Harness Thanksgiving 2014

Instead of heading to Mom and Dad's this year, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Scott and Tina's house. As usual, we had plenty to eat. I brought my expected three loaves of homemade sour dough bread as well as two chocolate pies and a turkey veggie tray. I've enjoyed watching Keely make her version for the last two years, so I wanted to join in on the fun. This year, I giggled the whole time as I made this cute fella.

Scott prepared a fried turkey, but he also shared a smoked turkey with us that one of his neighbors gave him. As if we needed even more meat, Mom contributed a honey baked ham. It was all delicious!

Mom (aka Grandma Harness) prepares her ham.

There were so many sides: hominy, roasted sweet potatoes, candied yams, pumpkin muffins, cranberry congealed salad, deviled eggs, pumpkin dip, broccoli, green beans, dressing, and Tina's cheese baked grits (my personal favorite!) . . . just to name a few.

Desserts spilled over to another table:  Rice Krispie treats, fudge pie, pecan pie, German chocolate cake, tapioca pudding, and chocolate meringue pie. Mmmmmmm.

Typically, food takes center stage at our Thanksgivings. Not this year. Not surprisingly, babies stole the show!

I'm so grateful that most of our extended families are able to get together as much as we do. In fact, we were even blessed to have our cousin Janie join us from Texas! A huge thanks to Scott and Tina for hosting this year!

Vicke (aka Nana) gives Rylan his first taste of "KK bread."

Steve (aka Baby Hog, er Grandpa) wouldn't share Kaydence. Grandpa Harness and Janie have to look from afar!

All four siblings (KK, Vicke, Scott, and Jackie) welcome another generation (Lawson) to the Harness clan!

KK and Keely:  Thanksgiving 2014

Cinnamon Rolls 101

After sharing some of my homemade cinnamon rolls with my tennis buddies, some of them asked, "Will you teach me?" Why, of course! In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I decided to hold my first baking class. We had a blast!

I began preparing a couple of weeks in advance to make sure there were enough starters (a concoction of potato flakes, sugar, and warm water) for everyone. Then, I fed each of the starters Tuesday night. The first session began on Wednesday morning when we each made a batch of dough. Let the rising begin!

Let the rising begin!

The main session took place that same evening. First, I had to get everything ready. At each of the five stations, you could find waxed paper, bread flour, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, etc. I knew this would be the "calm before the storm."

The "calm before the storm."

Ready, set, go! First, literally punch down the dough. It's crazy how something so simple can be so silly and satisfying!

Punching down the dough!

 I took them through the major steps of rolling out the dough, spreading on butter, layering the brown sugar and cinnamon, rolling up the dough, cutting the "log" into the cinnamon rolls, and laying them out in the pan. I also showed how to use the dough to make a basic loaf of bread.

Lots of concentration here from Karen, Kristy, Margaret Ann, and Nancy.

Kristy can't be serious for long! :)

By the end of the session, most every surface was covered with cinnamon rolls!

This is one proud Margaret Ann. (And she should be!)

Nancy proudly displays her finished product as well!

The last session took place this morning and in my absence. After rising all night long, the only thing left to do was to put them in the oven and then top with icing. It thrilled me to hear that there were a lot of happy campers this morning.

The Montgomery brothers (Mims, Cole, and Penn) happily served as taste testers.

Out of the mouth of babes: Admittedly, Cole said that "Puckett's is better." Ya gotta love such brutal honesty. For a moment, I was reminded of the movie scene in Michael:

 Battle!

I'm not ready to concede just yet. So, you can bet that I'll be heading to Puckett's of Leiper's Fork to do some competitive benchmarking analysis! I'm betting that I may discover new factors that I can experiment with. Hmmmmmm. Maybe I can count this as work. Take one for the team, right? :D

In the mean time, I'm already thinking about things that I'm grateful for during this season. With experiences like this, my list has grown.

A Westhaven Halloween

When we first moved into our new subdivision last August, I was both excited and nervous about Halloween. "Plan for literally 1000 trick-or-treaters." Oh dear! Unfortunately (or fortunately???), the weather delayed Halloween a couple of days. . . just long enough that we were not able to participate due to out of town commitments. Thankfully, we had procrastinated and had not purchased our candy yet. Dodged that bullet!

