H A P P Y   T H A N K S G I V I N G !!!!

We found this really cute little pumpking patch vignette when we took Jayden for his first Pumpkin Patch trip. We couldnt believe the sign in the left corner so we got to gether for a quick photo cause I just knew I would be able to use it someday. I just love it cause it says it all for us and our business! ha!

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Okay that last entry was just too creepy for me! And yes I would have FREAKED had I woke up and seen that thing on my wall! So much for Creepy Crawlies! We had such a fun day yesterday. We had Dave Kelly and Jayden and some very close friends over for a Pre Thanksgiving get together snce we wont be able to spend the actual day with them. I had the tail end of the flu hanging on and boy was it hard to decide whether to call and cancel or just soldier through. I ended up cooking up a storm and driniking lots of cranberry juice. I cant believe I made several dishes and stayed up long enough to chat and even watch a movie before we called it a night.

I made:

Emeril’s Bacon and Jalapeno Corn Bread 
My Thanksgiving Casserole
Spinach and Penne Pasta with toasted pine nuts and cranberries soaked in port

My friend Donna made a big cast iron skillet of blackerry cobbler and brought some real vanilla ice cream WOW was it good!!

It was a great day and evening….so now that the network is back up we are hot and heavy back into work mode. Its funny how it was down all day almost as if we were supposed to take the day off! haha….

I am feeling much better today and hoping this thing is completely gone!

Hmmmm now what to make for lunch??

Brian and I are up late tonight working and messing around – I was upgrading our network router, which means that what the box says is a simple task turns into a longer than usual project since we have a larger office network here. Nothing is simple.

Brian comes out and tells me there is a bug on the wall in the bathroom that I have to go see. So I follow him in. After seeing it, we both turn into a couple of little boys trying to find out the best way to light it and get pictures. I pulled out my macro and he’s fiddling with the video light.

This guy was getting a little disturbed by the huge lens that was getting closer and closer to him, so after this shot he tried to scurry away, but he has been delivered to his final resting place. (PETA – leave me alone…) I coulld only image the noise I would have heard had Kerri discovered it on the wall when she got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom….

So now the computers are fixed and I’m off to bed.

This week we will have the slideshow up from Amy and Roger and hopefully for Kristi & Kyle.

And in a week or so we’ll post pictures of the latest addition to our family…

 We just went to see this movie today…it is a beautiful movie. Go see it if you can this weekend!  

A NOTE FROM MY FRIEND DEAN

I am feeling all domestic now that things are cooling off and the weddings have wound down….So okay what do I end up doing? Watching the Food Network TV Shows while I am designing albums! But you can only watch for so long then you gotta get some of that for yourself!

I have let alot of recipes kinda steep in my brain lately taking note of what goes good with what and tonight I wandered into the kitchen thinking UGH another night of WHAT TO MAKE for dinner syndrome!

So folks, I just made and ate a yummy recipe that I threw together and I feel like I ate a mini Thanksgiving Day Dinner without all the work and mess and defintiely within alot less time!!!!

I wish I had taken a picture… DUH! but we were so hungry that we just dug in and ate it all!

No fear tho I just quickly jotted down the recipe if it sounds good to you feel free to make it your own!

I have to say my favorite cooks are, Ina Garten ( Barefoot Contessa), Paula Deen and Sandra Lee. I have picked up some tips and great ideas from them! I love Paula’s down home cooking and she is a HOOT! Sandra Lee’s semi homemade ideas are such TIMESAVERS…and Ina is just a laid back easy to follow great cook that I just really love to watch.

So I took Sandra’s guiltless idea of using pre made items to help make cooking quicker and easier.

I grabbed a fully cooked turkey breast ( the kind in the plastic boat that is all hot and ready to eat that you can find under the heat lamps at the big grocery stores. That is the semi homemade part.

I pulled out my cast iron skillets and all the items below and made a very tasty dish!

I think I will call this:

Thanksgiving Casserole

Here is what you need:

Turkey breast pre cooked from the grocery store

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Hot water

3-4 stalks celery

1 onion

1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary

1 tsp fresh chopped basil

1-2 tbs. corn starch

1 cup chicken stock 

salt and pepper

2- 3 cups cooked pasta noodles I used a small bag I bought from Trader Joes that is short and flat  

1 cup peas

Here is what you do with it: 

Start a pot of water for pasta 

Oil the bottom of a heavy pan with 4 Tbs EVOO ( Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

Chop celery and onion

Sautee in oil and cook until the onions are nicely transparent but the celery is still crunchy or whatever your taste is

Add 1 tsp each of fresh chopped basil and rosemary this is where your kitchen starts to smell really good!

