Thanksgiving Ramblings

We had some yummy pies this year. I made a caramel apple pie and a blueberry raspberry pie.
See http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/scrumptous-and_i_do_mean_scrumptous-apple_pie/ for the apple pie recipe. I added cinnamon to the apples. For the berry pie I just used canned blueberry pie filling, some frozen raspberries, fresh lemon juice (about 1 Tablespoon), 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla.
Karen made an awesome peanut butter chocolate pie and a fabulous coconut cream pie that had coconut milk in it. I need to get those recipes. Patrea made a yummy banana cream pie, and mom made her special pumpkin pie. Everyone was excited to have a taste of everything. The kids decided to vote on their favorite pies. I think the coconut cream won or maybe the peanut butter. I can't remember, because I think there was some voter fraud that occurred.

I hope you all had a fun Thanksgiving. We had a family variety show on Friday night. It was very entertaining and fun. I have some talented nieces and nephews. Their parents are talented too.

On Saturday Mom, Shanna, Patrea and I went to the neighbor's house to make some frames and texture some temple prints. They turned out really nice. I am excited to hang mine on the wall. Thanks Mom!

Thanksgiving Week 2009

I found this recipe for CHILE RELLENOS in the newspaper this past spring. It is easy and very goood. Serve with spanish rice and beans.

I placed the chiles in a glass pan. It looks a bit like they are sitting on the table. I promise I don't serve things right off the table. That would be very unhealthy. :)

Chile Rellenos
1. Take pasilla chiles or anaheim chiles and roast them under a broiler until the skins are charred. Place the chiles in a plastic bag for a couple of minutes and then rub the skins off of them.
2. Cut the top of the chile off and stuff with thick strips of monterey jack cheese.
3. Separate three eggs and whip the whites until stiff. Take the yolk and mix with 2 teaspoons of flour. Combine the yolk with the whites.
4. Dip chile in flour and then into egg mixture and fry in a pan until cooked.

Top with tomatillo salsa(Herdez green salsa) mixed with sour cream, warmed.

More Flowers and Watch band

The guys went to the BYU Air Force game this weekend. We stayed at mom and dad's Friday night. It was a nice getaway. I went to Ikea Saturday morning then finished making a new watch band and sewed a bunch of fabric flowers later that day.

The girls went with me to buy doughnuts and fruit for a salad. We bought strawberries, bananas and cantaloupe. I chopped that all up for a salad and stirred in a little sugar. It was good. Mom made stroganoff to put on baked potatoes. She used hamburger and Jimmy Dean Sausage. The sausage added a nice flavor. That was a good idea. (Sorry about the glass I broke. It shattered all over the kitchen just before dinner. Arghhh!)
Shanna, Taft and kids were there for dinner. They are on there way to Boise. It was great to visit with them. We haven't seen them since July. Shanna's face is healing fast. She still has a black eye and a little nerve damage. I Hope it is all better soon. Can't wait to see everyone again for Thanksgiving.
Enjoy the Holiday everyone!

Recipes November 16-21

Ginger Cream Cookies
Another recipe from my grandma's cookbook. I love these in the fall and winter. It must be the holiday spices. The key ingredients are molasses and ginger. I think molasses looks gross and smells yucky, but it sure makes good cookies. They are very soft.

Finished product

Ginger Cream Cookies
¼ cup shortening - 1 tsp. ginger
½ cup sugar - 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg - ½ tsp. soda
2 cups flour - ½ tsp. cloves
1/3 cup molasses - ½ cup water
½ tsp. salt
Cream together shortening and sugar. Add egg and beat well. Stir in molasses. Sift dry ingredients. Add to creamed mixture alternately with water. Drop from teaspoon on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Frost with buttercream frosting or vanilla frosting.

PHIL'S CHICKEN, BACON, APPLE, SWISS WRAP
One weekend Phil and I were going out to dinner and needed to get something for the kids to eat before we left. Phil started grabbing what we had in the fridge and came up with this wrap. It was so good. We almost decided to stay and have one ourselves instead of going out.

Cook cut up chicken and bacon together in a skillet. ( I used 4 thin chicken breasts and about 5 slices of bacon cut in pieces with kitchen shears) At first I thought mixing chicken and pork in the same pan was wrong, but then I remembered my grandparent's ranch had the pig pen right next to the chicken coop. How could I go wrong? Secondly, the bacon flavors the chicken and keeps things from sticking to the pan. It was not too greasy.


When the chicken and bacon are done add 2 diced Fuji apples or any sweet apple (sweet is the key here like Fuji, Gayla, or Braeburn).


Next I added about 1/2 cup sour cream and stirred it in. Next, sprinkle with 1 cup grated swiss cheese. With the heat on medium low, let the cheese get melty and warm.

Put the meat mixture on a wrap (We used sundried tomato basil Mission Wraps. A plain flour tortilla works too) Sprinkle on diced tomatoes and lettuce. Top with a little ranch dressing and roll up the wrap. Very good! Isn't food photogenic...

