Thankful Reflections

Over the past 4 days of Thanksgiving weekend I thought a lot about all of the things in my life that I have to be thankful for.  So many big things and so many many more tiny things. I slacked off was lazy and didn't blog and just enjoyed the time off from work and pretty much all reality.  Which is one thing that I am so grateful that I have opportunity to do from time to time.

I'm currently enjoying a wonderful cup of hot coco, it may sound silly to be thankful for a cup of hot coco but there are so many people on this planet who live in such dire circumstances that they probably have never even imagined that such a simple thing as a cup of hot coco exists.  To them just a drink of the fresh tap water that I conveniently have coming out of not 1 but 3 faucets in my home would be nothing less than a miracle.

Today I participated in more than one disturbing conversation where parents were talking about how much money and the extravagant gifts they were giving to their young children this Christmas.  I posted my opinion on this matter on Facebook...

"People wonder why kids & young adults these days act so spoiled and entitled... I can tell you why kids act like that, it's kind of obvious. I was lucky if I got $10 spent on me at Christmas some years. What is funny/sad is these parents spend that much on their kids and they are gonna be disappointed because they forgot something, or didn't read their minds about wanting something. Tis the season for greed, disappointment and teaching kids that everything they want in life will just be handed to them with a bow on it."

That is a condensed version of the post however the point is still made.  Some of the responses my friends came back with gave me hope that perhaps I'm not the only one left in this world who does not feel like children need to have everything adults have and everything that they want.....

"I agree, and when these kids have to be out in reality, it hits them and they can't handle it. Our kids only get 3 presents - want, need, surprise. Christmas isn't about stuff."

"Maybe they should have taken there kids to the stores and had them pick out some gifts with some of that money for needy kids that aren't going to get presents this year. And then had them donate the gifts to toy for tots! Show them that giving is better than receiving."

"We always had a good Christmas when I was a kid, but I never felt entitled to anything but air. And even on some days that was questionable."

"I'm really proud of my kid; he only really asked for one thing, a bigger gun."

"Some of my best memories involve tall grass, streams and jumping off of the couch"


When your children open their presents do they spend time whining about what they didn't get?  Do they really need everything they ask for?  Is it possible to work out a rewards system and let them actually earn some of the more extravagant things that they want?

This holiday season when you are shopping for your children stop and think what kind of message you are sending to them.  I know too many young adults, and even ones my age, who are mooches, lazy sit at home and expect to have everything given to them and act like it's the end of the world because the life of their dreams is not being handed to them.  I personally cannot respect a mooch.  

I feel like a lot of times, based on certain people I know backgrounds, that this attitude can stem from being raised in circumstances where they had little to no responsibility as a child or teenager, everything was done for them and almost everything they wanted they received.  Perhaps the start to building a better future for our future generations is to stop spoiling them and to start teaching them in the way of love and respect and responsibility.  As one of my friends stated "Christmas isn't about stuff."  Christmas is supposed to be about family and love.  Are your kids more worried about their stuff or are they looking forward to spending a special day set aside for some real loving family bonding time?

As you are looking at your child's Christmas wish list perhaps you will see a thing or two there that you can use as a learning opportunity to teach your child how to earn the things that they want, even if it is just by being more helpful around the home.  And perhaps that will also teach them to be more thankful for what they receive.


As whoever "they" are say... just some food for thought.


Much Love!!

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

A few days ago I ran across a recipe for homemade cranberry sauce.  I had never even thought to try to make it and when I saw how easy it is I was like what!!!!!!  Cranberry sauce is one of my favorite additions to any holiday feast and I had to try it.  Even though I had already purchased some of the canned stuff I ran out and got fresh cranberries.



This is the same basic recipe that I saw on a million and one websites.  I made some earlier and it's so wonderful!  I'm pretty sure I'll never buy that canned stuff again.

Ingredients:
12 Ounces Fresh Cranberries
1/2 Cup White Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup Orange Juice

(Some people added cinnamon, I did not)

Directions:
Bring orange juice and sugar to a boil, stir frequently.
Add cranberries, reduce heat to medium, stir frequently.
Cook for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Let cool then put in a bowl to gel in the refrigerator, for several hours or over night. It will thicken as it cools.

Yes it's that easy!!!

You'll hear these wonderful little popping sounds as the cranberries start to burst open.
I saw many people say they used a splash guard, so I put mine on at first but found I didn't need it since I used a pan deep enough that the concoction didn't pop out.
I also went ahead and added about 3 dashes of salt while it was cooking.

