Grilled Turkey and Garlic Sandwich

One of the best things about Thanksgiving is the leftovers! I love the traditional turkey with cream cheese and cranberry sandwich, but here's  another yummy sandwich that's been a Wagner tradition for years. It's not fancy, but so good!

 

Grilled Turkey and Garlic Sandwich

 

 

Leftover Turkey

Bread

McCormick Minced Garlic

Butter

Mayonnaise

 

 Spread softened butter on one side of each piece of bread. (This is the one time of year I buy a loaf of white bread. Don't judge me). :)

 

Sprinkle with Minced Garlic

 

Turn the bread over and spread mayonnaise on the other side.

 

Place the turkey in the sandwich and grill in a heated skillet until golden brown on each side. 

 

Make this sandwich your own my adding your favorite cheese, mustard or whatever your heart desires! It's the minced garlic that makes it special.

 

When I was loading my pictures I was surprised by this one that Nolan took of my dough trough I talked about in an earlier blog. Tomorrow I will be putting my pumpkins away and bringing out my Christmas decorations. I love my pumpkins!  

 

 

Blessings,

Julie Wagner

 

 

 

 



Favorite Finds Friday: Autumn and Caramel Corn

Autumn! My favorite time of year!

 

This gorgeous picture was taken by Billie Coon! It's beautiful just like her!

(My husband wants you to know that this is the road that goes to his duck hunting swamp).

 

I love everything about Autumn! I love the crisp coolness in the air, pumpkins, sweaters, boots, hot mugs between my hands, and only having to shave my legs every other day instead of every day.  Pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes... I even like it getting dark earlier and the rain. (I do get tired of it come January though). I love sitting inside listening to an Autumn storm and watching the leaves swirling in the air. Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, is in Autumn. And I love, love, love pumpkin patches!

 

I think Elijah does too!

 

Another favorite that I associate with Autumn is Caramel Corn! I have a little trick to make it extra chewy. One time I wanted a little more than a regular batch so I made 1 1/2 recipes. My family told me that it was the best caramel corn I've made... and it was good before. I realized that instead of adding 1 1/2 times the corn syrup, I doubled it. Here's my adjusted recipe.

 

Chewy Caramel Corn

 

1 1/2 C butter

2 1/4 C brown sugar

1/2 C corn syrup

1 1/2 t salt

3/4 t baking soda

1 1/2 t vanilla

8 qt. popped popcorn (3 batches with my air popper)

 

I use an air popper, but you can use the microwave and a brown paper bag if you'd like. I also put the un-popped kernels back through.

 

I run my hands through it to allow the un-popped kernels to settle to the bottom of the bowl before transferring the popcorn to a LARGE bowl.

 

Melt butter and stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt.

 

Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once boiling turn burner to low and boil for 5 minutes without stirring. (I can almost smell it).

 

Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla. It will bubble when you add the vanilla.

 

 YUM!

Pour caramel over popcorn and mix well.

 

Pour into a shallow, greased pan.

 

Bake at 200* for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. This is the best part because every time you stir it you get to eat some! :)

 

Cool on a piece of wax paper or parchment paper.

 

Happy Autumn everyone!

 

Blessings,

Julie Wagner

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Paleo Spaghetti Squash with Mom's Sauce

First of all, I'm slowly trying to update and personalize my blog. I'm not very computer savvy so this is challenging for me. I started with my hovering "pin it" button. Just hover the cursor over any picture and a "pin it" button will appear. Click on it to pin it to Pinterest. Easy Peasy! The latest feature I added is the "Blog Categories" list. You will find this on the right-hand side of my page. I really wanted to make tabs horizontally across the top, but couldn't figure it out. I would also like to see if I can make sub-titles so under recipes I can list appetizers, drinks, soup...

I just thought this was cute and wanted to share it.

 

Ok, on to the recipe!

 

Paleo Spaghetti Squash with Mom's Sauce

 

This is the sauce that I grew up with and now make for my family. The recipe was really easy to convert to Paleo. Of course I had it with regular spaghetti noodles and so did my family up to a couple of months ago. I wasn't sure what my family would think of the substitution, but they all really like it. My husband even prefers the squash! I do know there's no way my oldest son Peter would ever try it. He's married though and no longer my problem. :)

 

When I made this I really should have used grass fed beef, but I'm new at Paleo and still had regular beef in my freezer to use. I also made the mistake of putting garlic salt in the sauce. How bad could that be you ask? It has sugar. I just made this again tonight and used fresh garlic instead. I also used grass fed beef!

