Recipe: Turkey Divan

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the leftovers. I'm not a huge fan of leftovers, but holiday leftovers are something I actually look forward to. Some things taste better the next day, like dressing; others, such as sweet potato casserole and macaroni and cheese, are just as good reheated as they were the day before. And nothing beats a Thanksgiving turkey sandwich with mayonnaise and cranberry sauce. Yum. It's a tradition around these parts.

But sometimes, you just can't handle another sandwich. What are you supposed to do with all that leftover meat? I find that leftover turkey, especially the dark meat and those tiny bits that you picked off the carcass and don't want to waste, does very well in casseroles. You can use it as a substitute for chicken in any chicken casserole, or you can do like my mom did, and create your own recipe. This is our favorite turkey leftover solution.

Turkey Divan – 8-10 servings

3 cups diced leftover turkey

1 (14 oz) bag of frozen broccoli florets

1 can cream of chicken soup

½ cup mayonnaise

½ teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ - 1 teaspoon curry powder, depending on taste

½ cup dry breadcrumbs (seasoned or unseasoned, your choice)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray.

Thaw broccoli and cut up any large pieces. In a small bowl, combine soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and seasonings. Stir well. In a large bowl combine turkey and broccoli. Add in soup mixture and mix together. Spread evenly in prepared dish.

Combine breadcrumbs and butter and sprinkle over the top of the casserole. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven, top evenly with cheese. Return the pan to the oven and bake 5 minutes longer, or until the cheese is melted.

Photo Credit

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday and Delicious Dishes.

 

12 Days of Christmas Cookies!

Food is definitely near the top of my list of my favorite things about Christmas. I love the warm smells – vanilla, cinnamon, apple, cranberry – that flood the house and seem to permeate every pore. While I adore the turkey, ham, dressing, sweet potatoes, and the many casseroles that grace our holiday table, baked goods are by far my favorite holiday food group.

My mother was a big holiday baker when I was a kid, and some of her favorite treats to make are now some of mine. Every year she had my twin cousins over to decorate sugar cookies for Santa a few days before Christmas. This year we are welcoming my cousins' oldest children (who are both 5) to the tradition. I can't wait to pass on this favorite memory of mine to them.

Christmas cookies are the best. I have no less than 20 different recipes to make this year. I've decided, since it's the season of giving and sharing, to share 12 of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes with you!

So starting December 1 and continuing until December 21, look for the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies to appear here! Watch closely...there may even be a giveaway coming soon! If you haven't already, I encourage you to subscribe, either by email or feed reader, so you don't miss a single cookie recipe!

I hope you are as excited as I am! Grab your mixer and a couple of pounds of butter, and check back Wednesday for the very first Christmas cookie recipe!

Menu Plan Monday

Oh my goodness! The Christmas season is here! Can you believe it? For me and my family, the Christmas season arrives the evening of Thanksgiving when we start putting up our Christmas decorations. My mother is a big holiday decorator, we have decorations for every major holiday, but we go whole hog at Christmas. Check back tomorrow for a peak at what our house looks like at Christmas!

Christmas, at my house at least, also means lots of food. To that end, our menu from now until New Year's will be filled with extra delicious goodies.

This weekend we enjoyed:

Friday: Thanksgiving leftovers (click here for what we had for Thanksgiving)

Saturday: Grilled fish, rice pilaf, sautéed zucchini

Sunday: Steak, oven-baked potatoes, Caesar salad, homemade rolls

This week's menu:

Monday: Mushroom-Spinach Pasta

Tuesday: Turkey Divan (recipe coming tomorrow!)

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Blueberry Pancakes and bacon

How was your Thanksgiving? Are you still dealing with all those leftovers?

PS: If you are at all interested in Christmas cookies, then you MUST stop by this afternoon for a surprise!!

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

 

Weekly Wanderings

Weekly Wanderings

How to Quickly Soften Butter – just in time for holiday baking!  I usually soften (um partially melt) my butter in the microwave, but I’m going to give this a try. 

Yeast Roll Roundup – if you are in the market for the perfect yeast roll for your next holiday gathering, look no further than The Frugal Girl’s collection.  She also has great tutorials on how to shape the rolls.  My personal favorite rolls are the cheddar twists.  YUM!

eBooks and Usage – this may only be of interest to the special librarians out there, but as I’m considering an eBook purchase for my library soon, I found this post, and all the others linked in it, to be very useful. 

