Thanksgiving

On my drive home for Thanksgiving break, my sister sent me a picture message of this:

Oh yes, Linda's cookies.  My mom's friend Linda bakes these pretty Christmas cookies every year around the holidays, and this year they came eeeearly!

I arrived home on Thanksgiving Eve to a kitchen full of family and Thanksgiving food.  They were getting a head start on the mashed potatoes and some of the other foods.  Smart thinking.  And of course, Darla was there sitting under everyone's feet the whole time, in case a morsel of food were to drop.

Here she is, at her scruffiest, doing the one-legger.

On Thanksgiving day, the cooking continued, and I was there to help.

My uncle and cousin arrived from VA with their dog, Sailor.

When it was time to carve the turkey, there was a lot of laughter.  I'm still not exactly sure what was so funny, but my dad and his brother could not contain themselves. 

My dad's brother helping him out:

And then the brotherly laughing continued with my brother...

And the laughs continued throughout the night.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the food...... I don't know what happened.  But picture it:  A beautiful turkey and ham drizzled with honey mustard, stuffing, fresh green beans tossed with hazelnuts, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes drizzled with maple syrup and cinnamon, fluffy white mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie & whipped cream, warm apple cobbler...

And after Thanksgiving, when I returned to my apartment in Wilmington, my roommates and I set up a Christmas Tree.  Check it out.

It adds warmth and joy to the apartment!

Friendsgiving

Today was a great day:  My roommate's birthday AND the day of our Friendsgiving feast.

Eleven friends gathered together and each brought something for the feast.  Fall-scented candles burned while Christmas music played, and we all gathered and cooked together in the kitchen!

My dish, an appetizer: Gingersnap crostini topped with cream cheese and cranberry sauce.  Inspired by my coworker's November issue of Food Network Magazine.

Simple Cranberry Sauce
-1 cup water
-1 cup sugar
-4 cups fresh cranberries
Optional: Orange zest, cinnamon

First, bring the cup of water and the cup of sugar to a boil, then add in the cranberries.  They will start to burst right away, so watch out!  They'll getchya!

Reduce heat and gently boil for 10 minutes.

Beautiful jewels on the stove!  Bursting with antioxidants... literally.

Remove from heat and let cool.

Slice bread into appetizer-sized slices and toast in the oven, middle rack, at 350 degrees.  After 7 minutes, flip each slice of toast, and toast the other sides for another 7 minutes.  

Remove from oven and spread with cream cheese.  Top with cranberry sauce.

Not only beautiful to look at, but sooo good to eat!

Now, take a gander at some of the other goods...

Below, Sarah's cheesecake:  Pumpkin marbled cheesecake with gingersnap crust.  So gourmet... she did an awesome job.

Below, Chelsea's sweet potatoes with a brown sugar reduction sauce, pecans, and toasty warm marshmallows:

 

Apple cider with cinnamon sticks, heating on the stove:

The entire feast, complete with green bean casserole, freshly whipped mashed potatoes, creamy corn, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, fruit salad, and sweet potatoes:

It was a wonderful day being together with friends who felt like family.  We followed the feast with the movie Elf...

Above, Devin and his dog Murphy enjoying the movie and letting their food digest.

Chunky Applesauce

On my long days at school, when I have to be there all day, I always bring chopped up apples sprinkled with cinnamon and a little sea salt along with my lunch.  My classmate tried them once, and then she got hooked.  Now she, too, brings them with her lunches on our long days.

She and her family often visit an apple orchard in Flat Rock, NC called Sky Top Orchard.  The last time she went, she offered to bring me back a bushel, and of course I accepted!  This bushel (not actually a bushel, it was "1/2 peck"... a bushel of apples weighs 42 pounds) contained at least 15 little Pink Lady apples.

Of course I enjoyed some of these little apples sprinkled with cinnamon and sea salt.  But yesterday, the idea came to me to turn some of them into applesauce.  So I did, and oh my is it delicious.

I chopped up 6 or 7 of the apples, leaving the peels on a few of them.  I wanted to include some of the peels because that's the part with all the fiber and antioxidants!

Then, I called my mom and asked her how to make applesauce.  She said to just fill the pot with enough water to cover the top of the apple chunks, bring to a boil, simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.  Then mash.

As it simmered, I sprinkled with cinnamon.

Did some mashing with a wooden spoon.

Turns out, the bites with pieces of apple peel in them are the BEST bites of the batch.  So I would have totally left all the peels in if I had known this would be so.

 

Homemade Chunky Applesauce

-Apples

-Water

-Optional: Cinnamon

Chop up as many apples as you want.  If you like chunky applesauce, leave the peels on.  If you like smooth applesauce, peel the apples first and use no peels. Put the apple chunks in a pot.  Add water, enough to cover the top of the apples. Bring to a boil, uncovered.  Reduce to a simmer and cover.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  Then mash.  Your final product will be so sweet and delicious!

