Follow-up from Thanksgiving

Dishes made: Vegetarian stuffing, Sugar free lemon ricotta cake, Cabbage apple salad with cranberry balsamic dressing

The Vegetarian Stuffing was amazing! In order to save a few bucks, I cheated. *slaps my own hand* We bought Pepperidge Farm Stuffing Mix, and I used veggie broth instead of chicken broth. Butter was used as normal, and I added just a bit of curry, sage, and thyme. My Hispanic pork eating family LOVED it. I didn't have the heart to tell all of them that it was vegetarian. Those that knew were shocked to hear it.

The (almost) Sugar-Free Lemon Ricotta Cake was.....deceptively delicious. Truthfully, it looked like cornbread gone wrong. The taste was remarkable though, and my mother who is a diabetic was thrilled. Honey drizzled on top was its only source of sugar. I topped my piece with cranberry sauce, and it was great!

The Cabbage Apple Salad was a HUGE disappointment though, and I mean HUGE. In the past I used a Spinach Salad dressing, but the problem is that I could not find a vegetarian version. All the Spinach Salad dressings that I found had bacon bits in it. I thought to use a cranberry balsamic dressing instead, and that turned out being a horrible idea. The cabbage wasn't cut thin enough, and the dressing was very tart. Maybe, just maybe, if I would have added sugar and spent more time cutting the cabbage to perfection, it would have been tasty. Oh well. Lesson learned.

All in all we had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving. My family made a beautiful looking turkey and roasted pork (which I managed to painlessly avoid) along with all sorts of sides. The jewel was my brother's macaroni and cheese. WOW! Words don't do it justice.

And in case you were wondering, yes, I ate too much.
My vegetarian plate housed macaroni and cheese, vegetarian stuffing, roasted mushrooms, rice and peas, and green bean casserole. My belly was happy.

We made great memories this year though in my sister and brother-in-law's new home. I wouldn't have changed a thing...well, other than eating too much and destroying the cabbage apple salad. lol

Just for today.

Indulge in memories. Indulge in family. Indulge in love.
Enjoy food.

Happy Thanksgiving
from my family to yours

Making Thanksgiving Eating Easy

Lisa R. Young, Ph. D., R.D. wrote one of my favorite nutrition books, The Portion Teller. In it, Lisa explains just how super sized America has become. Common portions of chocolate bars, hamburgers, and potato chips have multiplied over the years and so have our waistlines. To mask the problem, our queen sized beds have become wider along with clothing sizes and stadium seats. 

I definitely don't want to be the Thanksgiving grinch, but I do want to share some portion sizing visuals developed by Lisa R. Young, Ph. D., R.D to help us enjoy all of the foods that we love without overdoing it. 

Meat or Poultry

3 oz = deck of cards

Salad Dressing

2 Tbl = shot glass

Butter or margarine

1 tsp = postal stamp

Rice or pasta, cooked

1/2c = 1/2 baseball

Bread

1 slice = CD case

Baked Potato or sweet potato

1 potato = computer mouse

Hope this helps!

Think anyone will notice?

I will be making gravy to with my bread and celery stuffing, but I am a vegetarian. Vegetable gravy it is. Interestingly enough, I found this recipe at www.about.com. It was submitted by about.com guide, Jolinda Hackett.

Basic Vegetarian Gravy Recipe

Basic Vegetarian Gravy Recipe. Making a vegetarian gravy can be a bit more of an art than an exact science, as timing, stirring and heat are everything! So add more or less liquid as needed, but remember, your vegetarian gravy will thicken slightly as it cools.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp margarine
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)

Preparation:

Heat the margarine over medium heat in a large skillet and sautee the onion for 2 minutes. Add the flour and garlic salt and sautee for 5 more minutes.

Add the vegetable broth and cornstarch, stirring to mix the cornstarch well. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, stirring frequently to make sure no clumps are formed.

Add the nutritional yeast and soy sauce and reduce heat. Cook for one more minute, stirring. Enjoy your vegetarian gravy!

Stuffing kinda scares me.

I have always loved stuffing, and my spanish background knows none of the homemade variety. True story. This year will be different though. I'm inspired to try to make a homemade recipe. Exciting yet scary as this will be my first vegetarian Thanksgiving. This is as "Thanksgiving-y" as my dinner is going to get. The following is a recipe submitted Carlota Chmielewski on www.allrecipes.com. The link for the recipe is here. The ratings for this recipe are ridiculous, and whenever  that happens you know you have found a good one. 


