November 27th, 2009
My friends and I served up quite the thanksgiving feast…
We made sure to cover all our traditional favorites…
Chicken (or Turkey) and Dressing Casserole
My Mom’s Stuffing
Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Green Bean Casserole
Sweet Potatoes (recipe coming)
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Crunch
Pecan Pie
Chocolate Chess Pie
My Mom’s Stuffing
Melt about 1/2 stick margarine or butter in frying pan. Chop one large onion and about 4 to five large stalks of celery. Saute. Sprinkle with leaf thyme (Mom does this until it smells right- I used about 2 teaspoons). now the fun part: Using about 8 slices of white bread (wonder type) Put it in the colander and run tap water over it and squish it up with your hands. Then add to the frying pan and stir it around to mix the onions/celery. Now I stuff the turkey but you could do as I said above. Probably use about a cup of broth and then bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. You probably should cover it loosely with foil so it doesn’t dry out.
Filed under Onions, Pasta, Pie, Thyme, Vanilla | Comments (6)
November 27th, 2009
The table was set… the pies were made… I awaited my friends…
Unable to go home because of school, three of my friends came over to share thanksgiving with me… we split up the menu and served up quite a feast…
After finishing dinner… we sat around talking and sipping wine… ending our evening with some delicious desserts…
In my family, we always make a ton of pies… often there is a pie a person… Pumpkin, Pine Nut, Chocolate Chess and Pecan…This year, I made pie crust for the first time without my mother’s help! Success! I decided to make the chocolate chess and the pecan. After seeing Emily’s recent post, I deviated from my mother’s recipe and added 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste to the pecan recipe. Delicious! I’m sending these over to Joelen’s Event Tasty Tools featuring rolling pins… Happy Thanksgiving!
Ginny’s Mom’s Pie Crust
(makes a 9 in pie crust)
1 & 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup Crisco
Pinch of Salt
Water
Cut the Crisco into the flour and salt using 2 knives or a pastry cutter until mealy. Take 3 tablespoons of the mixture and put int a cup. Stir in enough cold water until you have a paste. Dump the paste into the flour mixture and blend by hand until forms a ball. DO NOT KNEAD IT! Roll out between 2 layers of wax paper.
Chocolate Chess Pie
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar (do not pack)
1 tablespoonful flour
2 unbeaten eggs
1/2 egg shell of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 stick margarine (melted)
1 square chocolate (melted)
Mix all ingredients together and bake in an unbaked pie shell at 350 degrees about 35 minutes.
Pecan Pie
3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 teasp. salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 1/2 cup pecans half
Mix in all the ingredients but the pecans. Stir in pecans. Pour into an unbaked pie shell. Bake until set and shell is nicely browned at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes.
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July 24th, 2009
…this past weekend, Juan and I spent a relaxing time in Kitty Hawk, NC with some of his friends. As the native North Carolinian among the group, everyone wondered if I had ever been there. Well, the Outer Banks has always been in my mind where the Northerns go… we always went to the Southern Beaches near Wilmington since they are closer to home…
In fourth grade Social Studies, we studied North Carolina. As part of the class, we had to take a “road” trip to explore NC. We started way up in the Northern tip of the Outer Banks in Kitty Hawk. I remember thinking that one day I needed to go there and see where the first flight took place. I’m quite glad that I’ve finally been there now… check another goal off the list… plus it was a wonderful weekend filled with sleeping in, playing on the beach, eating good food, and hanging out with cool people…
Maybe it is my Southern upbringing, but I have been craving peach pie for months now and impatiently waiting for them to be in season … the other day, when I saw this recipe and found delicious peaches at Treasure Island… I decided it was time to make peach galette… like a pie but smaller so I don’t each as much… yea… that’s what I keep telling myself…
Months ago I had bookmarked this recipe from Spicy Ice Cream, which is part of Lisa and Mark’s tour of the Tartine cookbook. I tried making the Tartine’s Brownies a few weeks ago and did not follow directions. Mine tasted ok but no where near as amazing as Mark’s. In trying another Tartine recipe, I followed the recipe as closely as possible but I halved the recipe. In my haste to get the dough in the fridge to chill, I actually only used 1/4 of the butter but half of everything else. Regardless, it turned out really well. The recipe is a little daunting at first but it is not as hard to make as it may seem. I do not have a bench scrapper but I do have a plastic green apple cutting board that worked great. Make sure to chill it as written because it helps the dough retain its shape when you bake it. This recipe did take patience but I was very happy with the peach galettes that I pulled out of the oven at 10:30pm…
I made two small galettes filled with peaches. I used 2 large peaches and two small ones. Having recently become a vanilla bean paste fan, I tested it out on this recipe. I mixed 1/2 teaspoon with 1/2 the peaches and used them in one of the galettes. The other I made with just peaches. I love the addition of the vanilla bean paste but the flavor was more intense the next morning… sigh… I wish there was still leftovers…
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