Thanksgiving 2012 Photos!

Thanks to David Savage for taking this shot of Jamie Hawkins and myself at Thanksgiving Dinner.  Great shot, love it!  We all enjoyed Thanksgiving at my brother and sister in laws house! All Pics are up now at royaltruecolours.com for those with password access.

Love this shot of Robert Glennon that I got before dinner in my brother and sister in laws kitchen.  Looks like he's thinking, OH NO, she caught me working in the kitchen.  ha, ha! 

Mrs. Heyer and my sister in law Sonia are working something out in Sonia's kitchen before dinner.

A beautiful Thanksgiving Turkey decorated by my mom!  We had two turkey's.  My mom baked this one, and Sonia baked another one.

Love this pic.  My "adopted" neice and nephews, the Welsh kids!  Ansley, by the way, is great!  I got tired after eating too much, yeah, and had to lay down, and Ansley came and gave me this great back massage to help me relax.  What a sweetheart!

 My brother and Sonia eating with some of their dinner guests.....let's see, Anthony Chibarirwe, Robert Glennon, Kyle Tremblay, Benjamin Tauer can be seen in this pic.  I think I see a sliver of Lauren Eames shir on the other side of Benjamin too!  :-) 

 Benjamin Tauer carves the turkey.  What a great carver he was!

 My parents enjoying their meal.

Jamie Hawkins and Tiffany Watson, and Tiffany's mom, here all the way from Mississippi, enjoying their meal.

 Sean Welsh enjoying his meal; where's his wife Gladys, she's missing.....

FOUND HER....should have known, she was in the kitchen putting last touches to something.

Homemade Crispy and Crunchy Onions

So I don't know why, but many people were surprised that I didn't use the canned store bought fried onions, and here asking how I made my own b/c they liked it.  I thought it was common knowledge, but for those that asked, it's just like making southern fried chicken.  I beat 3 brown cage free eggs in 2 tbsp of SMOKED paprika, note the smoked paprika, not the regular kind, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1.5 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground.  I mixed/beat that all together in one bowl and set aside.  In another bowl, mixed together 3 cups flour. (Because it was thanksgiving and we were all breaking diets anyway, I went with all purpose white flour to get the same texture and taste of the store bought kind.) I mixed it with 4 tbsp smoked paprika, 4 tsp garlic powder, 2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground, 3 tbsp sea salt and set aside.  I cup up one large onion, and then dumped the cut onion into the egg mixture bowl and tossed it until all onion pieces were coated with the egg mixture pretty heavily, then I dumped the coated onion pieces into the flour bowl and tossed until all onion was covered in flours.  In a large skillet I heated up hot grease and then dumped the onion in and fried until done.  Then put the done fried onion on top of the green bean casserole that I had already put together (just french cut green beans with turkey bacon, cheddar cheese, cream of mushroom soup, and black pepper), and baked the casserole for about 20 minutes, and vahlah, the onions were crunchy and crispy just like the store bought.  Pretty simple. (Putting the onions in the oven right after frying them is the trick to get the crunch.)

Cookbook Ready for Printing Press

The Cookbook of Culinary Elegance Project is finished on the prepress side.  It's all ready for the printing press; two weeks behind schedule.  For a sneak peek of it, scroll down on this blog to find a visual.  Was hoping to have it printed by Thanksgiving, but what a busy life we all lead; that's not going to happen.  After this project, I will take a break; life is hectic, and obviously in my life God comes first and in between it all, life isn't slowing down, but I will still be pushing out what I like to call Prov. 31 Fashion Designs and recipes when I can. 

Gift Thank You's!

 A BIG THANKS to Randy and Pamela Smith for the fresh turnips!  WOW, wasn't expecting this.  Turnips are so healthy.  I plan to wash them and cook them up good.  THANK YOU; soooo appreciated!

Thanks Ms. Wood for the chocolates.  Yes, I do eat candy every blue moon if it's a gift since the diet is always healthy otherwise.  YUMMY, and you didn't have to get them, but I sure love them!

A Fabulous Saturday Night Dinner at My Place!

