HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

Vintage Thanksgiving Postcard

For more vintage Thanksgiving postcards, see my post about them from last year: Vintage Thanksgiving Postcards.

Many people find themselves traveling in Italy over the Thanksgiving holiday. One can have trouble getting a perfect Thanksgiving meal because many ingredients do not exist in Italy such as sweet potatos and cranberries. These are just not part of the Italian table. Dishes can be substituted though and pumpkin is ubiquitous so one shouldn’t fear missing a good pumpkin pie or pumpkin tart for dessert.

While turkey can be found on some menus in Italy, there is no real culinary tradition that has turkey as its centerpiece except in a small town in the Abruzzo region called Canzano. Abruzzo is in central Italy and has both mountains and the sea among its treasures. It is known for its strong cuisine and hardy and stoic people.

Tacchino alla Canzanese is the most famous dish from this corner of Abruzzo near the city of Teramo. Canzano, a medieval hilltown at 500 meters above sea level with a stunning view of the Gran Sasso, Maiella and Laga mountains, has been making this turkey dish since the 1800s.

The turkey is cooked with peppercorns, salt, rosemary, garlic, bay leaves and veal bones for five hours in the oven. When the turkey, better if a female bird, is done, the gelatin from the drippings gets spread over the turkey and refrigerated. The dish is, in fact, served cold and is sliced turkey with a gelatinous covering. Apparently each family has their own recipe which is jealously guarded.

While Italians do not really celebrate Thanksgiving, there are many harvest holidays in the autumn months which celebrate different foods and the arrival or the end of the seasons. Tacchino alla Canzanese is generally eaten as part of the traditional Christmas meal in this part of Abruzzo.

Wines from Abruzzo tend to be made from one of two grapes: Trebbiano d’Abruzzo or Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. The first produces light white wines which can be paired with pasta dishes or served as an apertif. Sometimes it is made into a blend with chardonnay.

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is a red grape variety which makes medium bodied, fruity wines with nice acidity. This grape has come into favor in the past 10 years and is widely available in the United States. Two very well known producers are Emidio Pepe who has been making organic wines for more than 40 years and Giuseppe Masciarelli whose wines are constantly considered some of the best from the region.

Only one D.O.C.G. wine comes from this area and that is the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane wines from the Colline Teramane. Montepulciano d’Abruzzo could be a good wine with any type of turkey this Thanksgiving.

Laura and I just returned home from a delicious turkey dinner with friends.  We had great company and food, but miss all of our friends and family back home, too.

Have a fun Thanksgiving everyone.

A traditional Thanksgiving meal in the middle of Taipei.

I feel as though more things need “Palooza”s. At least for now. Tuesday I did not write anything useful or great. I did do school stuff hard core all morning, then go home and bake cookies for Morgan for his birthday and come back, give him his cookies, and go to choir. It was a really intense day actually and choir almost murdered my voice.

Today I got up around ten and did some morning stuff and then baked from about eleven in the morning until nine this evening. Peter came over and helped me, and we also watched House on Haunted Hill while a few pies were baking. There were three pies: an apple, a pumpkin and a blueberry pie. Also, I roasted a ton of sweet potatoes and toasted some bread (on accident, but it turned out alright). Peter and I decided it would be adorable to make these little tiny pies that are in mini muffin cups. I had found a recipe in a magazine and Peter and I tried it. They are pumpkin mini pies with pecan topping and they are DELICIOUS. I feel like a cooking genius.

This year we’re having Thanksgiving at the Theisen’s this year. I kind of love hosting, but this will be nice. Stacy is all about decorating, so that should be interesting. We are bringing the dressing (stuffing that isn’t stuffed), sweet potatoes, three deserts apparently, and some cranberry thing. At home mom is making a turkey for us, I’m pretty sure. At least there is one sitting out in the second fridge. Tomorrow should be fun. Oh! I don’t know what I’m going to wear. … This is a problem I’m going to leave up to “future Rachel”. I think she will know what to do.

I am rather tired and surprisingly exhausted, so I think I’m off to sleep now, kids. Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

The afternoon of the 25th, I stroll into a grocery store and am met with dozens of panicked housewives looking for the canned pumpkin that has already been sold out a long time ago.  I’ve been there way too many times before and boy was I proud of myself for not being one of them.  

