Thankgiving Dinner

Here is what we had for Thanksgiving Dinner, well more like lunch.  We like to eat earlier in the day.

Pomegranate Glazed Turkey with Wild Rice Stuffing (from Food Network Magazine)
Cranberry Apple Stuffing (from Food Network Magazine)
Green Bean Bundles (Miss V makes them every year from her YCA binder)
Mashed Potatoes
Butternut Squash Soup
Dinner Rolls
Chocolate Toffee Pecan Tart (from Food Network Magazine)
Pumpkin Pie

Butternut Squash Soup

Dinner (ok Lunch) plate, it was a little weird not to have brown turkey gravy, but that will be made later.

And....my dessert...

Hope all of my friends and family near and far had a yummy Thanksgiving!!

Pomegranate Glazed Turkey

Here is the turkey we made yesterday.  The recipe came from the November issue of Food Network Magazine and it was from Cat Cora.

1 1/2 cups wild rice, rinsed
Kosher salt
1 cup roughly chopped roasted chestnuts (fresh or jarred)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh savory or rosemary
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
Freshly ground pepper
1 12-to-14-pound turkey (thawed if frozen)
4 slices pancetta or bacon
1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice
1 to 2 tablespoons honey
Rosemary sprigs, for garnish (optional)

Combine the wild rice, 3 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt in a medium pot. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring once. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook until the rice absorbs all of the liquid, 45 to 55 minutes. (I prepped this part on Wednesday)

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the chestnuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven to remove some of their moisture, about 10 minutes.  (I prepped this part on Wednesday)



Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, thyme, savory and parsley and cook until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cooked rice and the toasted chestnuts and season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Remove the neck, giblets and any excess fat from the turkey; discard. Rinse the turkey under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Season the cavity with salt and loosely fill with the rice stuffing, leaving space for the rice to expand during cooking. Put the pancetta slices over the cavity opening and secure with toothpicks or skewers to enclose the stuffing. Truss the legs and wings with kitchen twine.

Rub the outside of the turkey with salt and pepper and place on a rack in a roasting pan. Roast until the skin is golden brown and a thermometer inserted into the breast registers 165 degrees F to 170 degrees F, 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours

Transfer the turkey to a platter and let rest 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pour the drippings from the roasting pan into a skillet; add the pomegranate juice and honey. Bring to a simmer over low heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly syrupy and reduced by half, about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Brush the turkey with some of the glaze. Garnish the platter with rosemary, if desired, and serve with more glaze.

This was very yummy!  The only think that felt weird was not having a brown turkey gravy.  I saved off some of the drippings to make that later in the day for all of the leftovers.

Green Bean Bundles

Victoria always makes Green Bean Bundles for Thanksgiving.  She first made the recipe when she attended Young Chefs Academy and was in the Kindercooks Class.  (for her own safety, I will not put pictures up that include her face)

16 slices pre-cooked bacon (she prefers raw bacon)
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 400.

Place beans in a colander wash. Snap the ends off the green beans

Simmer beans on stove, just covered with water for 15 to 20 minutes. Drain beans in colander and rinse with cold water to hold color and cool.

The bacon should be flexible to work with. If need be, place on a paper plate and microwave just long enough to war

Place 4 to 6 green beans on a slice of bacon. Roll the great beans into a bundle with the bacon. Continue until all the green beans have been used. About 16 bundles.

Place the bundles seam side down side by side on a greased baking dish.

Melt the butter in a small microwave safe bowl. Add brown sugar and mix well. Drizzle over the green beans in the baking dish.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Pumpkin Pie with picture

I have made this many times in the past, but this time I had about 3/4 cup to much filling that I ended up tossing.

1 Unbaked pie shell
15 ounces Pumpkin Puree
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups half and half
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Set separate racks in the center and lower third of oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Put a piece of parchment paper or foil over the pie shell and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake on a baking sheet on the center rack until the dough is set, about 20 minutes.

2. Remove from the oven and lift sides of the parchment paper to remove the beans. Continue baking until the pie shell is lightly golden brown, about 10 more minutes. Cool on a rack.

3. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F

4. While the pie shell is cooling make the filling. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, brown sugar, eggs, half-and-half, spices, and salt until smooth. Return the pie shell to the baking sheet and pour in the filling.

5. Bake on the lower oven rack until the edges of the filling are set but the center is still slightly loose, about 50 to 60 minutes. (If the edges get very dark, cover them with aluminum foil.) Cool on a rack. Serve room temperature or slightly warm.

Cranberry Apple Stuffing

This recipe I found in the Novemember issue of the Food Network Magazine in the little pull out section.  I made this to go along with the turkey.  Yes I know the turkey had its own stuffing, but I MUST have a traditional bread stuffing too.

