Stitch Block

Ripped out and started the third pattern over today, with different yarn as well as one needle size down. So far, I'm much happier with the way this is turning out :)

Pizza

Homemade pizza for dinner tonight. This isn't a fast dinner (you have to wait for the dough to rise all day) but it sure is worth it! :)

Stitch Block Cowl

Thanksgiving is over and there is no cooking today! Naturally, that leaves plenty of time for watching movies and knitting. I put in a little bit of time into the cowl, starting the third section. However, I'm not too happy with it. I think that the guage is too loose (you can see the fabric pucker on the needle) and I'm not too thrilled with the yarn I'm using either. I've stopped here for now and I think I'll head over to the yarn shop in the morning to figure something else out.

Thanksgiving

I am thankful this year that my family is together and that we can share a meal together. This year was one of the most relaxed thanksgiving preparations I can remember for the past 10 years. With the cranberries, stuffing, apple sauce, and pie already finished, there wasn't too much left to do - just the turkey, green beans, corn, brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, gravy, and whipped cream. We also bought a can of cranberry jelly, as well as the corn bread. Recipes below.

Turkey
Not unlike the stuffing, Mom and I also try out a different technique with the turkey every year. We start 2 days in advance by brining the turkey in a solution of 1 gallon water, 1 cup salt, and 1 cup sugar for about 6 hours. We dry the turkey and leave it in the fridge for a day to dry the skin out. This is supposed to help crisp the skin while cooking. This year, we decided to butterfly the turkey and cook the legs and breasts in separate pans in order to get the cooking temperatures just right: 160 for breast (light) meat, 175 for leg (dark) meat. We do this because, through trial and error, we've discovered that you just can't get a whole turkey cooked perfectly, ever. And who cares, really? Once it's on the plate, it's all the same. We line the pan with chopped onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, sage, parsley, thyme, cinnamon stick, and lemon zest (peeled whole, not grated). The cavities are filled with stuffing, the skin is covered in butter and pepper, and the turkey is placed on top of the vegetables and placed in a 500 degree oven for 20 minutes to crisp the skin. The pans are pulled out and filled to 3/4 full with chicken broth and white wine. We then cover the turkey with parchment paper and then cover the whole thing with foil, and turn down the temp to 350 for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, we start checking the internal temperature of the meat with a thermometer, adjusting cooking times as necessary. This year, the legs were pulled after an hour total, and the breast required 1 hour 25 minutes total.

Green Beans
I'm not sure where my mom found this recipe, or when, but I'm going to assume circa 1996 based on an advertisement for Johnathan Taylor Thomas' Pinocchio on the back. Ohh, JTT.. :) Ok, recipe, right.

2 bags frozen green beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c milk
1 t soy sauce
dash pepper

Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish and bake at 350 F for 25 minutes. Boom. Done.

Corn
Corn for thanksgiving is also pretty easy: 2 bags of frozen corn heated in the microwave for 5-10 minutes, then stirred with butter and salt.

Brussels Sprouts
This was a last minute addition to the table. Every year, we try to add one "variable" dish. This year it's this one. Mom and Dad made this over the summer with fresh figs (when they were in season) and it came out so well, we decided to make it again, but with dried black figs instead. It ended up rounding out the table perfectly :)

Mashed Potatoes
Mom is in charge of this one, since I can't make a potato to save my life. Basically, peel and boil potatoes, strain and mash. Add butter, milk, sour cream, and salt to taste. As a variety, my parents had made jalapeno juice and frozen it a few weeks ago; we added a small cube to half the potatoes for a kick.

Gravy
Gravy is a traditional pan gravy. After the turkey comes out, the vegetables and herbs are strained to leave stock, which is put over medium heat in a separate pot. Butter and teaspoon of potato starch (diluted in cold water and tempered) are then added to thicken the gravy.

Whipped Cream
Finally, to close out the night, we also make our own whipped cream. It's pretty simple: take a cup of heavy whipping cream, pour in a shot of bourbon and a half teaspoon of brown sugar, and beat until you get stiff peaks. Be careful not to overbeat the cream; I did this one year.. the cream started to separate into a solid and liquid and I kept beating, thinking that it would come back together. It did not. What I actually had made was butter, and the liquid was buttermilk. In any case, a touch of bourbon and sugar in the whipped cream rounds out the flavors of the pie quite nicely :)

And that's it! Thanksgiving 2014 has come to a close and everyone is passed out either on the couch or in front of the fire place :)

Thanksgiving Eve

It's been a busy Thanksgiving weekend here. Mom and I had a minimal amount of time to plan this year, which ended up being a bit fortuitous, as it forced us to make decisions on what was in and what was out. Additionally, we both made an effort to get a big chunk of the work done before Thanksgiving Day. Neither of us wanted to fall into our seats at dinner, absolutely exhausted from a day in the kitchen. So, on Thanksgiving Eve, we each tackled two dishes: she made apple sauce and cranberry sauce, and I made stuffing and pumpkin pie. It was a lot of futzing in the kitchen on the night before, but it really turned out to be worth the effort! Recipes and comments are below.