De-Stressing the Holidays – Sometimes the writers at (in)Courage post exactly what I need to hear.  With Christmas approaching and bringing the stress of finding the perfect gift, baking the perfect batch of cookies, and creating perfect holiday memories, I really needed to read this.

In case you weren’t aware, the most important football game of the season is being played today.  In case you aren’t familiar with the Iron Bowl and the nastiest rivalry in college football, check out ESPN’s comments on this year’s game.  Just two words on this: ROLL TIDE!

Photo Credit

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish all my American readers a very happy Thanksgiving!  I hope your day is filled with good food, good times, and most especially good friends and family. 

Have a blessed and safe holiday!

My Experiences with Bullying, Part 2

This is the continuation of my post about my personal experiences with being bullied. If you missed part one, find it here. As I said yesterday, this is a bully-free zone, so if I see mean, petty, or derogatory comments, I will be deleting them. As the old saying goes, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Thanks.

What made me such an easy target for bullies? Probably because I was an easy target. I was just popular enough that everyone knew who I was, but not enough to have the social standing to be the one doing the teasing. I am very emotional; I wear my emotions on my face, so it was very clear when the bullies were getting to me. I had a huge desire to fit in, and those sorts of people are always targets.

How did I react to being bullied? No well actually (who would?)  After I realized laughing at them and/or with them wasn't cutting it, and that I wasn't a strong enough person to start dishing it back, I started trying too hard. This started mainly sophomore year. I tried so hard to fit in, to be friends with those girls. But it only gave them more ammunition for jokes and only made me cry harder at night. 
After that I began retreating into myself. I was never quiet or very shy, but I avoided social situations. I stopped making plans with friends (except those who really mattered). I started reading more (everything's happier in books). I started slumping my shoulders and walking with bad posture so I could be as small, and as invisible, as possible. I lost any self-confidence I ever had.

Friends from college and grad school are probably reading this, wondering how the hell could this be the same person. While I tended to shy away from constant parties and social engagements, in college, and especially in grad school, I was not quiet nor did I act like someone who was lacking in self confidence.  I am social, fairly outgoing, and I like to organize group outings, whether it's a night out, throwing a dinner party, or getting a group together to see a movie, it's hard to see the bullied girl in me now. 
So how does one get over being bullied? You don't, not really. But it is possible to move past it and put it behind you. I did it in three ways.

1. I had a breakdown. My freshman year of college was a nightmare, mostly because I was waiting to be rejected and bullied at every turn. My confidence was so low that when I was dropped from a few houses during sorority recruitment, it was like someone had ripped off my arm. Not knowing enough guys to find a date to our formal was like being called Mrs. Hippo all over again. After several very rough nights, some medication, and two bouts of therapy, I came out of it a stronger, better person.
   
2. I found better friends. A lot of my problems in high school stemmed from who I wanted to be friends with rather than who I should be friends with. It took me two years of college to narrow down a good, solid, core group of friends, but once I did, I realized that I didn't have to try so hard. People either like you or they don't. Just like you either like people or you don't. It doesn't really matter in the long run that some people don't like you, as long as you have a group of people who love you for who you are (no matter how crazy or neurotic), not who they (or even you) think you ought to be.
   
3. I put the past behind me. I used to dream about what I would say to those girls who made me so miserable, until I actually ran into one at a party. She chatted, laughed, and reminisced with me as if none of those things had ever happened. And then I realized, "she probably doesn't even remember". She wouldn't remember what she had said 7 or 8 years ago, and even though it destroyed my life at the time, in the larger scheme of things, it really doesn't matter. I wasn't physically hurt because of the bullying I endured, and thanks to some good therapy, I had let most of my bitterness towards the bullies in my past go. So I put the idea of tracking down those petty girls and humiliating them like they humiliated me so long ago behind me. Revenge wouldn't make me any better than them. Bringing up old wounds in a public place, while it might make me feel better, would only be rude and upsetting to people around me. So I let it go. I may not have fully forgiven them and I probably won't be any more than polite, I will look them in the face with dignity and calm, and let my actions show just how awesome I've become.

I appreciate you letting me tell my story. I realize these are long posts, and I thank you for your time. Were you the target of a bully? Were you the bully? If you would like, please share your story in the comments. And no fear of cyber bullies; if I find mean and/or derogatory comments, I will delete them. This is a bully-free zone.


 

My Experiences with Bullying

Note: Today and tomorrow's posts are about bullying. In light of me sharing some personal stories, I ask that you keep the comments a bully-free zone. Please do not post anything mean, petty, or derogatory. I will be deleting comments that I find offensive, so just FYI; you have been warned. Let's keep it polite. Thanks!

