Kind Pickles

November 13 was World Kindness Day. During my scripture study that day I read Ether 4:12. "And whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me. I am the same that leadeth men to all good..." 

I really appreciated the reminder that if you feel prompted to do something kind, do it. Good things come from God.

 

November 14 was National Pickle Day. Jet and I ready Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs then Jet watched the movie while I made meatballs. Later we read the other two books. The second book is called Pickles to Pittsburgh.

I then had a Relief Society dinner that night. I of course shared that it was National Pickle Day and my friend later sent me a video of Lucille Ball dressed up as a pickle.

"At Last I See The Light"

One night I made dinner of tamale casserole and easiest Spanish rice, both from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 4. That's right. I have been using these books all year and I have reached the last volume with the Fall recipes. Woohoo. I'm sure Jordan Page would be pleased.

Anyway... first of all I forgot I made homemade bread to go with this until after I took the picture and had been eating for a while.

Second of all, I had this conversation with Jr. Jr.-

Jr. Jr.: Why do you have pickles?

Me: I don't know. I thought it would round out the food.

Jr. Jr.: I figured out why you have pickles. Because they are dill-icious.

Mom: Heh heh.

That night I went to a Relief Society activity where I got to make a cute Fall wreath and eat yummy Fall snacks and socialize. I do like to socialize.

When I got home, we headed right out to look for the Northern Lights again, this time with a little better success. They were there where we were at Jordanelle Reservoir overlook this time. It was cloudy, though.

When we first got there and found a parking spot among all the other vehicles who were there for the same purpose (lots of people had been seeing them that night already), we didn't see anything. Jeremy was getting tired and did have work the next morning so we sat in the van and he said, "Let's wait 15 more minutes then I'll check one more time and we'll head home." When our 15 minutes were up, Jeremy got out and looked around and saw there was a change happening in the sky. It was still cloudy but there was definitely something different. Certain parts of the sky were a very definite red that could even be seen with the naked eye.

We got some bad pictures because I don't know how to do really good settings on my phone camera or on our birding camera. But we saw them. Hooray! I would love to get better pictures sometime.

Something On a Stick Day 2024

Something on a Stick Day, March 28. It is a popular thing to have corn dogs on this day. I didn't want corn dogs. What I decided I did want was chicken kabobs. I haven't made kabobs in a while. 

My sweet most wonderful husband took some time the day before cutting up vegetables for me and... a pineapple. He didn't cut up vegetables for me and a pineapple. He cut up vegetables and a pineapple for me. Sweet husband.

Jet decided to be sweet and a helper in the kitchen again, this time to eat pineapple as Dad cut it up.

Everybody got to choose what they wanted on their skewers from just chicken to the works (chicken, pineapple, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes). Yum. The chicken was cut up and marinated in Yoshida's gourmet sauce that morning. Jr. Jr. helped hand me veggies and fruit while assembling the kabobs so I didn't have to keep washing my hands when I wanted to touch them after touching the raw meat.
Thanks, Jr. Jr. We put the kabobs in a 350 degree oven for about half an hour (give or take) then turned on the broiler for a few minutes at the end.

Simple. Easy. Yummy.

We also had petite pickles on toothpicks. Something on a stick. The boys had fun with that.

And Jr. Jr. and Lucky used the excuse of Something on a Stick to make more cookie candy flowers like they did for Valentine's Day, except this time they had cherry juju hearts that Jeremy found that I couldn't find before Valentine's Day. Thanks, boys. And Jeremy.

The kids were playing a video game. I saw that there was a unicorn so this exchange happened.

Mom: Hey, it's a unicorn. Its horn is like a stick.

Jr.: It's a horse on a stick.

Spicy Guacamole Pickles

November 14 was National Pickle Day and it was Spicy Guacamole Day. Since avocados were a decent price when I went to the store, I was able to get some and actually made guacamole this time (it wasn't too spicy, though). Last time I got avocados I forgot to make guacamole for our nachos. 

We had pickles already in the fridge. #shelfcooking 

I was so proud of myself for making the guacamole then wondered what we were going to eat it with. I searched around and found an unfinished bag of tortilla strips that I had put away so the kids wouldn't just snack on them til they were gone. Hooray. There was enough for our guacamole.

We rounded out our sides with some garlic bread and for a main dish- carbonara. Yum.

At Home Potluck

I've been enjoying monthly at home potlucks the past few months. Jeremy made it back in time for our November potluck and this is what we had.

Lucky's contribution was pickles since it was National Pickle Day on November 14.

Jr. finally got a chance to make creme brulee like he'd been wanting to. He used a recipe from his French cooking book he got for his birthday and used the heat tool that we use for roasting marshmallows inside for crystalizing the sugar on top. Yum. Good job, Jr. Since he was doing it for several people, he got better and better at it as it went along. Fun.

Teddy Bears, Pickles, and Hole Punchers... Oh My

Well, we had on our calendar that November 14 was National American Teddy Bear Day.  We had checked out the Teddy Bear Encyclopedia from the library but didn't do much looking at it that day.  Oh well. 
I asked Nichole and Jr. to help with some menu planning.  I showed them what holidays were on the calendar and they got pretty creative with figuring out foods to go with the holidays.
Jr. let me know that bears eat meat so we should have hamburgers for dinner on Teddy Bear Day. 
I didn't have it written on the calendar, but I found an old facebook post that November 14 was also Pickle Day (I now have it on the calendar).  We made sure to have pickles with our hamburgers.

Earlier in the day, Google informed me that that day was also the anniversary of the hole puncher so while Lucky had a friend over to play, I let them go at some construction paper with hold punches.  After a while I emptied the holes onto the table for them to get creative with, then stopped their play when they started blowing the holes off the table.  Sigh.  They did a good job cleaning up afterward, though.

So several things to celebrate that day, only one of which was planned before the day started.