Blog Surfing - Holiday Style

From now until the New Year, it's all about the Holidays, with a few extra things thrown in too!

From Food.com: Amazing Cheese Truffles would make a great party appetizer. You can make them sweet, savory or crunch with the toppings you use.

From Joy of Baking: Christmas Baking

From Tasty Kitchen: Burnt Sugar Almonds would make a great treat for the holidays, as gifts, or for your guests. Chrismas Tin Crunchies, Poppy Chow, Cookies Galore, Pear and Pomegranate Christmas Salad, 3 Minute Fudge, Hot Cocoa Cookies, Christmas Crackle Cookies, Cranberry Cream Cheese Snickerdoodles, Peppermint Mocha Milkshake, Challah Bread, Double Ginger Crackles, Way Too Easy Fudge, Sugar Plum Fairy Pudding Cake, Almond Roca, Peanut Butter Fudge, Fruit Cake Cookies, Pistachio Cranberry White Chocolate Bark.

From One Perfect Bite: Cheese Straws  

From Luna Cafe: 12 Days of Christmas Cookies 

From Taste of Home: White Chocolate Cranberry Bread, Jolly Santas, Peppermint Biscotti, Butter Cookie Snowmen.

From Foodnetwork.com 12 Days of Cookies

From More than Burnt Toast: Cranberry Hazelnut Raincoast Crisp

From Our Krazy Kitchen: Eggnog Coffee Cake   

From Squidoo: Gingerbread Recipes  

From Foodgal: Biscotti for the Holidays

From Cooking Channel: 12 Days of Christmas, Main Dishes for Christmas, Top Holiday Desserts. 

From Tablspoon: Cookie Exchange Recipes

From Recipegirl: Christmas Cookies, over 50 recipes. 

From Brown Eyed Baker: 30 Favorite Christmas Cookies  

From How Sweet It Is: Holiday Baking Begins
 
From Stone Soup: 9 Christmas Gifts to Make at Home Using 5 Ingredients

From Our Krazy Kitchen: Cherry Almond Chocolate Clusters

From Monster Mama: Stain-Glass Rocky Road 

From Cookin' Canuck: Double Chocolate Ginger and Hazelnut Cookies

From Food.com: Bacon Brittle, I guess bacon isn't just for breakfast anymore!

Weekend Diversion

Our wedding anniversary got pushed aside last week as we spent the day entertaining friends and family on Thanksgiving. That's when four day weekends come in handy. We decided to head west and spend a little time exploring the area. We ended up at the Lafayette Locks County Park in Yamhill County, Oregon. During our recent travels, my dear hubby had seen the sign and wanted to see what the locks were doing on such a small river. It wasn't much of a surprise that we were the only ones that made that their destination of choice. After reading the history of the locks, it became very interesting.

The first regular transportation on the Yamhill River began in 1850. They used a 65 foot flatboat, powered by four Klickitat Indians. They carried wheat to the flour mills in Oregon City and were paid $16.00 each for the round trip. Through the years, the river traffic increased and they decided a locks was needed, which would raise the river 16 feet and would allow year-around transportation of logs and wheat to McMinnville. The dam and locks were built in between 1898-1900 and were used until 1954. In 1964, they used dynamite and destroyed the dam and the lock doors.
 

All that is left now are the cement walls

It is a small but beautiful park along the river

 This tree was home to ferns

Most of the trees were covered with moss and ivy

These look like they have been here since the 1800's

A closer look

It is a nice little park

Next, we went to have dinner at a restaurant that has been rated the best restaurant in McMinnville called Orchard's Bistro. Well, I'm sure it would have been a great meal, but they were closed on Sunday. Time for Plan B. We decided to go to Hotel Oregon. 

There are Christmas lights everywhere!

We must have arrived at peak dinner time because the dining room was full. They suggested we go upstairs for rooftop dining, so we took the (very, very old) elevator up to the roof.
 

The sky was beautiful

Lots of Christmas lights down below

The salad was ok, but it wasn't the gourmet meal we set out to enjoy

 Dear Hubby

The best part of the afternoon and evening was enjoying the time with my very dear hubby. His kind eyes and charming smile still make my heart go pitter patter after all these 38 years!

Warning, X-traordinarily Rich Chocolate Pudding

Sometimes I come across a recipe that is turns out surprisingly good, maybe even fantastic, but rarely shockingly good! That is what happened with this pudding. I was looking for a deep dark chocolate pudding recipe to use in the layered dessert for Thanksgiving. I had not made the layered dessert for many years and it was in needed makeover. When I revisit old recipes, I try to give them a new twist. 