Almost every adolescent or teen is bullied at some point. Sometimes it's mild teasing, but other times, it can go as far as total mental, emotional, and/or physical harassment. Recently, we've seen how bad bullying can really get and the horrible consequences extreme bullying can have.

Since the tragic deaths of those bright young lives, millions of people have shared their own experiences. I've wanted to share mine, but I've been afraid. Afraid of what people would think, what they would say, how they would react.

Why?

Because I was bullied. And it leaves scars that are impossible to erase.

While I have many more stories and episodes where I was a target of someone's unkindness, today I'm going to share three true stories about my own experiences with bullies.

I longed to be cool. I wasn't especially unpopular, but at 11, being "one of the cool kids" was all that really mattered. I was thrilled when, in 6^th grade, I ended up in an especially good homeroom and an even better pod (pods designated which group of teachers you would have), which also meant that I had a good locker location. Things seemed to be okay; I was finally "with it" and had a good group of fairly popular friends. I had always been a dancer, but everyone was going out for cheerleading, so I decided I wanted to as well. After all, cheerleaders were the popular girls. Making the squad equaled a life of popularity, I was sure of it. So I tried out and didn't make it. I was naturally heartbroken, because not only didn't I make the squad, but most of my friends did. I was promptly deserted, mostly because 11 year old girls are cruel. Very cruel, it turns out.

One random day, I heard a rumor that one of the new cheerleaders (and a former friend) had made up a new cheer and that cheer was about me. I was naturally anxious, but didn't think much of it, until it was performed at lunch, in front of most of the 6^th grade, by several of my so-called-friends. I don't actually remember what the cheer was about; I'm sure it had something to do with me being a want-to-be cheerleader, ugly, fat, or any of those things preteen girls find so important. I remember being horribly embarrassed, but doing my best to laugh it off in front of everyone, trying to play it cool, because that was how I had always been told to treat situations like that. Laughter and stories about the cheer and how it was about me (and wasn't that so funny!?) died down after a while, but it's hard to forget something like that. Especially when all I did was try to be a cheerleader.

Another tale also starts in the lunch room and ends with me having major body issues. During lunch, two guys and another girl who sat around me always made these jokes about "Mrs. Hippo". Mrs. Hippo was someone in our classes and was some girl that had a weight problem. I had no clue who Mrs. Hippo was, but I knew that I didn't want to be the fat girl.

At 13, I was incredibly gawky, all arms and legs, with the exception of some stubborn baby fat. I was sure that having that small bit of pudge around my middle made me fat. I joked around with my friends, pushing out my stomach like I was pregnant, and pinching my fat rolls to hide my own self-consciousness about my body. None of my friends had this roll of fat above their jeans, therefore I must be fat. I quickly developed an idea that skinny was the thing to be. The fear of being like "Mrs. Hippo" was strong, and I began limiting what I ate and becoming quite adapt at eating without really eating. For several months, I almost never ate lunch or snacks, and ate the smallest amount of breakfast and dinner I could get away with. I never progressed to becoming an anorexic and I didn't lose more than a couple of pounds, but I was constantly obsessed with my weight and how I looked. Talk of Mrs. Hippo at the lunch table faded as the year drew to a close, and I stopped obsessing over what I ate. Then, while signing yearbooks, I found it. Under a sloppily written "have a great summer", was "P.S. you are Mrs. Hippo".

By the time I got to high school, I thought being teased was behind me. 9^th grade past without too much drama, and while I wasn't all that happy, I was of the opinion that things could be a lot worse. As a rising sophomore, I made the high school dance team and started practicing with the team after school. We had our own locker room and always dressed out together. At the very first practice, a girl commented on my "granny panties". Soon, while changing, some of the older girls would whisper about my granny panties. It got to be a big joke, that Elizabeth wore granny panties.


I did wear what most people would classify as granny panties. My mother bought them in packs of 3 at an outlet store, and while most of them had a cute design, or were a bright color, there was no denying that they were basically briefs and that they were not from Victoria's Secret. When the jokes and the teasing got to be too much, I took some of my babysitting money, and marched myself down to the mall and bought brand new, non-granny-panty underwear. But every time I ran out of clean, new underwear, and wore the old ones, I would hear the whispers or the jokes about my granny panties.