I also saw commentary on recipes where people had noted that they ran theirs through a food processor or used a hand mixer on it after it cooked to give it a smoother consistency. However I love the whole berries myself.

This made a little less than 2 cups of cranberry sauce, and it'll surely be a hit amongst your cranberry sauce lovers, so you may want to double or triple the recipe for a large group.

DO IT!!  It's so easy and yummy!!  Not to mention a beautiful addition to your holiday spread.  Your friends and family will be impressed that you were domestic enough to make it from scratch.  It can be our little secret how easy it really is. ;)

ENJOY!!

Much Love!  & Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet Potato Casserole

Sweet potato casserole is a fantastic edition to any holiday menu!!  It's definitely one of my favorite dishes to make now.  So many years I went to Thanksgiving and other holiday feasts where the person who contributed the sweet potato dish came up with this bland from the can puree with nuts mixed in and topped with marshmallows.  Not that I did not enjoy it, however when you decide to try a homemade sweet potato casserole that actually consists of flavorful ingredients that make your sweet potatoes go boom pow in your mouth, you'll never want to go back to eating that can of sweet potato puree covered in marshmallows.  I just pulled mine out of the oven and it's so tempting to dive in now!
 
I'm not sure how large the ones you have there are, but the ones here are to me about a medium size and so it's about 8 sweet potatoes to come up with about 8 cups give or take a little.  I've never weighed them out or I'd tell you that, I just eyeball it. =)  Also do not forget to take your butter out of the refrigerator about half an hour to an hour before you want to use it so it will be soft and workable!
 

Ingredients:

Casserole:
8 Cups Quartered Fresh Sweet Potatoes
1 Stick (8 Tbls) Softened Butter (I prefer unstalted.)
2 Eggs
3/4 Cup White Sugar
1/4 Cup Orange Juice (I use 1 Fresh Orange for juice.)
1/4 Cup Milk or Cream
1 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg
1 Cup Pecans (Optional)
 
Topping:

1 Cup Brown Sugar
2/3 Cup Flour
Couple of dashes of cinnamon.
6 Tbls Softened Butter (Again I prefer unsalted.)

Directions:

First up you want to wash the sweet potatoes.  Then cut the ends off of your sweet potatoes and cut the the potatoes into quarters. Put them in a big pot, peels still on, cover with cold water and then bring them to a boil.  Boil until they are tender, mashing consistency, and the peels are starting to pull away.  (Some people prefer the flavor of baked over boiled, if that is you go for it!)

Drain the water and let them cool until you are able to handle them, about 15-20 minutes.  Pull the peels away and cut out any eyes (hard black spots). 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl mash the sweet potatoes.

 

Add butter, mash or stir it in until it's pretty much completely incorporated into your potatoes.

Add the rest of your ingredients except for the pecans and stir well.

Spread the sweet potato mixture into a 9x13 baking dish.  (I like to do a light spray of canola oil into the baking dish before adding the mixture for easier clean up later, but it is not necessary.

Top with pecans.











Now mix your brown sugar, cinnamon and flour for the topping.  Then use a fork to turn in the butter into the dry ingredients until they are completely mixed and a nice moosh.

Sprinkle the topping over the top of the pecans. If you like less crunch and sugar on top only make a half recipe of the topping.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes until the topping is crispy and starting to brown.

Some people just prefer marshmallows, if that is you, skip the topping, throw on your marshmallows and cook until they are melting and starting to brown.

A couple of years ago I was actually requested to make a sweet potato casserole with  marshmallows covered in a crispy topping... hmmm!  I did my best, I covered it with mini marshmallows. Mixed roughly guessing now (I did not write it down) 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and about 2 tbls of butter, creating a more granulated mixture. Sprinkled over the top and this is what came out.  It was actually devoured by all and insanely praised.  One of those things I'm not sure if I'd ever be able to recreate! =)

I hope you and your guests enjoy!
 
Much Love!   And Happy Thanksgiving Eve!!

Brine That Turkey

Several years ago I was watching one of my domestic goddess heroes, Martha Stewart, while she was putting on a Thanksgiving special.  Luckily it was several days before Thanksgiving because she did something I had never seen before... brined the turkey!

