Thanksgiving Planning: Pumpkin Trifle

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  It is not because I want to celebrate any of the things this holiday is known for, I don't even like turkey, and I am certainly not over the moon about the European domination of the western world.  No, it is all about the food. 

I love cooking and eating  a lavish Thanksgiving dinner.  I start planning moments after Halloween (which, by the way, is my FAVORITE holiday and requires me to clean up my spooky decorating for days after the fact, something I am doing today while I plot Thanksgiving) and it is all about what I am going to eat.  I usually try to find some new delicious recipe to make alongside my standards, but I rarely give myself the chance to test them before I make them on the actual holiday.  Silly, I know.  But, this year will be different! (she says with equal parts hope and sarcasm).  Well today I tried out a trifle recipe I dreamed up.  It is delicious AND adorable so I feel like it is a smashing success!  Oh, and it is super easy so you can focus on making the perfect turkey.

Easy Pumpkin Trifle:
1 can pumpkin (29 oz)
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1 box Vanilla flavored instant pudding mix
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (to taste)
1 bag of Pepperidge Farm "Gingerman" cookies (or similar product)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
whipped cream to garnish

Simply mix the first four ingredients together with a whisk.  Line a trifle dish with cookies (you can stand them up along the sides and use any broken ones to line the bottom) reserve a couple cookies to garnish the top.  Pour pudding into trifle dish, being careful not to disturb the cookies.  Sprinkle top with cranberries.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1/2 hour, can be chilled up to 4 hours, but cookies will eventually become soggy.  Top with whipped cream and reserved cookies when you are ready to serve.

Amazing Green Salad

So, as usual I don't have an actual "recipe" for you, just a suggestion.  I have a new favorite salad, it is delicious, and crunchy, and beautiful to boot!  It requires very fresh iceberg lettuce, English cucumber slices, fresh green peas (mine are straight from the garden), sliced green onion, and fresh organic nasturtium blossoms.  Assemble salad, top with ranch (no, really, USE ranch dressing, trust me) and add some fresh cracked pepper.  Serve immediately, and prepare to be amazed.  This is so crunchy and refreshing, with just a hint of floral when you go in to bite it, and then you get hit with the subtle spice of the flowers and onions and the sweetness of the peas...  I literally couldn't talk to my dinner "date" until I was done eating this salad.

Buff Chick Pizza

I have been holding onto this one for a week, things have just been so busy!  But here is a recipe for the Buffalo wing lovers.

Buff Chick Pizza requires: your favorite pizza dough, pizza sauce, 1 1/2 cups grated jack cheese, 20+ chicken nuggets, Frank's Red Hot Sauce or similar, 1/4 cup sliced green onions, 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles.  Prepare your dough, while it rises bake the chicken nuggets according to package directions, set adside.  Adjust oven temp and prebake crust 4-5 minutes at 425 degrees.  Toss chicken with hot sauce to coat, add more or less to suit your own tastes.  Layer sauce, jack cheese, chicken, green onions and blue cheese on crust and cook for 12-15 minutes, or until cheese is lightly browned.  Serve with celery sticks and beer.  Cheers!

Another "Recipe" and Embroidery Progress

Tonight I made the most divine chili and cornbread.  Chili is one of the best ways to use up random pantry items in a tasty, economical supper.  I always make my chili a little bit different, it depends what I have on hand, but there are a few things it MUST contain.  First you need a good chili seasoning, I personally like to keep Carroll Shelby's Chili Kit in the pantry at all times, it tastes great and comes with the seasonings, masa flour, salt, and chili powder packaged individually so you can play with your proportions.  I am a meat eater, so I need a beast in my chili.  I've tried ground beef, turkey, chicken, sausages, and bacon.  And finally there must be some good veg in there to balance things out, I've put just about any vegetable you can think of in chili at some point, but I really like peppers, corn, onions, and beans, I just mix them up with whatever else I have around and omit what I don't. 

So the "recipe" part: Tonight I used chorizo, quinoa, chocolate, flax, green bell pepper, onion, canned tomatoes with green chiles, and kale.  Have I mentioned I am from California?  This was an amazing combination!  It was similar to a molé sauce (I added some sugar to make it nice and sweet) with a complex smoky flavor because I got distracted by the spring rain when I went outside to pick the kale and burned the chorizo a bit...  ahem.  I also made a kellerweiss hefeweizen cornbread (just substitute the beer for milk in Jiffy cornbread).  This was so tasty I don't know if I will ever make normal cornbread again.  Gotta love the folks over at Sierra Nevada for making this spicy gem of a beer (thank you Scott your beer is delicious).  I mixed up a double batch of this bread and baked it at 325 for 30 minutes in a loaf pan covered in foil, then I removed the foil and cooked it at 350 for 15 more minutes.  Unfortunately this wasn't quite enough, it was perfectly golden around the edges but still moist in the center.  Luckily there is a great trick for this- just take the bread out of the loaf pan and microwave it for one minute.  It will cook the center without the risk of burnt edges you get with the conventional oven.

Okay, enough about dinner let's see the embroidery progress

Tada! Now I'm off to bed, good night.

Yummy Treats for Rainy Days

I am suffering through the third straight day of rain and cloudy grey skies.  I was all ready for warm weather.  I already got sun burned from trying too hard to photosynthesize, I was a plant in my last life and I still try to live on light and water when the opportunity presents.  Well I was premature, and now I have to deal with the weather change funk, I don't mind the rain, but I do mind when it just shows up unannounced to rain on my parade.  Yeah, maybe I should actually look at the weather forecast in the future so I won't be taken unawares, but that would involve effort on my part, so...