Had a fabulous Saturday Night dinner at my place.  Was so happy to have the opportunity.  We are so blessed here. Calling it a "family dinner."  Mr. G. Flurry was present, all of my physical family was present, Gladys Welsh (one of my best pals) and her family were present, Mrs. Heyer was present(Mr. Heyer is currently out of the country so he was not there), Ms. Wood was present, and Michael Davis who was spending the night with Gianni Welsh was present.  Everyone chipped in making this a family dinner. My week last week was insane busy, so no way I was going to pull it together on my own, but it turned out great family style!  My dad made what I call sushi rolls, but it actually wasn't sushi, but it had raw cured fish in it, yummy!....my mom cooked the Salmon, Gladys did the dessert course, my sister in law Sonia made homemade whole wheat dinner rolls, (she's our official family bread maker...girl makes some great bread!), my brother was the drink server, Mrs. Heyer and Ms. Wood brought the sparkling Grape Juice, and crackers, and I planned the menu and recipes and made the sauces, side dishes, did decorations etc.  Nice family dinner we were all so blessed to have the opportunity to have.  LOVE how everyone pulled together to make it a success.  I might start doing this kind of "family styled everyone participates dinner" more often.  More unifying.  (More pics WILL BE posted on royaltruecolours with friends who have password access)

FINALLY got the chance to use one of my crown candle holders that I was able to win at the Texas Pine Car Derby auction last fall to raise money for the AA building fund.  Not sure who submitted these in the auction last year, but thanks to whoever did!  What a night to use it on too with so much royalty there at the table.  :-) 

So I'm not very artistic in putting food on plates, I'm not trying to be humble, I'm just not, it is what it is, but I don't think this looks too bad.  Maybe it does, but I was happy with it. 

Gladys works on her part of the dinner, the dessert coruse, as you see from the dessert photo, she classically rocked them out.  Beautiful!  Thanks Gladys for doing the dessert!  You are truly a great friend that I'm blessed to have; your entire family!

My mom gave me permission to post this pic.  She chose a garbage bag as her apron.

My sister in law is now officially part of the family after this dinner.  She worked hard with us.  Thanks Sonia!  My mom joked and told her that she hopes she realizes that she has married into a family that LOVES TO COOK and entertain all of the time.  ha, ha!  She's great!

New Ladies Scarf Design In the Making

Working on a new ladies fashion fleece scarf design.  I'm bored of the usual wrap around your neck and tie it scarf.  Fleece is sooo warm and soft!  This design is unfinished, buttons are in, and gold neckline trim is pinned in, but trying to come up with how I want it to fully look as I did this without a sketch, and pardon my totally doesn't not match sweatshirt that I modeled this unfinished design in.  Ummm...not representing dressing to high standards in that, but I was comfortable!

Traffic Jam---in Rural Territory :-)

STAND STILL TRAFFIC JAM on my way into work at HQ this morning all the way from Guthrie to Edmond.  Character building with the fruit of patience.  Think I passed this morning; just relaxed, popped in a Philly Singers CD and meditated.  The positive was I saved on fuel!....not pushing the gas petal and just coasting along probably saved me a few bucks!  There is always a positive to everything!  :-)  Living in rural territory we don't see this everyday.  People from NY or LA, or Big D(aka...Dallas) would probably laugh.   Don't think I pushed the gas petal at all on the freeway.....been in traffic jams in Dallas, Texas before, but usually after a few miles they clear up, not this one it went all the way from the time I got on the freeway to the time I got off.  It's definitely the 6th day of the week!  :-)

Royal Purple Ladies Leg Warmers

Today on Sunday was a much needed break away from proofreading the cookbook, but still productive design wise.  Fulfilled two Scents of Happiness Orders of shampoo.  Happy to get that knocked out!  Not fun making the stuff, but love helping others go natural on what absorbs into their skin.  Many friends went up to Kansas this weekend for an activity up there, but I decided to stay back and totally enjoy the peace of quiet of so many gone, just being honest!  :-),  and be productive around my house, although...ummm...the house suffered a bit, no housework done today besides washing dishes, but will certainly have to make up for that Wednesday evening, not being a bum, it's just my next free night available after work.  Today created royal purple ladies fashion leg warmers.  Been wanting to make this design for awhile and just did it today as a nice break!  Have decided to NOT put this design up for sale on Ebay or Etsy or anywhere else, b/c the design was complex and took hours, yeah literally, to finish, hand sewn, but if any friends locally would like a pair, let me know, and I'll get around to it.

