Knitting Zeal

Happy Thanksgiving...my menu plan

It's the night before Thanksgiving and I decided to take ten minutes to sit down and rest!  I've been cooking and cleaning all day in prep for dinner tomorrow.  We are having a small dinner party filled with lots of veggies from our CSA!  I'm cooking some of the usual items, such as my husband's favorite green bean casserole and my harvest stuffing, but this year I also decided to change up a few things.  I made carmelized roasted butternut squash today so that I can just reheat it tomorrow.  I also switched my traditional caramel apple pie and made a cranberry apple pie at the boys request.  I also tried out a new pumpkin pie recipe, including a new crust too!

I made several of the side dishes and the desserts today, as we will be participating in our YMCA's Gobble Wobble walk tomorrow morning, so I didn't want to feel panicked with time limits.  Tomorrow I'll cook the bird and then while it sits I'll cook the green beans and stuffing and reheat the other dishes.  I'm going to attempt homemade gravy too and really like the instructions I found online.  Hopefully it will turn out tasty!

Here is a list of links to what I'm serving for Thanksgiving 2014:

Green tossed salad (the kiddo asked if he could make this!)

Roasted Turkey

Harvest Stuffing my own recipe

Maple Orange Glazed Carrots from Simply Recipes (an awesome recipe blog!)

Caramelized Butternut Squash by Ina Garten

Traditional Green Bean Casserole 

Creamy Mashed Potatoes by Pioneer Woman

Homemade Gravy

Cranberry Sauce (canned for the people who prefer that, homemade for me!)

For dessert:

Pumpkin pie with no-fail sour cream homemade crust

Cranberry Apple Pie with a lattice crust

homemade vanilla whipped cream

 

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?  Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

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Wubble Bubble Ball=Fun!

Books for Babes: COUNTABLOCK

OATrageous recipes and OXO goodies

Kathy Hester’s new book, OATrageous, and OXO make a very tasty partnership! Be sure to enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post to enter to win your own set of OXO goodies.

This has been a year of learning to eat healthy and making lifestyle changes.  As a result of eating better coupled with exercising, I've lost over 40 pounds!  One of the changes I've made is incorporating oatmeal more into my diet, as well as many other things!  (Lots of plant based foods, more greens and fruit, less sugar and white flour.)  While I don't eat a strictly vegetarian or vegan diet, I've been using many more vegatarian recipes.  When learnig about Kathy Hester's new book of vegan recipes, OATrageous, I was really excited at having the chance to preview it and share info about it.

Kathy Hester has recipes to show you oats in a whole new light.  Think Italian Veggie and Oat Sausage, Veggie Oat Tacos and Oat Pizza Crust Topped with vegan sausage crumbles made from Steel-cut oats. But don’t worry she includes new takes on traditional favorites like Banana Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes and Strawberries and Cream Overnight Refrigerator Oats too. From now on it’s Exciting Oats for Every Meal!

I have to say I wasn't keen on the idea of refrigerator oats at first, but now I'm hooked!  I do modify Kathy's recipes in that I do use a dairy based yogurt, usually a fat free greek plain yogurt, but other than that I stick to her recipe. I love her recipe for Peanut Butter Cup Overnight Oats! So yummy! Pictured below, this non-yogurt based recipe, Blackberry Mojito Over-Night Refrigerator Oats is amazing!  (I leave out the rum!)  The picture alone is beautiful!

Pre-Order Book Bonus!

OATrageous Oatmeals will be available September 2014, but if you pre-order Kathy Hester’s new book, OATrageous, for $15.06 and have the chance to get over $25’s worth of goodies.  Just be one of the first 100 people to email your OATrageous purchase receipt to [email protected] with your full name, mailing address and phone number (for delivery purposes only).  Kathy has some other surprises for everyone who pre-orders including an OATragous newsletter with not-in-the-book oat recipes and special coupons.

 

OXO and OATrageous Giveaway!

OXO has partnered with Kathy's new book release to offer a great gadget giveaway!  Enter the giveaway below to win all of the pictured goodies and a copy of OATrageous when it is released! Do you have a favorite OXO kitchen gadget?  Mine is my smooth edge can opener.  It is so easy to use, especially when I have a carpal tunnel flare up.  This giveaway will be open from Monday, July 28th through Monday, August 4th, 2014.  One winner will be selected by Kathy and OXO will send the winner their prize.  US mailing addresses only. Good Luck!!

