Greetings from babyland…my in-laws have been here all week and leave tomorrow…I think we’re all going to be in a little shock this week without doting, helpful grandparents around! Needless to say I’m feeling a bit apprehensive about the transition to real life, so my friends are stepping up to make sure I survive by bringing dinner all week. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! So, no plan yet again this week! But next week I’m going to have to come up with a menu…no more vacation from weekly planning.

This picture is proof of just how gourmet I am lately. Globs of frosting, ugly paper plates. Lovely. Actually, my mother-in-law and I couldn’t wait for the cream cheese frosting to get soft, so we decided aesthetics are overrated. Martha would be so disappointed.

PLEASE SHARE YOUR MENUS!!!!! You need to inspire one another…the cupcakes are a pretty good indication of just how UN-inspiring I am lately.

Today was magical…one little girl so enthralled with her gifts she refused to eat (or even open more presents!) and one little girl so innocent and new, sleeping the day away.

Happy Holidays! I hope your season is filled with chocolate, toys and love!

Anna Maynard is here! Everything went very smoothly and she is proving to be a great baby! We are all super happy and big sister Cate seems to be adjusting very well…phew. It’s been a happy and wonderful week around here!

As I’m sure you’ve surmised, I’m still not cooking much…I am going to make some Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding tonight. Mmmmmm. And I made omelettes for Nate and my mom yesterday (the picture below represents about all the cooking I’ve done in weeks). I figured it was the least I could do after all the help they’ve given me this week. But I am still not planning a real menu this week, or the next, and maybe the next?!?!

MONDAY:
- Christmas Eve dinner…which at the Maynards means “Order Chinese”. We’ll be ordering from Pei Wei…I can’t wait! (Next year when I’m not busy having a baby, I promise I’ll talk more about Christmas cooking…and maybe even attempt a Swedish Christmas Eve dinner, which is my family’s tradition. Those posts next year are gonna be AWESOME. )

TUESDAY:
- Grazing and leftovers. I’m going to try to pull together some cinnamon rolls…using Rhodes frozen bread dough of course.

WEDNESDAY:
- My mom leaves Monday, and Nate’s parents don’t get here until Wednesday night. I think we might just go hungry this night.

THURSDAY – MONDAY:
- Hey Pat, what’s cookin? (Pat’s my mother-in-law)

Share your menus!

In less than 5 hours I will be in the hospital…and for the next few days I finally get my menu wish: hospital food! Woo-hoo! Obviously I’m not bothering with a menu this week, but maybe my mom can post what she’s planning on. Cate’s birthday is on Monday and my mom is the best birthday cake mom ever, so we’ll definitely post a picture of that!

Even though I’m otherwise occupied tomorrow, I’m sure you all still have wonderful menus to share this week, so please do!

Thanks to everyone who has passed on kind words and wishes for Baby Girl #2′s arrival – I really appreciate it!!

I know you’re all going to laugh at me (I would, too, if I lived somewhere else right now), but it has been quite chilly here in San Diego lately. I swear! Anyway, it’s been good hot chocolate weather…so thought I would share my two most favorite hot chocolates with you.

First, Williams-Sonoma has the best hot chocolate. You’ll see in the picture that right now I have the peppermint, which is good, but I think the plain is even better. Why is this stuff better? Because it’s hot CHOCOLATE, not COCOA. The only way to go is to actually have chocolate shavings melted in your milk, not powdery cocoa stuff. SO GOOD.

Second, Mexican hot chocolate. Right now I have Ibarra, but Abuelita is great as well. This hot chocolate comes in blocks that you melt in the milk (again, so much better than cocoa)…and the flavor can’t be beat!

Today Cate had her first hot chocolate. She was SO excited and loved every drop. It was really fun sitting there drinking it with her. Today was the last day of just “Mom & Cate”…my mom gets here tomorrow AND…it’s official, we go to the hospital Saturday night to have the baby! That’s right, even with crazy amounts of contractions for 10 days now, no dilation and no baby arrival in sight. Unbelievable. Anyway, Cate and I had a great day together, topped off with hot chocolate and reading books. Life is good.

I know I’ve been a miserable food blogger lately, and I’m certainly grateful for your continued support! Believe it or not I actually cooked something last night! I really wanted a good, yummy dessert. Nate remembered that we have about 500 gallons worth of different kinds of hot chocolate in the pantry…which sounded good, but I still wanted something to nibble on as well.

Shortbread sounded like it would hit the spot – a perfect companion for the hot chocolate. So I got mixing and Nate got melting. It ended up being just what I needed.

I found the shortbread recipe on AllRecipes. It came out great, and it was EASY. Just what I needed in my contracting state. Interesting b/c it calls for brown sugar, which surprised me, but the reviewers said you HAD to do brown sugar, so I trusted them – it worked great.