1 stick unsalted butter
2 cups onion, diced
2 apples, chopped ( I used Granny Smith)
1 cup dried cranberries
2 cups celery, diced
1 tablespoon sage, minced
1 tablespoon thyme, minced
salt and pepper
3 cups chicken stock
2 eggs
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
16 cups bread cubes (I cut up two loaves of sourdough from Publix and dried them in the oven)

Melt 1 stick of butter in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add the onion, apples, cranberries, celery, sage, thyme and salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add 3 cups stock and bring to a simmer.

Beat 2 eggs with 1/4 cup chopped parsley in a large bowl; add 16 cups cubed stale bread then pour the vegetables/stock micture and toss.


Transfer to a buttered baking dish and dot with butter.

Cover and bake 30 minutes at 375. Uncover then bake for 30 more minutes until golden brown.

 
This came out so good!!!!  I did keep the crust on the bread and those pieces got nice and crispy, just the way I like my stuffing.

Chocolate Toffee Pecan Tart

I saw this in the November issue of FoodNetwork Magazine and knew I had to try it.  The only bad part was that I only own an 11 inch tart pan.  Luckily Michaels had a set of three and a few neighbors gave me their coupon.  Woo Hoo!

For the Dough:

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large egg, beaten

For the Filling:

1 1/2 cups pecan halves
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons bourbon

Directions


Make the dough: Pulse the flour, cocoa, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter; pulse until the mixture looks like coarse meal with pea-size bits of butter. Add the egg and pulse once or twice. (Stop before the dough gathers into a ball.) Turn out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and press into a disk. Wrap tightly and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.

Place the dough on a large sheet of lightly floured parchment paper. Roll into a 12-inch round, no more than 1/8 inch thick. Invert the dough over a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and peel off the parchment; press the dough into the bottom and sides of the pan. (If the dough tears, just pat it back together.) Trim the excess dough. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour. (There was a lot of excess dough, so I am not sure if I did something wrong?)

Position racks in the middle and lower third of the oven; preheat to 350 degrees F. Line the crust with foil, then fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake on the middle rack, 20 minutes. Remove the foil and weights and continue baking until crisp, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Prepare the filling: Coarsely chop 1 cup pecans. Combine the butter, granulated sugar, vanilla and kosher salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring, until the mixture turns dark amber, 6 to 8 minutes. Immediately stir in the chopped pecans and cook 1 to 2 more minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the corn syrup and brown sugar until dissolved. Cool until lukewarm, then whisk in the eggs and bourbon until combined. (The tart can be made 1 day ahead up to this point; cover and refrigerate the filling and wrap the cooled crust in plastic wrap.)

Increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Place the tart shell on a baking sheet and pour in the filling up to the brim. Arrange the remaining 1/2 cup pecan halves on top. Bake on the lower oven rack until the tart is evenly browned and slightly domed in the center, about 40 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Garlic and Herb Bubble/Pull Apart Bread

I just came up with this recipe to have with dinner tonight, we are having Pasta & Sausage Sauce.  I didn't want just plain garlic bread. So.....

I made one pound of dough in my bread machine. 

Meanwhile melt 1/4 cup unsalted butter in a small sauce pan.  Add 2 teaspoons of garlic powder and 1 1/2 teaspoons of Italian Herbs.  Let it cool.

When the dough is done cut into 36 inch pieces.

Dip each ball in mixture; place in an ungreased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375.

Bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack and serve warm.

Ready to rise...

All done rising...

All done baking...

This was really good, but I think next time I am going to sprinkle in some Parmesan cheese.



Turkey Dinner Calculator

I just was searching for info on how long it will take to thaw our turkey in the fridge and came across a really neat site.  It is called the Turkey Dinner Calculator.


This site creates a guideline as to quantity or amount of turkey, stuffing and gravy needed for a specified special dinner. Enter the number of adults that are having dinner and the number of children that are to be fed. Select the quantity of leftovers you desire and the anticipated appetites of those dining. Then click on Calculate. The approximate amount of turkey is calculated along with the appropriate quantity of stuffing (dressing) and gravy.  

LOL it said we only need a 5 pound turkey...uh...we need lots of left overs so I bought a 15 pound turkey at the store.  I got a Jenny-O brand for $0.58 a pound.  Woo Hoo!!!!

Blog Awards!

I received a blog award from Sandra's Easy Cooking!  I am so honored that she enjoys my blog.

So go on over to Sandra's Easy Cooking blog for more fantastic foodie blogs!!

Chicken Parmesan Calzones

I just made this for dinner

2 Pounds of pizza dough
3 chicken breasts
4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 drizzle olive oil
4 tablespoon flour
6 Tablespoons Italian breadcrumbs
3 teaspoon garlic garlic powder
1 egg beaten
½ cup marinara sauce
sprinkle of mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 350.