When I found this recipe, I knew this was the one wanted to try, but I wasn't expecting it to knock our socks off!! The smell should have been our first clue that this was a keeper. The kitchen smelled like a chocolate factory, no kidding. Once we took it off the heat we checked it out to make sure it was lump free. It was, thanks to Matt for all the stirring. 

I reached for a small spoon to see if it needed more vanilla and wow, that's when my socks started falling off! I gave Matt a small spoonful and his socks fell off too! We both could not believe the flavor. It was like tasting a great cup of coffee; and the flavor hits every taste bud at once, coating the mouth with a lingering flavor. We started passing around spoons of pudding and we were all ready to dig in and have it for dinner! Forget about saving it for Thanksgiving, there wouldn't be anything left!!

Fortunately, that was just a moment of madness that passed after a couple of hours. We actually ate dinner instead and saved it for Thanksgiving. I used a Belgium dark chocolate and I would suggest that you use a good quality chocolate too. Trader Joe's has excellent chocolate for a very reasonable price. I usually add the chocolate last, after the liquid part of a recipe has been heated, so I wasn't sure about the process of adding the chocolate and then cooking it for the two minutes, but it didn't hurt it at all. I made another change by using whipped sour cream in place of whipped cream. It whips very nicely and I added about a tablespoon of brown sugar to it for some sweetness. It turned out great!!

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

Our Thanksgiving

I hope you had a special Thanksgiving day and weekend. We sure did!! It was the first time in 12 years that our immediate family was together on Thanksgiving, so that made it very special. We had twenty people for our dinner and it took four tables to seat everyone. We all had a great time. I was happy with all of the recipes that I chose because the food turned out great! I knew that I had a very big menu planned, and we kept the three full-size ovens busy for hours. I couldn't have done it without them. It was worth the extra effort and our time spent with family was very special. 

Our Thanksgiving menu included:

Roast Turkey

Sweet Onion, Apple, Bacon and Dried Cherry Cornbread Dressing

Creamy Oven-Baked Mashed Potatoes

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

Cranberry Relish

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Homemade Applesauce

Sweet Potatoes with Toasted Marshmallows

Sweet Potato Puree with Pecan Streusel

Green Beans and Mushroom Casserole

Shredded Brussell Sprouts with Bacon and Hazelnuts

Black Cherry Tapioca Jello

Peach Dream Jello

Great Grandma Hansen's Homemade Rolls

Homemade Butter

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Desserts

Pam's Lemon Meringue Pie

Impossible Pumpkin Pies

Pecan Pie

Mini Caramel Apple Pies

Misty's Lemon Bars
Chewy Oatmeal Cut-out Cookies

I have a few pictures to share from the big day. I was a little busy so I relied on others to take pictures for me. Unfortunately, I am missing a couple photos of some of the food items, but most of them are here.

The breakfast room table

The dining room table

A smaller table

The kids table

Ivan's table

Tender and Moist Roast Turkey

 Sweet Onion, Apple, Bacon and Dried Cherry Cornbread Dressing

Creamy Oven-Baked Mashed Potatoes

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

Green Bean and Mushroom Casserole

Sweet Potato Puree with Pecan Streusel

Candied Sweet Potatoes with Toasted Marshmallows

Apricot Dream Jello

Shredded Brussell Sprouts with Bacon and Hazelnuts

Great Grandma Hansen's Homemade Rolls.

Dessert table

 

All the food was ready to be served at the same time which was great. The most time-consuming part of the pre-meal time was getting the food dished up into serving bowls for three separate tables. Because of so many different dishes, it would have worked out better logistically if the food had been set up buffet style. Everyone could have filled their plates and enjoyed everything together. If I had a do-over, I would change that aspect of the meal.

I don't know about you, but when I cook a large meal like this, by the time I sit down to eat, all I want is a bite here and there to taste how new recipes turned out. Hunger pangs didn't hit until the next morning and I was ready for breakfast.

I have a few recipes that I will be sharing later this week from our Thanksgiving dinner. It is really handy having this blog as a place to keep track of special meals like this. It will make Thanksgiving planning easier next year.

After dinner, those of us that weren't cleaning up in the kitchen gathered in the living room area around the piano and enjoyed some music. A huge thank you to those that did the clean up!! We enjoyed lots of singing and music being played between the sax, flute, tuba and miscellaneous noise makers for the smaller kids. That is how we ended most every holiday meal when I was growing up and I'm very happy that the tradition that is being passed on to our grandkids.

My mom-in-law was able to join us for Thanksgiving and spent two nights with us as well. We had a big weekend slumber party, with lots of Probe, Uno and Chicken Feet being played. We all had a great weekend. I can't wait until Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Anniversary

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! 

I hope wherever you are, whoever you are with, and no matter how busy you are today, that you take a moment to "give thanks" for all your blessings!

