~ Remembrance, Some Fall Food for a Back to School Recipe Pool and Some Goodies Too ~

Good morning friends. I am guessing that many of you woke up this morning, and after got your bearings (yes as we age we need to do that) you realized the date and maybe felt as I did. You remembered exactly where you were when you heard 8 years ago. You once again felt some of the horror and sadness and anger and terror for what happened on this day. The day that our lives, our world changed forever. The day we all lost some of our sense of security and so many innocent people lost their lives. And a day when so many heroes showed us their true colors. It would be easy to mope around all day but I firmly believe that would only feed the the terrorists still out there – we can never again let them have any satisfaction that they ‘got us”. So instead we must respectfully remember this day, mourn those we lost, praise the heroes who worked so tirelessly for weeks after, at ground zero, the Pentagon, in PA and in anyway related to the crashes,

but most importantly, we should thank all of our Armed Forces here and abroad for serving us so honorably. It is because of them that we can freely go about this day 8 years later.

God Bless America and our Troops!

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Fall is finally and really in the air Behind My Red Door! We have enjoyed some nice cool days with even cooler nights! Did you hear me squealing with joy?? I am a happy camper when we get these temps. I love putting my feet into my lambs wool lined leather slippers and throwing on my heavy long sweatshirt hooded bathrobe in the morning. My energy level picks up again and I enjoy my duties as Keeper of the Home a lot more than I do in the heat. So much so that I am enjoying using the oven again for our dinners.

And so I decided to join Colleen’s Back to School Recipe Pool Friday and Mother Nature sure made it easy to do that. We entertained some of our family here over the Labor Day weekend and instead of the usual BBQ, I decided to make some family favorites - Oven Roasted Veggies and Parmesan Baked Chicken. Both are easy and delicious and pretty healthy too. Very often when feeding a crowd for a sit down dinner I will roast a wide variety of veggies. I can do the prep work ahead of time and there is always something for everyone. We always put the food on the kitchen table and come in from the hall to serve ourselves and then go out the dining room door to the table and so I leave the veggies right on the cookie sheets to serve them. This time I used yellow summer squash, zucchini, carrots, Brussels sprouts, red peppers, red bliss potatoes and onions (in the smaller round pan). You can use whatever veggies your family likes and omit the ones they don’t. How easy is that? Others I have used are eggplant, asparagus, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes,celery, winter squashes and other root veggies.

After cutting the veggies in similar sizes, I take a heavy gallon zip size baggie and put a little olive oil and seasonings into the bag. This time I used garlic powder and a little seasoned salt. You can add any seasoning you like. I tossed each type of vegetable separately so that it was easier to keep them separate when pouring them out onto the cookie sheets. Put more oil and seasoning in the bag for each shaking. I roast them at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes – give or take. I happen to use black coated cookie sheets because they brown better but if you don’t have any, just increase the cooking time about 10 minutes. If you are baking something else with them that requires a longer cooking time at a lower temp, that works too. As long as the cook to the tenderness you like, both time and temp can vary.

Parmesan Baked Chicken is just as easy. I used drumstick and boneless skinless chicken breasts this time. The breast were huge so I cut them in half. I wash the chicken pieces and leave them damp. In a shallow bowl or pan, I mix Italian seasoned bread crumbs with the cheap parmesan from the green shaker can. Don’t bother to use the more expensive fresh grated for this recipe.The ratio is 2 parts bread crumbs to one part cheese. Oops – I almost forgot! A little extra garlic powder always helps too. My family loves garlic so any time I can, I add some more. Just roll the damp pieces of chicken in the mixture to coat them and place on greased cookie sheet and bake at the same temp and time as the veggies. How easy it that? I also made stuffing and served cranberry sauce with the veggies, potatoes and chicken. It was perfect on a nice cool late summer day.

Now you are expecting to see after pics of cooked food right? Well peeps, that just ain’t gonna happen this time - so sorry! You are just going to have to take our word for it that they were delicious! You see, this Grammy had her camera in the kitchen right by the stove so she would remember to take pictures when she pulled the cookie sheets out of the oven and before the hungry masses descended on the kitchen, but that never happened! I did take the cookies sheets out, and the veggies and chicken we are all nice and roasted and brown, but the camera had moved!! And because I have mental -pause, if it isn’t in front of me, I am likely to forget it.

