Thanksgiving 2008

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you have a warm, fun-filled, loving, tummy-ache day! There are so many things that I am grateful for this year:

1. Joey - the greatest husband in the world
2. Family - they are my rock, my family - plain and simple
3. Friends - they fill me with laughter
4. I'm done with school - woohoo!
5. I get to live on the beautiful island of Okinawa, Japan - stress-free, care-free, paradise
6. Not having to work this year - maybe next year? maybe not, I'm having too much fun!

We spent the day with friends who live on base. The food was wonderful! Juicy turkey, yummy desserts! Fun games of Taboo (girls vs. guys - the girls won, of course) and Rock Band.

I brought some snacks cause our host made plenty of food - letting me take home left overs. Yay for not having to cook this weekend! I made some pecan tartlets and a chocolate/peanut butter munchie. They are not necessarily Thanksgiving food, but I wanted to make them, so I did. Want the recipe? Keep reading!

Pecan Tart

For crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
3 oz softened cream cheese

For filling:
2/3 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons melted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg

Directions:
Mix ingredients for crust. Make teaspoon sized round balls and mold into mini tart molds. Mix ingredients for filling and fill each tart with a teaspoon of mixture. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. It makes about 25 tarts.

Puppy Chow

Ingredients:

1 12-ounce box of plain Chex cereal

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup smooth peanut butter

5 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

plenty of powdered sugar

Directions:

Heat chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in a 1-qt. saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently until melted. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and stir. Put Chex cereal in a large bowl and pour chocolate mixture over cereal. Gently mix the chocolate mixture and cereal with a spatula, and coat evenly. In a large resealable plastic bag, fill with powdered sugar and Chex mixture. Shake bag well until coated. Spread on wax paper to cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. (And yes, it does get messy!)