Put your pasta into the water to get them started.

Put your frozen peas in the microwave and heat up

Place the whole turkey breast on top of the celery onion mixture and cover with heavy lid let it heat the turkey through. After you heat it through take the lid off and let it sizzle on both sides letting the turkey absorb the rosemary and sage and onion flavor.

Take the turkey out and cut into bite size pieces set those aside and keep warm I didnt even use all my turkey so I cut about half and saved the other half for another dish later.

Now make a gravy with the turkey celery onion stock using the corn starch, and bullion and salt and pepper.

To do this:

Make a mixtue of the hot water and bullion and add to the pan drippings from the turkey, oil, onion and celery.
Stir it all in there with the skin that is stuck to the bottom get it all up off there.
Then make a mixture of the corn starch and water I used about 1 cup of hot water with 1 Tbs of corn starch and stirred it until there were no lumps.
Then I added that to the onion celery mixture still bubbling on the stove. This is going to be your gravy keep it stirring. Add any water you might need to keep it from being too thick. Do it a little at a time so you dont over water it and have to add more cornstarch.. Just keep a good watch on it. You will know when it has the consistency of gravy.  

Drain your pasta and set aside

Cut the turkey into pieces and add to the gravy add the peas that have cooked in the microwave  

Fold it all together into a casserole dish and serve quickly 

Add some crunchy french bread spread with butter season with some Italian seasonings

Whala! To make it more Italian you could top it off with Parmesan Cheese as you serve it!

I think I will add Paula’s Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle to this meal next time for the dessert!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_29116,00.html

Now go get the recipe! It looks YUMMY!!

Enjoy!!!

Kerri

Print this off and check it out! It took me less than 30 min to make this and wow it was so good!

Sitting here at 3:45 am with insomnia…nothing much new there. But its not fun
when you need to get as much rest as you can because you are sick! We all
left here today to shoot a fun engagement session and as we were all in the car
we were noticing that we all had sore throats and sneezy.  I had a stomach ache
and Mark had a headache.By the time we got home Mark was running a pretty
good fever. Darn it! I hope we get through this quickly. I gotta get my Jayden
fix at least 3 times a week!. Here are a few from his recent visit that I just love.
He loves Grandma’s laptop!!
He knows he can see Noggin and Gummi Bear on it and has to watch it several
times before he is satisfied!

These are not staged he actually loves looking in on his favorite friends.

Woah his hand looks all weird here.
low light and an impatient camera operator
I didnt want to miss these shots so no time
for flash or tripod which would have helped

Being very patient while Grandma finds another song

Mesmerized!

Grandma loves you JJ!!!

Can anyone tell me how to get my post to scooch to the left?
< this space between my post and the custom module is driving
me crazy!
I hate when you have to scroll to the right to read all the text!
Help?

Edit: Okay got it figured it out. The album below for David and Sheri is a landscape
album so it is making this whole page a wider than normal page. Anything I post on this
page is going to go wide.  Go figure!

David & Sheri!

Amy & John!  

Here is what Lydell Photography is busy doing this month! So if you are waiting know where your wedding/E session is in the que here is the breakdown. 

November Workflow:

11/14/07: 
 Kelly Wilson & Tim Lewis: Engagement Shoot

Mark’s Desk

 Meyers Album (to client for approval)
 Kyle & Kristi’s Wedding Edit/PP  
 Bobbi & Bryan’s Engagement Session Edit/PP
 Michelle & Matt’s Engagement Session Edit/PP
 Dane and Stephanie’s Wedding Edit/PP
 Kelly & Tim Engagement Session Edit/PP
 

Brian’s Desk:

 Amy & Roger’s Wedding Edit/PP

Kerri’s Desk (Album Design)

Hernandez Wedding Album (in design now)
Childers – Album uploaded to Italy for print/bind
Petty – Delivered*
Meyers- Design finished and off to Mark for final stage for preview
Ronan – Approved
Todd – Album “in preview” with client waiting for approval
Hinton – Delivered*
Raymond – Album uploaded to  Italy for print/bind
Miller – Album uploaded to Italy for print/bind
Nordberg – Waiting for final images list from client

*Finished Albums