Busy in the Kitchen

I have been one busy lady in my loverly kitchen! I've been cleaning and organizing and just cleaning up my life a little bit. That makes things so much better around the house when everything looks nice and neat :)

Fun Salad:

I have a new favorite salad. And I created it! Go me! I mix together, spinach, broccoli slaw, matchstick carrots, those little baby Asian bread stick things with grilled chicken and Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame dressing. Yummy in the tummy! Try it!

Fridge Clean Up:

Our fridge was gross. It stunk. It hurt my face when I opened it. I had too many expired things in it. It was time to clean. So I did. Here's the process...

Condiments galore...
Food. Eww...
Empty fridge...
I didn't take a post picture because it still looks a TINY bit messy...but it looks much better :) Thanks for listening to my boring story.

Scary Attempt to Pie Baking:

I love to cook, but hear me loud and clear when I say this, "I'm not a baker! I'm not a fancy cook! I don't make things that look pretty! I'm not a perfectionist!" All that to say, no judging these next few pictures.

For Thanksgiving, I have volunteered myself to make a sweet potato pie with marshmallow meringue that I saw in last month's Southern Living magazine. I LOVE sweet potatoes! And I LOVE anything marshmallow! So this pie is going to be excellent, right??! Well...it was delish, but it wasn't pretty. At. All.

My dear Pioneer Woman would be ashamed at how hideous it all looks.

1. Pie Crust. You woulda thought I made this myself, because it's so ugly. Nope. It's from a can. Let me just say that my first mistake is that I didn't have a stinkin' pie plate! I only had a cake pan. A 9 inch pie plate is the same thing as a 9 inch cake pan, right? WRONG! It doesn't work that way! Here's the before shot.
Here's the after shot. I baked it. Then I put an egg wash on it to make it golden brown. It's golden brown and smells yummy but it sure is ooooglay!
2. The Filling. I made the filling and it tasted terrific! So I knew I was in good shape as far as taste goes. Here's another issue with using a cake pan: the filling will overcome the crust. The good thing about using a cake pan when your crust is ugly....the filling covers it :) Here is the result after the pie came out of it oven. It smelled wonderful and I was ready to taste it in a few hours. Where's the crust? Who cares! It was ugly!
3. The Meringue and Final Product: I was a little nervous to make meringue because I've never made it before AND it was kind of humid yesterday morning. And I've heard that if it's humid outside, then your meringue will not work. Lo and behold. It worked!!! It was absolutely delicious and I could have eaten the whole bowl of meringue. I typically don't like meringue, but it had marshmallow cream in it...ooo yum yum. Here's what it looked like out of the oven.

Here's what it's SUPPOSED to look like. This is the picture from the magazine:
Family and friends who will be at our Thanksgiving....I WILL use a pie plate on Thursday, and it will HOPEFULLY look better the second go round.

So there we have it. I have now humbled myself before the Lord and all of you 3 people who read my blog. There ya go. I'm no pretty baker. Listen to me now...Presentation is NOT everything! Taste is :)

Today:

1. Kindermusik

2. Lunch at home

3. Clean

4. Laundry

5. Decorate for Christmas

6. Look for cheap Christmas tree

And I think that's it! Hope you all have an excellent Monday and enjoy your short week! It's Thanksgiving week! Woo hoo! My favorite week/holiday!

Love y'all and hope your day is lovely!