Phil’s Bacon, Chicken, Swiss, Apple Wrap
4 chicken breasts cut into bite sizes pieces, 5 bacon strips diced into small pieces. Cook in skillet.
Add 2 Fuji apples chopped
Add sour cream and heat. Top with Swiss cheese. Let melt.
Put mixture on tortillas.
Top with sliced grape tomatoes, lettuce, and ranch dressing. Fold up and eat.

Continuation of Rambling Nov 8-14

Sisters Craft Day
Karen and I got together Friday to make some fun word cubes. She has a cricut we used to make letters. We bought some darling scrapbook paper from Carolees Creations/Adorn It. They have the cutest paper I have ever seen. It is my new favorite place for paper. They have cute ideas there too.

I started by having Phil cut a 2x4 into blocks. The tallest one was 5.5 inches. I sanded then painted this lovely brown color. It looks like big blocks of chocolate to me. It made me hungry.

I measured the blocks and subtracted 1/2 inch to know how big to cut the papers. I wanted a space around the edges to frame it. I am mathematically challenged, so this was the hard part.

I chose what font I wanted each letter in and tried to figure out how many inches tall each one should be. Karen cut out the letters with her cricut. I am glad she knows what she is doing. She is the math whiz. We used plain brown cardstock for the lettering.
I used an all purpose spray adhesive to stick the paper on the blocks, then sprayed the letters with the adhesive to attach to the paper. Modge Podged over the top of all the blocks, let it dry and then added some leaves and a ribbon on the "f".

Karen's blocks - She made a bunch of these. We decided a fabric flower would be a cute "O", so I am going to make up some more of those.

I made winter blocks too. This is my favorite of the bunch. I wish the picture did it justice.

Isn't she cute? She helped by watching a video and eating snacks. She likes grapes, crackers, yogurt and peanut m&ms.

Rambling about November 8-14....

Caramel Fresh Apple Cake
This is a recipe from my grandma's cookbook. My mom makes it too. It is so tasty.

I had 3 Macintosh apples and 2 Golden Delicious in the fridge. I sliced them up and threw them in the bowl, mixed the apples with the sugar then added vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla, and chopped walnuts.

Next, I mixed the dry ingredients, the flour, soda, cinnamon and salt. Then added the dry ingredients to the apple mixture.


Poured into a greased 9x13 cake pan. Then baked at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until it shrunk from the edge of the pan.

The cake is great to eat without any topping, but when my kids and I saw a recipe in the book for a carmel-like frosting, we opted to make it into a caramel apple cake. Yum. It was a good idea.

The frosting really isn't a frosting. It is more like a creamy topping you spread over the cake after the cake cools. I spread the warm topping over the cake then put it in the fridge to let it set up a bit. Have you ever had a Leatherbys black and tan? That caramel sauce is similar to this topping. I would like to try it over icecream sometime.

Fresh Apple Cake

4 cups diced fresh apples    2 cups sugar
½ cup vegetable oil     2 eggs well beaten
1 cup chopped walnuts     2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt

Caramel Frosting (topping)
½ cup margarine     1 cup brown sugar
½ cup evaporated milk    1 tsp. vanilla
Melt Margarine and add brown sugar and milk. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and add vanilla. Spread on cake when cake is about cold. Have frosting warm. Keep in refrigerator.

Creamy Squash Soup

I combined recipes and improvised to come up with this recipe. Start with a bunch of cubed squash. I admire anyone who can cut up a squash. It is hard work. I need a sharper knife and a big boulder to throw the squash on to break it up. Be careful out there. My neighbor cut her finger trying to cut up a squash and ended up with stitches, which reminds me of my little sister's accident with a garbage can. She ended up with 45 stiches on her face on Friday the 13th. Get better soon Shanna.

Blending the soup is fun. Don't fill the blender too full, or it will be messy. Put the mixture back in the pan and add yummy cream.

Ingredients:

1 medium chopped onion

2 Tablespoons butter

7 cups cubed squash (I had a huge squash from Mike and Ila. I think it was a banana squash)

4 cups water mixed with 3-1/2 tsp chicken bouillon cubes (You could use chicken broth)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

8 oz cream or half and half ( I used a box of Gossners whipping cream)

Saute onions in butter in a large saucepan. Add the cubed squash, chicken bouillon water, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cayenne pepper. Simmer on medium high heat with lid partially covering pot for about 25 minutes until the squash is very tender. Remove from heat and add the cream. Puree in batches in a blender and return back to pan. Heat through before serving --but don't boil.

It is very delicious. I served it with orange rolls. My squash heads ate it up. Yummy!

SOUR DOUGH BREAD

I will not bore you with the recipe for this. If you want it, I will e-mail it. It took me about a month to find a day I could remember to make this and have the time to do it. You see, it takes about 12 hours from start to finish. I put the sour dough in a big bowl with more flour and water before I went to bed. This is supposed to sit out for at least 8 hours. Then I added the rest of the ingredients to form the dough. This had to raise for 2 hours. Then I kneaded and formed 2 loaves which had to raise for another hour. Then it bakes for almost an hour. CRAZY.... Phil says it is an art form. He loves sourdough bread.