Mix the breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and garlic powder seasoning in a small bowl. Dip the chicken breasts, in the flour, then into the egg and coat with the cheese/breadcrumb mixture. Fry in a small preheated and oiled pan until chicken has a brown and crispy appearance.

Cook browned chicken in the oven at 350°F for 8-10 minutes or until cooked.

While chicken is cooking, cut dough in 4 balls and roll out four circles. They should be about 8-10 inches in diameter.

Once cooked, cut the chicken in cubes. Coat one side of the circle with marinara sauce. Add the chicken mozzarella to one side of the circle. Fold the dough over the mixture and pinch ends together to seal in the mixture. Brush the tops of the calzones with olive oil and poke a few holes in the calzone to prevent air pockets.

Turn the oven up to 415.

Cook on a preheated pizza stone or baking sheet for 15 minutes  Once your calzone is golden brown, remove it and let it cool for 2-5 minutes.  When cooled off cut into slices and serve with extra warmed marinara sauce.

Thanksgiving Shopping Lists

I have to give another shout out to my favorite software, MasterCooks version 9. Yesterday I made up our Thanksgiving Menu and just printed out the shopping list.

I will go through and check my pantry, freezer and fridge to see what can be checked off the list.

Here is a first draft of my shopping list.

You can click on the picture to see a bigger version.  I love that I can sort the items by item name, location in the store or by recipes.  Right now I have it sorted by location in the store.
A big WOO HOO, for being organized!!!

The Muppets Kitchen with Cat Cora

I recently stumbled upon The Muppets Kitchen with Cat Cora on the Disney site.  If you haven't seen it yet, you can check it out here.

Miss V loves this site.

Edited to add a label and wave hi to the folks at Disney in CA.  Hope you are having a magical day and hope to visit Disney World again!!

Thanksgiving Menu is done!!!

Well I decided on our Thanksgiving Menu after talking with Marcel last night.

We are going to have;

Pomegranate Glazed Turkey with Wild Rice Stuffing (from Food Network Magazine)
Cranberry Apple Stuffing (from Food Network Magazine)
Green Bean Bundles (Miss V makes them every year from her YCA binder)
Mashed Potatoes
Butternut Squash Soup (only half a recipe though)
Dinner Rolls
Chocolate Toffee Pecan Tart (from Food Network Magazine)
Pumpkin Pie



So my questions are...(please comment below)
1.  What kind of turkey are you having this year?
2.  What kind of stuffing/dressing are you having this year?
3.  What are you having for dessert this year?

Please, link me up YOUR favorite Thanksgiving recipes!!

Pumpkin Spice Bagels

One of my childhood friends posted about making Pumpkin Spice Bagels.  She found the recipe on the Taste of Home website.

So I decided to try and make them.  My other attempts at bagels weren't so good.  Well they are good the first day. After that they are rock hard and way to chewy.

2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (70° to 80°), divided
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3 cups bread flour
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1 egg white
1 tablespoon cornmeal

In bread machine pan, place 2/3 cup water, pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, spices, flour and yeast in order suggested by manufacturer. Select dough setting (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed).


When cycle is completed, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into nine balls. Push thumb through centers to form a 1-in. hole. Stretch and shape dough to form an even ring. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes; flatten rings slightly.

Fill a Dutch oven two-thirds full with water; bring to a boil. Drop bagels, two at a time, into boiling water. Cook for 45 seconds; turn and cook 45 seconds longer. Remove with a slotted spoon; drain on paper towels.

Whisk egg white and remaining water; brush over bagels. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place bagels 2 in. apart on prepared pan. Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: 9 servings.

These so far are nice and soft with a great flavor!!!

Thanksgiving...

It is that time of year again, where I hand over cooking duties to my husband.  He loves making Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner.  We are very traditional and have the same things every year.  Except last year I made a new sweet potato dish that was very yummy.

I love trying new recipes, but do you mess with tradition on holidays?

I purchased the November issue of Food Network Magazine and found so many new recipes that I would love to try.

For the turkey on page 112 is Cat Cora's Pomegranate Glazed Turkey with Wild Rice Stuffing.  Mmm that just looks wonderful.  But the problem is, I love love love traditional bread stuffing.  I need to have bread stuffing.  Do I convince my husband to make this turkey and stuffing and make another small dish of bread stuffing???

That brings me to my next dilemma....If you ever read Food Network Magazine they always have a little pull out of 50 recipes.  Well this month is all about stuffing.  Ones that jumped out at me were the (#3) Cranberry Apple stuffing, (#4) Cranberry Nut Stuffing, and (#9) Apple-Fennel Stuffing.