My pie is from scratch, from the pumpkin filling, to the crust, all the way to the whipping cream (I bet there’s no brandy in Reddiwip )  

Let the holidays begin!!  

Once solely found on late night shopping channels, the Halogen oven has become increasingly popular in many homes with word spreading across the internet as to their usefulness. Not only do they save space, they can do everything a normal oven does – boiling, roasting, baking, steaming and even defrosting – but in one pot.

These ovens were developed with halogen elements, converting electrical energy into intense heat. Using infrared waves and a built-in high performance fan to circulate the heat, they are much smaller than their traditional oven rivals, and are available at a fraction of the cost.

Despite their compact size, they can accommodate a surprisingly large amount of food; a medium-sized chicken can be surrounded by vegetables in the bowl. The bowl of the halogen oven itself is clear, allowing you to watch the food cook and adjust cooking times accordingly. Fats from food drain away, meaning the cooking method is particularly healthy, and some superior models even feature a self-cleaning function, thereby reducing the washing up required.

The more popular models come with racks or shelves – these let you cook food on multiple layers, preparing the entire meal that much quicker. Thanks to the circulation of air, there’s no need to turn the food or swap shelves around – all the food cooks evenly without any interference required from the chef, unlike traditional ovens.

The halogen oven accessory market is also becoming popular, ranging from lid stands and extra specialist shelves to a range of cookbooks.

Whilst the halogen oven may not be ready to send traditional ovens the way of the Dodo, they can certainly make a big difference in a busy kitchen. And with the energy savings a halogen oven brings to the home, I think it’s safe to presume that the halogen oven will become a standard item in many homes.

Wanna be your green bean casserole, baby.
I don’t mean just twice a year.
I wanna be your green bean casserole, baby.
That don’t mean just twice a year.
Cuz once you taste my lovin’
You’ll lick your lips from ear to ear.

I ain’t no crescent roll, babe;
They can be so flaky and dry.
Three-bean salad or pickled onions-
You know I’ll never never make you cry.
I wanna be your green bean casserole, baby.
That don’t mean just twice a year.
Cuz once you taste my lovin’
You’ll lick your lips from ear to ear.

I don’t wanna be the cranberry sauce
And get caught in your teeth.
No marshmallowed sweet potatoes
Cuz I’m not sickly sweet.
I wanna be your green bean casserole, baby.
I don’t mean just twice a year.
Cuz once you taste my lovin’
You’ll lick your lips from ear to ear.

We don’t need your mama’s recipe,
No directions on a can;
All this dish takes is one good woman
And a very hungry man.
Wanna be your green bean casserole, baby.
I don’t mean just twice a year.
Cuz once you taste my lovin’
You’ll lick your lips from ear to ear.
Yes, once you taste my lovin’
You’ll be lickin’ your lips from ear to ear.

So today (especially for you, apow!), I thought I would do a post on a few of the things I’ve sold lately on Ebay.

•  Isabella Rossellini perfume giftset, which I bought for 50p back in May this year, for £13.50.
• Bronnley Lily of the Valley soap giftset, paid £1 in June, sold for £4.95
• A Jo Malone carrier bag which had been knocking around in my understair cupboard for the best part of a year sold for £2.39 (go figure!)
• Boots No 7 Lipgloss set, picked up in August for £1, sold for £8.25.
• 2 Pringle golf jumpers, bought for £2.25 each waaaay back in Feb, one for £8.50, and the other not so good, only £4.  However, I was just delighted to get these sold, as I’d listed them for sale back when I bought them and got no interested at all.  Christmas is definitely the best time of year to sell some things!
• Molton Brown Giftset, for which I paid £2.50 in August turned out, as per my prediction, to be a winner, with a sale price of £22.32!  Woo hoo!
• Bag of stickle bricks, bought on the same day as the Molton Brown set, for 50p, sold for £5.50 earlier this week.
• Boots No 7 skincare giftset, paid £2 in June, sold for £9.

And just so you know I don’t always get it right, these two Monsoon tops that I bought back in June for £1.25 each, have totally failed to sell and are about to make their way to the charity shop (no chance of me ever getting into a size 10 top from Monsoon, I can tell ya!).

Oh, and one more:

• Body Shop giftset, b0ught for 50p, sold for £9.49.

I could go on, but I’m very bored of linking and have lots to do today, so I’ll leave it here, I think.

