at NIU and discovered an entire section of cookbooks. I would look up all the foods I loved and write the recipes on notecards for when I had a real kitchen and not a dorm kitchen or a tiny apartment kitchen. I have been making this recipe since 2000. 

The pot pie is sacred! It represents my roots and comfort foods, two of my favorite things :) Watching my kid roll her own crust just made me so proud. Sure, I got excited to see her ride a bike and lose her first tooth, but rolling a crust? That's a priceless skill that brings a tear to my eye.

It was tasty. It used up some Thanksgiving leftovers. It is a fun tradition to roll down. We made a mess, but we laughed. We listened to music. We made memories and then we ATE it!

on the road again...

Thanksgiving road trip time! This time we travel far up north to Birchwood, WI for a family Thanksgiving celebration. Bring on the turkey and carbs! My mini-me and I plotted things to do on the lengthy road trip and came up with good stuff. Madlibs, crocheting, addressing Christmas cards, and naps. Sounds good to me. And when we get restless we take in that gorgeous view. Man, we love the midwest!