Week 19: Ready for Thanksgiving

Recipes to Go: 507 324

Weeks to Go: 52 33

Recipes Made This Week

Cowboy Beef Dip

Bavarian Pork Loin

Fiesta Chicken Chowder

No-Bones Chicken Wing Dip

Savory Pumpkin Ravioli

Rustic Autumn Fruit Tart

Fruit-Nut Pumpkin Bread

Mexicorn Grits

The Cowboy Beef Dip was very good and very spicy. We had a bit of an adventure trying to find mexicorn, luckily I have the internet on my phone, so I could Google image search for it in the store and find the equivalent store brand. Handy, since I needed it not only for this recipe, but for the Mexicorn Grits on Saturday. While this was fine as a main dish, but I probably should have made something else, because I think it makes a much better side dish.

I needed to use the rest of the sauerkraut in my fridge, so I made the Bavarian Pork Loin. The pork was nothing spectacular, in fact, it was a little dry, but the rest of the stuff in the slow cooker was amazing.

The apples, especially. I couldn't get G to eat them, though. He wouldn't believe that they were apples. I think it took all week to get him to try them, then he loved them as much as we did.

The Fiesta Chicken Chowder was good, a fairly typical southwest soup. But it gave me the opportunity to use the rest of my brown rice. I don't normally buy brown rice, being a jasmine rice eater myself, so it was nice to not have leftovers.

I don't normally think to add rice to my soups, maybe this will help me remember. This soup was very spicy, which means G really liked it. It stored really well in the fridge, except for the chicken, which got a little chewy, sadly.

The No-Bones Chicken Wing Dip was good, but again, I should have made something else, too. While G was happy to eat nothing but condiments and a little chicken, I missed something else to eat. And I found out that Johnny doesn't like blue cheese, which was a big flavor aspect of the dip.

So, I finally found a baking pumpkin, and again, I was supposed to peel and cube it. Well, after pretty much the same routine--cooking it, only to puree it, I will next time just cook it in the oven. So this was the first time I've ever made my own pasta. I was really worried since I don't have any pasta making equipment or attachments for my Kitchenaid. But the dough was really easy to work with and really easy to roll out. Overall, I was quite impressed with myself. Although, the stuffing needed a little more salt, and I overcooked the pasta a little. Also, because it looked different, I couldn't get G to try it.

The Rustic Fruit Tart was divine. It really did taste autumny with apples and pears and pumpkin pie spices.

The dough had cream cheese in it, so you know that was good. It turned out beautifully. And because no one came to Game Night again, we got to enjoy it all.

Saturday morning we made Fruit-Nut Pumpkin Bread . . . without the nuts. It was delicious, but one loaf fell, and the other loaf fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan.

We still enjoyed it for breakfast all week long. I will definitely try this one again. The crust was so nice.

For dinner that night, I made the Mexicorn Grits. I've never tried grits before.

They were a lot like cous-cous. G really liked them. Other then the excessive butter used (I will more than half that next time) it was delicious, and was possible better as leftovers.

The best thing was that I got to make all of this and still make the stuff for a hugely successful Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast.

Week 18: Squashed

Recipes to Go: 507 332

Weeks to Go: 52 34

Recipes Made This Week

Southwestern Turkey Soup

Butternut Turkey Bake

Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

The Squash Court

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

Spiced Pumpkin Mousse

Chocolate Pinwheels

Ham on Biscuits

This week, I decided it was time to try some squash since squash season is almost over and it would be hard to get a hold of them later on. This ended up being a good decision. Butternut squash was what we ended up needing and I had never worked with it before. I was familiar with it from watching Veggie Tales, but that didn't tell me how it would taste or how easy it would be to work with.

Before I got to find out, we made Southwestern Turkey Soup for Sunday dinner. I used chicken instead of turkey, which didn't effect things too much. It was still a southwestern soup.

I had to use chicken again instead of turkey for the Butternut Turkey Bake. However, this time no one knew because it was so delicious.

