Turkey Day!!

With no turkey...

How is that even possible? You may be saying, "You crazy!" but alas I am not, well maybe slightly. I do enjoy the smell of a good turkey roasting in the oven all morning long, great memories. I sure do love the holidays. With this being a day for food, family, and comas. Gotta love those food comas.

For this years dinner I made a new version of my cranberry sauce, pumpkin carrot biscuits, and some roasted asparagus. Something a tad different then previous years. I was going to make this sweet potato bake thing that my great aunt made last year for Thanksgiving but I didn't have time to make it. She had but apples, dried cranberries, and walnuts with the canned yams. I was going to make my own version of hers but there is always next year or hey black friday needs some good eats too. I also was going to make a pumpkin pie using cashews as the "cream" base but didn't get to that either. Hum seems like I didn't have time for anything I wanted to make. But I did make my pumpkin pie for my family.

The twist I made on the cranberry sauce was that this year I added wine to it. A spiced wine that the bf got me at the wine tasting we were at.

Spiced Cranberry and Grape Sauce

2 cups fresh cranberries
1/4 cup each red and black grapes, chopped
1/2 cup wine
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon honey
dash of salt, ginger, and cloves

Bring water, wine, honey, and spices to a boil in a sauce pot.

Add in the cranberries and grapes.

Bring back to a boil and allow all the cranberries to pop about 10 minutes.
Allow the sauce to cool. It will thicken as it cools.

This sauce doesn't get as thick as a canned cranberry sauce or even the other homemade version because of the wine and grapes added to it.

Pumpkin Carrot Biscuits

1/2 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (maybe a little extra cause I love cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon caraway seeds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Mix the carrot, pumpkin, and spices together.

Add in the flour and baking powder.

When the mix it just about together, add in the seeds.

Place on a floured surface and you can roll it out but I pat mine to 1/2 inch thickness with my hand.

You can use any shape cookie cutter you wish or use a knife. I used a pumpkin shaped one =]

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until firm when touched.

Roasted asparagus, just used my usual spices: salt, pepper, onion powder, oregano, and coriander, olive oil and roasted them for about 15-20 minutes.

And my dads famous stuffing:

I hope you all enjoyed your Turkey Day and spent it with family, friends, or even serving those in need. God bless to all and my prayers go out to those who are still recovering from super storm sandy.

<3

Chili, Apple Pie, and Tempeh

I know, I know, I am the worst at keeping up with this thing now-a-days. I have all the intentions on doing a new post but just never seem to get around to it. I barely even bake or cook. I am mainly eating roasted veggies or salads now because I don't have time to be adventurous. I miss that. Being creative and coming up with new recipes. My pintrest board Recipes to Try is over flowing with things I have yet had a chance to make. So sad. But with Turkey day tomorrow and Christmas right around the corner...that means COOKIE TIME!!!!! So can not wait. I was at Stop & Shop on Monday and saw they put out the holiday candy, started to pick out the M&M's and Hersey kisses for my cookies and had to stop myself. Thanksgiving comes first then I will stock up!

So lets get to some recipes:

First up how about some chili. I know I already posted a chili recipe, I think actually two: my first one  and a pumpkin chili. What makes this recipe different is that I used this awesome spice blend. I was at a wine tasting with the bf and some friends and we came across this cute couple that makes chipotle spice blends for cooking. We tried some and I really liked one so we got it. It isn't too spicy but has just enough kick that leaves that warm feeling in the back of your throat. So I made some chili with it. I used my first recipe but added the spice blend along with my other spices.

Here is the spice blend

Check out their site

Now for some apple pie!!

I wanted to go apple picking for my birthday (like I do every year) and I happened to buy way more apples then expected. I had a great sous chef helping me put in the kitchen washing, peeling, and coring apples, while I ran them through the food processor (what a brilliant idea to use that to slice them instead of a knife) and started to make the filling. I also made the pie crust but it had real butter and all that good stuff in it. The filling was just lemon juice, sugar, flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon, oh and apples. We did this all during Super Storm Sandy and before the power would go out. I made a lot of pie. Some with crumb topping, some galettes (open, fold over pies).

And some baby apple pies =]

Tempeh time. For those who are asking what it tempeh, it is a meet subsitute for vegetarians made from fermented soybeans and other things like rice, quinoa, millet, etc. I made a yummy tempeh dinner for one the other night.

First I roasted a tomato with my usual seasonings: (they were yellow tomatoes the last from my garden)

Then I melted some cheese over the tempeh and put it over sauteed kale and topped it with the tomatoes:

And before I leave you here is a dinner I made a few weeks ago that was strange but so good:

Roasted asparagus, red peppers, butternut squash, and eggplant with tamari roasted almonds (one of my new favorite things.)

Tomorrow I will post my Turkey Day food!

<3