Thanksgiving Recap

Thanksgiving was a HUGE SUCCESS! We ended up trimming the menu slightly when we saw how much food we had for 4 people, but basically I want to give you a more visual than wordy representation of my day. I will then go into detail on the recipes and tweaks that I gave them at a later date. Although these were turkey day recipes for me, they really could be used any day.

Almost all the ingredients I needed!

Cleaning the bird - eww!

Stuffed and ready to roast!

 

Making the stuffing

Covering the bird so it doesn't get too crispy!

Stuffing done!

Stuffed Mushrooms pre-oven

Fresh brussel sprouts

Ready to get in the oven!

More roasting

Cheated on the gravy :)

The bird is done!

Sweet potatoes with cranberry topping

Dad carving up the bird

Brussel sprouts were to-die for!

Cauliflower was just ok

Quite a feast for just 4 people!

A little bit of everything!

PIE!

I just had to try both! :)

Thanksgiving Day Meal Preview

This year, I have assigned myself the task of making the entire Turkey Day meal. It's the least I can do after living at home for the last 18 months while trying to buy a condo. With me almost out of the home, and on a tight budget, I offered to make it all this year and my parents gladly offered to buy the groceries. They are hunting down the deals as I type this. My mom can (hopefully) sit back with a glass of wine, relax by the fire and watch some football while I take over (destroy) her kitchen.

The part that grosses me out the most is actually prepping the turkey. I made sure my mom has new gloves for me to wear and I'm really grossed out about sticking my hands in the body cavity and making sure it's ready to go. I do want to spread the herbs and butter between the skin and meat, as long as I don't pass out. Go figure, I'm a foodie that handles meat all the time, but never in the whole body variety.

I found almost all my recipes on Pinterest, so here is the preview of my turkey day, with results to follow. I hope my mom can help with the picture taking and not take too many that have me in destructive stages of the meal prep that she can use against me later. I hope that all spatulas and spoons are found in their complete form after the cooking marathon and everyone has full, happy bellies.

Pinterest Recipes for Turkey Day:

The Bird: This is a chicken recipe, but I have heard of doing the same thing with a Turkey.

Stuffing: I'm not a stuffing fan, so I'm trying a new one to see if I can like this one more!

Garlic Mashed Taters: I plan to make a smaller portion than usual, but I love me some carbs so we will see.

Sweet Potatoes: I can't find the original recipe I was going to use that had goat cheese in it, but this is pretty close.

Butternut Squash: I made this recipe a few weeks ago and it was amazing! Seriously, so simple after you hack apart the squash. Boil for 10, brown the butter, add the sage and pour over the top.

Here is my picture:

Green Beans: I just love almonds & beans together.

Rolls: Pillsbury - yep cheating on this one, but they are just so good. I don't have a popovers pan or I would have made those.

Cranberry: My mom has an awesome raspberry cranberry sauce and so I have to find her recipe. Otherwise, I'm going this route

Dessert: My mom is making her apple pie and I'm going to try this pecan cheesecake pie

And my family always puts out a pre-dinner spread with cheese, crackers, sausage, crab dip and more so I'm going to be a chubby kid after the meal, but I think it will all be worth it!

Did I miss anything? Is there something that is a must on your table every Turkey Day?

Happy Fall - It's Pumpkin Time

Fall has officially begun! It's my favorite season of the year. Sure Summer is warm and such, but because my skin is not friends with the sun, I love Fall - warm days, cool nights and nature's colors are truly fabulous.

And the best part......Pumpkin spiced everything!!!!!

I love that pumpkin is mostly limited to the Fall season for products as I would hate to overwhelm my buds and potentially dislike the flavor. I really, really enjoy it!

I am on the hunt for Pumpkin and Squash flavored items and hope to share with you my opinions of what I have found. Please let me know if you have spotted items at stores and restaurants for me to try.

Here is what I have tried so far:

Iced Chai Tea Latte from Cafe de Arts in Waukesha - Sure this is available year round, but the flavor reminds me of Thanksgiving and pumpkin spice. I will soon transition to hot Chai, but for now - this hits the spot.

I swung through the drive thru at McDonald's to get myself a sausage biscuit for breakfast and saw they have Pumpkin Spice Lattes, so I decided to give it a chance. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, (unless you count gas station cappuccino) but I figured with the pumpkin flavoring, it couldn't be too bad, right? WRONG!!!! It was a sweet pumpkin syrup that was dripping all over the outside of my cup and then the texture was just wrong. For saying that coffee even has texture, you know something is awry. It coated my tongue like liquid cough syrup. I had to dump it. Maybe I'm not ready for lattes, or maybe this one was just bad.