Pumpkin Pie
I've been making this pie recipe for several years now. I basically follow it to a T (except for the one year when I completely forgot to put in the pumpkin puree - whoops) but I make two small modifications: I will add a shot of rum or bourbon, whatever's on hand, and I will use orange zest instead of lemon zest. I find that the orange really deepens the flavor. I will also puree my own pumpkin from scratch. I've found that quartering the pumpkin and steaming for 30 minutes is the best and fastest method (versus roasting) to get the skin off the pumpkin. This year, I discovered this recipe for pie crust, when I was making mince pies for Simon. For pumpkin pie, I simply halve the crust recipe.

Cranberries
My friend Erica use to host Friendsgiving. I went for a few years - she would make a phenomenal turkey and an equally delicious cranberry side. I asked her for her recipe, adopted it, and it's been on our table ever since. Recipe is:

2 bags fresh cranberries
1 C sugar2 T cinnamon1 t nutmeg1 shot bourbon

Mix cranberries, sugar, and spices in a baking dish (I use a 9x13 cake pan but it doesn't make much difference). Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes. You'll see the berries start to break up and ooze juices, which is exactly what you want. When the berries look soft and juicy, remove from oven. While hot pour bourbon over berries. Stir well and let cool. 

Stuffing
I have to admit, I love stuffing out of the box. However, ever since I've been cooking most of my food from scratch, I've wanted to make a homemade stuffing that was just as tasty as box stuffing (but without all the added salt and processed ingredients). This year I found a new stuffing recipe and it worked fairly well. The only hiccup was that I decided to incorporate some leftover apple pecan cake that I hadn't found terribly tasty. OMG. Big mistake. I thought that I didn't like the cake then; I threw in half my spice cabinet to try to overcome the cinnamon-y sweetness in the stuffing. (Note: chili powder, cumin, and balsamic vinegar all helped.) We also stuffed the turkey, and while it was roasting, the stuffing absorbed some of the broth, wine, vegetables, and herbs in the pan, which helped a ton, too. Next year, I will make the stuffing as it was written and then maybe I will have finally achieved my goal. This year, box stuffing still made it's way onto the table (but I'm not complaining).

Apple Sauce
Mom makes this every year, mostly from her own experience. The recipe, loosely, is:

3-4 lbs apples (granny smith and gala), peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
1 C sugar (more or less depending on sweet/tartness of the apples)
pinch of salt
2 t ground cinnamon or 2 sticks of cinnamon
1 T lemon zest
1/2 t ground cloves or 5-6 whole cloves

Mix all ingredients in a large pot over low heat. Stir continuously until apples are soft and have broken down into a sauce-like consistency, with some chunky pieces remaining. Adjust spices and seasoning as necessary.

Mistake Fixed

Of course with it I made another mistake, but you can't see it from the right side of the fabric, so I have decided to let this one go. Besides, nothing is perfect (even the Amish intentionally make a mistake in their exquisite quilts), so I'm ok with continuing on the cowl :)

Mistake

Whether or not you can see it (about an inch and a half in, 12 rows down from the top), it's the only thing I can see, but fixing it is going to require a bit more focus than I'm willing to give tonight.

Stitch Block Cowl

Due to weather (rain ALL day), we did not sail. Instead, we hung out at the cottage, drinking tea and watching movies. I also pulled out the knitting for a while. It was a perfectly relaxing rainy day and it seemed like everyone needed the break. All in all, it was a great weekend :)

Pancakes

Overall the sailing weekend in Georgia was a success. We raced 6 races on Saturday (and won all 6). We stayed in a cottage by the lake, so we could make breakfast before we went out on the water. I offered to make pancakes - yum! :)

Stitch Block Cowl

Knitting on a plane! We're racing the boat in Atlanta this weekend; it should be a fun weekend, as our first adventure was that we blew a flat tire on the way to the cabin on our way from the airport. Hopefully that's our only notable adventure for the weekend :)

Made it to IPRO Day!

Fall IPRO Day was today; I am so proud of one of my student teams, they built a working stove over the course of the semester!

Cuppa Tea

Another late night working this week. I made a cup of tea after I got home to get me through the remainder of the evening.

Made the Deadline

I have a major deadline for work tomorrow, and my team has been working really hard to meet it and make it work. As such, it's left me too exhausted to do much more than flop into my (hotel) bed. Goodnight!

Stitch Block Cowl

Progress continues on this one. I'm a little less than halfway through the second stitch pattern, which also means that I'm about halfway done with the cowl itself :)

Caramel Glaze

So it looks like chocolate, but is actually caramel. Why? Because in my uncaffeinated state this morning, I burned the caramel and poured it over the cake anyway. I thought that it would still turn out gooey, but no. It is rock hard. It actually reminded me of peanut brittle, but without the peanuts. I can't cut through this with a butter knife; I have to use a chefs knife. 

So.. there you have it. I would not say that I hit a home run with this one.

Apple Pecan Cake

Everyone once in a while, things are going well for me, and I feel quite clever. It's usually following these moments that I end up eating a big slice of humble pie. Or in this case, apple pecan cake.

