Fall Fixins and Friendsgiving!

Hey Y'all!

Who's excited for some new recipes? Fall is here, even though in east Tennessee it definitely feels like winter, and that means that everyone in the south is cooking up some warm hearty dinners! I have two recipes to share with y'all, one being a heavenly dessert, and I hope they excited your family and friends as much as they've excited mine! So, without further ado, let's talk about one of my favorite meals in the world: Taco Soup! 

 I took this recipe from a church cook book that Miss Jeanie has at her house and i took it up a notch to favor my taste buds. This is a great meal to make because you can tone it up or tone it down according to you and your family's tastes. Another great thing about this recipe is that it makes A LOT. It's just me and my husband at the house so this pot will last us all weekend and I usually end up feeding a friend when I make this because it's too delicious not to share! So, here's what you'll need: 

INGREDIENTS:
2 pounds of ground beef (it's also delicious with ground turkey)
1 onion, diced 
2 packages of taco seasoning
1 package of ranch seasoning
3 cans of diced tomatoes (i prefer the fire roasted)
1 can of rotel tomatoes
1 can of corn
1 can of pinto beans
1 can of kidney beans
OPTIONAL:
This is where I took my own spin on things. Although the recipe calls for taco seasoning and ranch seasoning, I still had to add my own spices. A pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, paprika, and oregano. Add in as much of these as you want! 

DIRECTIONS:
Get a large skillet and brown the ground beef on the stove top. Drain the grease. Pour the taco seasoning on the ground beef and follow the directions on the back of the packet like you're going to make tacos.

Make sure that all the liquid cook so that it's just seasoned beef in the skillet. After cooking, add it to a large kettle or a dutch oven. Add all the remaining ingredients to the dutch oven and stir. Turn the heat on high so that it comes to a boil and then turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for at-least two hours. The longer it simmers, the longer it tastes, I promise. 

There are a couple of different ways that I like to serve this taco soup. The first time I made this I served it with some of the boxed jiffy cornbread and crushed it up into the soup and it was heavenly. Another time I made it, I put fritos corn chips on top and it was a really divine Frito pie! When Alisha came over and ate some with me, she crushed up some tortilla chips in hers and it was very tasty! I actually prefer the tortilla chips the day after because it does tend to thicken up after it's been refrigerated. Either way you serve it, make sure to always top it with some shredded cheese (Mexican blend is great) and sour cream! 

Are y'all drooling yet? Wipe it off and brace yourself because I have another tasty treat for you! Have you ever wondered what heaven looks like? Let me show you!

Today, heaven comes in the form of one of my most recent baking endeavors: the apple cider doughnut muffin. This is seriously the taste of fall wrapped up into a warm decadent delicious little muffin. It takes a little more work than just taking a box of cake mix, swirling it together and throwing it in the oven, but it is SO WORTH IT. Let me show you how it's done! 
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup apple cider (this is what gives it the AMAZING flavor)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
TOPPING:
7 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin pan and then set aside. In a medium bowl, combine apple cider, egg, and vanilla extract. It's easiest to use a whisk for that part. In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine flour, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. With the mixer running on low speed, SLOWLY incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix until the batter is jut combined with no streaks. I've made these twice, and both times after mixing in all the ingredients it looks very soupy, but I promise that these come out super fluffy and moist. Divide the batter into the muffin cavities. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until you can stick a tooth pick in and it comes out clean. When these are done cooking, IMMEDIATELY turn out the muffins onto a baking sheet or cutting board. Melt butter in a medium bowl. Combine the remaining granulated sugar and cinnamon in another medium bowl. Coat each muffin entirely in the melted butter then roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Transfer to a wire cooling rack that's placed over a baking sheet to cool completely. I found this recipe on pinterest. Please trust me when I say that I'm not some undiscovered baking queen, I'm just very good at following directions. There a couple of things that are left out of this recipe that I feel like are very important to mention. Please use caution when you're dipping the muffins in the butter because oh my goodness, it's so hot. When I made these the first time it didn't even cross my mind that, hey, this is super hot butter, you can burn yourself. Let the butter cool for a couple minutes before you start dipping. Also, keep some paper towels near you at all times because this can get very messy when doing the topping. Make sure that you also have the wire cooling racks other wise when the muffins are cooling it will stick to the pan. I got two of my wire racks from the Dollar Tree, so it's a very inexpensive fix! These have definitely become my favorite fall treat!