 

Kashi Pumpkin Spice Flax Granola Bars - They come two to a pack and are absolutely pumpkin-licious. They are crumbly and make a mess if you aren't careful, the but the cinnamon flavor comes through nicely. I am a big fan. 

 Next up are items that I'm going to be trying soon.

Found this granola at Woodman's

 Wasn't brave enough to buy this yet unless someone can tell me what I would use this for, for $9.99?

 Wasn't brave enough to buy this either - I am hoping for a smaller container to become available. Has anyone had pumpkin ice cream before to tell me if this is worth it or not?

My pumpkin beer tasting will hopefully ensue in the beginning of October. I am too pressed for time before my trip to Vegas this weekend to sit down and enjoy more than one and I want to have some friends try these with me. And I am trying to really watch calories before Vegas and work out more so that I feel good when I'm on vacation.

 Butternut Squash soup is one of my favorite types of soup and I bought two to see if they compare to this one or this one I made last year. And I hope that O' What A Day Cafe in Waukesha brings this one back again this year.

And pumpkin muffins, although they say they are made with sustainably grown Oregon pumpkin, I see a lot of other ingredients I can't read. Not to mention the fat content is a bit high. I'm sure they will taste great, but definitely not good for me. 

My friend Shauna raves about this tea, so I will take this to work to try tomorrow, and this Pumpkin Bar mix was on sale, so I snatched it up.

My friend posted a picture of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies she just made. I think I will have to try the recipe soon.

Do you love PUMPKIN (and squash) as much as me or am I crazy? Do you know of other unique pumpkin items that I should try in the next few months? I'm definitely up to try anything so please share :)

Pin It Tuesday: Butternut Squash Apple Soup

I have become such a fan of Butternut Squash soup this fall and winter. I have made my own, and I have ordered it when grabbing lunch. I decided to take a stab (literally) at making it again and this time adding apple like the one I got from O' What A Nice Day Cafe in Waukesha.
 

Here are my ingredients that I gathered for the soup. This version was derived from a recipe I found on Pinterest, but I altered it a bit to incorporate more of my favorite flavors - sage, red pepper flakes, half & half, hazelnuts & sausage!

Cutting up the squash is always the worst part. I can't seem to find an easy way to do it and my hands always hurt after from the knife. But in the end, I know it's going to be worth it, so I just go for it and pray to not chop off or stab any limbs!

Basically you just simmer apples, squash, onion, some chopped hazelnuts, stock, cider, salt, pepper, coriander together in the pot for 45 minutes. This gets everything tender enough to use your "whipper doodle" (my mom's term for an immersion blender) to blend everything to your desired consistency.

I like a thicker soup so I only added a bit of half & half. But I went a little "nuts" with the sage, hazelnuts, apple sausage from Robert's Specialty Meats. These flavors against the sweet of the apples & squash complimented the soup nicely. I added very few red pepper flakes right at the end, but I think I might add a few more next time.

This is definitely being added to my go to list of recipes!

Homemade Eats - Butternut Squash Soup

Last week, I bought a butternut squash with the hopes of making homemade butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter sauce. Due to the fact that my time has been limited and I could not find the semolina flour for the ravioli, I went for butternut squash soup. (Partially influenced by the acorn squash soup I had at the Tosa Farmer's Market Feast last week).

I based my soup off of this one I found on AllRecipes.com. My modifications included no leeks (forgot to buy them), two types of onion - vidalia and yellow (what I had left) vegetable stock(whoops read the recipe wrong) heavy cream (tastes better) and fresh sage (just wanted to add it) .

It was a lot of chopping to get everything prepped and I used too large of a pot to make the soup in, but that was what was readily available to me.

And because I had to let the onions become translucent, it was the perfect time to open the wine!

My favorite part of the soup---I got to use my Food Network immersion blender (mine was from Kohl's and my mom used many coupons and discounts to not pay that price for it!).

Because grandma was asleep in the family room, I was nice and took the soup and blender into the garage and had at it. This is when I noticed the pot was too large. I needed to have the pot on an angle in order to really blend the stock. The blender worked like a breeze and I'm a huge fan of it. The button needs to be held the entire time you want the blade to spin, which was a little fussy, but I prefer the safety feature and will deal with the button. (That blade is crazy sharp!)

I brought it back in the house and onto the stove, added the wine (what was left!), cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg and sage and simmered for 5 minutes. I tasted at this point and I have to say I'm very happy with the result. It is almost the exact taste of the filling that I would love in my ravioli.

So....I'm going to find semolina flour and buy another squash and attempt the ravioli soon. I would love to know what you have done with butternut and other squashes this fall. This wonderful result makes me very excited to try more. Also, how do you use your immersion blender?


Until next time, Happy Eating!