The butternut squash was just like a pumpkin--it was hard to cut open and took an hour of baking in the oven to soften up. But this tasted a lot like Thanksgiving and we argued over who got to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Okay, I feel a little silly that I've never thought of twice-baked sweet potatoes before. I love sweet potatoes and I love twice-baked potatoes, and it's not a far leap to make. It was remarkable. So delicious. Basically the same recipe--bacon, cheese, butter, spices--but the sweet potatoes were so good, and the skins caramalized and might have been the best part.

The Squash Court was butternut squash creamy soup. The recipe called for me to peel and cube the squash, then cook it and puree it. That was a little too much work. Next time, I'll just stick it in the oven for 40 minutes and soften it, then scoop it into the blender after softening the rest of the ingredients I don't often make creamy soups, but with some saltine crackers, everyone agreed it was delicious.

I was planning on making pumpkin ravioli this week, but I couldn't find baking pumpkins anywhere, not even for ready money. So I made chicken fettuccine alfredo instead. Only, I didn't have fettuccini, so I just used penne instead.

This was delicious and really easy, especially if you have chicken ready. I think I might have to start doing that, baking chicken, cubing and freezing it. This was a great recipe because it was a little spicy since there was chili flakes in the sauce. It definitely made it stand out among the pasta recipes.

Somewhere in the week, I made Pumpkin Mousse. It was tasty, but made way too much when I was already too full from tasty dinners. It seems like a light dessert, but it is really rich, and this is why it took over a week to eat just half of it. I did love the pumpkin flavor, though.

For Friday Game night, I made Chocolate Pinwheel cookies. Johnny thought they were delicious, and I have to agree. I was expecting them to be much more complicated and difficult then they were. Yes, they were a bit of work, but worth it.

We didn't have anyone for game night, which wasn't a surprise since we had to get up at 4 in the morning to take a youth temple trip to DC on Saturday. Since this was going to interfere with making breakfast, I made it Friday night and packed it up to eat on the road. I made Ham on Biscuits. My biscuits didn't rise as much as I hoped, but that was because I have to leave the dough at a crucial stage to go pick Johnny up from work. We've had a bit of car trouble lately that has complicated things. Be that as it may, they were still delicious.

I also made the pumpkin scones again because everyone loved them so much. And they were very good, only a little doughy this time.

Cat Friend

In the current struggle to catch up on my goal-related postings, I thought I'd take a mental break to bring you late news. Those who caught it on Facebook will know that we had a cat adopt us for a few days. I have rarely seen G as happy.

He wanted to spend every moment outside with the kitty and to bring it in the house, which I staunchly refused.

On approach

Sniff

Everything seems okay

Let the torture begin

Kittys are definitely favorites of G at the moment. He will hunt down and pick up any cat he can get a hold of.

And any cat willing to let him do this is clearly attention-starved. But thanks to this adopted cat, G learned to say "meow" or some one-syllable version.

Sadly though for G, we have no plans to get another pet any time soon. Because we will likely be traveling and moving frequently in the next 10 years or so, it just doesn't seem practical. Plus, this is what happened last time . . .

Week 17: We vote yes!

Recipes to Go: 507 340

Weeks to Go: 52 35

Recipes Made this Week
Tomato Bacon Pie

Broccoli with Mustard Sauce

Candidate's Choice Short Ribs

Roasted Onion Salad

Voter's Favorite Float

Election Day Cookies

Bean and Pork Chop Bake

Old-Fashioned Dressing

Pot Roast with Gravy

Classic Carrot Cake

Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter

You'll have to forgive me for the lack of pictures this week. Apparently I gave up half-way through. Which, quite frankly, surprises me since every time I sit down to eat now I think, "I need to take a picture of this".

Anyway, I made the bacon pie on Sunday. It was good, but I've been having trouble recently getting my bacon to cook evenly.

When I put bacon in things, I don't want the fatty bits to be too chewy, but the meaty bits get perfect before the fatty bits do, so I had a bit of a rubbery problem in a few of my bites of this pie. That, and the greasiness of the leftovers aside, it was delicious. Johnny would, of course, argue with everything I'm saying, I'm sure, and claim it was heavenly. But that's just because the main ingredient is bacon. And he loves everything to do with bacon on principle.