Looking at these, my stories about being bullied are not near as bad as other stories you've probably heard. I have others, including the time I was spit on, the time some mean boys impersonated a boy I liked online and basically made a fool out of me for fun, the time someone dressed up as me to put on a skit designed for the sole purpose of making fun of me, the list goes on and on.

What makes these stories stand out? Of the three, they are the ones that probably damaged me the most. From the whole "Mrs. Hippo" thing, I developed, and still struggle with, weight and body image issues. The cheer in the lunchroom gave me the idea that if you aren't cool, you are nothing. Enter major self-confidence decline. And the panties? Just another mark on the "you are worthless and a loser to boot" chalkboard of life.

Tomorrow I will be talking about how being bullied has affected me throughout my adult life and how I eventually over came it. If you would like to share, I would appreciate comments and your stories about being bullied.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Casserole

When it comes to sweet potato casserole, people fall into two camps.  The marshmallow people and the pecan people.

My family is a pecan family.  There is no room for marshmallow-topped sweet potatoes on our holiday table. 

This dish has appeared on every Thanksgiving and Christmas table that I can remember.  It’s my mom’s recipe, written on yellowing paper that’s beginning to tear with age.  It’s a staple family recipe, one of those where if it’s missing, something is wrong.  I’ve actually only made this once.  I prefer to leave it up to my mom as this is her recipe and her signature holiday dish.  To me it tastes like Thanksgiving and Christmas, with a splash of good memories and a pinch of tradition.  I hope this recipe becomes as special to your family as it is to ours.

Sweet Potato Casserole – serves at least 8-10

3 cups cooked sweet potatoes (from about 3 large)

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup milk

Topping:

1 cup (lightly packed) brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

½ cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease a 3 quart casserole dish

In a large bowl, mix sweet potatoes, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and milk with a hand mixer.  If you don’t have a hand mixer, mix with a spoon until very well combined.  Pour into prepared dish.

In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients and stir until all the flour has disappeared and the nuts are thoroughly coated.  Spread evenly over the top of the sweet potatoes. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.

Happy Thanksgiving!! 

Photo Credit

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.

Menu Plan Monday

What a huge week this is going to be!  Not only is Thanksgiving on Thursday, the mother of all football games is going to be played on Friday.  Yes folks, the Iron Bowl is rapidly approaching and the time has come to decide who has the better football team in the state (for this year anyway).  My family and I will spend our Black Friday decked out in crimson and white screaming at the tv while simultaneously decorating the Christmas tree.  It’s a day that shouldn’t be missed.

So what’s on the menu for this exciting week? 

This weekend we dined on:

Saturday: Homemade Pizza, salad

Sunday: Roast Chicken, Risotto with Peas

The plan for this week:

Monday: Pasta with Mom’s Homemade Sauce

Tuesday: Chicken, Mushroom, and Brown Rice Bake

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Thanksgiving! (see below)

Friday: Thanksgiving leftovers

My aunt is in charge of Thanksgiving and she always makes the turkey and dressing (this is the south – none of that stuffing stuff around here!), and maybe a side, and then the rest of us bring stuff.  Because of the family issues we’ve been having, I’m taking on a much more active role, and contributing lots to make everything easier on everyone involved.  So our Thanksgiving menu looks like this:

Aunt: Turkey, dressing

Cousin: Corn casserole, green bean casserole

Me: Sweet potato casserole (recipe coming tomorrow!), macaroni and cheese, rolls, pumpkin cobbler

What's on your Thanksgiving week menu?  

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

Weekly Wanderings

Weekly Wanderings

Here are some great things that have landed in my feed reader this week.

TSA Sexual Assault – The story of TSA’s new screening procedures have been everywhere this week.  In case you live under a rock, TSA screeners now have the authority to touch you everywhere, including the genital area, while doing a body search.  However, they are required to tell you.  Read what happened to one woman who wasn’t told.

Productivity, Frugal Girl Style: Plan Ahead – a great post by one of my favorite bloggers on planning to keep you sane and productive.  I’m still working on being more productive…

And along with the productivity that comes from planning...Producvity Hack: Using the Web to Minimize Internet Distractions - I started using the Remember the Milk app because of this post from Get Rich Slowly.  So far, so good!

How to Get Going on the Things That Really Count – Something must be in the air or someone is trying to tell me to be more productive.  This is another great productivity post focusing on anti-procrastination from Life…Your Way.

