Winter Wonderland

Last night we had some freezing fog and this morning we woke up to the most beautiful sight....ice crystals covering everything. I love it when the trees turn all white and wintry looking. It makes all those bare branches look pretty again.

But you know you're going to pay the price when the weather gets like this. It's so stinking cold outside! I mean, brrrrr! The highs are only around 25 degrees today and more snow is expected to come our way tomorrow.

I wouldn't mind staying inside today and avoiding the cold completely, but I do have to get out there and run some errands and get the grocery shopping done, especially before the new snow comes. Most importantly I have to pick up some stew meat, because if this isn't the perfect stew weather, I don't know what is. Ahhh, just the thought of it is making me happy!

That and these mandarins. 

Oh yeah, and this banana chocolate chip walnut bread.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! With all the prep work I did in the kitchen yesterday, we had a relatively stress free morning. I even had time to run to the store to grab the newspaper and then come back and do Cathe's boot camp workout before getting to work on the side dishes.

We sat down to eat around 2:00, but I'm still stuffed. I think the leftover turkey sandwich will have to wait until tomorrow.

The star of the show was the turkey, which we brined overnight.

And it came out wonderful....probably the best turkey we've ever made! We might have overcooked it just a touch, but it was still the most flavorful meat ever. So it's true, Alton Brown does know what he's talking about!

Then there was the stuffing. I've made the same recipe for two years in a row. It's made with sourdough bread, artichokes, and Parmesan cheese. Oh yeah, and mushrooms.....but don't tell those hating boys, otherwise they'd never eat it.

Instead of mashing the sweet potatoes this year, I decided to make a sliced, candied version that I saw in Better Homes and Gardens. Rick and I thought they were very tasty, but Tyler who has a strange dislike for oranges, wouldn't touch them.

I also made a batch of homemade oatmeal dinner rolls. Yum!

For dessert we had apple pie. It's a recipe from the November issue of The Food Network magazine and it was absolutely fantastic. Everyone agreed, from now on this will be my go-to apple pie. I loved it! And we even added a scoop of apple pie ice cream to the top. I mean, come on!

I also made a pumpkin pie, but it wasn't the greatest. I tried to be lazy and made a graham cracker crust, instead of making another pastry crust and it just wasn't as good. Probably because it was a 'healthy' version with funny things like flaxseed and wheat germ in it. Ahhh, I'll just go with something more traditional next time.

The Half Smile

The wait is over. Tyler's school pictures came in yesterday and we were finally able to see how he did six weeks ago. You just never know what you're going to get when you ask him to smile. Sometimes he won't look at the camera and sometimes he makes goofy faces, but when he gives an honest smile, he's the most handsome boy in the world.

Well this year we only got half a smile. Last year he did a closed mouth smile, so maybe he can only unzip one side of his mouth at a time. Who knows....maybe he was practicing a ventriloquist act.  Or maybe he just decided to start chewing on his lip the moment the picture guy snapped the photo. Oh well, there's always next year.

Four Inches and Counting

Last night after dinner I looked out the window to check on the snow, which had stopped falling for the moment, and noticed all the menfolk up and down the street that were out shoveling their driveways. That's when it occurred to me, 'oh yeah, I have to take Tyler to school tomorrow', so I decided to get out there and start shoveling too. At that point we had 3 inches, but it was so soft and fluffy that it was pretty easy to move out of the way.

Then this morning we woke to find that it had snowed an additional inch overnight. Not too bad, Rick and I were able to shovel the new snow out of the way in a jiffy. But the roads are another story.

Our road is one that doesn't get plowed, so it's still covered in a heap of snow, just like our yard here. Even the main streets that DO get plowed still have a fair amount of snow on them. And since the temperature refuses to budge beyond 23 degrees, that snow isn't going anywhere soon.

At least the storm is expected to pass through by the end of the day, so hopefully we'll get a break from the snow if not from the cold temperatures. Because with the weather outside and Max whistling Jingle Bells, I'm starting to feel more like decorating a Christmas tree rather than roasting a turkey.

Good Call

It's a good thing I listened to my instincts. Well maybe not my instincts so much as the weather man and the forecast in the newspaper, but today as I woke up to fresh snow, I'm so glad that I got my holiday grocery shopping all taken care of yesterday. Because let me tell you what, I DO NOT want to be out driving in the snow, which continues to fall as we speak.

Oh, but doesn't it look pretty on the evergreens out in the backyard?

We've got about an inch to maybe an inch and a half so far, but by tomorrow morning we could have up to 5 inches. Hmmm, driving Tyler to and from school is sounding less groovy by the minute. Thank goodness he has a short week.

Well at least for now I have a slight distraction from what's going on outside.

