How was your Thanksgiving? We had a wonderful time with family in Reedsport, Oregon. Ate way too much and even had my first experience Black Friday shopping. We drove up and decided we would take highway 101 since I had never driven through the Redwoods. It was sooo beautiful! Here are a few pics on the way...

Big Tree Stump

Drive Through Tree

Driving Through

We Made It!

Enjoying the scenery with her puppy

Watch out!

Where's Penelope?

If you have never seen the Redwoods you must, those trees are HUGE!

Last night I made beef chimis for dinner. A Chimichanga ( isn't this a fun word to say) is basically a burrito filled with deliciousness that has been deep fried. Oh yeah!



Beef Chimichanga

For the filling:
1 pound of ground beef
Chopped tomato
Chopped onion
Sliced black olives
Minced garlic
Cumin
Salt & Pepper
Shredded cheese

Flour tortillas
Cooking oil

Brown your beef adding as much tomato, onion, and olives as you desire. Add the seasonings to taste. I also added some Mexican style hot tomato sauce because Chris likes his filling saucy. Take your flour tortillas and warm them so that they don't tear when you start to roll them up. Fill the middle of each tortilla (we used low carb wraps) with the meat filling and plenty of cheese and roll up. The proper way to roll up a burrito so that the insides don't come falling out is to fold each end in first and then roll your tortilla all the way using your fingers to keep the ends folded and the filling in the middle. You want the ends to be sealed trapping all the good stuff inside.

In a frying pan heat enough oil so that the burritos are halfway covered. You want to start frying seam side down to keep the burrito from opening up. Make sure your cooking oil is hot enough so that when you put your burrito in it starts to fry up immediately. You don't want it soaking up too much oil. You also want to make sure it's not too hot or your chimi will burn to a crisp. These suckers fry up fast. One way to make sure your oil is at the right temperature is by testing it with a wooden spoon. As soon as your wooden spoon starts to form little oil bubbles around it when you place it in the oil your oil should be good to go. Flip your burrito over once it has achieved a golden brown color and fry on the other side. Remove the chimis and place on a plate that has been lined with a paper towel to drain any excess oil.

Serve these with guacamole, sour cream, and salsa. Every time I make chimichangas whether they are filled with chicken or beef Chris always comments that he could eat about ten of them. They are FRIED burritos after all!

Stuffed Jalapenos are the perfect little snack, appetizer or side. They are oh so yummy and oh so addictive.

Stuffed Jalapenos

Jalapenos! As many as you would like to make. 1 whole jalapeno will make 2 little morsels of goodness.
Cream cheese
Bacon! 1 strip per jalapeno half

Take each jalapeno and cut in half. Clean out the inside seeds and veins. It's easiest to do this under running water. Once the jalapenos are cleaned stuff each half with cream cheese and then take one whole bacon slice and wrap it around the jalapeno.


Make sure you use a whole slice per jalapeno s half otherwise when the bacon cooks up and shrinks it will unwrap itself from the jalapeno. *see below* Place the wrapped and stuffed jalapenos on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 400 degrees until the bacon is crispy. Enjoy

Tip* Not a fan of things that are too spicy? Remember that the older a jalapeno is the hotter it will be. If you want your jalapeno to be as mild as can be make sure you pick at the newest, shiniest, greenest, jalapeno in your grocery store. Older ones that are starting to darken in color, turn red, have puckered skin, or brown lines in them will tend to be spicier. Also removing and cleaning out the seeds and veins will help eliminate some of the spiciness as well.

*See the little guy that was lacking in bacon!

Look at the pretty tropical arrangement Chris sent me just because.  Just one more reminder that we are not in Alaska anymore.

Penelope and I visited a pumpkin patch with friends a few days ago. I got some great photos of her enjoying the day.




Later that evening we got together with friends and had the kiddos paint the pumpkins they picked at the patch.

Having your little ones paint pumpkin creations is a great way to keep them busy while you do some pumpkin carving.

Here is the pumpkin I carved this year. I let Penelope draw the face on it and I cut it out. She decided after it was all said and done that she did not like the ears and proceeded to cry and say her pumpkin was ugly.
The fact that I kept calling it a pumpkin monkey did not make it any better. :)

On Halloween I took Penelope to Barnes & Noble's in store trick or treating and then we headed to our church's festival where we enjoyed a hay ride, entered a costume contest, and played some games.

Meet the newest member of our family...

Can you find Nemo?

Nemo, who Penelope won during a game of ball toss. Had I known she would actually get the ball into the bowl I would have distracted her away from this game.

Looking forwarded to spending Thanksgiving with family next.