Thanksgiving Part 2

This is what I ended up using as our gravy boat.



It's actually meant for creamer and is part of a cow-themed tea set. I have a lot of cow-themed stuff. Anywho, it worked well although the "cow is drooling" jokes were plentiful.

And here's dessert. I noticed I forgot to take a picture of that before.

Chicken & Broccoli Calzones

From Taste of Home Annual Recipes, 2007



Ingredients:
broccoli
sage
onion
garlic
EVOO
chicken breast
mozzarella cheese
basil
golden raisins
bread dough
egg
water

Comments:
Just for the fun of it I've been thumbing through all the cookbooks I've got on the bookshelf in the living room. I've marked the recipes I've found interesting and I'm working them into the menu. This was a little more challenging than some other recipes in that it required me to roll out bread dough. With a rolling pin. I do own a rolling pin, but I do all I can to avoid using it. And I just happened to be wearing all black today so I got into a floury mess while flouring and rolling out dough. They turned out ok though. Just a note: I did leave the sage and raisins out. A thumbs up from Adam.

Easy Cheesy Enchiladas

From "The Rachael Ray Show", November 9th, 2007



Ingredients:
EVOO
onion
garlic
salt & pepper
Chili powder
cumin
crushed tomatoes
chicken stock
canola oil
tortillas
scallions
cilantro
monteray jack cheese

Comments:
We caught an epsiode of "Rachael Ray" together somehow and Adam thought these might be good. So I made them. And they were. I even went out and got chili powder and used it. It did leave the cilantro out thought. Blech. Pretty simple to make although that's a lot of cheese. Not so good for the lactose intolerant stomach...

Thanksgiving 2007

This was the first Thanksgiving in our new house and the first time I attempted a turkey. In previous years I pawned that off on someone else or I did cornish hens instead.

Our Thanksgiving Day menu:

* Roasted Turkey – pretty basic, not stuffed. I’m of the Alton Brown camp – “Stuffing is evil.”
* Smashed Potatoes & Gravy – pretty basic here too. Red potatoes with sour cream, milk, butter, smooshed with the masher. I cheated and using a gravy mix packet.
* Roasted Butternut Squash – as requested by Adam.
* Roasted Squash Medley – yellow squash and zucchini in this one. I kept them separate since Adam wasn’t too interested in this one.
* Stuffing – Totally cheated here and used Stove Top. It’s just so yummy…and easy.
* Rolls – Yay for Pillsbury oven rolls. And yay for carbs!
* Chocolate Angel Food Cake – I’m not a fan of pies and while I could have picked one up free from Festival thanks to my employer, I didn't. And I didn't make one either. We all know what happened last time. Angel Food Cake I could do. And I figured it'd be even better if I tossed some cocoa powder into the mix. I served it with ice cream and caramel/chocolate sauce.

Everything went well and tasted good. And as far as I know no one got food poisoning. Yet.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

From Taste of Home.com



Ingredients:
butter
peanut butter
sugar
brown sugar
eggs
vanilla
flour
baking soda
salt
chocolate chips
chopped peanut butter cups

Comments:
One word: YUM. These are as easy as any other drop cookie to make. I used my new cookie scoop on this one and I think I should maybe have gotten the smaller size one. My first batch turned out a little large and the middles didn't bake through so I went with about half a scoop after that and they turned out wonderfully. Even Adam likes them. Definitely a keeper. Up next on my cookie list: M&M Sugar Cookies.

Scallop Burgers

From Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats - #181



Ingredients:
sea scallops
shallot
parsley
salt & pepper
EVOO
rolls
orange
chives
Old Bay Seasoning
red onion
lemon juice
romaine lettuce leaves

Comments:
Obviously an Adam geared recipe here. It's a basic burger recipe except you swap out some scallops that you grind in the food processor for your usual suspects of ground beef, turkey, pork, etc. Adam tells me they tasted great. That all I can say about this one.

Oven-Baked Corn Dogs

From Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats - #222



Ingredients:
corn muffin mix
eggs
milk
butter
chili powder
cumin
hot sauce
scallions
hotdogs

Comments:
These are pretty simple as well although I'm pretty sure I added too much milk and they were kind of runny. Case in point: all the batter fell off during baking and we kind of ended up with a hotdog and some bread stuff on the side. Oh well. It still tasted just fine. The scallions in the breading is an interesting idea and a great blend of flavors.

Pork Loin Chops with Apples and Onions

From Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats - #324



Ingredients:
EVOO
pork chops
salt & Pepper
apples
onion
butter
lemon juice
thyme
brandy

Comments:
Pretty easy dish to prepare but you might want to leave the brandy out. I didn't mind it but Adam didn't care for it and I only put in half of what the recipe called for. The mixture of sweet and salty is a classic one and this recipe does it justice.

Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

From allrecipes.com



Ingredients:
butter
sugar
peanut butter
brown sugar
egg
light corn syrup
water
vanilla
flour
baking soda
salt
chocolate chips/chunks

Comments:
Adam wanted peanut butter cookies that stayed chewy after they cooled. So I figured with a name like "Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies" I couldn't go wrong. And the fact that I could throw in some white chocolate chips couldn't hurt either. They turned out quite well and I was diligent in my portion control after my Snickerdoodle fiasco the weekend before. They turned out kind of weird shaped because I put a whole bag of chocolate chips into the batter. I went out and got a cookie scoop now so next time I should have picture perfect cookies. Next on my list - chocolate peanut butter cup cookies. Yum...

Treat-or-Treat (or not...) Turnovers

From Taste of Home October/November 2007 (Yet another Subscriber Only recipe! Sorry!)



Ingredients:
ground beef
onion
mozzarella cheese
mustard
refrigerated biscuits
egg

Comments:
These are eerily similar to the beef cups I made a few weeks ago. Instead of putting the dough in muffin cups you just put it on a baking sheet and form a pod for the beef filling. They were originally supposed to have Jack O' Lantern faces cut out of the top part but since this meal got pushed back to a week after Halloween I decided to scrap that. They still tasted good. Just not as cutesy.

Frosted Chocolate Chip Brownies

From Taste of Home October/November 2007 (Yet another Subscriber Only recipe! Sorry!)



Ingredients:
butter
sugar
eggs
chocolate syrup
vanilla
flour
chocolate chips
chopped nuts
sour cream
powdered sugar

Comments:
These were made in the same weekend baking frenzy as the pies and some Snickerdoodles (which I accidentally made super huge.) It's an easy recipe but I'd suggest letting it sit in the fridge for a little bit after frosting them before trying to cut or eat them. The frosting sets up really nice when it gets cold. Before then it's kind of goopy(as you can probably tell in the picture.)

Caramel-Pecan Apple Pie

From Taste of Home October/November 2007 (All these Subscriber Only recipes! Sorry!)



Ingredients:
apples
lemon juice
vanilla
pecans
brown sugar
white sugar
cinnamon
cornstarch
caramel ice cream topping
pastry shell
butter
flour

Comments:
I was in a Suzy Homemaker baking kind of mood a few weekends ago so I decided to bake a pie. Now, I don't do the pastry, fussy kind of cooking. Drop cookies, totally do-able. No-bake chocolate mousse pie, sure thing. Real pie with a crust and all? No thanks. So I cheated and used a frozen pie crust and still managed to mess things up. It came out looking kind of, well, not like the picture, but it must have still tasted ok because Adam ate both of them all up.