Planning Thanksgiving dinner. I have all my recipes figured out, but now I have to decide what I'm going to make ahead of time. I think tomorrow I start making the pie crust, so that it will be ready to go on Wednesday. Then on Wednesday I'll make both the pumpkin and apple pie, as well as the dinner rolls. I think I'll also prepare the stuffing up to the point of baking and then stick it in the fridge for the night.

As for the turkey....Alton Brown finally twisted my arm and we'll be trying his Good Eats recipe this year. Your supposed to brine the turkey overnight, which is something we've never done before, but the recipe claims to be 'totally foolproof', so hopefully everything works out beautifully.

Here are some of the goodies we brought home for our cooking extravaganza. A lot of it is for the turkey actually. Turns out that brining a turkey is kind of expensive. I spent more money on the gallon of vegetable broth than I did for the turkey itself. And that's only one ingredient. I still had to buy fresh herbs, a giant box of kosher salt, and a variety of whole spices. I hope Alton Brown knows what he is talking about!

But my favorite thing of all is the whole allspice berries. They. smell. so. good. Oh my gosh, I could sniff them all day long. Heaven. I don't even mind that it's snowing outside.

Recipe Review

It's been awhile since I've done any recipe reviews. That's partly because I haven't made much worth talking about and partly because my pictures have been coming out terrible, thanks to daylight savings and the utter darkness at dinnertime. Anyway, here is look at some of the things we've been eating around here.

We had Southwest Turkey Burgers, a recipe out of the September issue of Cooking Light.

I actually made these two weeks ago, but they were so good that I couldn't let them fall through the cracks. They were the most flavorful turkey burger I've ever made. Heck, they were probably the best burger I've ever made period....in terms of added flavor. The recipe calls for poblano peppers, but I ended up using pasillo, since that's what I could find at the store. So the roasted peppers, in addition to the chili powder and cumin is what made them taste so outstanding. I'd completely make them again, but it's going to be awhile before it warms back up enough for me to grill outside. Did I mention it's cold outside? The temperatures aren't even expected to get out of the 30's this week. Brrrr.

Then we had Barbecue Beef Cups, a refreshingly easy recipe from Rachael Ray's magazine.

I've been sick this week, so it was nice having such a quick and easy meal that Tyler would gobble up without a question. Well, there was one question, "Mommy, what are these?". And after I explained the ingredients, he ate them right up. It's just a grands biscuit crust filled with meat and topped with cheese. Instead of using a bottled barbecue sauce to flavor the meat, I made my own version with ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar and other seasonings. Rick said it tasted like Sloppy Joes. I don't care what he calls it as long as he eats it.

Next we had Roasted Butternut Squash and Bacon Pasta, another Cooking Light recipe.

This is a layered casserole dish with an Italian style macaroni and cheese on the bottom and a mixture of roasted butternut squash and bacon on the top. I really enjoyed it, it's probably my favorite recipe using butternut squash, but Tyler didn't care for it at all. That's kind of strange because last year I made a macaroni and cheese with a butternut squash puree mixed in and he loved that, so I don't know what happened.

Lastly we had Penne and Sausage Casserole, a recipe from one of my Taste of Home annuals.

This meal was so delicious! It had to be the sauce, but the melty cheese on top didn't hurt either. Yum! The sauce is a mixture of turkey Italian sausage, red wine, fire roasted tomatoes, garlic and onion, which simmers away until it's reduced and super delish. Then you add in the pasta, throw some cheese on top and bake until the cheese melts and the noodles start to crisp around the edges. The recipe makes two 13x9 casseroles, so even though I cut the recipe in half, we still have plenty of leftovers.

Just Looking

Shopping in a gourmet kitchen supply store was never really part of our weekend plans in Seattle, but when I spotted Sur La Table during our food tour at Pike Place Market, I knew I was going inside, no question about it. I needed chocolate. For real.

Oh, how I miss the fancy kitchen stores of the big cities. Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma. They don't have that sort of thing here in Yakima. Sure we have a cute little store called The Cookie Cutter, but they just don't have as much stock on hand and I'm pretty sure they don't have chocolate.

So while I was on a mission to find chocolate in Sur La Table, I couldn't help myself from looking at all the other goodies they had.

Like these mugs. I love these mugs! They're so funny!

And these oil spritzers. Super cool.

Whisks. Silicone coated whisks. How do I not own any of these yet?

And the donut pans...what happened to my picture of the donut pans? They were in a basket next to the register and I already had my hands full of chocolate at that point. That must be the reason. I was too busy to to take pictures.

