New Recipe Blog

Hey all! I decided to start storing my recipes online so I don't have to cart my recipe books should we end up moving again this summer. It's not anything spectacular but I just wanted to let anyone know who is interested. Most of the recipes I'll be putting on there are ones I make from the Richards and Manning family cookbooks. I'll still be posting any new recipes I try on Annette's recipe blog but I just wanted a better way to access the recipes I use a lot from anywhere. (It has also been a good excuse to dust off some recipes I haven't cooked in a little while.) Visit it here. Happy cooking, everyone!

P.S. Should you visit this new recipe blog, please ignore the amateur photography. I've been posting pics of my own cooking and not that of professional food photographers. It is lacking to say the least but just because it may look gross in the pic doesn't mean it actually tastes that way...hopefully! :)

Our Little Sports Fan

I think that boys must just be born with a love for sports. Gordon was watching the Cleveland/Miami basketball game tonight and after cheering for a great play, Tyler decided to follow suit. It was so funny I just had to pull out the camera and try to catch it. As soon as we realized Tyler was mimicking Gordon, well, this is what happened...



Or watch it here.

The Holiday Bug

It's official! I've got the holiday bug. I know there are those of you who hate those of us who start with the Christmas carols and movies as soon as Halloween is done but I just can't help it! It may be because last year I was getting ready to have my gall bladder removed and was eating nothing but cereal and smoothies but I am EXCITED for this Thanksgiving/Christmas season! I've been starting to watch a few of my favorite Christmas flicks and loving every minute of it! So I thought I'd post a list of my faves (in no particular order):

- Miracle on 34th Street (old & new but especially new)
- Home Alone (Gordon's personal favorite)
- Home Alone 2 (equally as hilarious as #1)
- Elf
- The Santa Clause: 1, 2 & 3
- It's A Wonderful Life (always reminds me of my parents)
- The Nativity
- A Season for Miracles (makes me cry every time!)
- Snow (a great one for kids! Even Tyler watched it with me!)
- Luke 2
- How The Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version- not a fan of the Jim Carey one.)
- All the clay-mation movies
- The Disney Christmas Collection (Scrooge is awesome!)
- A Christmas Carol (always a classic!)
- I'll Be Home For Christmas ("Oh, no!! I went and killed Santa!") :)

Let's face it! I just LOVE this time of year! Happy (early) Holidays everyone!

Halloween 2009

It was another awesome year of fun games, yummy food and silly costumes over at the Manning house! Holidays with the Manning clan are always a big deal and we wanted to send a big THANK YOU out to Mom for making it another year to remember. My sisters have already posted a lot about what went on so I'll just add a few pics we took so you don't have Manning party overload...

This is Tyler and Josh in their costumes. Tyler was Woody from Toy Story and I thought he looked adorable! He hated having his hat on as you can see in the picture and his boots kept falling off but he put up with it for at least a little bit! I love seeing Josh and Tyler together. They're still figuring each other out but are starting to have more fun together. Josh was dressed up as a cute little monster and put up with his costume a little better than Tyler did...





One of my favorite parts of Halloween is our dinner menu. Here's a few of the selections from this year. Yummy stuff!!

Witch's Blood used for toast at the beginning of dinner:

Homemade Rootbeer Cauldron

Mummy Rolls

Dinner In A Pumpkin

The Jello Brain


Thanks again Mom for all of your hard work and to everyone else for making it another spook-tacular Halloween!!