3 Thanksgiving Day Recipes

I got up at 4:00 a.m. this morning to go shopping with a friend (hey! hey! Cheri! - there's your shout-out) and then I decorated my house for Christmas all day long before heading back to same friend's house for dinner.

I am running on fumes.

I had so much fun, but I can't see my hand in front of my face.

Her husband gave me a 5 hour energy to drink, which by the way tasted like my worst nightmare of a medicine, and I still feel like crashing hard.

This post will be brief. I know that's surprising since I have already rambled so much in the first few moments of sharing on here, but here goes.

Our Thanksgiving meal consisted of HAM (I know, but Dave really isn't a fan of Turkey, so.....), scalloped potatoes, sauteed green beans, sweet potato casserole, rolls, jello salad, stuffing and for an appetizer we made artichoke chili dip with crackers.

I pulled the recipe for scalloped potatoes off the internet and they were quite tasty. They were crunchy on top with cheese and ooey-gooey goodness and inside they were soft and creamy. Yum.


The second recipe I wanted to share was my pecan pie. Oh my heavens, it's a lot of work, but the end result is to die for - if you like pecan pie that is. We LOVE it over at our house and my husband and I can wipe out a pie in a couple of days on our own if we aren't careful.



**O.K. I absolutely cannot find my recipe online whatsoever and I do NOT have the energy to make my fingers and brain type it all out tonight. Can I raincheck this recipe? It's coming. It's coming. I will give it's own post very, very soon. Thanks girls.

The last recipe I want to share is one that I got from a friend. I am not sure if I can give the credit to Amber or Julie for this recipe, because they both kind of gave it to me, but thanks girls!! It's called Artichoke Chili dip and it is amazingly good. This recipe calls for monterey jack cheese, but I actually just used one cup of parmesan instead of half and half. It was great.

Here's Dave going for it! :-)

Parents Review on all 3 recipes were that we gobbled them all up.
Kids Review on all 3 were no, no and no. Yeah, well, the tastes were a bit too fancy for them. They just wanted jello!

Thanks for letting me share some recipes in a hurried fashion this week. I will be back with more next week. I have already been pulling out some of my favorites from my Real Simple magazine that I'm wanting to make again, so check back.

I hope your Thanksgiving was blessed and full and wonderful. Hugs and kisses!

MIA, but Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sorry I went MIA a little bit. I can only blame it on Thanksgiving and the shopping and the eating leftovers that my in-laws gave us before they left town thing, so I haven't been cooking.

Sooooooo. I have been cooking a lot since yesterday, so I will be sharing several recipes today and tomorrow based on Thanksgiving. I will be posting a artichoke and green chili dip (it's made with cream cheese, so don't worry if you'll love it) that I got from a friend, scalloped potatoes & pecan pie.

I have to tell you that Stuffing is like my all time favorite thing to eat at Thanksgiving and out of all the things I made yesterday, the stuffing was just plain gross. David actually said, "wow, I didn't know stuffing could taste like beef jerky". So then, ya win some ya lose some.

:-)

But the other stuff I will be sharing turned out divine.

Check back for recipes for your next family or friend get together.

Hope your day has been great!

Gobble. Gobble.

P.S. I am so thankful for this day we have had. We woke up this morning and did the Turkey Trot 5K with the 4 of us, kids played with playdough, we frosted pretzels, they made "Thankful" collages and we watched the parade. Oh - and David and I got to take a one hour nap while Little Girl played on PBS kids and promised to leave us be in the living room. :-) It's been a perfect day. God has been so good to us!

Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup

Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup

1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed (mild or spicy depending on your preference) - I actually use the ground sausage in the tube. My favorite is the "Sage" flavor.
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups beef stock
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup red wine
28 oz. can peeled tomatoes, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
8 oz. can tomato sauce
3 zucchini, chopped
8 ounces cheese tortellini (I use whole wheat)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tbs. chopped fresh parsley
Grated parmesan cheese for topping

Brown the sausage in a large pot. Drain all the grease except for 1 tablespoon, then add the onions and garlic and saute for 5 more minutes.

Add the beef stock, water, wine, tomatoes, carrots, basil, oregano and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the zucchini, tortellini, green bell pepper and parsley. Simmer until tortellini is cooked (about 8-10 minutes). Serve in bowls topped with grated parmesan cheese.
Here's the pasta I use -




Parents Review: This soup is just perfect in the comfort food/full of veggies, grains and protein so you can feel good about it, kind of way. We LOVE it.
Kids Review: Sometimes they like it, and sometimes they snub. Tonight, Baby Boy ate a few bites and Little Girl ate the tortellini, the sausage and the carrots. No zuchinni for her.

