Our Thanksgiving

Well hello there stranger.  I hope you had a great thanksgiving, we did and ate too much but it was worth it.  My hubby smoked a turkey and it was amazing.  I grew a pumpkin for my pies, but had no idea how much pumpkin I would have left over.  I have a freezer full, so I better figure out some new ways to cook with pumpkin.  Here's a few picks from the day, and our Christmas tree.  This is our first year with a fake tree.  My hubby was not terribly excited about it, but I told him to give it a try for a couple years, if he hates it we can always go back.  I promise more posts for December....

Homemade Raviolis

This summer I intended to plant spinach, a lot of spinach.  However, after placing my seed order I was informed that they were all out of the spinach seeds I wanted so I quickly chose another leafy-green plant.  I settled on Japanese Mustard Spinach because I read that it does well in dry weather and is rather hardy.  Mustard Spinach is not a mustard, nor a spinach, it is actually part of the same family as broccoli.  So it has different nutrients but is still very good for you and you can use it and cook it just like you would spinach.  

I ordered 3 packets of seeds because I was certain there was no such thing as too many greens.  Well after a month of eating salads, sides, and basically trying to incorporate Mustard Spinach into every meal as much as possible I was over it.  Unfortunately I had planted 3 rows of this stuff and it was doing incredibly well. 

1 of 3 rows of Mustard Spinach

I also planted a few rows of mixed salad greens that I needed to start eating sooo yeah I needed to get rid of this stuff.

row of salad greens calling my name...

I mean I didn't want to get rid of it completely, I just wanted to be able to cut all the plants down to a couple small leaves so that I could have a little break.  I also didn't want to waste all the leaves that I was cutting down.  So I decided to make Mustard Spinach and Mushroom Raviolis that I could freeze for later.  

Here's how I made them...

...and I fully apologize for this crazy explanation and lack of "recipe".  Truth is I have a hard time following and creating recipes.  I get bored when cooking and want to experiment and create and forget to write things down, but it normally works out in the end.  

First you need to make some pasta dough and this I actually did use a recipe for.  I used one from the Better Homes and Garden cook book.  The only thing I changed with this recipe is that I used whole wheat flour and honestly you can use any old pasta dough recipe you want.  They will all work.  

So first make some pasta dough, set it aside to rest, then on to the filling, which is the fun part.

Here's what went into the filling:

all the Mustard Spinach leaves I had that looked good

a handful of parsley

a handful of oregano 

a bag full of mushrooms

3 handfuls of shredded cheese

garlic powder

onion salt

There's really no wrong way to make the filling.  Just throw in whatever tastes good to you.  

I put everything except the cheese in the food processor, cooked it all together, then set it aside to cool.

Once it had cooled down quite a bit I added the shredded cheese.

Now you are ready to start assembling some raviolis.  I separated my pasta dough into small batches and started rolling it out into thin sheets.  How thin is up to you and your muscles.  I really need to buy the pasta attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer, because I do not have the arm strength for this nonsense. 

Once I had it rolled out I placed teaspoon size blobs of filling all over my dough.  I then laid another sheet of dough on top and stamped out each ravioli with this handy ravioli stamp.  You can find a similar one here.

getting a little more efficient at my stamping...

Once your raviolis are stamped out they are ready to cook or freeze.  I made enough for 5 nights of dinner and stored each night separately in a freezer bag.  I did have some filling left over but I was too tired to make any more raviolis.  I separated this filling into a couple different freezer bags and intend on making stuffed chicken with it.

Of course I had to cook up a few for lunch that day and they were delicious and so worth the work.  

My Doggie Cupcake Recipe

Today is my boys' 6th birthday and when I say " my boys' " I am referring to my furry children Morty and Leo.  These little guys are quite the handful and have gotten in more trouble than I care to remember, but my life would not be as wonderful without them.

Every year I give them a special treat on their special day which I normally buy.  This year I wanted to bake them something myself so I can control what the ingredients are.  I read a few different recipes for dog treats and cakes and did a little research on what they can and can't have and here is what I came up with...