I was immediately fascinated and had to try it that year.  It was the best most magically wonderful turkey I'd ever made.  Juicy, flavorful, practically falling off the bone and melting right into your mouth.  Every year since I have made sure my turkey is in the brine before it's roasted.  This has become a tradition now and my brine has evolved over the years because I've done lots of reading of different recipes and techniques.  I'm not actually going to share all of my brine ingredients with you because then my turkey isn't as special if you use them too. ;)  However below I'll post some brine recipes for you to check out and try or build your own recipe off of.

You may be thinking... "what does brine the turkey even mean??  This is madness, a turkey that melts in my mouth and has flavor, I do not understand."

Trust me... It's easy!!!  And more importantly, worth it!  Basically you are soaking your uncooked turkey for 12 hours in a solution of salt, sugar, spices, herbs and other aromatics.  Be warned too much salt or letting your turkey sit in the brine too long can cause a tough not so great turkey. So when you are looking at recipes do not think, well the more salt I add the better or the longer its in the better it will be.  This is the kind of thinking that will result in people wanting to slap you as they try chewing on their Thanksgiving turkey jerky you've fed them.

Tonight kicks off the beginning of my brine process.  First I've brought to a boil fresh cold tap water with my special blend of spices... oh yeah... that's my brew.  I will be letting this cool completely and then putting it in the refrigerator so that it can become very cold over night.





 This 4 gallon bucket is my brine bucket.  It's never used for household cleaning chores.  I like the square shape of it because the awkward shape of the turkey slides right into it for full submersion.  Your turkey being fully submersed is a must for even brining.  If you cannot find a bucket big enough use an ice chest but make sure to bleach and wash it well before and after the brine process, and you will be adding a bag of ice to your brine.  However as long as you are not buying giant turkeys a bucket should suffice. 

Tomorrow what is going to happen is the 13 pound turkey pictured above will be coming out of that wrapper, giblets removed, and turkey thoroughly washed.  Then it will be placed in the brine solution that I boiled and let cool tonight and my herbs and other aromatics will be added.  Finally I will be putting a heavy plate on top to keep the turkey weighed down and fully submersed and refrigerating it.


When you take the turkey out of the brine make sure to properly discard of the liquid as well as all spices, herbs, etc that were used.  Do not use any of it to cook with!  Use fresh herbs, spices, etc when cooking.

I will be putting the turkey in the brine about 13 hours before I plan to have it in the oven to start cooking.  It will only be in the brine for about 12 hours, and the other hour is to let it come to about room temperature for extra juicy goodness, and that is a great time rub some oil of your choice into the skin.  As well to chop any onions, herbs, apples, citrus, etc that you plan to season the turkey with while cooking.


This is a wonderful fresh herb roasted turkey from a couple of years back.  Even with a horrible oven that was on it's last leg and did not heat properly I was still able to produce a nicely browned turkey with a crispy flavorful skin and juicy wonderfully flavored meat.



Warning!!  If you cook a fantastic brined turkey for your friends and family you may forever be dubbed the official Thanksgiving turkey baker and be requested upon to bring it year after year.

Seriously watch this video it's pretty great and gives you some really good tips on not only turkey brine, but turkey in general!

Some Turkey Brine Recipes

Martha Stewart's How To Brine A Turkey
Martha actually has several brine recipes on her site.
Alton Brown's Good Eats Turkey Brine
Food Network's Collection Of Brine Recipes (26)
Sheri's AllRecipes.com Turkey Brine
There are countless recipes out there!  Just do a basic internet search keyword "Turkey brine recipe"
Have fun with it and use ingredients you love and you will have an awesomely seasoned turkey!

Now that you know what's what, get your brine going!

Much love!

MawMaw Eade's Banana Nut Bread

The week of Thanksgiving is officially here!!  I absolutely love Thanksgiving, it is my favorite holiday no matter what.

Everyone seems to have their own traditions for Thanksgiving.  Mine has always been to cook a ton of food!  It does not matter if Thanksgiving dinner is being held at someone else's house, I will bring my contribution to that dinner, and then we always have all of the fixings of Thanksgiving leftovers at my house since I had cooked everything for home as well.  A lot of years during my stay in California we would have the family gathering the day before Thanksgiving, which many families seemed to do there, so the day of Thanksgiving we would just have friends over eat and it would be a great time.  There's probably only been 2 years in my adult life that I just did not cook anything. 

This year for me is very low key.  My first Thanksgiving as a single woman and not living near family and all of my nearby friends have their own things to do so it's just me and I'm ok with that.  I'll be cooking a downsized version of my favorite Thanksgiving foods and having any of my neighbors I see hanging about with no Thanksgiving food come and help themselves to a plate.

