Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving is such a busy time. People are traveling. People are cleaning and preparing houses for visitors. Someone(s) is cooking the meal. And the crazies are scoping out the sales ads for Black Friday.

For us, we do the same thing every year for the holidays. We spend Thanksgiving with my family. We will spend Christmas with Lee's family. This is just what works best for us because each of our families has a more consistent holiday than the other. 

This year, all of my side of the family was at my grandparents house. Of course we all pigged out. I remembered that this time last year Hadley was just five months old. I had made her sweet potatoes puree' to try for her first Thanksgiving. That is where she developed her love of sweet potatoes. This year Lee carried Hadley through the lunch line. He filled her plate with everything. Literally, everything. And she pigged out, too. She even had pumpkin pie for dessert. Well, actually, she took the pie off her plate and placed it on her tray. She opted to just eat Cool Whip... by itself. Go figure.

I, personally, am not a big fan of turkey. Luckily, my grandma fixes both turkey and ham. But my absolute favorite holiday food is homemade noodles. I, recently, learned that my grandma got this recipe from my great grandma {my grandpa's mother}.

After lunch my aunt mentioned that she wanted to take a family picture. Then I got the not so genius idea for all of us to go to the park and take pictures. I had my camera and my uncle Ricky had his even nicer camera too.  I have no idea why I suggested this. Well -- back up -- I suggested it because I also wanted some family pictures. But I cannot help my personality and I'm easily irritated in large groups. Naturally, it became a joke as to "hurry up before Heather gets any more mad!" ...At least they understand I'm crazy :) We ended up with a hand full of good shots of all families! It was worth it.

Granny Pope's Homemade Noodles

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 small or medium sized eggs

1 egg shell of water

NOTE: If you are using large eggs then use 1 1/2 cup flour instead

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. While in the bowl make a well in the flour for the egg and water mixture to sit. Stir the egg mixture in with the flour until soft. Knead until the dough is formed. (It may not take all the flour). Roll out very thin on a well floured board. Let dry for several hours. Cut noodles very thin with a knife. These can be prepared and stored in the freezer until needed.

To cook the noodles use a large pot of boiling chicken broth. Drop the noodles in the boiling broth until the noodles are tender. Adjust your salt seasoning to taste.

NOTE: If you cook them frozen, it usually takes 40 minutes. Remember, there is no need to thaw them out before cooking. Just drop them in the pan!