• Goat cheese, apple, and honey tartlets
• Chicken slovaki and tabbouleh
• Swordfish with pesto and fresh tomato sauce
• Taco stuffed shells
• Crijo-jo
• Pictures of our fledgling garden

And, just so this isn’t a post totally devoid of entertaintment, here is a picture of my friend John eating the turkey cake (funfetti cake in the shape of a turkey with blue food coloring spray and lots of icing…) that my husband made him for his birthday. 

And, since it’s “that time of year again,” we’re having some really fancy dinners over the next three days.

• Chocolate mascarpone mousse, revisited
• Cherry and wine sauce over turkey chops
• Spicy shrimp fettuccine
• Wasabi and mango salmon with forbidden rice
• Goat cheese, honey and apple puff pastry
• Personal pineapple upside down cakes

• Chicken tamale casserole
• Sausage, peppers, and orzo
• Lemon chicken with satay sauce
• Baked potatoes and chili
• “Orange rosemary chicken thing”

But don’t worry!  I have some new recipes for you this week too.  This week might be a little rough for me (in teacher land, it is dreaded “state testing week,” so just be patient with me and it will all be okay.  I think I’m reassuring myself more here.)

• 1/4 c. cocoa powder
• 1/2 c. boiling water
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 4 Tbs butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 c. flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix cocoa powder and boiling water together until smooth.  Set aside and cool to room temperature.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and egg, beat 1 minute.  Add flour, baking powder, and salt, mix until just incorporated.  Add cooled cocoa/water, stir until smooth.  Pour into 8 greased or lined muffin tins.  Bake 16-20 minutes at 375, or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool 10 minutes in pan, then remove and cool to room temperature.

• 1 stick (8 Tbs) butter, at room temperature
• 2 – 2 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 4 Tbs Bailey’s Irish Cream liquor
• 5 drops green food coloring, 2 drops yellow food coloring

Beat butter until light and fluffy.  Add powdered sugar 1/2 c. at a time, mixing well after each addition until it clumps together and is thick.  Add liquor, and beat until smooth.  (If you need to, you can add more sugar or Bailey’s at this point to make it a spreadable consistency.)  Add food coloring and mix until color is uniform.  Spread over cooled cupcakes.  This will make more frosting than you need for 8 cupcakes.

Coming up soon to make up for my lack of posting…

• My mother’s birthday cake – A buttermilk yellow cake with chocolate pastry cream made to resemble something very fun
• Moosewood’s cake brownies
• Quick marinated rosemary shrimp
• Chicken stuffed with goat cheese and sundried tomatoes
• Crock pot lasagna
• Thai chicken with basil

What we’re eating this week

• Turkey burgers on the grill – it’s beautiful tonight, so we’re taking advantage of the weather.  The first mosquitos of the season are taking advantage of any of my exposed skin, as well.
• Jerk chicken salad
• Tuna noodle casserole
• Chicken stir fry
• Kofta curry meatballs

• 1 lb chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 Tbs fish sauce (I was wary, but it was good at the end)
• 1 Tbs corn starch
• 1 c. sliced onions (1 medium sized one)
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 c. light coconut milk (put the rest in a baggie, it freezes and thaws well)
• 2 Tbs chile sauce (or back off if you want to keep your nose hairs)
• 1 Tbs sugar
• 1 Tbs lime juice
• Handful of chopped cilantro

Toss the chicken in a small bowl with the cornstarch and fish sauce.  Heat a pan over medium high and spray with some cooking spray.  Add chicken, and saute 5 minutes.  Add garlic, onions, and ginger, saute an additional minute.  Add coconut milk, lime juice, chili paste, and sugar.  Cook until heated through (about 1 minute.)  Remove from heat, and add cilantro.  Serve with lime wedges.

However, we will be having:

• French Toast Casserole (actually, we had this already this morning, and it was very good!)
• Rum cake
• Chocolate orange cheesecake
• Chocolate Mint Bars

These things are in addition to some of the things I made for Thanksgiving:

• Rolls
• Sweet potatoes with butterscotch (and purchased mini-marshmallows, I got lazy)
• Stuffing
• Remoulade sauce

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

- Erin

This is easily one of the best recipes I ever got from there.  Techniques, yes, but this recipe is a total winner.  Now that  I use a food processor for everything, its a million times easier than it used to be, too.  I would have taken a picture of it by itself, but it’s not so thrilling.  So you get a picture of my entire Thanksgiving dinner.

Put the following into a food processor (or, if you are unlucky, chop it all up by hand)

• 1/2 roasted red bell pepper (just use the ones from a jar)
• 1 Tbs lemon zest
• 1/4 c. dill pickles
• 2 Tbs hot peppers (again, from a jar)
• 1 Tbs creamy horseradish
• 1 Tbs capers

Roll that around until it’s pretty uniformly small in size.  Stir into 1 c. of mayo and let stand for 3 hours (in the fridge, of course!) to let the flavors marry.

Anyway!

This week, I’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving by cooking dinner for my parents, brothers, husband, and an uncle over at my parents’ house.  Keep your eyes peeled in the near future for the following recipes:

• Butterscotch sweet potato casserole with homemade spiced marshmallows (my real culinary adventure, for goodness sakes this sounds ridiculous)
• TWD: Thanksgiving Two-Fer Pie
• Chocolate Pomegranate Torte
• Remoulade Sauce (a really zippy, quick thing that’s great for steamed veggies)
• Pioneer Woman’s Turnip Gratin
• Maybe I’ll make some rolls, too.
• Sorry, but you’re not getting the stuffing recipe.  Besides, I’m not actually sure I could write a recipe down for it.