Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Pecan Pie = Thanksgiving


My favorite PIE is pecan pie. I love pecans. I don't want them in my chocolate chip cookies, but I like them in lots of other things. Unfortunately, I married a man who doesn't like pecans, doesn't like pecan pie. Even worse, neither does his Dad or either brother. At least his mom is saving the family name... she likes pecans and pecan pie! Whew. I might have had to rethink things had they all been anti-pecan! I haven't polled my new sister in laws to see which team they are on, maybe this will be a boys vs girls issue. I'll find out tomorrow.

Anyway, I've been wanting pecan pie and wanting to make it myself. I've never made one, this is always Mom's job on the holidays. She makes a "mighty fine" Pecan Pie as my Pop would have said. I'd already committed myself to a side dish for Thanksgiving dinner and didn't want to over-extend myself. So, what do I do when I want to bake something, know my husband won't help me eat it and can't justify eating the whole thing myself??? I bake it, eat one piece, take the rest to work. My coworkers eat anything!

And last night, that's just what I did.
Pecan Pie
from Southern Sideboards, Junior League of Jackson

1 (9inch) pie shell, partially baked
1/2 cup butter (or margarine)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 cups pecans

Bake pie crust 3-4 minutes.

Cook sugar, butter and corn syrup over low heat until the butter melts. Do not let mixture boil.

Cool slightly. Stir in eggs and mix well. Add vanilla and pecans.

Pour filling into pie crust. Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes. Pie should still be soft in the middle.

Overall it was a success. It tasted "different" than my mom's but we've nailed that down to me using real butter, she uses margarine. It was definitely "buttery". My crust also stuck to my pie plate, not sure about that part, maybe because I didn't let it thaw out, who knows. I'll try again one day.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Starting to feel like "Home"

In the last 5+ years, I've lived in a lot of places. 3 apartments in College Station during graduate school; an apartment in Houston; Ryan's house in The Woodlands. None of these places were "Home". And now, I'm finally in OUR first house together. Yes, you could consider the house we lived in for our first 3 years married as "our first house" but it was always "Ryan's house" to me. He bought it. It was his bachelor pad complete with dart board, foosball table and roommates. Even though I slowly made it feel like home, and it was OUR HOME, it was always "Ryan's House".

When we first moved in the new house... OUR HOUSE... it was so empty feeling that it didn't feel like "home". We are still working on filling it up (in more ways than one) but it's finally started to feel like more than "our house"... it's HOME. I even stored our home phone number in my cell as "Home" and changed my parents number to "Mom and Dad". For some reason, this was a big step for me. I will always feel like "going home" when I go to my parents house in Jackson but our new house together is my new home. This is where I'll start my family... where the good times and bad times will happen... where the rest of our lives begins.

So, it's feeling homier (is that a word? spell check didn't catch it...). We got the couches and the kitchen table.

Now, we've added a new coffee table and end table. They have iron bases and beautiful copper tops.






And we've started to add the little finishing touches. I got these florals and accessories at the Junior League Holiday Market. They help to soften up the kitchen. I still have more to do on the bigger wall of cabinets.



I love this teapot... I couldn't decide on buying it but they put it on sale the last day of the market. So, what did I do... I bought two of them. Ha! I'll find a spot for the other one!





And, we even got a new bedding set for the Guest Bedroom. Mom and Dad, I hope you like it. I've still got to get the square pillows for the solid brown shams that came with the set, and a curtain rod to hang the valance. But, we think its very pretty and much more grown up looking than my old apartment bedding.





We've also added finishing touches in the powder room, but I forgot to take pictures of that... later! Next on the list is drapes in the Master Bedroom and a rug and throw pillows in the family room. I've called an expert to help with these activities so we'll see how that goes.

Slightly Festive

Though we didn't do full Halloween decorations this year, I did pull out the general "Fall" decor. At the old house, I'd do the mantle and the dining room table and it really made the house feel festive. We don't have a dining room table and we didn't really have enough "stuff" to cover then new, huge kitchen table. So, I put it all on the mantle.


I think it looks really good, but I'll definitely be hitting up some sales to try to stock up on more things for next year. I'm starting to get worried about my Christmas decor and if I have enough. I'm pretty sure I DON'T.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween Fun...

Last night was the Hebert's 2nd Annual Halloween bash. We went dressed a Jim and Pam from The Office.
Pam is pregnant on the show (note the belly and ODouls in the picture) and Ryan is wearing Jim's "Facebook" costume from this year's Halloween Episode. If you are wondering about any subliminal meaning to me going as a pregnant woman... click HERE.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Halloween 2009...

I just got a little sad today when I thought about tomorrow being Halloween. The past few years, Ryan and I have enjoyed carving pumpkins and handing out candy. Okay, I did most of the carving and candy giving but Ryan was there, keeping me company!

We decided not to carve a pumpkin this year, instead just hanging out with Ryan's family while they carved their pumpkins. We won't be handing out candy since we don't have any neighbors. We didn't even put our blow up pumpkin man out in the yard. Maybe next year we'll have some neighbors!

We will celebrate Halloween at the Hebert's Halloween Party and I'm very much looking forward to it.

So, in celebration, here are our pumpkins from the past two years.



I'm holding out hope (but not holding my breath) that I'll get to make an Astro's pumpkin one year soon.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Admiral Update

He loves his new yard... even if he sunbathes as close to the patio as he possibly can!

Kitchen Table!

Today we went out in search of some tables. We need to get either a Kitchen table or coffee table so we'd have someplace to eat. We previously looked at kitchen tables when shopping for our couches but never found anything we liked. So many tables we saw were counter height tables and that just wasn't what we wanted.

We found a table on Pottery Barn's website that we really liked but we didn't like the price. We decided we'd spend today table shopping and go to Houston if we had to. We were planning for a LONG day of shopping.

We hit a couple of places in the Woodlands and ran by Pottery Barn to check out the table in person. We still loved it but the price was just... well... obnoxious. The salesperson at Pottery Barn told us they were having some great specials so we looked around at other tables. They helped us find one that was very similar to the one we came in for, but for much less $$. And, she snuck us a 20% off coupon so we could get the whole set for 20% off and they had EVERYTHING IN STOCK.

We did lots of inspection and were just really happy with the table and the chairs, so we bought it. It was just what we wanted, a 60" square with 2 leaves to extend it to 76" or 92". I know, sounds huge but its perfect in our breakfast room with one leaf. By 1:30pm we were headed home with our new table and 8 chairs! YIPPEE!!!

All the pieces were well packaged and all we had to put together was screwing the table legs on. Its very sturdy and very heavy! We love it!




The next mission is still coffee table/end tables for the family room but at least now we can eat sitting down!


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