Last dilemma...dessert....Miss V and I always make pies on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  We always have one traditional pumpkin pie and one different kind.  They have a yummy looking Apple Walnut Galette and a Chocolate Toffee Pecan Tart.  I am really leaning towards the Chocolate Toffee Pecan Tart, I just need to get a tart pan.  I had one B.E (before explosion) and some times still think I have one, I just can't find it.  Yes that still happens...LOL

So my questions are...(feel free to comment below)
1.  What kind of turkey are you having this year?
2.  What kind of stuffing/dressing are you having this year?
3.  What are you having for dessert this year?

You can also link me up to your favorite Thanksgiving recipes.

Mini Pecan Pumpkin Pies

I am another baking sort of mood this morning.  I thought I would find some sort of mini pumpkin pie to make and found a recipe on Food Network for Mini Pecan Pumpkin Pies from Sunny Anderson.  I did have to make a substitution or two. 

For the dough:

1/4 cup pecans
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for shaping dough
6 tablespoons butter, ice cold
2 to 3 tablespoons ice cold water

For the filling:

1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 cup dark corn syrup (I didn't have any so I subbed 1/4 cup light corn syrup and 1/4 cup molasses)
1 tablespoon sugar (I used light brown sugar)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin filling (I used canned pumpkin and added 3/4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup pecans, chopped plus 24 halves for garnish

Special equipment: 2 (12-cup) mini muffin tins
 
Directions


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray the bottoms and sides of the mini muffin tins with cooking spray.

For the dough:

In a food processor, pulse pecans with the sugar, salt, and flour, until the nuts are ground and the ingredients are combined. Add in butter and pulse until dough resembles coarse meal. Slowly pour in ice water through the feed tube, pulsing, until the dough comes together. Remove from processor bowl onto clean work surface sprinkled with flour.

Form dough into a ball and divide evenly into 24 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and evenly press into each cup, until the bottom is covered. If the dough is sticky, dip your finger in flour first.

Bake 15 to 18 minutes, until the crusts are very golden. Check periodically to make sure they don't get too brown.

Meanwhile, make the filling: In a medium bowl, whisk the egg and yolk with the corn syrup, sugar, pumpkin filling and vanilla. Stir in the chopped pecans.

Remove dough from oven and spoon 1 tablespoon of the filling into each cup. Top each with 1 pretty pecan half. Return the pans to the oven and continue baking, for 12 to 15 minutes more, until the pumpkin filling is set. Allow to cool before removing from the pans.

My notes:  The shells puffed up a bit in the oven during the first baking period.  When the came out, I used the end of a wooden spoon and gently tapped around the center a bit before I filled them.

They are seriously YUMMY!!!!  The crust is nice and nutty.

Gingerbread Muffins

The other day at Dunkies, they asked if I wanted to try their new Gingerbread Muffins.  I wasn't hungry so I just got my ice coffee.  Driving back to school, I kept thinking what would a Gingerbread Muffin taste like?  When I got home I Googled all sorts of different variations on the wording Gingerbread Muffin.  The one that kept popping up over and over were from Jason's Deli.  I love Jason's Deli but never tried their Gingerbread Muffins. 

This morning, I decided to try a recipe for Gingerbread Muffins that I found on the Back to the Cutting Board Blog.  I had to made a substitution from her recipe.

1 cup of dark brown sugar (I didn't have any dark brown, I only had light)
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 TSP. baking soda
1 TSP cinnamon
1 TSP ground ginger
1/2 TSP. salt
1/4 TSP fresh ground nutmeg
1 egg
1/2 cup of molasses
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, melted and cooled

If you don’t have buttermilk, which most people don't keep in their fridges and I am just to cheap to buy a carton that I know would end up going to waste, just add 1 TBS. of white vinegar to a cup of regular milk and let sit out for a little while.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin pan with cooking spray.

Sift sugar, flour, soda, salt and spices in a bowl.

In a small bowl mix the egg, molasses, milk, and butter.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined.  Do not over mix!!
I like using an ice cream scoop to fill my muffin tins.  This made just over a dozen regular sized muffins.  Bake for 20 minutes.  I also made a dozen mini muffins and baked them for just under 15 minutes.  For the mini muffins I used my small cookie scoop.

Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.  They don't taste very gingerbready when warm.  They tasted much better after sitting for an hour or two.

Miss V just had a mini one and she gave them two thumbs up.  I bet they will taste even better tomorrow.

Keurig and My K Cup

Last Christmas we got a Keurig.  I love love love it.  We even bought one of the My K Cup filter baskets.  I have certain coffees that I love and they don't have K Cups.  When I would use the My K Cup basket, the coffee always tasted weak even though I had filled it with coffee grounds.

Recently I was looking through the New England Coffee Company site and I noticed on some of the exclusive coffee types, there were a few different options for grind.

