Thanksgiving Dinner!

I'm not very "traditional" about Thanksgiving. Since I focus so much on old-world style cooking, I'm not a big fan of most foods served on Thanksgiving. Jellied cranberry sauce seems strange, and green bean casserole is not exactly my favorite thing to eat. I've always thought ham on Thanksgiving was weird, too. Additionally, my husband doesn't like turkey, cranberry sauce, potato salad, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, or most any of the other traditional Thanksgiving dishes.

So even though it was a little unusual to most, I made a Thanksgiving dinner that was much more suited to what we like.

Of course, we started out with a walk around the neighborhood. We know more than a few people around, so it was only a matter of time before we bumped into someone. We got invited by one of my husband's fighting buddies that was driving by to the orphan dinner that one of the old pirates does every year. I loved the walk, and greatly recommend that even if you don't live in a neighborhood with friendly parks, you find one to go to on Thanksgiving. It seems the early part of the day draws people out even just to walk their dogs or walk around the park. We passed many happy spirits to wish a happy Thanksgiving to, and we think it will be a tradition for us from now on. There were also many beautiful photo opportunities.

So on to the menu.

Chicken with Orange Sauce
Apple Orange Cranberry Sauce
Cinnamon Pumpkin Bites
Roasted Cheesy Potatoes
Chicken Gravy
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pie


Chicken with Orange Sauce


This was a slow cooker recipe. I'm not a major fan of the skin of the chicken, and was happy to sacrifice it for the tenderness of making the chicken in the slow cooker.

For the most part, this is a common sense recipe. Get a whole chicken that will fit in your slow cooker. Surround it in 2 cups of water (or chicken broth if you need the extra flavor), and add some rosemary and basil to the water. Cover it and turn on to high, and cook for about an hour. Take the lid off and add in a couple of garlic cloves, and turn it to low. In my kitchen, this is when the rest of cooking starts. Once it's time to start setting the table and the chicken has been carved, take half of an orange and squeeze out the juice into a cup, mix with about a teaspoon of sugar, and drizzle it over the chicken right before serving. Surprisingly, the gravy didn't clash!

Apple Orange Cranberry Sauce


I have always battled with cranberry sauce. I want to like it. But jellied is, well, unnatural canned stuff, and the  stuff with cranberries has hard skins and is always too bitter. So I didn't plan on making a cranberry sauce. I really didn't know what I was doing. I just started boiling about 2 cups of water and 3/4 cup of sugar, stirred it together, and then added cranberries. I was considering a cobbler or a tart.

Once the cranberries started popping and the water started turning red, I considered just draining the cranberries out and having my husband pick up some rum while he was out for a festive drink to go with dinner. This was a pretty appealing and wonderfully smelling situation already.

However, I wasn't sure how much food I was going to have, so I poked around in the fridge. I found an apple that hadn't been eaten yet, so I chopped that up to about the size of the cranberries and added it.

Then. I found the orange I had to go with the chicken, and realized I only needed half - so I cut half off, and peeled it, then took apart the pulp to put in with the cranberries.

Out of curiosity, I mashed a couple cranberries to see how soft they were, and they mashed perfectly. After more mashing, I had a sauce. So I added about 1/4 cup brown sugar, about a teaspoon of cinnamon, and half a teaspoon of nutmeg, pulled it off of heat, and put it into the fridge to chill.

It went wonderfully. Though my husband wasn't about to get seconds of it, he ate a couple of spoonfuls. I loved it. The skins weren't a problem at all, and the autumn flavor it had was so fresh. I wish I had someone to credit with a recipe, as I'm sure due to its simplicity I'm not the first to ever do this. Also, it was so good and entirely by accident that I feel strange taking credit for it.




Cinnamon Pumpkin Bites


I decided I'd do this at Halloween, when I made cinnamon apples. For fall, I'd bought a few tiny pumpkins to decorate windowsills and the fireplace mantle. I figured they'd at some point turn into this if they started getting soft, but they survived until now, so I went ahead and made them for Thanksgiving.

I used two of the tiny pumpkins, and it was enough for 4 adults and a toddler, so you could make more if you need to. The process and amounts wouldn't change much.

Cut each pumpkin in half and clean it. Chop the pumpkin into bite size pieces. It's okay to leave the skin on for now. Put the bites into a frying pan with about a tablespoon of butter, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg.

Put the heat on higher at first to get the butter melted, then turn it down to medium low and slowly toss them. After a while, the sauce will start to caramelize.

When it does this, remove the bites from heat and remove the skins if you're going to. You can leave the skins on and eat them, as well. You'll need to keep cooking them awhile, until the bites start to brown and go softer in the middle.

This came out so tender and flavorful. It might not necessarily be the healthiest item on any menu, but it was fantastic to have just a few bites of, and went quickly.


Roasted Cheesy Potatoes


Again, not the healthiest menu item, but another easy sensible recipe.

