Happy Thanksgiving...

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was a quiet day for J & I, our kids were going to their in-laws and we'll be getting together with extended family for 2 big turkey celebrations over the weekend. Since I originally planned the day as just the two of us, I decided we could just have an easy meal of pheasant pie, one of Jeff's favorites. Nathan came out to help hang some outdoor Christmas lights this am so I invited him & Tammy to a noon meal before they went to her side of the family later today. Even though we ate leftovers and simple food - everything always tastes better on a pretty plate in my opinion...The paperwhites I planted two weeks ago to bloom in 4-6 weeks for Christmas are already starting to pop open so I have my December centerpiece starting early :)

Not exactly "pheasant under glass" but a cute little turkey...
and when you eat at noon you have great light.
There are lots of little turkey items in my house at this time of year but this is one of my "sentimental" favorites. A turkey made by my mom in her homemaker's group in the early 1970's, she passed away in 1977 and having little things of her's around make each holiday more special for me. I know other's would have thrown a pinecone & feather turkey years ago...but I am just too sentimental about these kinds of things...
in fact I crafted one of my own in the early 1980's out of pheasant feathers just so I could be like my mom :)
I served in the kitchen at my church yesterday for a funeral and we were all asked to provide a creamy fruit salad and cupcakes. So a leftover salad was freshened up with some raspberries, persimmon & pomegrante seeds and still looked and tasted great.
Simple frozen green beans and...
more leftovers in the form of cupcakes and we had a festive table.
Since Thanksgiving is usually considered "turkey day", I stuck with the bird theme and used my chicken baker for pheasant pie.
A far from "homemade" dish but one my husband loves...pheasant made into a pot pie with gravy & canned biscuit topping.
The Thanksgiving holiday is almost over and this little turkey smore...
wants to remind you of the next upcoming holiday - National Chocolate Covered Anything Day on December 16th.

Creamy Fruit Salad (recipe from our church cookbook)
1 can crushed pineapple
1 can chunky fruit cocktail
1 pkg instant pudding (vanilla or coconut)
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1/4 cup whipped topping.

Mix undrained fruit with pudding mix until pudding mix is blended. Add 2 cups marshmallows and the whipped topping. May add sliced bananas when serving.

My notes: I made it as typed using the coconut cream instant pudding. If you like this type of salad you will like this as all the church women mentioned it as one of their favorites. I personally am not a fan of canned fruit cocktail. There is something about the grapes in there that just turns me off - so next time I might use mandarin oranges (more ambrosia like) or just canned diced pears. The addition of the fresh fruit today was wonderful.

Pheasant pie - no real recipe
I boil the pheasant with chunks of onions, carrots, celery and salt and pepper. When the pheasant is done - I take it out of the broth and flake it apart (necessary to look for bb's) and put in the bottom of the casserole dish. Then I drain the broth from the veggies, toss the veggies as they are mush by now, make a gravy using the broth and add whatever vegetables I have on hand at the time. Pour over the pheasant meat and top with a can of Grands biscuits and bake until heated through and the biscuits are golden brown.

Today - I am especially grateful to all of you who take the time to come and read my simple blog.

a day in the kitchen...

I let 3 bananas get a little too ripe so this morning so I decided to make our favorite chocolate chip banana bread recipe. Once the mini loaves were in the oven and I was washing out my bowl I thought why don't I just keep going and stock the freezer. So next up I made brownies (from a mix) in my pumpkin & fall leaf pan. While they were in the oven - I had to think of what I could make next since I used up all the eggs in the house. While munching on a warm slice of banana bread...I remembered a recipe I saw on a blog recently for Pumpkin Crescent Rolls. Of course I didn't have crescent rolls (much less 8 cans) in the house but I thought the filling would work great with my WS pocket pie molds. Since you can't make a regular pumpkin pie custard filling with a top crust this recipe worked extremely well.
The results were fantastic with pie crust and I can only imagine how good this must taste using actual crescent rolls. I decided to have a cup a tea and a pumpkin pocket pie and read the mail before I tackled the remaining dishes...and as you can see I couldn't wait for the first taste even before the teapot got hot enough for tea :)
Pumpkin Crescent Rolls from Snarky Mom at Postcards From Insanity.