A is coarse This grind is perfect for stove top and electric percolators



B is medium This grind works well with auto-drip machines like Mr. Coffee and Bunn


C is fin Use this fine grind for espresso-type pressure brewers


D Whole Bean
 
Well that makes sense!!!  The Keurig is a pressure brewer so you would need a finer grind right????  What I buy in the store is regular retail ground, hmmm I wonder if I scoop out what I need and quickly pulse it in a coffee grinder if that will make the coffee stronger???  I think I may need to email them to get the answer.
 
Stay tuned.......

November 3rd is National Sandwich Day

Today is National Sandwich Day!!!  Did you know there is a blog out there solely dedicated to Sandwiches?  It is Sandwich 365 and I think you should go check them out!

What is currently YOUR favorite sandwich???

Want some new ideas, check out my Sandwich link over on the right side.

Marshmellow Ghost Cupcakes

I also made these for Miss V's Halloween party.  I was afraid that 24 cupcakes would be enough, so I made a dozen from a recipe on the Joy of Baking Site.

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Zest of 1 large lemon (outer yellow skin)
1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

Vanilla Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.


In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. If you want flat topped cupcakes then slice off the dome of each cupcake, with a sharp knife, before frosting.
Makes about 12 cupcakes

I frosted them with a canned milk chocolate frosting.  I used some fall sprinkles from Wilton and used a tube of Wilton Black icing to make the faces on the marshmellows.

Marshmellow Frankenstein Cupcakes

I made these yesterday for Miss V's Halloween Party.  I found the idea in a magazine called Yum for Kids.

Make and cool your favorite box mix or homemade cupcakes.

1/2 cup warm water
Pastry brush or new foam paintbrush
24 large white marshmellows
Green liquid food color
1 can white frosting
Purple gel food color
24 green gumdrops cut in half lengthwise
48 red Dots candies or gumdrops cut in half
Cookie sheet lined with wax paper
Tube of black icing
Small star tip and small circle tip

Add green food color to the warm water until you get the shade of green that you would like your Frankensteins to look like.

Quickly and lightly brush the marshmellows with the colored water on all sides and place on a the lined cookie sheet to dry.

Tint the white frosting with the purple gel food color until you get a nice shade of lavender.  Frost the cupcakes.

When the marshmellows are dried pipe on the faces with the circle tip with the black icing.  Switch to the small star tip and create hair.

Place the marshmellows on the cupcakes and gently push in.

Place the green sliced gumdrops in front to form arms and two red Dot candies on either side of the head to from the bolts.

Sorry if the pictures are huge, blogger is having an issue uploading so I had to upload them to photobucket.

Pumpkin Crunch Parfaits

I originally saw the recipe for Pumpkin Crunch Parfaits on the Taste of Home site last year and had it bookmarked.  I am room mom for Miss V's class and we do Harvest Parties.  This year we decided to make it a luncheon with tukey sandwiches, mashed potatoes, stuffing and all the fixings.  I love making cupcakes but felt the need to switch it up a bit since the kids will also be making caramel apples.  My mind went right back to the Pumpkin Crunch Parfaits.  The recipe makes 6, but I doubled it and made them in smaller cups so I ended up with 16.  I used Solo 9 oz punch cups.  I also made a little modification.  I did not add all the Cool Whip to the pumpkin/pudding mix.  I put one cup in and folded it in until there were no more white streaks.  I bought the 16 oz tub of Cool Whip.  I also layered it a bit more like a trifle.  I skipped the nuts.

The recipe below is for 6 parfaits.

3/4 cup cold milk
1 package (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cups whipped topping
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup chopped pecans
32 gingersnap cookies, crushed (about 1-1/2 cups)
Additional whipped topping

In a large bowl, beat milk and pudding mix on low speed for 2 minutes. Stir in the whipped topping, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Fold in pecans.

Spoon half of the mixture into parfait glasses; top with half of the gingersnap crumbs. Repeat layers. Top with additional whipped topping. Yield: 6 servings.

Fall Leaves Cookies (updated)

I originally made this last year at my cooking workshops at YCA.  I just made a batch for Miss V's Harvest Party.

1 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 LAND O LAKES® All-Natural Egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Red, orange and yellow gel food colors

Combine butter and sugar in large bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy. Add egg, milk and lemon extract; continue beating until well mixed.

Reduce speed to low; add flour and baking powder. Beat until well mixed.Divide dough into thirds; place each portion into separate small bowl. Add very small amount of red gel food color to 1 portion; mix well. Add additional red gel for desired color, if necessary. Repeat with remaining dough portions and gel food colors.

Shape each dough into ball; flatten each ball to 1/2-inch thickness. Wrap each in plastic food wrap; refrigerate until firm (2 to 3 hours).

Heat oven to 400°F. Working with half of each dough color (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), drop tablespoon-size pieces of dough from each color onto a lightly floured surface in a random pattern with dough pieces touching. Roll out dough to 1/4- to 1/8-inch thickness, forming a marbled design. Cut with 3-inch leaf-shaped cookie cutters.

