I'm Now A Food Blogger

You know I don't usually post recipes, but what I like to do is keep this blog fresh.  Keep you on your toes.  What will Landee do next?  You just don't know.  Today I am doing something CRAZY and posting a recipe.  So there.

Mother of Stands casually mentioned this recipe she had seen on her SIL's Facebook.  Pumpkin Crunch, you say?  My ears perked up and my back straightened slightly.  There may have even been a raising of the eyebrow, not sure.  Sounded delicious.  Just from the title.  So I quickly copied it down in my handy-dandy Family Organizer and went about my business.  "My business" being heading straight to the grocery store to get the ingredients for this and then going home and making it.

It's a fancy (and EASY) twist on the ole fall favorite, pumpkin pie.  I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin pie myself.  I'd much rather have some banana cream.  But this, THIS, my friends, will be added to the Thanksgiving feast.  And will probably be made weekly from about mid-September to the end of November.  It's my new "Fall Is Officially Here" treat.

PUMPKIN CRUNCH

1 15oz. can pumpkin
1 12oz. can evaporated milk
1 1/2 C. sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 t. cinnamon

Combine above ingredients and pour into greased 9x13 pan.

1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 C. melted butter

Sprinkle cake mix on top of pumpkin mixture and pour melted butter over top.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

This is what it will look like fresh out of the oven.

Your house will smell amazing and the second you taste it you will realize, fall is officially here.

Fall Mentionables

• We just finished up Day 4 of "Fall Break," otherwise known as two weeks of torture.  This break is so completely unnecessary that it makes me angry.  The kids had JUST hit their stride in their routines and schoolwork and then BAM! Two weeks off.   And my house is trashed.  It looks like I've got toddlers again.  Except without the added benefit small children give you of never having to leave the house.  I miss the days of no practices, no extracurricular activities, no annoying friends over to play.  I'm rambling, but to sum up, Fall Break is for the birds (who should be flying south by now).
• Fall TV:  Glee and I are about to break up.  The songs haven't been amazing and they are soooo pushing it.  The religion episode was highly offensive to me.  They basically spent an hour mocking religion.  I wouldn't think too much about it except for the fact that this show is very appealing to and geared toward teenagers who are right in the midst of trying to figure out what they believe.  Glee is using this "power" they have for evil & I'm hating it.  I'd much rather have an entire show dedicated to trying to make underage drinking seem cool rather than a whole show whose end goal seemed to be to shake a person's core beliefs.  Couple that with this week's scene of Britney S. Pears and Santana making out on the bed and I about threw the remote through the TV.  That's two strikes, Glee.  Two.
• Fall Decor:  Due to the fact that I've completely redone the color scheme in the living and dining rooms I've had to tweak my fall decor a bit.  Gone are the reds and golds in there.  It's all now turquoise blues, greens and pale yellows.  The orange pumpkins and fall foliage looked gaggy.  So I had to go with these types of pumpkins this year:

Pumpkins are kind of "my thing" as I'm not a fan of the cheesy Halloween decor.  I'll put a little porcelain skeleton guy and a sign that says BOO on my mantle for Halloween week, but that's about it.  Plus who has the energy to change all your decor every month between September & January?  Not me.  No sir.  This is it until I have to psyche myself up for pulling out all the Christmas decor.

• Tbone got sent to the vice principal's office last week.  It was for, get this, singing in the bathroom.  Wha?  Yes.  According to him he was "excited Fall Break was getting close & singing Dynamite in the bathroom cuz it was fun."  According to the school's secretary he was being super loud, slamming doors, and not stopping after a few minutes so she called to him to come out and told him they were going up to the vice principal's office.  Mmmmmkay?  My questions are 1) was he asked to stop and refused?  2) Was he hurting another child? 3) Was he being disrespectful to an adult? 4) Are you TRYING to make my kid label himself as a trouble-maker?  
• Answers: 1) Not asked, thus no refusal.  Give the kid a chance people. 2) No.  He was alone. 3) No. 4) Apparently.   I went along with it this time, apologizing and saying I'd talk to him, etc. but I promise you, if they attempt to punish him for something this ridiculous again there's gonna be a meeting betwixt myself and the VP and it won't be pleasant.  No one should be punished (he lost two days of recesses, btw) for singing their favorite Taio Cruz song.  The acoustics in the bathroom are amazing.  Everyone knows that.

TBone's Favorite Holiday

Someone was more excited about it being 10-10-10 than anyone else I hung out with today.

 

Here is a pic of my computer screen at 10-10-10 at 10:10 pm and 10 seconds.  (Psssst....Flem, I forgot the key strokes to do a screen shot.  Do you remember even though you've gone PC again?)

And this same someone insisted I take a pic of him by the clock and holding the family calendar.

How did you all celebrate this momentous occasion that only happens once every 100 years?

I'm going to have to top this next year on 11-11-11.

PS Two week Fall Break starts now.  We have no travel plans.  No plans of fun of any kind.  I want us to all clean out the basement.  Wish me luck.

Jammie Church Activity

Here is what Jack and I did during General Conference this year. I felt like I was back in 5th grade again.