 

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 small spaghetti squash

1 lb. grass fed ground beef

1 or 2 gloves of minced garlic

1-15 oz can of organic tomato sauce (plus 3/4 can of water)

1-6 oz can organic tomato paste

1/2 t oregano

1/4 t basil

1/2 t salt

1/8 t pepper

1/2 t celery seed

 

This is the hamburger I use now!

 

To cook the squash, cut it in half length wise, scoop out seeds and place flesh down on a baking sheet. Cook at 375* for 45-60 minutes.

Brown hamburger and garlic in a skillet.

There's no garlic in this because I used garlic salt. Oops!

 

Add the remaining ingredients, heat thoroughly and simmer for 30 minutes. (Don't forget the water).

Favorite spoon!

 

Scrap the squash out with a fork and top with the sauce.

 

ENJOY!

Tips: The squash is really hard to cut. It helps if you have a sharp cleaver, or you can microwave it for a couple of minutes before cutting.

 

If you'd like you can add mushrooms, onion, shallots...

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Here's an update on my Paleo lifestyle if you're interested. I went on 2 back to back vacations in July and ate whatever I wanted. I gained a few pounds but as of Thursday I only had 1 pound to lose. I've been good, but not perfect. I will be helping Nolan move into his dorm room at George Fox University on Thursday and will get serious again when I return. I'm also going to take up yoga. I've never enjoyed yoga, but am hoping I learn to. Flexible I am not!

 

This is where we ate in San Antonio. The creamed corn was delicious, but the meat was so so. I think I'm spoiled by Parker's wicked BBQ skills!

Vacation #2 in Whistler BC. Wonderlust (a yoga convention) was going on. There were a bunch of people in yoga paints carrying their mats around, decorated in really pretty tattoos and wearing flowers in their hair. I told my husband I was going to go home, take up yoga, get tattoos and become a hippie. 

 

So give the spaghetti squash a try if you haven't already and let me know what you think. It's really good!

 

 

Blessings,

Julie Wagner

Favorite Finds Friday - Giddy Up!

I've had my eye out for a vintage horse for a while. I did find one on Etsy that was $350.00 but it didn't look quite right so I passed on it. I was beginning to believe that's what I was going to have to pay if I really wanted one. Christen from www.blueeggbrownnest.com said that if you ever see a vintage horse you should grab it as fast as you can and buy it because they're not easy to find... and that's just what I did. She has some really cool ones! 

I'm always looking for something to do while getting my car serviced in Fife, so this time I decided to drive my loaner car to Sumner and treasure hunt. As I was walking down the sidewalk I saw an antique store in front of me with a lot of fun looking stuff outside. As I was crossing the street approaching the store I spotted my horse! I was so excited I might have started running a little bit. I grabbed it, went straight to the cash register and told the nice lady how excited I was to find it. (Probably not what you should do if you want to dicker with the price). I just couldn't help it! It all worked out though because she gave me 10% off just because she could tell how happy I was. The ticket price was $95.00 so I was pretty happy anyway! It really wasn't the color I wanted, but  I knew how to fix that!

 

 My plan was to paint the whole horse Graphite, then dry brush it with Old White.

 

 

This is what it looked like after a coat of Graphite.

 

 

I was planning on using Old White, but something was making me think French Linen. At this point I was planning on dry brushing a layer of French Linen, then dry brushing a layer of Old white. I liked it so much with the French Linen that I decided to forgo the Old White.

 

Ta da!





 

He has a stirrup missing on this side, but that's ok.

 

I think he looks a lot tougher this color.

 

I'm really happy with how he turned out! Now he just needs a name!

 

Here's some more treasures I found that day.

 

Corbel! It's bigger than it looks. 30" This will go in my guestroom that I'm redecorating in September. I can't wait!

 

I asked Nolan to put my corbel in the grass and take a picture of it. This is what he did. Lol.

 

Just an old scale, but I like it. I think I'll throw some Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint on it and see what happens.

 

Nolan redeemed himself with this picture. Good job staging Nolan!

 

I saw this chair and thought it was the sweetest thing. I plan on taking the cushion off and replacing it with a flower pot. (I like how Nolan put the Annie Sloan paint can on the floor).

 

 

I think I'll name him Samson!

 

Blessings,

Julie Wagner