I was really pleased with yesterday’s progress, nearly completed the list that I posted (below).  Only managed to wrap 4 presents before running out of paper, but am waiting for more paper to arrive (everything except kids’ presents being wrapped in brown paper this year – how very green – or brown even!).  And didn’t manage to make start on secret project, but hopefully today for that.

Have Ashley’s mum coming for dinner tonight and am attempting Nigella’s crispy Chinese duck for the first time.  Have put Ashley on pancake making duty.  Will let you know how it turns out.

Have a great Thursday, everybody – not long till the weekend now!

I’m getting as much prep done for tommarrow as I can tonight. First up was an apple pie. I got a recipe from all recipes site : Grandma Ople’s Apple Pie. I did however have to make some changes to the caramel like sauce. Changes made to it were done because there seemed to be a lot of separation of butter fat/oil from the sugar and flour mixture making it seem like it really needed some other thickening agent. Since there was already some water in there, milk was opted for mixing with the cornstarch before introducing it to the sugar to avoid lumping. Thankfully I thought a head before it thickened too much on the stove and it was still liquidous enough to work its way through apples and cinnamon. Others who made the recipe suggested tossing the apples with cinnamon (which was not originally in the recipe) before adding it to the pie shell. Baked it at the recommended times and so far it seems good and deffinatly looks beautiful but wont’ know what it truly tastes like until after dinner on thanksgiving.

November 26, 2009 – Good Enough to Eat

Today is my 4th day of panchakarma, and only 38 more days to go as I’ve committed to 42 full days. Just imagine: 42 days of full body massage each day!!
I’ve decided to change my schedule and see how it works out. when I finish and get home, I need to rest, and by the time I feel like going out, it is really cold…
So today I went out early, for breakfast, and although it is much more expensive and certainly not as delicious as my own apple cinnamon porridge which I cook fresh each morning with raisins and almonds as well, it was wonderful to be out, to sit along the Ganga, eat my porridge and reflect. Hope to be doing this now each day.
The picture above is the delicious plate of steamed veggies I prepare in the evening in my pressure cooker. It takes “0″ time to cook, literally. Just before the first whistle, I shut off the flame, let out all the steam and the veggies are perfectly done. I eat them with ghee and three chappatis with ghee, and for now am happy. Six weeks of this will be difficult, but I will take each day as it comes.

the food i look forward to most during thanksgiving dessert is dessert. it’s not even because we make it ourselves. it is actually the only american-y thanksgiving-y thing we eat. we’ve never been a turkey, cranberry sauce and green bean casserole thanksgiving family and i don’t mind. so dinner itself feels like any other family meal. but the twist regular family meal on this thanks and giving holiday for us is the pumpkin pie.

anyhoo, my family and i usually buy Mrs. Smith’s pumpkin pie. since i am cooking thanksgiving this year, i’m making rachael ray’s chocolate-cinnamon whipped cream as a fun topping. hope you enjoy your holiday dessert as much as we do!

Ingredients

• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 shot orange liqueur, optional
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 pinches chili powder or ground cayenne
• 1 (3-ounce) baking bar semisweet chocolate, chopped (recommended: Ghiradelli brand)
• 2 store bought pies, serve warm or chilled, as you like ~ we like Mrs. Smith’s Classic Pumpkin Pie

Preparation

Whip cream, liqueur, cinnamon and chili powder together until stiff peaks form. Melt chocolate in a medium bowl in microwave until smooth, check on it every 10 seconds over 45 seconds, cooking on high. Cool to the touch. Stir 1/4 of the whipped cream into the chocolate until totally combined then fold in the rest of the whipped cream in small batches. Cut pie, top with cream and serve immediately.

________________________________________________________________________________
original recipe from Food Network Special Rachael Ray’s Thanksgiving in 60 – 2: (Store Bought Pie) with Chocolate-Cinnamon Whipped Cream

I considered for a while this morning, about 2a.m., that I may be thinking too much about food lately.

This is because I woke up from a dream in which Anthony Bourdain was making a serious pass at me. It was a bit unsettling, since we’re both happily married. Then I realized, of course, that he might dream about Cookbook Obsession, too, if his entire house smelled like hot, steamy, banana bread.

This week I found myself with one of “those” bunches of bananas. They were purchased green and went straight to brown, without ever hitting yellow on the way. Sort of like a traffic light gone bad. So, what does one do with SEVEN overripe bananas?