Check back next week for more fun recipes!

Risotto with Caramelized Leeks and Red Pepper

I've shown you a Risotto Recipe before, however, I hated that the pictures made the dish look inedible. It was so amazing, but I can't make the camera show you taste. I need smell-o-vision or something. :-)

Well, this recipe is straight from the books from my cooking school I went to in California. It's a favorite in our household, but I will admit, that I don't make it very often because of the time and the calories, but when I do - it's yummo!

Here's the recipe:

2 oz. unsalted butter (1/4 cup)
3 leeks, white part only, cleaned and julienned
1 tsp sugar
1/2 EACH small red, green and yellow bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup creme fraiche (or sour cream)
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3 Tbsp extra virgini olive oil
1 clove garlic, through a press
14 oz. Arborio rice (about 2 cups)
3/4 cup White Table Wine
6 to 8 cups chicken stock, simmering
3 Tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley
3 oz. Parmigianno Reggiano, grated (about 3/4 cup)

1. In a large saute pan, heat half the butter, add leeks and sugar, and saute over low heat for about 10 minutes, until brown. Add bell peppers and saute gently over low heat about 1 minute, until tender. Add creme fraiche and saute 2 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper, transfer to a bowl, and set aside.

2. To the pan, add oil and garlic and saute 1 minute. Add rice and saute 1 minute more, stirring constantly. Still stirring, add wine. When most of the wine has been absorbed, stire in a ladle of stock. When most of teh stock has been absorbed, add another ladle and continue adding stock, a ladle at a time as needed, until the rice is tender but still firm, about 20 minutes. You may not use all the stock. The rice is cooked when it is tender and creamy with a firm center. Stir in remaining butter.

3. Add the leek mixture, stir in the parsley and half the Parmigiano Reggiano. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve in large shallow soup bowls; pass the remaining cheese at the table.

Make it Ahead: Make it up to 2 hours in advance through Step 2, reserving 1 1/2 cups of stock, and proceed with Step 3.

This recipe serves 6-8 and it is a very rich and scrumptious side dish.

Here's some tips on things I wouldn't skimp on in this dish:

I used a box of chicken broth this go around, and last time I used home-made chicken stock. I think I missed the home-made stock.

I used just a "whatever" brand of parmesan this time instead of the almighty "Parmesan Reggiano". I wouldn't ever do that again.

I don't think that creme fraiche is a MUST, but it's pretty amazing if you can get your hands on it. If you are anywhere near a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's or any kind of gourmet shop - you should be able to find it.

I know this dish sounds all fancy schmancy, and it kind of is, but for the girl who enjoys getting in the kitchen and trying new things for fun - this is for you. I served it with my Turkey, Cheddar and Cranberry Meatballs here.


And, in case you haven't used a leek before. Here's what they look like.


I'm making one of my favorite soups tomorrow night - italian sausage and cheese tortellini soup. Come back and check it out!

Thanksgiving Leftovers Shepherd's Pie

I know I'm early with the Thanksgiving leftovers thing, but now you will be prepared when you have eaten turkey, potatoes and stuffing 16 times out of your fridge and you just HAVE to do something different before your mouth dies of boredom.

I have the ticket.

My in-laws prepared an early Thanksgiving dinner at their house before they left to head to California for the holidays. It was super delicious and she graciously sent me home with a little bit of everything.

I posted this recipe last year and it was so good that I made it again. It's kind of the ultimate comfort food in my book, so this is our kind of dish.

Here's the Recipe.



I will be posting a recipe for Risotto again tomorrow. This one has carmelized leeks and red bell pepper in it. If you want to feel fancy, this dish is up there. I have learned that you MUST use quality ingredients for it to taste the way it's supposed to, so I'll talk on that tomorrow.

Design Question: Do you like this new look? It's the first background I have found with a "food" theme, but it may be a little PINK for my liking. Anybody have a preference on this one or should I go back to my red and blue polka-dots?? Thanks girls!

Have a great Thursday!

Home-made Granola & Yogurt Parfait

I have realllllly good memories of my mom's home-made granola baking in the oven late in the evening and then she would pull it out piping hot, we would immediately scoop some in a bowl and pour cold milk over it.

Yum. Mo.

I love to make it every once in awhile for my family as a treat and recently I started making yogurt parfaits with it as a part of our Big Breakfast days on Saturday morning or just for a little something in the afternoon. It's very good.