So, tonight is our first official Westhaven Halloween. This holiday is a pretty big deal around here. Our annual Witchaven that took place last Saturday draws people from all over the area. Residents go all out with their decorations. The pressure! Furthermore, I can no longer simply plop my over-sized Shrek in the yard as he finally died after this last move. I miss him already! This year, Keely and I decided to put our new painting skills (ahem) to good use.

I painted the pumpkin and sign, whereas Keely painted the witch. After hanging them up, the bottom two paintings were missing the following morning. What? I suspected they simply fell down, yet I could not find them anywhere! Surely someone wouldn't have stolen them. Seriously? I kept looking, but to no avail. I realized I was more angry at the thought that some would-be thief didn't think my pumpkin was worthy enough than the thought that someone would actually steal them. Ha! Not surprisingly, there was no thief at all. They had indeed fallen down, but Keely had already taken them inside. My pride was restored.

I must admit that my minimal decorations do not compete with many of my neighbors. Here are just a few of my favorites:

I feel like I have the best of both worlds. I can enjoy these awesome decorations on my daily walks, yet I take great pleasure knowing that I don't have to store any of this stuff!

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Sausage Balls

I sure do love this time of year! Perfect weather for an afternoon of tennis. Yesterday, my team had Round 2 of "Double Trouble" . . . a way to get our husbands on the courts for a "serious" mixed doubles round robin. Not surprisingly, munchies are an important part of this activity. We had a variety of dips, veggies, chicken strips, as well as a variety of cookies and brownies. This time of year, I'm always in the mood for making something with pumpkin, so I made pumpkin sausage balls.

I first tasted this variation of sausage balls as my sister-in-law Tina and her mother Mary make these. This recipe is already in our family cookbook; however, this is the first time I made them. I don't know why I waited so long because they're delicious and so easy to make! I modified the original recipe slightly since I wanted to use a whole can of pumpkin. This secret ingredient gives it a softer texture. I'm betting that you'll agree it's the perfect fall appetizer, especially if you're looking for something that would taste good whether it is served hot, cold, or anywhere in between. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Sausage Balls

Ingredients:

• 2-1/4 cups Bisquick mix
• 1-1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 can of pumpkin
• 2 lb sausage (I used 1 hot and 1 mild.)

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper. (This helps to soak up some of the grease from the sausage.) Combine all ingredients; mix well. With moist hands, form 1 inch balls and place on baking sheet with room between. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Makes approximately 6 dozen.

Frito Corn Salad

Last Saturday, Steve and I headed to Huntsville, TN (Dad's old stompin' grounds) to attend what is hopefully the First Annual Lawson Reunion. I can only remember visiting Scott County twice in the last 30 years. Sadly, both times were for funerals. One reason I love reunions is that you can visit with family under much happier circumstances. The main reason I loved this one in particular is that I met family members for the very first time! With great-grandparents who had more than a dozen kids, it was no surprise that we have cousins galore!

We are all descendants of William and Lucretia Lawson. You may recognize the picture below as I've written about them before on this blog.

William and Lucretia Lawson with 10 of their children. All weren't present!

The day included lots of laughter, tears, reminiscing, and of course . . . great food. On the first table, you could find fried chicken, biscuits, rolls, sour dough bread, cheese ball and crackers, deviled eggs, potato salad, and drinks.

More side dishes overflowed onto a second table: frito corn salad, dumplings, green beans, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, candied yams, and chips.

My Aunt Marilyn

Then, don't forget the desserts. They filled up yet another table! Cupcakes, poppy seed bread, orange cake, brownies, cookies, and banana pudding.

The food was delicious! Now, let's go back to the side dishes. From where I was sitting, the most requested recipe was my cousin Cindy's frito corn salad. So good! It reminded me of my niece Hayley's recipe for chili corn salad that is already in the family cookbook. However, Hayley often served her version as an appetizer dip using Fritos Scoops. Whether you make this as a side or as an appetizer, it is sure to please!

My cousin Cindy

Frito Corn Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of corn, drained
• 1 small bunch of green onions, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup of mayonnaise
• 2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 bag of Fritos chili cheese flavored corn chips

Directions:
Mix first five ingredients together. Chill. Before serving, fold in the corn chips.

Just a few more snapshots from the day:

I was so grateful for Angie (Lawson Rush) organizing this reunion so I gifted her with a copy of our family cookbook.