Wash and chop potatoes into bite sized pieces. However many you want, this one's not an exact science by any means. Sprinkle with whatever herbs you'd like. Since I was doing rosemary in the chicken, I just went for oregano and pepper on the potatoes. Bake them for about 15-20 minutes at 350. Pull them out and sprinkle whatever shredded cheese you like on top.

Sorry for a lack of picture, I make these so frequently I didn't even think of it, and I'm sure you can get the idea from the picture of the whole dinner that includes them.


Chicken Gravy


While the chicken is cooking at some point, get in with a baster and snag about two tablespoons worth of broth and meat drippings and put them in a saucepan. Sift in about 1/4 cup of flour slowly and stir in while the pot is on medium low, until it turns into a gravy. Add salt and pepper to taste. In my case, I added more meat drippings as well, because the flavor was closer to flour than meat gravy. This was a wonderful gravy for pouring over the chicken and potatoes, and was incredibly easy. Of course, if you're doing mashed potatoes or having more people, you'd probably want to double your proportions.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pie

For the most part, I just followed the Libby's recipe. I had never made a pumpkin pie, so I wanted to play it safe and go with easier canned recipes. Next year, I'll try it from puree. 

Here's the original:


3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell

MIX sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving. 

(Source: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18470/LIBBYS-Famous-Pumpkin-Pie/detail.aspx)

For mine, I left out the clove because I don't like clove. Also, on suggestion from a comment, I split the sugar between white and brown. Also, part of baking in my kitchen is messing up, so I put all of the dry ingredients in, cracked one egg into the side of the bowl, then read that I'm supposed to beat the eggs first. So I cracked the second egg on top of the first and lightly beat them while trying to not mixing the dry ingredients in. 

Then I mixed the rest altogether, and gradually added the evaporated milk. 

I poured it into a graham cracker crust I'd bought. I would have made my own, and will in the future, but I found myself a little short on time and available cash to buy food supplies with. I'm glad I did it the way I did, because it came out wonderful. 

I put it in the oven at 425 for a while. When it was time to turn it down to 350, I dropped some chocolate chips in.

 At 40 minutes at 350, I dropped more chocolate chips on top to melt. I let it bake another 10 minutes, then took it out to cool.  

This pie came out so light that it wasn't offensive if you're already full of Thanksgiving food. It was also incredibly tasty! My husband ate two slices and kept telling me how delicious it was. I'm happy to find a pumpkin pie that pleases the critics!

So there it is, a different take on Thanksgiving. I was thankful to have my husband and my son to eat with me, and I was very thankful to be able to feed a friend of ours that wouldn't have otherwise had a Thanksgiving to go to. We were blessed to have Thanksgiving dinners offered to us that we had to turn down. It was definitely a day for remembering the things that are really worth appreciating - the things that we may daily forget because we're busy appreciating the jobs, the money, and the tangible things we have. Thanksgiving this year was for remembering that even without those things, we'd still find a reason to smile every day.

I hope your families had a wonderful and fulfilling holiday meal together!

Impromptu Dinner!

Tonight, I got off of work and tagged out my husband as he left to go out with a friend. As soon as my husband left, the kiddo started telling me he was hungry. I myself had been anxious to get home for something to eat. However, we do our shopping on the weekends and don't have many meal options left. I dug around the fridge for last bits of things and came up with this wonderful concoction I just had to share!

I sliced up some leftover carrots and mushrooms, chopped up the rest of an orange bell pepper I had, and threw in the last serving of shrimp. I added in some minced garlic, but it seemed still a little bland and colorless. I told the kiddo, "we need something green", and we found some basil together. He "helped" me tear up the basil (as in, he held the basil leaves for me and managed to not lick them), and that was just what it needed.

We really enjoyed it, and though it's not a proper recipe by any means, it just goes to show what you can do when you think there's nothing left to eat in the house!

I'm Still Cooking!

Life has been very busy the last week! I decided to change careers, and, well, I don't like doing anything with half energy, so I busted my butt for a couple days looking for interesting jobs and discerning which I would like, and found one I wanted. Then, I've been enjoying some time with my family "between jobs" while I had the time off. Now, I have training tomorrow and Friday and officially start on Monday. Naturally, I've been cooking lots of interesting things, not getting pictures or posting them. I promise, that'll resume as things level out!

I got a brand new shiny slow cooker, so I'll be looking up some recipes and sharing those here. We tried it out last night with some leftover chicken my mom brought over. She has a neighbor that brings her yummy homemade food that she wouldn't have the energy to make herself. The other day, she brought her a whole chicken! So my mom brought it here. I put it in the new slow cooker to try it out, and threw in some veggies and chicken broth, and let it sit a couple of hours on low. It came out so tasty, and the meat was falling off of the bone. I'm very excited to get used to this! Especially as I continue to try new foods from the co-op and farmer's market, like these kiwi berries we picked up when we went on a celebration trip.

As for today, I've no idea what's for dinner yet, but for breakfast, we're having breakfast sandwiches - bacon and eggs on a gluten-free green chile cheese bread. Yum!

I hope you all are having wonderful adventures in cooking.

Happy Halloween!

