Today, I thought I’d take the opportunity to wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving! I love to cook and bake for the holidays. I will be doing some baking and preparing the sweet potatoes, but I’m not the one preparing the turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner this year. I couldn’t go without…
It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle this time of year, isn’t it? Whether it’s trying to get the house cleaned and decorated for company, developing an elaborate holiday dinner menu, or searching for the perfect gifts for friends and family, there always seems to be something that needs to be…
Are you a leftovers fan? I’m not. Not at all.
There’s just something that happens to leftovers once they enter my refrigerator. They change somehow and become completely inedible to me. It happens with even my favorite foods… They enter the “cold zone” and are never the same.
I don’t like to be wasteful, though… And, I also bad making my husband eat all of the leftovers (though, he doesn’t have the same issues that I have). So, I tend to re-purpose my leftovers. For reasons I can’t understand, when I view leftovers as ingredients instead of just food to be reheated, I have no trouble using them up. It makes no sense, I realize.
If you’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner, hopefully you’ve already finalized your menu and are well on your way to a spectacular dinner! If not, you can always check out last week’s Friday Favorites for my collection of favorite Thanksgiving recipes.
Now that dinner’s taken care of, let’s talk about a fun snack for your guests to nibble on when they arrive. I always like to have a few bites and snacks available to keep everyone occupied while I’m cooking dinner and getting everything together.
Lately, one of my favorite snacks is roasted almonds. Almost everyone I know loves to munch on nuts (and they’re not so filling that they’ll spoil your dinner!), but I prefer to make my own than buy a can of pre-seasoned nuts. By roasting my own almonds, I have the opportunity to get a bit creative with fun flavors.
I have hosted Thanksgiving dinner at my house for the past couple years. This time around, I have the year off. Yellowdog (our yellow lab, in case you were wondering) has to remain “calm” and is not allowed to play with kids, other dogs, and relatives for the next few months until she has fully recovered from her knee surgery. So, that pretty much means that there will be no big get togethers at my house for a few months, either.
That doesn’t mean I won’t be cooking, though! I plan to make a side dish or two, and of course I’ll be taking some sort of dessert. I will also be traveling with my handy dandy meat thermometer, which I believe is the key to a perfect Thanksgiving turkey. Whether it’s my kitchen or my mom’s, there’s no better place to be on Thanksgiving day!
Sometimes I get so caught up in worrying about the main dish that I’m making for dinner that I tend to neglect the sides. Can you relate?
With Thanksgiving around the corner, you’ve probably already thought about the perfect recipe for a roast turkey and may have already settled on the perfect stuffing, too. But, if you’re much like me, you may have neglected to worry about what vegetables to make. Unfortunately, they don’t prepare and cook themselves.
So, this week, I thought I’d share my super simple recipe (if you can really call it a recipe) for Balsamic roasted vegetables. It’s my go to recipe for vegetables in the fall and winter (and once in a while the spring and summer, too!)… It’s easy to throw together and can just hang out in the oven while your other dishes are cooking/baking. Plus, it’s a favorite with my family and friends. In fact, my husband actually gets excited when he sees me prepping roasted vegetables. Who would have thought?
With the holidays coming up, we can all use some fresh new ideas for hostess gifts. I always like to keep a few small gifts on hand so that I have something when I need it. You never know when you’ll get invited to a party or a get together and you need a last…
Remember how I said I have been lacking cooking inspiration in the kitchen lately? It seems that my lack of inspiration has also extended itself to blogging. Do not fear… I go through these stages periodically. I find that the best way to get through it is to just push on through and keep writing. So, that’s exactly what I’m doing.
I have a funny thing about food textures. Many of the foods that I’m not too fond of are those that have a texture that I don’t like (mushy cereal, for example)… It has very little to do with the flavor. So, due to my hatred of mushy and soggy things, I have avoided egg and sausage casseroles for years. The thought of bread soaking in eggs and milk just didn’t sound appetizing to me.
A few weeks ago, though, I had some stale bread on hand and for some reason I was feeling especially brave. I decided to tackle the dreaded egg and sausage casserole since I know it is such a popular holiday dish (and I was also lacking cooking inspiration at the time). When all was said and done, it turned out to be pretty tasty. In fact, it was tasty enough that I made it again last week and even took the time to take a few pictures and keep track of the recipe.
A few weeks ago, I was happily surprised to receive a package from my lovely friends over at POM Wonderful. They have a new pomegranate juice flavor this fall, and they were kind enough to send a few bottles in my direction so that I could give it a try. The new flavor? Pomegranate Cranberry!…
All week I have been taunting you with my pumpkin spice cupcakes… It wasn’t very nice, and I’m sorry. But, I think they are worth the wait! The thing is, I have been working up to the completed cupcakes all week long. They were a combination of a few components, and if I had thrown…