Here's the Granola Recipe:

(This is a "double" recipe by the way)

8 Cups Quick Oats
2/3 Cup Brown Sugar
2/3 Cup Wheat Germ
2/3 Cup Coconut
2/3 Cup Oil
1/2 Cup Honey
2 Tsp. Vanilla

Heat oats in ungreased 9X13 (or larger) pan in preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. I use my broiler pan. Then, combine brown sugar, wheat germ and coconut and stir into oats. Mix honey, oil and vanilla and add to dry mixture. Stir well. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes to avoid burning and sticking together. After removing from oven, stir occasionally to cool. Refrigerate.

Side note: When I made this yesterday, I decided to try and lighten this up a bit. I cut my brown sugar, oil and honey in half. I still thought it tasted wonderful. I also threw in about 1/2 Cup slivered Almonds for the last 10 minutes and it was good. Please feel free to make it this way or to eat all the lovely calories that it calls for. I won't judge. :-)

This is how it looks when I pull it out of the oven.


For the Yogurt Parfait, all I do is layer low fat vanilla yogurt, sliced strawberries, scoop of granola and repeat. Very yummy breakfast or snack. (Also - I have to say that I use the Great Value brand from Walmart and it is by far my favorite yogurt!)


Happy Breakfast eating!

Be watching for more recipes to come. One I will be making later in the week is my italian sausage and cheese tortellini soup. It'll make your hair curl!

Thanks for being a follower if you've already signed up. If you haven't - go do it now while you are printing out this recipe. :-)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones

Is your mouth watering yet?

You'll notice the pictures are a bit more appetizing and a bit more professional this post. That's because my friend Beth, who I know from back in the Washington D.C. days where our hubbies were on staff together, took these awesome photos for me. She has recently started a photography business (of the people variety) and she also shared with me that she really enjoys the food photo side too, so here you go!

Not only did she take the photos, but her and her family suffered for the blog cause by having to make these pumpkin scones, and then..........eat them. :-)

If you'll remember, I posted the original Scones recipe a few weeks back and Beth had mentioned this awesome variation. I am actually going to be making them myself tomorrow morning for our big breakfast, so you will have to see my reviews at my next posting.

Today - Beth is the girl and I will be letting you all know what HER family thought of this fun little treat.

Here's the recipe with the variation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2 cups flour
4T Sugar
1 T Baking Powder

MIX ALL TOGETHER

Then add:

1/2 Cup (1 cube) butter cut in with pastry cutter until crumbly (I cube up my cold butter before I throw it in)

Mix in 1 C pumpkin puree + 1 T of milk + 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice (or a mix of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves).

YOU CAN ADD CHOCOLATE CHIPS HERE IF YOU WANT TO.

Pat into round on a floured cookie sheet. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Cut into 8 pie wedges. Separate onto cookie sheet.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden brown on the bottom.




Beth's Parents Review: Two thumbs up
Beth's Kids Review: They love 'em too. She said they gobbled the whole batch up before bedtime!
(She has 2 adorable little boys by the way)

Thanks for reading! Don't forget, if you are not already a "follower" on this blog and enjoy the recipes and want to keep them coming, please help me out by clicking the "follow" button on the right side of the screen. It's easy and I will send you hugs and kisses over the internet if you do so! :-)

I am going to be making some home-made granola and turning them into parfaits this weekend. Be watching for that recipe in the next couple of days!

Have a great weekend.

Pepperoncini Roast

I love a meal that requires minimal work, as in, you only have to throw like 3 things in your crock pot and let it cook all day and BAM, you're done.

The smell alone from this dish as it bubbles on your counter top will make you want to cook it every week.

I like to serve this roast shredded up on a kaiser roll with a slice of cheese -cheddar or provolone. Tonight I was running late and literally just ate that as my meal and for the kids they had that plus some applesauce. No veggie. I am a bad chef.

Oh and if you don't know what these peppers are. They are those little peppers in your salad at Olive Garden.

Here's the type of jar you are looking for at the store - over by the pickles.


Here's the difficult recipe.

Pepperoncini Roast.

2 1/2 - 3 lb. Bottom Round Roast
1 jar pepporoncini's - juice and all
1 can beef broth

Throw all these things in your crockpot. Put the lid on. Turn it on low. Let it cook alllllll day long, 7-8 hours. Take the roast out and shred it. It will be falling apart. Serve it up on a kaiser roll, with cheese if you desire and serve it with veggies or a salad or whatever. David and I like to serve it up with some of the juice from the peppers on the side and dip our sandwich in it. It definitely gives it a kick and a little extra spice, but we love it.