Chocolate, but not just any chocolate...fancy baking chocolate. The stuff that dreams and the famous Baked brownie are made of. The stuff that is impossible to find in our small town. I've wanted to make the Baked brownie ever since I got the Baked cookbook for my birthday, but I didn't have access to the proper chocolate. I wanted it to taste authentic, so I wasn't going to settle for Hershey's cocoa. But now that I have a box of Valrhona cocoa powder and a bar of Scharffen Berger chocolate, look out, here they come.

Bullwinkle's

On our way back home on Sunday, we stopped at Bullwinkle's, the same family fun center as the one near Portland that we visited in September. It had rained the night before and was still cold and cloudy outside, so we had planned to spend most of our time indoors playing the arcade games, rather than doing the outdoor activities.

We got there about an hour after they opened, but the place was still pretty deserted. I guess the party doesn't normally start until the late afternoon hours.

That was fine by us, it just meant that we could have free roam of the place and gave Tyler room to throw his elbows around while playing skee-ball.

Then he played this game and hit the jackpot.

With that kind of luck, Rick and I thought about running out and getting him a lottery ticket. We'd win for sure.

And then later in the day I hit the jackpot on the same exact game. When it was all said and done, we had around 1300 tickets for Tyler to cash in for some pretty cool prizes.

Even though it was a cold day, we still made it outside to play a round of miniature golf. The course was soggy and some of the holes were completely immersed in water, but we still had a fun time. In fact Tyler and I played one of our best games yet.

While we were outside the boys also went on the go-karts a few times and Tyler even went on the sling-shot. It's a big trampoline you can jump on and do flips while strapped into a harness with bungee cords.

It took him a minute to figure it out, but then he really started to get some air in his jumps.

Then it was back inside to use up the rest of our game tokens before heading home for the night, but not before a quick stop at the Cheesecake Factory and  a slice of Tiramisu cheesecake. Yum!

Seattle: Part 2

On Saturday morning we headed over the bridge to Seattle for a food tour at Pike Place Market.

We've actually been to the market several times before, but we've never done the food tour, which is something everyone was excited about. We really wanted to do the chocolate indulgence tour, but that one was sold out, so we went for the market tour instead. Not that that's a bad thing, it was an excellent tour.

The tour group met at Starbucks...not the original one, but a different one in the area. There we had a sample of the Pike Market Blend coffee, which is good of course....everyone knows what that tastes like.

Once we started the tour, our first stop was at The Daily Dozen Doughnut company where we had two mini cinnamon sugar donuts. They serve them to you fresh out of the fryer, so they're still hot when you eat them. Yum! They're super soft and delicious!

Next we had some MarketSpice Tea. I forget what the tour guide called it, but I think it's their signature blend, with a mixture of cinnamon, orange, and cloves. My favorite part is that it's was fairly sweet on it's own without having any added sugar.

The next stop was at the fish market where we had three different flavors of smoked salmon. We tried the original, garlic pepper, and a third that was kind of like a salmon jerky. The first two were good, but the last one was too chewy and weird for my taste.

Then they started throwing fish, but they had one of the ladies from our group go behind the counter to catch it.

And catch it she did!

Next we stopped at Frank's Quality Produce and sampled the honeycrisp apple and some pear. All I can say is that it's a good thing we live in apple country, because those honeycrisp apples were $3 a pound there at the stand. Wow!

Here I am with a slice of apple in one hand and a slice of pear in the other, but you wouldn't know that, would you?

On with the tour. That's our guide up front with the pink umbrella, so that everyone can see where he's going.

Our next stop was at Pike Place Chowder, where we tried the classic clam chowder and the seafood bisque. The clam chowder is my all time favorite, the seafood bisque....not so much.

At Chukar Cherries, we had samples of the cherry salsa and some of the different candies. My favorites were the Chocolate Honey Pecans and the Dark Chocolate Cherries. Mmmmm.

Next we stopped at Beecher's Cheese and tried the Flagship Cheddar sliced on crackers, which was crazy delicious.  We also tried the mac n' cheese, but I think I preferred the cheese cold.

Nearing the end of the tour, we stopped at Piroshky-Piroshky. They had all sorts of yummy looking things in the window, but we had the apple cinnamon and the potato onion piroshky. They were both good, but my favorite was the apple cinnamon.

The last stop of the tour was at Etta's where we tried the signature crab cake with tomatillo salsa. All I can say is yum, can I have another? It was seriously the best crab cake I've ever tasted.

After the tour was over, as if we hadn't eaten enough food, we went back to get another helping of chowder. We had to stand in line for awhile, but it was well worth the wait.

The boys shared a bread bowl, while I just had a plain cup of chowder.

It was cold outside, so it was nice having warm soup for lunch.

For dessert, we stopped at Cinnamon Works and got a snickerdoodle cookie. As you can see, it was bigger than Tyler's face, so there was plenty to go around.

Okay, now I'm ready for the Chocolate Tour....I think we need to go back!