Definitely a good holiday giveaway cookie. You can see I didn’t spend much time trying to make them look good, but that’s because I knew they wouldn’t last long out in the real world anyway.

Today I am 39 weeks pregnant. With Cate I was induced at 41 weeks, having experienced NO contractions or anything of the sort up to that point. This time around, however, my body has decided contractions are loads of fun…so they started up a week ago!!! Unfortunately they’re not getting anything done…needless to say I’m a bit tired. If this baby girl doesn’t come soon, I’ll be forced to send her an eviction notice. “This space is no longer for rent.” I actually don’t mind if she comes on time or late, but this contractions-all-the-time- for-no-reason thing ain’t so fun. Ah, the joy. Mostly, we are just getting so excited to meet this little person!

One nice thing about having babies at Christmastime is that our house is decorated and cozy. It’s actually fun being stuck inside all the time.

The amount of cooking (and blogging and cleaning and working) has decreased significantly, surprise surprise. You guys REALLY need to come through and share your menus now!!!!

Okay, here’s my menu for the week…

MONDAY:
- Never thought I’d say this, but hopefully hospital food!

TUESDAY:
- Hospital food? What, not yet?

WEDNESDAY:
- Okay, for sure it’s hospital food now…

THURSDAY:
- I’m still not eating hospital food?!?! This baby is grounded.

FRIDAY:
- My mom arrives! What’s on the menu, mom?

Picture note: It’s a good thing I’m wearing red today…my huge Santa Claus-size reflection on the bell is at least in the right Christmasy color scheme.

We are very lucky because we happen to be friends with a girl named Nikki who is crazy when it comes to Christmas cookies…every year she spends HOURS and HOURS and HOURS making treats for friends and family. Not only does everything taste good but her presentation is impeccable. She’s as worried about the packaging as she is about the food…in fact this year she almost didn’t make her box o’ treats because she didn’t have the right box! Thankfully a box stepped up…everything looked AWESOME and tasted even better!

Believe it or not she scaled back this year – just cookies and pretzels. But just look at those puppies…I can’t believe they’re homemade. Scaled back? I think not! So cute, so well done.

Thank you, Nikki, for another year for wonderfulness! (Quick note to my local friends out there: while Nikki’s work is certainly inspirational, I can guarantee you will never get anything close to as cool as this from me. )

Nate always says that eating Clementines makes it feel like Christmas…I have to agree.

Every Saturday Cate and Nate go on a date to the bagel shop…it’s so cute. Cate loves it. Yesterday they bought extras so we had them for breakfast this morning. I just wish we could have bagels for EVERY meal…it was so easy and the LAST thing I want to do right now is cook dinner (or any meal for that matter!). Less than 2 weeks until my mom is here. I CAN’T WAIT.

Here’s an attempt at a menu…I’m trying to do things that are easy and generate lots of leftovers. Last week was so awesome. Thanksgiving leftovers galore = little cooking. I wish every week was the week after Thanksgiving! Well, maybe not, but it sure was a nice week. Anyway, my menu may not be so robust, but you ARE getting two new recipes this week…Tostada Goop & Easy Crock Pot Chicken. See, I’m not ALL bad in these last weeks of being prego…

MONDAY:
- Baked French Toast (this recipe rules)

TUESDAY:
- Debbie’s Easy Crock Pot Chicken

WEDNESDAY:
- Leftovers

THURSDAY:
- Book Club…have to figure something out for Nate & Cate

FRIDAY:
- Going to December Nights at Balboa Park, where we’ll sample all kinds of great food! If you live in San Diego and have never been to this event, GO!

SATURDAY:
- Christmas party…no cooking!

SUNDAY:
- Chicken Tostadas (see recipe for Tostada Goop)

Please share your menus! Anything goes…hot dogs, shrimp scampi, WHATEVER!

With the due date just over 2 weeks away, my desire to cook has decreased dramatically. The desire to eat, however, is as normal as ever. I haven’t really had a lot of cravings (if any)…but I can’t get enough of these potato chips from Trader Joe’s. Seriously, I eat sandwiches for lunch every day just so I have a reason to eat the chips (I’ve been able to resist eating them straight out of the bag, amazingly). ANYWAY…just thought I’d let you know these are GOOD. The weirdest part is I couldn’t STAND these chips the first trimester. Go figure.

On a pregnancy-related note…I AM craving the smell of ink. You know, really “yummy” ink that smells so good in some paperbacks, newspapers and coupons (like the value pack coupons)? I just finished a paperback that I honestly would have rather just smelled than read. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great book, but it just smelled soooo good. Sniff sniff. Baby better come quick before I get too crazy.

I know Thanksgiving is over, but as I was eating a slice of the pumpkin cheesecake I made last week, I thought I better tell you just how good the recipe is.

