Family Cooking Show...

Julia Child's doesn't hold a candle to cooking with Julie Doucette!

What a fun afternoon we had! I got a phone call this morning suggesting that I come enjoy an afternoon of giggles and laughter cooking in mom's kitchen. So off I set after picking up a few last ingredients from the store, with the mission of making Chicken Enchiladas. (for those that are now drooling, turn to page 90 of "Tasteful Treasures - The O'Connell Family Cookbook.)


So Mom, Brenda & I cooked (and sampled) to our hearts content! For the record, black beans are also a very good addition to the recipe, as well as the green chile enchilada sauce. :)

The whole time we cooked, Brenda's babies slept... we were able to zip around the kitchen quickly and without any accidents! :)

After... 25 steamy, cheesy, tasty enchiladas... YUMMY!!!

And one not-so-happy Ashlynn because Auntie Dawn woke her up from almost a 3 hour nap. But it's nothing a little Grandma snuggle can't fix!! :)

Amber & Matthew's Vegetables Vinagrette

I'm still reminiscing over all the wonderful dishes we had at our Christmas party. I really enjoyed the multiple potato varieties... heck we wouldn't be Irish if we didn't have a potato feast, right? LOL

I also enjoyed the fresh vegetable salad that Amber & Matthew brought. I asked Amber to share the recipe because that is one dish I would love to make again! I'm guessing I'm not the only one that loved the Vegetables Vinagrette, so here's the recipe for all to share! Thanks Amber for making a great dish! Much love to all and a very prosperous 2010!

Vegetables Vinegrette

Grape Tomatoes - One package ( 16oz.? )
Yellow Pepper - 1.5 large
Sugar Snap Peas - One package, cut in half short ways
Button Mushrooms - One package ( 12oz? )
Shredded Carrot - Not much, just to add color

Dressing:
Balsalmic Vinegar - I didn't exactly measure, I'm guessing about 1/3 cup
Olive oil - 1/4 cup?
Lemon juice - 1/8 cup?
Minced Garlic - 1/8 teaspoon
Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon, I think it coulda used more, but I ran out!
Salt to taste

This was the first attempt at making this, so I experimented with the dressing.
I suggest mixing it up and tasting it as you go to make sure the measurements are appropriate.
I am delighted that it was enjoyed by many. I will definitely be making this again!

Updated Family Christmas Menu

Can you believe... Christmas eve is only 10 days away! I hope your shopping is done... you still have time to wrap everything. (I should know, my dining room is full of boxes & bags with gifts waiting to be wrapped.)

Here's the updated Christmas Menu for the 26th. If you haven't decided what you want to bring, there's still time to do so. Feel free to leave a comment on this post and we'll update the menu with your yummy treats. If you have a family member that doesn't check the blog, or get e-mails, could you please help us by being their online voice! We sure appreciate everyone's helping in making a wonderful family tradition so tasty! Much love to all! ~Dawn

Turkey - Aunt Mae & Uncle Doug - and it's a really big bird! 24+ lbs!
Ham - Mom a.k.a. Grandma to some of us! :)
Potatoes, mashed - The Merfeld Family
Potatoes, cheesy - Uncle Vince
Turkey Gravy - Aunt Mae & Uncle Doug
Stuffing (some)- Vince
Green Bean Casserole - Griepentrog Family
Corn - Dawn - I'll make Aunt Noreen's Corn Casserole from the Family cookbook!
Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole - Monica & Bill Tennie
Candied Yams - Uncle Vince
Relish Tray & Dip - Audrey (with Noah's help)
Vegetables Vinaigrette - Amber & Matthew Fisher
Dessert (specify).............. ???
Bread/Rolls - Casey & Dylan
Butter - Storey Family
Coffee Creamer - Storey Family
Coffee - Amber & Matthew Fisher
Milk - Me
Appetizers -
Taco Dip - Rita - Thank you oodles & oodles! :)
Appetizer Surprise - Aunt Diane
Little Wieners/Little Smokies - Bill and maybe a surprise
Meatballs - Rita
Fudge - Amy & Greg
Ooy, Gooey Homemade Caramels - Diane -Thank you!
Double Fudge Brownies - Monica & Bill

What's your dish??? P.S. Don't forget to vote in our new poll... and feel free to upload pictures of your Christmas Trees and Christmas Decorations! We'd love to see all your hard work and the beauty as a result!

Family Christmas Menu Updates

Good Morning Everybody! So who woke up to a blanket of white this morning? (Bridget if you say you did, I'll think Justin lead the troops right to the flour cannister to "decorate" for the holidays!) :) We had just a dusting here, but it looked like the Madison area got several inches. Regardless, it's cold as the dickens everywhere.