8 oz cream cheese, softened
15 oz can pumpkin
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 T flour
2 T cinnamon
1 t pumpkin pie spice
8 pkgs refrigerated crescent rolls
½ cup sugar
Preheat oven to 375. In mixer bowl, blend cream cheese, pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, flour and spices until combined and smooth. Unroll crescent rolls, separate and lay flat. Evenly spread 1 ½ T of pumpkin mix over dough. Roll into crescent shape and sprinkle top with sugar. Bake 11-13 minutes until golden brown.

My notes: I made the filling exactly as listed - yes, 2 TB of cinnamon! It sounds like a lot but we are cinnamon lovers as well and it tastes wonderful. Oops, I guess I didn't make it exactly as listed - pumpkin pie spice is just a combo spice of cloves, ginger & nutmeg so I used 1/2 tsp of ginger, 1/2 tsp of cloves and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg because I just bought them all fresh for the pumpkin pie dessert I made earlier this month and of course, I used standard pie crust for the pocket pies. I definitely will be trying this in the future with the crescent rolls.

Click on the link to her post HERE to view the post showing this recipe and 17 others that are traditional Thanksgiving recipes for her. I will be trying some more of her recipes soon!
Our favorite banana bread...

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3 mashed bananas
2 cups sifted flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, milk and mashed bananas, blend together. Add sifted flour and soda. Pour the chocolate chips into a small bowl and toss with a TB of flour until they are coated. This helps the chips from sinking to the bottom of the bread while baking. Mix in and pour batter into 3 buttered mini loaf bread pans (or 2 regular ones). Bake at 350 degrees for approx 45-50 minutes. Test with a toothpick after 40 minutes.

pocket pies...

Those cute little leaf pie crust cutters weren't the only thing in my recent Williams Sonona order box. I also got these cute little pumpkin and apple pocket pie molds so I could add a little love to J's daily lunch box.I tried them out for the first time today and since there will be pumpkin things everywhere we go in the next few weeks, I made apple pies but used the pumpkin mold to be more festive.
I'm still getting the hang of this food photography thing and have discovered that food with details (cute little leaves again) looks better on a plain plate and not a cute little autumn patterned one :)


No special recipe here - just pie crust, apples and egg wash with cinnamon & sugar on top. We had to sample these two warm for the sake of the blog...the rest went in the freezer for his lunch next week.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumps UP

Praline Crepes

Le Pears are really good in the grocery stores these days though I don't think the ones I buy come from France :)I'm sorry I was "shakey" on this shot but the pear half was gorgeous displayed on the plate in person...you'll just have to take my word on it.
Today, I took a recipe for Praline Ice Cream Crepes and made it into Praline Pear Crepes and the result was this...
Jeff was already biting into his while I tried to take a photo of my plate and his initial comments were so good I only snapped 2 shots before biting in myself. This is definitely a winner. Original recipe followed by my notes:

Praline Ice Cream Crepes
(by Marlys Peterson, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Cookbook, Bismark, ND)

Crepes:
1 cup flour
2 TB sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla

Mix batter until smooth. Let stand 30 minutes. Brush 6" crepe pan with butter and add 2 TB batter. Tip pan and swirl until set and even in pan. Cook about 2 minutes and then tip out onto waxed paper. Separate crepes with waxed paper. Makes 8 crepes.

Praline Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cream
1/4 cup butter

Heat topping ingredient slowly to boiling and simmer 1 minute. Add 1/8 tsp rum extract and 1/4 cup chopped pecans.

To serve, place 1/4 to 1/3 cup ice cream that is cut in a strip down the center of a crepe and roll up. Top each with 2 TB's of praline sauce, warm or cold. Serve immediately. Makes 8 servings.