Banana Bread.

I turned to Grandma’s cookbook again, where I found an intriguing double recipe for Banana Nut Bread.

BANANA NUT BREAD

1 cup shortening
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
7 ripe bananas
4 cups flour
2 t. soda
2 t. salt
1 cup pecan pieces (optional)

Mash bananas and set aside. Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Add sifted dry ingredients, alternately with mashed bananas. Add pecan pieces. Bake in 2 large greased tins at 350F. for 50 minutes.

–Grace Bluhm

This is an unusual recipe, in that it calls for shortening and all white sugar. Most quick (yeastless) bread recipes use vegetable oil. Grace chooses Death in a Can, a.k.a. vegetable shortening, for a very good reason: she wants fluffy banana bread. By creaming (beating at high speed) the shortening together with the sugar until they are fluffy, she introduces gazillions of air bubbles into her batter, way more than normally occurs in a quick bread batter. By sifting the dry ingredients, she ensures that the activators (salt and baking soda) are well mixed throughout the batter, so that it rises as well as it can.

It’s pretty awesome, actually. Grace’s bread is tender, moist, melt-in-your-mouth goodness. It’s also fluffy, like a really good cake.

On the other hand, if you prefer your quick breads to be more solid, you can easily get those results by substituting the shortening with 1 cup vegetable oil. This will result in the equally desirable heavier quick bread.

My pans were too small. Instead of stopping at a little under 2/3 full and using the rest for muffins (which totally works) I overfilled them, so I ended up with a not-quite-done area on top. This is not Grace’s fault. It’s mine. The recipe is perfectly fine. You just need to remember that your pans should not be overfilled, or your bread won’t be quite done. (There’s an inside family joke in there, but I won’t explain it…)

Over the next few days, I will let you know some not-so-vintage uses for this very vintage, Obsession-worthy recipe.

In the meantime, think about making your own, and you too may have dreams of somebody kissing the cook!

Hey, just another quick update from Anna-Liza.

First, Knitting Sprite, Mr. R and I just watched the space shuttle chase the space station across the sky – as I said in my Tweet, horizon to horizon in four minutes! It was really cool and also odd looking – two apparent stars moving in formation, always at the same distance from each other and visibly moving at a steady speed. Not like a meteor or the usual “is that a star or a satellite or a plane?” thing. (“Just” would mean “just before I wrote this” and not “just before I posted it”. A girl’s got to edit).

The next thing of importance is that Knitting Sprite has launched her own blog! Yep, it’s at http://knittingsprite.wordpress.com/, and I didn’t embed the link so you can see the URL. It’s called Handknits and Homebrews, and she has a couple of posts up now. Go on over and say Howdy! Marin, she’s keeping the name you bestowed on her lo these many years ago. I won’t say how many. Actually, I’m not sure I remember.

Third, I messed up the pumpkin pie. I forgot the salt, then tried to add it to the filling mixture after I’d poured it into the pie shell. I have a feeling it didn’t mix in evenly. But, as Knitting Sprite says, whipped cream fixes everything. (I’m not so sure about it fixing salty pumpkin pie, though).

Still trying to come up with a name for Significant Other of Knitting Sprite. Darlin’ K suggested Mr. Sprite, but there are a number of reasons I don’t care for that one. KS herself favors Outlaw Son, so that’s currently in the lead.

Speaking of Sprites, I was trying to come up with a nom-de-blog for one of my knitting group who is Australian, and she suggested Aussie Sprite or M.O.M. for Mother of Menagerie – her family farmlet includes 15 chickens, 5 goats, 2 llamas, 2 dogs, and will soon be joined by 2 geese.

If I spell the former phonetically as she pronounces it, it comes out Ozzy Sprite, which is a mental image that I don’t care for. If I had any proficiency in Photoshop, I would produce an image of Ozzy Osbourne with fairy wings … but no. No one really needs that image in her head.

So I think it will be M.O.M. for now. She is also mother to two kidlets, a boy and a wee girl, so it suits. She’s a fellow Burner as well as a fellow knitter, and we both still find it odd that we met through knitting rather than Burning Man-associated activities. Especially since we camped with the same camp, just in different years.