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Winter blues-berry pie

With the threat of more snow I decided to bake the dessert I was planning for Valentine's Day early, as I was fearful we would loose power again!  Last summer we spent a lot of time at the blueberry orchards in NJ and PA, resulting in several gallon zipper bags of blueberries in my freezer.  I had forgotten about them until last week in the power outage when I cleaned out the basement freezer.  There were still frozen, thanks to thinking to stick them outside in the snow!  I am so sick of the cold winter that I decided I needed to make a summer dessert.  So, blueberry pie it is!

I used this pie recipe from Simply Recipes.  I did not make the crust and cheated by using frozen pie crust from Trader Joe's.  I also ended up adding two extra cups of blueberries, since I used a deep dish pie plate.  The blueberries were frozen and I think because of that I had to add to the overall bake time.  I cut out mitten shapes and one star to act as pie vents on the top crust.  I've never used an egg wash on pie before and I'm not sure I like how it turned out.  The family certainly loved eating it, even with it being warm and messy!

And what did the weather do today?  Over ten inches of snow! Ugh! So here's thinking of hot summer days when we can go blueberry picking again!

 

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Menu Plan Monday, July 8, 2013

Pizzelles!

 

Did you ever make homemade pizzelles?  They are so much tastier than those ones that we used to buy in the box at the grocery store.  My good friends own an authentic pizzelle press and let me borrow it yearly to make some pizzelles for my son.  He is partial to vanilla, so that is the flavor I made this time.  I am planning to make some chocolate ones this week if we get snowed in again!

These were really easy to make and baked fast...faster than a waffle.  Plus, the house smelled great!

Stay warm!  It's going to be another snowy and ice night.  When does spring start??

 

Thanksgiving menu traditions

This year we are hosting Thanksgiving dinner for our family.  While it may seem like Christmas everywhere already, Thanksgiving is the one holiday I like the most as it just involves good food, good cooking and good conversations with our family.  No Gifts!  There are a few things I make each time I host and our meal tends to be the same each year, but its comforting knowing that we have some predictable traditions each year.  My family is great in that they each contribute a side dish so there is less for me to prepare.  That also means they are making and bringing something that they like too.  

My friend and I talk each year about hosting a Thanksgiving type dinner for ourselves, featuring those recipes that we know our families won't eat, but we want to try.  I would serve either a squash or pumpkin soup as well as some roasted veggies. She wants to make a fancy stuffing.  Someday we will have to plan our special meal!

This year I'll be making the turkey, a nice brined 14 pounder that I bought at Trader Joe's.  I've never bought a turkey from TJs before, but a friend recommended it.  I don't have the space to actually brine a turkey, so I'm hoping this pre-brined one is good!  I'm also making the same pie I've made every year for the past 12 years.  This crunchy caramel apple pie was featured on abc's Good Morning America in 2001.  A home baker won a contest for her recipe.  It sounded so good that I made it that year and it's now a favorite here.  Sometimes I leave off the nuts and its just as tasty. 

I like to make cranberry relish or sauce.  A lot of people are not fans of whole berry sauce and I don't recall when I was first introduced to it, but I really like it.  It's so easy to make and I think makes a great addition to a leftover turkey sandwich.  I always serve the jellied canned cranberries too, since that is a favorite with most people! 

Thanksgiving Dinner Menu:

Roasted Turkey with gravy

Sweet and Savory Stuffing

Cranberry relish (and canned cranberries for those who prefer them!)

Pumpkin Squares

Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie

My guests are bringing mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, and an apple-cranberry crisp.

What are your favorite dishes to serve at Thanksgiving?  Do you always serve the same menu each year?  

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Boo! Ghostly desserts for Halloween!

This Halloween I have plans to do some baking and cooking of Halloween themed foods to help celebrate this fun holiday.  All of my baking plans were cancelled last year when we lost power for a week due to Hurricane Sandy.  This year will be better!  I have lots of Halloween cookie cutters and some themed sprinkles for sugar cookies.  I think they will be a nice surpise afterschool snack when the little guy comes home from kindergarten. 

Of course Halloween makes me think of pumpkins and all the great recipes out there using it.  I tried a pumpkin savory recipe last week that incorporated pumpkin into a pasta sauce.  It was interesting!  I really prefer sweet pumpkin flavored things, though.  This year I might try making Ghostly Pumpkin Pudding.  I love the cute little ghost faces and I think pumpkin flavor will be a nice twist on pudding, since I usually only make chocolate.  I think making them in small portions will be perfect for an after dinner sweet before heading out to go Trick or Treating in the neighborhood.  