Place cookies, 1 inch apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire cooling rack
 
 

The original recipe calls for almond extract and sanding sugar.  I subbed lemon since that is Miss V's favorite and she isn't a fan of sanding sugar so I skipped them.

Top Ten Tuesday

 

This is my first time doing a Top Ten Tuesday, hopefully I can find ten foodie things to put on my list.

01.  Need to figure out what to do with the leftover chicken for dinner.  The last couple times we had roast chicken I made a pot pie with the left overs and I don't want to do that every week.

02.  Need to figure out what fun foods to serve at Miss V's Halloween party this weekend.  Going to be a bit more difficult since fridge space is very limited.  Our kitchen fridge died yesterday and we moved the garage fridge into the kitchen.  It is a much smaller fridge, but at least we have one!

03.  I found the perfect Frankenstein cupcakes to make and Miss V loves them.

04.  Need to hit the grocery store tomorrow, I am making desserts for Miss V's Harvest Party at school.

05.  I am going to make Pumpkin Crunch Parfaits for Miss V's class party.

06.  I think I might make some cookies too for her party.

07.  Need to find a good gruesome drink for Miss V's Halloween party, have any ideas???

08.  Must take a picture of the Chocolate Banana bread that just came out of the oven when it cools off.

09.  I also need to make a menu plan for the rest of the week.

10.  I have some left over pumpkin that needs to be baked into some yummy treats, off to scour the internet.

Corn Salsa

I also made this corn salsa for our Deadwood party.  It too was very yummy.

2 cups fresh corn kernels (or frozen kernels, thawed)
4 oz. can green chilies
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely minced
½ green bell pepper, seeded and diced
¼ cup green onions, chopped w/tops
2 TBS White Vinegar
1 TBS Vegetable Oil
¼ tsp. kosher salt
Mix all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.  Serve with tortilla chips.

Black Bean Salsa

I made this on Saturday for our Murder at the Deadwood Saloon.  It was incredibly yummy.

2 cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
16 oz frozen corn, thawed and drained
2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 medium red onion, diced
3 TBS chopped fresh Cilantro
3 TBS Lime Juice
1 TBS Red Wine Vinegar
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
2 TBS Olive Oil
Sprigs of fresh Cilantro

Combine black beans, corn, tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil in a large bowl and mix well. Chill covered for 1 hr. before serving. Garnish with cilantro sprigs. Yields 6 cups.  Serve with tortilla chips.

Deadwood Tea

This is what we served last night at our Murder at the Deadwood Saloon party.  We found the recipe on a display at a liquor store.

1 part Mailbu Passion Fruit
2 parts iced tea
1 part lemon lime soda

Serve over ice in a tall glass. Garnish with lime

We still have some Passionfruit syrup left over from our Mardi Gras Party so we subbed white rum and added some of the syrup. 

Pumpkin Patch Pancakes

Victoria was looking through her favorite cookbook last night. She wanted to make Pumpkin Patch Pancakes in the morning. Of course this morning she ready to make her pancakes. She read the ingredients as I pulled them from the cabinet, pantry and fridge. We didn't make the Yogurt Cream that goes with this recipe. I didn't have any vanilla yogurt so Victoria just ate them with syrup.

Ingredients
2 apples (I used one granny smith)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbs brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup of fat free milk (I used whole)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 tbs canola oil

1. Make the yogurt cream. Save until step 8. Put the apples on the cutting board with stem sides up. Use the sharp knife to cut each apple into quarters. Cut the core out of each apple quarter and throw away the cores. Cut the apples into 1/2 inch sticks. Save until step 6.

2. Put the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt into a medium bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon to mix.

3. Crack the egg into a small bowl. Beat with a whisk until yolk and white are mixed. Add the milk, pumpkin, and oil to the egg. Beat with a whisk until ingredients are well mixed.
4. Add egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until dry ingredients are wet. The batter should be somewhat lumpy.

5. Lightly coat a nonstick griddle or heavy skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Put the griddle or skillet on a burner. Turn heat to medium and let griddle get hot.

6. For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the hot griddle and use a rubber scraper to spread the batter into a 4 inch circle. Put one apple stick in the circle of batter so that the apple stick goes over the edge of the pancake. This will be the pumpkins stem. Cook over medium heat until pancakes have a slightly bubbly surface and the edges re slightly dry, about 2 minutes.

7. Turn the pancakes over with a pancake turner. Cook until bottoms are golden brown, about 2 more minutes. Remove pancakes from the griddle and put on the serving plate. Cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat until all the batter is used. Turn off burner. Remove griddle or skillet from the burner.

8. Serve warm pancakes with yogurt cream and any left over apple sticks.

Yogurt Cream: Put on 6 - 8 oz carton of vanilla low fat yogurt and 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice into a small bowl. Stir with spoon to mix. Makes about 2/3 cup.