My friend Adrianne sent the recipe to me and it is AWESOME. A great cheesecake and super easy to make. You don’t even have to do a waterbath when you bake it, which earns lots of extra points with me.

One quick note: make sure you don’t overcook it…I took mine out a LITTLE late and the crust was a bit overcooked in the corners. I did a little research and found that you take a cheesecake out of the oven when the center 3-inches of the cake is still jiggly. Mine was firm, so I could have taken it out earlier and had better crust. Regardless, the cheesecake was great!

Phew! What a week! Thanksgiving was great, and we have TONS of leftovers to tide us over for a while. Thanks to my sister who was a big help! Amazingly, my feet didn’t swell up to the size of watermelons like they did 3 years ago. I only took one picture of all my Thanksgiving food…and this is it: smushing up the cranberries for the slush, which was as yummy as ever.

Seeing as how I’m a mere 3 weeks from my due date, not sure how much cooking I’ll be doing the next little while. Guess we’ll see! I’ll plan menus anyhow…can’t hurt to have a plan!

MONDAY:
- Turkey a la King (just going to use my Chicken a la King recipe)
- Rice
- Veggie

TUESDAY:
- More leftovers. Ugh.

WEDNESDAY:
- Spaghetti

THURSDAY:
- Chicken Cordon Bleu (from the freezer section)
- Wild & Long Grain Rice
- Veggie

FRIDAY:
- Eat out

SATURDAY:
- ???

SUNDAY:
- ???

PLEASE SHARE YOUR MENUS!!!!!!! As you can see I’m not very inspiring for all of you this week. We definitely need as many menus as we can get!

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!! I will be back on Sunday with a weekly menu…until then, please post your favorite Thanksgiving recipes & traditions (click to link). Those ideas will certainly come in handy for Christmas!

If you’re brave/crazy enough to go shopping today…try not to get killed or anything.

Nate said I should have done a Thanksgiving post where everyone shares their best recipes & food traditions. Gotta admit, that’s a great idea…so now’s your chance!

My favorite Thanksgiving recipe that I make every year is Cranberry Slush. This is a Thanksgiving tradition from my mom’s family. It was my great-grandmother’s recipe and it is DELICIOUS. You’ll love it, unless, of course, you’re my sister and are CRAZY and don’t like it. She’s the only one I’ve met who doesn’t, but let’s keep in mind she actually said the following words last night: “I don’t really like chocolate.” Told you she’s crazy.

Please share your Thanksgiving Bests!

Timing is everything, right? That couldn’t be truer than when you are cooking Thanksgiving dinner. ESPECIALLY if you only have 1 oven. It is tricky. I thought I’d share my schedule – hopefully it’s helpful to some of you out there.

Quick Jane tip – once the turkey goes in the oven and I know approximate times for everything (based on schedule below), I write the schedule with specific times on post-it notes and stick that to the wall above the oven, That way I don’t forget when to do things. It helps so much!

A few days prior:
- Get that frozen turkey in the fridge! You need 1 day for every 4 pounds to defrost in the fridge, and trust me, it’s much better to defrost this way rather than in water in your sink (that’s the fast way, but truly not as effective…think, partially frozen turkey Thanksgiving morning).

Tuesday:
- Cut up bread for stuffing – leave out on cookie sheet until stale. I’m doing this Tuesday so I’m sure it will be ready for Thursday.

Wednesday:
- Make the desserts (I’ve decided to go with Pumpkin Cheesecake).
- Make any casseroles that can sit in the fridge overnight (in my case the Broccoli Casserole, minus the Ritz cracker topping. Will put the topping on on Thursday).
- Cranberry Slush – the first half of the recipe. It needs to be frozen overnight.
- Cook squash. I’m making squash rolls (on Thursday) and we’re eating squash as a side dish. Since I can cook the squash ahead of time, I’m going to.

Thanksgiving Day:
- Make the stuffing. (Whatever stuffing doesn’t fit in the turkey, refrigerate until later.)
- Prep & stuff turkey in the morning and get in the oven. Butterball has an awesome online guide, which includes a calculator to determine how long you need to cook your turkey. My 13 pound stuffed turkey will take 3 3/4 – 4 1/2 hours at 325 degrees.
- Prepare corn souffle & top broccoli casserole – keep in fridge until later.
- ~2 hours before turkey is done, start making the squash rolls.
- ~1 hour before turkey is done – prepare & cook mashed potatoes. Keep in pan with lid on until dinner.
- When turkey is done, take out and cover with foil until later. Casseroles & Stuffing into the oven (make sure stuffing doesn’t burn – probably won’t cook as long). When casseroles are done, put rolls in the oven.
- Mix and heat up butternut squash that’s already been cooked (will just heat in the microwave)
- Make gravy while casseroles are cooking.
- Make husband carve the turkey.
- Mix cranberry slush at the VERY END as your about to eat.