At least the cold days bring me back into the kitchen.  I have made some very tasty things in recent days including a nice lemon rosemary chicken with ginger coconut lentils on Sunday and a butternut squash soup with apples and pink jasmine rice last night.  I was also in the mood for something sweet yesterday so I made a batch of sunflower seed brittle.  It turned out delicious!  I used Martha Stewart's Nut Brittle recipe but substituted 2 cups of roasted salted sunflower seeds for the nuts.  This is super quick and easy because you make it up in the microwave.  My 9-year-old son won't usually eat sunflowers seeds and he gave this a thumbs up.

Rainy days are also perfect for a cup of tea and I have been meaning to share with you about a tea I picked up recently.  When I attended my first SCA event a few weeks back I did a little shopping and my favorite items all came from one merchant, sadly I cannot remember the name to save my life.  I checked the merchant list, and I think it may have been the Domestic Goddess, but I can't be sure (I even found a picture of her shop in the background of one of my photos, but I can't see a name).  Sorry to the lovely purveyor of the shop for my lame endorsement here, but I'll do better the next time I see her for sure.  Anyway she had wonderful prices and a fun assortment of items including jewelery, crystals, treats, and teas.  I picked up this neat Chinese black tea stored in a dried mandarin for $1.50!  It is delicious and fun to use.

A Lovely Weekend

Glorious weather in the Pacific North West

Well we got a beautiful weekend this time around, I am so thankful.  Today continues to be gorgeous, but I have chores piled up from the last couple of beautiful days, so I will try to get outside when I can. 

Just a glimpse of my friends garden...

Saturday evening I got to play Medieval dress up and visit a wonderful homestead out Tulalip Res way.  There were lovely people, some neat activities, and a horse, two goats, and a coop full of hens (plus one rat skulking out of the hen house).  I want to thank my sweet new friend Isabel of Oxenford for taking me to this event, and also a big thank you to the Baron and Baroness of Aquaterra for all the information they shared with me. 

Sunday was loads of fun with a trip to visit friends in Seattle (the pictures above were taken on my friend's property in Lake Forest).  Plenty of sun, drinks, and the Fremont Market, followed by snacks from the food trucks lined up for the Mobile Food Rodeo.  Next time, I bring a bigger stomach! When you visit Fremont be sure to try the Guinness Float at The Red Door too, yummy!

Lines were long at the Rodeo, but the food was worth the wait

Been So Busy...

Sometimes it feels like you just can't keep up with everything life throws at ya!  I have been having one of those weeks, but I wanted to take a minute to write it all down and let it all go...

I have actually been really busy planning my son's birthday party as of late.  He is turning 9 on the 9th, so it is kind of a big deal, golden birthday and all.  He requested a Redwall theme (based on the book series).  So I have been planning a feast!  His invitations were sealed with wax,  I'm making medieval banners for the dining hall, and printed paper animal masks for his guests.  We will be having a quest, defeating Cluny the Scourge with paintballs, and watching an armored combat demo!  It should be a whole lot of fun.  I may be more excited than he is, I love party planning.

March is upon us!  As you may already know I have let my February Sweater rest and begun my March Sweater early.  I have almost completed the first prototype, and it is simple and very cute.  I went with a preppy unisex v-neck sweater vest, ooohhhh, that is a mouthful!  The first sample is bright red, but I want to go with a more muted color for the next one.  I used moss stitch for the front, and stockinette for the back, this is all about texture, so I am thinking a subtle green would be really nice.  Here is a funky picture to give you an idea what it is looking like so far.

I am also working on my loving, supportive wife role.  This is not something that comes easily to me.  It is in my nature to be very self-centered, so I need to consciously look at what my partner is doing, acknowledge the importance of it, and thank him for his efforts.  I remind myself that I am not entitled to be taken care of, I am lucky that he chooses to care for me.  Anyway, I try to come up with nice ways to say "thank you" in the rare moments my hubby is home to enjoy them.  Sunday I got to make him crepes filled with yummy, gooey, goodness.

I have been good about making it to water aerobics and Yoga this week, and I am enjoying the work.  It feels good to move my body, even if it still hurts most of the time.  I know it will get better, and I will hurt less once my body is stronger.  So on that note, back to reality, I need to do the dishes.

Coming Out Even

One of my all time favorite children's books is Bread and Jam for Frances written by Russell Hoban with pictures by Lillian Hoban.  I loved it when I was a child, and I have loved reading it to both of my children as they grew.  I have one picky eater, and one gastronome, one Frances, and one Gloria as it were.  When my eldest was little I read her this book hoping she would be inspired to eat more adventurously, she wasn't.  When my son came along seven years later he ate everything in sight, so we read this just for fun.

When I read this as a kid I liked all the foods served to Frances at home, and I loved the sound of the lunches packed for Albert and Frances to enjoy at school.  I usually packed my own lunch, or ate the dreaded hot lunch.  My mom was really busy.  A lunch complete with a doily and a vase of flowers was a fairytale as far as I was concerned.  The food sounded great, but what actually stuck with me, became a compulsion really, was the way they ate it.  

The simple act of eating your food so that it all comes out even...

I have done this with my meals for as long as I can remember.  It only dawned on me that it came from this book while I was reading it to my own kids.  I know it is a little odd, but it is very satisfying.  I hate it when you reach the last few bites and realize it isn't going to come out even.  I have been known to get second helpings of some foods before I finish my first because I need to even it out.  My husband thinks it is hilarious.  But I am not alone in the realm of compulsive eating quirks.

My hubby eats whatever he likes least first, and fast, so he can enjoy the rest of his dinner.  And I have one friend who takes apart her sandwiches, then rearranges the ingredients in the proper order.  She doesn't remove anything, she just likes it stacked a certain way.

Books with food were an obsession of mine as a kid, and this is the first of many posts about my favorites.  What kind of books did you favor as a kid?