I really hope that y'all try these recipes and everyone loves them as much as my friends and family do. My muffins were definitely a hit at FRIENDS GIVING yesterday!! In the south, and especially living in a small town, you really don't need an excuse to get your closest friends together to eat and play board games, so throwing a friend's version of thanksgiving was a no brainer! It was so much fun that I didn't really get to take a lot of pictures and that makes me sad, but I do have a few to share with y'all to see why I love my friends so much!

I'm pretty sure that this was at the point when everyone just got done eating and they were all complaining that they wanted to go to sleep. I mean what's thanksgiving without an after meal nap?

Alisha actually did take a nap! Not really, we're all too exciting to sleep through, but she did snuggle for a good long time next to the fireplace. She was too cute all snuggled up in her sweater not to take a photo of, and let's be honest, I slightly envied her. 

After we all got over the feeling of a food coma, we decided to play battle of the sexes board game and it was perfect because we had four women and four men. Let's just say that the girls totally rocked it the first round, but sadly, we lost overall. The boys played dirty, but let's not get into that now, I don't want to seem like too much of a sore loser! One thing that I absolutely love about my friends is that we can always get together and play some kind of board game and no one is ever upset about it. Our friends Kenneth and Abby have so many board games and it's so much fun to get with them, and Aaron, and anyone else who happens to trail in! This is was such a wonderful night! My husband and I baked a delicious ham, green beans, stuffing and the apple cider doughnut muffins. Kenneth and Abby brought some sister Schubert's dinner rolls ( I staple for any holiday in the south) and the most DELICIOUS mashed potatoes! I'm a mashed potatoes and gravy kind of girl, but these are so good, that you forget all about the gravy. Seriously, I'm dying for the recipe. Mandy brought some cute little cheese and big old bottle of wine (that didn't make it to the end of the night). My brother Logan brought a corn salsa dish and Alisha brought her cute smiling face! Oh, and you can't forget the beer and soda! Thanks to Aaron none of us went thirsty. We also drew for secret Santa, which means we're all anticipating an ugly Christmas sweater party, and I'm pretty sure we figured out who got who within the first twenty minutes. Oh well, it will still be fun to see what everyone gets for each other! I'm so happy to have the friends that I do and I love them oh so much!

Sam had a pretty fun time too playing in the kitchen while I was cooking! He's so cute that I can't handle it sometimes. 


And after Sunday comes Monday. Mondays are usually dreaded among most human beings, but today was a good day for me because I finally got some long awaited answers about my health. I had an MRI done last week and I finally had an appointment with my doctor to figure out why I was having this pain. Turns out that I have arthritis in the bones in my lumbar area of my back! This is such a good thing and such a bad thing as well. I'm so happy that this isn't anything super serious right now to where I would need surgery, because I did not want to go that route. The bad thing about this is that because I'm so young, there isn't much that they can do for me at this point. My doctor said that if I was to take arthritis medicine this young then it would affect me very badly when I was older. We're going to try the cortisone shots in my lower back, and I was prescribed some seizure medicine to help me calm my muscles so I can rest, but other than that, I have to start out slow and try to strengthen my back muscles. It's extremely frustrating because this is going to be such a slow process. I am happy though that I finally know what's wrong with me and that I finally have answers. It's scary too because we don't know how fast this will progress and how bad, so it's a waiting game to make our next move. My doctos are so great, and my mom is so wonderful. She came with me to my appointment today, and she asked all the right questions that didn't even come to mind because I was so upset. She's so supportive and I really appreciate everything she does for me! And she took me to IHOP after, so I mean, c'mon, she deserves best mom award. All of my friends and family have just been so supportive through all of this and I appreciate every single one of them so much beyond words. I love all of you so so much! 