Anyway, the reason for the need for a nom-de-blog for her is that we were discussing a sock she had knitted as a gift for a friend. The sock is two inches too long in the foot, and it is a toe-up. She had done a wonderful job on the somewhat complicated leg design, and understandably did not want to rip back to the beginning.

So she asked me about snipping open the toe, ripping back (ripping forward?) from that end, and knitting back down to redo the toe shaping and length. I said “go for it”, with the caution that she should use embroidery scissors to do the snipping and, if the yarn is slippery, she should run a lifeline or DPN at the row she wants to stop unravelling. We talked about those and other practical aspects of the proposed alteration, when she asked me, “But, would doing that be sacrilege?” Except for the hyperbole, she was serious.

I set down my knitting and looked at her and said, “M.O.M. … this is knitting. What are you talking about?” She laughed.

You know what? I’ve been accused of “knitting funny”  – not sure why, I knit Continental style but that’s not odd. Or particularly funny. I’ve heard people go on and on about “the right way to knit”. I’ve read posts on forums where people have said that using the terms “throwing” and “picking” is vulgar.

Would y’all – I mean all of you who think like that – just LIGHTEN UP already?* There’s no right or wrong, there’s no correct method – there’s just what works and what doesn’t work. I’m totally with the Yarn Harlot and Elizabeth Zimmerman about this. This is knitting, it’s not brain surgery.

Although I’d be willing to bet it’s a lot the same. What works, works. What doesn’t, doesn’t. Right or wrong just don’t come into it.

*I really expect that anyone who reads this blog regularly will not be the sort of person who thinks that way. But I could be, um, wrong.

What’s your signature dish? That recipe you pull out when you’re having company or need something to bring to a dinner party?

A pumpkin pie with the perfect crust? Steak frites to rival the best in Paris? Or maybe the best curry outside of India? It may be as simple as perfectly grilled salmon or as complex as Oaxacan black mole, but whatever it is, you know it’s going to shine.

For me, it’s a tarte Tatin. (Molly of Orangette has a fantastic, virtually fool-proof recipe. In fact, I’m making it for Thanksgiving!)

For Grandma H., that signature dish is lefse. She may have another opinion, but she can’t argue about her reputation as a master lefse baker!

Lefse is a Norwegian flatbread that resembles a tortilla, but is made with potatoes. It’s often served with butter and sugar, and is sometimes used as a wrap for pølse, a type of sausage similar to a hot dog.

Grandma had been wanting to teach me how to make lefse for quite a while, and although she had given me a lesson in rolling the dough before, this month we did the whole process together for the first time, from making the dough to finishing the lefse. (Though one could probably make it in one day, it’s really helpful to split it into two.)

By the end of the second day, we had about three dozen of these delicious treats, and had consumed a number of them in the process. (Did I tell you how wonderful they are hot off the griddle with butter and sugar?)

Most of them are tucked away in the freezer now, waiting for the perfect opportunities to serve them. I’m thinking of pulling some out for Thanksgiving, and I’ve already promised my book club that I’ll save some for our meeting in a few weeks.

In any case, the thing that makes baking lefse the most special to me is the time spent with loved ones. Grandma, Mom, and I had a great time making lefse together earlier this month, and I hope to we can do it together again soon.

Phew — today was a LONG day!  Let’s start with the eats:

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have breakfast this morning, save for 3 cups of coffee.  I was starving by lunchtime, so I had a HUGE mix of whole wheat penne with tomatoes, spinach, chicken, onions, mushrooms, peas, tomato basil sauce and some cheese:

YUM!  This hit the spot perfectly.  I polished off most of it but didn’t feel overstuffed when I was done, and the combo of protein, carbs and veggies kept me full all day

I did snack on the most ridiculous banana ever.  I included my iPod Touch in the picture for size comparison (coughthat’swhatshesaidcough):

After work — early dismissal at 4:00, yay! — I walked over to the gym and ran a quick 2.69 miles in 30 minutes, an 11:09/pace!  Yes, I know I’m slow, but I’m proud that I’m getting faster!  My marathon goal is to finish in under 5 hours, which means I’m going to have to maintain an 11:26/mile pace for the whole race.  Once I build up my short distance speed a little bit more I’m going to start adding in some longer runs to increase my endurance so I can meet my goal