I made a new sourdough start about one month ago, and we have again enjoyed sourdough pancakes. They are the best and much easier than the bread.

Things I Made This Week Part 2

Applesauce = Hard work and a lesson in patience. My Mom and Dad have some great apple trees. They let me have 3 boxes of apples this fall. My kids love homemade applesauce. The stuff in ths store does not compare. I have done applesauce several different ways in the past. I have steamed the apples and used a victorio strainer before. I have also used a potato masher. This year I peeled and sliced the apples with my Pampered Chef Apple corer/slicer. Then I threw the apple slices in a big stock pot, filling the pot just past the 1/2 full mark. I added about 4 cups of water and cooked the apples on medium high heat. I also added a little lemon juice. I put the lid on to let them steam. When the apples were soft, I drained most of the water and then used a blender to make them into sauce. I blended about 3-4 cups at a time. When I had about an inch of apples left in the bottom of the pot, I just mashed those with a potato masher so there would be a few chunks in the sauce. I put in about 3/4 to 1 cup sugar and added some cinnamon. I heated this some more and stirred it all together. I used quart jars and processed the sauce for 40 minutes. (Wet pack)

Now the crazy part.... I did one box on Monday. It took a long time. I only had 8 bottles after about 5 hours of work and decided to call it a day. A little light bulb came on in my head, and I decided I would wait until Saturday when my kids where home from school to do the other 2 boxes so they could help me. We borrowed my sister's apple slicer so we could go faster. I can't say we had a really fun bonding time doing this.... there were some arguments and whining, (mostly me) but we did work together and ended up with some great sauce. We did 14 bottles today. We were happy to see the last apple. My kids are great to put up with me. Notice Jenicca's cute apron. Her aunt Nicci made it. She was excited to have an excuse to wear it. I am sporting my grandma's apron. I just inherited it. I love it. She was the best cook. I hope by wearing it I will somehow be as successful at making good food as she was.

Huevos Rancheros

Josh wanted to bring his A- in Spanish class up to an A (Over achiever). He could make some kind of "authentic" dish for extra credit. We found this easy recipe from the Pioneer Woman. It was so yummy. You should try it. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/06/huevos-ree-os/

Josh did a great job making dinner that night. Muy delicioso.

Banana Bread

Last, but not least, banana bread. I had 3 too ripe bananas, so I was happy to make the best banana bread recipe I have ever had. I got this recipe from Phil's mom. It is easy and always turns out great.

1/2 cup butter - - 2 cups flour

1 cup sugar - - 1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs - - 1/4 cup nuts

3 bananas

Cream the butter and suagar. Add beaten eggs. Sift flour and soda. Add to the creamed mixture. Add crushed bananas and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees.

(I made one big loaf and one small loaf. It took 35 minutes for the big loaf and 25 minutes for the mini loaf. I was using a convection oven, so it would take longer for a regular oven.)

Ta-da. That is the week in condensed version.

Things I Have Made This Week

Do you every feel like you haven't accomplished much in a day or a week? I do, so I am going to start documenting what I do each week that is creative, useful, yummy, crafty, or new to me. Maybe this will encourage me to finish some projects I have started and motivate me to start the projects tumbling around in my brain and really get them done. I have been inspired by the blogs I have been looking at that give me instructions and ideas. It is fun to see how many creative people there are out there. I am glad they are willing to share their techniques and ideas.

Creations this week = Applesauce, beaded watches, fabric flowers, huevos rancheros, and banana bread. Stay tuned...

Beaded Watches
This is a fun trend. I bought four watch faces from my friend this past spring. Finally made a couple. I think I'm hooked now. I am going to a bead party this next week to find some more beads. Thanks to our ward Super Saturday and http://sistersstuff.blogspot.com/, I was able to figure out what I was doing.

Fabric Flowers

These are so much fun. I am going to make a bunch (hopefully). There are endless ways to make flowers. I want to put them on hair holders, purses, gifts, clothing, etc. Fun and fast. I have lots of fabric left over from the days when I sold Quilt Magic boards and fabric packets. My favorite flower is the red poinsettia. I think I will make several to give to friends for Christmas.
Jenicca had a choir concert this week. She sang and played the piano for one of the numbers. I made a black fabric flower for her hair. I used a button I picked up at a antique shop in Phoenix a few years ago. Good place to find bags of old buttons - antique shops.
For instructions I went to http://www.tipjunkie.com and http://www.blairpeter.typepad.com/ I made my own template for Jenicca's flower using a compass and ruler. Then I photocopied my pattern and reduced the size to 75% for the smaller flower. Fun.

Aren't they precious? They are getting too big, but the older kids threw a Halloween carnival for the younger kids at the church, so they all dressed up. Yes,I sewed Jenicca's dress. I think it is the most elaborate thing I have ever made. I like how it laces up in the back, very Old English. It was fun to have Halloween on a Saturday.