I wanted to re-post the Christmas menu so it's fresh. This is the most updated version as of this morning. I'll keep an eye on the previous post and update in both places. I just wanted to make sure if people have the blog bookmarked in their computer that they don't have to hunt to find the posting about the X-mas menu. So here it is in all it's glory!

Turkey - Aunt Mae & Uncle Doug - and it's a really big bird! 24+ lbs!
Ham - Mom a.k.a. Grandma to some of us! :)
Potatoes, mashed - The Merfeld Family
Potatoes, cheesy - Uncle Vince
Turkey Gravy - Aunt Mae & Uncle Doug
Stuffing -
Green Bean Casserole - Griepentrog Family
Corn - Dawn - I'll make Aunt Noreen's Corn Casserole from the Family cookbook!
Cheesy Hashbrown Casserole - Monica & Bill Tennie
Candied Yams - Uncle Vince
Relish Tray & Dip - Audrey (with Noah's help)
Vegetables Vinaigrette - Amber & Matthew Fisher
Dessert (specify).............. ???
Bread/Rolls - Casey & Dylan
Butter - Storey Family
Coffee Creamer - Storey Family
Coffee - Amber & Matthew Fisher
Milk -
Appetizers -
Taco Dip - Rita - Thank you oodles & oodles! :)
Appetizer Surprise - Aunt Diane
Little Wieners/Little Smokies -
Meatballs -
Fudge - Amy & Greg
Ooy, Gooey Homemade Caramels - Diane -Thank you!
Double Fudge Brownies - Monica & Bill


Please leave a comment with which dish you wish to share. We'll update the post when we get new items. You are welcome to bring something not on the menu of course. Just let us know and we'll add in your a la carte dish! We always have a wonderful gathering and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. Thank you in advance to everybody for spending time over your busy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to put together a special dish for the family to share!

Much love to all! XOXO,
Dawn

P.S. With all the traditional Christmas Eve & Day dinners... who's up for doing Pizza? I'm just sayin... :)

LET'S START HERE

Turkey - Aunt Mae & Uncle Doug... it's a big bird! 24+ lbs.
Ham -
Potatoes, mashed -
Potatoes, cheesy - Uncle Vince
Gravy - Aunt Mae
Stuffing -
Green Bean Casserole - Griepentrog Family
Corn - Dawn - I'll make Aunt Noreen's Corn Casserole from the Family cookbook!
Vegetable Vinaigrette - Amber & Matthew Fisher
Candied Yams -
Relish Tray & Dip - Audrey (with the help of Noah)
Dessert (specify).............. ???
Bread/Rolls - Casey & Dylan
Butter -
Coffee - Amber & Matthew Fisher
Milk -
Appetizers -
Taco Dip - Rita - Thank you oodles & oodles! :)
Appetizer Surprise - Aunt Diane
Little Wieners/Little Smokies -
Meatballs -
Fudge - Amy & Greg
Homemade Caramels - Diane -Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Hey Everybody! Here's the start to our Family Christmas Menu. Feel free to comment on this post for what you want to bring. We welcome items not specifically listed, so if you have a hankering to make something new or different, drop us a comment and we'll add it a la carte!

For those that don't have e-mail or access to the blog, can a family member please touch base with them and see what they wish to bring and we'll update the menu with those delightful blessings too? Thanks so much. You are also welcome to e-mail us your thoughts and planned menu additions and we'll happily update.

Everybody that is participating in the ornament exchange/gift exchange should have gotten their postcards in the mail! Have fun being creative and let your love shine!

Looking forward to drooling over this wonderful feast!
Love,
Julie & Dawn

P.S. We hope you enjoy the holiday music as we prepare for another wonderful Christmas together.

Purple & Gold Jewelry

Oh happy day everybody! Glad to hear so many fun stories from those that went to Rachel's Bat Mitzvah! It really sounds like everybody had a great time. I want to say thanks to Meaghan for posting some great pictures on Facebook. Meaghan, you did a great job! I'd hire you as a photo journalist any day!! Especially with that great assistant Joey you had. Definitely an eye for unique perspectives! ;)

Over the weekend I designed a set of Jewelry that made me think of you Aunt Diane! This year your Minnesota Vikings are really making a statement - or two or three... none of which my Chicago Bears seem to be able to even understand. LOL So here's a link to my post on my jewelry blog

Aunt Diane I really wanted you to know I was thinking about you and looking forward to seeing you at Christmas! BTW - did everybody see our Christmas Countdown over to the right??? :) Just something fun to get you in the spirit. Keep your eyes on the Blog over the next couple of weeks so we can collectively work out our scrumptious dinner menu for our Christmas Feast!