 

Ghostly Pumpkin Pudding
From Food Network Kitchens

Ingredients

Pudding:
1 package gelatin
2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
6 large egg yolks (reserve 2 whites for topping)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin puree

Topping:
2 large egg whites
1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 pinch fine salt
Small candy, for eyes

For pudding:

Directions

Put 1 tablespoon of cold water in a large bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over the surface, do not stir, and set aside until gelatins softens and blooms

Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a saucepan that can hold a stand mixer's bowl above the water. Whisk milk, sugar, yolks, cinnamon and salt in a heat-proof bowl. Set the bowl above the boiling water and cook, stirring constantly with a heat-proof spatula, until mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon and almost boils, 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat and pour over the gelatin, whisking constantly until gelatin is completely dissolved and evenly distributed. Whisk in pumpkin until combined and completely smooth.

Evenly divide mixture into 12 small 3-ounce cups (paper works fine) and refrigerate until set, about 4 to 8 hours.

For topping:
Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a saucepan that can hold a stand mixer's bowl above the water. Whisk the 2 egg whites, sugar, cream of tarter, and salt in the bowl by hand. Set the bowl above the boiling water and continue whisking until the mixture is hot to the touch and the sugar dissolves, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer bowl to mixer and beat with the whisk attachment at medium-high speed until eggs hold a stiff peak, about 5 minutes.

Spoon topping onto puddings in the shape of a ghost. Decorate with candy eyes and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Prep Time:5 min
Inactive Prep Time:12 hr 0 min
Cook Time:25 min
Level: Intermediate
Serves: Serves 12

Copyright 2008 Television Food Network, G.P. All rights reserved

Halloween 2008 Web

Copyright 2013 Television Food Network G.P.
All Rights Reserved

What are some special recipes you like to make for Halloween?  Please share!

The BEST chocolate chip and candy cookies ever!

When my son was getting ready to go back to school, I decided that I would make him cookies for an after school snack on the first day of school.  He had been asking for m & m cookies for a while, so I decided to adapt my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe for him.  I added chocolate chips with the mini m & ms, but next time I promised him I would just use the candy!

This recipe is my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe because it produces the best taste, texture and appearance in a cookie.  While I can't really explain the chemistry behind why they are so good, I know it has to do with using cake and bread flour instead of all purpose flour and letting the dough sit in the refrigerator for a day (or more!)  This recipe makes a lot of cookies, so I usually only bake about half the dough.  The remainder of the dough I shape into balls with a cookie scoop and freeze on a sheet.  Then when frozen, I store the unbaked cookies in a sealed bag with the baking directions written on the outside in sharpie.  Then whenever we want a few fresh baked cookies I can pull out just what is needed to bake. 

The original recipe I used was in the New York Times.  Simply titled, Chocolate Chip Cookies and adapted from Jacques Torres, I think they really need to give them a fancier name!  I have made them by simply measuring the ingredients and also by weighing the ingredients, which makes the recipe more precise.  I've yielded great results both ways.  I do use my own vanilla extract in the recipe as well as usually a bag and a half of chocolate chips.  This time I used one bag of mini m & ms and about half a bag of Ghiradelli semi sweet chips.  I also omit the salt on top of the cookies that the original recipe calls for, as I think it's unnecessary.  

Creaming the butter and sugars together for the right length of time is really important.  I tend to leave my butter out on the counter all day so that it really is room temperature.  Beating it for a bit over five minutes gives this super creamy look that shows how well incorporated the butter and sugars are.

I think next time I make these I'll just use regular sized m & ms and no chips.  The minis worked, but seemed to need the chocolate support of the additional chips.  The kiddo was actually furious that I added chocolate chips too.  That had NOTHING to do with the fact that he was exhausted from being in full day kindergarten that week.  Really. 

I found it hard to wait to bake these, but having the dough chilled for a day really seems to help.   I know there is a great scientific explanation for this somewhere, but I haven't bothered to investigate it.  Where is Alton Brown when you need him!??

I used a large cookie scoop to make these.  I've seen some recipes that call for weighing the dough so that they are all the same size, but I'm baking for a kid, not a bakery! The cookies do turn out on the large size, but that is part of their fun.  My unbaked cookie balls were about the size of a golf ball.  

The end results were delicious!  The kiddo has already requested these again!

Menu Plan Monday for the week of December 17, 2012

Wow, what a weekend.  I avoided the news as much as possible.  We spent a lot of time together as a family doing fun things like crafts and decorating, and baking cookies.  And eating them!  