I also did 15 minutes on the elliptical (crossramp 8, resistance 3) before walking home.  As part of the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge, I calculated my total roundtrip walk from work –> gym –> home: 1.8 miles!  I was met at the door by a VERY happy Barkley:

Who can resist that face?  I took my guy for a quick walk, then made myself dinner:

Roasted sweet taters!  I was still pretty satisfied from lunch, so this hit the spot.  After dinner I hopped in the shower, then started my Thanksgiving baking projects!!  While I was doing my prep I snacked on a Fruit2Day and Clif bar, partially to keep myself from snacking on batter, and partially because I was still a little hungry

Project #1 was pumpkin bread: round 2:

I used the same recipe as last time, but split the batter in half and added chocolate chips to one loaf.  Our apartment smells AMAZING right now; here’s hoping they taste as good as they look and smell!

Baking project #2 was sugar cookies!  Here’s the before:

And the delicious after:

One of these cookies may or may not have found its way into my tummy…

I use a cookie scoop (sort of like a tiny ice cream scoop) to make sure all my cookies are the same size and bake evenly.  I can’t believe I used to try and roll out dough balls by hand; I would NEVER get them even!

Matt and I each had a few of these guys while my baking projects were in the oven:

Here’s hoping I do a better job at keeping them in the house this time around!

Alright, it’s time to hit the sack.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

I’ll be back later tonight with my eats and exercise for the day

Parent/teacher conferences ended yesterday, and today we had a genuine half day at work.  Even teachers got to leave early!  I decided, though, that half days make me just as tired as full days–probably due to the flurry of 25 minute classes.  In fact, I came home, cuddled up under a blanket, and fell asleep on Mike’s shoulder.  Awesome.

Later, we pulled together a substantial grocery list for the first time since the beginning of October and headed to the grocery store.  We came home with quite the haul of food AND came in about $90 under what we anticipated.  I have gotten pretty grocery savvy, but this suprised even me–especially considering how long it’s been since we went to the store.  One of the top priorities was pumpkin puree.  I am finally making pumpkin cookies, and if doing Thanksgiving shopping the night before, one risks some stores (ahem, Fred Meyer) running out of some key holiday ingredients.  Have no fear: Safeway saved the day, and I will be bringing cookies to dinner tomorrow.

We don’t have a lot of plans for the weekend.  Tomorrow, we are joining MHGS friends for dinner, and both Mike and I have loads to do before Monday.  I absolutely must read three novels this weekend for my classes, including my nemesis: Beowulf.  However, we now have groceries and a bunch of movies from the library, so I think we are in good shape.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!  Enjoy your day, your family, your friends, and be thankful for the little things in life like desserts…

Here is a favorite recipe for decadent dessert  to complete your wonderful meal or bring to your celebration : adapted from the infamous Betty Crocker

Chocolate Pecan Pie – (I heard their was a pumpkin shortage this year)

Heat oven to 375

the Pastry Dough

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup shortening (Crisco works well)
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs cold water

Mix flour and salt in medium bowl – add shortening a little bit at a time (its okay for the shortening to be in little particles the size of a small pea)
Sprinkle with cold water 1 tsp at a time
Toss with fork until the flour is moist and pastry mixture comes off the side of the bowl a little more cold water can be added if necessary

Shape your pastry dough into a ball
Flour what ever surface you will use and roll pastry using a floured rolling-pin into a circle about 2 inches larger than your pie dish

Pie Filler

2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup corn syrup (Karo is a favorite in our home)
1/2 tsp salt
3 large farm fresh eggs ( did I mention I can purchase farm fresh eggs year-round from my CSA?)
1 cup pecan halves
1 package chocolate chips (I prefer milk chocolate)

Beat sugar, butter, corn syrup, salt & eggs in a large bowl with a mixer
Stir in pecans and chocolate chips
Pour into your pie plate on top of your pastry crust

Betty suggests to cover with a strip of aluminum foil to prevent the pie from over browning and really who am I not to heed this suggestion?

Bake for 30  minutes then remove strip of foil if you chose to use it

Bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes or until the filling has set – Remove from oven and cool for about 45 minutes.