As other people upload their Florida pictures, please feel free to post them on here... especially the ones that involve palm trees, sand, sunshine... none of which we are seeing here in WI today. LOL

Much love to all! Hope you have a great evening!
Dawn

A few more pictures

Liam getting his fair share of Trick or Treat kisses... and let me tell you, he didn't give any of us special "tricks." ;)



I got a few really cute pictures while Grandma & Grandpa Reindl were down too that I wanted to add to the Happy Halloween wishes.


Ashlynn was making a small pot of "Oatmeal."
Everything is oatmeal to Ashlynn... and she was telling Uncle Greg her special recipe.


Then she fed to to Grandpa & Greg for lunch....
well, not really. But it did look that way!

Hope everybody has a safe trip down to Jacksonville next week!
Take lots of photos and share them here on the blog when you get back!
Love to all!

More Pictures from the August Family Gathering

As promised, I said I'd bring you more pictures from the August Birthday Parties, so here there are. :) (I haven't been delinquent, I've just really been enjoying everybody else's pictures, posts and loving news.)

This is our family bodyguard... way to fend off the strangers Aunt Diane! :)


Isn't it wonderful to see the Merfeld's are equal opportunty baby lovers?!?! ;)

It sure was beautiful, and looking at the pictures again reminds me every day of how lucky we are to have such a diverse, loving, wonderful family!



Have a wonderful day everybody! Love you!

Dawn

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Mmm, Reindls are cooking Johnsonville Brats!

I think I can speak for many of us when I say how wonderful it was to see everybody that was able to make it to Grandma's Birthday party over Cornfest weekend. We are so blessed the weather was absolutely perfect for a spectacular event!


We are equally so fortunate that so many people were able to come. It was great seeing you Aunt Diane & Quincy. It was wonderful seeing Audrey & meeting Rob as well. Glad everybody had safe travels! :)


We take our Beanbag toss VERY Seriously!

I took several pictures from the day (these are just a few), but here's the funniest part:
- It was Grandma's birthday and I somehow didn't get one single picture of her.
- It was cornfest weekend and I don't have any pictures of people eating corn (I know, so disappointing) LOL

I did get some corny pictures on Grandma's camera though, so when she develops the film, all the incriminating evidence will be there! I have several more pictures, but thought it would be fun to space them out a few days so you can enjoy these! If you'd like the pictures on a CD, I'd be happy to pop one in the mail to you. Just spam my e-mail dawndoucette@charter.net with your request and address and I'll send it out!!

It's supposed to be a beautiful Labor Day weekend for those of us in the Midwest! I hope you get a chance to enjoy it and have fun in whatever your plans are!

Much love to all!
Dawn

P.S. Did you know that in Ohio, the game of bean bag toss is called "Corn Holing" Because their beanbags are filled with feed corn! I have a friend in Ohio that told me that a few years back, and I about p... well we'll just leave it at "I thought it was the funniest sounding name ever." :) Just your bit of trivia for the day!

WI State Fair

As you may have already read in my comment to Dawn's Post, I went to the State Fair on Saturday. I went with a friend of mine, and her boyfriend. We enjoyed music by Madison County, The Toys, and about 5 minutes of The Now (that was all we could handle). We also enjoyed the weather and the food. For those of you that don't know Madison County, they are a country band out of, well you guessed it Madison. They actually have 3 CD's out and every now and then you can catch one of thier songs on Q106 in Madison. Did anyone else make it to the State Fair?

On Sunday I went and visited with Mom, Dad, Brenda and Ashlynn at Mom's house. And then I had the priviledge of going out and seeing the Storey Families new home. I'll let Brenda fill you in on all that when she has some time. Brenda and Brain I am soo proud of both of you!!

While visiting with Ashlynn, I did some Ashlynn aerobics, and I have to say, I am a bit sore today. I was lifting her above my head and she was smiling and giggling. What a hoot. Ashlynn is quite the entertainer.

Carissa and Jesse, are you going to be at Grandma's on Sunday? I haven't met Pyper yet. And I think it would be fun to watch Ashlynn and Pyper play. I hope to see you there.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday, have a great week!
Love,
Amy

Good Morning!

Nothing special, nothing new... just that I'm thinking about you!

I woke up this morning just being grateful for family!
Hope you have a wonderful day!

Here, I'm sending you flowers from my garden! :) If only you could really smell them.....


Lots of Love! ~Dawn

Hope your Weekend was wonderful!

Hey Everybody! I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend. The weather seems to have cooperated for those of us in Wisconsin. How was the weather for you in Minnesota Aunt Diane or down in Jacksonville Uncle Jeff?

