Slow Cooking and Sleigh Riding

It has been an almost perfect weekend in my eyes.....

After all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, and a long, overwhelming, first week back to work, it was so nice to have a cold snowy blast whip through the area. We stayed at home the entire weekend in our cozy clothes and did not have one commitment....that never happens and let me tell you.....it felt great!!

Friday, they were calling for snow, so I did my grocery shopping over lunch to avoid the big rush after work. I am not much of a planner when it comes to our meals, it is usually a spur of the moment kind of thing, but with snow on the way, I decided it would be a great weekend to use the slow cooker or crock pot.....

The first thing I made was Turkey Chili......It was perfect for a cold winter day....despite it's name...Indian Summer Chili

In addition to the ingredients in the recipe, I added 2 cans light red kidney beans(drained and rinsed)....chili is just not chili without them. I also threw in a couple shakes of red crushed pepper flakes, beacuse we like a little extra heat in our house.

Usually, I favor white chicken chili to the ground meat versions, but this recipe was really good. I cooked it on the stove top late morning and then put it in the crock pot on low so it was readily available throughout the day.....a great thing to serve if you are having a superbowl party:)

It snowed most of Saturday and Saturday night. When we woke up this morning, it surely looked like a winter wonderland out there, so everything needed to be cleaned off before we could do anything. While Pat was hard at work making sure our walkways were cleared, Sarah and I had a little fun in the snow......

This is my favorite picture of the day........
Sarah and Rudy standing in front of our house with the sled. This particular sled brings back lots of memories for me........My Sister and I rode it when we were little......my parents recently gave it to me when they were cleaning out their basement. It still does not handle corners very well.....I dumped Sarah in the snow on more than a few occasions.....just like my Dad always did to us!!

Holding on tight.....

This is so much fun....WEEEEEE

Taking a break from the sled and giving my Mommy a sassy look.

Let me try to push........

Only one thing was missing this weekend....Nick.

He spent the weekend with his Dad after not seeing him for almost two weeks. Last night Nick and his Dad attended a big event.....we gave them this little treat as a Christmas gift. Since I was not able to be there....... Nick wanted to take our old camera along so he could take pictures. I will be blogging about Nick's big night and using the pictures he took.....I can't wait to see them!!!

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!!