Orphan Thanksgiving - Part I

This year for Thanksgiving, I hosted some friends at my place for an Orphan Thanksgiving. Anyone is invited who is around and doesn't have family around for Thanksgiving and everyone who comes contributes something to the meal.


At first I was worried because most of my friends had plans or things to do. And for awhile, I thought it was going to be just me and my friend Dawn. The response to my orhpan thanksgiving email was mixed - with one person actually thinking I was having real orphans over to my place for dinner. Oops.

As the day grew closer, more and more friends were excited to come and it ended up being 6 of us... which is really the perfect number.


I don't have the pics yet from the dinner... but I do have some pics of the things that I made and wanted to share some recipes and variations that I did.

Roasted Garlic Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

I followed this recipe with just a few changes. I used a little extra butter (probably 1-2 extra Tablespoons)... and I also stirred in Garlic Salt into the potatoes. I used a ricer (which is the BEST way to make mashed potatoes quickily and easily - it's amazing). Also, used whole milk... probably about 1/2 a cup. My other addition was Rosemary. I cut some up fresh rosemary and stirred it in at the very end. I used more fresh rosemary to garnish and sprinkled Garlic Salt and Pepper over the top. I made these early and put them into the oven to warm them up just before serving. My apartment smelled amazing from the roasted garlic (pictured at left).


If you are planning on putting them into the oven for a long time to warm, be sure to add a little more milk, as this helps to prevent them from getting too dry.

Apple Crisp

Apple Crisp is one of my absolute favorite things to make. It's very simple and quick and seems to encompass all things Autumn. There are tons of recipes out there... and I've basically combined several... but also have made it so many times that I don't really follow a recipe. So I'll just write down what I do.

You Need:
2 Large Apples - I normally use Gala or Granny Smith, but those varieties were looking very picked over at the market. So for yesterday's crisp- pictured above, I used 2 HoneyCrisp Apples.

Lots of Cinnamon Sugar. I go through a lot making this recipe, I would get a new bottle of it - or make your own by mixing Ground Cinnamon with Sugar.

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
3/4 Stick of Butter (I use unsalted sweetened butter)
1/2 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Oatmeal (uncooked)
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract (I actually don't measure this or the spices, so it's an estimation - feel free to use more or less!)
3/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
1/8 Teaspoon Cloves (optional)

What to Do:

Pre-Heat Oven to 375.
Grease a square or round baking pan.
Pour cinnamon sugar onto a plate in a thin layer.
Peel and Slice apples. I use an Apple Corer which cuts the apples into 4 slices, then I cut those slices in half.
Roll apples in the cinnamon sugar, lightly coating them.
Place apples into the baking pan. Feel free to layer them evenly. I usually end up with about 2 layers of apples.
In a bowl, mix together the Brown Sugar, Flour, Oats, Spices. Cut in the butter and mix it all together. Pour the mixture over the apples in the pan.
Bake in the oven for about 30 mins... or until the apples are nice and tender (ie, you can easily slide a knife into the apples).

Voila! Yummtastic! I recommend serving warm with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream on top. The vanilla ice cream really brings out and balances the spices.

I made two of these yesterday... one for the dinner and one for a friend who doesn't love baking. Apple Crisps are very quick to make and always are a big hit.

Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie

The above picture is the only one I got of the pumpkin pie that I made... kind of an afterthought!

I love pumpkin pie... and love making it. It's very easy and the smell is always just amazing. I'm a big fan of making pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin... but, this year I didn't have the time. Actually, I wasn't even going to make pumpkin pie this year... but then I saw this Paula Deen Special on the Food Network on Sunday... and her pie recipe inspired me to give it a shot. She used APPLE BUTTER in her pie. I love love love apple butter... so I knew I had to try it.

I made about 30 mini pumpkin pies from the recipe for work on Wednesday. Actually, I did 1/2 of the pies from the Paula Deen recipe and 1/2 from my old recipe. Both went quickly. I made a few changes, though, from that trial run to the pumpkin pie that I made yesterday.

This is the Paula Deen Recipe....

and here's my input :o)

I added a little more brown sugar... and I also added 1/8 teaspoon of Cloves. I love Cloves in pumpkin pie. I used organic canned pumpkin. Also, for my trial run, the apple butter I used was not that great. It was very thin and light - almost like an apple jam. The spices in it were very light. I really recommend using as "authentic" an apple butter as you can, ie as close to homemade as possible. It should be dark in color and very thick. You should be able to smell the AllSpice! The second time, I used Apple Butter that was more authentic. It cost me more, but it was the right consitency and made a HUGE difference.

Anyway - other than that, I followed Paula's recipe... and it was a big hit ;o)

Thanks and hope everyone had a great holiday! I'll Post Part II when I get the pics from my guests!

A *gasp* Healthy Dessert?

So we all know that I love to make insanely insinful, uber-decadent desserts. That being said, like to avoid giant swings in my blood sugar...
I finally found a dessert for ME.

Awhile back, my friend Miriam and her son were visiting Austin and we went to Home Slice Pizza. They accidentally brought us the wrong pizza. While we waited for our new one, they brought us a consolation prize - in the form of a small dessert cup with a spoonful of dessert ricotta.

I had never had anything so creamy and delicious. It was like ice cream, but richer - creamer, and fresher. Amazing.