That's it for this week y'all! Please make sure to follow my blog to keep up with everything that goes on in my life in this small little place called Morristown! My next post will showcase a couple of places that I love in this town and some Thanksgiving fun! Love you guys!

Bye Y'all! XO

 

Jeanie's Birthday and Park Fun!

Hey Y'all!

 Today we celebrated a birthday in the Winstead house! Miss Jeanie, the woman I sit with, and pretty much one of my grandmothers due to marriage, had her 79th birthday today! We made some really fun plans to go to the Timeless Elegance Tearoom on Main street for lunch today, and I was so excited to take pictures and show y'all how wonderful main street is, but things happened and plans were changed and we ended up going to Cracker Barrel instead.

As disappointing as it was to not be able to go the tea room, cracker barrel is still such a fun treat! For anyone who has never been there, let me tell you about it. It's a southern restaurant chain that offers not only good southern cooking, but it also offers a store where you can buy holiday themed decor, clothes, toys, and loads upon loads of candy; from giant lollipops that you used to drool over as a child (and if you're anything like me, you still do), to goo goo clusters, pretty much every flavor jelly beans, fifteen pound chocolate bars, and anything else that you could possibly be craving. I used to love going here when I was little because my parents would always reward my good behavior with a candy of my choosing. Another reason that I loved to go here when I was young was because of the games!

While you're waiting for your warm delicious food to arrive, it's always fun to challenge and opponent to a game of checkers, or you can try your hand at this game! Me being me, I forgot to look and actually see what this game is called, but I can tell you that Miss Jeanie is very good at it. (I called this game this pin game when I was young so that's what I'll refer to it as now). It's a pretty simple game. The board is full of plastic "pins" and there is one empty hole. You have to jump the pins (the same concept of checkers), and you'll take the pin out and place it aside. The object of the game is to only have one pin left standing in the board. When I was showing Miss Jeanie how to do it, I had three pins left standing, but when Jeanie did it, she only had two left! Let's just say that she is the new master at the pin game. This game makes me really nostalgic because every time my grandpa would come up from Georgia we would always play this game together, and he was so good at it.

I would have to say that we had a very successful birthday lunch! 79 never looked so cute!
If you travel anywhere in the south, you're sure to come by a cracker barrel somewhere, so maybe to some people, having one of these in Morristown isn't "special", but it is to me. I've had many of dinners here with my friends and family and to just sit down somewhere and have your mind instantly flooded with such warm memories, well, I'd have to say that that is a pretty special place. 

Let me tell you about another special place in Morristown: Panther Creek Park!

We are quite lucky here in Morristown because we have a good number of parks. We have a park on the lake where you can feed the fish, a park that has a water splash pad that's great for kids in the summer, we have a disc golf course and plenty of places to play baseball, but Panther Creek is my absolute favorite, for many reasons.

This may be hard to see in the picture, but this is actually a pretty steep hill on the side of the road when you first enter the park. I have so many good memories on this hill! I've had many of long talks with friends, Frisbee playing, and one year when it snowed a bunch of people all came together and we had a giant snow ball fight! Living in a small town where it hardly snows, you can always be sure that when it does snow, you can get everyone together for some sledding and hot chocolate!

Panther Creek offers so many amenities to outdoor enthusiasts! They have a play ground for the kiddies, or adults because let's be honest, we all still have a notion to swing every time we see one, they have a pool that's open in the summer, soccer fields, volleyball and tennis courts, walking trails for horses and humans, pavilions with charcoal grills and picnic tables for parties, and they also have a beautiful lookout point that lets you take in the breath taking view of the lake that surrounds this town. I've had so many picnics and barbecues in this park growing up and even now, that every time I come here I'm just overwhelmed at how much of my life I've spent here and how I've not until recently really appreciated how much beauty this park has to offer. 

