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!

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