BTW, did you see our new poll over on the right? Make sure you get your vote counted! :)

Chris & I went to a BBQ at Chris' sister Lori's house with his family. The fireworks display we watched was on TV... see our English setter has a SERIOUS boomphobia (yes, that's the official fear of fireworks.) ☺ So we had to be home so he would not destroy our house trying to escape from the boomers outside.

Here's our newest critter... I've determined this little critter is what ate my tulips earlier this spring. Little buzzard! Charles - our woodchuck lives under our screened in front porch. And Charles is the reason we have Cody schnoozles all over the floor where the radiator pipes come up from the basement. Apparently, to Cody, Charles smells like chicken!

Katie & Arnie, congrats on your growing family. Little Oliver is just adorable copying his daddy. Just precious!

Well, enough of my rambling for now. It's great to hear from everybody on here. If you haven't posted in a while you may have some troubles signing in. Sometimes blogger suspends accounts with no activity. No worries, if you need us to send you a new invitation to join us, we'd be happy to do that. Just e-mail me at dawndoucette@charter.net or my mom at doucette56@charter.net.

Have a Super Spectacular week everybody!

Christmas Dinner Menu

Hey Everybody! I am so excited to see how many people have responded to Aunt Mae's e-mail with what delicious dinner & dessert items they are offering to bring.
I also love how people are using "Reply All" to keep everybody else in the loop. When I tried reply all earlier, I got 3 e-mails returned to me with wrong e-mail addresses. So I was concerned that some people wouldn't be in the same loop... and I know we are all a little loopy at times! :)
So I thought it would really be helpful to post the current menu as it stands at 4:57 pm on Wednesday, 12/3... and whether people reply all or post here, I'll commit to keeping this up to date as long as you all continue to hit "reply all!"
Deal... or No Deal?

Turkey...................................................................Mae
Ham...................................................................Mom
Potatoes, mashed.......(need more than last year)......... Carissa
Potatoes, cheesy...........(need more than last year)........Vince
Gravy................................................................??
Stuffing...............................................................??
Green Bean Casserole...................................Anna
Corn..................................................................... Brenda
Candied Yams..................................................... Vince
Cranberry Jello Salad----------------------Dawn
Relish Tray & Dip..................................... Amber & Matthew
Dessert (specify)............................... ???
Pies - Pumpkin, Apple & Mudslide Pie .......... Cassie & Jesse
Brownies-------------Monica – (not really a Christmas dessert, but they’re always good J )
Bread/Rolls........................................................Monica
Butter...................................................................Julie
Coffee...................................................................Mom
Milk.......................................................................Mae
Fruit Salad ------------------ Julie

Appetizers -
Taco Dip..............................................................Rita
Little Wieners/Little Smokies (politically correctly speaking).....Katie Griepentrog
Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts.............. Katie Griepentrog
Meatballs..........................................................Scott
Biscotti or Cookies......................................... Amber & Matthew
Fudge_______......................................... Amy & Greg
Black Bean & Corn Salsa (and chips)............. Diane
Ooy, Gooey Homemade Caramels............. Diane
______________........................................??

If I don't hear from you by December 13th I'll be assigning you something and sending you a note as to what I assigned you. ~Warm Regards ~Aunt Mae

**And a final winter wonderland thought for all of you. Here's a picture of today's beautiful snowfall on our Christmas lights (just click on it to see a larger view). It's a very pretty evening... just look at those snowflakes. And it's a great excuse for a hot chocolate too! **
Love you! ~Dawn

P.S. Don't you miss this Bridget and Uncle Jeff???? (just a little?)

Drinkin' Coffee in a Winter Wonderland!

Good Morning All!

Sooooo.... who woke up to a winter wonderland this morning? We did - as did most of Wisconsin according to the news! We only got about 1", so not even necessary to shovel. But the trees were flocked so beautifully! It's as if God painted a beautiful picture for us!

As I'm putting my final grocery list together for our Thanksgiving feast, I wanted to take a moment to wish everybody a very Merry Thanksgiving... I mean a Happy Thanksgiving... see, I need more coffee! :)

Have a wonderful week... and don't let your dogs steal your turkeys!

Love you!
Dawn & Chris

The Great Birthday Extravaganza!

Okay everybody, it's that time of the year again! Sun Prarie Cornfest is next weekend! Grandma has offered to have a gathering at her house to celebrate you know what... Corn! No really, it would be a great time to get together for some wonderful family time like we used to do every month for birthdays. So to celebrate Uncle Vince's birthday, Meaghan's & Grandma's birthday, let's get together at Grandma's house!

If you're in, e-mail doucette56@charter.net and tell her what you are hungry for... a.k.a. what you would like someone to make for a dish to pass.

Aunt Rita, if you are off work next Sundayand able to attend, could you please, please bring taco dip?

Hope to see you all there! Have a wonderful weekend! Lots of Love!