My notes: I wanted to use pears instead of ice cream so I took a few tablespoons of the praline sauce and put into a sauce pan with two sliced fresh pears and the chopped pecans and let the pears cook over med heat for a few minutes. I spooned some of the hot caramel pears down the center of the crepe and rolled up and topped with the praline sauce. This would be great using bananas or apples too!

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

New toys and a headstart...

I saw these little Fall Forest Piecrust Cutters from Williams Sonoma in a magazine recently and I just thought they were the cutest things. While they were a little spendy, I did have a gift card burning a hole in my wallet so I treated myself. Of course after I paid this price, I am sure my friend, Kathleen, will find them at the outlet for 99 cents (she is the bargain queen)! Today, I had to make a couple of 9 x 13 sized pumpkin desserts for our church supper and I thought the leaves would make cute little toppers. When I was a kid the best part of my mom's pie baking was that we got to take the scraps and sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar and bake for snacks. I've always loved them so I cut out all the little leaves, did an egg wash and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.They baked into autumn colors :)
Of course since there is a holiday coming up...
I had to get a headstart and dip a few in chocolate!
There will be no "thumbs up" from J on these little chocolate goodies...they didn't survive until he got home...
but since I was baking pumpkin desserts I made a half recipe version as a treat for us tonight.
Served with homemade whipped cream made with another sprinkle of cinnamon and vanilla.
Pumpkin Dessert

1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour

1 lg can pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix oatmeal, brown sugar, butter & flour together. Pat into a 9" x 13" pan. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Mix remaining ingredients together and pour over crust. Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool completely and serve with whipped cream.

Marsha - Thumbs UP (2nd Thumbs UP on those chocolate covered cinnamon sweetened pie crusts)
Jeff - Thumbs UP

Save the Date...

With the approaching winter months I have more time to play in the kitchen so I checked out a few cookbooks from the library last week. One of them was Real Chocolate, Sweet and Savory Recipes for Nature's Purest Form of Bliss. I admit, I checked it out because the subtitle attracted me the most :)If you knew me in real life you would know that I love chocolate...probably a little too much as my waistline testifies.

As we enter the holiday months of November and December and all of the fun holiday gatherings with our friends and family, I am always looking for new treats to try. While sitting in my chair this weekend recovering from a nasty cold, I discovered a new (unknown to me) holiday annually occuring on December 16th called National Chocolate Covered Anything Day.

Now that sounds like a reason to celebrate to me so I have decided to host a blogger event...please join in and create something to celebrate with me and hopefully lots of other bloggers through the magic of Mr. Linky.

Feel free to grab this logo and attach to your sidebars and invite all of your friends to join in. I look forward to seeing lots of yummy chocolate covered goodness. If you are one of my readers who does not have a blog of their own, please participate by emailing me your photos and recipes and I will make sure to get them posted here (that especially means you Renae, my chocolate loving sister who even creates choc covered prunes).

Looking forward to seeing everyone in December!

Happy Birthday Barb...

Today, I hope you join me in wishing my friend, Barb, a very wonderful Birthday!
Barb is a friend I met on the "net" first at a garden forum, then we became fellow blogging buddies and this summer we met IRL (in real life)! She was everything in person that she was to me online and Jeff even gave her the THUMBS UP, ha, ha! Really, her sense of humor and quick wit is one of our favorite things about her! This past year she has been through a lot but she handles everything with such guts and grace that I was surprised she didn't vent more often...(a much better person than me)!

When I think of her I think of FUN and PLAYFULNESS, I think of her sense of HUMOR and WIT, I think of her acts of FRIENDSHIP and GENEROSITY, and I think of her as the BAKING QUEEN! She didn't blog last Christmas but she left the rest of us trailing her dust as she baked a treat a day through the whole month leading up to Christmas. I don't have to picture her as an icon with these traits like I have on some of the other birthday tributes...I've met her and those descriptions don't do justice. The Lucille Ball to my Ethel, the Shirley to my Luverne...crazy, fun and adventurous! We are meeting again and going shopping this month and I can't for the fun to begin!

Happy Birthday my bodacious friend, Foley!