Doggie Cupcakes

1 egg

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1/3 cup raw honey

1 cup finely chopped carrots

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 Paper baking cups or 8 cupcake liners

Glaze/Frosting

1/2 teaspoon raw honey

1 tablespoon peanut butter

1 egg yolk

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Combine peanut butter, oil, vanilla, and honey in a large bowl.  These ingredients especially the peanut butter and oil may be close to solid depending on their temperature so pop them into the microwave for a few seconds.  
• Add the egg and blend. 
• Chop or shred the carrots, I put mine in a food processor to get them very small then stir into the mixture thoroughly. 
• Fold in the flour and baking soda.  
• Spoon batter into paper baking cups or cupcake liners.  They will rise slightly so don't fill all the way to the top.  I used paper baking cups which are about double the size of average cupcake liners.  I was able to get 4 cups with just a tiny left over with this recipe.  
• Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 30 minutes, depending how big your cupcakes are.
• Whisk glaze ingredients together in a small bowl.  If they are too solid just heat in microwave for a few seconds, then continue whisking.
• When there is only a few minutes to go spread the glaze on top and then finish baking.
• Let cool for at least 10 minutes.
• Once cooled the glaze will be firm and have a nice shine to it.  

I have to say these cupcakes smell delicious and they definitely passed my doggies taste test.

Happy Birthday Boys! 

TWG Tea and Banana Oatmeal Cookies

This week I have a couple new teas to share and I tried a pretty tasty, healthy cookie recipe...

The Mr. occasionally travels for work and lately he's been going to Hong Kong and Macau.  The Mr. shares my love for tea.  So while he was there right before Christmas he sat down to a Holiday Afternoon Tea, and boy was I jealous.  I wish I could have been there.  Here are a couple pictures he took, they even served sipping chocolate with the tea.

On his most recent trip he brought me home some TWG Tea.  The two tea flavors he brought back were Tea Party and Moments Tea.  I had my mom over today to try them and the banana oatmeal cookies I made.

Tea Party is from their Haute Couture Tea Collection, which means what? Its extra fancy and they can charge more?  It's a black tea infused with candied sweetness and bright yellow blossoms.  Not much of a description for such a fancy tea, I think the bright yellow blossoms are Marigolds, as I have seen those in other teas before,  but not sure what else is in it.  It is very tasty though and has a sweetness to it.  It definitely reminds you of a tea party and the yummy goodies served.  

The Moments Tea is a special tea created exclusively for the Sheraton Macau Hotel and is a mix of green and black tea with sweet flower blossoms and ripe tropical mango.  Again I am left wondering exactly what's in it, but the smell is very intense and it is very tropical and fruity.  They are both delicious but I think I prefer the Moments Tea.  

Now on to the other yummy part of this post, the cookies!  I have to start off by saying these cookies are pretty simple and healthy so don't expect them to taste just like oatmeal cookies.  My mom had in her mind that she was having oatmeal cookies so she was quite surprised when she took her first bite.  We both agreed these were tasty but would be even yummier with chocolate chips, but then that is adding more sugar.  She even had the great suggestion of turning these into bars to take with you for a snack instead of buying granola bars.  

I found these cookies on pinterst which led me the blog The Burlap Bag.  Her site has the full recipe with other great ideas.  I tweaked the recipe a bit and used Strawberry Shortcake Oatmeal instead of quick oats and it turned out great.

All these cookies have in them is 2 bananas and 1 cup of oatmeal.  Smash everything together and bake at 350 for 15 minutes on parchment paper.

They could not be any easier and I don't feel guilty about sitting down and eating 3 at one time.  I think tomorrow I will make another batch but this time with chocolate chips, just a few won't hurt right? 

My attempt at Shortbread Cookies

Every year my mom and I bake tons of Christmas cookies together and every year we eat them all and wish we hadn't.  Don't get me wrong, they are delicious and I often thought Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without them, but this year which may be the first time ever we didn't do it.  Instead of a full day baking and weeks of eating I decided to make just one cookie to enjoy on Christmas day.  

Two years ago my parents went to Scotland and brought me back a shortbread mould and a shortbread recipe from their friends that they stayed with and this was the perfect time to try it out.  

I must confess right away, this post was supposed to happen before Christmas and my cookies were supposed to be amazing on my first try.  Of course, as with many of my plans things went wrong and it's my fault.  Here's what went wrong and what went right on my second try.

Here is the recipe and my story...