After waking up super early and putting the turkey in the oven... My first tradition of the day is enjoying some Banana Nut Bread with some hot coffee.  This was something we always had when I was a child at Thanksgiving and I've carried it into adulthood using the same recipe that my mom used when I was a kid.  My great grandmother, MawMaw Eade's recipe.  MawMaw was very special and passed away about 18 years ago, I'm happy each year to celebrate her memory baking this bread.  I'm so not filling up on a bunch of everyday breakfast foods and making it to where I don't have room to over-stuff myself with the good stuff later.  So for me it's all about in the morning just having a couple of slices of the banana nut bread warmed up and slathered with some real butter.  YUM!!

This bread freezes well if you want to make several in advance and freeze them until it's time to eat them.  I always bake 2-3 loaves several days in advance and actually munch on them all Thanksgiving week. It's the first thing I bake for the Thanksgiving season every year and when that delicious aroma starts wafting from the oven you know Thanksgiving is officially here.

********************************

MawMaw Eade's Banana Nut Bread

1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon
1/8 Tsp Salt
1 Egg
1 Cup Mashed Bananas
    (about 2 large bananas)
1/4 Cup Oil (Vegetable or Canola)
1 Tsp Lemon Zest (optional)
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Pecans or Walnuts (I'm using walnuts this year)

**My MawMaw's recipe did not call for vanilla, however I have incorporated 1/2 Tsp of Vanilla Extract over the years as well.  I also forgot to grab a lemon for zest at the store so I used 1/4 tsp lemon juice.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and lightly flour loaf pan. (Or use a baking spray that contains flour.)

Stir together dry ingredients in a large bowl. (Excluding sugar and nuts.)
Lightly beat the egg in a separate bowl.

Stir the rest of the wet ingredients, including banana, together in the bowl with the egg.
Add sugar into the wet ingredients until mixed well.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients making sure dry ingredients have all been incorporated.
Your batter will be lumpy and thick.
Mix in the nuts.
Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 45-55 minutes. (Toothpick test.)
Serve warm with real butter!
Wrap in foil to keep moist.

Reheat slices in microwave for about 15-20 seconds to experience warm banana nut bread goodness time and time again.

If you do not have a freezer stockpile of ripe bananas and find that your grocery store does not have ripe bananas just put them in a brown bag with an apple as I've done here, these were still slightly green yesterday.

I hope you enjoy this recipe!  I know there are many ways to make it, but this recipe has never failed me.  I love how it has just enough banana and it's not too sweet.

Much Love!

Scorpio Season

I love anything to do with astrology, mysticism, mythology, science fiction, etc.  I do no live by horoscopes, I've never called a psychic hotline, and I've never had my palm read.  I'm just super intrigued by the romance our minds have with these fascinating subjects.

When it comes to astrology I especially love Scorpio for the simple reason... I'm your Scorpio blonde girl.  My father is also a Scorpio and celebrates his birthday today, Happy Birthday Dad!!

My birthday is in 12 days on November 4th. I do not mind getting older.  One of the main reasons for this is because the older I get the better I get.  I also do not feel like nearly the dumb-ass I was when I was younger.  When I think about when I was 20 and thought I knew everything I kinda want to slap myself.

I'm super stoked that today is beginning of the reign of Scorpio my favorite sign.  A couple of my other favorite things this time of year are Fall my favorite season and Thanksgiving my favorite holiday.

In mythology the scorpion came to be in the sky after he killed Orion the hunter. The stories of why Scorpius killed Orion vary. One says Orion slept with the wrong chick and Apollo had Scorpius sent to kill him. Another story says it was because Orion was threatening to kill all of the beasts on earth and Gaia sent him to take care of Orion. Another I've read says that Scorpius and Taurus the bull were great friends and Orion killed Taurus while hunting and Scorpius retaliated. For some reason or another Scorpius killed Orion whether he was the hired gun or the loyal friend, and all of the stories tend to agree that Zeus put them both in the sky with Scorpio forever chasing Orion.

I am not an astrologer and will not go into a long rambling, which I could, about all of the traits and qualities of a Scorpio... but to sum us up, and I may be biased, I think we are pretty awesome.

Are you a Scorpio or know a Scorpio?  What are some of your favorite Scorpio traits or qualities?

Happy Birthday to all of my fellow Scorpios!


Much love!