This one is definitely topping my list for recipes to try this year. 


Bread and Celery Stuffing

Ingredients

• 1 (1 pound) loaf sliced white bread
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup chicken broth

Directions

1. Let bread slices air dry for 1 to 2 hours, then cut into cubes.
2. In a Dutch oven, melt butter or margarine over medium heat. Cook onion and celery until soft. Season with poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir in bread cubes until evenly coated. Moisten with chicken broth; mix well.
3. Chill, and use as a stuffing for turkey, or bake in a buttered casserole dish at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes.

Crusty.

Pie crust is yet another item that is often unnecessarily store bought, so let's fix that. The following is a no frills yet adequate recipe for a flaky pie crust submitted by Stephanie on www.allrecipes.com. Click here to visit the link, read the raving reviews, and comment. This recipe is tried and true in our home. Here is the pic to prove it. The Mr. literally ate just about half the pie that night. 

For your convenience, I've cut and pasted the recipe for you. Don't forget to click on the link though. Right here. She has included nutritional info as well. 

Basic Flaky Pie Crust

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shortening, chilled
• 3 tablespoons ice water

Directions

1. Whisk the flour and salt together in a medium size bowl. With a pastry blender, cut in the cold shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water over flour. Toss mixture with a fork to moisten, adding more water a few drops at a time until the dough comes together.
2. Gently gather dough particles together into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling.
3. Roll out dough, and put in a pie plate. Fill with desired filling and bake.

Making Dough

Let's do our part to home make items this Thanksgiving that are too easily and too commonly store bought. 

Deal? Deal. 

Let's discover the art of making buttermilk biscuits from scratch. After doing some online research, I have decided that this is the one that I will follow. This recipe makes 10 biscuits and can be made ahead of time and frozen until Thanksgiving if need be. It was submitted by P4 on www.food.com. I cut and pasted it below for your convenience, but check out the link and make sure you let P4 know I sent ya. 

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits 

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the board (if you can get White Lily flour, your biscuits will be even better)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon baking powder (use one without aluminum)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt or 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold
• 1 cup buttermilk (approx)

Directions:

1. 1
   Preheat your oven to 450°F.
2. 2
   Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, or in the bowl of a food processor.
3. 3
   Cut the butter into chunks and cut into the flour until it resembles course meal.
4. 4
   If using a food processor, just pulse a few times until this consistency is achieved.
5. 5
   Add the buttermilk and mix JUST until combined.
6. 6
   If it appears on the dry side, add a bit more buttermilk. It should be very wet.
7. 7
   Turn the dough out onto a floured board.
8. 8
   Gently, gently PAT (do NOT roll with a rolling pin) the dough out until it's about 1/2" thick. Fold the dough about 5 times, gently press the dough down to a 1 inch thick.
9. 9
   Use a round cutter to cut into rounds.
10. 10
    You can gently knead the scraps together and make a few more, but they will not be anywhere near as good as the first ones.
11. 11
    Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet- if you like soft sides, put them touching each other.
12. 12
    If you like"crusty" sides, put them about 1 inch apart- these will not rise as high as the biscuits put close together.
13. 13
    Bake for about 10-12 minutes- the biscuits will be a beautiful light golden brown on top and bottom.
14. 14
    Do not overbake.
15. 15
    Note: The key to real biscuits is not in the ingredients, but in the handling of the dough.
16. 16
    The dough must be handled as little as possible or you will have tough biscuits.
17. 17
    I have found that a food processor produces superior biscuits, because the ingredients stay colder and there's less chance of overmixing.
18. 18
    You also must pat the dough out with your hands, lightly.
19. 19
    Rolling with a rolling pin is a guaranteed way to overstimulate the gluten, resulting in a tougher biscuit.
20. 20
    Note 2: You can make these biscuits, cut them, put them on cookie sheets and freeze them for up to a month.
21. 21
    When you want fresh biscuits, simply place them frozen on the cookie sheet and bake at 450°F for about 20 minutes.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/southern-buttermilk-biscuits-26110#ixzz1e503j9Au

No More Modern Thanksgiving

"Let's roll forward a generation or two. If we are to believe that the only way the modern family can manage to enjoy a traditional meal like a slow-roasted pot roast is by picking up a vacu-sealed model from the chill case, then we are going to have to deal with the fact that there will be no 'just like mom used to make' memories, no Granny's secret meatloaf recipe and eventually, what? Microwaved turkey loaf on white bread for Thanksgiving?"

