{"id":928,"date":"2020-11-28T11:48:25","date_gmt":"2020-11-28T18:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/?p=928"},"modified":"2021-09-21T20:42:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T03:42:57","slug":"home-on-the-range","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/2020\/11\/28\/home-on-the-range\/","title":{"rendered":"Home on the Range"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I guess I’m not shocked that the year we ended up missing out on our annual trip to Lake Tahoe<\/a> for Thanksgiving is the same year that holidays are looking different for most everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent months I’ve increased my obsession with America’s Test Kitchen. I just can’t get enough of their cooking videos; I subscribed to both Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country this year; and I scored not one, not two, but THREE of their “best-of” recipe collections. So, I’ve been trying new recipes and learning lots of new cooking techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our little at-home thankfulness dinner, I did not make turkey or any other traditional-to-us foods. But, I made 3 yummy recipes from ATK and we got a lot of mileage out of the leftovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main dish: Beef Stew<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
America’s Test Kitchen: Beef Stew<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This was my second time making this, in the Dutch oven I got last Christmas, which has been such a boost to my enthusiasm for making roasts and stews and braises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Side dish: Cheesy Corn Casserole<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cheesy Corn Casserole from America’s Test Kitchen <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This one came from The Best Of America’s Test Kitchen, a freebie I recieved for subscribing to Cook’s Illustrated. I was planning to make this for the Tahoe event, since the standard dishes are well-established and brought every year by specific people. I thought maybe this would become a new must-have traditional item. We sure liked it! Maybe next year will be its Thanksgiving debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dessert: Cowboy Cookies<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cook’s Country Cowboy Cookies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The kids helped me mix the super-easy dough. I rarely bake cookies so this was a real treat for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m thankful for, among many things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • My family and our health<\/li>
  • Our warm, safe home<\/li>
  • My husband’s job and the option to work from home<\/li>
  • Financial stability and plenty of food to eat<\/li>
  • The freedom and ability to homeschool, and our Classical Conversations community<\/li>
  • My small church family. The small size of our group means we have been meeting in person most of the time.<\/li>
  • Extended family in California, Arizona, and recently-moved to Washington.<\/li>
  • Our neighbors and friends we’ve been able to connect with this year.<\/li>
  • New activities and opportunities for my kids: karate class and piano lessons<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    For our little at-home thankfulness dinner, I did not make turkey or any other traditional-to-us foods. But, I tried 3 yummy new recipes and we got a lot of mileage out of the leftovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[36,126],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1568,"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/1568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sparkledesign.net\/fidget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}