Homemade Pizza

My roommate and I have quite opposing schedules nowadays, so to celebrate a Wednesday night that we both had free, we made homemade pizza together.

We used the simple, quick, homemade pizza crust recipe from this blog, Yes I Want Cake.

Homemade Pizza Crust 

(makes 2 personal pizzas)

-1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 cup lukewarm water
-1 tablespoon yeast
-1 teaspoon salt
-2 tablespoons vegetable oil

For my pizza toppings, I used red onion, mushrooms, and basil, and my roomie used red onion and turkey pepperoni.

So first, combine the yeast and warm water til the yeast is dissolved, then add the vegetable oil and salt.  Mix.  Then add the flour.  Mix.  Now you have an awesome dough which you can attempt to spread out into a crust.  I was not so good at this, hence my oddly shaped crust in the upcoming photos.

Put the crust in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 mins.  Take it out, and add your toppings.

Olive oil
(That would be Chelsea's nicely shaped rectangular crust)

Pizza sauce & Four Cheese Italian Blend

Turkey pepperoni

Red onion, basil, mushrooms dabbed with olive oil

Put it back in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

Take it out of the oven and serve!  Here you can see my uniquely shaped pizza.

Enjoy!  And feel impressed with yourself that you just made an entire pizza from scratch.

Butternut Squash Black Bean Pilaf

On Saturday night, I went out to dinner with a couple of my coworkers to a fantastic little Latin American restaurant called San Juan Cafe.  I ordered a mofongo (a plantain-based dish from Puerto Rico) filled with portabella mushrooms, zucchini, and yellow squash grilled to perfection, served with Cuban black beans and sweet potatoes.  I was so impressed and so excited to have experienced a new exotic dish!

Anyway, since this meal, I have wanted to bring black beans back into my cooking.  Hence the following recipe of my black bean butternut squash pilaf!

When I say recipe, do I mean bowl of ingredients thrown together and warmed up?  Yes!

First the black beans.

Then, the roasted butternut squash and some bulgur wheat.

Season with salt and pepper.  I could have stopped there, but of course I added some cinnamon glazed roasted garbanzo beans...

And then to top it all off, I added chunks of crisp granny smith apple which made it amazing.

The tartness and crunchiness of the granny smith contrasts with the warm, autumn pilaf so well.

And for dessert... A banana milk shake.

Pretty much the exact same thing as the banana ice cream, but with more almond milk!

First you take your almond milk (regular milk will do just fine, but the almond milk gives it a sweeter flavor) and your frozen bananas.

Pour some milk into the blender (a cup or two, depending on how big you want your milkshake to be) and toss those frozen banana chunks in with it.

Blend away until frothy.

Autumn Salads

This post is dedicated to autumn salads!

The first is a warm salad; very simple to compose.  

 First, I used the cinnamon glazed roasted garbanzo beans from this post, and I combined them with roasted butternut squash.

 To roast the butternut squash, you can buy a butternut squash still in tact, or a pre-cut one like I did.  Cut the squash into uniform sized pieces, and then you can toss in a bowl with canola oil, or coconut oil, and salt if you like, and spread out onto a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick spray.

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until the squash is soft.  You can see in the above photo my squash and garbanzos were sharing the oven shelf.

Put the two together, and you've created something amazing.  Feel free to sprinkle with more cinnamon.

The next salad is a slightly different version of one I've made before.  This one included...

-Kale
-Shredded carrots
-Honey Crisp apple
-Dried figs
-Chopped pecans
-Cinnamon glazed roasted garbanzo beans (I use these with everything)
-Balsamic vinegar
-Agave
 -Drizzle of Trader Joe's Feta salad dressing

Now that is a scrumptious salad.  Kale is rich in nutrients, but it's a little bitter to eat raw, so drizzling it with agave or honey is a great option.  You can also steam it before hand.

The third salad is one created by my mom.  She is known for making really impressive "side" salads at dinner that you feel like could be found as a main course salad at a restaurant.  And she just throws them together with no thought.

 Mom's Rand-o Salad 
-Romaine
-Kale
-Baby spinach
-Those.. baby orange things.. what are they called?
-Shredded beats
-Slivered almonds
-Poppy seed dressing

The best part about this salad was the beets.  They naturally stain the salad a beautiful dark pink color when you mix it all up, making it even prettier.

And before I close, I want to show what my sister Jessie brought me home from her trip to Asheville, NC.

A cute little jar of homemade pumpkin butter!  I have been using it in my pumpkin oatmeal.  Love it.