Christmas Decorating at the Lumberjackson Lodge!

This is the first Christmas for Alex and I as a family, and being in our first home, it is even more special. I wanted to share some pictures of what we did to decorate. I also wanted to capture the house in this festive state because it's so. darn. clean. Alex and I spent our Friday night cleaning the whole house until 1am. Now the countdown is on to see how long the house can stay clean!

Without further ado.. A Lumberjackson Lodge Christmas!

You've gotta have a little village at Christmas. You just do. 

Corn Chowder with Beef Sausage

This is the season of soups. Thanks to my handy dandy immersion blender, I've made at least 5 new (to me) types of soup this year. I've never made soup in my life (unless you count opening a can and putting it on the stove) so this is a big step for me.

Tonight, I'm making a meaty corn chowder. The recipe is from Laura, one of my closest friends, and I am SO glad she introduced me to this soup. I made it when Caleb and Louisa visited, and then again for the kids in the Youth Worship band. Every Sunday after church, Alex leads the band practice and I heat up something for lunch that I generally cook the night before. They've had this soup once a couple months ago and loved it, so I figured it was time to whip it up again. 

I even have a little helper at my feet. 

Start by slicing up 2 packages of Beef Sausage into 1/2" discs. Then quarter those discs. (Nice and bite sized.)

Brown the sausage in a skillet. Drain most of the fat once they've been cooking for a few minutes. I like getting them REALLY browned...even a little black. But that's just me. Add 2 chopped onions. If you have any tricks for chopping onions in a way that prevents crying, please tell me in the comments. Please. 

Turkey, Brie, Bacon and Cranberry Sauce Grilled Cheese Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich Extravaganza

Yes. This post needed a two line title. You'll see why.

We are still eating Thanksgiving leftovers over here at the Lumberjackson Lodge. It's been over a week and we still have little containers of green bean casserole, stuffing and turkey. (I should probably check on a couple of those, just to be safe...) Our lunch on this cold, white Friday is a wintery twist on my favorite sandwich of all time. Grilled cheese.

This morning at breakfast, I cooked up a couple extra pieces of bacon. A couple months ago, I started to bake bacon instead of cooking it on the stove, and I've never looked back. Somehow, putting bacon in the oven preserves the right textures in the right places, lets me get it really crispy without obliterating it, and makes it super easy to pour out the extra bacon fat in a mug to use later. (I heard via the Paleo diet that this is 'healthy'. We still eat bread, cheese, fruit and lots of the other stuff Paleo recommends eliminating, but saving bacon fat is something from the Paleo diet I choose to listen to. Ha.)

I have a sliced Italian loaf today. If I were in California, you can bet I would be using sourdough, but out here in Kansas, a good loaf of sourdough is hard to come by, and way too expensive for our grocery budget. Ergo, I use either French bread or Italian. Still turns out pretty good, if I do say.

My father in law sliced the turkey on Thanksgiving into nice thin sheets. (Massive, if you're comparing it to turkey in the deli meat section, but who wants that watery, paper-turkey anyways?) I think the white meat is the best in this kind of sandwich. The moisture from the brie and cranberry will infuse into the drier white meat.

Well, hello there.

If you don't know me, though I'm fairly certain you do, I'm Kate. Alex is here too, but here in the sitting-near-me-in-the-living-room sort of way, not in the also-typing-with-me sort of way. We have both blogged in the past.. his was called Alex Has Office Hours (yes he did.) and mine was Just Wanna Lose Myself in Grace (name taken from one of the best songs by one of the best bands. If you play guess the song in the comments, you can earn points.) We both liked our blogs. I liked taking pictures of things I baked and posting the recipes, Alex liked writing little short stories about bunnies (or was it dust?) or commentaries on cheesy ABC Family Christmas movies and the Occupy Wall Street movement. But due to life and change, both of these blogs began a slow, quiet journey to internet oblivion. They live somewhere on Blogger, dusty with neglect and fading like an old polaroid of a distant life. Sometimes it seems like it wasn't even us that wrote those blogs.. we were such different people and in such different stages of life than where we are now. And in some ways, it feels undeniably "us." Because marriage and a cross country move can seem like a lot of change, but we're still the same old people. Or young people. I should say that while it's still true.

Plus, it's only been a year since we were the Alex and Kate from AHOH and JWLMG. (Just thought of those acronyms. It's a shame I didn't think of those when I was writing my old blog...jewlemguh has a ring to it.) How much can really change in a year?

For those who know me (and Alex), our new blog, theLumberjacksons, will show you. And if you don't know us, you will soon.