I found a recipe a long time ago claiming to be the BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe EVER.  Seriously.  I wanted to make those cookies for a long time.  I finally did.  And....they are amazing.  AMAZING!  I may never use the back of the chip bag recipe again.  The big difference: a combination of bread and cake flour instead of all purpose flour.  I felt like Alton Brown would have been proud of my enlightenment to this kitchen chemistry.  Anyway, the recipe is from the NY Times, adopted from Jacques Torres, who I'd like to think knows a little something about chocolate!  I found it referenced on Tidy Mom's blog, who has some great photos to help out with the recipe.  I ended up weighing my ingredients to get exact measurements as opposed to using measuring cups.  I think it helped.  These are great cookies!  I was able to freeze some of the dough for later baking.  They were picky-five-year old approved!  (I did make slightly smaller cookies than the recipe directs and I omitted the extra sea salt for the topping.) 

Amazing chocolate chippers!

 

This week is full of holiday preparations, appointments and the kiddos Christmas show.  Then he is off from preschool for almost two weeks!  During that time we have lots of plans, such as visiting the Arboretum, the Please Touch Museum, and Sesame Place.  Along with some play dates, we will be busy.

Menu plan:

Monday: Gnocci and sauce, salad

Tuesday: Festive corn soup, salad  (I have some frozen summer corn I want to use in this recipe!)

Wednesday:  Slow cooker creamy chicken/mushroom pot pie

Thursday: Breakfast for dinner.  When daddy is away, this is our meal!  Kid's choice!

Friday: Pizza and salad night.  White pizza for the kid, Buffalo chicken pizza for the grown ups!

Weekend:  TBD!

What's on your menu this week?  Check out hundreds of menu plans on Organizer Junkie.

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Apple-cranberry pie

Hope you had a fun-filled Thanksgiving. We had a nice dinner with our family and the kiddo loved having all three of his grandparents here.  I tried two new pie recipes this year.  The pumpkin pie I usually make was from the back of the can of pumpkin.  It was a perfectly fine recipe, however, I really wanted to try a different version.  The one I made this year used cream instead of canned condensed milk.  I'm not sure if it made much of a taste difference, but it was great!

My husband requested an apple-cranberry pie.  Real Simple magazine had a really easy recipe in their November issue and the recipe is also online.  The only change I made to the recipe was the topping.  I made it more of a crumble topping, mixing the butter into the granola with a couple of spoonfuls of brown sugar.  The toping came out nice and crunchy.  The pie was a mess to serve, falling apart a bit, but was good anyway.  I was concerned that the cranberries would be too tart, which is why I changed the topping to include some sugar.  Luckily, they added a nice touch to the overall taste.  

This year I also made my own crusts using the basic pie crust recipe from Simply Recipes.  It is a really easy crust to make and has turned out great each time....much better than store bought!  

Now time to plan Christmas meals!!

Menu plan Monday for the week of November 19, 2012

Thanksgiving week!  This year has zoomed by!  We have been busy trying to fit in all of our holiday preparations and plans.  

We are hosting our parents (the grandparents) for Thanksgiving and the kiddo is looking forward to having all that attention!  He'll be helping me make the pumpkin pie and the apple-cranberry pie on his day off from school on Wednesday.  We picked up some apples from a farm on Friday so that our pie will have local apples. I'm afraid that will be the last of the local apples until next summer.  It's just too cold here now.  We also bought some frozen farm corn.  One of our area farms that grows yummy corn mentioned on Facebook that they froze some for Thanksgiving.  The kiddo LOVES corn on the cob, so we headed over there to pick some up.  Turns out it was cut corn, frozen in a giant zipper bag.  He still wanted it, so we'll make some of that on Thanksgiving for him. (The rest I think may become soup!) 

I also plan to make cranberry sauce, and still serve the canned kind for those who prefer it.  I found a raw cranberry relish recipe that looks really good, except I don't have a grinder to make it.  I'm debating using my food processor for it, as it sounds like it would be really tasty, expecially on a turkey sandwich!

Menu plan for dinners this week:

Monday: Slow cooker pulled pork tacos, black beans

Tuesday: Applesauce Barbeque Chicken, cous cous, broccoli

Wednesday: Something simple and light...probably salad as a main course with leftover chicken or pork?  

Thursday: Turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, corn, salad, and pies!  Pumpkin and appple-cranberry.  

Friday: Leftovers!!  My favorite part of Thanksgiving.

Saturday: visiting family

Sunday: visiting family

What's on your Thanksgiving menu?  

I'm linking up to Organizing Junkie for this week's menu plan.