I was especially touched to find my first grade photo in my great grandma's wallet! That's my Aunt Rose on the other side.

Joann is the only living sibling. Shown here with adorable Olivia.

Laura's descendants: My Aunt Marilyn and her crew (Cindy, Grant, McKinley, Tom, and Pierce) as well as Dad and some of his crew (KK and Steve, Mom, and Scott).

Neva's descendants. Front row: Emily Fults, Cleavous (Neva's husband), Kaylynn Stephens. Back row: Jimmy and Melissa Fults, Freddie Lowe (oldest son of Neva's), Sharon Lowe, Danielle Lowe Stephens, Logan Fults

Joann and her family (Tammy, Amanda, and Olivia)

Willie's descendants: Angie (Lawson) Rush and Greg Rush, Beckie (Lawson) Overbey and Stan Weaver

Ledford's descendants (Roger and Rita Lawson)

Frankie's descendants: Greg and Becky, Gary, Maggie, Tara and Hayley

All the veterans of the family: Greg and Angie (Lawson) Rush, Dad (Ralph Harness), Freddie Lowe, Roger Lawson, and Steve Moore

Freddie gave the most heartfelt blessing. Ever.

A New Chapter Begins

When I agreed to help host a baby shower for my niece Hannah, I immediately knew a children's book theme would be perfect since she is an avid reader. This one was so much fun to plan!

Damaris, Hannah, Jackie, and KK

Even though designing the invitation involved tediously searching and copying each character's image, it was worth it as I was able to reminisce about each one. I re-read many of them. Why not? Even C.S. Lewis said, "A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."

We asked each party-goer to bring a book to help build a library for Baby Lawson. Anticipating duplicates, I also created a book plate for each person to slip inside instead of writing directly on the book. Surprisingly, I believe there ended up being only one duplicate!

These well-known characters helped shape the menu, and each book was used as table decor, too. And now for the fun part:

For starters, Jackie, Damaris, and I served honey glazed almonds, blue cheese dip and crackers, deviled eggs, and goldfish. Some names were jazzed up a bit, and I made food labels that matched the particular children's book.

The "stinky cheese" dip  was a mixture of cream cheese and blue cheese, a layer of pepper jelly, then topped with slivered almonds.

My sister Vicke made her famous deviled eggs. . . dyed green, of course!

For the savory table, we had veggies and several dips, pigs in a blanket (sort of), chicken salad sandwiches, fruit salad, pasta salad, and meatballs.

The meatballs were a hit! Even people who normally said they didn't like meatballs liked these. Damaris didn't use the common recipe with grape jelly. Instead, she mixed a bag of frozen turkey meatballs, one can of cranberry sauce, and one jar of chili sauce, then heated in a crock pot on high for about 3 hours. Yum!

Drinks included bottled water as well as punch.

 
Jackie made the punch: a mixture of blue Hawaiian Punch, pineapple juice, and Sprite Zero. It was delicious!

The most eye-catching table featured the sweets: cupcakes, homemade butter mints, moon pies, banana bread, red velvet cookies, and gourmet popcorn.

Jackie made and Greg decorated the Hungry Caterpillar cake. It was too cute!

My Aunt Marilyn made the butter mints, and her daughter Cindy formed them into adorable baby bottles. Although this recipe is already in our family cookbook, this was my first time I recall ever having them. Delicious!

 

This is the same banana bread I've been making for years.

I have posted about these red velvet cookies before, too. Notice the subtle name change. ;)

The gourmet popcorn has pretty much become a staple at our parties now. This recipe is so versatile! It was first introduced by Keely as her Christmas Crunch. I made a pink variation for Buffy's baby shower as well as Hayley's baby shower. Damaris made a blue and gold variation for Natalia's Georgia Southern graduation party. This time, she made a multi-colored version. It got a subtle name change, too.

The party ended with a toast. . . milk toast, that is . . . thanking party-goers for showering Hannah and Chris with lots of love, gifts, and books!

Greg and Jackie

Lastly, I made bookmarks for the take-home favor:

So glad to be a part of enlarging Lawson's world!

Soon-to-be-Parents Chris and Hannah

Mom, Hayley, Jackie, Hannah, Marilyn, KK

Greg, Jackie, Hayley, and Hannah

Vicke and Rylan