THE END...

Two years ago in November I began this blog...so it seems fitting to end it in November.

During out weekend trip there was much time for talking while we drove hither and yon, and during one of our discussions I decided that it was time to end my blog.

Thank you to the faithful few who read my blog and posted comments throughout the past two years.

The kids and I have enjoyed our journey on the food frontier - and though we'll no longer be posting - we'll be continuing our journey...

Happy Ending

Husband was feeling better Friday morning, so Friday afternoon we drove out to his aunt and uncle's home.

We had a fun time with dh's relatives...

The kids enjoyed the chickens...

The girl brought along her hermit crabs and they survived (and didn't get forgotten!).

The weather was beautiful...

The kids went to the creek and found some geodes (something the girl has been wanting to do for many moons)...

There was much good food...

Saturday we drove to Kirksville, MO to visit another aunt and uncle...had supper at hub's cousins' house...

Sunday we attended the church dh went to while he was in college and dh preached...

We enjoyed getting to see family and old friends...

Our Thanksgiving "Feast"

We sometimes like to do things a little different around here at Exotic Eating...

Instead of Thanksgiving Dinner at a relatives home...a dinner we were thankful for at Hardees (sure thankful it was open!).

Instead of turkey a Spicy Chicken Sandwich...

Instead of mashed potatoes some french fries...

Instead of green bean casserole with fried onions some onion rings...

On Wednesday we were packed and ready to leave for dh's aunt/uncle's home Thursday morning. Wednesday evening dh started feeling crummy...Wednesday night he got sick. Ugh.

By Thursday morning he was feeling some better but we certainly didn't want to chance bringing a bunch of germs to all our family (I doubt they'd be thankful about that!) ...and dh really just needed to sleep and we needed to see if it was going to turn into some long drawn out sickness.

We had nothing Thanksgiving foodish in the home...save a cran-apple pie and some fall leaf cookies I was planning on bringing to our Thanksgiving celebration. Dh was not hungry.

I decided to take the kids out for lunch. Wasn't sure what kind of places would be open - I phoned a few restaurants but no answer. So I thought we could just get in the car and drive around and see what restaurants had cars parked outside.

We didn't have to drive far to spot a Hardees with a handful of cars. The kids thought Hardees sounded good.

We then went to pick up some ice-cream from Walmart - for the hub (well and for us too of course). While browsing around Walmart someone stole the girl's nice gloves out of our shopping cart! This was the first time she wore the gloves and they were sitting in the bottom of the cart...which sometimes was somewhat "unattended". The store only had a few shoppers . When we went to check out we noticed the gloves were no longer in the cart. Too big too fall through the cracks in the cart. There is a slight chance that at some point the girl took the gloves out of the cart and then left them somewhere - but we're leaning toward the thievery...pretty pathetic to spend your Thankgiving Day stealing little girl's gloves from a shopping cart.

Our supper meal was even more spectacular - Ramen Noodles :)

Hey - the girl said it's one of her most favorite foods ever and that she could eat it every day!

Even the dh had some.

Then we had root beer floats for dessert.

Everyone likes root beer floats!

You don't need to have a big Thanksgiving Dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving. You don't need to have a room full of people and food to be thankful.

In spite of sickness, in spite of a Hardees meal instead of a turkey dinner (I'm mostly sad about missing out on stuffing/dressing and gravy!), in spite of new gloves being thieved - we have so much to be thankful for.

"...And having food and raiment let us be therewith content." 1 Timothy 6:8

Fall Colored Leaf Sugar Cookies

This morning the kids and I have been working on these fall colored leaf cookies for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

They are super simple - I got the idea from a Country Living Magazine article (they "glued" the leaves onto a cardboard wreath) a few years ago.

I'm not too happy with the pinkish leaf color -was hoping for more burgundy-ish or red, but oh well. I added a bit of black to the red to alter it and still not happy...the girl said "that's what you did last time too!" I really like the orange color - wish I had made more of that one.

I just used a sugar cookie recipe I found online.

All you do is make your cookie dough recipe and then divide up the dough and add different food colorings to each batch. Roll out your dough - pressing two or more colors together. When cutting out the cookies - make sure you place your cutter in an area where two or more colors will meet. Then draw leaf "veins" on with something pointy (I used a cake tester) and sprinkle on a little colored sugar.

Easy Christmas Shopping

The other day I asked the kids what were three things they really wanted for Christmas. I made a point of telling them that didn't mean that they were going to get those three things - but I was just curious to know what they were.

Here is the girl's list:

Swiss Army Knife
Pitchback
Coconut

Yes the third item is in fact a coconut. And she did stress that she was not joking - she really did want one. "I've been thinking about them lately...".

I'm sure it's true b/c the last couple of times we've been in the grocery store she has asked if we can purchase one. We had a bad experience with the last coconut we bought(it was rancid and nasty) so I haven't allowed her to get another one.

Well I guess I'll pass the list along to Santa and see if maybe he can pick one up when passing through Hawaii...

The Joys of Discovery

The other day the kids came running excitedly into the house to show me some unusual "critter".

The boy claimed to have seen some "legs" on it.

At first I thought it was just a bit of moss - but it did seem to curl up into a ball when we touched it.

Using a pair of wooden chopsticks - we prodded the little ball and if we looked super close we could see that it was some type of "critter"...maybe a grub or a tick or a ??? but it was all covered with a greenish mossy coat.

Whatever it was, it caused some excitement for about 10 minutes...

Snapea Crisps

Snapea Crisps from our friendly Trader Joe's Store...cost $1.49.

Definitely a bizarre idea for a snack - baked peas??

They were wonderful! Nice and crisp - kind of melt in your mouth like Popcorn Puffs or Popcorn Twists. Salty.

If you closed your eyes, popped one in your mouth and didn't know what you were eating - you sure would not guess that it was a vegetable. I did not notice much of a green pea flavor.

The girl enjoyed them as much as I did...the boy says they were "OK" - not a ringing endorsement from him.

The ingredients are: green peas, corn oil, rice, salt, calcium carbonate, ascorbic acid.

As one cup of peas has about 120 calories and only about 6 of those calories from fat...and the snapea crisps (22 pieces) contains 150 calories and 70 of those from fat - you can see that this has moved quite from from the realm of a health food dish.