In the picture above is another wonderful thing that the park has to offer. It's very hard to tell exactly what this is in this picture, and the only way you can tell what it is without seeing it in person is if I climbed to the top of a tree and took a picture from above, but let's be honest, I'm not going to be trying to climb a tree anytime soon. At the very tip top of the park is a heart. It has been molded by concrete and filled in with grass and it is absolutely stunning. You can drive around the heart in your car or you can park by a near by pavilion and walk to it, and I enjoy the latter because the walk there is stunning, especially right now when all the leaves are bringing out their warmest colors. 

This heart is also very special to me because this is the very place where my wonderful husband proposed to me in 2013 on Halloween! We had a cheeseburger picnic, because who doesn't love cheeseburger picnics, and we had the entire park to ourselves that evening and it was one of the most memorable days of my life. The weather was perfect, the leaves were bright orange and red, and there was an infinite feeling of love and security that day. This is one place that I'll always look to go to in my many years to come.

You can almost always guarantee that no matter where you go in this town, you're bound to run into someone you know, and low and behold, lil miss Alisha was here! Me and Mikey had such a time visiting with her and her friend tonight and we got to take some really cute pictures of her VW Bus!

I hope that if you've never visited this park that you get the chance to, because it really is a marvel in a small town that can not be surpassed by night clubs and shopping malls. This is a place that has gotten me through breakups, helped me find peace, brought me closer to friends and family, and at some times has served as a safe haven. I'm extremely happy that a place like this exists in our little home we call Morristown!

One more interesting thing that happened to me that I thought I would share with y'all. My husband goes in to work in the mornings at seven, so normally the first text that I get from him is asking me how I slept the night prior. This morning, he texts me and tells me that he bought 89 tall boy cans of mountain dew for five dollars. I thought he joking, because I have no idea how he would have even come across this many mountain dews. Well, he wasnt.

This is my life now. Open our fridge and you will be blind sided by the vibrant green and red that is a mountain dew can. It was "too good of a deal to pass up." Welcome to the south y'all.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed living and writing it. I hope you'll continue to read and see why I love living in a small town. Until next time!

Bye Y'all! xo

A Little About Me

Hey Y'all!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Morgan, and I'm sure if you're reading this then we either went to school together, we're related, you're one of my friends, or we've passed by each other somehow, somewhere within this beautiful little place we call Morristown. If you're not categorized by one of the above, then welcome once again! I am extremely eager to make new friends! I'm going to use this blog to showcase some of the wonderful things about Morristown (because I think sometimes we all need a little reminder about why we stay here), some new recipes that I'm trying that I've more than likely found on Pinterest, pictures of my cat, drunk craft tutorial videos (more on this later), baking recipes, and anything else that I find slightly interesting! Now, how about I tell you a little bit about me before I get started. 