I know I'm a day late here, but we had, and are having, quite the celebration. Like last time, I wish I had some pictures, but I was just so busy I didn't have time. However, I want to share the experience and some of what I made.

When we woke up, I made a simple breakfast of green eggs and ham. My husband and I weren't hungry, so we made something funny for the little one. Once we'd gotten picked up and set up decorations, I got the appetizers going:

Rotten Eggs - deviled eggs with dye
Place a dozen eggs in a pot with cool water, enough to cover the tops.
Boil the eggs until the bottom end floats to the top, and then a couple minutes longer.
Remove the pan from heat, and after a minute or two, begin cooling the eggs. Drain the water and fill the pot with cool water. Repeat, again and again, until they're cool. You can speed this up by rolling the eggs in the water every time you drain them and replace with new cool water.
Drain most of the water, leaving just a small coating on the bottom of the pan.
Crack the eggs, not entirely like you're scrambling them, but enough to put cracks in the shell. "Crunch" them up in your hand a bit, so that there are cracks all around the egg.
Add 4-5 drops of blue/green dye to the water. Let the eggs sit for 10-15 minutes, rolling them around occasionally.
The eggs will dye along the cracks, making them look gruesome!

Peel the eggs. By the way, this is easier if you use eggs that aren't brand new.
Slice the eggs in half longways and pop the yolks into a dish.
Mash the yolks with a fork.
Add 3 tbsp mayonnaise, 1 tbsp mustard, 2-3 tbsp relish (to taste), and about a teaspoon of sugar, plus 2-3 drops of green and 1 drop of red dye, and mix. You can add more of anything if you don't like the taste of it.
Scoop the mixture into the eggs and serve, topped with a little paprika, or a spider...

Puking Pumpkin - Carved pumpkin with avocado salsa
Carve a pumpkin, but put the mouth low and large. Name him or her affectionately and set your new poor friend on one end of a platter.
Chop up an avocado, a yellow onion, 2-3 green onions, a Roma tomato, 2-4 jalapenos (depending on size), and mince a clove of garlic. Squeeze in some citrus fruit if you have any. Mix it all together, and pour the salsa into the pumpkin, letting the salsa come out of the pumpkin's mouth.


Once the appetizers were out, all I had to do once people arrived was set out sandwiches and 2 liter bottles of soda. I got a pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter and cut the bread, meat, and cheese slices into pumpkin shapes and set on a plate.

Then, it was time to make dinner and the desserts. You see, I didn't want to miss the whole party for slaving in the kitchen. So, here's the basics, and I'll tell you how I did it.

Monster Heads - Stuffed bell peppers
Boil rice, fry sausage, mix together with chopped tomato, oregano, and basil. Cut the tops off of bell peppers and remove the seeds. Put the mixture in, top with cheese for "hair", and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Witch's Brew
Scoop lime sherbet into a bowl in small scoops. Pour in 7 Up slowly. It froths up cool-lookin'. Just be careful, you will get a brain freeze!

Chocolate Graves 
Chocolate pudding in little cups, topped with Oreo "grave dirt" and cookie "tombstones"


In order to get all of this done as efficiently as possible and put it all on the table at once, I'll share the order I did it in. This is something I really care about, having nothing cold while the rest of dinner is still cooking, and having dessert chilling while dinner is being eaten.

Cut Milano cookies in half so you have little "gravestones" and write on them with decorator's icing, "RIP" or initials. Set in the fridge so they'll keep. Start the water boiling for rice. 2-3 cups of rice works for about 6 large bell peppers. Cut the tops off of the bell peppers, remove the seeds, and set in a baking dish. If your dish is too large for the peppers, instead of trying to squeeze them in, use the large pan. Just make an artificial "pan" of tin foil that's the size of your peppers. It'll hold them up. Once you're done removing the seeds, your water should be boiling. Add your rice and turn the heat down to medium and cover.

Get chocolate pudding mix, mix with milk, and beat for about 2 minutes. Set in the fridge to cool for a minute. Remove filling from cookies and crumble them into a dish. Fry up 1 lb of sausage and chop a tomato while it's frying, and preheat the oven to 350. The rice should be done about now. Add rice, sausage, and tomato together and fill the bell peppers. Top with shredded cheese "hair" and put them in the oven.

Get out little cups and scoop the pudding into them, put cookie crumbles on top and any cute candies you have (I had little fall leaf sprinkles), and stick a Milano cookie grave in each. Put them in the fridge. Scoop your sherbet into the bowl you're going to serve Witch's Brew in and pour the soda on top. Take the Monster Heads out of the oven, and carve little eyes and mouths. You can just push them into the peppers to not waste food. Put them on a serving platter, and move the Monster Heads and Witch's Brew to the table. When everyone's done eating, the pudding graves will be chilled and ready for dessert.

Today, since our celebration's still going, I "fried" apples in butter, cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, and when they were soft melted caramel on top. I'm also on my way to make a cottage pie. Tomorrow I'm going to roast some red potatoes and onions in balsamic and olive oil with some rosemary, and I'm baking a pumpkin pie.

I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween.