Roomiegiving

My roommates and I planned a Thanksgiving dinner for tonight, and buttons were a-poppin' (not just because we ate too much).

All during church we were practically giddy when we thought about everything that we were going to make and eat.  I made my mom's sweet potato soufflé, Hailey made her mom's stuffing, and Sam made her grandma's chiffon pumpkin pie.  We had rolls, mashed potatoes, and Sammi made green bean casserole.

I was making the soufflé and thought about how my mom did it and all of the other people in my family who had done it through the years. And I realized there is something beautiful how four college girls could connect to different generations simply by the food they made.

We were all so proud of ourselves for actually pulling it off.  We also decided that we don't want to host Thanksgiving dinner anytime soon.

Happy holidays everyone.  It's a beautiful time to be alive.

xo. Elise

Origins

This whole blog started because I had a list of goals.  16 things to do before I turned 17.

I have continued that, and today I crossed one off today.

It was the first snowfall, amazingly enough everyone let me know that through every single social media platform possible.  Got it.

Anyway, I was trudging home today and knew I had two gross-o bananas that I needed to use.  So I decided to cross off #12 from list today of my 18 going on 19 list.

I decided to make banana bread every year on the day of the first snow fall.

And so I did. (check)

xo. Elise

I should note, that this is NOT what the weather looked like today.  But it's a pretty shot, so I would get over your accuracy issue.  

Dinnertime

As I hovered over the stove, eating roasted sweet potatoes right out of the pan, I realized that probably 98.67% of college students couldn't imagine eating the dinner I just had (the others being the vegan in my FHE group and the rest being someone who really likes sweet potatoes).  The thing that kills me about these sweet potatoes is that I didn't even put garlic salt on or have ketchup to dip with. I didn't want to ask my roommate to borrow her ketchup again...and I don't know, I just ate them.

That is how most of my college dinners have been, me looking down at the cutting board wondering what I'm going to do with those chopped up vegetables.  And most of the time it kind of tastes like I had no idea what I was doing.

Hence, this Snapchat to my sister:

But this time? It actually worked out.  So it calls for a recipe. 

An Elise Original: Brown-Sugar Glazed, Lime Refried Beans: (ha that title just kills me). 

-Some leftover beans from yesterday's meal.  (Black is preferable). 

-About a fourth of a yellow onion

-Teaspoon of brown sugar

-Juice of one lime 

-A little chili powder

-Dash of garlic salt 

-Obligatory minced garlic/EVOO 

-1 sweet potato

Roast some sweet potato with a little EVOO in the oven at 400 degrees for maybe 25 minutes.  I don't know...until you want to eat or they look brownish in some spots.  

Sauté the onion in the obligatory garlic/EVOO until it looks good.  Add the brown sugar.  Throw in the chili powder and stir it around to mix it.  Add the juice of half a lime.  Rinse the black beans and toss them in there.  Let it sauté for a bit, and then squeeze in the rest of the lime juice.  Add the garlic salt whenever you feel like it.  Add to the sweet potatoes and add some green onions for a garnish. 

Wa la!  There you have it.  An Elise Original with some good protein in there.  

I never realized how much beans are a comfort food until it was cold yesterday.  Mom, sorry I never requested beans.  

FYI, the beans really were good.  I'm giving all of the credit to that lime juice.  

xo. Elise