 Happy Anniversary to you, Dear Hubby!

We were mere children on November 25, 1972

Thirty-eight years ago today, I married you, my best friend. 

Today you are still my very best friend, and so much more!

Now, as we are getting "older," we are blessed to be called not only Dad and Mom, but Gramma and Papa, too!

Thank you for the every one of these past 38 years!

I love you more today than yesterday, or the day before, or 38 years ago!

Our Thanksgiving Menu and a Trip to the Emergency Room

It's almost here! I have been busy putting our menu together, grocery shopping and cooking up a storm today. I could see the end in sight when I got a call about a family emergency, but I will get to that later.

Our main course is going to be Turkey, surprise, surprise! In addition to the 25 lb. turkey, we are also roasting a large turkey breast. We will be using Cristina Ferrare's famous marinade that we have used several times since her "Home and Family" Show days. It is amazing! You can find the recipe here.

We are making a Dressing with half cornbread and half white bread. It will have sweet onions, celery, sage from the garden, apples and bacon. We don't have a  recipe that we are following, but we are confident that it will be good. We don't stuff the bird so it will be baked separately. 

I made the Cranberry Relish today using a recipe I found several years ago in the LA Times. It always turns out very good. It has whole cloves, allspice berries and cinnamon sticks with fresh orange zest added at the end. You can find that recipe here.

I made the Mashed Potatoes today and I used a recipe from RecipeGirl called Creamy Oven-Baked Mashed Potatoes. I was really happy with how they came together and the ingredient amounts are perfect. You can find that recipe here.

Today the house smelled like Thanksgiving because I made Make Ahead Turkey Thanksgiving Gravy from the Woman's Day magazine. I added two stalks of celery and fresh thyme. I couldn't find turkey wings but I did find two turkey legs so I used them instead. The broth turned out beautiful and tomorrow I will remove the hard fat that will be on top. Thursday we will add some of the drippings from the turkey and thicken it to complete the gravy. I would highly recommend making this. You can find the recipe here.

Today I also made two jellos; Black Cherry Tapioca and Apricot Dream Jello. I got the apricot jello recipe in a round about way on facebook friend. She responded right before me on a post from Taste of Home, asking about your favorite jello recipe. Her description sounded so good, I sent her a note asking her for her recipe. She sent me the recipe and we have been facebook friends ever since. Thanks again, Louise! You can find the jello recipes here:

On Wednesday, I will be making Macaroni and Cheese and Homemade Applesauce, especially for my grandsons, Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows, Sweet Potato Puree with Pecan Streusel. On Thursday I am making Green Bean and Mushroom Casserole from For the Love of Cooking and  Shredded Brussel Sprouts with Bacon and Hazelnuts from myrecipes. My mom-in-law will be bringing her amazing homemade rolls.

Also on Wednesday, I will be making the desserts. I will be making Impossible Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes from Baking Bites, Chocolate Layered Dessert and Mini Caramel Apple Pies that I posted on November 5th. Key ingredient is not letting me access that recipe right now and it is not 11:35 pm and I'm not going to stay up waiting for it to work. You will need to find it in my index if you are interested in that recipe. Here is the Layered Dessert recipe. I will be making a chocolate pudding, from scratch, for the filling and I will be using roasted hazelnuts in the crust.

I expected to have the applesauce, mac and cheese, and both of the sweet potato dishes finished today, which would leave Wednesday to make the desserts, but sometimes our plans change can change in a flash. 

This afternoon I received a call that my dad was being taken to the hospital by ambulance. He had lost his balance and fell on some black ice on his driveway while he was heading down to get the mail. A couple of hours later, he became disoriented, and didn't know where he was. That was very scary. I rushed to the hospital along with most of my siblings, waiting to hear how he was doing. He had became aware of what was happening by the time he reached the hospital, but had no memory of what happened or why he was there. 

The CAT scan showed he had a concussion but everything else looked good. By the time we got that report, he was back to his happy self, and his memory had come back. He remembered feeling dizzy and the next memory was of being at the hospital, everything that happened in between was missing. With concussions these days, the Doctors instructions are for "Brain Rest," which means; no jumping, no football, no pogo sticks, etc., for two weeks. They also said keep the head upright, no bending, lifting, and sleep in a reclined position with the head up for one week. 

We are all so happy that dad is alright and that he didn't have a stroke. Today, I am so happy that we are back in Oregon and that I was able to go to be with my dad and mom at the hospital. The only down side to all of this is that I have a lot of catching up to do to make up for those hours I lost in the kitchen today. I better be getting to bed now that it is 12:11 am, Wednesday, and I have a full day of cooking and baking ahead of me today!

Sweet Dreams!