Just writing this up is making me tired. Glad I have my sister here as sous-chef. Even though it’s a lot of work, it is totally worth it – I can’t wait to eat it all!

Time to talk dessert. I have no idea what I’m going to do this year for dessert, so I can’t really give you my plan yet. I love dessert, but I always get so worn out from making the dinner that I tend to cheat a bit when it comes to the sweets. Hence, no real dessert insight here on the blog.

I WILL provide you with an amazing (and easy) French Silk Pie recipe from my sis-in-law Cora’s family (see below). And as far as pumpkin pie goes, I always just follow the directions on the can of pumpkin and it comes out just fine (and yes, I buy pre-made crust). See, I am certainly no Thanksgiving dessert expert. Today I’m counting on YOU to share your best Thanksgiving dessert recipes! Please post!!!

French Silk Pie
- 3. oz unsweetened chocolate squares (melted and cooled)
- 1/2 C butter
- 1 C sugar
- 1 T vanilla
- 4 Eggs

Melt and cool chocolate. Cream butter – add sugar and vanilla and mix. Add chocolate. Add 2 eggs and beat on high 5 mins. Add 2 more eggs beat on high 5 minutes. I use a pre-made graham cracker crust. Top with whipped cream. Keep refrigerated.

I can’t wait to eat all the food we have planned for Thursday! My little sister is coming to town and I’m going to work her hard on Thursday. It will be really fun cooking with her and having all those yummy leftovers afterwards!

And now, ladies & gentlemen…the Menu. Click on the bold titles to see recipes!

- Turkey
- Gravy
- Mashed Potatoes: I make with warm cream (milk if I don’t have cream), melted butter, salt & pepper, and a splash of soy sauce
- Stuffing
- Corn Souffle
- Broccoli Casserole
- Butternut Squash: Just going to cook it, mash it, add butter salt & pepper
- Cranberry sauce: This year we’re going canned whole sauce, but click through for a yummy recipe for Cranberry Orange Relish that I normally make, when I’m not about to have a baby.
- Cranberry Slush: This is one of my family’s traditions, going back to my great-grandmother. It is amazing. I have friends who have been known to spike it for extra kick – Great Grandma’s rollin’ in her grave!
- Squash Rolls

I’m also going to make some Rhodes rolls on Friday to use for leftovers – good for making little turkey sandwiches. Again, I normally make Butterhorn Rolls from the Better Homes & Gardnes cookbook, but I need to take it easy this year.

Hope the menu is helpful and that the recipes come in handy! They are all excellent. Tomorrow we’re talking dessert – get ready to share your favorite recipes! Tuesday will be scheduling the cooking – the least fun but most essential part of a successful Thanksgiving dinner.

Short menu this week since it’s all about Thanksgiving.

MONDAY:
- Leftover beef stew and chicken piccata from last week

TUESDAY:
- Spaghetti
- Salad
- Garlic bread

WEDNESDAY:
- Eat out

THURSDAY:
- THANKSGIVING!

FRIDAY:
- Leftovers

SATURDAY:
- Leftovers

SUNDAY:
- Dinner at a friend’s home

Below is my mom’s stuffing recipe. This is what I make every year – it’s not fancy, but it is so good. There are TONS of fancier recipes out there that I’m sure are delicious, but I like my stuffing simple & straightforward. As with all my mom’s recipes, there are no measurements. So sorry!!! Also, there’s lots of good info in the comments on the Gravy post, so make sure you read them!

Quick note on more Thanksgiving Prep posts to come: Tomorrow I will share my entire menu for Thanksgiving, including recipes. Monday is all about dessert – so get your favorite recipes to share ready! Tuesday is about timing the meal prep – this is probably the trickiest part of cooking on Thanksgiving. Wednesday…we may be done, we shall see! The coutdown begins!

CLASSIC STUFFING
From Phyllis Wallin, my mom
- Bag cubed bread loaf
- 1 medium onion
- diced celery
- grated carrots
- salt
- pepper
- sage
- 1 stick butter melted
- chicken stock if needed
- 1 egg well beaten

I (Jane) buy a loaf of cheap white bread, cut into cubes and let dry out for a day before making the stuffing. I use less than a whole onion (nate doesn’t like onion that much) and then a few carrots & celery. Sautee the onion and celery in the butter. Mix all the ingredients together. I don’t think I’ve ever needed to add chicken stock. As I mentioned in the Turkey post, I put as much stuffing in the turkey as I can (don’t forget you can stuff the neck too!) and then I put the rest in a casserole dish, cover with foil and bake until it’s hot all the way through – then when turkey is done, mix all the stuffing together. Enjoy!