I loosely followed this recipe. Very loosely. Ok, basically the only thing that recipe and my recipe had in common was the ingredients list. Because I had been feeling clever, I thought that I could change (fine, halve) the quantities of sugar, apples, and pecans and have the end result be exactly the same as if I had used full portions. I also used a bit of buckwheat flour instead of white flour, thinking that the two are interchangeable. (Turns out they're not.) Now I understand that this makes no logical sense at all, but it made sense to me at the time of baking.

So now I have a full cake that can best be described as "meh." It tastes…healthy. And while I'm a big proponent of eating a well balanced diet, some desserts shouldn't taste healthy. They should taste like dessert.

Fortunately, there's also a recipe for a caramel glaze included. I think I'll glaze the cake in the morning to see if that will help save it.

Salsa

I'm pulling double duty today. First up is a quick salsa. I didn't really follow a recipe; I just chopped up 2 tomatoes, 1/2 onion, 1 jalepeno, 4 garlic cloves, and a small handful of cilantro, seasoned it all with salt and pepper and voila!

Stitch Block Cowl

Progress on this is moving along quite nicely and I really love how the two patterns juxtapose against each other :)

Stitch Block Cowl

I've started the next stitch pattern on this cowl, finally. What I really like about this pattern so far is that each stitch pattern only gets knit for 20 inches. It's exactly long enough to hold my interest while providing just enough monotony (read: I don't have to devote all my attention to just the knitting) before moving onto the next pattern. Plus, this blue yarn came out of the stash, so that's always something to feel good about :)

Stitch Block Cowl

Knitting in bed again, but this time, I'm in my own bed :)

Stitch Block Cowl

Tonight, I am knitting in my hotel bed, I have a cup of chamomile on the stand next to me, and I'm trying to have a relaxing evening :)

Wee Flock

Is done!! I only hope that little baby Daiva enjoys wearing it as much as I enjoyed knitting it :)

Mince Pie, second attempt

Taking what we learned last night, we decided to make mince pie again, this time for dessert with my parents.

This time, we used a muffin pan as the mold for the pies; this was a much better, more appropriate size. But in the spirit of experimentation, we used two different types of mince - a side by side comparison of homemade and store bought - to understand if making mince from scratch is worth it. (The answer is yes, at least for our palettes.)

A quick side note on process: rolling out pie dough was actually kind of a pain. My parents have a tortilla press, so we used that to create the crust and it worked so well! I'm now asking for a tortilla press for Christmas (hint, wink ;)

Mince Pie, first attempt

One of Simon's favorite foods is mincemeat pie. I'd only heard of it before in passing, thought that it contained a finely ground meat mixture, and was a savory delight. Turns out I was wrong. Mince pie is actually a sweet dessert or snack, served primarily around Christmas. Mince is made from a mix of apples, raisins, sultans (golden raisins), dried currants, almonds, candied peel, orange and lemon juice and zest, suet (I used ghee), brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice, and brandy. Once the flavors have melded together, it actually becomes a hearty pie filling; encased in a flakey crust, it's no surprise that this is a delicious wintertime treat :)

We decided to prepare mince pie for a small dinner party. Simon maintained that mince pies should be small, 1-3 bite snacks. I was curious to try it in a bigger form (note that I have no idea what I'm doing, nor a basis for comparison, as I've never made mince pie before. I'm just stubborn.) We found these 4 inch mini pie pans and tried it out in this size. The verdict? Too big. Too much mince and too much pie for a dessert. These were hearty enough to be a meal by themselves. But other than the size, they turned out pretty well; not bad for a first attempt :)

Wee Flock

Wee Flock isn't quite done yet, but getting very, very close :)

Oxtail Stew

I made this stew based off this NYT recipe. The only thing I changed was subbing oxtail for the ham bone. Otherwise everything stayed the same and it turned out really well; a nice, hearty, yet light and healthy, winter stew.

Stitch Block Cowl

Wee Flock is on hold at the moment (knitting all those sheep actually takes quite a bit of concentration for me!) and I needed something to knit that I could quickly pick up and put down. I've been wanting to make Purl Bee's Stitch Block Cowl for some time now and this seemed like just the right moment to start.

Chili Cook Off

We had a chili cook off at work on Monday. I repeated this recipe and make the same modifications to the chili I'd made in June. There were a total of 5 entrants (sampling 5 variations of chili for lunch is always a win), and it was nice to make something for my work colleagues :)

Candied Peel

This is part of a larger recipe, but was fun to make nonetheless. I followed this recipe from the Food Network. On a technical note, I never got my sugar/water temp up to 230 (I hovered around 175-180) but I found in the end that it didn't matter. The peel came out meaty and sweet and bitter all at the same time, and in the right places. The effort was definitely worth it :)

Pickle Sandwich

It's been a few days since I last blogged, but despite my lack of blogging, I've still been making something each day.

The British Invasion continued through the weekend. Simon brought several foodstuffs with him, amongst them was a jar of Branston pickle.

Pickle is a mixture of diced root vegetables, spices, and vinegar, and it goes really well with a nice, sharp cheddar cheese, and slice of fresh country bread :)