BUT I have a very good reason for moving the camera… I had to get a picture of the oldest member of my family with the youngest member of my family. That’s our sweet Liliana who is 12 weeks old with my almost 88 years young dad. My dad wanted a picture holding his newest great grandchild and I was happy to oblige. By the way, it was great having the red chair in the corner – it worked just as I hoped it would! My dad liked it there too.

And of course I had to take a picture of Grampy David with his sweetie. He is so gentle and he sings her to sleep. I wonder if my mom knew he had that talent when she fixed us up 37 years ago?

Now make sure you stop over at Colleen’s And baby Makes Five to see the other wonderful fall recipes!! And why not plan on joining in next time around. We all need tried and true and easy and yummy recipes!!

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Do you know what a soother is?? In our family we call them binky’s. They are also called pacifiers. My talented bloggy friend Kimberly of Brown Bag Bibs calls them soothers and I know other Canadians who do as well. Whatever they are called, the are wonderful for new parents and especially new babies who need that extra sucking time. But as we all know, they tend to fall out of their mouths and drop on dirty floors. UNLESS you have one or more of Kimberly’s Soother Savers!! When I saw them on her blog, I had to order some. I already knew the high quality of Kimberly’s work because of the sweet bib she sent me when we were awaiting Liliana’s birth. The back is lined with a wonderfully soft and absorbent fabric. It is just so nicely made.

I let Kimberly and her girls pick out the fabric and they choose 3 perfect designs! They have an end that loops around the handle of the binky and the other end clips to the baby’s clothing so that if the binky falls out of her mouth, it doesn’t go far.

To see the full design of these wonderful creations, do click HERE! They are just great and I am thrilled with them. We already have two in use and I didn’t get pics for the same reason you don’t see cooked food. Thanks so much Kimberly! I hope you sell lots and lots!!

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You have seen me mention another talented bloggy friend Kindra of 3 Guys, a Girl and Prim Place before. Last year I had her make a set of seasonal blocks and now many of you also own them or variations of them. I love my block sets and every season I enjoy getting them out even before the rest of the decor for that season.

YUP – I even have 2 sets for summer!

So I got to thinkin (yes, I do that on occasion!) and I asked Kindra if she would like to design a set of Behind My Red Door blocks for me. Kindra agreed and I awaited her design for approval. Knowing that summer was busy and she was working on some projects around her own house and that she is back to work part time as a nurse, I didn’t think anything of it for awhile. But being the sweet person she is, she had other ideas and the other day a box arrived unannounced and inside was the block set! Kindra was worried that I wouldn’t like the style, the colors or the configuration but she hit the nail on the head with all of them. The house block is just what I had in mind! They are perfect and I love them! Thanks so much Kindra – you made my day!!

Are they great?? I am not sure if this is their permanent home, but I couldn’t wait to share them with you all!

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Just the other night, my friend Jill asked me is I was up for company this week, and if I would go with her to Sturbridge today. HUH?? Do I want to go to Sturbridge? Well I suppose you could twist my arm I said! So she is driving down from Maine right now and off we shall go! I have a pork tenderloin covered with apples and onions simmering in the Nesco slow cooker (click on link to find out more about Nesco’s) and Mr. Red Door is going to peel and cut up the first butternut squash of the season while we are gone so we will have a yummy fall dinner when we get back. Now I know you all think that all I do is take shopping trips, but honestly, this is just doing a dear friend a favor. Her house is up for sale and she hopes to move to SC before the first snow flies, and she needs to get her prims while she can still find them, so I couldn’t say NO could I? Who knows when and if we will ever go there together again after all. You all know I’d much rather stay home and clean and do laundry and watch the grass grow…. right??

Until next time – hugs, Linda

P.S. Stay tuned for my next post – more fall decor with some bittersweet and my fall giveaway details revealed!