Unfinished Sneek Peek of The Cookbook of Culinary Elegance

Unfinished Sneek Peek of what's going on with The Cookbook project.  By this time next week it will be being printed to hard copy, and getting ready to be downloaded as an e-book.

Break from Work, Designing, and Cooking

Alec Brown came to visit at the Hall of Administration this morning.  While talking to his mom, I noticed he was sitting in one of the reception area chairs really cutely, so I grabbed my camera and it's now documented as history!

Cookbook Update

So I tweeted about it, but realized not everyone that reads my blog follows my tweets....

I have been crazy busy working on the final prepress production of The Cookbook of Culinary Elegance.  Down to proofreading now, and putting in final tweaks.  Hoping for it to hit the press next week.  Will be available on Amazon as a hard copy or you can download it as an e book!  My Graphics Arts degree is really saving me money and coming in handy on this project.  Will let you all know when it's released!  Exciting after TWO YEARS in the making!

Tea Time

LITERALLY after about SIX YEARS of trying to get together for tea during the work day Mrs. Malone and I FINALLY worked out our schedules to mesh!  She's a super busy lady; and on top of that our schedules are completely opposite.  When I get off work, that's when her family is home, but today, finally we had REAL TEA TIME (the loose leaf kind with STEVIA, yeah, on top of that) in her home while her husband practiced the piano who is doing a private performance tonight at the University of Central Oklahoma Local Jazz Club.  I'm working on my cookbook tonight; else I would have gone.  Above is a photo of Puchinni<sp?>; their dachshund.  Use to see him a lot when the Malone kids were younger and I use to baby sit them; but it's been awhile.  Everyone is getting older.  I tried to get a pic of him cuddling me, but I missed my op for that; the rest of the time he wanted me to play fetch.  I'm very partial to dachshund's b/c I had one growing up in Texas.  In fact, I loved mine so much that is why I don't have a dog to this day.  It was too painful when mine died.  Thanks for the good tea time Mrs. Malone.  The tea was delicious!  You are wonderful!  :-)  Good times.

Junk Food Answered Prayer Funny!

Mr. Turgeon gave me permission to put this blog entry up.  I found his latest funny from the pulpit hilarious.  Probably b/c I'm into eating healthy so much.  He said he first said it at PYC, but I missed hearing it that time, so I heard it for the first time at Bible Study this weekend.  Here goes:

There was a family who was gathered around their dinner table.  They had hotdogs loaded with nitrates, and unhealthy potato chips loaded with perservatives in front of them for dinner on the table.  They wanted to ask a blessing over their food before they ate it for God to take out any impurities that were in the food and for Him to make it nourishing to their bodies by removing the impurities, so they prayed this prayer.  When they opened their eyes after finishing up the prayer they found that God had answered their prayer; their table was completely empty; all of the junk food had been removed!  ha, ha!!!

Another AA Concert Season Underway Starting Today!

Today kicks off a brand new season in Armstrong Auditorium!  It's our third season since our 20 million dollar auditorium was finished in central Oklahoma of all places!  Time flies.  Above is a picture of our lovely Box Office Manager, Emily Burns right after she got into the office this morning!  Looks like she's geared up for the big season opening day.  She's great!  I totally love working under her in this department. 

This is also Emily's office....The ushering staff's ties, and shirts are now located in her office this year.  This is a change from the past two seasons where they were located in Auditorium storage.

This is my dinner on the go today; my homemade Spice of life; :-) almost too spicy chili.  Long work day today!

Here is Armstrong Auditorium's newest box office staff member, Paulette Corey!  With Sarah Patten out of the country, Paulette is filling her box office position this season...so here's the triple duo this season....Emily Burns; manager; Paulette Corey; Emily's box office assistant, and me, Will Call tickets in the Box Office.  Paulette will do great!

....here is me!  I'm the one taking the pictures, so the name tag will suffice and probably looks better than me this morning anyway.  :-)  I got up at 3AM this morning to find this thing!  It's been a long summer in hibernation for it!  :-)

 Our venue, Armstrong Auditorium!  A local newspaper wrote last year that it rivals European Palaces!  What a compliment!