After pie has cooled, refrigerate for a couple of hours prior to serving/

Be creative when serving and top with whipped cream, and drizzled chocolate topping or flakes of chocolate if desired – your guests or family will think you went to a great deal of trouble if you add this little extra at the end -

My thanks to the infamous Betty Crocker for the creating the wonderful recipe I have adapted and shared with you here. Have a great day and check back tomorrow for some great ways to use / freeze those leftovers

May your stuffing be tasty

May your turkey be plump

May your potatoes and gravy have never a lump

May your yams be delicious

And your pies take the prize

May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

after i brine my chicken, i’m going to create a roll with stuffing i made. here’s the recipe with turkey but if you’re using chicken, just follow the same directions with chicken instead of turkey!

Ingredients

• brined turkey
• pumpkin muffin stuffin’
• sea salt and pepper
• butcher’s twine

Preparation

Remove turkey from brine and pat breast dry. Butterfly the turkey by slicing the breasts into even halves on the horizontal, leaving about 1/2-inch, uncut at 1 edge so the breasts can open like a book. Season all over with salt and pepper, to taste. Arrange 1 of the open turkey breasts, cut side up, lengthwise on top of the bacon. Scoop half of the stuffing onto 1 half of the turkey breast, fold over the other half. Wrap tightly in the plastic wrap twisting the ends to really seal in the breast to keep its shape. Transfer the breasts to a sheet tray and rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Remove the turkey breasts from refrigerator 1/2 hour before you plan to cook them. Discard the plastic wrap and using 3 pieces of butcher’s twine, tie the twine over the center of the 3 bacon strips to secure the breasts when searing. Warm a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil. Add the turkey breasts, seam side down, into the skillet and sear until the turkey is lightly browned, about 4 minutes on each side. Transfer the turkey breast to a baking sheet lined with a rack. Put the baking sheet into the oven and bake until the turkey is cooked through, about 30 minutes. Leave out to cool for 30 minutes. Then cut crosswise into slices.

**
You can also place a turkey roll slice on top of mashed potatoes and pour gravy on top like tyler florence does with his 2009 thanskgiving episode see below for links!

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original recipe to brine turkey or chicken breast from Cooking for Real: Bacon-Wrapped Turkey Breast Stuffed with Pear Hash

original recipe from Tyler’s Ultimate – 2009 Tylers’ Thanskgiving:
- Oven-roasted Turkey Breast with Leeks and Cornbread Stuffing
- Roasted Turkey Gravy
- Grainy Mustard Mashed Potatoes

Gumbo – Before, originally uploaded by Pandora’s Box on flickr.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  Every year we cook up a big pot of duck and sausage gumbo to share with all our friends with whom we spend the entirety of Thanksgiving day!  Yes, we start with breakfast and we eat and drink ALL day!  This tradition has been going on since I was a very little girl.  Thanksgiving has long been and remains my favorite holiday.  No gifts to buy, no tree to decorate, low stress, just food to share, conversation to have, and friends to catch up with.

This is a before photo as the after isn’t much to look at truth be told.  Gumbo is for eating…not for photographing!  Yum!

I had planned to celebrate today at McDonald’s or Culver’s or a similar fast food joint. Quick, straightforward ice cream with toppings–some may call this a sundae. On Parfait Day, I call this a parfait. Cooks Recipes disagrees with me, saying that a parfait is a ” layered dessert which is served in tall, narrow footed ‘parfait glasses’ (or simply stemmed wine glasses).”

I’m still not convinced that a food is a food because of the food you serve it in. Water is water whether you sip it out of a Nalgene or lap it up from a plastic bowl. A Snickers bar is still a piece of chocolate and peanut candy whether you eat it raw out of the wrapper or fried off a stick. And so on, and so on.

The word “parfait” translates to “perfect” in French. So I argue that the essence of a parfait is simply whatever type of frozen, layered dessert you consider perfect. I think a bowl is the optimal, i.e. perfect, dish out of which to eat ice cream covered in stuff.

I say all of this in defense of the parfait I had today. I’m spending the holiday weekend at my parents’ house. And of course my mother had the perfect solution for today: Mexican “Fried” Ice Cream, Rachael Ray style. Take vanilla ice cream and put it in a BOWL. Crush up a couple of handfuls of corn flakes in your hands, then spread liberally over the ice cream. Drizzle honey on top, then sprinkle on some cinnamon. I also added some whipped cream for kicks.

I’m telling you, this thing actually has the flavor of real fried ice cream. And it only takes, like, two minutes to make, which is definitely my kind of cooking. Perfect.

Parfait.