News, Wine and gravy....

News...
Big news in the house this week is Dalton made All Conference Linebacker on the varsity team this year and him and his best bud Joey will be captains next year! It is so rewarding to see all the hard work pay off and see your kids dreams come to reality! We could not be prouder of them!

I don’t have any fun completed projects to post this week. I have been working away on a wrap and an afghan. The afghan was suppose to start out as a jacket made out of the Lion Brand faux suede. But the pattern was a little too experienced for me so I will have to wait until my mom is coming for a visit and make it then. In the meantime, the yarn is so soft I have decided to make a lap afghan out of it in the same stitch my jacket will be made out of so I can practice.

Wine...
Hurry up and wait seems to be the name of the game for Ravelry. I could kick myself for not signing up a few months ago when I first got wind of it. Don’t know what I was thinking. Now here I am weeks later with 7,932 people still ahead of me. Don’t get me wrong, this is much better than when I had 10,498 people ahead of me... Anyhow, it is good to be moving up the list. If you have not checked out Ravelry, you should!

The Ravelry address is: https://www.ravelry.com/account/login

Gravy...

Since I do not have any fun projects to post, I am going to post a recipe for make ahead gravy since Thanksgiving is just around the corner. We usually have lots of people at our house for Thanksgiving (which I love) and it can get a little tight getting everything done and on the table at the same time. Two years ago my bud, Kelly, got a recipe from her mom for make ahead gravy she had clipped from a Woman’s Day Magazine. I loved the idea and made this last year, it was fabulous and a great time saver!

Make Ahead Gravy
Makes: 8 cups
Time: About 3 hr (mostly unattended)

Planning Tip: Make up to 3 months ahead and freeze in an airtight container. Refrigerate 2 days to thaw. Reheat in a saucepan, whisking often.

4 turkey wings (about 3 lb)
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
1 cup water
8 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup chopped carrot
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp stick butter or margarine
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Have ready a large roasting pan.

2. Arrange wings in a single layer in pan; scatter onions over top. Roast 1 1/4 hours until wings are browned.

3. Put wings and onions in a 5- to 6-qt pot. Add water to roasting pan and stir to scrape up any brown bits on bottom. Add to pot. Add 6 cups broth (refrigerate remaining 2 cups), the carrot and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 1 1/2 hours.

4. Remove wings to cutting board. When cool, pull off skin and meat. Discard skin; save meat for another use.

5. Strain broth into a 3-qt saucepan, pressing vegetables to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard vegetables; skim fat off broth and discard (if time permits, refrigerate broth overnight to make fat-skimming easier).

6. Whisk flour into remaining 2 cups broth until blended and smooth.

7. Bring broth in pot to a gentle boil. Whisk in broth-flour mixture and boil 3 to 4 minutes to thicken gravy and remove floury taste. Stir in butter and pepper. Serve, or pour into containers and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 6 months.

Per 1/2 cup: 52 cal, 2 g pro, 6 g car, 0 g fiber, 2 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 4 mg chol, 516 mg sod