Aren't they cute??

Victoria gave them a two thumbs up for taste and said she would make and eat them again!

This was also posted on her blog and copied here.  For her own protection, I did remove the pictures with her in them.

Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Rolls

I wanted something fallish breakfast and something of a treat. I found this recipe on the King Arthur Flour site.

Dough

1 cup canned pumpkin or squash
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup lukewarm water*
1/4 cup soft butter
2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 3/4 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 cup Baker's Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, optional
3 tablespoons brown sugar, light or dark
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast

*Adjust the amount of water by the time of year or your climate. For summer, or in a humid enivronment, use the lesser amount of water. In winter, or in a dry climate, use the greater amount. It's always best to start with the lesser amount; you can

Filling

3/4 cup Baker's Cinnamon Filling*
3 tablespoons water

1/2 cup minced crystallized ginger, raisins, or dried cranberries, optional

*Substitute 3/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon for the Baker's Cinnamon Filling and water, if desired. If you use sugar and cinnamon, DO NOT ADD THE WATER.

Glaze
1 cup glazing or confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 tablespoons milk, or enough to make a "drizzlable" glaze

Dough

Directions
Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients together — by hand, mixer, or bread machine — until you've made a soft, fairly smooth dough.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise for 1 1/2 hours, until it's almost doubled in bulk.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased surface. Roll it into a 14" x 22" rectangle; the dough will be thin.

Mix the cinnamon filling and water. Spread a thin layer over the dough, leaving one short edge free of filling.

Sprinkle with crystallized ginger or dried fruit (or both), if desired. (I skipped  this part of the filling)

Starting with the short end that's covered with filling, roll the dough into a log.

Cut the log into nine 1 ½"-thick rolls.

Place the rolls into a lightly greased 9" x 9" pan that's at least 2" deep. Set aside, covered, to rise for 1 hour, or until the rolls look puffy.

Bake the rolls in a preheated 375°F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until they're lightly browned and feel set. Remove them from the oven, and set them on a rack. Turn them out of the pan, and allow them to cool for about 15 minutes. Towards the end of the cooling time, make the glaze.

To make the glaze: Heat the butter and milk together till the butter melts. Whisk into the sugar.

Drizzle the warm rolls with the warm glaze. Sprinkle with chopped nuts, if desired.

Yield: 9 rolls.

I ended up by cutting mine smaller into 12 rolls instead. 

Pumpkin Scones

I had about 1/2 a cup left over canned pumpkin from making the cinnamon rolls.  So I went in search of another breakfast item that I could make.  I settled on Pumpkin Scones and they are from that "other" coffee shop, the one that I will not go to, because...well I am a Dunkie's kind of gal.  Anyway I made these, but they were way to sticky.

2 cups all-purpose flour (I had to knead in about 1/2 to 3/4 cup more flour)
7 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (use fresh please...)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3 tablespoons half-and-half (didn't have any so I used light cream)
1 large egg

Powderered Sugar Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk

Spiced Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (again..use fresh please)
1 pinch ginger
1 pinch ground cloves

TO MAKE THE SCONES:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly spray a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a food processor, pulse butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball.

Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet. (These a HUGE and I really should have cut them smaller, no wonder people have portion distortion)

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

TO MAKE THE PLAIN GLAZE:

Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk together until smooth.

When scones are cool, use the back of a spoon to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone.

As the white glaze dries, make your spiced glaze:

Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A ziplock bag works great for this.  I mixed it right in the bag until smooth then snipped off a corner.

I must say the scones are HUGE!!! I should have cut them even smaller.

Candy Corn Cookies

So this morning on my Facebook News Feed this recipe popped up from FoodBlogs.  I knew I had to make some TODAY!  They are so cute!!!  I did have to change a couple things from the original recipe.  I did not have orange juice or zest.  So I subbed clear vanilla extract and lemon extract since that is a favorite flavor of Miss V's.

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp clear vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
orange gel food coloring
lemon yellow gel food coloring

Sanding Sugar

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and extracts. Mix well. Sift together flour, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl.  Add to they wet ingredients.

Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Add orange food coloring to the first part and blend well.

Add the lemon yellow food coloring to the second part and thoroughly blend. Use plenty of food color gel.  You want to have nice bright colors.  They do fade a bit in the baking process.  Leave the third part plain.

Line a loaf pan with parchment paper. (I ran out of parchment and had to use plastic wrap.  It is a bit harder to get out.)  My glass loaf pan is 8.5 inches.  Press the yellow dough evenly onto the bottom of the pan. Then you will press the orange dough evenly over the yellow dough, and press the plain dough on top. Wrap the parchment paper over the dough and refrigerate for a few hours.  I made the dough around 9:30ish.  And baked them at 4:00 pm.