*Excerpt from the glorious book, "The Real Food Revival" written by Sherri Brooks Vinton and Ann Clark Espuelas

I am pretty much like pasta cooking.

Another water? Yes. Another water.

Serving tables at Bob Evans Family Restaurant in Sun City Center meant serving a lot of elderly folks water. Exciting, right? lol When my sister mentioned to me that Ford Credit was hiring, I weighed the options and quickly called Aerotek. It was a no brainer. 

It was funny really because some of the candidates for the position were promised that upon getting hired they would be making "courtesy calls" to customers who were late on payment. Funny. 

However, my recruiter was painfully honest with me. This was collections. The woman who once was a girl who hated fundraisers was now going to be demanding payments. Laughable. 

Long story short. I was hired, and did pretty okay at work. Fast forward 4 years later, and I'm respectfully going toe to toe with operational managers and winning; sending repo men everywhere and anywhere to secure our collateral and well...winning (for the most part). I was not the best, but I did what I thought I could not do. I got the job done and met some amazing friends along the way.

Let's hit the fast forward button one more time past moving to Melbourne then to Palm Bay, getting married, and the couple of crazy jobs that I have found and left here. Let's forward to today. I'm painfully wonderfully unemployed. Things that used to make sense like 2 gym memberships, absurd car payments, and $100 cell phone bills seem pretty insane to me now. I'm learning how to become undone and unplugged. Humbling.

It dawned on me just a couple of days ago, that this is a God thing. It is indeed a God thing that I'm not getting call backs or interviews at this time. It is indeed a God thing that I am at home right now. There is a reason and there is a purpose. It does not mean that I need to stop job searching, but it does mean that I should embrace this season and trust God to do His job. He has never let me down, and He is not going to start now. He is bringing me through yet another process.

Process. That is a good word. It's a word that has been on mind for the last couple of weeks. Having the time that I have nowadays, I have started making homemade hand cut pasta on occasion. I used this recipe here except I substituted whole wheat flour and added a little bit more water. Amazing. The process is slow and tedious. My arms are literally sore at the end of this experience. It may take me 2-3 hours to make the pasta, but the end result is worthy. The end result is art. I find myself unable to eat a heaping bowl of the pasta because there is a sense of satisfaction and a sense of savoring every bite. I suppose that it's a sense of appreciation for all the work out into the meal.  

There is something beautiful about the process of cooking; something that is being threatened by society's my fast food mentality. It is about food, but it is also about life. As much as I would love to be able to push the fast forward button right now, I can't. It is the process that makes the end result art.

My life is being hand cut in a way to satisfy His purpose and His will. I do not always enjoy the process, but I am learning to embrace it. It is indeed a beautiful thing, a God thing. 

Ecclesiastes 3:11-13

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹¹He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men's hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
    ¹²I know that there is nothing better for them than to be glad and to get and do good as long as they live;
    ¹³And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor--it is the gift of God.

Green Pea Soup

Apparently, I like peas. Thank you Green Pea Risotto for opening my eyes. You can read about that experience here.

Last night I made a green pea puree as part of our dinner and today that puree was transformed into a very tasty soup for lunch. 

I wish I would have written down the exact measurements of these recipes, but here it goes...from memory. 

Green Pea Puree

1 can of green peas (drained)

1 serving of miso soup (sans the tofu squares)

2 tbl olive oil

1tsp minced garlic

salt

Blend all ingredients in the blender until desired consistency. It was surprisingly good, but I wouldn't recommend eating more than a couple tablespoons of it at a time. I served it alongside roasted potatoes and tilapia. The tilapia was cooked simply in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. 

Green Pea Soup

Remainder of Green Pea Puree (There was quite a bit leftover. I didn't measure it, but I am thinking it was about 1c of puree)

Fresh Rosemary

8 oz Chicken Stock 

Curry Powder

Cumin

1 tbl broccoli slaw 

Heat chicken stock and add fresh rosemary, curry powder, and cumin to taste. I added just enough curry so that I could taste it, but not enough to completely overpower the stock. Use it how you like it though! I then added the green pea puree and allowed the soup to simmer as I cooked up some garlic toast. It was served in a mug. Straining the soup is a good idea, but I like getting the fiber from the peas so I let it be. It was served in a mug, and then topped with about 1tbl of broccoli slaw for added crunch and nutrition. 

This was also ridiculously easy, but so unbelievably delicious. I will DEFINITELY be making this again!