Old-Fashioned Cornbread

I ran across this recipe recently and gave it a try. Let me tell you - it will be a wonderful recipe to try for Thanksgiving dinner if you're looking for something new.

Now, I know there are a lot of dyed-in-the-wool folks out there who will only serve the same cornbread recipe that they've served since the beginning of time. That's OK. You can Pin this recipe for later. You'll want to do that because it's so good!

But, if you ARE looking to try something new for Thanksgiving, give this one a try. It's moist because it incorporates both sour cream and actual corn in the ingredients list! Yum!

Old-Fashioned Cornbread

8 oz sour cream

2 eggs

1 cup corn meal

1/3 cup vegetable oil

14.75 oz can cream style corn

1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9 x 9 baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together all ingredients until well blended.
3. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. Cool for 15 minutes in pan before cutting and serving.

Notes:

For this old-fashioned cornbread recipe, it is important to wait the 15 minutes before cutting. This will allow this moist cornbread time to "set" before serving.

If you're interested in other favorite Harris Sisters' Cornbread Recipes, give these a try:

Sweet Honey Cornbread

Cheesy Cowboy Cornbread

Cornbread Waffles

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come for You?

Well, a little late posting, but I would not EVER leave you without knowing what the Walkush family Halloween costume choice was for 2015. This year, the boys wanted to be police officers. And considering we had recently added a German Shepherd to our family, we felt like we already had a built in K-9 officer! SCORE!

2015 Walkush Family in hot pursuit of an escaped prisoner - wanted for disemboweling stuffed animals and three known dog beds.

Aidyn - age 10

Jaxon - age 7

Smitty - age 7

In hot pursuit of the escaped prisoner.

Got him! (Chance - age 1)

Be advised that the prisoner is in custody. Over.

Time to celebrate with doughnuts!

Patrolling the neighborhood.

Notes:

Even though we had planned for our German Shepherd Chance to be our K-9 officer, when Smitty's costume arrived in the mail, it was larger than the size we ordered. We had to make a last-minute change-a-roo with their costumes. The K-9 costume that we had ordered for Chance was made of a stretchy material, so even though it was still a little big on Smitty, it ended up fitting him much better than the prisoner costume.

Krispy Kreme will serve you a free doughnut if you visit on Halloween day in your costume. This was the perfect photo op for our boys in their police officer costumes. (And really, the perfect treat for Halloween afternoon for any little spook!)

The police cruiser was courtesy of one of our neighbors. Make sure to use your resources for Halloween photo ops! This particular vehicle is always parked in the same spot in this driveway in the neighborhood every day, so we knew we would swing by on our trick-or-treat route. Super easy to stop for a photo.

If you're looking to buy police officer costumes for members of your family, these are my tips. 

1. We opted only to buy costume shirts and a few accessories. We paired these with plain black pants and black belts. We already had aviator sunglasses, toy guns, holsters, and walkie talkies at home.
2. They sell men's shirts as "one size fits all" - these are intended for men. I bought one for myself thinking that I might be able to fit into one because Halloween costumes tend to run small. I tried one of them on and found it fit like a very large dress. These run large even for men. It was even a bit baggy on my 6'2" husband. We kept one for my husband and returned mine.
3. They sell boys' shirts sized "up to age 10." Both boys are wearing that size shirt. I also tried on one of their shirts to see if there was any way that one of those might fit me. The shirt actually fit fine in the shoulders and waist. However, you would have to have absolutely no chest whatsoever to get one of these shirts to fit you buttoned as an actual police officer shirt. These shirts would also be good options for girls who want to be police officers but don't want to wear the dress style costumes. 
4. They sell "sassy police officer" shirts for women, which look nothing like the boys' or men's shirts. They are low cut and have black leather accents. I passed on this look, so I have no idea how this fits.
5. They sell "police officer dress" for women, which was the most similar to the boys' and men's shirts. The only difference is that it is a dress (which police officers do not wear), the buttons are not gold tone, and the patches on the sleeves are not embroidered. The dress cost $5.00 more than the men's shirt.

Below are photos of me in the "dress" - I was going to attempt to wear it with leggings and tall boots, but it was also a bit large on me. So, I opted to cut the bottom part of it to shirt length and wear it with a pair of black pants. Voila! My costume matched the rest of my family, and I actually had one little girl as me if I was a police officer (highly unlikely with the other options),

Hope your family had a happy Halloween! (And I hope some of these costume tips helped - there are a TON of police costumes out there.) 

Please make sure to check out our previous year's Halloween costumes here. Many good group ideas and links to DIY tutorials:

2005 - 2011 - Halloween: The Early Years

2012 - Back to the Eighties

2013 - You Are What You Eat

2014 - Shine Bright Like a (MineCraft) Diamond

Pumpkin Decorating Party - 2015

If you haven't decorated your pumpkins yet, there are still a few more days left until Halloween. And, wouldn't you know it? We were visiting our local doctor's office (again) and they were having their annual pumpkin decorating contest (again), so I just couldn't resist snapping a few photos and bringing you these last-minute, no carve pumpkin decorating ideas.

These look super easy to accomplish and let me tell you, they will certainly impress! (And if you happen to be reading this after the holiday has passed, make sure to pin these ideas for next year!)

First up are two of my favorites (and front-runners to win the competition if you ask me):

A Star Wars Tie Fighter - The pumpkin is painted silver and a black pattern is painted on the front. Two tin cans are attached to the pumpkin with duct tape. Two large octagons were cut from cardboard and painted black. The pattern was created on them with more duct tape. The octagons were attached to the tin cans with duct tape.

R2D2 - The pumpkin was painted with white, royal blue, gray, and black paint. A soda bottle top was affixed to the top for a 3-D affect. His legs were made of foam and painted.

In keeping with the space theme, there was also a UFO and aliens pumpkin set! The UFO spaceship was a large pumpkin that was painted silver. The ring around the spaceship is cardboard that has also been painted. It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but a battery-operated strand of Christmas lights was attached to the outer edge of the cardboard ring so that the spaceship lit up! The aliens were made of mini pumpkins that were painted lime green. Their eyes were chenille stems that were twisted around pencils to create curls and then glued to the pumpkins. Each chenille stem was then topped with a googly eye.

Up next (and perfect for a doctor's office) is Doc McStuffins and her lamb, Lambie. Both pumpkins were given a great paint job. Doc's body seemed to be created from pool noodles, toddler clothes, and a toy doctor set. The lamb was completed with cotton balls.

This friendly lion was created with construction paper loops for his mane. His face was painted and his whiskers are chenille stems. He would make the perfect companion to a Dorothy, Tin Man, and Scarecrow! (Hint: Use the Doc McStuffins idea above to create those.)

And finally, a sure winner with the superhero fans that come through the office, The Batman pumpkin! If you look closely, you'll see that the actual pumpkin is painted to look like Batman answering the Bat signal over Gotham. It is dressed with the Joker on top of the pumpkin and the rest of Gotham City and characters around the pumpkin.

So there you have it! And make sure to check out our no carve and low carve pumpkin decorating ideas from last year too.

Happy Halloween!

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