Parents Review: Easy, tastes awesome, yummy
Kids Review: Little Girl always grumbles, but she eats it. Baby Boy seems to really like it.

Crockpot Chicken Parmesan

Here comes Comfort Food!!

I love this recipe for so many reasons, but mainly because it's so easy and it tastes so good and the whole family gobbles it up. You would think that chicken parmesan in a crockpot would be a big mushy mess, but it's really, really good. It falls a part and has a different consistency than your typical dish you would find at a restaurant and it's definitely a little lower in calories too.

This is one of the fav's from A Year of Slow Cooking Blog. Here's the recipe..

Now, here's a tip. I have made this recipe on low for about 5 or 6 hours before and it was really good, but tonight I put it on high for only 3 hours and it was even better. David asked me to do it this way all the time because he liked the texture and flavors better. Plus - my crock can tend to overcook things, so this seemed just right.

I served it with whole wheat penne pasta and some green beans. It was a winner.



Parents Review: Great meal to come home too in the evening.
Kids Review: My kids like me to just chop up the chicken on their plate, put the plain pasta on the side and then the veggie and they loved it.

Barbecue Meatballs

Yes, I am posting another meatball recipe. Apparently, I have some cravings this week. This dinner is one of my husband's favorites. If I tell him to pick a meal he wants for the weekend or something special, he usually says "barbecue meatballs". The home-made sauce is very sweet and yummy and it actually reminds both of us of this Chinese dish we used to eat in California called "cherry chicken" and we ate that anytime we could. I guess that's why I started serving these meatballs over rice because it reminded us of that food so much.

I didn't get a picture of our meal, but we served the meatballs over brown rice (cooked in half water and half chicken broth) and with some steamed broccoli (salt and squeezed lemon over the top. Yummy). We had a new babysitter over to the house that we wanted to get to know, so we served her this.

We also served her some crustless pumpkin pie, but you will soon learn that I have a tiny obsession with these low-calorie treats all through this holiday season. Be fore-warned. :-)

Here's the recipe:

Barbecue Meatballs

Meatballs:
3 lbs. hamburger meat (I mix half ground round and half lean ground beef)
1 can evaporated milk (I use 2%)
2 eggs
2 Cups Oatmeal (old fashioned or quick cooking oats)
1 Cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Combine these ingredients and shape into walnut-sized meatballs. Line pan with foil. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour (or less depending on your oven).

Sauce:
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
3 cups Ketchup
1 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. Liquid Smoke
1 tsp. chili powder
a little bit of chopped onion (a few Tbsp or so)

Let the sauce simmer and add the meatballs when done baking. Serve over rice and add a veggie for an awesome meal!


Here's the pot with our leftovers. We gobbled a ton of them up!


Parents Review: One of our favorites!
Kids Review: Baby Boy devoured 2 of them and Little Girl ate 5! Hear that? 5!!

Apple, Cheddar, Cranberry and Turkey Meatballs

I am fully aware that this dish looks both burnt and un-appetizing. The first part could be partially true because my slow cooker cooks like lightening speed and I forget that sometimes with dishes like this, but the second part is SO NOT TRUE.

These meatballs are beyond yummy. David and I even ate the leftovers for breakfast the next morning with our eggs. They were tasty then too.

I am not usually a fruit in my meat kind of girl, but this combo works. I think my friend Shauna said she baked these one time and I would love to hear how those turned out and how long she cooked them and everything. That would be a good option if you don't get these in your crock in time.

My crockpot is so big that I have inserted a small casserole dish inside to cook these in so they will cook a little more slowly. It does help, but I still could've shaved an hour or more off of my cooking time and they would've been a bit better. But, even a little overcooked - we enjoy these alot.

I am going to give credit where credit is due for this one, because this is yet another recipe from over at A Year of Slow Cooking Blog that I love so dearly. Here's the recipe. Enjoy.


I made mine with Risotto with carmelized leeks and bell pepper. I will post the recipes for this side dish tomorrow. You can serve them with anything from pasta to rice to any kind of carb and then a veggie.

Side note: I usually use raisins because I don't often have cranberries on hand and they are still awesome!

Parents Review: So wonderfully flavorful!
Kids Review: Baby Boy likes them, Little Girl gave them 2 thumbs down....just because she likes to torture me. I think she is enjoying giving me the thumbs down on most of my recipes now if they aren't plain and lacking in flavor. :-)