I’m sharing this a little late, but Annie’s Thanksgiving Prep Series is really amazing and helpful.  If you are making most of the Thanksgiving dinner yourself, you need to read this series.  Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

If you are still looking for a great dessert to bring to Thanksgiving, my Recipe Index is stocked full of delicious ideas.  Might I suggest the Pumpkin Cobbler?  It’s seriously awesome.  If pumpkin isn’t your thing, a sour cream pound cake, pistachio bundt cake, or M&M party cookies may be more your style.

Photo Credit

The Death of Library?

Yesterday, Andy posted his response to an article from ZDNet, that addressed the digital divide that could occur (and to some extent is occurring all ready) when libraries die due to everyone going all electronic and ebooks and ereaders taking over the world. While the digital divide is something interesting that should (and probably will) be addressed at another time, I want to focus on the first part.

Are libraries really dying?

Last summer I attended a session on Library 2.0 at the American Libraries Association's annual conference. One of the speakers brought up an interesting point about how the library is dying. At first, I really disagreed with him. Library stats are on the rise, especially in this not-so-great economy, right? People are discovering it's more economical to check out a book than to buy one, right? I read someplace the other day that libraries lend more movies than Netflix! So things are okay?

Well, if libraries are dying then doesn't that mean people aren't reading? One only has to look Amazon's revenue to know that isn't the case. Books are still being read, they are just being bought at low prices. Clearly, ebooks are becoming a huge market, because those numbers are pretty incredible. So if people are reading and watching movies, why are libraries on the decline?

The problem for libraries is that our society is lazy. We've gotten used to Amazon (or your choice of book vender) delivering the book to your front door or to your ereader. People aren't thinking they can hop over to the local public library to find an old movie to watch tonight; they prefer to wait for Netflix to drop in their mailbox rather than leave the house. No one thinks about the resources of your local public college or university, instead they jump on Google and find the Wikipedia page for whatever research they need to complete. Who is thinking that the library is a great place to go to find the latest Wii game?

If we step back for a minute and really think, circulation numbers are high enough that, even in the light of all this digital awareness and laziness, enough people are going to the library and taking advantage of all the free stuff. So libraries, at least the check-out-books-and-movies part of libraries, aren't going to die any time soon.

The real question is, however, is anyone using the library for information? Why go to the library and ask a reference librarian when you can find the answer to your question on Google? Why bother leaving your dorm room when everything you need to write your paper can be found online? Even in my hospital library, I see this. More often than not, my users do their searching via Google and then ask if I can find these really random obscure journal articles because that's the results Google yielded them. Instead of doing the smart thing and using PubMed (or even Google Scholar!), they are taking the easy path to information.

So what can we, as librarians, do to prevent the death of the library in the face of all the free online information (regardless of the quality) and sheer laziness that has taken over our society? Is the death of the library preventable or are we just waiting the inevitable?

I don't know the answer to this question. We've all been thinking about it, talking about it, and blogging about it, but no has the answer, and no one probably ever will until the end is upon us. Or we will never answer the question because the library is still alive and kicking.

Right now I believe the best option to prevent the death of our own libraries is to advertise what you have. Let the people in your community know what's out there and how they can take advantage of it.

Have a great collection of genealogy records that no one uses? Speak to a local group about sponsoring a "find an ancestor" day or something to that effect in your town. Publicize the event to the extreme via your website, your blog, your Twitter, whatever you use. Don't have an updated website, a person to blog, or a Twitter account? No fear, this is the perfect opportunity to establish one. But even the best websites, most insightful/informative blogs and Tweets go unnoticed if you don't advertise them. Make sure everything that carries your library's name on it has your website. Make sure your website is clearly labeled and consistently updated with news and events. Create a facebook page; anything to get your name out there and people in your library.

Tons of people don't use the public library because they don't know what's available to them. I bet there are a lot of people in your community who don't know they can check out video games or schedule a personal research consultation. They probably forgot that you have a ton of books/articles/magazines on job hunting, resume writing, and interviewing techniques. More than likely, there are a good number of elderly in the community who want to get online, but don't know how. They aren't aware that you teach (or could if you had enough people sign up) free classes about using the computer and the Internet.

Special and academic libraries have their own ways of advertising and attracting new users. They probably have less to worry about because someone has to stay around to order, pay, and organize all those electronic resources, but getting out into the community, whether it's a local community college, major research institution, law firm, hospital, or whatever (the possibilities are endless!), and promoting your services are the best way to get new people into the library while still continuing to provide excellent service to your current users.

Do you think the library is dying? What are you doing to prevent it?