To go with the bacon I made broccoli with mustard sauce. Johnny said when he tasted it, "this is exactly how I hoped it would taste." Apparently he had broccoli just like it at a fancy restaurant once and loved it. The rest of the family agreed. G loved the sauce as all toddlers do with condiments. I'm pretty sure condiments are his favorite food.

Tuesday was Election Day. I hope everyone remembered to vote. I didn't get registered in VA in time, so I could not.

And just to rub it in, we did an election themed dinner featuring short ribs, floats and cookies.

The ribs were excellent. They took very little effort and were divine.

The salad to go with everything was good because it was based in roasted onions. I love roasted onions.

And the dressing to go with it had chili flakes in it so it had a nice kick.

I think next time I won't use a bagged

salad, though, because the radishes were just a bit much.

Why has it taken me so long to hear about this float? Seriously the easiest thing I've made, and you know I've made some easy stuff. Three ingredients: vanilla ice cream (had that leftover in the freezer), apple juice--just plan old simple breakfast drink apple juice, and a sprinkling of nutmeg on top. No carbonation, (which made me love it more) and yet so good. And apple juice is dirt cheap most of the time. I'm pretty sure I know what our leftover ice cream making experiments will be going to in the future . . .

Now, to be honest, we still hadn't finished all the gingerbread cookies from Halloween, but I really wanted to make the election day cookies. So I only made half the recipe. And it was the best-tasting sugar cookie dough I've had in awhile. I didn't frost them, and they were still delicious, and we cut them out in elephant, donkey (well, horse, but who can tell?), and the continental U.S. shapes. And it only took 2 days for them to disappear. What can I say, I am a cookie monster at heart.

Remember how I said that I wasn't sure if I like pork chops? Well I adored everything about this recipe. The chops were amazing, and the beans were even better. That was because they had maple flavoring and apples in them, which though not traditional in baked beans were a wonderful flavor additive. It didn't even take too much effort to make. I guess this means I will have to start buying cans of baked beans since that's what made it so easy. If all pork chops tasted like this I wouldn't have trouble figuring out if I liked them.

The Old Fashioned Dressing . . . okay I'm normally not a fan of dressing. I think Stove Top is my least favorite part about Thanksgiving, which is my favorite holiday. And there's little I don't love about it, so that says a lot. I looked long and hard for a stuffing recipe I could stand behind for my Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast. And I found one that I want all the leftovers of. But this dressing was also delicious. And because it's made in the slow cooker, it was even better. I did use the leftover corn bread I had lying around, so that added to its yumminess. But I will make this again this winter. And it gave me the idea to use my slow cooker for my Feast to make life a little less stressful.

The pot roast was good. But then, when is a pot roast not? The only thing I will do differently next time is add carrots and potatoes to the pot. I had every intension of doing this, but just forgot when it came time to put things together. There was a lot of vinegar in the sauce for this, so it had a unique flavor that everyone seemed to enjoy. And there was plenty of gravy.

The classic carrot cake was great! I only used 3/4 the cream cheese to make the frosting and it was still the most delicious cream cheese frosting I've ever tasted. And the cake stayed moist for a week. Well, okay, it probably would have stayed moist for a week, but it didn't make it that long, of course. We only had a few to game night and I sent them home with cake. I wanted to give them half, but Johnny convinced me not to, and I must say when I ate it for breakfast all week, I was grateful.

Last recipe of the week was the Pumpkin Scones with Berry Butter. First of all, the butter. Cranberries, which I love, butter, and powdered sugar. Good idea. The scones themselves were perfect. Big, moist but not too much, wonderful flavor. I've already made them again, and because they take only 1/2 cup pumpkin, I can make batches all winter. And I plan to because G, Johnny, and me couldn't get enough.

So, this week the votes were in and pretty much everything got at least two thumbs up. We were all spoiled with delicious food, and with Thanksgiving coming up soon, let's hope it continues.