 This is me. This is one of my least favorite pictures of myself, but this is the truest photo of myself; no angles, no perfect lighting, no fancy makeup, no sucking in my tummy, it's just me and it's honest. I think we all need to be a little more honest in our daily lives and that's something that I'm also going to strive for through this blog. I like to read books, and am currently making my way through Stephen King's tantalizing list of horror. I like to watch horror movies, and I have about 150 in my house, some of which have never been opened; you could say it's a bit of an addiction. I like to sit outside on my porch swing with my friends and drink coffee. I absolutely love animals and if I ever come close to one, I'm not walking away without at least attempting to pet it. I like to cook and bake and I love to eat the things that I cook and bake. I have lots of hobbies and lots of things that I find fun, but nothing that I'm truly and infinitely passionate about which is why I haven't completed a college degree. I do have something in mind, but it's currently on the back burner as I'm dealing with ongoing back problems. A couple of years ago while working in a factory, I hurt my back very badly and it required me to go to a chiropractor (this is the first place I went because it's natural and doesn't involve any kind of pain medicine) three times a week for three months. When they did an x-ray they said that I've got two discs at the bottom of my spine that are fused together. Although this isn't life threatening to me, Thank God, it has made my life a lot harder than it used to be. I am currently in the process of getting an MRI done because it seems as though things are getting worse. Believe me when I say that this is not a pity party, but simply a prelude to explain why I have the job that I have now. I sit with one of my step mom's mother and it has been the most rewarding job I've had yet. She is hilarious, she is devout in her faith, and she is the nicest woman that I've had the pleasure of meeting in all my life. I make her lunch and cook her dinner and help her with some of her errands and chores through out the weeks. I take her to her doctor appointments and I make sure that she takes her medicines. I know she doesn't need me there, as she is able to get around on her own, but I like to believe that we're both making a difference in each others lives. I really hope to show you pictures of our adventures soon! Now, enough about me. I would like to tell you about some of the people that have impacted my life the most and made me who I am! 

This is my husband Michael. I wish I could tell you that the story of us meeting for the first time was some kind of magical experience, but alas, it was not. We met through a mutual friend at a Walmart.. welcome to Tennessee! Our first encounter with each other definitely wasn't a page pulled from a fairy tale, but I can say that the entire rest of our relationship has been nothing short of spectacular. He saved me from a life that so many people around here end up falling in to. He's shown me things about myself that I didn't even know existed. He bought me a cat. I mean seriously, how much better of a husband can you have? Like, guys, he bought me A CAT. Anyway, I can never put into words what he has truly done for me, and our cat Sam, so I'll just say this: I love you sweet boy. More than you'll ever know. 

 On to less sappier things (yeah right). This is my best friend Brittany and she's a total babe. Seriously, I can't take her anywhere without someone asking her where she got her clothes or how she does her hair. You would think that this would annoy me to no end, but it actually makes me really happy because when people tell her these things, she gets the biggest smile on her face, and when she's happy, I'm happy. When you love someone as much as I love Brittany, you really learn to see the good in people and you want good things to happen to those people. You learn to push lust and envy out of the way and you learn how easy it is to have a friendship. It does also help that almost every time I see her, I know I'm getting taco bell that day, and she might even be paying for it (since I'm trying to be more honest, I don't actually like Brittany, I'm just using her because of my love for burritos). She stood by me in second grade (seriously, our last names we're extremely close together), we stood together when we went to our first prom, we stood together as we received our caps and gowns, she stood beside me at the alter, and one day she'll stand by me as the godmother to my children. If you end up keeping up with this blog, I can guarantee that you'll be seeing a lot of this girl. I love you Brittany Jo. 

 

Another girl who is close to my heart is this Lil mama, Alisha.  We've only recently gotten close over the last couple of years, but I'm very thankful that it happened. Alisha is a little bit of spice and a little bit of country with a gypsy soul that is guaranteed to break any man's heart. When she walks into a room it is instantly lit up with her smile and ever growing charisma. She is adventurous and full of wanderlust and anyone who is lucky enough to call this girl their friend will agree with me. Another thing I'm going to use this blog for is for mine and Alisha's drunk tutorial videos. I know what you're thinking. Oh, they're going to get drunk off of cheap alcohol and show us how to do stuff. Yep. That's actually what's going to be happening, and no one can stop us, so look for that coming up soon! I love you Alisha!

I told you I was going to post photos of my cat. If you don't think he's cute then I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems, but people who don't like photos of my cat ain't one. Seriously, get out. 

Anyway, This is me and these are people in my life that make a huge impact on a day to day basis. There are so many other people who make a difference in my life, but I thought I'd shine the limelight on just a couple tonight. The next post coming up is a delicious recipe for taco soup (with pictures) and a little bit about Morristown and what makes this city special, so make sure to follow to keep up with my blog! 

Bye Y'all! xo