I was at the grocery store and saw ricotta yesterday and thought - hey, I wonder if I could make a healthy version of that thing?

I picked up the part-skim variety of it... and created a tasty treat!

Basically, you take a 1/2 cup of part skim ricotta cheese. Get the good stuff that's nice and smmmmmooth.
Stir in some Vanilla Extract and a packet of splenda.

That's it.

I thought I was really smart- then I googled it this morning and discovered that this is actually a huge Low-Carb/South Beach Diet dessert.
So, I'm not that clever.

But.... it is tried and true... and there are lots of other ideas all over the internets like adding a bit of peanut butter and some chocolate syrup...
or lemon extract! or strawberries! or... chocolate chips!

The dessert has lots of protein and not a lot of sugar... so it doesn't cause big swings in sugar for me...

and it tastes great :)

Chocolate Covered Prezels

So... I've been crocheting a secret project for a friend that I can't post about yet. In the interim, I made these scrumdiddlyumptious treats for a friend's birthday... and then made them again for coworkers for Halloween.

It's quick, easy... and doesn't even use your oven.

you'll need:
a bag or two of pretzel rods
a bag of milk chocolate chips
chopped peanuts/hazelnuts/toffee bits/ cookie crumbs (you can put oreos in the blender/food processor or chop finely).
shortening (you can get one with no trans fat... you might be able to go without the shortening, but I find it helps it all stick better).

what you do:
1. Pour 1/2 a bag of milk chocolate chips and add 2 T of shortening into a microwave safe bowl.
2. Melt microwave for 1 min... then take it out and stir until well mixed. Depending on your microwave, you may have to nuke it again for an additional 30 seconds. Don't over nuke. (alternatively, you can melt the chocolate in double boiler)
3. Wait until the melted chocolate cools a little and thickens. I got the best results when I waited for it to get really thick - being impatient, I put it in the fridge for about 5 mins.
4. Spoon mixture over 3/4 of a prezel rod (or, if thick, take a big spoonful and roll the pretzel in the chocolate on the spoon.

5. Then roll pretzel rod in chopped peanuts, toffee bits, cookie crumbs, whatever.
6. Refrigerate for 30 mins.

Yumtastic!

Grandma Gallagher's Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope everyone is sipping some guiness and wearing green :) I made 4 loaves of Grandma Gallagher's Irish Soda Bread last night. Soda bread is unique because it is made with out yeast, but still rises. This is because of the mixture of buttermilk and baking soda. You might notice a cross in the top of the loaves. One of your Irish friends might tell you that this is to “let the devil out”, but really it’s so that when the bread rises quickly, it doesn’t completely crumble. It's a very dense bread that tastes like a scone and is great with butter, honey, maple butter, or apple butter.
I'm going to make a few more loaves tonight for a party that I'm going to - and maybe some Bailey's Fudge, too! For kickball this week, I made fudge brownies with Bailey's Frosting. It was a huge hit, but because of the resulting food comas, our team was massacred. Ah, well :)

Here is the recipe for Grandma Gallagher's Soda Bread:
Ingredients:
4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 Cups Raisins
4 Tablespoons Butter -softened (I use Unsalted Sweet Cream Butter)
1 Tablespoon Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cups Buttermilk
1 egg

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• Soak the raisins to make them plump. I put them into a bowl with water and microwave them for 1 minute. Then I drain them and set them aside.
• Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl (flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt) until well blended.
• Cut the butter into the mixed dry ingredients. I use my hands. Press the butter into the mixture and continue to mix until the ingredients resemble cornmeal - ie, are crumbly.
• Mix in the (now plump) raisins.
• Lightly beat an egg in a small bowl with a fork.
• Pour 1 1/4 cup of Buttermilk (save 1/4 cup for later) into the bowl with the egg. Stir together with the fork.
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
• Slowly Pour the Buttermilk and Egg blend into the well in the dry ingredients.
• Fold the dry mixture over the buttermilk blend with a wooden spoon. Softly stir until the dry ingredients soak up the buttermilk blend.
• Flour your hands.
• Take the very moist and sticky dough and softly knead the dough for just a minute or so. You want the dough to be moist, not stretchy (over kneaded) or dry. Dry dough = very bad. If your dough is really dry/cracked, it won't bake correctly... so add in more buttermilk in Teaspoons at a time until it has the right consistency.
• Divide the dough into 2 balls.
• Grease a baking sheet or two pie pans (either work fine).
• Place each ball on the sheet.
• Cut a cross in the top of each ball. The dough will not bake correctly without the cross.
• Pour the remaining Buttermilk Blend (1/4 cup) over each loaf. Pour into the cross and then use your hands to coat the top of the loaf.
• Bake for 30 mins.
• Bread is ready when you insert a toothpick into the center of the loaf and it comes out clean. If the center of the bread is not finished after 30 mins of baking and the outside is baked, put the oven on warm and let the bread sit for 5 more minutes.

VARIATION: My friend Erin coats hers with melted butter and then a heavy sprinkling of Cinnamon Sugar. Yummilicious!

It's not exactly the same as my Grandma's, but it's pretty dern close - which is awesome because she never wrote hers down and never measured anything! My mom came up with the above, I think, and I think it works very well. I think I want to play around with the recipe a little and see if I can get a larger, creamier, flatter loaf.

Enjoy!