8 oz Unsalted Butter

8 oz Plain Flour

4 oz Corn Flour

4 oz Caster Sugar

First lets talk about the ingredients and what to use in America since this recipe is from Scotland.  I did a little research and read that the butter is super important since that's where the flavor comes from.  In Scotland the butter is different than it is here, they have different cows; their cows are cuter and they make different tasting butter.  I was happy to find at Sprouts and Wholefoods a butter from Ireland and England.  The butter from Ireland was cheaper so that's what I bought, I'm cheap.   

Their plain flour is the same as our all purpose flour and it was easy to find corn flour.  The caster sugar was a little more tricky, I read that you can find it here but it's expensive so I decided to make my own.  Caster sugar is a very fine sugar, but don't get it confused with powdered sugar.  You can take you own granulated sugar and grind it down into a finer sugar and use that.  I read about some people using a food processor and a coffee grinder, so coffee grinder it was.  

Once your sugar is ready to go add the butter at room temperature and all the other ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.  Some recipes online say to do this by hand but Martha Stewart says this is only the case because in the olden days they did not have power.  As Gwyneth Paltrow knows you do not argue with Martha, so in the mixer went my ingredients.

This is what it looks like all ready to go and this is where my problems started.  I first attempted to use the mould my mom gave me and it never worked.  I would get the dough in the mould put in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes, but I could never get the dough back out to bake.  Yes, I tried buttering it, I tried flouring it, I tried buttering and flouring, I tried everything and it just never worked out for me.  Some day when I figure it out I will post it but today is not that day.  Martha Stewart uses really cute tart moulds which I do not have, so I used an old pie pan.  You can split the dough in half and fill 2 pans with this recipe. 

This dough is really sticky so use some cling wrap when smoothing the dough into the pan and then prick some holes all over so it doesn't rise too much in the oven.

My cookies did rise a little and the holes disappeared every time. Oh and you see that tea pot cookie cutter in the picture? I had the genius idea of using the dough like sugar cookie dough to make shapes..this did not work out, the dough just turns into blobs in the oven. 

Now here is where I had the biggest problem...

All over the internet people were giving different temperatures and one person even said to bake at a high temperature for 5 minutes and then turn it down.  Well instead of just following the recipe I had and cooking it for 45 minutes at 320 degrees Fahrenheit I got creative and cooked it at a high temperature.  The dough bubbled! Crazy bubbles all over and the cookies were not pretty.  They tasted fine but they were extra crumbly and ugly.

After Christmas I had a chance to make these again, this time I followed the rules and cooked them at 320 degrees Fahrenheit.  You do not want them to brown just to firm up, so start checking on them early, maybe 25 to 30 minutes in and leave them until they are golden and firm.  

Take them out, sprinkle with some of the fine sugar, and cut them into slices.  If you wait too long to cut them they will break.  Once they have cooled a little transfer them to a cooling rack to finish.

bubbly, extra crumbly, ugly, but tasty cookies

At last! A pretty, no bubbles cookie.

Thanksgiving

Hello World! Nice to meet you.  Charmed, I’m sure.  This is going to be my little place to share.  I will share  what’s on my mind because I have an endless supply of opinions and stories and to share what project I am currently working on because there is always something! 

Since we just celebrated the delicious holiday Thanksgiving, I will share a couple recipes from our dinner. 

First the most important thing the drink! Holiday Sangria stolen from Tommy Bahamas, well sorta stolen.  I have no idea what the recipe is other than the description on the menu.  Soooo the recipe in my kitchen goes like this:

1 Bottle of Port
½ a Bottle of cranberry gingerale
Some spiced rum
A little bit of cranberry juice (the unsweetened kind)
Mulled spices
Pumpkin pie spices
Sliced green apples
Cranberries

Mix all of the above in a large bowl or pitcher to taste and let steep? Soak? for a little bit then drink! Very tasty..3 out of my 4 guests loved it, and the 4th well doesn't count because they don’t like wine so boo on them.

The next recipe I was very excited to try this year was Pumpkin Mousse.  I am tired of the traditional pumpkin pie and wanted something different but the same and this was the answer and it was delicious!

Here is the link to the recipe I used:  http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pumpkin-mousse

Instead of crumbling the cookies into the mousse I served them on the side for dipping.  Yummy!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and tasty Thanksgiving!