Preheat your oven to 375.

When you are ready to slice and bake the cookies.  Remove the dough from the loaf pan and remove plastic wrap or parchment.  With a sharp knife cut the dough into 1/4 inch slices.  Then cut into triangles.  Then put onto an ungreased baking sheet.  Miss V then sprinkled the sanding sugar on the cookies.

Bake cookies for approximately 8 minutes, be very careful no to over bake them.

Blogger is having an issue uploading pictures, so I needed to upload them to photobucket.  Hopefully you can still view them.

Chicken & Corn Chowder (or as I say with my New England accent, Chowda)

I had some chicken that needed to be cooked up and really didn't know what to do. Since it has been feeling fallish I figured on a soup. I just came up with this recipe based on other soups that are here there and everywhere on my blog.

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast cut into 1 inch pieces
Salt and pepper
4 cups chicken stock
4 Tbs unsalted butter
1/4 cup of all purpose flour
1 can condensed cream of potato soup
3/4 cup onion chopped
4 large baking potatoes peeled and diced
2 cups frozen whole kernel corn
1 tsp thyme
1 cup half and half or milk

Season the chicken with the salt, pepper and thyme. Brown in a skillet then place in a warmed crock pot. Make a roux with 4 tbs butter and flour. Add 2 cups of stock and whisk until smooth.

Pour the cream of potato soup over the chicken, add the potatoes and onions.

Pour your skillet gravy into the crock pot and add the rest of the stock. Stir until well mixed. Taste to check your seasonings. You may add a bit more salt, pepper and thyme.

Cover and cook on low for 5 hours or until chicken is no longer pink in the center.

Add the frozen corn and cook on low for one more hour.

Stir in half and half or milk turn to high, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

Ground Beef Pot Pie

Yum this is what I made for dinner.  It also comes from the Pillsbury Pot Pies and Casseroles magazine.

Crust

1 box Pillsbury® refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

Filling

1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

3 tablespoons cornstarch

3 cups frozen southern-style diced hash brown potatoes (from 32-oz bag), thawed

3 medium carrots, sliced (1 1/2 cups)

1 jar (12 oz) beef gravy

Heat oven to 450°F. Make pie crusts as directed on box for Two-Crust Pie, using 9-inch glass pie plate. In 12-inch skillet, cook beef, onion, garlic salt and pepper over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain.

Stir cornstarch into beef mixture until mixed. Stir in potatoes, carrots and gravy. Cook 5 to 6 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until hot. Spoon into crust-lined pie plate. Top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust; cover edge of crust with foil.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

October Food Holidays

Can you believe it is October 1st already?   Lets just see what food we can celebrate this month.

Eat Country Ham Month

Fair Trade Month
National Apple Month
National Applejack Month
National Caramel Month
National Chili Month
National Cookie Month
National Dessert Month
National Pasta Month

National Pickled Peppers Month
National Pizza Festival Month
National Popcorn Poppin’ Month
National Pork Month
National Pretzel Month
National Seafood Month
Vegetarian Awareness Month

October 1: World Vegetarian Day

October 1: Pudding Season Begins
October 1: Homemade Cookies Day
October 2: National Fried Scallops Day
October 3: National Caramel Custard Day
October 4: National Taco Day
October 4: National Vodka Day
October 5: National Apple Betty Day
October 6: National Noodle Day
October 7: National Frappe Day
October 8: National Fluffernutter Day
October 9: Moldy Cheese Day (we presume they mean blue cheese mold)

October 9: Submarine-Hoagy-Hero-Grinder Day
October 10: National Angel Food Cake Day
October 11: National Sausage Pizza Day
October 12: National Gumbo Day
October 13: National Yorkshire Pudding Day
October 14: National Chocolate-Covered Insects Day
October 15: National Chicken Cacciatore Day
October 15: National Roast Pheasant Day
October 16: World Food Day
October 16: National Liqueur Day
October 17: National Pasta Day
October 17: Four Prunes Day
October 18: National Chocolate Cupcake Day
October 19: National Seafood Bisque Day
October 20: National Brandied Fruit Day
October 21: National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day
October 21: Caramel Apple Day

October 22: National Nut Day
October 23: National Boston Cream Pie Day
October 23: National Canning Day
October 24: National Bologna Day
October 24: Good and Plenty Day
October 25: National Greasy Foods Day
October 26: Pumpkin Day
October 26: Pretzel Day
October 26: Mince Meat Pie Day
October 27: National Potato Day
October 27: American Beer Day
October 28: National Chocolate Day
October 29: National Oatmeal Day

October 30: National Candy Corn Day
October 30: Buy a Doughnut Day
October 31: National Candy Apple Day
October 31: Trick or Treat for UNICEF Day

So what are YOU going to celebrate this month?